  STANDARD I:
               B
F-                        E A
                A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE        R E R*
        How  little we really think of what we are doing
to ourselves and our families when television is
used  - sometimes without any discrimination! . . .
What is all of this doing to our own  fam.ilies?  IS  the
world using this instrument to instruct our children
far more than we ourselves do?  IS  it detracting
from  bur society life, from our reading of Scripture
and from prayer, from our "family altars"?  IS  this
inculcating into our lives a materialism and an
insensitivity towards sin that is so common with
the world generally?
        And could you turn it off-completely-for one
          I
month? I'd almost  .Ydare" you to try it-and to
find a proper spiritual alternative for the benefit of
the whole family.
                See "Life Without Television" - page 33 1


                                                    Volume LIV, No. 14, April 15, 1978 d
                                                               ISSN 0362-4692


 -.-


314  -                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



                       CONTENTS                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
Meditation  -                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association,  Inc.
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  Our Appointment to Salvation       . . . . . . .  .3 14    Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                             Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engeisma,
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .317       Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach,
                                                             Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Mark H. Hoeksema, Rev. Meindert Joostens,
                                                             Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Rodney  Miersma,
The Voice of Our Fathers -                                   Rev. Marinus Schlpper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,
                                                             Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman, Mr. Kenneth G.
  The Government of the Church . . . . . . .  .3 17          Vink.
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MEDITATION





                       Our Appointment to  Salvatibn
                                                    Rev, M. Schipper


            "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
           Who died  for  us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
           Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another even as also ye do."
                                                                                              I Thessalonians 5 : 9- 11.


   Spiritual vigilance!                                        with respect to the ungodly. When Christ comes again
   That is the watchword to which the church of                on the clouds of heaven with His holy angels, they
Christ is exhorted in the immediate context.                   will not be expecting Him, neither will they be
   Vigilant, especially with a view to Christ`s coming!        prepared. Such is the implication of His coming as a
   As a thief in the night, so shall He come; that is,         thief in the night.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                              315


    But the believing church is not in darkness that           curse, the angels and devils, the world of the un-
 that coming of Christ shall overtake her as a thief.          godly, the bondage of sin and death, the incarnation
 For, the apostle explains, we are all the sons (not           of the Son of God, the cross and the resurrection, the
 children) of light, and sons (not children) of the day.       ascension of Christ into heaven, the dispensation of
 With respect to Christ's coming, therefore; we will           the Spirit of Pentecost, the preaching of the gospel in
 not be sleeping, as is characteristic of those who are        all nations, the gathering of the church from all
 of the night, nor will we be drunken, as those who are        nations, the coming of Christ on the clouds of
' of the night, but we who live in hope will be                heaven, the final judgment at the end of the age.
 expecting Him, and therefore will be vigilant.                   The object of the appointment is we, the elect of
   That we are nevertheless exhorted to this spiritual         God in Christ, Who must dwell with God in the house
 vigilance is explained by the fact that we, who are           of His eternal covenant.
 sons of light and of the day, are still in the darkness          He hath appointed us not to wrath. This He has
 of this present time. The night that descended upon           done unto all the ungodly, the children of darkness.
 the world of creation simultaneously with the fall of         Awful truth! Through the way of their sin and wilful
 man at the beginning is still with us. Though we begin        disobedience, He has appointed them to be the
 to see the first streaks of the dawn flash in prophetic       objects of His holy wrath. His wrath is His constant
 fulfillment across the firmament as harbingers of the         and holy displeasure with all the workers of iniquity.
 day, it is still night. Though we are the sons of light       And this eternal manifestation of His holy Self-love
 and of the day, we still live in the flesh which belongs      abides on them, the fullest display of which they shall
 to the darkness of the night. And because that flesh is       experience in the eternal desolation of hell, where the
 no different from the flesh of the children of dark-
 ness, it is inclined to sleep and to drunkenness. And         fire is not quenched and the worm dieth not, where
 so we are called to let the light that is in us shine, and    there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 to put on those spiritual armaments, mentioned in               That the apostle says we have not been appointed
 verse 8, namely, those protective armaments, the              to wrath has a two-fold purpose. It magnifies the
 breastplate of faith and love, and for the helmet the         awful condemnation of the wicked. It also magnifies
 hope of salvation. Being properly clothed with de-            the glorious purpose God has in mind for all His
 fensive armaments we will be able to withstand the            people.
 onslaughts of spiritual drowsiness and spiritual drunk-         He hath appointed us unto the obtaining of salva-
 enness, and remain spiritually alert. So will we remain       tion. And this means not only that we were
 vigilant, preserved unto the coming of the day.               appointed to be saved (which is true, of course). We
   Our text is intended to explain further how God             were appointed to be delivered from the wrath to
 prepares His people for the coming of Christ.                 come. We were appointed to experience His saving
                                                               grace now in principle-now, while we are still in the
   We have a date (an appointment) with Christ in              darkness  .of this present time, and presently in
 Whom is all our salvation. His work of salvation              heavenly perfection. But the apostle says much more
 which is already begun in us, reaches unto eternal life;      than this. The obtaining of that final and glorious
 and because this is what we expect from Him in His            salvation He also appointed. Should He have
 coming, we comfort and edify one another unto                 appointed our salvation for us, but somehow we
 spiritual vigilance.                                          failed to attain to that salvation, it would avail us
   We have been appointed unto the attainment of               nothing. No, He appointed us to obtain it.
 salvation. That is, we have been set apart with design,         The Mediator through Whom this appointment is
 foreordained, predestined according to the election of        realized is our Lord Jesus Christ.
 grace to enter into the fulness  of salvation.                  And this implies that He also was appointed, and
   The subject of this appointment, of course, is God:         that with design. And notice how the apostle men-
 the triune, eternal, covenant God. In His all-wise,           tions Him in all the significance of His Names. The
 eternal counsel He has chosen His people in love. He          complete Mediator is designated. He is our Lord, that
 has set them apart, in distinction from all the peoples       is, the One Who possesses us because we were given to
 of the world. They are the chosen possession, the             Him of the Father. He rules over us, delivers -and
 holy nation, which He has given to Christ, and which          defends us, and preserves us unto everlasting sal-
 must be brought to Him through the way of sin and             vation. He is Jesus, that is, the God of our salvation
 grace, through the way of the fall and redemption             manifested in the flesh, Who saves His people from
 through the cross. For the realization, the' final            their sins. He is Christ, that is, the anointed,
 salvation of that people in the day of Christ at His          appointed, and qualified One, Who as the Servant of
 coming, all other things are also ordained and                God can function as our Prophet, Priest, and King, to
 appointed: the world of creation, the world under the         bring us to glory.



                                                      r


316                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


  The apostle, so it appears in the text, is not'            enter into physical death before His coming (it really
satisfied merely to inform us how or through whom            makes no difference), we must live together with
God's appointment of us to salvation is realized but         Him. That is the significance of our appointment as it
also he gives us the ground upon which our appoint-          is grounded in the perfect work of our Saviour, the
ment rests.                                                  Lord Jesus Christ.
  Our Lord Jesus Christ!                                       The perfection of our salvation, that is, the bring-
  Who died for us!                                           ing of our salvation to its eternal completion, awaits
                                                             the coming of the Lord. For that completed salvation
  Here we must not forget that we of ourselves have          we are now being prepared. That is the significance of
no right to that salvation to which we are appointed.        the operation of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts.
We are by nature  no. different from the children of         That is the significance of the preaching of the gospel.
darkness who are appointed unto wrath. As we are of          That is the significance of the  dispensatioh of the
ourselves, we deserve as they to experience eternally        means of grace  - that we may be prepared for the
the wrath of God. God would have done not unjustly           coming of the Lord. So that when He shall appear we
to have cast us also into the fire of eternal hell; for      may be like Him, and appear with Him in the
this is precisely what we deserved. Nor should we            assembly of the elect, and enter with Him into the
forget that, when God appoints us unto eternal               glory of our everlasting salvation.
salvation, this appointment also in its final realization
must be accomplished in the way of strictest justice.          No wonder the apostle adds: "Wherefore comfort
And that means that all our sin, both original and           yourselves together, and edify one another, even as
actual, must be atoned for. All the vials of God's holy      also ye do."
wrath must be poured out also over our sin. And that           We may note here that there' is absolutely no
means the cross. That means that on the cross our            comfort for the ungodly. 0, indeed, they also are
Lord Jesus Christ, our complete Mediator, suffers in         appointed, but they are appointed unto wrath. And
our stead the pains of hell, the being forsaken of God.      that means they have no hope, but only despair. They
He is the covering upon whom the righteous wrath of          have no salvation, but only condemnation. They have
God descended in all its fury, and He died the atoning       nothing glorious to look forward to, but only the
death, so that all His own escape. 0, yes, while we          awful out-pouring of the anger of a holy God. That
escape, God's holy justice is satisfied. All our sins are    means, too, that in this life there is no working of
paid for in Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to      salvation in them; only the wrath of God abides on
us which He prepared. But there is more.                     them. And this explains also how in this present
  He also rose again from the dead! That sets the seal       world they are not looking for the coming of Christ,
on our justification. For had He remained in death,          how they are spiritually asleep in the night, how that
there would be no assurance that His death was               even in their drunken sleep they talk and say: "Peace
atoning. But thanks be to God, God raised Him, our           and safety" (vs.  3), until suddenly, being wholly
complete Mediator, from the dead. Striking it is that        unexpectant and unprepared, they are overtaken by
the text does not literally mention His resurrection.        the coming of Christ as a thief in the night. They have
But it is certainly implied, for the text does say,          no comfort now, and in the day of His coming they
"whether we wake or sleep, we should live together           will have no comfort. That is why, when He comes,
with Him." That means, whether we die or remain              they will cry to rocks and mountains to cover them.
alive unto Christ's coming, we are united unto a living      In vain they hope for annihilation, that they may be
Mediator, and with Him we are forever to live. But           wiped out of existence. But their prayer is not heard,
there is still more.                                         for they must all appear before the righteous Judge,
                                                             Who shall sentence them to the eternal dispensation
  He is the Mediator Who is coming again!                    of wrath. Indeed, the Word of God has absolutely no
  He is coming again to realize in its finality our          word of comfort for them.
appointment. And that means we have a date with
Him. And it means, too, that He keeps that appoint-            Comfort is only for the people of God!
ment. But it also means that until that date is kept He        And comfort, according to the Scriptures, is always
works salvation in us, and by His Spirit sanctifies us       that consideration of the sanctified mind and heart
and applies His saving grace to us.                          that contemplates a great good over against the
                                                             present experience of evil, while it also understands
  In the completed work of our Lord Jesus Christ is          how that present evil we experience must be sub-
the absolute ground and therefore the assurance of           servient, must lead us to the attainment of that great
our appointment unto salvation.                              good.
  Whether we are awake, that is, alive, and therefore          Comforted they are with knowledge of God's truth
watching for His coming; or whether we sleep, that is,       and promise that the good work He has begun in


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     317


them He will also finish unto the day of Christ.                   watch in spiritual soberness for the coming of the
Comforted they are with the assurance that the                     Lord;
present evils they suffer in this night of sin and death
are not really evils working against them at all, but                 Urgent the exhortation is to comfort one another,
really servants of God molding and fashioning them                 because the longer the Lord tarries, the more sus-
after His will, and getting them ready for glory.                  ceptible we are to become spiritually lethargic. To be
                                                                   constantly vigilant it is necessary that we be redeem-
  And this comfort is not something which they                     ing the time, and be observant of the precui-sory signs
keep to themselves, but of which they speak to                     of Christ's coming. And we build one another up
others, especially to the household of faith. They call            when we remind one another constantly to look for
attention of the saints to it, and as they speak of this           these signs.
comfort to others, it is with the intention to build
them up,to encourage them to stand together, and to                   For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh!




                                            Editor's Notes
                                                    Prof H. C Hoeksema

RFPA Book Club. Membership cards are merely drib-                  $2.95 per copy. But hurry if you want one of the
bling in. Our Business Manager informed me recently                hard cover copies; they'll soon be sold out.
that we now have a total of 214. That's good, but not                                       I *  * * *
good enough. If you have lost the letter and member-               Theological Journal. If you wish to get on the mailing
ship card sent to you, don't let that bother you.                  list for our Protestant Reformed Theological Journal
Simply send in your membership by letter, assuring                 (free) in time to receive the spring issue, write in
us that you agree to the terms of membership: 1)                   soon. We have been experiencing a spurt of interest in
You are entitled to a 20% discount on  any  RFPA                   the Journal which has resulted in the quick depletion
publication. 2) You obligate yourself to accept every              of the surplus cqpies of each issue. One of the reasons
new publication (with the exception of educational                 for this interest  is Prof. Hanko's series on The
manuals) at the same discount of 20%. Memberships,                 Reformed. Doctrine of Infant Baptism and his critique
by the way, are not limited to one per family. You                 of David Kingddn's book, Children of Abraham, a
young people, for example, could take advantage of                 defense of the Reformed Baptist position. Our next
this offer to begin building your personal library of              issue will also carry the conference papers of the
Protestant Reformed literature.                                    recent conference on Postmillennialism. To get the
                      * *  *  * *                                  spring issue, write to: Prof. H. Hanko, Prot. Ref.
                                                                   Theological School, 4949 Ivanrest Ave., S.W., Gl'and-
Publication News. Newly available in paperback edi-                ville, Michigan 49418.
tions are Rev. D. Engelsma'sMarriage,  The Mystery of                                       * * * a *
Christ and the Church, and H. Hoeksema's Believers                 After having written several book reviews (which may
And Their Seed.  These paperback editions will cost                or may not appear in this issue), and after having
you $1.95 (minus 20% if you're a Book Club mem-                    penned these notes, and after having considered the
ber). The hard cover edition of Rev. Engelsma's book               fact that there is a' slight surplus of copy, your
is no longer available. We have a very limited supply              editor's pen ran dry for this issue. Hence, the editorial
of hard cover copies of Believers And Their Seed, at               space will be devoted to said surplus.

THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS


                  The Government of the Church
                                                  ProJ: Robert D. Decker
          `We believe, that this true Church must be governed by that spiritual policy which our Lord taught us in his
          Word; namely, that there must be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God, and to administer the


318                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


          sacraments; also elders and deacons, who, together with the pastors, form the council of the Church: that
          by these means the true religion may be preserved, and the true doctrine everywhere propagated, likewise
          transgressors punished and restrained by spiritual means: also that the poor and distressed may be relieved
          and comforted, according to their necessities. By these means everything will be carried on in the Church
          with wood order and decency, when faithful men are chosen, according to the rule prescribed by St. Paul in
          his Epistle to Timothy."
                                                                                 Article XXX, The Belgic C&fession
  In this and the next two articles the  Confession                  At the opposite end of the spectrum we find the
sets forth the fundamental principles. of the govern-             Episcopal system. This view insists that the unity of
ment of the Church before treating the subject of the             the church must come to expression in bishops who
sacraments. Obviously, and following the emphasis of              are the legitimate successors of the apostles. Believers
Articles XXVIII and XXIX, these articles speak of the             have no share in the government of the Church.
institute of the Church in distinction from the                   Scripture, however, nowhere teaches a self-perpetuat-
Church as organism. According to the Confession the               ing office of apostle. Indeed the Apostles preached,
foundational principle upon which the government of               established congregations, and ordained elders and
the Church rests is that: "this true Church must be               deacons.
governed by that spiritual policy which our Lord                     The Episcopal system has been carried to its logical
taught us in his Word." The term "policy" here                    conclusion by Rome with its pope and hierarchy. The
evidently means "system of rules" or "principles of               pope is the vicar of Christ and is infallible when he
government." Negatively, what the  Confession means               speaks "ex  cathedra" or in his official capacity.
is that the Church is the spiritual body of Christ and            Under him is a  hierachy of bishops and priests to
therefore has a constitution so to speak which radical-           whom special graces are given and whose task it is to
ly differs from any other system of government. The               rule the church in obedience to the pope.
Church is not a democratic society where the major-
ity rules, or where the power is vested in the member-               Two rather closely related systems are the Erastian
ship. The power of the Church is not the power of                 and the Collegial or National-Church systems. Both,
the sword, either to enforce its laws or to wage war.             with some differences, teach state control of the
Positively, this means that the Church's power is                 Church.
spiritual and is limited (if indeed this can be called a             Against this background we can appreciate the
limitation) to the exercise of the keys of the kingdom            Confessional or Reformed system which has come to
of heaven. The principles of the government of the                be called the Presbyterian form of Church  govem-
Church are to be found in the Word of God. Scripture              ment. This Scripturally-grounded position recognizes
prescribes that "spiritual policy" by which the                   the sole authority of Christ in the Church as vested in
Church is governed.                                               the three offices of minister, elder, and deacon. The
  Before discussing the  Confession's  treatment of               basic unit of ecclesiastical life is the congregation
this subject we do well to review briefly several                 which is a complete manifestation of the Body of
systems of Church government which have developed                 Christ. Its officebearers derive their authority from
over the centuries. There is the Congregational or                Christ. These congregations band together in order to
Independentistic system. In a sense this is the simplest          manifest the unity of the Body of Christ, for mutual
form of Church government which has been ad-                      supervision, and to assist one another in the carrying
vocated. Often, arguing that in the apostolic churches            out of the work of Christ.
we do not read of classes or synods or councils or                   Concerning the government of. the Church there is
hierarchy, advocates of this system claim that govern-            one fundamental principle which must be under-
ing power rests not with the officebearers or clergy              stood, viz., Christ Himself is the chief and only
but with the entire congregation. Membership is                   officebearer in the Church, No pope or bishop, no
attained by voluntary association and the individual is           priest or pastor, no synod or church committee, or
left completely free to belong or not to belong at                even the congregation may rob Him of His authority
will. Officers are representatives who derive their               as King of the Church. Christ is the Head of the
authority from the body of believers. Although                    Church. (Eph.  5:23) He is its prophet, priest, and
associating together in  councils and assemblies  the             king. He suffered and died for that Church and it
churches are at liberty to accept or reject the deci-             belongs to Him. Christ is given the right and the
sions made by such bodies. The most serious objec-                authority to save that Church and to rule over it and
tion to this view is that, with its emphasis on the               to preserve the Church and bring it to glory with
voluntary choice of the individual, it fails to root the          Him. But Christ is exalted at God's right hand in
authority of the Church in Christ. It fails also to do            glory where we cannot see Him. It pleases Christ,
justice to the church's calling to manifest the unity of          therefore, to exercise that authority over the Church
the Body of Christ.                                               through men, the officebearers whom He appoints


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                319



and qualifies in order to rule in  His name. Through         ruleth, let him do it with diligence.' (Rom.  12:8)
these Christ exercises His gracious rule in the Church.      Therefore, from the beginning, every Church has had
John Calvin explains: "For although he alone (i.e.           its senate or council, composed of pious, grave-and
Christ) ought to rule and reign in the Church, and to        holy men, who were invested with that jurisdiction in
have all preeminence in it, and this government ought        the correction of vices, of which we shall now treat."
to be exercised and administered solely by his word -        Through the office of elder, Christ, the King of the
yet, as he dwells not among us by a visible presence,        Church, graciously rules and governs His people.
so as to make an audible declaration of his will to us,      Through the office of deacon Christ, the merciful
we have stated, that for this purpose he uses the            High Priest, relieves (provides for their material need)
ministry of men whom he employs as his delegates,            and comforts (provides comfort from the Word of
not to transfer his right and honor to them, but only        God) the needy and distressed. These, the minister,
that he may himself do his work by their lips; just as       elders and deacons constitute the "council of the
an  artificer makes use of an instrument in the per-         Church." This is in distinction from the Church
formance of his work." (Institutes  of  the Christian        Order. (Cf. Articles 23-26, 37,40)
Religion, IV, iii, 1) The rule of Jesus Christ over His        The purpose of the institution of these offices is:
people while they are in this life is through the offices    "that the true religion may be preserved." This
He has instituted in the Church.                             belongs especially to the office of the ministry. The
  These offices are three: that of pastor, elder, and        Word must be preached in order that the true religion
deacon. The Church Order, on the basis of an in-             may be preserved. That, no doubt, is the greatest evil
correct exegesis of Ephesians 4: 11, speaks of four          in the Churches in our day. The pulpit has failed and
offices, adding that of Professor. This was also the         the Word is not being preached as it should be. There
position of John Calvin, who distinguished between           is preaching but not sound exegetical preaching of the
the office of pastor and that of teacher, both of            doctrines of the Word. The result is that God's people
which he regarded as permanent offices in the                are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Cf. Hosea 4:6)
Church: "The difference between them I apprehend             Moreover, the purpose of the office of the ministry is
to be this - that the teachers have no official concern      that "the true doctrine may be everywhere propa-
with the discipline, or the administration of the            gated." This is the missionary task of the Church. In
sacraments, or with admonitions and exhortations,            obedience to the command of Christ Who told the
but only with the interpretation of Scripture, that          Church to go into all nations preaching and baptizing,
pure and sound doctrine may be retained among                the Church must be zealous for mission work. The
believers; whereas the pastoral office includes all          Church must be concerned that the true doctrine be
these things" (Institutes,  IV, iii, 4) Apart from the       propagated as widely as possible and the Church must
reference in the Church Order this has not been the          send preachers without hesitation wherever Christ
position of the Reformed Churches. We recognize              opens the way. Finally, the purpose of these offices is
only three offices and regard the Professor as a             that "transgressors may be punished and restrained."
minister of the Word. Through the office of the              This refers to the work of Church discipline, primar-
minister or pastor-teacher Christ speaks His Word to         ily the work of the elders. They must in the name of
His people. (Romans 10: 13-17) That is the wonder of         Christ exercise the keys of the kingdom of heaven lest
preaching! By means of it Christ Himself is heard and        the Word of God be profaned. Likewise must the
thus through that means the Church is built up in the        deacons care for the poor both materially and spir-
knowledge of the Son of God. (Cf. Ephesians 4: 11 ff.)       itually.
  In addition the Church must have elders and
deacons. Concerning the elders Calvin writes that              Where these offices are maintained according to
they are:  ". . . persons of advanced years, selected        the Scriptures, where there are faithful ministers,
from the people, to unite with the bishops in giving         elders, and deacons, there one finds the Church of
admonitions and exercising discipline. For no other          Jesus Christ. To that Church one is bound to join
                                         -
interpretation can be given of that injunction, `He that     himself.

STUDIES IN ISAIAH
          .

        The Wicked Nation Warned of Invasion
                                              Rev. Robert C. Harbach
  That wicked nation, of course, was Judah, which            Threatened Great Judgment of God (v. 17). Now we
we saw in the previous article had come under: I. The        come to: II.  The Instrument  of  This Judgment


320                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


(18-20). "And it shall be in that day Jehovah will           civilization as we knew it but a few years ago, the
whistle for the fly which (is) in the extremity of the       Lord snaps on their obstinate necks an invisible leash
rivers of Egypt, and for the bee which (is) in the land      by which He determines the limits they shall go (Dan.
of Assyria" (v. 18). Evil times are destined to come         6:22, 24). This truth the great Reformers always
,on evil men. "Yet He . . . will bring evil . . . against    emphasized. All the wicked, indeed, "all creatures are
the house of the evildoers" (Isa. 3  1:2). In Isaiah's       so in His hand; that without His will they cannot so
day, the evil that God brought on Judah came by              much as move" (Heidelberg Catechism, A. 28). No
means of Egypt and Assyria who were rival powers             more can the ax or saw boast of chopping or sawing
which kicked Israel about as their football, so              against the hand that wields these tools (Isa. 10: 15).
disrupting the peace of Western Asia. The Lord has           The devil himself, and all his minions, are at His beck
only to whistle or hiss for the enemy and they will          and behest, doing nothing that is not according to the
come. So Israel was pestered and festered with the fly       counsel of His will. (See Job  1:12;  2:6; Matt.  8:31;
of Egypt and stung by the bee of Assyria. "Egypt,"           Eph. 1: 11). The Lord will yet, and is already begin-
said E. J. Young, "is a land filled with flies." Notice      ning to, stir up the heathen Gog and Magog nations
that: "Egypt  is." For up to this very day, Egypt            against the nations of Christendom, that is, the
remains a fly-infested country. In a striking way this       nations purporting to be Christian. We see this today
was recently brought to our attention by the news            in the African nations pressuring Rhodesia and South
media. The Egyptians were, last December, preparing          Africa. Here Psalm 46 : 6 and 47 : 8 apply. The hand of
insecticide vapor machines with massive fog-spray            God is the prime mover in the affairs of men and in
apparatus. These would be utilized just prior to the         the conflicts of nations. (See Lam 3:37f). The Lord
visit of Israeli Prime' Minister Menachem (the name          stirs up the spirit of the heathen nations and their
means, Heb.,  Comforter)  Begin, so that not one fly         rulers to chastise His people (II Chron. 21: 16, I
would touch his bald head. In Isaiah's day the               Cl-non. 5 :26). God moves man's heart as He will. He
Egyptian enemy was thought of as multitudinous as            stirs up an adversary against a man (I Kings 11: 14,
swarms of flies.                                             23). When there is no adversary, it is His doing (5:4).
  The Lord arouses enemy nations as easily as a              God directs the perverse actions of Men by His secret
bee-keeper can call swarming bees. This is a fact and        providence, and His sovereign power holds sway over
principle validly deduced from God's providence as           the motions and fomentings of men's hearts (Psalm
revealed in Scripture. A sharp whistle and mighty            65:7; Prov. 16: 1).
Egypt and Assyria obey His will. There is no power             As flies contaminate everything they touch, and
but of God. No nation can come against another               the sting of bees can poison and kill, so wicked men
unless the Lord so ordain and direct. Then they              of the world consume and corrupt everything. They
become the instrument of His hand which no one can           corrupt and ruin with their fly-blown, maggoty greed.
escape or elude.                                             They crush and destroy with their rage and bloodlust.
  "And they shall come, and shall rest, all of them,         They become God's wrecking crew to topple totter-
in the brooks (valleys) of desolation, and in the clefts     ing, tainted regimes. Whether lions (II Kings 17:25) or
of the rocks, and in all the thorn thickets, and in all      bees (Josh.  24:12), it makes no difference to Him,
the (bushes: KJV) pastures" (v. 19, Heb.). They shall        the Lord has an armory (Jer.  50:25) of instruments
come, not by chance, but as directed by the control          to do His will. Then hordes of adversaries "shall
of God. Wicked men may rage, but their torrent of            come, and rest, all of them, in the desolate valleys,"
anger, so Scripture teaches in II Samuel 16: 10 and          made so by war and rapine. They will be everywhere,
Proverbs 21: 1, is ordered and disposed of by God.           in the clefts of the rocks, in all thickets and fields.
Rabble-rousers, rioters, and revolutionists do as they       There will be no place clear of them, no escape, no
please, throwing everything into disorder. Yet all           place to hide. So it will be for mere Christendom and
their violent actions, according to Acts  4:27-28, are       its embrace of nations. Then the liberal politicians of
under God's control, and come to pass as He fore-            the nations will cease their hypocritical attack on the
ordained. In our day, murdering terrorists kidnap            so called "apartheid" policy. For when the swarming
whole trainloads or airplanes full of people whom            gaggles of Gog and Magog goyim surge into and
they hold for ransom in the millions of dollars. Mad         overthrow these nations, then will be that which shall
`bombers terrorize our cities with simultaneous ex-          be worse than iron furnace Egyptian bondage.
plosions in different parts of the same metropolitan           "In that day, Adonai will shave with the hired
area. In fact, these things are getting to be so             razor by the regions beyond the River (Euphrates),
common that we almost expect them as part of a               by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the
"normal" day. The world has never more appeared to           feet, and also the beard it shall take off" (v. 20).
be in a hopeless state of utter confusion. Yet al-           Then the nations which have apostatized from Chris-
though these mad dogs foam out their vicious hate            tianity, like a "collaborator" in World War II, shall be
and vile rage to their own destruction and the ruin of       insulted, disgraced, and shamed by being shaved and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                321


shorn, as a razor might shave off every hair of the             "And it shall be in that day (that) every place
body. Here the shaving is done by a hired razor, the         where there shall be a thousand (wild) vine(s) at a
`king of Assyria. Ahaz had hired this foreign razor to       thousand (in) silver, it shall become the thorn and
shave off Syria and Israel. He had hired this "razor"        become the thistle. Archers shall go there with the
by profaning and robbing God's temple in order to            arrows and with the bow. For all the land shall
come up with the price of hire. He hired a Murder,           become thorn and thistle. And (on) all the mountains
Incorporated  out of the treasury of God's Church.           which shall be raked with the rake, thou shalt not
But God would use that same razor to scrape down             come there (for) fear of thorns and thistles; and it
Judah, denuding it of its population and wealth. This        shall be for the sending forth of oxen and for a
is the Lord's doing. Assyria is a razor in God's hand, a     treading down (place) of sheep" (w. 23-25). Vine-
battle-ax with which He destroyed kingdoms. (See             yards, an indicator of economy, will not have much
Jer.  51:20). So God still has his end-time battle-ax,       value, in fact, will have no existence. They will be
the final Antichrist, with whom He will deceive and          choked out by thorns and thistles, making a former
destroy the end-time nations.                                agricultural area a place where now men will be afraid
  III.  The Consequences  of  This Judgment  (21-25).        to go since it has become a place for wolves, bears,
"And it shall be in that day (that) a man shall              boars, panthers, snakes, and robber bands. (The KJV
preserve alive (rescue) a heifer cow and two sheep.          is incorrect here.) There only brave men will seldom
And it shall be (that from) the abundance of the             go, mainly to. hunt, and where, consequently, they
making of milk, he shall eat curds; for curds and            must protect themselves in those dangerous solitudes.
honey (no longer Canaan's corn and wine) shall               For food, beyond the meagre milk products, they
everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land" (w.      must hunt, and to hunt they must be armed. The land
21-22). The depopulated people will not be farmers,          has become a Big Thicket Wilderness.  Tillage has
but shepherds, there being not enough of a popu-             fallen into neglect.
lation to till the land. Because the land for the greater
extent lies uncultivated, its main produce, milk and            Even the mountainsides, cultivated with rake and
honey, will be plentiful because of the so decimated         hoe, because the plow is impractical there, shall be
population. After the taking of the people away into         desolated with thorns and thistles, to become fit only
captivity, there are but few cattle left, but what they      for range land and trampling spots for cattle. The
produce is abundance compared to the few people              covenant kingdom falls into ruin under the curse.
left behind in the land to consume it. There are no          Now no part of the country is safe. What Ahaz had so
farmers and no government, also no employment,               confidently expected in anticipated help and deliver-
other than herding a few cattle per individual. These        ance from Assyria is totally disappointed and turned
cattle provide no meat for the people, only milk             to destruction and resultant wretchedness. Where the
products. The Lord controls the economy of the               wicked look for preservation, destruction shall leap
nations of the world (Rev.  6:6). Surplusses and             out on them and overcome them. Judah is taught to
shortages are the work of His prbvidences. Our help is       learn a very painfully expensive lesson that there was
in the Name of the Lord.                                     and is no help but from God.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

                                         April 15,1978
Dear Timothy,                                                and stands at the very heart of all Reformed Church
  We must resume the discussion of our last letter           Polity.
which was concerned about the relation between the
office of believers and the special offices in the             We discussed .last time some of the principles which
Church. You will recall that I called this relationship      were involved in this relationship; and we left for this
both the anomaly and the genius of Reformed                  letter some practical illustrations of how this works
Church Polity. It is the anomaly of Reformed Church          out in the Church.
Polity because believers both exercise the duties of           Let us take a look first of all at the office of the
the special offices in the Church through their offices      ministry of the Word and its relationship to the office
bearers - they preach, exercise discipline, and give to      of believers. We said that the congregation as
the needy --; and they are called to submit to those         assembled actually preaches. At the same time, the
whom Christ has placed over them in the Church of            congregation also must submit to that preaching and
which Christ is the Head. This relationship is the           submit to the authority of the minister who brings
genius of Reformed Church Polity because it is a             that Word to the congregation. How can this be? And
relationship which is unique to the Church of Christ         what is the meaning of this?


322                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


  The point which needs to be made here is that the           congregation over which the Lord has placed him. His
office of minister arises out of the Church itself. This      convictions, therefore, are the convictions of the
is true in more than one sense of the word. We have           Church of which he is a part.
noticed in earlier letters that this was true of the            But, at the same time, it is the congregation which
origin of this office, for it arose organically out of the    has assumed' the responsibility for that preaching. The
life of the New Testament Church as it was estab-             congregation must faithfully exercise that responsibil-
lished by the apostles. The Church was there first.           ity as well. When a minister no longer brings the truth
Without the existence of such a Church there could            of the Word of God, and when the people languish
be no office of the ministry of the Word. It is               under preaching which is not Biblical and which
dependent upon the Church for its very existence1 All
this does not mean, however, that the Church can              cannot feed their souls, the congregation have none
                                                              to blame but themselves. And they bear the responsi-
exist as institute without the office of minister. A          bility for this, for they are failing in their God-given
given congregation may be vacant for a while; but this
is an abnormal situation which the Church attempts            task.
to correct as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, the            To use an extreme example: It may be that a group
minister is himself a part of the Church,' lives in the       of believers finds itself alone in a given place for
Church, receives his office as ,a member of the               whatever reason that may be. As this group comes
Church.                                                       together to discuss its obligations before God, the
  Our Form for the Ordination of Ministers empha-             individual members will certainly begin to realize that
sizes this very strongly. The question is put to a            they have a responsibility to preach the gospel. But
minister at the time of Ordination: "I ask thee,              they cannot do this in such a way that every man
whether thou  feelest in thy heart that thou art              simply begins preaching willy-nilly and on his own.
lawfully called of God's Church, and therefore of             This is confusion and disorder. Nor can there be any
God himself, to this holy ministry?" The calling of           real preaching (which is official) in such a situation.
God to the office of minister is therefore through the        So they must come together for purposes of calling a
Church itself. Only through that Church does a                minister so that they can fulfill this calling. Even if
minister come to his office, and only in that Church          they have to call a minister from their own group,
does he hold that office.                                     they must do this, for they cannot be a Church unless
                                                              they do.
  Nor must it escape our attention that the Church
here is the whole Church including the office of                It is well to stress this point, Timothy. It is well for
believers. It is for this reason that the male members        congregations to be reminded of the fact that the
of the congregation come together at a congregational         responsibility for the preaching finally rests upon
meeting to call a minister. They have a voice in the          them. It is well that they remember this so that they
matter of the call. In a way they have a decisive voice.      may gladly assume that responsibility, so that they
The man who is elected by majority vote within the            may pray for their pastor, encourage him in his work,
congregational meeting is the man to whom the call is         give him the support that he needs when he functions
extended.                                                     as the minister through whom they do the preaching.
  The implications of this are clear. The congregation        It is well too that ministers remember this. For the
receives from Christ the command to preach the                consciousness of this will serve as a remarkably
Word. The congregation is responsible for the fact            powerful deterrent to any ambitions they may have to
that that Word is preached from Sabbath to Sabbath.           set themselves up above the congregation as someone
The congregation must be in obedience to this com-            superior to the flock over which they have the rule.
mand of Christ so that that Word goes forth to the            And, in passing, we may note that it is for this reason
gathering and preservation of the Church. And, at the         that we think the presbyterian idea wrong that the
same time, the congregation is responsible for the fact       membership and office of the minister resides in the
that that Word is preached in purity of doctrine and          presbytery (classis) and not in the local congregation.
according to the Scriptures. It is certainly true that a        At the same time, even though the congregation is
minister preaches with the authority of his own               responsible for the preaching, and actually preaches
office. It is also true that he is the one who spends         through her minister, this same congregation submits
the week in prayerful meditation upon the Scriptures          and must submit to that preaching because of the
and in prayerful preparation of the sermon. It is             authority of the minister whom Christ has set over
further true that when he preaches, he preaches out           her. In a sense, the congregation preaches to itself. If
of his own conviction - what he believes to be the            you find this difficult to imagine, just remember that
truth of the Word of God. But he is not in any sense          this is also true of the minister. You know from your
isolated from the congregation; he is a living member         own experience that when you preach, Timothy, you
of it. He works in the exegesis of Scripture and in the       preach to yourself. This is, in fact, so true that you
preparation of a sermon as a member and part of the           often feel, after a service, that if the congregation has


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                323



been half as inspired and edified as you were, that         office of priest, when the deacons give of the alms to
that would be a wonderful thing. But the congrega-          the poor in the Church. Every step of the way it is
tion preaches to itself and the minister preaches. to       very really the congregation which functions.
himself only because Christ is speaking through that          This is so true that, to give an extreme example, if
Word.                                                       officebearers are unfaithful in a given place, the
  It is because of this truth that the congregation         congregation would have the right to exercise dis-
stands organically connected to the preaching in its        cipline itself, depose the officebearers and recon-
own witnessing in the world. We have talked about           stitute the Church of Christ.
this before; but it must be remembered that the               But it must not be forgotten that, at the same
witnessing of the saints, as it stands connected to the     time, the officebearers exercise the rule over the
preaching in the Church, is an effective witnessing -       Church. A minister is called from a trio or duo
always. That Word too, never returns void as the Lord       proposed by the Consistory. Elders and deacons are
sends it out.                                               chosen from a nomination submitted to the congrega-
  If therefore, theoretically now, a minister becomes       tion by the Consistory. And, in order to preserve this
unfaithful in his preaching, and if the elders will not     balance, we have articles in our Church Order which,
do anything about it but rather side with the min-          e.g., make it mandatory that no matters may come to
ister, then it remains for the congregation to exercise     the congregation except they first be submitted to
effectively the office of believers and reconstitute        the Consistory. And there are other instances of this
the Church of Christ in that place by seeing to it that     control and direction which the officebearers them-          .
a minister is once again lawfully called to minister the    selves exercise. And all this is because, in a very
Word. In this way the office of believers preaches          important sense, the officebearers have authority in
once again the pure doctrine of Scripture through the       the congregation which authority they have received
special office of the minister.                             from Christ.
  The same thing is true of the offices of elder and          I am not surprised that wordly people have dif-
deacon. There is this same balance. On the one hand,        ficulty understanding.these things. Yet, if you stop to
the office of believers is exercised in various ways.       think about them, they constitute the genius of
The office of believers is exercised when elders and        Reformed Church Polity. It always amazes me that,
deacons are chosen at a legally constituted congrega-       on the whole, the Reformed Churches have succeeded
tional meeting. And the same question is put to them        so well in maintaining this balance. But it is also
which is put to ministers, i.e., whether elders and         important that this balance be maintained, and we
deacons believe that they are called by God's Church        must ever be on our guard against anything which
and therefore by God Himself to their offices. When         would destroy it. We must guard, on the one hand,
elders engage in the work of discipline, the con-           lest the office of believers is forgotten and shoved
gregation has a voice in this, for at each step of the      aside by hierarchical officebearers who do in the
way the Consistory informs the congregation of what         Church of Christ what they please without any
is being done. And this is not merely in order that the     consideration of the people of God. And we must
congregation may know. what is going on; rather, this       guard, on the other hand, against a loss of authority
is done in order that the congregation may approve of       so that the officebearers are considered little else than
the work, for it is very really the work of the             the minions of the congregation. The balance is
congregation which the elders are doing. And the            Reformed. Nothing else will do.
same is true of the deacons. The congregation is                                             Fraternally in Christ,
exercising the office of believers, particularly the                                         H. Hanko

TRANSLATED TREASURES



   Pamphlet on the Reformation of  the Church
                                                   Dr. A. Kuyper

  10. How this kingly authority of Christ works on            In order to be able to exercise this kingly authority
earth through the instrumentality of human persons.         over His church, Christ had to ascend to heaven. On


324                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


earth He bore the form of a servant; for the first time     otherwise unknown presence of the Lord, the knowl-
in heaven He was clothed with royal majesty; and He         edge that He, the Lord, is in their midst, and a
revealed that majesty not according to His human            delightful consciousness which is then only enjoyed
nature, but in that human nature through the power          in so far as it is the presence of Christ Himself Who
of His godhead which enables Him "by His grace,             speaks through the minister and Who Himself bap-
majesty and Spirit" to be present at  all'.times in all     tizes, Himself distributes bread and wine, leads us in
places in His church. "Where two or three are               prayer so that we repeat prayer after Him, gives to us
gathered in my name," i.e., the church in her smallest      so that we may give alms, and sings His song of praise
conceivable dimension, "there am I in the midst of          before the Father in the sound of our own voice. "I,"
you. " "See, I am with you always, even to the end of       the Messiah said, "I have preached righteousness in
the world." "It is for your benefit that I go away."        the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my
  Let no one say that Christ reigns in a proper sense       lips, oh Lord, thou knowest." Psalm 40:9 "My praise
only in the heavenly church as king, and in the             shall be of thee in the great congregation.`.' Psalm
earthly church only in a metaphorical sense. All such       22:25 "The good pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
expressions deny and oppose His godhead. Christ is          in his hand." Isaiah 53 : 101
indeed present in His church on earth; present in the         However, in no way does it follow from this that
proper sense of the word. Where He Himself is not           there is in the exercise of Jesus' royal rule over His
present, there a robed man can be standing and              church no instrumental use of human persons in the
talking, but there is no'ministry  of the Word. There       institution. Such use there certainly is, in so far as the
water can be sprinkled and bread broken, but there is       church on earth is visible, shows itself externally, and
no sacrament. There with closed eyes one can mutter         reveals itself in perceptible forms. Then the royal rule
and one can sing at the top of his voice, but there is      of Christ must extend to that visible, external, and
neither prayer nor song of praise. And, finally, just as    perceptible form; but this is unthinkable without the
there can be pompous gentlemen sitting on green             instrumental use of human persons. Only, two unde-
pillows, yet there is not necessarily a consistory or       niable facts must be maintained. In the first place,
council or synod which possesses power in His               this instrumental use of human persons is not and
name.1                                                      cannot be unless the action of the present Christ is in
  Only the presence of Christ in His church makes           it and with it. And, in the second place, the use never
holy things real. Without that presence of Christ they      is nor can be anything else than instrumental. Christ
are empty forms, idle shams stripped of all essence         is and remains in everything the only and irresistible
and usefulness.                                             worker, and the human person is never anything else
                                                            than an instrument whom the King uses for His own
  This presence of Christ is "not with external             royal majesty.
observation, but is within you." Thus it does not rest
in the institutions or ceremonies, but exclusively in         This instrumental use of human persons is distin-
the people. This is not to be understood to mean that       guished according to whether the purpose is to bring
the presence of Christ is manifested only in those          the church in the world to fuller manifestation, or to
brought into the church. There are many elect who           maintain in that world church itself the rule of King
are not yet brought in, and also in these is the            Jesus. The first intended use, continuing up to the
presence of the Lord. Yes, even in the chaff which is       demise of the apostolate, bore a continuous fruit
still mixed with the corn, the breath of His lips blows.    through which the instrumental use of the apostles
It may be with a savor of death unto death, not for         and prophets had, among' many others, this conse-
the purpose of resurrection but for destruction; or         quence, that an abiding, committed-to-the-written
still stronger, what must never be lost from sight is       -Scriptures Word of God came into being. This Word
the fact that the presence of Christ may jump over          is the abiding Word of the King of the church to
sometimes two or three generations, then to make to         which, in the fullest sense the expression of the
shoot out again His elect from an apparently lost           proverb writer applies: "Where the word of the king
branch.                                                     is, there is power." Thus, if it should please the Lord
  This presence of Christ in His church, although           in His anger against the sins of His people or for the
continuously inhereing in the persons and not in the        trying of their faith to make cease for a time the
institutions, is nevertheless bound to those insti-         public ministry of the Word and to bend His church
tutions. First, under and through those institutions,       under the cross of persecution, yet the King is never
the sense of the communion of the church comes to           silent. He speaks and continues to speak each morning
consciousness, and through the act of obedience to          and each evening in each church, in each household,
the King, that glorious consciousness is exalted to         to every heart among His chosen people by His
greater clarity. Hence, under the real administration       abiding Word preserved in Scripture.
of word and sacraments, there is the awareness of the         Therefore, among all instrumental uses of human


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               325


persons, the service of prophets and apostles stands          towards the king or proceeds from the king. It is
on the foreground. Now yet, even as for 18 centuries,         directed to the king when information must be
these apostles and prophets, who through all ages             obtained for the purpose of enlightening the king;
served their purpose, are instruments through whom            and it goes out from the king when it serves to gain
King Jesus addresses His church and speaks in His             obedience to his command. It is directed to the king
church and to His elect all the day and all the night.        when custom and tribute is brought to the treasury of
   But alongside of this extraordinary use of prophets        the king, and it proceeds from him when the favor of
and apostles stands, irrevocably bound to the fruit of        the king returns upon his people. It also goes to the
their work, the ordinary instrumental use of persons          king when the homage of his people arises before
in the fixed and ordinary office of the church. The           him, and, on the other hand, it proceeds from him
purpose, scope, calling of this office is to verify the       when he grants his gifts to his subjects.
Word of God, the Word of the King, and to accom-                 It is in this same sense that also our Lord and King,
plish and realize it with irresistible power.                 our Messiah and Immanuel, has set up an office for
   The emphasis falls strongly on that addition. The          the visible manifestation of His church on earth as
                                                              bearer of His royal authority and as the revelation of
office has the power of keys. There is no office              His royal majesty.
without the institution of the King and the laying on
of His royal authority. Without this authority there
might be a relationship, a human activity, a com-             I-We have here a nice illustration of Kuyper's expressive Dutch. For
mission, but the office is missing. The office is the         those who can still read and appreciate the Dutch we include the
                                                              original here. "en waar hij niet zelf present is, daar moge een getabberd
organ or help for sovereign power. A king on earth            mensch staan te redeneeren, maar daar is geen bediening des Woords;
would actually have to do everything himself. But he          daar moge water gesprenkeld en brood gebroken worden, maar daar is
cannot. For that purpose he lacks the one thousand            geen sacrament; daar moge met gesloten oogen gepreveld en luidkeels
                                                              gezongen worden, maar daar is zoomin gebed als lofzang; en eindeilijk
arms with which the Indians portray their gods. And           evenzoo daar mogen kerkelijke heeren op groene kussens zetelen, maar
therefore he sets up offices and clothes persons with         daar is geen kerkeraad  noch concilie  noch synode machthebbende in
these offices, who, as the arms of his power, carry out       zijn naam."
the task at his command, for him, and to his honor.           l.If the people of God were always conscious of the truth of what
That official labor is either a work which is directed        Kuyper here expresses, how much richer our worship would be.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS




                                That We May Be Healed
                                                   Rev. John A. ,Heys

  A shadow requires light, and is in fact the evi-            through types and shadows, we are dealing with a
dence that light is present.                                  period of time when there was light. The believers in
  Deep in the bowels of the earth, hundreds of feet           that period did have knowledge. They did have the
below the surface in a coal mine, there are no shad-          truth even though they did not have it as richly and
ows until one strikes a match or switches on a light of       clearly as we do today. They did have knowledge of
one kind or another. There may be a host of objects           Christ and of His cross. They did have both intellec-
whose shadows could be cast, but not until light is           tual light and spiritual light in those days. And it may
introduced will there be as much as one shadow.               be added that the shadows continued even after
  What is more, a shadow always is light. It is di-           Christ came in our flesh and walked among us with a
minished light, but it certainly is light. The amount of      sin-weakened body. There was much more light when
light in the shadow may be so small that you have to          He came in our flesh. But until the veil of the temple
come very close to ,an object in the shade to see even        was rent in twain and God did away with all the types
the largest detail. Yet we insist that not only does a        and shadows, and until the day of Pentecost when the
shadow require light, but it is light.                        Spirit was poured out to lead into all the truth, there
  Thus when treating The Day of Slzadows, or, if you          still were shadows. And Jesus Himself went to the
will, those days when God revealed the gospel                 temple and kept the Passover Feast.


326                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  We take, therefore, the liberty this one time to calI     servant. Then I pointed out the next week that early
attention to shadows that were still there when our         in His ministry He revealed that He is the Great Phy-
Saviour walked this earth. And we depart for a              sician, the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His
moment from treating the O.T. line we were follow-          wings, with power to heal the sick, raise the dead and
ing in this department. We do this because of an            lift the curse from off His people. And yet He con-
amazing coincidence which the sovereign and eternal         tracted our diseases and died under our curse; and He
good counsel and providence of our God brought into         Who came to bring us everlasting life died!
being.                                                        This became the last sermon that I preached to this
  For the last eight years and more the God of our          very moment. For although I was told that I would
salvation made me and kept me painfully aware of a          have to wait at least three weeks for surgery, and
troublesome disease. I say troublesome because I,           expected to preach at least two more sermons on
following the improper example of Paul, ignored the         these contrasts, I received word after only one week
truth that His grace is sufficient, and foolishly           to come to the hospital Monday! Having preached the
thought that if only the "thorn in my flesh" would          truth that Christ is the Physician Who contracted our
be removed, I could serve my congregation and our           diseases as my last sermon-although I did not plan it
churches better, and-or so I thought-could do the           that way-the providence and good counsel of God
things which plainly He did not want me to `do.             sent me to seek healing, or at least help, that would
Committee work, speeches, lectures, and helping out         negate the disease to a degree. And for all those who
in the Seminary in a time of emergency had to be            face serious surgery (and all surgery is), for all those af-
turned down or be done on a very limited basis. And         flicted with diseases, for all `in pain and misery, and
when this past year there was an aggravation of the         for all of us who have loved ones in these miseries, I
condition that led to test after test and consultations,    would like to pen down a few thoughts out of that
a well-kept family secret had to be made known,             sermon that we may begin to look at our diseases in
namely, that my heart might have to go under the            the proper light, and so that our longing for and seek-
surgeon's knife. And the time had now come for this,        ing of healing may be controlled by the Word of God.
and my name-was placed on a long list of scheduled
by-pass surgery.                                              This truth that Jesus is the Great Physician Who
                                                            contracted our diseases is taught already in the Old
  Meanwhile the work in the congregation went on            Tesament in such a passage as Isaiah 53:4:"Surely  He
and we approached the season when in a special way          hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."
we call attention to the suffering and death of our         Matthew makes a beautiful paraphrase and interpreta-
Saviour. I told the congregation that, because of all       tion of this when in Matthew 8: 17 he quotes Isaiah as
the uncertainties, I did not complete the preparation       saying, "Himself took our infirmities and carried our
of a series of seven sermons on the passion and death       sorrows." But, even before that, we read in Matthew
of Christ. Instead I chose to call their attention as       4:24 that men brought "sick people that were taken
often as I could to the amazing and beautiful con-          with divers diseases and torments, and those which
trasts-not contradictions- in the life of Christ. I was     were possessed with devils, and those who were luna-
sure that I could figure on four or five of them; and       tics, and those that had palsy: and He healed them."
to begin a series of seven and then leave the last two
hanging in the air, as it were, would not be the best         We may note that this covers all our diseases and
thing to do. I could stop any time in calling attention     miseries both physical and mental, both of body and
to these contrasts.                                         soul, both our mental retardations and our "nervous
  There is the fact that He is the Son of God and           breakdowns"; and our spiritual woes are also in-
truly God. And yet He is also the Son of Man and            cluded, for He cast out evil spirits. But the point we
very truly man. He is the High Priest Who brought the       wish to make is that when people with all these
sacrifice that atoned for our sins. And yet He is also      diseases were brought to Jesus, the diseases were
the Lamb of God that was sacrificed to make this            brought to Him; and He contracted them. He
atonement. He knew no sin. And yet He was made to           "caught" them. He did not simply take them away
be sin for us. He is the Captain of our salvation, and      from men, but He took them on Himself. That is
as such He came to destroy all His and our enemies.         what Isaiah said as explained by Matthew..
And yet He voluntarily became defenseless and sur-            No, we never read of Jesus being sick. We never
rendered to the enemy.                                      read even that He had a headache or head cold. Yet
  These contrasts and others I planned to treat             He took these diseases on Himself in that He took
chronologically. So first of all I called attention to      upon Himself'the curse. Our curse He took on Him-
the overall, general picture Paul gives us in Philip-       self. And He did die under that curse. Death, you
pians 2:6-8, that, being in the form of God, and thus       know, is the state unto which all our diseases point
Lord over all, He took upon Himself the form of a           and lead; and they are aspects of that death. We do


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               327


not state it incorrectly. when we say that He con-              We may say, therefore, even of the healings men-
tracted our diseases, caught our sicknesses. Instead         tioned in Matthew 4:24, that they were shadows of a
the truth is even more powerful: He took upon Him-           more wonderful healing. These who were healed still
self our death!                                              died. And Lazarus, though raised from the dead, went
   Now where will you find a physician among men,            back into death and the grave at a later date. The
or a surgeon no matter how skilled, who heals by             healing we have is in the new Jerusalem wherein we
taking the sicknesses and diseases of the patient upon       will walk with bodies which, though they were sown
himself? What good can a physician do in a flu epi-          in corruption, are raised in incorruption, completely
demic when he comes down with the flu? He cannot             and forever beyond all sickness, disease, and pain.
thereby take it from his patient. And he is hindered         And this is so, and can be so, exactly because He is
in his works of healing. What physician will cure your       the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings.
broken arm by breaking his own? Will that heal               He makes us rightequs and on that basis removes the
yours? Will that help him to set yours? Yet, you             cause of our diseases as well as the diseases them-
name it, whatever misery in your home or body,               selves.
whatever disease, affliction or pain therein, Christ
contracted it, went to the cross with it, took it upon          When then your body is full of pain, when you
Himself to take it away from us.                             are sick and miserable, when you suffer discomforts
   To urrderstand and appreciate this we must bear in        and weaknesses of the body, mind, or soul, go to
mind that He, by taking our place under the curse,           your physician for the relief that God enables him to
took away the cause of all our diseases. We often            give you. Do not despise the relief that our heavenly
speak loosely-and even atheistically-as though an            Father has led men to be able to give us. All things -
earthly physician has removed the cause of our sick-         medical advancements and new surgical techniques as
ness; and we go to him to get to the root of the             well  - are for your sake. All here below is for the
matter and take away the cause of our discomforts.           good of God's Church. But do not go to these men
Then when we feel better we say that by his anti-            looking for the cure. There is no cure to enjoy in this
biotics he has killed the bacteria, germ, virus that laid    life. There is relief, that is, one that is a temporary
us low, and that he cured us by taking these causes          relief. But through the death and resurrection of
away and ridding us of that which made us sick. The          Christ, and through our death and resurrection in His
surgeon cuts out the malignant tumor, and a good             day, we receive bodies completely freed from diseases
deal of healthy tissue as well. Then we rejoice and say      and death. For temporary relief go to your physician;
that he got it all. He removed the cause of our misery.      but go to Christ for healing and the cure. Give Christ
No he did not! The cause is SIN! And no man can              the glory, and never ascribe to men the power to cure
take that cause away from us.                                and heal. Go to the doctor's office and to the hospital
  Did God not tell Adam that if he sinned he would           for the temporary relief God is willing to give through
die? And does not the psalmist in Psalm 103:3 teach          men, but for healing and the cure go to Calvary. Go
us that we are to bless the Lord and not forget all His      to Christ the Crucified and Risen Lord.
benefits, because it is He, "Who forgiveth all  thine
iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases"? Take note           And then sing of Him as that Sun of Righteousness
here of the order. The iniquity must be taken away           with healing in His wings. Sing of the truth that with
before there can be any healing of our diseases.             His stripes  - not antibiotics and scalpel  - we are
No surgeon's scalpel can cut the smallest part of            healed. Sing the glorious truth that the way of escape
of it out of our bodies and souls. No physician can          from the curse is the cross. And bless the Lord with
say, "I got it all." No surgeon can even say, "I             aii your  soul  for the forgiveness of your iniquities,
got a little bit of it out." Christ does that by             which makes it possible that you may have the heal-
His work of contracting our diseases and taking them         ing of all your diseases in His day.
to His cross.

GUEST ARTICLE


                 Limited Inerrancy: Right or Wrong
                                                    Rev. M. Kamps
Introduction:                                                articles concerns the nature of the Holy Scriptures.
  The topic we wish to discuss with you in these             Many questions are being asked and many assertions


328                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


made concerning the nature of Scripture. All these          alone is authoritative for doctrine and life. Scripture
questions ultimately reveal the presuppositions the         has exclusive authority. The second principle which
persons asking the questions and making the asser-          Luther taught us is that Scripture is its own inter-
tions hold with respect to the Bible: is it or is it not    preter. The individual may not speak to Scripture or
the Word of God?                                            impose presumptuously his ideas upon Scripture. Nor
  Our subject, therefore, is of great significance. For     does the individual man have a right before God to
our answer to the question as presented will deter-         his own opinion. God will damn those who out of
mine the character and content of our preaching and         fear of losing a reputation for scholarship minimize
teaching. The position we take will affect our homes        and despise the significance and exclusive authority
and our children. Is the assertion that the Bible           of the Bible. The individual and the church must
possesses only "Limited Inerrancy" right or wrong?          listen to Scripture as hearing the very Word of God.
You must and you will give your answer. The posi-           He that in humility is willing to be taught by the
tion you take will determine your spiritual life for        Spirit through the means of the Scriptures is one that
good or evil. Principles, whether they be correct prin-     has been drawn unto Christ. These principles of the
ciples or wrong principles, do work through to per-         Reformation have always been the strength of the
meate and determine the ethical and spiritual char-         faith of Presbyterian and Reformed churches.
acter of our homes and our churches.                          However, a line of demarcation is rapidly forming
  The Bible declares Who God is. The Scriptures             today in the Reformed community of churches. This
testify that God is our Savior through our Lord Jesus       line is formed by the question: Where do you `stand in
Christ. In inseparable connection with the above the        regard to the assertion that the Bible possesses only
written record of revelation also points us to our          limited inerrancy? Is that position right or wrong? Dr.
calling in the world. What is the effect of denying         H. Lindsell, in his book  The Battle For The Bible,
that the Bible is the infallible record of God's revela-    echoed the conviction of the late Edward J. Young
tion? In the first place, there is then principally no      who warned us that it is unbelief to deny the infalli-
gospel and no gospel preaching where this denial is         bility or inerrancy of Scripture.
found. Further, there is not then found in the church         Thus we are faced with a fundamental  question-
and home the only valid objective authority for our         Limited Inerrancy: Right or Wrong? Remember that
moral life. To reject the Light is to walk in darkness      this question does not raise merely an intellectual
and in unbelief, along the broad way of  worldly-           matter but a spiritual matter of faith. It concerns the
mindedness to Hell.                                         basic principles of our lives. Men offer us and en-
  Christian be careful! We believe, and we desire that      courage us to take to ourselves the idea that the Bible
you with us continue to believe, that the Bible in its      possesses only a limited inerrancy. Are we going to
entirety is the infallibly inspired record of the self      purge our souls of the age-old conviction that the
revelation of our God, which God has in love pre-           Bible is in its entirety the infallibly inspired Word of
served for thousands of years, because it is His Word,      God? We must be clear as to where we stand as
"profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,      churches and as mothers and fathers responsible for
for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God       the instruction of our children.
may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good             Where are you going? What you believe with the
works."                                                     heart will determine your confession and walk. Prin-
                                                            ciples work through!
  Our prayer for God's people everywhere is iden-                                   *****
tical in content with the prayer of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He has taught us how to pray for ourselves          What is Limited Inerrancy?
and for all the saints: "keep them from the evil. They        We should have clearly before our minds the cen-
are not of the world. Sanctify them through thy             tral idea of this theory before we proceed to evaluate
truth: thy word is truth." (Jn. 17: 15-l 7)                 it. What is meant, first of all, by the terrn inerrancy?
  This prayer of Jesus, offered just before His death,      Inerrancy is a noun which means to be free of error.
must become the constant prayer of each of us for           The term is synonymous with infallibility. Limited
ourselves and for our brethren in the world till Christ     inerrancy is then the same as limited infallibility.
returns in the final great manifestation of His victory     Thus Scripture does speak infallibly or inerrantly. But
over sin and Satan.                                         this inerrancy is qualified by the adjective "limited."
                                                            The Bible is  inerrant with respect to some things
  As we approach our subject I would remind you of          only. What are these things about which the Bible
two great Reformation principles with regard to the         speaks infallibly or inerrantly? In general, these things
doctrine of Scripture  - principles which Rome has          are the spiritual and eternal truths of God's word.
always denied and which today men in the Reformed           Specifically, the Bible is infallible when it speaks
community of churches deny. The first is that Scripture     about God, Christ, and about the benefits of Christ's


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                             329


redemptive work. Scripture is accurate or errorless           human authors were "time bound" and "culturally
when discussing the subjects of man's salvation, the          conditioned." By the expression "time bound" is
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection and life eternal.       meant that the human authors were bound or limited
Concerning all these spiritual matters the Bible speaks       in their knowledge and understanding of history,
with absolute authority, because it speaks inerrantly.        science, geography, and chronology. This limitation,
Therefore, with respect to the "important" matters            of course, characterized all those who lived in that
the Bible's message is inerrant. This inerrant message        -time period. They were men with very limited intel-
of the Bible is the all important thing.                      lectual horizons. In addition to this, the human au-
  Thus the term  inerrant is limited in scope to              thors were also "culturally conditioned." Every person a
include something and to exclude other things both            of any age and culture is affected and influenced by
of which Sacred Scripture speaks.                             his culture and by the society in which he lives. Spe-
                                                              cifically with respect to ethical matters is this very
  There are, therefore, portions of Scripture that are        important to remember. With respect to the ethical
errant or fallible. With respect to many historical,          aspects of marriage, divorce and remarriage,  homo-
geographical, scientific, and chronological matters the       sexualism, the role of women in society and the
testimony of the Bible is, of course, erroneous. The          church, and many other ethical matters, the human
narrative of Scripture concerning the person of               writers were conditioned by their culture to think in
Adam, the fall of Adam, and the report that the               a specific way. Therefore, the Bible reflects the
snake spoke are erroneous. The prophecy of Isaiah             foibles of the culture which conditioned the human
concerning Cyrus King of the Medes and Persians in            authors of Scripture. The opinions and foibles of the
Is.45 is not prophecy but after the fact reporting and        human authors are, therefore, not necessarily norma-
recording. The creation narrative is fallible, for it does    tive for us. Because every culture in its ethical con-
not harmonize with the facts as we know them. The             victions reflects the scope of its knowledge and under-
report of Joshua 10: 13-14 that the sun stood still for       standing of the universe, of human nature, and of the
about a whole day is, of course, erroneous . . . for it is    nature of the interpersonal relationships of life, what
not in harmony with the evidence of science. The              was good for one culture is not necessarily well
report of Scripture that the first world perished in the      suited, it would seem, for another culture.
great flood of Noah's day is ridiculed as unworthy of
acceptance. The biblical picture of the earth as having         Thus the Bible in some things is not authoritative
                                                              for us. The Bible has only a limited authority, be-
four comers is obviously, according to the pro-               cause it possesses only a limited inerrancy and in-
ponents of the theory of limited inerrancy, out of            spiration.
keeping with our illuminated understanding of the
universe. There are, of course, many other aspects or           The motivation of those who favor this position of
portions of the biblical narrative that are to be re-         limited inerrancy is not always clear, but we have
jected. Nothing of an historical, geographical, scien-        gained the following. The theory of limited inerrancy
tific, and chronological character is per se infallible.      makes possible a compromise with the scientific
                                                              community and secular historians concerning their
  The Bible speaks inerrantly about spiritual things;         alleged discoveries which contradict the testimony
but its testimony with respect to these other matters         of the Bible. Their motivation is to save the church        .
is fallible and untrustworthy. One need not believe all       embarrassment before the learned world. By relin-
that the Bible says.                                          quishing the authoritative position of Scripture con-
  What, now, supposedly accounts for this "limited            cerning historical, scientific, geographical, and
inerrancy" of the Bible? There are two related ideas          chronological matters we make the true message of
which account for the fact that the Bible is both             the Bible and the church respectable and inoffensive
errant and inerrant, fallible and infallible.                 and palatable to a secular world . . hopefully. The
  First of all, the composition of the Bible is attrib-       Church must preach the infallible message of God
utable to both a divine factor and a human factor.            that there is salvation in Christ Jesus, but avoid dis-
God gave us by inspiration the inerrant part of Scrip-        gracing this great message by claiming infallibility or
ture, the "spiritual things." This aspect of the              inerrancy for those obviously erroneous assertions of
message of Scripture is God's Word. This we must              Scripture.
believe. But there is also the human factor to which is                              *****
attributable the composition and content of Scrip-            A Warning
ture. Man's contribution to the "sacred record"                 This theory may appeal to the unwary believer!
accounts for the errors, distortions, discrepancies,          For, he reasons, we can still know God in Christ as
inaccuracies, and contradictions in the Bible.                the God of our salvation; because the Bible is inerrant
  Secondly, we must remember, the proponents of               on these matters. We still have the infallible testi-
the theory of "limited inerrancy" tell us, that these         mony of the Bible concerning the  all important


330                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


things. Secondly, this theory is appealing to the            parture from the confessional doctrine of infallibility
unwary believer because it frees us from all conflict        and the embracing of the theory of limited inerrancy.
and tension about the so-called historical and scien-        There is a clamor for new interpretations of the Bible
tific matters. For a theory of "limited inerrancy"           with respect to Sabbath observance, women in
allows for errors on all these matters. They are, after      ecclesiastical office, marriage, morality, and the
all, unimportant and inconsequential.                        remarriage of divorced persons. A commitment to the
  But this conclusion made by the unwary in the              theory of limited inerrancy is evidenced too by a lack
church is wrong and deadly. We cannot have our cake          of respect for and confidence in the authority of the
and eat it too. That is, we cannot cast away or min-         Word . . . in the pulpit. Further, churches more and
imize the historical or consider it errant and still have    more fail to discipline. for deviation in doctrine and
the revelation of God concerning our salvation and           walk. Consistories have lost confidence in the author-
calling. More about that later.                              ity of the Bible. Oftentimes we stare ourselves blind
  We must remember that there is a great deal of             at the names of persons who espouse a wrong view of
evidence of commitment to the theory of limited              Scripture, but we overlook the fact that churches
inerrancy in the church. You are probably familiar           evidence a commitment to a wrong view of the Bible
with the nanies of leading advocates of this position        in other ways.
in Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Reformed Churches.              Unwary believer, listen to the apostle Paul: "But
But do not overlook that there are many who support          ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should
these vocal leaders from their pulpits, in the  con-         overtake you as a thief. . . . Therefore let us not sleep,
sistory room, and in all their teaching and pastoral         as do others; but let us watch and be sober. . . . For
work. Thus we must be alert to the dangers close to          God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain
home. There is abundant indirect evidence of a de-           &lvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thess. 5:4-9)

ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren


                                         The Revolt Grows
  There are repeated attempts made to gain govern-           have received, directly or indirectly, government assis-
ment support for private and parbchial schools. And          tance. One case concerned Covenant College on
such support appears ever more appealing and de-             Lookout Mountain:
sirable. The cost of education continually goes up.
Taxes paid by all for the support of public education               This is what happened in the case of Covenant
are rapidly increasing. Christian parents, caught in the         College, an excellent Presbyterian school located on
bind between high taxes, growing tuition require-                Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga. The knight-
                                                                 errant from the Atlanta office of HEW saw a plaque
ments, and inflation are tempted to gain some sort of            on the door of a building - partially funded with
relief - especially governmental relief. We pay - so             federal money - which read, "To the glory of
why not gain assistance from that which is ours                  God. . . ." That did it. He (and the Atlanta office he
anyway? There is that real temptation to take what-              represented) decided the plaque violated that phrase
ever government has to offer. Perhaps we have                    in the law originally passed by Congress which speci-
already done that far too much. Government is                    fied there would be no "discrimination based on . . .
making the people, and Christians, increasingly de-              religion." So the plaque must come off, the Atlanta
pendent upon it. Editorials in recent Standard Bearers           office said.
have been dealing with the issue. Yet we are inclined               In the Covenant College matter - and in increasing
to ask: "Is there any real danger?" Or ought we to               numbers of other situations - school officials decided
ask: are `we being enticed as "flies" into the house of          that enough was enough. The plaque stays - they
the "spider"?                                                    said in effect. And the Atlanta office backed down.
  The Presbyterian Journal of Feb. 22, 1978 reports            Another reported case is that of Hillsdale College
editorially concerning some of the difficulty colleges       in Michigan. In this instance it was not even a matter
are having with the federal government in connection         of the college receiving any sort of direct aid. Only
with support they have received in the past. Some            because individuals attending the school had received
colleges have been fighting government edicts - but          governmental assistance, the government determined
in each case, government officials base their restric-       that it had the right to demand of that  college
tive regulations against colleges on the fact that they      conformity to certain regulations. The college refused


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             331


on principle. The outcome is still uncertain  - and the                      Mind you, Hillsdale does not now discriminate on
real danger is clearly evident.                                           the basis of sex. Some 45 per cent of its students are
       (The) latest school to get its back up against                     women. But as a matter of principle, the school
                                                                          refuses to swear in writing that it will not do what it
    HEW's unfair practices is little Hillsdale College in                 never has done. And it has received no federal funds
    southern Michigan. Hillsdale has been informed by
    HEW that it will get no federal funds in any form                     except in the form of government aid to students, as
    because it is in violation of the law. What is the issue?             individuals.
    Hillsdale  has refused to sign a statement saying it will                The outcome of the  Hillsdale  affair remains in
    not discriminate on the basis of sex.                                 doubt. . . .


             The "Wiersinga Controversy" in the Netherlands
  A certain Dr. Wiersinga in the Reformed Church in                       to the confessions, and not allow Wiersinga to "push"
the Netherlands has publicly taught views on the                          his views.
atonement which are utterly foreign to Scripture and                         Discussion on the floor of Synod centered on what
the Reformed creeds. What to do with such a person                        the word "push" meant in the Synod's charge to the
is the cause of continuing dispute in the Reformed                        consistory: whether it meant that Wiersinga had been
church. The  Calvinist Contact of Feb. 3, 1978 reports                    completely forbidden to speak on the subject. A
the following from the  RES News Exchange:                                deputy explained that Wiersinga had only been for-
                                                                          bidden to propagate his ideas in preaching and cate-
      The consistory of the Reformed Church of                            chetical instruction. Synod resolved that it is the task
   Amsterdam has stated its agreement with the pastoral                   of the Amsterdam consistory scrupulously to oversee
   writing on the atonement issued by the last Synod of                   Dr. Wiersinga in this matter and to continue the
   the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in re-                       `discussion with which it has been charged.
   sponse to Herman Wiersinga's teachings. . . .                             The consensus of Synod was that now Dr. Wier-
      Initially the Amsterdam cofisistory had taken issue                 singa and the consistory of Amsterdam be left at
   with Synod's judgment that Wiersinga's views were                      peace for awhile. Delegate Rev. H. Borgers added that
   inadmissible. The consistory had been charged with                     Wiersinga, then, should cooperate in keeping the
   the responsibility of seeing that Wiersinga did not                    peace by not publishing another book on the subject.
   push his views in his official capacities.                             He felt that the synodical curb on Wiersinga should
      A synodical committee was appointed to talk with                    have been interpreted to apply to his writing also. .
   the Amsterdam consistory at the beginning of this                    So, a heretic remains within that  Reformed  church
   year. The consistory explained at the meeting with                 - though obviously not the only one. And, so it
   the committee that it stood wholly behind the view                 seems, as long as he does not preach his heresy or
   of the atonement as expressed in the synodical report
   Verzoening, what it reacted against was what it took          -    teach it in catechism, he is free to do as he pleases. He
   to be the first stages of discipline. against the person           may publicly teach this heresy, he may still write of
   of Dr. Wiersinga. A conflict was thus averted when                 it, he may continue to undermine the doctrines of the
   the synodical committee explained that Synod had                   church openly  - just so he does  not do this on the
   not intended to bring disciplinary procedures to bear              pulpit. One wonders how a "confessional" church can
   on Wiersinga, it only wished to reject his teachings.              long remain such when it plays so fast and loose with
   Like all consistories, the Amsterdam consistory has to             Scripture and confessions. If this is the extent of
   guard against the propagation of teachings contrary                "discipline," the situation appears hopeless.


                                             Life Without Television
  Often people will say that they can take it, or leave                   recently. They told them simply to keep away from
it  - television, that is. But can they? An interesting                   television for a month and they would receive $500
report and some conclusions are presented in  CaZ-                       in cold cash.
vinist Contact of March 3, 1978.                                             A few families managed to survive a few days,
      A man walks up to your front door, rings the                       some a week, and most of them were pulling out their
   doorbell and smilingly offers you $500 to keep your                   hair in frustration after a couple of weeks. The result?
   television set turned off for one month. You would                    Only five families managed to collect that $500.
   laughingly accept the offer and wait for the 30 days                      But the worst of it was that most of the families
   to end so that you could collect this bit of easy cash.               began fighting, bickering and arguing. They simply
      Seem far-fetched? Not really. The Detroit, Mich-                   couldn't take the "pressure" of being together as a
   igan News made that offer to 100 families in that city                family for a month. They presumably watched three


332                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


       or four hours of television a night. National figures           the Waltons. The end result? A healthier family life.
       have it as high as six hours a day. But take that away          (Writer: Keith Knight)
       from a teenager or a mother or father and they have           There are some important thoughts in the  above.
       to look at other alternatives.                              How little we really think of what we are doing to
          . . .We are victims of the world and we don't even       ourselves and our families when television is used -
       realize it. It is not surprising that we are concerned      sometimes without any discrimination! It might in-
       about "worldliness". That concern has certainly been        deed be well to evaluate, as a family, and in light of
       expressed in this matter of social dancing at a Chris-      the Word of God, our own use of television. Each
       tian college. . . . What is really disturbing is that we
       spend our energy looking at this dancing situation          program must be evaluated: can this be viewed to the
       while our very lives are ruled by a force which is          glory of God? What is all of this doing to our own
       much more dangerous - the television.                       families? Is the world using this instrument to in-
                                                                   struct our children far more than we ourselves do? Is
          We need more time for ourselves as families and as
       husbands and wives. The "Detroit 100" couldn't cope         it detracting from our society life, from our reading
       with that family situation. It proves that spouses          of Scripture and from prayer, from our "family
       don't talk to each other any more and thtit children        altars"? Is this inculcating into our lives a materialism
       don't get to know their parents, except during com-         and an insensitivity towards sin that is so common
       mercials when they all make a mad dash to the               with the world generally?
       kitchen for some potato chips.                                 And could you turn it off - completely - for one
          . . .It would prove interesting if a number of           month? I'd almost "dare" you to try it - and to find
       households would care to unplug their television set        a proper spiritual alternative for the benefit of the
       for a month, not even watching the evening news or          whole family.


                                                   Book Reviews
ABOVE THE BATTLE? THE BIBLE AND ITS                                scripts, to determine what the original manuscripts of
CRITICS,  by Harry R. Boer; William B. Eerdmans                    the Bible actually contained. High criticism, on the
Publishing Co., 1977; 109 pp., $2.95 (paper) [Re-                  other hand, attempts to explain how the manuscripts
viewed by Prof. H. Hanko]                                          of the Bible came into existence as literary works. It
  Dr. Boer wrote a series of articles in the Reformed              inquires concerning questions of date, authorship,
Journal  on the general subject of the inspiration of              historical background, historical purpose, literary
Scripture. He has reproduced the essence of these                  value, etc. So-called "lower criticism" is interested in
articles in this book. Both the articles and this book             determining what the original manuscripts of the
constitute an attack on the Scriptures. They are in-               Bible contained by means of a comparison of the
tended to prove that there are  many errors in the                 available manuscripts and by means of a study of
.Bible. It is really quite amazing how many errors Boer            these manuscripts from the viewpoint of style,
himself makes as he seeks to establish his point. While            vocabulary, personality of the writer, etc. The former
we cannot offer extensive critique of the book there               is called the external evidence of "lower criticism";
are several points which ought to be made.                         the latter is called the internal evidence of "lower
                                                                   criticism."
  Boer bases a large part of his argument on a com-
parison of lower and higher criticism of the Bible. He                It is Boer's contention that lower and higher crit-
points out that all conservative people who hold to                icism use the same rational and scientific method, and
Scriptural infallibility have permitted lower criticism            both are legitimate tools in the understanding of
while they have rejected higher criticism. Boer says                Scripture. This is false and misleading. Lower crit-
that this is inconsistent because both lower and                   icism, if  done  properly, operates on the assumption
higher criticism are based on the same rational and                that the Bible is the infallibly inspired Word of God. It
scientific principles. Both ought therefore to be                  seeks to determine, insofar as that is possible, the
accepted.                                                           original manuscripts because it seeks to know as
  We ought to examine this argument a bit. For the                  accurately as possible what that verbally inspired
benefit of those who are not acquainted with the                   Word of God is. Higher criticism operates on the
terminology Boer uses, we might point out that                      assumption that there .,is a human element in Scrip-
"lower criticism" deals with an examination of the                 ture which is so clearly on the foreground that it
many manuscripts of the Bible which are extant to-                 allowed for all kinds of errors in Scripture. This is,
day. It attempts, by a comparison of these manu-                   quite obviously, a very basic difference.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  333


  It is true that lower criticism is divided into ex-       Boer accepts the unproved theory that Mark is the
ternal and internal evidence. It is rather striking that    original gospel and that the other synoptics (Matthew
Boer, when speaking of lower criticism, mentions            and Luke) were dependent upon it.. He finds all kinds
only internal evidence, and says nothing about ex-          of discrepancies in the synoptics, all kinds of prob-
ternal evidence. External evidence, however, is the         lems in the narrative of  the rich young ruler and
most important, objective, and accurate evidence            thinks that these things can only be explained by
there is. I always tell my students in school, ,that in-    allowing errors in Scripture.
ternal evidence means almost nothing becau& it is so          His denial of infallible inspiration is spoken loudly
highly subjective and allows so much room for all           and clearly in the book. On pp. 8 1 ff. he does this by
sorts of conjecture concerning the reading of the text.     the same semantic legerdemain that DeKoster used in
Boer is dishonest when he leaves the impression that        The Banner.  He defines infallibility as meaning re-
this internal evidence is the only kind of evidence         liability or trustworthiness, and inerrancy as meaning
there is. And Boer is altogether mistaken when he           "the unqualified absence of inconsistency or disparity
boldly claims that lower and higher criticism are           of any kind whatever with respect to any data found
basically the same.                                         in the Bible." And then he writes: "The Bible is in-
  It is, however, in this connection that Boer makes a      fallible; it is not inerrant in the accepted sense of the
great deal of the human element in Scripture. On p.         word."
42 he calls the Bible a thoroughly human book. On           Again:
page 55 he charges the church with being docetic                      Should we not rather understand the infallibility
                                                                of Scripture in such a way that it does 
about Scripture; i.e., he charges the church with de-                                                       not include the
                                                                assumption that all data in Scripture are necessarily
nying-the true humanity of Scripture. (p. 55) He sets           harmonizable? In looking for such a cokeption of
verbal inspiratioq and organic inspiration over against         infallibility we are not concerned simply to obviate a
each other on the false assumption that organic inspir-         difficulty. The problem is considerably larger and
ation leaves such room for the human authors that               deeper than that of contriving an escape from embar-
their human errors are found in Scripture. (p. 100) He          rassment. The problem is basically that of relating, as
makes, following Bavinck, an analogy between the                essential qualities of the Word of God inscripturate,
incarnation of Christ and the giving of the Scriptures.         the divine  - which is always absolute  - and the
(Whether this analogy is correct or not is one ques-            human - which is always relative. (p. 8.5)
tion. But that it is intended to give support for errors      In Boer's method of harmonizing that which is
in Scripture is quite another. Christ, after all, was       absolute and that which is relative he destroys Scrip-
the completely sinless One.)                                ture.
  It is this emphasis on the human element which                      It is no different with respect to the objectively
leads to all kinds of trouble. We cannot enter into this        existing infallibility of the Word of God. When belief
question in detail now. The whole question of the               in the gospel opens one's eyes to the eternal God
organic inspiration of Scripture and the human                  speaking through the Scriptures, those very words
element in Scripture has been treated in detail by              which to the unbelieving, are simply religious litera-
Prof. Hoeksema in a series of articles which appeared           ture (even sublime religious literature) are seen to be
a couple of years ago in the                                    the infallible Word of the ever-living God. Such faith
                                 Protestant Reformed            overleaps all inadequacies of human expression, all
Theological Journal The interested reader can confer            literary, cultural, numerical, geographical disparities,
them. What needs to be said now is the fact that Boer           gaps, inconsistencies. (p. 85)
grossly and crassly corrupts the doctrine of the              How we may ever be sure that we hear the voice of
organic inspiration of Scripture. This truth exactly
teaches that inspiration belongs to  the wonder of          God in Scripture when we are faced with all kinds of
grace, the miracle; that it is, therefore, the wonder of    disparities, gaps, and inconsistencies, Boer never pre-
God whereby He made use of human instruments in             tends to tell us. He cannot, of course, for if Scripture
such a way that through them His Word was infallibly        is not without error, then it is not God speaking
given. God ordained who should be used to write His         through it either.
Word. God prepared these,men  in time. God worked             Even Jesus made mistakes. Boer asks the rhetorical
in such a way that holy men  Qf God spoke as they           question:
were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is the Reformed                   Or did, in Jesus' view, the infallibility of Scripture
doctrine of inspiration. Boer sets himself against that         consist in propositional statement couched in the
doctrine when he sets organic inspiration overagainst           language of faith wherein truth is something more
verbal inspiration and insists that Scripture cannot be         and larger or perhaps even other than mere wording
                                                                of the proposition that formulates it? (p. 92)
organically and verbally inspired ai the same time.         And Boer obviously wants the question answered:
  These fundamental errors in Boer's thinking lead          Yes, this was Jesus' view of Scripture.
him to his erroneous position. Without any question                   Closely related to this limitation (that Jesus was


334                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


   not omniscient, H.H.) is the fact that Jesus again and            Boer has made a vicious and unprincipled attack on
   again accommodated himself to existing beliefs which            the integrity of Scripture. That this should come
  we no longer accept in the then existing form.                   from a man who professes to be Reformed is astound-
   Notable here is Jesus' accommodation to the popular             ing. That the church of which he is a member allows
   belief in sheol or hades ai the abode of the dead with          this sort of thing to go unchallenged is sad beyond
   its two adjoining divisions of gehenna and paradise.
   Until critical scholarship began to analyze the com-            description. Boer has joined the enemies of the gospel
  position of the books of the Bible it was gene&y                 in this attack. He has moved out of the camp of faith
   believed that Moses had written the Pentateuch, and             into the ranks of the enemy. But God's Word has
   Isaiah all of Isaiah. No valid reason can be adduced            survived better formulated attacks and more vicious
   why Jesus should not have expressed himself in terms            attacks than that of Boer's  .book. God's Word will
   of the common deposit of belief in such matters. (pp.           survive this book, too.
   95,96)


STUDIES IN PHILIPPIANS,                       STUDIES IN           parts; there is one serious flaw however: he questions
EPHESIANS, STUDIES IN ROMANS,  by H.C.G.                           the doctrine of sovereign reprobation and presents a
Moule; Kregel Publications, 1977; Kivar bindings.                  conditional reprobation as his view. He interprets
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                                      Romans 7: 14ff. as referring to Paul in his regenerated
  The author of these commentaries lived from                      -state. He explains Romans 5 : 12ff. as teaching the
1841-1920. Most of his life was spent as Principal of              doctrine of original guilt in Adam. He interprets
Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Kregel has printed several of              Ephesians 2:8 as meaning that faith is the gift of God.
his studies in its Kregel Popular Commentary Series.               All of these and many more teachings make the
                                                                   commentaries well worth their rather favorable price.
  These         books are not,            strictly    speaking,
commentaries. They include the text, mostly from                     Each book includes also an introductory section
the King James Version, and fairly extensive notes on              which has a great deal of interesting and important
each verse. On the whole, they are not too bad and                 material in it. The prices range from $3.00 to $4.00,
can well serve a good purpose for society and home                 `and are worth the investment. The books must
study. They are written in a lucid manner and are                  however be read with care. No commentary can ever
fairly sound in doctrine. E.g., Moule's discussion of              substitute for a study of the Scriptures themselves.
Ephesians 1 and 2 emphasize strongly the doctrines                 And the purely Reformed line is not always brought
of sovereign grace rooted in eternal election. His                 out as clearly as it ought to be.
discussion of Romans 9-l 1 is basically sound in most

GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON TO THE NEW TESTA-                                in print today, making it more accessible and trans-
MENT, by W.J. Hi&e; Baker Book House, 1977; 214                        portable than bulkier volumes.
pp., $2.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                     While this book can never take the place of more
  On the back cover of this book appear the words:                 detailed lexicons in the study of the New Testament,
          This easi-to-use  Greek lexicon will enrich ex-          it is especially worthwhile because it is so easy to
       egetical study for pastors, Bible teachers, and stu-        carry about. It is, on the whole, accurate and reliable
       dents. It is a complete yet concise reference work          and it can be of special value to students who must
       that lists koine Greek words in their various gram-         carry many books to school. This book can be tucked
       matical forms along with their translations and mean-       easily into a pocket or a corner of a briefcase. It is
       ings. This is one of the most compact Greek lexicons        well worth the rather cheap price.


WHO'S WHO IN CHURCH HISTORY, by William P.                         author is Director of Continuing Education at Pitts-
Barker; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan;                  burgh Theological Seminary.
319 pages, $2.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Prof.                      This reviewer does not find the book to be very
H. C. Hoeksema)                                                    valuable. In the first place, it is incomplete. I suppose
                                                                   one might expect to find differences of opinion with
  This is supposed to be a handy reference work for                respect to the question which persons should be
those desiring quick and concise information on                    included in a work of this kind, and which should be
various important characters in church history. Listed             excluded. Nevertheless, I cannot agree with the
in it are more than 1500 men and women who played                  author's choices. One finds relatively insignificant and
some part in church history. The book is a riprint of              unknown  chara&ers included, but not a word about
a book first published as a hardback in 1969. The                  as important a figure as Abraham Kuyper or Hendrik


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  335


De Cock. In the second place, the information and                             and `accurate information; and it is therefore of very
evaluation furnished in these brief biographical para-                        limited value.
graphs is not dependable. The  author is obviously
prejudiced against such men as Gottschalk and                                          THE STANDARD BEARER
Gomarus and presents them in an unfavorable light;
and he is just as biased in favor of a character like                                            is a thoughtful gift
Arminius and presents him as a fine man.                                                           for a "Shut-in".
   In other words, this book cannot be trusted for full

                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   The Ladies' and Men's Societies of South Holland Protestant Re-                 The members of the Hudsonville Ladies Society wish to express
formed Church expresses their sympathy to fellow-members Mr. and Mrs.         their sympathy to  Freda (Mrs. Henry) Zwak in the sudden death of her
Menno Smits, Rev. and Mrs. David Engelsma and Mr. and Mrs. Lammert            mother, MRS. TED MIEDEMA, SR., whom the Lord called to Him on
Lubbers in the death of their brother, brother-in-law and uncle, MR.          March  28,1978.
MELVIN ENGELSMA.
                                                                                   "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance
   "Blessed be the Lord, that Hath given rest unto His people." (I            shall be forever." (Psalm  37:18).
Kings 856).
                                                                                                                    Rev. G. Van  Baren, Pres.
                                   Mrs. Pat Haak, Sec'y.                                                            Mrs. Hib Kuiper, Sec'y.
                                   Mr. Art De Jong, Jr., Sec'y.


                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On April 16, 1978, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS. BARNEY                                             NOTICE!!!
HAAK, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. We are thankful to                Classis East will meet in regular session on Wednesday, May 10,
God for the many years of Christian love and instruction they have            1978 at the Holland Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be
given us. It is our prayer that God will bless them in the years which lie    treated at this session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at least
ahead of them.                                                                ten days prior to the convening of the session.
                            their children:                                                                               Jon Huisken
                              Richard Haak                                                                                Stated Clerk
                               Ken and Marilyn De Jong
                                  Edward, Sharon and Stephen
                               Carl Haak

                                                                     NOTICE!!!!
                  The Lord willing, on May 15, 1978, there will be a lecture in the South Holland Protes-
               tant Reformed Church given by Rev. George Lubbers on the topic "HEALTHY PIETY VS.
               FALSE MYSTICISM."
                                                        PLAN NOW TO ATTEND!!!!


                                                            -NOTICE OF  LECTURE-
                  On April 27, 1978, at 8:00 P.M., in the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church, our
               annual SPRING LECTURE will be given. Prof. H. C. Hanko will speak on "THE PLEA-
               SURE OF BABYLON IN JERUSALEM." (an analysis of the entertainment problem). We
               urge you to attend and to encourage and invite others also to hear this informative and
               timely lecture.

                                                             The Lecture Committee


                                    News From Our Churches
   First Church in Grand Rapids has scheduled the                             congregation of our Faith Church has been invited to
installation of their new pastor, Rev. Meindert                               extend their farewells to Rev. Joostens and his family
Joostens, for Sunday, April 16. Prof. Robert Decker                           at an open house on April 12. The congregation
will conduct the installation during the morning
worship service. Rev. Joostens plans to preach his                            of First. Church has been invited to a welcome for
inaugural sermon that evening. Rev. and Mrs.                                  Rev.  ' Joostens and his family on April 17 with
Joostens recently received a precious gift in the form                        a short program followed by a social hour with
of a baby girl  - born on a Sunday morning. The                               refreshments.


THE STANDARD  BEARER
       P.O. 50x 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





336                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




  Faith Church has extended a call to Rev. James             Rev: den Hartog, pastor of our Covenant Church in
Slopsema of Edgerton, Minnesota. Their trio also           Wyckoff, New Jersey, recently sent in some news-
included Rev. Arie den Hartog and Rev. David Engels-       paper clippings and a letter giving the good news-that
ma.                                                        Covenant had received final township approval of
                                                           their proposed church building site plan. Rev. den
  Rev. Slopsema and Elder D. Engelsma of Hope              Hartog writes that "perhaps for those who live in the
Church in Walker, Michigan, left for Singapore on
March 14. They are taking this  .long trip at the          land of wide open spaces this does not seem of such
request of the Foreign Mission  C.ommittee, which          momentous significance. But we live in the midst of
received a call for assistance from a sizable number of    the greatest metropolis in the U.S. And this means
students in the city of Singapore. They expect to be       that we have been battling for almost two years to get
gone for four to eight weeks. During Rev. Slopsema's       to this point. In recent months the Township of
absence, Rev. Hoeksema from Hull, Iowa, and Rev.           Wyckoff has received national attention and become
Kamps from  Doon, Iowa, will help to fill Rev.             rather infamous because of resident opposition to the
Slopsema's pulpit once each Sunday.                        building of houses of worship. Reasons given to
                                                           oppose churches were: too many churches, lost taxes,
  Rev. Harbach, our home missionary now laboring           detriment to prime residential areas, and too much
in Victoria, British Columbia, is expanding his labors     traffic congestion. In the midst of a town divided and
to include Abbotsford, B.C. Bible study classes have       embroiled in bitter discussion and over against several
been scheduled for alternate Monday evenings at the        neighbors that vehemently opposed us the Town-
Peace Lutheran Church.                                     ship Board approved our proposed site plan. What can
                                                           we say to all of this but that it is the Lord's doing for
  Our church in Pella, Iowa, has a duo consisting of       which we give thanks and rejoice." Covenant plans to
Rev. Rodney Miersma now serving our church in              erect a 30' by 50' church building seating 120 people
Isabel, South Dakota, and Rev. Slopsema. Pella's           and provide parking for 43 cars on a five acre land
present pastor, Rev. George Lubbers, plans to retire       parcel.
from the active ministry on May 1st.                         Rev. den Hartog also wrote that Covenant has
  Our Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in Ho.us-         begun a Sunday evening discussion group similar to
ton, Texas, has purchased a church building and a          what some of our other churches have. They meet
parsonage. In connection with this purchase, a rather      once per month after the evening worship service to
unusual note appeared in the Hull, Iowa, bulletin.         discuss topics of current interest on matters of Chris-
They must build an addition to their parsonage. They       tian living. Last time they considered the topic "The
are in need of an experienced contractor or carpenter      Christian and the Women's Liberation Movement."
to come and help them for a few weeks to guide their         The young people of our churches in the Grand
willing hands and are seeking this help from a             Rapids area gathered for an Easter Mass Meeting on
member of another of our churches.                         Easter Sunday afternoon at Southwest Church. Prof.
  The sale of our Southwest Church building was            Robert Decker was the speaker.
completed on March 5 to the Wyoming Church of                The annual Spring Lecture sponsored by our Mich-
God. The new owners will take possession of the            igan area churches is scheduled for April 27 at our
building on April 2. Arrangements are being made to        Hudsonville Church. Prof. Herman Hanko will be the
provide a place of worship for the Southwest con-          speaker.
gregation until their new building is completed.                                                            K.G.V.


