          The
   STANDARD
         BEARB?
f- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                           .





       Although the mountains quake
       And earth's foundations shake,
          Though angry billows roar
         And break against the shore,
        Our mighty God will hear us.

                     A new year.
                    An old world.
                 A powerful Word.
                   A faithful  Gad.

 See "Zion A Safe Refuge" - page 146

                                       Volume LIV, No. 7, January  I,1978    -A
                                                  ISSN 0362-4692


 146                                                    THE STANDARD  BEARER



                                                                                      /               THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                              Semijmonthly,  except  monthly   during   June,  July,   and  August.
                                                                                  Pubhshed   by  the  Reformed   Free  Publishing   Association,  Inc.
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                         CONTENTS:                                       Editor-in-khief:   Prof.  Homer   C.  Hoeksema
                                                                         Departmebt  Editors:   Prof.  Robert   D.  Decker,  Rev.  David   J.  Engelsma,
                                                                         Rev.  Cornelius  Hanko.   Prof.  Herman  Hanko,   Rev.  Robert  C.  Harbach,
                                                                         Rev.   John  A.  Heys,  Rev.  Mark  H.  Hoeksema,  Rev.  Meindert   Joostens,
 Meditation  -                                                           Rev.   Jay  `Kortering,   Rev.  George   C.  Lubbers,   Rev.  Rodney  Miersma,
                                                                         Rev.  Marlnus   Schipper,  Rev.  James  Slopsema,   Rev.  Glse  J.  Van  Baren,
   Zion A Safe Refuge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146       Rev.   Ronald  Van  Overloop,  Rev.  Herman  Veldman,   Mr.  Kenneth  G.
                                                                         Vink.
 Editorials -                                                            Editorial  bfice:  Prof.  H  C  Hoeksema
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   Dancing - Full Circle! (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149                                 Grandville,   Michigan   49418
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 MEDITA TIO N




                                         Zion A Safe  Refuge
                                                               Rev. C Hanko ;


                  What shall one then answer the messengers of the ~nation? That the Lord hath founded
            Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. Isaiah 14~32

    A new year: 1978.                                                      the growing power of the sleeping giant, China; the
    For a fleeting moment we paused as the midnight                        economic instability in our own country. The cost of
 hour struck, reminding us that the old had passed                         living ikeeps spiraling upward, while wages struggle to
 away; already we are ushered into the new.                                keep hp with it. Local problems are universal con-
                                                                           cerns.!
    A new year in the same old world, under the same                              For the believer the signs of the the times point
 conditions as last year. There is still unrest in the                     out that antichrist is already lifting its foul head.
 Middle East. There is still the threat of communism;                      Wicke~dness asserts itself in open defiance to all God's


                                              THE  STAtiDARD  BEARER                                                 147



commandments, with an attitude of "who cares?"              exalt itself to heaven. As Satan's representative, he
Holy marriage has become a mockery in and out of            will exalt himself against God, as if he were God.
wedlock. Gambling and lotteries are the approved            Babylon will be like Leviathan, that crooked serpent,
pastimes of the day, as every one greedily hopes to         that vile dragon. He will exalt himself above the
get rich overnight. Daily newspapers report the most        nations. Babylon will be the precursor of antichrist,
atrocious crimes of riot, bombing, highjacking, and         that power that is still1 to come, of whom it is said,
murder. A man will kill another in cold blood for           "that the Man of sin (must) be revealed, the son of
rape, for revenge, or for a paltry dollar. The evil         perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above
world is no longer "out there," but manages to              all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that
wheedle its way into our family room with its se-           he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing  him-
ductive influences. Apostasy seeks to undermine the         self that he is God." (II Thes.  2:3, 4). Babylon will
very foundations of the church. Basic principles            overthrow Assyria, the fear of all the earth in Isaiah's
which were taken for granted for so many centuries          day. Philistia rejoices that this dread enemy will be
are now boldly denied. The inerrancy of the Scrip-          put down. Yet the prophet warns, "Rejoice not thou,
tures, the wonders of God, the atonement of the             whole Palestine,  because  the rod of him that smote
cross are challenged on all sides. Our homes are being      thee is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall
disintegrated by our busy, affluent existence, so that      come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery
family life is virtually unknown. "Who wants to dry         flying serpent." (vs. 29).
up at home?" Unions, corporations, world counsels,             The prophet sees messengers approaching from
world market, and government control, all point us to       every direction in Judah, coming with anxious ques-
the rise of the Man of Sin as Satan's final, desperate      tions that beg for an answer. If this fiery flying ser-
attempt to de&one  God and His Christ.                      pent will overcome all the nations of the world, and
  In the meantime,         dark clouds of judgment          even neighboring Philistia will succumb to its power,
thicken upon the horizon. We hear the trumpet blasts        what will happen to Judah, the people of God? Will
of Revelation, and we see the devastation that fol-         this terrible monster swallow up the church also? Will
lows. Pollution of rivers, lakes and oceans, death of       God's promises fail? How shall God's people escape?
fish and birds, PBB and its many bad consequences,                                     *  * *
hurricanes leaving ten thousand victims behind, earth-
quakes with massive  destmctionj and many other                What shall one then answer the messengers of the
calamities, tell us that the end of the ages is upon us,    nation?
when Christ will appear with the clouds to bring judg-         The Lord, Jehovah, had founded Zion!
ment upon the earth.                                           Zion was the mountain on which the temple
   In times like these the messengers of the people         stood. There were many other mountains on the
come from all directions, asking, Where is safety for us    earth, known for, their covered peaks and lofty
and our children? What will come of all this? What          heights. Also in Palestine were mountains which were
will our children have to experience? How must we           far more majestic than Mount Zion. Mount Hermon
prepare ourselves for the future, or even for the new       lifted its proud head far into the clouds, as if it would
year?                                                       taunt lowly Zion with its towering grandeur. But the
   There were similar times in the old dispensation, as     Lord had chosen Zion as His dwelling place. Beautiful
portrayed in the prophecy of Isaiah. Isaiah is standing     for situation, the joy of the whole earth was mount
on the prophetic mountain, beholding from afar              Zion, for God had founded Zion as His abode among
vistas seen only by his prophetic eye. King Ahaz has        His people.
died. Philistia had triumphed over Judah. These Phil-         Zion was the earthly symbol of the true church of'
istines  had not been wiped out when Judah took over        Jesus Christ. Of her the poet sang:
the land of Canaan, and had always been the enemy                  "Zion, founded on the mountains, God, thy
at Judah's back door. Especially in times of apostasy,          Maker, loves thee well; He has chosen thee, most
such as in the days of Ahaz, Philistia gloated in her           precious, He delights in thee to dwell; God's own
power over Judah. But now the Lord tells the proph-            `city, who can all thy glory tell?"
et that Philistia will boast no more. The Lord will give       God has chosen His church from eternity in Christ
a new king to Israel, who will fear the Lord, and the       Jesus as a royal priesthood, an holy people, a peculiar
Lord will put down this enemy of His people.                possession. Even as God had separated Israel from all
   This is but a part of the entire panoramic view that     the nations of the earth to set His house among them,
is spread out before the prophet's wondering gaze.          and to dwell with them, so also God separates unto
Isaiah sees that a great world power will arise, still      Himself a covenant people to be His sons and daugh.-
unknown in his day. This world power, Babylon, will         ters, to dwell with Him, to delight in the light of His


148                                                    THE STANDARD  BEAFjER



countenance forever. The daily sacrifices in the tem-               sake  Of the kingdom of heaven. The man of God
ple spoke of the atoning blood shed on Calvary for                  sp,oke! of the poor, the oppressed. He meant those
the sins of God's people, to redeem them unto Him-                  who &-e deprived of all earthly possessions, because
self eternally. Even as Israel sang in choruses concern-            they  defuse to pay homage to that fiery, flying ser-
ing God's Holy Mountain, so we repeat the song to-                  pent,  land refuse to bear his mark upon their hands
dai,                                                                and tl;leir foreheads. The line of demarcation will be
                                                                    sharply drawn between church and world, Zion and
           "Mount Zion's walls behold, About her ramparts
        go, And number ye the lofty towers that guard her           Philistia,  believer and unbeliever. He who sets his
        from the foe."                                              heart bn the treasures and pleasures of this world will
                                                                    p&ish~ with this world. For the world with its lusts
           "Observe her palaces, mark her  defences  well,          passes! away. He who heeds the call of God to "come
        That to the sons that follow you Her glory you may          out from ampng her- and be separate," will be hated,
        tell."                                                      cast oht by his own neighbors, by his own relatives,
   Zion's strength was vested in her theocracy. God in              by his/ "fellow church members." He will be counted
Christ was her King. God's representative was the                   amon;  the "poor," the "afflicted."
God-fearing king that occupied the throne in David's                  ,The'se afflicted are the people who are willing to
royal city. No, Israel's trust was not in horses and                suffer ifor righteousness' sake. They do not hesitate to
chariots, troops and swords and spears. God was their               be  thk outcasts on the earth, mocked with cruel
King, the Almighty ruled over them, provided for                    mockings, tortured, imprisoned, stoned, sawn -asun-
them, cared for them and blessed them, ever focusing                der, sl~ain with the sword, wandering about in sheep-
their attention on the eternal kingdom of Christ in                 skins  pnd goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,  tor-
the heavens. What they saw in type and shadow, we                   mkntep. (Heb. 11: 36-40). The afflicted are willing to
now see in its fulfillment; Christ, the mighty Con-                 bear all this because they are poor in spirit. They
queror, Victor over sin, death, and the grave, exalted              know  ithat they are guilty sinners, adding to their
at the right hand of God in the highest heavens. What               cohdemnation every day, yet redeemed, cleansed in
they sang in eager anticipation, we now sing in real-               the  blpod of Jesus Christ, so that in thankfulness to
ity,                                                                God they rejoice as sons of God and as heirs of eter-
           "God is King forever, let the nations tremble;           nal lif+
        Throned above the cherubim, by  all the earth adored;         For1 these afflicted Zion is a safe refuge. They flee
        He is great in Zion, high above all peoples; Praise Him     into its walls on Sunday to hear the Word ministered
        with fear, for holy is the Lord."                           to thel;n by Christ through His servants, to experience
   Tell the messengers of the people: The Lord has                  its payer within them, to be comforted and strength-
founded Zion. Eternal are her foundations, resting on               ened ih their daily struggles and trials. They seek the
the sovereign decree of the living God. Rock firm are               comm&nion of saints, for the Word of Malachi 3: 16
her pillars, bedded in eternal love, secured by justice;            takes jn real meaning for them:
for Zion is redeemed in justice, and her converts in
righteousness. Zion's safety rests in Jehovah's un-                        !`Then they that feared the Lord spake often one
                                                                      to  aqother:  and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and
changeable faithfulness. Zion's protection is the                     a bo:ok of remembrance was .written before him for
watchful eye of the Lord, Who never slumbers nor                      the4 pt feared the Lord, and that thought upon hii
sleeps. Zion's strength and hope are always in her                    name+
God, for this God is her Almighty forever and ever,                   God's 
world without end.                                                              people pray much. They pray that they may
                                                                    be  kepb in the hour of temptation, that they may be
   Many may wonder at this terse answer. Some were                  able td stand in the evil day, that their children may
undoubtedly disappointed. They may have asked,                      stand $ that day.
"Did the man of God say anything about our farms,
our business, our homes, and our luxuries? Did the                    In obe word, they flee into the everlasting arms of
prophet give any assurance that the Holy City, the                  the Alinighty: there to abide in safety. Blessed in life,
temple, and David's throne will remain unscathed?                   blessed in death, blessed forevermore.
Did he assure us that the enemy will never invade our                 Alth+gh the mountains quake and earth's founda-
domain, never cause us to flee for our lives, never                 tions  yhake, though angry billows roar and break
persecute our children? Did the Word of the Lord                    against~ the shore, Our mighty God will hear us.
give assurance of a prosperous future, free from war,                 A new year.
free from care, free from want?                                       An dld world.
   No, the prophet said nothing about that. In fact,
he implied that we should be ready to forsake home,                   A powerful Word.
,and lands, and possessions, and even dear ones for the               A fa!thful God.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  149



EDITORIALS
ProJ H. C. Hoeksema




                                       Dancing--Full Circle!
                                                           (2)

  The Christian Reformed Church has come full cir-                  The editorial in The Outlook (Sept., 1977) seems
cle, we saw last time, from a dancing ban in 1928,                to suggest that maintaining the position of
shortly after the common grace controversy, to pro-               1928/l 951 is simply a matter of being a "conserva-
moting dancing by its young people on the campus of               tive," and for some unexplained reason it takes pains
its denominational college in 1977.                               to repudiate a possible charge of legalism against
  Rev. John Vander Ploeg bemoans this fact in The                 those who want to maintain that old  1928/l 951
Outlook,  without, however, proposing any kind of                 position on worldly amusements. Editor Vander
realistic solution.                                               Ploeg writes as follows:
  I also bemoan the fact that dancing is thus pro-                       Although  I am thankful and even proud to profess
moted. But I also bemoan the stand of 1928 and                        to be and also to be classed by others as a  consewa-
attribute it to principles which I bemoan even more,                  tive  (if only the term be rightly understood!) I do
the principles of the Three Points of Common Grace                   refuse to be branded as a legalist.
                                                                         There is a difference.  A conservative  is one who
of 1924. As I pointed out last time, the 1977 stand of                clings tenaciously to and seeks to conserve whatever
the CRC on dancing (even as that on movies) was                      he believes to be valuable and good in his heritage or
predictable, and was, in fact, predicted by the  late                tradition, whether it be religious or otherwise. For
Herman Hoeksema in 1928, four short years after he                    the bona fide conservative there are basics that are
was cast out by the CRC because of his opposition to                  simply not negotiable. A legalist is one who would lay
common grace. But let me emphasize that I wrote                       down, for himself and also for others, laws for con-
this and write the present lines not in a spirit of "I                duct that are not. clearly prescribed as such in Scrip-
told you so." I have no interest in  this; then the                  ture.
whole discussion becomes a matter of the pot calling                     For example. In 1951 the CRC Synod wanted a
the kettle black. But I am interested in the principles               clarification of the thrust or import of the stand the
                                                                      CRC Synod of 1928 had taken on  "Worldly amuse-                    ,'
involved in this highly practical matter. For if we do               ments." It was my position as a member of the 1951            !
not proceed from right principles, Reformed princi-                  committee then and still is that 1928 was not to.be `
ples, none of us  - whether Christian Reformed or                    read and employed as a piece of legalism. In certain ,i
Protestant Reformed - can maintain a right stand on                  matters room must be left for Christian liberty while,
the matter of worldly amusements.                                     at  the same time,  this may never be abused to tolerate
   By the way, in a recent issue of The  Banner Dr.                  sinfil license.
Harry Boer, in what impressed me as a rather snide                  Now it is not my intention to enter into this dis-
and sarcastic article, also does some bemoaning of his            cussion about legalism versus conservatism.  I only
own. As I read him, however, he bemoans not the                   touch on it to lead up to the real  issue.  In this
introduction of dancing in his denomination, but                  connection, I wish to point out, in the first place,
apparently the hypocrisy of his church in so radically            that for many years the popular notion of the 1928
changing its policy over a span of fifty years without            decision was indeed legalistic. For years the three
so much as a "by your leave" and without so much as               worldly amusements specified in the 1928 decision
a note of repentance for this complete about-face on              were rather mockingly referred to as "the three
a matter which has surely affected thousands of                   no-no's." Students and some faculty-members alike
young people's lives. He has a point, from his CRC                used this language already in my college days in the
viewpoint. But Boer, of course, is a thorough-going               early 1940's. Accordingly, in the second place, the
common grace man: he does not even do lip service                 attitude of not a few was also legalistic. The law was
to the Reformed doctrine of reprobation, as is plain              there, so to speak, to be broken - if you could get by
from his recent gravamen. Hence, he has no real solu-             without being caught and, possibly, disciplined for
tion to the problem, except, perhaps, "Let `em                    the mere act of breaking the rules. One had to "sneak
dance! "                                                          it," of course - lest he be hailed before the college


                                                                 /I
150                                          THE STANDARD  BEARER                                                       ~


authorities and lest his parents and/or his pastor and     servance will always fail, exactly because it is under
consistory be informed of the violation. For students      constraint and without any principal basis and with-
this was not too difficult; and already in my youth        out any inward, spiritual motivation. It is observance
the young man or young woman who never indulged            of the letter, not of the spirit. Sooner or later, such
in movie attendance was a rarity. For faculty              observance begins to constitute a heavy, unbearable
members this was somehow more difficult: it was            burden; and when that comes to pass, it will not be
common knowledge among the students, however,              long before people begin to violate the precepts more
that there were certain faculty members who                and more, to clamor for their removal, and ultimately
"sneaked it" when they were out of town. I could           to make from legalism to libertinism, from strict law
still mention names if necessary, though now this          to no Ilaw, from nomism to anti-nomism. Thus it has
would serve no purpose, since the men are deceased.        come  ~to pass that the CRC of today has repudiated
In the third place, this whole atmosphere of legalism,     the recommendations  .of such once revered and
as I recall it, played a considerable part in the          respected stalwarts as E.J.  Tuuk, H.J. Kuiper, R.B.
amusements question as it was revived in 1951. I do        Kuiper, H.  Schultze, and H. Hekman, the Study
not have the record of the 195 1 history before me at      Committee of 1928.
the moment. But as I recall it, there was no little          Hence, the important question is not whether there
element of pressure at that time to repeal the 1928        was any degree of legalism in the now repudiated
decision and to relax what were considered to be           decisions, but rather: where did those legalistic de-
stringent rules. Some wanted to give the church a          cisions go astray as far as Reformed and Scriptural
more liberal appearance. Others were tired of the          principles were concerned?
strict laws. Still others felt  the. hypocrisy of rules                I
which were widely disobeyed and which were im-               It is in this connection that I promised to demon-
possible of enforcement; they wanted to legitimize         strate ~that the false principles of common grace arz
the widespread indulgence in the three "no-no's."          the root of the problem.
  Nevertheless, to speak of "legalism" is not to touch       ,To  ~keep this promise I will go back, first, to the
directly on the real problem of the CRC "Worldly           Report of 1928. In discussing that Report, I will rely
Amusements" stand of 1928. Yet if we understand            heavily on the article by the late Herman Hoeksema
legalism correctly, we will eventually also get at the     to which I referred already last time. It is found in
basic problem involved in the 1928 decision, a prob-       Volume 4, pp. 393, ff. It is a pity that this article was
lem which constituted a guaranteed and built-in            in the Dutch language: for there is a wealth of
failure of that decision  - a failure which became         instruction in the article not only with respect to the
manifest in 1966 and 1977. For legalism is not             specifilc question  ,at hand, but with respect to the
merely the laying down of laws for conduct that are        entire ,amusements  question and also for both grown-
not clearly prescribed as such in Scripture. This ought    ups and youth of today. I shall therefore either
to be clear as the sun in the heavens. It is entirely      paraphrase or quote pertinent sections of this article
possible, in fact, to lay down rules for conduct which     in translation.
are literally spelled out in Scripture and yet to be a       First of all, let me briefly sketch the Report of
legalist in the full-blown sense of the word. It is        1928. IAfter an introductory section about the man-
entirely possible to lay down as laws for conduct the      date, the Report proper is as follows:
Ten Commandments - literally prescribed in Scrip-          I. General Principles which lie at the basis of the
ture - but to be a legalist. In the objective sense of     amusements-question:
the word, when you promulgate a set of rules which
have to stand by themselves as mere rules, as a code       A. Also our amusements must be of such a nature
of regulations, without any foundation in the prin-        that they can serve the glory of God. From this main
ciples of the love of God, of light versus darkness, of    principle it follows:
grace versus sin  - then you have legalism. It is             1. That our amusements at the very least should
precisely in this area that the 1928 stand on-amuse-       not conflict with any commandment of God.
ments failed: the recommendations (which were at             2. That the Christian shall deem it a matter of
least better than the body of the report) did not          loyalty to his God and Savior not to further the
follow from and were not based on the principles of        interests of an institution which in its general in-
the report. They were not based on the principle of        fluence is an unmitigated evil.
the antithesis. And in the subjective sense of the word
(as far as actual life and conduct are concerned), you     B. Our amusements must not be in conflict with the
have legalism when you have the observance of a            interests of human well-being.
mere code of precepts without the heartbeat of the           1. There is indeed a legitimate place in life for
love of God and the hatred of sin in it, the observance    such amusements which are recreative for body and
of precepts under constraint. Ultimately such  ob-         mind. I


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               151



   2. No physical recreation or mental diversion           hell, but on the way to hell God takes care that the
should be tolerated which is in any way or degree          ungodly can still amuse themselves a little. What a
subversive of our spiritual and moral well-being.          cruel grace which lets men go playing to hell!"
   3. Even when our amusements are not spiritually           And we remark that the reader should note care-
and morally harmful, they should not be allowed to         fully how at this crucial point in the report common
occupy more than a secondary, subordinate place in         grace has wormed its way into the picture.
our life.                                                     2. `But separation from the world forbids and
C. Our amusements may not conflict with the Chris-         excludes friendship with evil men.
tian's proper relation to the world.                         Rev. Hoeksema inserts this comment under point
   1. The Christian need not form separate com-            2: "What a Judas-like relation the Christian then
munities or shun all association with ungodly men.         assumes. He can in a very friendly manner play ball
Proper fellowship with unbelievers (page 19) is based      with worldly people, but nevertheless not be friends
on common grace. "This principle can be applied to         with them."
the sphere of amusements. In his general grace God           3. Separation from the world consists in shunning
has (1) given certain joys, diversions, pleasures to       all the evil which is in the world.
men. There are no amusements in hell! By that same
general grace He (2) restrains sin in the hearts of the      At this point Rev. Hoeksema says: "Wrong, com-
ungodly so that the diversions and amusements which        mittee! The true antithetical relation of the Christian
they devise are not always and necessarily tainted         consists in this, that he as a child of the light not
with sin. Even their manner of participating in them       merely shuns the evil, but that he testifies against all
may not be so manifestly sinful that a Christian           wickedness in the world's manifestation of life. Let
cannot join in with them. Is it not possible for           the Christian do that once, and then let him still ask
Christians to play a game of ball with non-Christians      the world to play ball with him!"
without denying their christian principles? We do not        4. Separation from the world includes the weaning
advise Christians to seek their amusements in mixed        away of the heart from the transient things of  this
company. This is often dangerous. But the mere fact        present earthly sphere.
that they meet on a common ground is no proof that         C. Also our amusements must remain within the
the Christian is on forbidden ground."                     bounds of Christian liberty. The Christian cannot
   In this connection Rev. Hoeksema inserts the            simply do everything, even though it be in itself good.
following comment in his article: "We cannot pass          Thus, he may have to refrain from something because
this by without remarking that the common grace            it may offend the brother and cause him to stumble.
men have indeed a `silly' presentation of God. Not in                            (to be continued)
                             The New R.F.P.A. Book Club                                           .
  Several weeks ago I mentioned in an editorial on         billed, and will be expected to pay promptly by
Publications News that I had a secret. We are now          return mail. Incidentally, we hope to publish at least
ready to tell the secret.                                  two new books during 1978.
  During the next few weeks you will be receiving a          3. Membership, however, also entitles you to order
letter from the R.F.P.A. Publications Committee            any of our previous publications at that same hand-
about the formation of the new R.F.P.A. Book Club.         some discount of 20%. This means a saving of $1.99
This letter is being sent to all  Standard Bearer          on a book like "When I Survey. . . .", which normally
subscribers. We urge you to respond promptly. By           retails for $9195.
joining our Book Club you will be helping tremen-            We wish to emphasize that for the R.F.P.A. the
dously in the work of publishing our Protestant            success of this venture is dependent on having an
Reformed literature, and you will be helping yourself      OVERWHELMING response. We would like to have
at the same time because of the attractive discount on     EVERY subscriber join the Book Club. As I have
our books which will be available to Book Club             mentioned before, we need cash in order to publish
members.                                                   books. Much of our money is tied up in our inventory
  Here are the details:                                    of books. But a guarantee in advance of a large
   1. The Book Club is open to all Standard Bearer         market for our new books through this Book Club
subscribers.                                               will enable us to produce new books regularly.
  2. There is no membership fee. The only obliga-
tion will be that you must agree to purchase every           We urge you, therefore, to respond IMMEDI-
new book which we publish at a price of 20% off the        ATELY when you receive our letter, and mail us your
regular price, plus postage. If you are a member, you      membership card PROMPTLY.
will receive such new books automatically, will be           MAY WE DEPEND ON YOUR COOPERATION?


152                                             THE STANDARD  BEA `ER
                                                                       s


FROM HOLY WRIT



             Exposition of the Boc k of Galatians
                                                     Rev. G. Lubbers


THE BLESSINGS OF ABRAHAM IN CHRIST FOR                         now  c ;turb the peace and faith of these Galatians,
THE GENTILES (Galatians 3 : 14)                                with         leir corruptions of the basic terms of the
  There is something triumphant in this statement              promi: s of God!
from the inspired pen of Paul. It is the triumph of              Am this implies that we receive "the promise of
the Gentiles and the islands of the sea. The ful-              the  S1 it," that is, the promised Spirit by faith. The
fillment of the proclaimed Gospel, "in thee shall all          spirit does not promise here, but the Spirit is
nations be blessed." (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 18: 18) The very          promil d by God in the Old Testament for all
divine purpose of the promise to Abraham was not               nation If the nations are to be blessed in Abraham,
that Abraham would be the progenitor of a Jewish               it mea s that they shall receive the Spirit of the risen
nation, as the Chiliast holds so very zealously, but it        and gl rified Christ. (John 7:37-39) Joel prophesied
was that there might be a church of new-born saints,           of thic Spirit and promised it to all flesh. (Joel 3: l-5;
whether Jew or Greek, in one body in Christ! And               Acts 2 16-21) Does not Peter say on the great day of
this purpose and design of God can be attained only            Pentec St, "the gift of the Holy Spirit"? This is not
in Christ's becoming a curse and hanging on the tree.          what 1 e Spirit gives, but it is the "gift" which is the
That removes the curse and breaks down the middle-             Holy         ?irit as the Spirit of the risen and glorified
wall of the commandments, contained in ordinances              Christ who was made both Lord and Christ. (Acts
of the law. The middle-wall of the law must be taken           2:26) his Spirit is the Comforter who is sent by
away, a new temple must be built in Zion where both            Cllrist o that the church, Jew and Greek, would not
Jew and Greek, all the elect of God, will be the one           be cc nfortless orphans in the world, but  well-
new manhood in heavenly perfection as the free-born.           provid 1 children.
sons of adoption. (Eph. 2: 14-17). Thus peace can be
preached to those who are near and to those who are            THEE &IC PREMISE IS PROVEN IN VERSES 1-14
far off. It is the triumph of grace, the triumph of the        OF CF 4PTER 2.
Cross over sin, death, and hell.                                  1.  ' ne basic premise is proven that  all who are
  Yes,  the  blessing of Abraham must be in Christ             under aw are under curse, and not under the loving
Jesus. It must become in him. The verb  "geneetai"             blessir of the free gift of grace and salvation. There
means become a reality. It is the same verb used by            is no f .ception to this dictum of the Bible. For this is
John when he says, "Grace and truth became through             the cl tr teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Jesus Christ." (John 1: 17, 18) And God was revealed           And t ese Scriptures cannot be broken. This should
in all His glory in this Christ, in grace and truth for all    shut tl : mouth of all evil speakers.
the elect in all nations. This means that the Cross is a         2.  ' lis is not some philosophy but is the explicit
historic happening, the very crux of the bringing of           and cl ir teaching of Moses in Deut. 27:26. "Cursed
Salvation. Here the curse was cursed; it was nailed to         is ever one that does not remain in all things of the
the Cross as the handwriting which was against us.             book I . the law to perform it."
(Col. 2: 14) Thus God loved the world. He loved the
world in the Cross as the expression of love through             3.         besides,  the opposite is clearly taught in
wrath and the curse upon us. This was the Divine               Habak uk  2:4. The sense of this passage is that
"must" of the Cross in bringing many sons to glory.            neithe the Assyrians nor the men of Judah are righ-
(Heb. 2: 10) This Cross and the salvation of the               teous. %oth go down under the curse of God, except
Gentiles in Christ is no afterthought. Such is the blind       those ,ho believe. These are justified by faith in the
and stupid error of the Pre-millennialists. God never          Lord, sith in the Christ to come, in a righteousness
loved the Jews as Jews, but only loved them as many            which s without law. (Rom. 1: 16, 17; 3:20-25) All
as were elect in Christ together with the elect out of         boasti ; is excluded by the law of faith, which estab-
the Gentile world. Christ is in that sense the propitia-       lishes te law. (Rom. 3:31)
tion for the "whole world." Let not Jewish zealots               4.  1 nd now the blessing of Abraham is for the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 153



Gentiles. It is made sure to them by the death of            God's more certain terms in His promises to
Christ, by which Christ merited the promised Spirit.         Abraham. We call this reasoning a fortiori.
  5. Surely this Spirit is received by faith's hearing         Now how does Paul very carefully and surely climb
and not by law-works. That stands as the rock. And           from the human plane of realities to that of the
this Rock is Christ, the stone laid in Zion, the chief       Divine-heavenly plane of the realities of the promised
corner-stone. Let not these Galatians nor we be              salvation in the Spirit of Jesus `Christ? Here we must
moved from this hope of the Gospel, which is as an           listen carefully and discern. He will compare the
anchor in the holy place, for all who take refuge to         promises made to Abraham in Christ with the law-
God in Christ.                                               giving in Sinai. He then asserts that the latter (the
  6. The Church is, therefore, not Jewish. Circum-           law-giving) could not add or change the terms that
cision or uncircumcision both avail nothing. It is only      salvation is in Christ alone! We read "the covenant
the new creature! The man born from above, born by           that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law,
the Spirit.                                                  which was four hundred and thirty years after,
                                                             cannot disannul that it should make the promise of
THE PROMISES OF GOD UNALTERABLY RATI-                        none effect." Legally, the law cannot change the
FIED BY GOD (Galatians 3 : 15, 16)                           position of the promise. This is a very basic point to
  Paul now will take another viewpoint of the matter         understand. The promises are "confirmed" before the
here under consideration. He begins a little different       highest tribunal of God with solemn oath. God, who
type of reasoning. He is so sure that he has now             cannot lie, swore by Himself, because He could swear
established his argument from Scripture that he can          by none greater, to Abraham. The promise is con-
now proceed in a bit more conciliatory tone of voice.        firmed by oath! Hence, they stand fast forever and
Wherefore, now he does not say once more "you                ever. His mercies fail never, and they are without
foolish Galatians," but he says "brethren." He gathers       repentance. (Rom. 11: 26-29)
them as it were about him in a circle to look together         Now the law surely "became" afterward.The term in
in the sacred Scriptures on a certain point. This point      the Greek, -translated "was," is more expressive than
is the basic preeminence which the promises to               the English translation indicates with the simple past
Abraham have over and above the law-giving to Israel         tense "was" of the verb "to be." The term indicates
at Sinai by the Mediator, Moses. This is a very crucial      that the law then came to stay as a rather permanent
point to understand. And when this is once under-            institution. The perfect participle is  "gegonoos." It
stood profoundly, believers will indeed revere the law       came at Sinai, when Israel was  enroute to Canaan
for its pedagogical intent, but will never let it usurp      from Egypt, and it is still with the people of God till
the place of the Promises made to Abraham. We do             the time when the Seed should come. It is a long
well to include also ourselves among these "brethren"        period and epoch in Israel's history. Fact is, .that this
whom Paul here addresses.                                    period is some fifteen hundred years. A long time
                                                             indeed this was. Israel was so much under this law
  Paul will now make his point crystal clear by the          and so long that they had to be reminded that they
use of a legal example, a case in law among men in           had been under the promise longer, that is by the
the courts of the land. He will speak "according to          space of four hundred and thirty years. Both are
man," merely on the human level; he will see what is         points in history, in the history of the dealings of
binding among.men and in the courts by the judges of         God with Abraham and with his seed. And, we may
the land, when they are honest and upright judges.           add, that both deal with God's dealing with His
And this language ought to be clear to the Galatians.        people in Christ. For the covenant was before con-
Paul does not doubt but that he will make his point          firmed in Christ by God Himself. So that in both of
clearer that salvation is by hearing of faith and not by     these dealings of God, whether under promise or
works of law.                                                under law, it has reference to the Christ to come.
  He uses the case of a "Covenant," a testament              Both are history.
which is merely a human document and not given by              How do they relate?
God from heaven. Such a document containing cer-               Negatively, the law could not make the promise of
tain gifts and bequests is ratified by the courts. In the    none effect. No matter what the law demanded, the
case of a "will" the terms stand after the tesator has       law was not the way in which a man could redeem
died. These wishes  must  be executed. After the             himself from sin and death. Under law meant to be
document has been ratified, no additions  ca% be             under a ratified curse in the land. Paul makes it
made, and no terms can be changed by anyone, not             crystal clear that the law by historical reckoning in  .b
even by the courts. This is an argument in which it is       years came later by four hundred and thirty years.
reasoned from what is less certain to that which is          Paul, to be sure does not say, "The exact number of
more certain, that is, from man's sure documents to          years  from the time that God promised to Abraham


154                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



in his sojourning in the land as a stranger till the       into the text which is not in the original Hebrew
law-giving is four hundred thirty years!" Paul is not      written by Moses himself. They insert the phrase
determining dates in chronological exactitude! He          "and in Canaan." The four hundred and thirty years
says that his law-giving was a long time after the         of which the text speaks must be spread over the
giving of the promise, at least four hundred and thirty    entire period from Abraham's time till the date of
years. That is a matter of the knowledge of Moses,         Israel's departure from Egypt in the night of the
who stood nearer to that period of history than did        death of the firstborn of Egypt when Israel kept the
the translators of the Septuagint Greek of the Old         Passover.
Testament Scriptures. These translators engage in a          How must we think of this?
bit of daring interpolation of the text in Exodus            It is the conviction of this writer that Paul is not
12:40. There we read in the KJV, "Now the sojourn-         interested in chronological exactitude at all in this
ing of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was     statement here in Gal. 3: 17. He is comparing two
four hundred and thirty years." The Greek Jews of          great epochs of God's convenantal dealings with Israel
Alexandria, who translated the Old Testament Scrip-        in Christ, asserting that the promise still has the
tures into Greek, insert in their translation something    priority even when the law was superimposed upon it.

T H E S T R E N G T H O F Y O U T H




                        Our Father and Our Dads
                                           Rev. Ronald J. Van Overloop


  Jesus taught His disciples and us how to pray to         address? If not every prayer, then the vast majority
God. All of you are very familiar with the Lord's          do contain a form of address.
Prayer.                                                      The reason why an address is so important in'
  Look at the first two words of that prayer, "Our         prayer is because the address of the prayer determines
Father."                                                   our attitude throughout that prayer. Thus the address
  Why did Jesus have the prayer begin in this way?         of our prayer is to us a reminder of Him to Whom we
                                                           are praying. What we will say and how we will say it
  It tells us to whom we are praying. We are praying       is determined by our attitude. That attitude will be,
to God. But we are praying to God Who is our               by' the grace of God, corrected and/or directed, if we
Father.                                                    listen to the address of that prayer.
                     *  4 *  *  d                                                *  * * * *
  One thing Jesus is teaching us is that when we             Some say that it is too formal to include an address
pray, we should begin with a form of address.              in `prayers. They say that prayers are to be intimate.
  There are many different names of God which we           They are the expression of our heart and we should
may use to begin our prayers. When we want to think        not let anything get in the way of that expression.
of God as the One Who is perfect and has all               These people believe that to include a form of address
perfections in Him, then we use the name "God" to          makes the prayer too formal. To include a form of
begin our prayer. When we think of Him as the              address takes away the spontaneity of the prayer so
Sovereign Ruler over all things, then we use the name      that it can no longer be the expression of their hearts.
"Lord." When we want to be intimate with Him, then           The opinion described above is like a young man
we call Him "Father." When we are reminded of how          who wanted to be a great artist. But he wanted to be
God is faithful to His people, then we address Him as      a great artist without learning how to paint. He did
"Jehovah."                                                 not cant to take any art lessons or go to any classes.
  Jesus taught the disciples to give God a form of         The reason he gave for this refusal to attend any art
address. To pray to God without any form of address        classes was that he wanted his paintings to be a
is disrespectful. Do you know of any prayers               reflection of himself. He was afraid that painting
recorded in the Bible which do not have a form of          lessons in which he would be taught how to paint,


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                155



would hinder and prohibit all creativity and all free      every trial and problem we know that God is for
expression of his feelings.                                Jesus' sake our Father. Therefore He will provide us
    Well, that young man became an old man, but he         with every good thing. Therefore He will avert all evil
never became a great artist. He never learned that         or turn it to our profit. Therefore He so cares for us
there is a right way and a wrong way to paint. He          that we know that we are perfectly safe.
wanted his paintings to be an expression of himself,         The hard part is that when we realize that God is
and they were. They revealed an undisciplined and          our Father, that makes us children. Or maybe it
rebellious man who was a poor artist.                      would be better to say: little children. A little child
                                                           has child-like faith.
                      * * * * *                              Now who wants to be a child? Who wants to be
    There is a right way and a wrong way to pray. The      called a little child?
wrong way is to deny that God exists. Also it is
wrong to think that we are equals with God.                  As young adults we like to reason..A young person
                                                           has flexed his mental muscles and has found out that
    To refuse to learn the right way is rebellion and      they work pretty well. And so he prefers to use his
Sill.                                                      reason. He prefers to figure things out and thus
    The right way does not keep one from expressing        decide for himself. Usually this is good, but some-
his innermost thoughts. It does not keep one from          times it can get him into trouble. Often reasons gets
telling God what is in his heart. In fact, it helps him    in the way of child-like faith.
to pray.                                                     A little child does not challenge the position of his
    The right way to pray does prohibit and hinder         father or mother. In his mind there is no question as
self-expression. To give God a form of address does        to who is superior and who is inferior.
hinder self-expression. But do we not want our sinful        When he becomes older he begins to argue. He
self-expression to be hindered?                            begins to challenge the wisdom of his parents and to
    If we are reminded that the One to Whom we are         criticize their judgment. He doubts their good in-
praying is the Perfect One, Who can have no sin            tentions and desires to s,eek his own welfare.
before Him, we will be careful and keep sins from our         No more child-like faith!
prayers.                                                      No more respect!
    If we are not reminded by the name "Jehovah"
that God is faithful to us in all things, will we not         It is impossible to separate respect from faith.
question the way He deals with us? Will we not be                                    Q  *  * * *
inclined to ask rebelliously, "Why?", if we are not           Our Father puts our fathers over us. Our Father
reminded that Jehovah is faithful to His covenant?         puts over us all who are in authority.
    And will we not refuse to judge God's fairness, if        Our attitude towards those in authority over us
we call Him "Father"?                                      shows what our attitude is towards Him Who has
    To learn the right way to pray is to give ourselves    placed them in authority over us. When we have no
guidance in the spiritual art of prayer.                   attitude of respect for them, then we must not have
                      *  *  *  *  *                        any respect for Him.
    Another thing Jesus teaches us with the Lord's            Jesus teaches us to address God when we pray. We
Prayer is to address God as our Father.                    must address Him. It is an expression of our attitude,
                                                           of our respectful attitude. It is an acknowledgement
    God IS our Father. If Jesus did not give God that      on our part of our humble position.
name we would be afraid of Him. Is there any more
intimate way to speak of our relationship to God             If we must address Him, should we not also address
than with the name "Father"?                               our earthly fathers, whom He places over us? Do not
    Jesus made us God's children and God our Father.       our fathers represent to us our Father? Would not an
He did so by cleansing us from the guilt of our sin.       expression of respect and faith to our fathers also be
Our adoption papers are signed with the blood of the       an expression of faith and respect to our Father? If
Lamb of God. And we actually become God's chil-            we express our proper attitude to our Father by
dren by regeneration. We are children of God.              addressing Him, is not the same required in our
    We look like children of God. The effect of the        relationship to His earthly representative?
death of Jesus Christ was such that we are given                                     *****
righteousness and holiness. By.walking in that right-        Is a form of address necessary every time we speak
eousness and holiness we look like our Father.             to our fathers?
    So far this is all very comforting. In the midst of      We know that our day is characterized by much


156                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


disrespect. In fact, there is more disrespect today                  yet it can deny their position of God-given authority.
than there ever was before. And does not that                                                 * *  *  * *
disrespect also affect us?                                              Think about it. I am sure that you never thought
  Would it not be a constant reminder to us just who                 of it this way before. In fact, I am sure that most of
our fathers are? To be in the habit of addressing our                you never thought of it at all.
earthly fathers (and mothers) (and teachers, who                        Could it be that the refusal to address our Father
stand in the place of our fathers), would help us to                 and our fathers is just another way the devil works?
keep a proper attitude towards them. It would always                 Without our being conscious of it he undermines,
remind us that they stand in the place of our Father                 even in the smallest ways, God and His authority. I
Who is in heaven.                                                    think that the devil is happy when he hears young
  It is so easy to rebel. It is so easy to speak against             people refuse to speak respectfully in every possible
our fathers. Without even thinking we can talk back                  way of their Father and `of their fathers. I think he
and argue wrongfully.                                                delights to hear us say that a form of address to them
  Would it not help us to be respectful to our fathers               is not important.
to address them as fathers before we say `what is on                    Jesus taught us the proper way to speak to our
our mind? Should we not use every help we can find                   heavenly Father. Does He not at the same time tell us
to aid us in a proper walk on this earth?                            how to speak to those on earth who stand in the
  Not to address our fathers can give us the uncon-                  place of our heavenly Father? Let us so pray and so
scious impression that we are their equals. Or worse                 speak.

THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS




          Jesus Christ, Our Merciful High `Priest
                                                   ProJ: Robert D. Decker

              "We believe that we have no access unto God, but alone through the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus
           Christ the righteous, who therefore became man, having united in one person the divine and human natures,
           that we men might have access to the divine Majesty, which access would otherwise be barred against us.
           But this Mediator, whom the Father has appointed between him and us, ought in no wise to affright us by
           his majesty, or cause us to seek another according to our fancy. For there is no creature either in heaven or
           on earth who loveth us more than Jesus Christ; who, though he was in the form of God, yet made himself
           and ro reputation, and took upon him the form of a man,' and of a servant for us, and was made like unto
           his brethren in all things. If then we should seek for another Mediator, who would be well affected towards
           us, whom could we fmd, who loved us more than he, who laid down his life for us even when we were his
           enemies? And if we seek for one who hath power and majesty, who is there that has so much of both as he
           who sits at the right hand of his Father, and who hath all power in heaven and on earth? And who  will
           sooner be heard than the own well beloved Son of God? Therefore it was only through distrust that this
           practice of dishonoring, instead of honoring the saints, was introduced, doing that, which they never have
           done, nor required, but have on the contrary steadfastly rejected according to their  bounden  duty, as
           appears by their writings. Neither must we plead here our unworthiness; for the meaning is not that we
           should offer our prayers to God on the ground of our own worthiness but only on the ground of the
           excellency and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is become ours by faith. Therefore
           the apostle, to remove this foolish fear, or rather mistrust from us, justly saith, that Jesus Christ was made
           like unto his brethren in all things that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, to make
           reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to
           succor them that are tempted; and further to encourage us, he adds, seeing then that we have a great High
           Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have
           not a high priest which  cannot  be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted
           like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain
           mercy, and  find grace to help in time of need. The same apostle saith, having boldness to enter into the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      157


          holiest, by the blood of Jesus; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, etc. Likewise,
           Christ hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come
           unto God by him, seeing he ever lieveth to make intercession for them. What more can be required? since
           Christ himself  saith, I am the way and the truth, and the life: no man  cometh  unto the Father but by me.
           To what purpose should tie then seek another advocate, since it has pleased God, to give us his own Son as
           an advocate? Let us not forsake him to take another, or rather to seek after another, without ever being
           able to find him; for God well knew, when he gave him to us, that we were sinners. Therefore according to
           the command of Christ, we call upon the heavenly Father through Jesus Christ our own Mediator, as we are
           taught in the Lord's prayer; being assured that whatever we ask of the Father in his name will be granted
          us."
                                                                                 Article XXVI, The Belgic Confession

  In this article the  Confession  faces the question,                All this is sharply condemned by our Confession. It
how may we approach the presence of God? Or, how                   is true that the  Confession  does not  specifically
may we enter into fellowship with our Father in                    condemn the whole Romish error of sainthood and
heaven? The answer given by the Confession is: ". . .              the doctrine of good works implied in it. At the same
alone through the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus                time, however, it makes the telling remark: "And if
Christ the righteous, who therefore became man,                    we seek for one who hath power and majesty, who is
having united in one person the divine and human                   there that hath so much of both as he who sits at the
natures, that we men might have access to the divine               right hand of the Father, and who hath all power in
Majesty, which access would otherwise be barred                    heaven and on earth?" In other words, we need not
against us. . . . Therefore according to the command of            and may not seek for another mediator to bring us to
Christ, we call upon the heavenly Father through                   the Father than our Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning
Jesus Christ our Mediator, as we are taught in the                 the teaching of Rome that prayers to the saints honor
Lord's prayer; being assured that whatever we ask of               them, the article answers that it rather dishonors
the Father in his name will be granted us." In this                them, for it is a practice of "doing that which they
fashion and with this beautiful confession our creed               never have done nor required, but have, on the
concludes its discussion of the work of Jesus Christ in            contrary, steadfastly rejected, according to their
salvation. This rather lengthy article at the same time            bounden duty, as appears from their writings." Still
is directed against the evil practice of Roman Cathol-             more, although it is true that the believer who prays
icism in praying to saints. While this certainly in-               and thus enters the sanctuary of God's presence is
dicates that the Confession is the child of its times,             and must be deeply conscious of his own unworthi-
what it has to say applies with undiminished force                 ness, this is no reason for him to go to the saints first
and significance for the Reformed believer today. As               of all. To do the latter would be to display a false
such the article really contains two subjects: the'work            humility, for it would indicate that we really distrust
of Jesus Christ as our Advocate and Intercessor; and,              Christ! Thus we confess: ". . . this Mediator, whom
the prayers which we are commanded to offer to God                 the Father hath appointed between him and us, ought
through Jesus Christ, our Mediator.                                in no wise to affright us by his majesty, or cause us to
  The Roman Catholic church taught (and for that                   seek another according to our fancy." Neither ought
matter still teaches) that there are men who have                  our unworthiness frighten us from Christ's presence,
lived here upon the earth who, because of their good               for "there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth,
works, have arrived at perfection. These saints have               who loveth us more than Jesus Christ. . . . If then we
an honored place in heaven above the ordinary people               should seek for another Mediator, who would be well
of God, for their self-mortification and accumulation              affected towards us, whom could we find who loved
of,good works. These saints are honored and ought to               us more than he who laid down his life for us, even
be honored by us especially by our prayers to them.                when we were his enemies?" We must not, therefore,
This is especially true of the Virgin Mary who is the              plead our unworthiness: ". . . for the meaning is not
"Queen of Heaven" and "Mother of God." But this is                 that we should offer our prayers to God on account
also true of the other saints. By praying to Mary and              of our unworthiness, but only on account of the
other saints the believer has access to the Father. This           excellence and worthiness of our Lord Jesus Christ,
is all very necessary according to Rome because of                 whose righteousness is become ours by faith."
the unworthiness of the believer. The believer is not              Finally, this article at least implies that praying to
worthy to appear in the presence of God or the                     saints has degenerated into idolatry, which indeed in
presence of Christ. He may go to neither directly.                 actual fact it has.
Rather, he must go to the saints first and seek for                  Thus Christ is our only Advocate before the face of
their cooperation and influence in petitioning God.               the Father. He is our only Advocate because He united
The saints will pray for us and intercede for us before           in one person both the divine and human natures.
God and before Christ.                                             Only because He is divine and human can He inter-


158                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


cede on our behalf before the throne of God. He             on His merits. It implies that we are deeply aware of
became our Advocate because of His highpriestly             our own sins and unworthiness and that we know
work as our Mediator. He was eternally appointed by         that God can never receive us as we are in ourselves.
God as ..our Mediator. To accomplish this work Christ       Thus we base our prayers and all our petitions on the
came into our flesh as our merciful High Priest and         fact that Jesus Christ died for us to remove all our sin
gave Himself as the perfect Lamb of God in the              and guilt and to merit for us the blessings of sal-
perfect sacrifice for sin on the cross. Even as the High    vation. Thus Christ prepared the way for us into the
Priest of the Old Dispensation, Christ carried the          Father's presence. Formerly, in the Old Dispensation
blood of atonement into the Most Holy Place of              of types, the way to God was closed by a veil. But
God's Tabernacle. Only Christ did so by shedding His        when Jesus died, the veil of the temple was rent from
own blood on the tree of the cross and by arising           the top to the bottom. .And this did not simply mean
from the dead and taking, not the blood of a bull or        that the old order of things had passed away, but also
goat, but His own precious blood, to lay it before the      that through the rending of the veil which is His flesh,
face of His Father. (Cf. Hebrews 9: 11, 12, 24ff.) On       Christ prepared a new and living way for us into the
the basis of this perfect sacrifice, our Advocate           sanctuary of God's presence.
continually pleads with the Father, asking the Father
to bless His people with all the spiritual blessings          This means too that even though our prayers are
which God has prepared for them. God answers His            imperfect they are always heard. This is true because
prayer by bestowing all these blessings upon Christ,        Jesus Christ our merciful High Preist makes inter-
which He in turn pours out upon His church through          cession for us. He purifies our prayers. If we ask for
His Spirit.                                                 something we should not, He tells the Father not to
                                                            grant it. If we fail to .ask for that which we need He
  Christ is our perfect Mediator and merciful High          presents our needs to the Father so that we receive all
Priest because He loved us so much that He was              things necessary to bring us to glory.
willing to go the dark way of the cross for us. He was
made like unto us in all things except our sin and,           Finally, this means that we must always pray in
therefore, knows all our infirmities. In all points         faith. To pray in the name of Jesus means we must
tempted as we are, Christ as our merciful High Priest       pray in harmony with His will. (Cf. I- John 5: 14, 15)
is able to succor (come to the aid of) those who are        WE must pray for grace to live new and godly lives of
tempted. (cf. Hebrews 2: 16-18; 4: 14-16) Further-          thankfulness. WE may not impose our carnal wishes
more, our High Priest is exalted in the highest             upon God. We must pray `in the consciousness that we
heavens, clothed with power and glory and, therefore,       belong in life and in death to our faithful Savior and
able to give us all that is necessary. to our full and      are, therefore, sons in our Father's house. And when
complete salvation. (Cf. Matthew 28: 18; Philippians        we' do not know what we should pray for as we
2:5-l 1) We may also be certain that Christ is surely       ought, we know that the Spirit within us prays for us
heard of the Father, because He is the only begotten        with groanings which cannot be uttered.
and beloved Son Who has finished all that the Father          Praying thus and coming thus to the Father in the
sent Him into the world to accomplish.                      name of and according to the will of our merciful
  Thus we may confidently pray to the Father in the         High Priest, Jesus Christ, we may be absolutely sure
name of Jesus, our merciful High Priest. Thus the           that our heavenly Father will give us all things
Saviour has instructed us. (Cf. John  15:7, 16) To          whatsoever we ask. This we believe in our hearts and
pray in Jesus' name means that we base our prayers          confess with our mouths to the salvation of our souls.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                      January 1, 1978
Dear Timothy,                                               look back, it is for purposes of reflecting on God's
  Before we return to our discussion of the offices in      great goodness which He has shown to us. But we
the Church, I want to take this opportunity to extend       look ahead. And, while we do not know and cannot
to you the sincerest blessings of the Lord in your          tell what the new year has waiting for us, we do know
work in the year which lies ahead. We, in distinction       that the beginning of another year points ahead
from the world, do not see the beginning of a new           to the beginning of the rule of Christ with His
year as a time to make a fresh beginning after a year       Church in His kingdom of everlasting glory - just as
filled with much failure and disappointment. It is not      the end of a year reminds us of the end of all things
a time for "New Year's resolutions." Insofar, as we         which is at hand. And because we labor by grace in


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               159


God's kingdom, we labor in the confidence that our          the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered
work, under God's blessing, will serve to bring about       themselves together at  Michmash;  Therefore said I,
the day of final victory for the Church. In this            The  Philistines  will come down now upon me to
assurance, I pray for a blessed new year for you.           Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the
                                                            Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt
  In our last letter we discussed the various ways in       offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done
which God took special care for the office which            foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of
Adam lost through sin in the Old Dispensation. We           the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for
talked briefly about the fact that the three-fold office    now would the Lord have established thy kingdom
of prophet, priest, and king was concentrated in the        upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not
patriarchs prior to the formation of the nation of          continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his
Israel. It is interesting to notice, however, that while    own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be
the patriarchs really held all three offices in their       captain over his people, because thou hast not kept
families and clans, the offices were only dimly re-         that which the Lord commanded thee." I Sam.
flected in these men. Even in the Old Dispensation          13: 11-14.
the offices came to clearer and fuller expression when        We have another instance of this in the case of
the nation of Israel was brought into existence. We         Uzziah, king of Judah. Although he was a God-fearing
also talked about the unique office which  Mel-             king, we read of him that he attempted to take over
chizedek held and how he pre-figured Christ in a            the office of the priesthood."But when he was strong,
unique way. But it was especially during the time of        his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he
the history of Israel that the offices came to their        transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into
highest typical manifestation. That is what now needs       the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar
to be discussed.                                            of incense. And Azariah the priest went in after him,
  Now the first point that needs to be emphasized is        and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were
that the two offices of king and priest were kept           valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king,
rigidly separate in the time of Israel's history. Kings     and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee,
and priests functioned in different offices and were        Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the
not permitted to encroach upon the office which was         priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to
not theirs. There are some instances of this happening      burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast
in Israel, and Scripture tells us that this was a very      trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from
great sin. One instance is recorded for us in II Samuel     the Lord God. Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a
13. Saul was fighting against the Philistines. Saul had     tenser in his hand to burn incense: and while he was
been instructed to wait with entering the battle until      wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his
Samuel had come to make the appropriate sacrifices.         forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord,
(By the way, Samuel could properly make these               from beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief
sacrifices because he was of the tribe of Levi, I.          priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and,
Chron. 6: 16, 23. This was why Samuel could serve in        behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they
the tabernacle during the days of Eli. Sacrificing was      thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also
limited to the tribe of Levi. Jeroboam committed a          to go out, because the Lord had smitten him."
terrible sin when he "made priests of the lowest of           The point of these incidents is that the office of
the people, which were not of the sons of Levi." I
Kings  12:3 1.) But the people were deserting him           king and priest were kept strictly separate in the
because the battle seemed unnecessarily postponed           nation. We may perhaps ask the question why this
and they were increasingly afraid. And so Saul made         was so necessary. The Scriptures do not  .give us a
these sacrifices himself. "`And (Saul) tarried seven        direct answer to this question, but we may perhaps
days, according to the set time that Samuel had             deduce at least a partial answer from what we know
appointed: but Samuel came not to  Gilgal; and the          of these' offices and their functions in the dispensa-
people were scattered from him. And Saul said, Bring        tion of shadows. In the first place, God had ordained
hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings.         that Christ should be a priest .only after the order of
And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to           Melchizedek. And He was a priest after the order of
pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering        Melchizedek because Christ alone united in His person
the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came." I Samuel          the offices  of. priest and king. It was uniquely
13:8-10.                                                    Melchizedek's prerogative to point ahead to Christ in
                                                            this unique way. The second reason is that the whole
  This was a grievous sin for which Saul lost the right     development of types in the Old Testament must be
to be king. "And Samuel said, What hast thou done?          looked at organically. We cannot go into this in
And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were           detail, for it would carry us far afield. But it must be
scattered from me, and that thou camest not within          remembered that types developed. And they developed


160                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


because through the various periods of Old Testament        prophet is one that has the knowledge of God, speaks
history, God caused the light of His promise to shine       in His name, and thus declares his praises." p. 366.
more and more clearly. He was constantly showing His        But anyone who was an officebearer in Israel spoke
people in a fuller way the riches of His promise soon to     this Word of God. Oftentimes the priests were con-
be realized in Christ. Thus, the patriarchs could, in a      sulted that an individual might know God's Word.
sense, hold all. three offices. But these offices were       Sometimes this was through the Urim and Thummim
only dimly reflected in the patriarchs. When the             and sometimes through the ephod. I Samuel 23:9-12,
offices came to clearer typical manifestation, they          I Samuel 28:6, in connection with Exodus 28:30.
had to be separated from each other. And they had to           When Saul received the Spirit at the time of his
be separated from each other because it had to               anointing, he, prophesied, so much so that it became
remain clear always that these offices were only             a saying in Israel: "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
types. They pointed ahead to Christ, but they were           I Samuel 10:6, 10-13. David could not have written
not the reality. They could not accomplish what              the Psalms unless he possessed the Spirit of prophecy,
Christ did. They were inferior. They were pictures.          for the Psalms are not simply poetry for singing in the
And because of their inferiority, the richness of the        temple and are not only autobiographical, but are
promise in Christ could only be shown by dividing            Messianic as they speak of the Christ Who was to
the offices. David.could scarcely (if I may put it that      come. In fact, it is a striking thing that Jesus quotes
way) serve as a proper picture of Christ in the office       the Psalms as if they were His very own, as if He
of king. This was so true that he was refused per-           Himself had written them. And this is true, for it was
mission to build the temple because he was a man of          the Spirit of Christ which inspired David to write
war and had blood on his hands. He could, at best, as        them to begin with. The same, of course, is true of
king, reflect only one aspect of Christ's work as king.      the writings of Solomon. We have a very striking
It was impossible then that he also reflect Christ's         instance of this truth in John  11:47-53. Jesus had
work as priest. His place in the organic development         raised Lazarus from the' grave and this had had a
of types was very limited because of his inferiority.        profound effect upon the people. The leaders of the
  At any rate, this was the truth of the matter. No          Jews were frightened by Jesus' popularity with the
king might function as priest and no priest might            people and gathered together in counsel to ponder
function as king.                                            what could be done. In the course of the discussion,
                                                             Caiaphas became impatient with the members of the
  The second element which was true of the idea of           Sanhedrin and suggested a course of action which
the office in the days of the nation of Israel was the       would result in Jesus' death. He said, "Ye know
fact that the office of prophet was both a separate          nothing at all, Nor consider that it is expedient for us,
office and was an office shared by kings and priests.        that one man should die for the people, and that the
The first idea hardly needs any proof. There were            whole nation perish not." Then John adds the signifi-
prophets in Israel from the very beginning of the
history of the nation. And these men functioned              cant words: "And this spake he not of himself: but
exclusively in the office of prophet. They were not          being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus
priests and they were not kings. We have to mention          should die for that nation; And not for that nation
only such names as Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah,                 only, but that also he should `gather together in one
Zechariah, etc. to show how true this was.                   the children of God that were scattered abroad." The
                                                             point is that Caiaphas, though a wicked man, was able
  But that the office of prophet was shared by the           to prophesy because he was high priest. As high priest
kings and the priests needs perhaps a bit more proof.        he `was able to function in the office of prophet.
We must remember in this connection that the office             But we must discontinue our discussion for this
of prophet is particularly the office through which          time and continue it at a later date.
God's Word is revealed. Thus Rev. Hoeksema writes                                       Fraternally in Christ,
in his Dogmatics: "In general, we may say that a                                        H. Hanko

TRIUMPH THROUGH TRIALS

                         Plagued All the Day Long
                                                Rev.  J.  Kovteving

  Poor Asaph.                                                   "For all the day long have I been plagued, and
  SULKING!                                                   chastened every morning," Psalm 73 : 14.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               161


  In all likelihood it is true that Asaph must have         Start comparing your place in life with the ungodly
known a great deal of trouble, though we do not           on merely human terms and you will sulk and
know much about Asaph the seer. He shared in the          become angry.
afflictions of David the king, and David was known to       And that's dangerous. "My feet were almost gone,
cry out, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous,      my steps'had well nigh slipped," verse 2.
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all," Psalm
34:19.                                                      SHAME
  Certainly, we can point out the difficulties of           Asaph was led into the house of God and he saw
God's people in any day. Perhaps you can say now,         things spiritually. He learned two truths which saved
"For all the day long have I been plagued." You           him.
know what pain is like; you have experienced the            First, the prosperity of the wicked is not God's'
anguish of suffering; you know the burning tears of       favor on them. It is judgment. "Surely thou didst set
grief; you wrestle with life's problems alone and are     them in slippery places: thou castest them down into
sometimes afraid. Yes, many of you know this first        destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as
hand.                                                     in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors
  Asaph, however, was not just expressing a fact, he      . . . when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their
was complaining. More correctly, he was sulking! Do       image," verses 18-20. What appeared to be blessing
you know how he got that way? He compared his life        was in actuality a terrible curse. Their riches, their
to that of others. Not just anyone else's  - he           health, their prosperity which God gave them became
compared his life to that of the wicked. His wicked,      the occasion for their increase in sin and judgement.
unbelieving neighbors seemed to have an easier life         Second, the afflictions of God's people are good.
than he did.                                              "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a
" He speaks of them as "foolish" and "wicked,"            clean heart," verse 1. That goodness of God includes
verse 3. "Pride compasseth them as a chain and            the plagues He sends them all the day long. As
violence as a garment," verse 4. They are "corrupt        prsoperity destroys the wicked, so the hand of afflic-
and speak wickedly," verse 8. This leads them to say,     tion saves His people.
"How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the           RESOLVE
most high?" verse 11.                                       A wiser Asaph wrote, "Nevertheless I am con-
  Yet, these very same people seem to prosper. There      tinually with thee, thou hast holden me by my right
are "no bands in their death, their strength is firm,"    hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and
verse 4. "They are not in trouble as other men nor        afterward receive me to glory," verses 23, 24.
plagued as other men," verse 5. "Their eyes stand
out with fatness," verse 7.                                 You see, Asaph went through a learning experi-
                                                          ence.
  Start comparing, look over the fence, and you are
bound to see others as much better off. "I was              He looked at others: he sulked.
envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of         He reasoned humanly: he became angry.
the wicked," verse 3.
  Inevitably you will sulk.                                 He went to the house of God: he was overcome
                                                          with shame.
  ANGRY
  Listen to Asaph: "Verily I have cleansed my heart         He turned to his place in life and he said, "Lo, they
in vain and washed my hands in innocency," verse 13.      that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast de-
  His sulking led to anger.                               stroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it
  That anger was kindled by rebellion, rebellion          is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my
against God Who sends rain and sunshine upon the          trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy
wicked and the just.                                      works," verses 27, 28.
  If God loves His children, should not His children        Draw near to God!
have it easiest? If God hates the wicked, should not
they suffer all the plagues of His holy wrath? God has      God is the strength of my heart and my portion
things mixed up. It is not fair. God has things           forever.
backward.                                                    Even in the plagues.

                Have a Blessed Christ-Centered New Year.


162                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


THE DAY OF SHAD0 WS




                             Gathered to His People
                                                Rev. John A. Heys


   Although we may not like to think of it, we cannot      by God by means of shadows. We know today that
deny it, and Hebrews 9:27 declares it so emphatical-       when God declares and promises to them that fear
ly: ". . . it is appointed unto men once to die. . . ."    Him that they shall see their children's children
And the main reason for our fears of that day is           (Psalm  128:6), we cannot be sure that this will
expressed in the next phrase, "But after this the          happen in this life; but we know that this will surely
judgment." Separation from loved ones through              be the case in the new Jerusalem. We see though that
death is painful and not to be coveted. Even for the       Abraham, the father of believers, was given to ex-
most devout child of God, who with Paul is con-            perience that in his earthly life before death swal-
vinced in the bottom of his soul that "to die is gain,"    lowed up and carried him away. Even though his son
and is thoroughly convinced that `%here is therefore       Isaac did not marry until he was forty years old and,
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ             Abraham himself was now 140 years old, and even
Jesus" (Romans  8:1), that matter of leaving loved         through Abraham and Isaac with Rebekah had to wait
ones behind is not a pleasant experience to con-           another twenty years before the grandchildren were
template. But the fear is there concerning that judg-      born, God caused him to see his children's children at
ment.                                                      the age of 160 years. And then God gave him another
   Come, though, that day surely will, whether we be       fifteen years to live with them and see them grow up
children of God or children of the devil. We may face      and approach the age of becoming young men.
it differently than do the children of the devil             Those were good years for Abraham. We may
because of our faith in Him Who entered death for us,      believe that Abraham enjoyed good health untiI the
rose triumphantly out of it, and now is our Good           day of his death. We read no word about blindness
Shepherd to lead us while in the valley of the shadow      such as came upon Jacob, nor of any other weak-
of death and to be our guide through death. But that       nesses that characterized his last days. We do read
day of death is just ahead; and so is the judgment. We     that he died "in a good old age, an old man and full
can stop them no more than we can stop tomorrow            of years." The whole expression leaves not the slight-
from coming. And because tomorrow is coming, so is         est suggestion of a senile, frail man who hardly knew
death and the judgment. Though our faith sustains us       he was alive. His days were good and full. The
as we see it coming, our flesh, in which are still the     expression f`full of years" does not mean that the
motions of sin, gives us constantly the evidence that      days were heavy, weighty with problems and dif-
we not only deserve the death but also that we             ficulty of getting around. In fact the word "years"
cannot stand in ourselves in the judgment.                 does not even appear. Some translations even make it
   And if we today, on this side of the cross and with     "full of days." And would we need this addition after
all the powerful writings of the New Testament, have       the statements of "a good old age" and "an old
a fear of death, we ought to marvel at the faith of the    man"? No, he had a good life that was full of
Old Testament saints who faced it calmly and with          wonderful experiences from a spiritual point of view.
confidence, even though they had lambs instead of          He saw, when he was as good as dead, the promised
The Lamb of God, sinful priests instead of our holy        son. His concern for a wife for his son that would
High Priest, and pictures instead of Him Who was           have interest in God's covenant was rewarded with a
pictured so faintly in that day of shadows. Of them        divinely appointed woman from his own relatives.
we read that they died in faith, that they embraced        And now he had seen his children's children and
the promises and walked as pilgrims and strangers          God's faithfulness to His promises.
who knew that they.had  a better city and were going         Incidentally, the first few verses of Genesis 25 refer
to it.                                                     to that which took place before the birth of Isaac and
   Living in the day of shadows they were also taught      not afterward. Abraham took Keturah as a wife and


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 163


she bare him six children. And to read of this in           story of God's unfolding His covenant promises to
chapter 25, after Abraham had procured a wife for           Abraham. So the detail of their birth and of Abra-
Isaac, makes it look as though the power which God          ham's sinful deed in former years of taking Keturah is
gave Abraham to father a son at the age of ninety           added here at the end before Moses closes out the
nine, in a wife who was eighty nine, continued and          account of his earthly life. And we do better to
that he was able to father six more children and            translate, "And also Abraham took a wife . . ." rather
obtain a host of descendants. This definitely was not       than, "Then again. . . ." "And also" then means that
the case. The birth of Isaac was a miracle wrought by       he also took Keturah to be his wife, without stressing
God in Sarah. It was also a miracle realized through        the time when he did so.
sexually dead Abraham. And God did not continue               And having informed us of these descendants of
this miracle in Abraham. He enabled Abraham for             Abraham Moses gives us to understand that Abraham
that one time to fertilize that which He for, the first     did, after the birth of Isaac, walk according to the truth
time gave to Sarah for the sake of bringing forth in        that God spoke to him that, "In Isaac shall thy seed
her a son.                                                  be called." For we read that he gave gifts to all the
  It is certainly true that had he taken Keturah after      sons of Keturah, and "sent them away from Isaac."
the birth of Isaac  ,there was still plenty of time for     These were his flesh and blood as surely as Ishmael
these children to be grown enough to be sent away           was, and as surely as Isaac was; But Abraham is not
from Isaac, as Abraham did and as is pointed out in         moved here by the flesh but by the Spirit of  Him.
Genesis  25:6. There were forty years before Isaac          .Who was in Isaac's loins. It is a simple statement:
received a wife; and those forty years were certainly       "Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away." But it
sufficient time for children to be born and to mature.      speaks of faith in God. We do not, as the world warns
But this puts Abraham in a worse light than he              its citizens not to do, "Put all our eggs in one
deserves. It is bad enough to read that he took             basket"; but we do in implicit trust in God expect
another wife after God showed him in the case of            Him to keep His word and realize His promises. Be it
Hagar that this was not His way of fulfilling the           but one son that Abraham has left, because God has
covenant promise. It is bad enough to read of both          said that all these rich promises will be filled in him,
Hagar and Keturah, who represent unfaithfulness on          they will be fulfilled. A%d we are to look in only one
Abraham's part to his God-given wife, Sarah. That he        direction. We are to look at the only begotten Son of
was disappointed that God gave him no children              God. We need nothing more than Him. We need
through Sarah is understandable. Many a husband has         nothing that is not in Him. And all the glories and
had that experience. But it is no excuse for unfaith-       blessings promised God's Church are in Him and
fulness and for adding new flesh. But consider once         come out of Him.
what it would mean that, after receiving the child of         It is for that reason also that Moses declares of
the promise, Abraham would get himself a concubine          Abraham that he,  ". . . was gathered to his people."
to raise up more children. He would hardly appear as        For it is through this only begotten Son of God that
the father of all believers. But how it appears to us       we are gathered at the moment of death to our
means little. He would certainly be walking in a way        people. It is through this only begotten Son of God,
of despising this great mercy and wonder of God that        and through Him alone, that we have a people. When
gave him Isaac. And Scripture gives us no such picture      God gave the first promise of the gospel, when fallen
of Abraham. He looked to the Christ as that Christ          man stood trembling in the garden, knowing his guilt
was still in the loins of Isaac. Before the promise of      before God, He spoke of restoration of His favour. He
Isaac he did look elsewhere. After Isaac's conception       spoke of a Kingdom of Heaven wherein man would
and birth Abraham looked at Isaac and through him           know the sweetness of God's love upon him, and
to Christ Himself.                                          wherein man would live in perfect love before God.
  The reason why Moses places this taking of                But He also spoke of one Seed who would realize all
Keturah here is that he intends in this chapter to          this in the way of the bruising of His heel on the cross
bring us to the death of Abraham. And before he             of Calvary by the Serpent, but also in the way of
does so, he will give the full account of these children    crushing that Serpent completely and of delivering a
of Abraham who became enemies of Israel in later            people from his power and out of his kingdom of
years. The reason why he did not place this element         darkness.
in Abraham's life in its chronological setting is the         There God spoke already of two peoples. There
fact that he wishes, as guided by the Holy Spirit, first    already He divided the whole human race into two
to trace the covenant line and how God realized it.         groups. There He drew the sharp line of the antithesis
This required the telling of Abraham's and Sarah's          wrought by sovereign, eternal election. There He
foolish attempt to help God along by the conception         spoke of a spiritual difference which HE would
of Ishmael. But these children which Abraham begot          realize in the human race. There He spoke of a seed
through Keturah have no place in the telling of the         which the believer may call his people in distinction


164                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



from another seed and people to which he does not                 unconscious realities stacked somewhere on shelves,
belong.  There He put reborn Adam, Seth, Enoch,                   or still in their bodies in their graves. No, they are a
Noah, and Shem, and the other unnamed believers                   people. Abraham was gathered unto his people. And
who  died before Abraham did, all in one class. Yea,              we may believe that the expression implies that when
there  .He put all these in one place, the heavenly               he closed his eyes in death to see Isaac and his sons
abode of the souls of the redeemed. For to be                     nd more in the flesh, he saw Adam and the saints
gathered to one's people means that these are all in              from him till Shem and  knew  them to be his people.
one place. And Abraham was by God gathered to                     He felt quite at home in the heavenly glory; and he
where  God had already gathered the elect who had                 did not enter as a stranger. These were his people,
preceded Abraham into death, or, as Enoch, had gone               even though he had not known them in the flesh and
into this place without death.                                    had never seen them before.
   So you see Moses believed not only in life after                 Who are your people? With whom do you expect
death, he believed in a conscious life of glory immedi-           to be gathered when your time comes to close your
ately after death. Abraham was about a thousand                   eyes in the sleep of death? How amazingly wonderful
miles or more away from the place where the bodies                that we know where we are going and with whom we
of Adam and Noah and Shem were buried. Bodily                     will spend eternity. In Christ all the saints are our
they were not gathered. Their bones were not                      people. Because we belong to  Him, and they likewise
gathered into one place. It is the soul of which Moses            belong to Him, and both by God's sovereign grace, we
speaks here. His soul was gathered with the souls of              can point to the most wonderful people that ever
the elect who one by one were gathered before God's               lived, the redeemed children of God who have enmity
face. And the expression "his people" rules out any               in their hearts for all evil and love only for God, and
idea of soul sleep. So does the word gathered. Souls              we can say with conviction and joy,  "These are  my
were gathered, not bodies. And these souls were not               people."

ALL AROUND  US
Rev. G. Van Baven




                                                    Television Addiction

  There appears a review of a new book in  The                       for pressure drops caused by toilet-flushing during
Christian  News which may also be of interest and                    commercials.
concern to  us.  The book,  Telegavbage,  written by                    Of course, far worse things result from too much
Gregg Lewis, published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.,                       viewing. Violence is so prevalent that, at best, we
$2.95, presents some serious objections to television                become insensitive to it and, at  wor?t, we imitate
programs presented today. In the review of the book,                criminal behavior. One maximum security inmate
some sobering thoughts are presented. Perhaps we                     claims that TV actually teaches prisoners how to steal
.do well to  consjder these  - and also the question                 cars, rob stores and roll drunks. Network program-
whether we also are failing in our responsibilities to               mers insist that violence is true to life and that,
remain properly separate from this world.                            anyway, that's what audiences crave; therefore, little
                                                                     or no attempt is made to delete the blood and death.
          "If this book does nothing else but make the
       Christian more aware of what his children are viewing            Sex plays a more explicit television role than ever
       on television and what he himself is viewing - the            before. In the long ago of the fifties, married partners
       ugly, sordid, denigrating garbage - then a big step has       slept in separate beds and wore pajamas. In the
       been taken in the right direction."                           heated seventies, Mary Hartman  grapples with the
                                                                     problems of impotence, venereal disease, and open
          Author Lewis takes that one step with timely               marriage.
       certainty, cataloging example after example of how
       television is running - and in some ways ruining -               Lewis seeks to jolt apathetic Christian viewers with
       our lives. In the average American home the tube             the realization that networks produce shows for the
       blares for more than six hours a day. Teenagers log           sole purpose of selling advertising time. Copywriters
       15,000 slack-jawed, eyeball-searing hours in front of        push the gospel of materialism: the more you have,
       the set by the time they graduate from high school -          the happier you'll be, which is contrary to the
       3,000 more hours then they spend in the classroom.            Christian philosophy.
       Engineers design city water supply systems to allow              Even though many viewers insist they can't remem-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           165


    ber who sponsored a program they watched 15                 Let each family list the number of hours that TV is
    minutes ago, nevertheless a thought, a sentence, or a       viewed during one week by each member of the
   word has been subtly planted in the subconscious             family. How many hours are spent there by children
   mind, i.e. "Have it your way," "Things go better with        who are too "busy" to finish catechism lessons or
    Coke,"  "Grab all the gusto you can get." The J.            school work? How much time is spent there by
   Walter Thompson Company, one of the country's                parents who are too "busy" to attend societies? How
   largest advertising agencies, predicts that future TV        much time is spent watching TV on Sunday - God's
    spots will be a rapid-fire three seconds long - possible    day of rest? What is being watched? Do we condone
    because home audiences are being conditioned to
    accept images at a faster and faster rate.                  certain violent programs  - because it is simply a
                                                                report of "police files"? Do we condone swearing,
  The reviewer continues by reminding of the recom-             sex, stealing - because this is "realism" - and we can
mendation of the author' to join protest groups and             read the same things in books? Are we growing
write many letters to sponsors and networks or their            hardened and insensitive to sin because of its constant
stations. Perhaps some of this is effective. But for            portrayal on TV? And do we wonder why our
us, Christians by profession and presumably by walk,            children oftentimes do things and say things which
there ought to be a careful review of our own                   shock us? Or, why is there such a growing emphasis
position toward television and its viewing. That the            on materialism in our own lives? The book, which I
invention is not itself wrong has been repeated cor-            have not `yet obtained, is surely very accurate at least
rectly many times. But what is it doing to our homes?           in its title: Telegarbage.

                                                   Children's "Rights"
  Much has been made in recent years of one's                       rental policy or discipline, the state today brusquely
"rights." An editorial in the Presbyterian Journal of               intervenes. A  16-year-old  girl may have an abortion,
Nov. 2, 1977 warns how far this has already gone in                 according to various court decisions, without her
our country with respect to the control of govern-                  parents' consent or even their knowledge.
ment over our children.                                                Nor may parents any longer instill their own
      Over a  long period of time and in almost im-                 religious values into their children beyond a certain
   perceptible stages, the trend in modern thinking has             age. In North Carolina recently, a court told the
   turned away from the traditional view that parents               parents of a  16-year-old  girl that she could select her
   have some sort of inalienable right to the last word in          own friends, and choose her own religion and church
   the discipline, control, nurture and education of their          over their objections. The court also ruled that the
   children.                                                        girl should be free to participate in school activities of
                                                                    her choice, including school parties, dances and clubs.
      Parental control over the education of their chil-               The fact that the girl's parents are strict Jehovah's
   dren disappeared long ago. Today  the state not only             Witnesses does not alter the importance of the alarm-
   tells parents how much education their children must             ing doctrine laid down by the court: Family wishes
   have and what kind of education it must be, the state            do not matter if, in the eyes of the state, those wishes
   has even begun to tell parents where their children              impinge upon a minor child's "freedom."
   must be educated.                                                   We readily recognize that some parents are unfit,
      Private schools continue acceptable in the eyes of
   the state  - but only if they meet increasingly rigid            others incompetent. Laws against child abuse, child
                                                                    neglect and child labor belong on the books and
   specifications. Never mind that a child in public school
   may very well graduate uneducated, if not  actually              should be enforced.
   illiterate; parents who try to set educational standards            The trouble is that  - as in the case of other areas
   of their own based on religion or other conviction can           where the border lines are painted in grey rather than
                                                                    black and white  - when government gets a toe in the
   count on. running afoul of the law in  almost every
   state in the U.S.                                                door, the time comes as certainly as night follows
                                                                    day that government will shoulder its full way into
      Where a child's "rights" seem threatened by  pa-              the house and take over, if it can. . . .

                                                   Physical Education

  An editor in the  Reformed Journal,  R.  Dir-k  Jel-              the dwindling afternoon. Their vigor and enthusiasm
lema, expresses a concern about high school athletics               and sincerity are beautiful to watch. Like their coach
which contains much for serious thought.                            they are patient and encouraging in their attitudes.
       In the park down the street the boys (sexual                    Those waiting along the sidelines are talking about
   freedom hasn't gravitated to this level yet) from the            the team and about soccer. Tomorrow, they say, the
   local Christian Middle School are playing soccer in              coach will put a list on the board naming the ones


166                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



       who will report to Dr. Vander  X's  office the  follow-            This coach will follow precedent. Kids will be cut
       ing day for physical examinations. Those whose                  from the team, and they will take their cuts with
       names are not on the list will have been informed,              more equanimity than I could have mustered at their
       after reading the list twice, that they have been cut           age, or even now. And they won't know why. They'll
       from the team.                                                  assume they weren't good enough, but whether it's
          The team will practice for nearly two hours every            their competitive spirit that's lacking, or their speed,
       night after school, except for catechism on  Wednes-            or muscle, or dexterity, they just won't know. It's as
       day, and play perhaps a game each week. Those who               though their teachers would give them failures in
       do not make the team will play an intramural game               their homework but never mark wrong answers, never
       once each week, during noon-hour, and many will                 inform them of their weaknesses in math or history
       turn up to cheer their team at its games.                       or science.
          Although the sport of soccer is new in Christian                I believe in physical education, support it as
       junior high schools, other things haven't changed               necessary to the formation of the whole man. And it
       much in the past thirty or forty years. You can't have        j strikes me as ridiculous if not sinful to take the
       forty-five kids on a soccer team, or basketball team, if        best-educated eighth-graders and give them eight or
       you want to keep your budget down, if you want to               ten hours each week of advanced physical education,
       play competitively with Zeeland or Hamilton or                  while those who need the education worse and worst
       whoever.                                                        are limited to a lunch-hour's worth of intramurals.
          Something bothers me about this, the system of                  It's as though a teacher of English composition
       interschool sports that I approved, even wallowed in            would tell his forty-five students that only twenty of
       when I went through it. I don't like it. I suppose              them are good enough to work with, that the other
       somewhere there's a physical educator whose goal is             twenty-five, being less talented, will have to get their
       to provide the maximum amount of exercise, train-               education on their own, during lunch hour on Friday.
       ing, coordination, team play, and education for the             I want to think that physical education is as  im-
       maximum number of kids. A physical educator who                 portant  to a school's curriculum as composition, and
       believes in physical education, believes in it enough to        if that's true it follows that as composition teachers
       resist the formidable pressures of parents and stu-             spend more time helping weaker students, so should
       dents and board members and alumni to field a team.             physical education teachers. . . .
       But he's not here.

                                                    Book Reviews
CH. DODD, INTERPRETER OF THE NEW                                      too        concerned with     the central task of
TESTAMENT,  by F.W.  Dillistone;  Wm. B. Eerdmans                     communicating the Gospel to his fellow-men for it
Publishing Co., 1977; 255 pp., $11.95. (Reviewed by                   ever to become possible for him to surrender himself
Prof. H. Hanko)                                                        to disciplines almost completely related to the
  Since we cannot review this book in any kind of                     past. . . .
detail, we offer a rather lengthy quote from the flap                Although recognized throughout the world as New
of the. book to inform those of our readers who have               Testament scholarship as an outstanding scholar, and
not heard of C.H.  Dodd who he was.                                although hailed even in conservative circles for his
                                                                   accomplishments in the field of New Testament
       . . . He was a scholar who spent a lifetime devoted
       to New Testament study and to teaching at the               studies, C.H. Dodd was, after all, a member of the
       Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Cambridge.           circle of higher critics who have done untold harm to
       He was author of more than twenty. books . . . and          Scripture.
       was Shaffer Lecturer at Yale, Ingersoll Lecturer at           He possessed a Congregational&, thus Calvinist,
       Harvard, Stone Lecturer at Princeton, Sarum Lecturer        background, but spent most of his productive years in
       at Oxford, and Bampton Lecturer at Columbia. . . .          Anglican and American liberal circles. He was deeply
          To the public at large he is perhaps best                influenced by Harnack, Frued, and German higher
       remembered as the Joint Director of the New                 criticism which led him to adopt the position of
       Translation of the Bible (New English Bible). But           literary-historical criticism of the New Testament
       here is also a portrait of the riveting lecturer and the    text. He worked with the ecumenical movement,
       Congregationalist minister described by a visitor to        especially the World Council of Churches and, as
       his church as "a small spare figure of a man. Always
       spruce and immaculate in his dress and appearance. A        mentioned in the quote above, labored in the
       good sense of humour  and a ready laugh. A great and        translation of the New English Bible.
       natural appearance of vitality."                              This rather lengthy biography gives many details of
          A student of music, coins, drama, languages,             his life and labors. It has in my judgment two glaring
       archeology, all aspects of the classical world, he was      weaknesses. It does not sufficiently explain his views


                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  167


of Scripture and his literary-historical approach to the                    Deceits, " "Faith and Experience," "True and False
Bible, and it presents Dodd as a man who has no                             Assurance," "Quenching the Spirit," "Temptation
faults. The biographer left "the warts" out of the                          and Sin," "Discouragement," "True and False Zeal."
portrait of Dodd, and the result is less than a human                         There is a great deal of worthwhile material in the
figure.                                                                     book. Lloyd-Jones' discussion of the cults, e.g., is
   The book will be of interest to those who have                           excellent, and his lengthy treatment of the many
made an acquaintance with Dodd through his writings                         forms which temptation takes is of great spiritual
and who have delved into the murky waters of                                benefit. Lloyd-Jones writes well and is always
Biblical criticism.                                                         interesting reading. While his material is not always
                                                                            the type of expository preaching to which we are
THE CHRISTIAN WARFARE,  An Exposition of                                    accustomed, it is, for the most part, thoroughly
Ephesians 6: 10-13, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones; Baker                         Biblical. We have recommended before the writings of
Book House, 1977; 373 pp., $8.95 (Reviewed by Prof.                         this English preacher who preached for so many years
H. Hanko.)                                                                  in Westminster Chapel, and we recommend also this
   This is the third volume published by Baker on                           book as a valuable addition to the libraries of our
Lloyd-Jones' exposition of  Ephesians: The book is                          readers. It makes. wonderful devotional reading, and it
not, strictly speaking, a commentary. It is rather a                        will be of great help in understanding the nature of
series of 26 printed sermons on this passage of                             the spiritual battle against sin which God's people are
Ephesians. In fact, it is not really even an exposition                     called to fight. By all means, buy the book. It also
of the four verses of Ephesians 6 which speak of the                        makes a worthwhile gift.
spiritual battle of the saints; it is rather an exposition                     The chief weakness of the book in this reviewer's
of the phrase "the wiles of the devil" which is found                       opinion is that it belabors the subject of the wiles of
in this passage. The author has devoted the entire                          the devil. Nearing the end of the book the subject
book to a discussion of this one subject.                                   itself became somewhat tedious. But this danger can
   It is but natural that many different subjects are                       be avoided if the book is read leisurely, a chapter at a
discussed. A few chapter titles (or sermon topics) will                     time, when the opportunity presents itself. There are
show how varied the subject matter is: "The Origin of                       many sections of such value that the reader will want
Evil, " "Heresies," "Cults," "Philosophies and Vain                         to read them again and again.





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


               ADDRESS/PHONE CHANGE                                                                 ANNIVERSARY

Note change of address and telephone number:                                   On January 8, 1978, the Lord willing, our beloved parents, Mr. and
                                                                            Mrs.  Fredrick  Huizinga, will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
                              Rev. Gise Van  Baren
                              5101 Beechtree                                   We are thankful, to God for the many years of Christian love and
                               Hudsonville,  Mich. 49426                    instruction they have given us. It is our prayer that God will bless them
                              Tel. 669-0755                                 in the years which lie ahead of them.
                               NOTICE                                                                      Their children
                                                                                                             Rick and Terri Huizinga
   Classis East will meet in regular session on Wednesday, January 11,                                        Jennie and Melissa
1978 at Southeast Church. Material to be treated in this session must be                                     Jack Huizinga
in the hands of the Stated Clerk no later than ten days prior to the                                         Daniel Huizinga
convening of the session.                                                                                    Daryle and  Janis Kuiper
                              Jon J. Huisken                                                                  Brent and Rebecca
                              Stated Clerk                                                                   Ruth Huizinga

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



                                                                           .
                                                                                          ~-
                                  _-
168                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER

                                News From Our Churches
  Candidate Kenneth Koole has accepted the call                     her unanimous approval to go ahead with the con-
from our congregation in Randolph, Wisconsin, to be                 struction of a new church sanctuary at a cost of
their pastor. Randolph requested a special meeting of               $240,000. The bulletin announcement ends with
Classis West in order that Mr. Koole might receive his              these appropriate words: "May the Lord bless us in
classical examination prior to his being installed as               this endeavor to build Him a house of worship."
Randolph's pastor. Classis was scheduled to meet in                   The Men's Society in Randolph sponsored a special
special session on December 13 for this purpose.                    lecture given by Rev. Marvin Kamps of Doon, Iowa,
  The council of Hope Church prepared a short                       on the topic of "Limited Inerrancy, Right or Wrong"
program in commemoration of their pastor and his                    on Thursday, November 17.
family's leaving to labor in Christchurch, New
Zealand for about nine months. This program was                       `A rather interesting report of historical interest was
held after the evening service on Sunday, December                  received from a member of our Hudsonville congre-
11. Rev. Van  Overloop and his family planned to                    gation. It seems that a senior member of that con-
leave on December 17, spend the weekend in .Red-                    gregation, Mr. Ed Vander Werff, was present when
lands, California, with our congregation there and                  Hudsonville's former pastor Rev. Cornelius Hanko,
depart from Los Angeles for Christchurch on Decem-                  preached his farewell sermon there. Mr. Vander Werff
ber 20.                                                             was a member of our church in Hull, Iowa, in 1929
                                                                    when Rev. Hanko was ordained into the ministry and
  Rev. Bekkering sent a notice of a special  office-                installed as pastor there. Not only was Mr. Vander
bearers conference which is to be held in connection                Werff present during the occasions marking Rev.
with the regular meeting of Classis West convening in               Hanko's ordination and retirement from the active
Randolph, Wisconsin on March 1, 1978. The con-                      ministry, but he was also a member. of our congrega-
ference subject is "Postmillennialism." The reasons                 tion in Redlands, California during Rev. Hanko's
the committee has given for choosing this subject are               pastorate there.
threefold. One, postmillennialism is being set forth by
some as being the historic-Reformed position on the                   Our congregation in Redlands has formed a rather
return of Jesus Christ. Two, some of the books of                   active library committee which is busy gathering a
earlier  postmillennialists are being reprinted. Three,             collection of books, tapes, and periodicals for use by
beside the above and closer to home is the fact that in             the congregation.
the A.A.C.S. movement there is a strong leaning                       The Redlands Christian School scheduled a chapel
toward postmillennialism if not an overt expression                 program at the school on November 22. All parents
of it. The conference will be held on Tuesday,                      and friends of the school were invited. Rev. Kortering
February 28, 1978. Two papers are planned for                       spoke, the school children gave some special numbers,
presentation. One in the morning giving a critique of               and, after the chapel, a lunch sponsored by the 9th
Chalcedon's position that the historic-Reformed                     grade was served. A similar chapel was scheduled by
position on the return of Christ is postmillennial.                 our schools in Northwest Iowa, while in Grand
Another paper will be given in-the afternoon setting                Rapids, Adams St. Christian School held a `Visit
forth a Biblical defense of the amillennial position.               Adams Day.'
Those interested should contact Rev. Wayne Bekkering,                 Randolph, Hull, and Isabel sponsored `work-days'
722 Wild Horse Valley, Katy, Texas 77450 for further                recently. Hull for church cleaning (bring your own
information.                                                        cleaning supplies, but dinner is furnished), Isabel to
  At their annual congregation meeting, the brethren                insulate the church ceiling and cover the  .windows,
of our church in Hull, Iowa, decided to change the                  and the ladies of Randolph were asked to come and
time of the second Sunday service to 7 PM on a                      help paint in the parsonage. It seems the men had
regular basis during June, July, and August. The                    their turn earlier in the season when they had the task
remainder of the year their second service is                       of painting the outside.
scheduled for 1:30 P.M.                                               A Quiet Thought from Loveland's bulletin: "Men
  At the annual congregational meeting of our Faith                 do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself,
Church in Jenison, Michigan, the congregation gave                  but because it contradicts them."



                                         " . . "r .._


