    STANDARD
         BEARER
f- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE



    Everybody's doing it doesn't make it right.
 We are not concerned with the question,  IS it
 popular? but with the question,  IS it right?
 But it is often surmised that if wrong gets to
 be. prevailing, then it must be right. Evil and
 wrong are in this world in epidemic propor-
 tions. But an epidemic of small pox, for
 example, does not make the disease desirable
                                       `.
 or socially acceptable, but rather all the more
 dreadful! Men, in the natural sense, see these
 things readily enough. Why are they unable to
 see them as they apply spiritually?

   See "God's With Us! Fear Not!" - Page 188


                                             Volume LV, No. 7, January  15,1979
                                                        ISSN 0362-4692


170                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


                             CONTENTS:                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                 Semi-monthly,   except monthly   during June,  July, and  August.
                                                                                   Published   by  the  Reformed   Free  Publishing   Association,  Inc.
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                                                                            Department Editors:  Prof.  Robert   D.  Decker,  Rev.  David  J.  Engelsma,
       Saved Through the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .170         Rev.  Cornelius  Hanko,   Prof.  Herman   Hanko,   Rev.  Robert   C.  Harbach,
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MEDITATION


                                 Saved Through the Gospel
                                                                 Rev. C. Hanko


                   Ques. 19. Whence knowest thou this?
                   Ans. From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise; and afterwards
               published by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other
               ceremonies of the law; and lastly has fulfilled it by his only begotten Son.
                                                                                          Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 4.



  "Whence knowest thou this?"                                                eternal life? How do I know that this is my Savior,
  Our Catechism confronts us with a most serious                             Who is made of God for me personally wisdom,
question. How do I know that God has eternally                               righteousness, sanctification, yea, a full redemption?
prepared a Mediator Who is capable of delivering the                         On what sure foundation do I base my faith? From
lost sinner from sin and death and of giving him                              what source do I draw this knowledge of faith?


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 171



  My answer is, along with the church of all ages,            contribute this part to the holy Writ.
"From the holy gospel!"                                         It is divinely revealed. In the answer before us our
  We cannot help but be impressed by the repeated             Catechism speaks rather extensively of this revelation
reference to the holy Scriptures throughout our Book          of God in the Scriptures. God revealed Himself first
of Instruction. Already in Lord's Day 2 the Law of            in paradise to Adam and Eve by speaking to them as a
God is mentioned as the source of the knowledge of            Friend with a friend. Even after their  willfil dis-
our misery. Here the gospel is referred to as the             obedience and their fall God sought them out and
source of the knowledge of our deliverance. In Lord's         showed them His planned salvation for them and for
Day 25 the Word of God is said to be the chief means          their spiritual seed in the promised Savior. Afterwards
of grace. In Lord's Day 3 1 it is called the chief key of     God spoke to the patriarchs, sometimes by direct
the kingdom of heaven. In Lord's Days 34 to 44 the            speech, sometimes in visions and dreams, or through
Word of God is set before us as the law of liberty, our       that amazing Angel of Jehovah, Who is the Old
sure guide for a walk in thankfulness. We can                 Testament manifestation of the Christ. God added to
appreciate this strong emphasis on the Scriptures and         this a revelation in types and shadows, He caused
admire our Confession for it.                                 Israel to live in a picture world, where Israel was
  The holy gospel is for us the glad tidings of               taught by pictures as a child is taught in kindergarten.
salvation. It is God's Self-revelation in His only            The priests, the kings, the sacrifices, the tabernacle,
Begotten Son, the eternal Word, Jesus Christ. It is God's     later the temple, the feast days, the new moons and
own speech to us as the God of our salvation in               sabbaths, the city of Jerusalem founded on mount
Christ. In every sense of the word the holy Scripture         Sion, the land of Canaan, the clothing Israel wore, the
is GOD'S Word.                                                land they owned, the seed they sowed, and the
                                                              harvest they gathered, all spoke to them of the
  Its Divine Origin.                                          heavenly blessings God was preparing for them
   The Word of God is of divine origin. It is divinely        through the sufferings and death of the promised
planned, revealed, inspired, given its canonicity, and        Savior, and the glory that would follow. In the
preserved. We do well to think about this a bit more          fulness of time God sent His Son into the world, the
in detail.                                                    Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We saw
   It is divinely planned. God conceived of the               Him, we heard Him, we touched Him. Now He is
Scriptures, determined and planned them from                  gone into glory, yet He still speaks to us through His
eternity. Just as an artist conceives of a painting in all    apostles who penned His revelation in the New
its detail and beauty before his brush touches the            Testament Scriptures. The writer to the Hebrews
canvas, so God eternally planned the books of the             expresses it this way, "God, who at sundry times and
Bible as His Self-revelation to us. It is not a mere          in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
coincidence that there are sixty-six books, written           by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us
over a period of some fifteen hundred years. It did           by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all
not just happen that among the writers were  herds-           things." (Heb. 1: 1, 2).
men, fishermen, learned men, poets, musicians, each             It is divinely inspired. "All Scripture is given by the
serving in his own capacity. It can hardly escape us          inspiration of God." (II Tim. 3:  16). Moses did not
that there were no women among them. God deter-               write some folk-lore or timeworn tradition when he
mined, for example, a Moses, who survived in spite of         wrote about creation, the fall, the flood, and the lives
the death sentence of Pharaoh upon all the Hebrew             of the patriarchs, as some would maintain. Peter
baby boys, who spent forty years in the palace of the         contradicted this foolish notion already in his second
king to be instructed in all the knowledge of the             epistle, where he  -writes that "no prophecy of
Egyptians, who spent another forty years seemingly            Scripture  is---df%y  private interpretation." The
wasting away his life as he tended sheep in  Midian,          various writers of the Bible  did-n& give their version
and who spent the last forty years of his life                of the events of which they wrote, but "holy rrien of
delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt and               God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
leading them through the wilderness to the border of          (II Peter  1:20, 21). Jesus--Himself maintained the
Canaan. It was during these last forty years that             inspiration of Scripture, its inerrancy and authority,
Moses was ready to be used by God to write the first          by ending all argument with the simple statement, "It
five books of the Bible. God wanted David as a                is written," or "The Scriptures cannot be broken."
shepherd boy, as a fugitive from Saul, and later as a         The holy  writers,--ordained  and called of God for this
theocratic king to become the sweet singer of Israel,         wp_rk,-  %5?&?& their  own%ne. and style, fully
and thus to compose his part of the Scriptures. God           conscious of what they were writing, yet also deeply
ordained Jeremiah for his work before he was born.            conscious of the fact that they were writing the
(Jer.  1:6). God determined all the other writers with        inbreathed  W_ord- of God as the Holy Spirit moved
their various gifts and talents and background to             them to write.


172                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is divinely canonical. We can marvel that the              God's Word is the gospel of His promise to His
sixty-six books written by many authors over a broad          chosen ones. This promise is always centered in
span of time do form a perfect unity. As many pieces          Christ, in  Whom all fulness dwells as exalted Lord in
of a jigsaw puzzle form a complete picture, so the            heaven. The Old Testament speaks in every page of
books of the Old and New Testaments present us                the promised Savior Who was still to come. By direct
with a complete revelation of the God of our                  speech, by visions and dreams, by the testimony of
salvation in Jesus Christ. God carries us from paradise       the prophets, by types and shadows, yes, by every
to Paradise through every phase of His mighty work            conceivable means God tells of the coming Savior, of
as He gathers, defends, and preserves His church in an        His atoning death on the cross, and the glory that
evil world, unto the culmination of His salvation in          follows. God did not give those Old Testament
the great Day of the Lord. This is possible only              writings, which make up such a large part of our
because under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the             Bible, merely for the benefit of the Jews of the old
church preserved the various manuscripts, sorted              dispensation; the message of the promise is as
them out from the uninspired writings, copied and             important to us today as it was for the church of the
recopied the manuscripts with ardent care, and                shadows. The New Testament speaks of the fulfill-
brought them as a complete collection into one Book,          ment of that promise. Christ has come in the
which is our Bible. Let no man try to add or to               weakness of sinful flesh, the perfect Mediator Who in
detract from God's Book! (Rev. 22: 18, 19).                   one person is very God and real, righteous man. As
  Finally, it is divinely preserved. Throughout the           the Lamb of God for sinners slain He brought the
ages God has jealously preserved the sacred writings          perfect sacrifice as a ransom for His people. He saved
which He had prepared for us. He did this over                from death and merited life for us. God put His
against the desperate attempts of the powers of               divine seal upon that accomplished work by raising
darkness to destroy them. Deceptive writings and              Christ from the dead and exalting Him to heavenly
pseudo-gospels appeared. Mockers mocked with their            glory, where we now see Jesus crowned with glory
vile  mockings.  Heretics defiantly attacked the Scrip-       and honor, higher than the angels, preparing to come
tures. Men who presume to be wiser than God                   again in fulfillment of all that is written of Him, even
consider the findings of the scientists of greater            to the very last sentence off the last book of the Bible,
authority than God's own revelation. Many transla-            the Book of Revelation.
tions appear on the market, there is even a paraphras-
ing of the Bible in common, often vulgar language, by           Its Divine Power.
which man's philosophies are introduced into the                The Word of God is a savor of life unto life, and of
sacred record. But the hammers lie broken and                 death unto death. It is foolishness to those perishing,
useless, while the anvil still stands and will stand until    but it is the power of God unto salvation to all who
our Lord returns.                                             believe.
  Its Divine Con tents.                                         The carnal Jews of the old dispensation chose idols
  The Bible is God's autobiography, in which He tells         in preference to the living God. They killed the
of Himself as the eternal, unchangeable, holy, righ-          prophets and stoned those who were sent to them.
teous, sovereign God of all love and grace, the ever          The Greeks were no better. Their worldly wisdom
adorable and blessed. One Who is to be feared. In             caused them to sneer at the preaching of Christ's
those holy pages God reveals the secrets of His heart,        cross and resurrection. The most civilized of men and
His eternal thoughts, plans, and purposes with His            the pagan of the jungles, the university professor and
people in Christ. God tells us of His own covenant life       the shop worker, the man in authority and the
that He lives eternally and perfectly within Himself,         derelict of skid row all agree that the Scriptures are so
and assures us that He establishes His covenant with          much nonsense, preaching is a deadly bore. They
Christ, and thus with us in Christ, that we may share         reject the Word to their own condemnation.
His life and blessedness forever. He declares, I,               Are you and am I any better? Can we boast of
Jehovah, am and forever will be your God. He                  superior intellect or willingness to bow before that
informs us of His mighty works of salvation through           Word? Amazing grace has given us a place among the
the cross, as He delivers the heirs of salvation from sin     elect for whom Christ died Amazing grace has drawn
and death into the glorious liberty of the sons of            us out of death into life, humbled us in shame and
God, unto the day when He will unite all things in            contrition for our sins, and made our hearts receptive
Christ, that we may dwell and bathe in His dazzling           through faith to receive the glad tidings of salvation.
glory forever. God always speaks as the sovereign God         Amazing grace teaches us to say: "Speak, Lord, for
Who must be feared. Blessed is every one who keeps            thy servant heareth!"
His commandments, and accursed is every one who
does not abide in all that is written in the  B'ook of the
Law to do it.                                                    Glory be to His blessed Name.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 173


EDITORIAL




                  The Clarion  and the Covenant
                                              ProJ: H. C. Hoeksema





  The  Clariolz  is "The Canadian Reformed Maga-           for the  Clarion  and  De Reformatie  has continued for
zine." For those of our readers who may be un-             many years.
acquainted with the church situation in Canada, the          It is probably an over-simplification to say this, but
Canadian Reformed Churches are the Canadian form           for the sake of brevity in furnishing this background
of the so-called Liberated Churches (Reformed              information I will say it nevertheless. At issue
Churches maintaining Article 31 of the Church              between our churches was  - and is  - the truth
Order) in the Netherlands. Sometimes they are              concerning the covenant, and especially the truth of
identified as the Schilder group. (I do not like such a    the covenant with reference to the children of
name, even as I do not like our denomination to be         believers and, in connection therewith, the signifi-
called the Hoeksema group.) After the Liberation in        cance of baptism. Briefly put, the Liberated hold to
the Netherlands, which was precipitated by the unjust      what we sometimes call the Heynsian view of the
discipline of Dr. K. Schilder and many others by the       covenant, which involves a general, conditional
General Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken in 1942,         promise to all the children of believers, to all baptized
ff., our Protestant Reformed Churches had con-             infants.
siderable contact with Dr. Schilder and with the
Liberated Churches of the Netherlands; and for a             Parenthetically, let me remark for the benefit of
while there was official contact between the two           some of our Australian friends who are  eoncemed
denoqinations aimed at discussing the possibility of a     about this question, the very fact that the Liberated
sister-church relationship. As far as Canada is  con-      disagree with us so strongly on this matter and accuse
ckmed, there was a large influx of Dutch immigrants        us of "building a whole dogmatic system on the point
to that country following World War II. For a time         of election" should also be an indication that we do
immigrants from the Liberated Churches were advised        not teach anything like what is sometimes called
to make contact with our Protestant Reformed               "automatic grace." You see, we hold to neither a
Churches; and there were even two PR congregations         general promise for all that are baptized nor pre-
organized (in Hamilton and in  Chatham, Ontario). All      supposed regeneration, but insist (with Scripture and
of this  cam5 to an end, however, with the adoption of     our confessions) that the lines of election and
the Declaration of Principles by our churches, as well     reprobation cut right across the generations of be-
as with the controversy which swept our churches           lievers. I do hope to write on this matter sometime in
and came to a climax in 1953 in connection with            connection with that question of "automatic grace,"
these matters. Since that time the Liberated immi-         but that will have to wait for a more convenient
grants in Canada have gone their own ecclesiastical        season.
way and have established their own denomination,             Now back to the subject at hand.
known as the Canadian Reformed Churches. Also the            Clarion  (Nov. 4, 1978) devoted almost three pages
Liberated Churches in the Netherlands have shunned         in its "Press Review" (by Rev. J. Geertsema)  to
us since that time, and there has been no further          criticize what I wrote on various occasions over the
contact. I refer, of course, to official contact; the      past three years in our "Question Box" on the subject
unofficial contact of exchange of the  Standard Bearer     of covenant-breaking and covenant-breakers. My  re-


174                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



sponse was delayed because there were other subjects                 Now I wish to assure the writer that we are well
which needed attention in these columns.                           acquainted with that history and the writings. Many
   It came as a bit of a surprise to find this critique in         of those writings were dealt with in the pages of the
Clarion.  Since the events of the early 1950s the                  Standard Bearer  after the Liberation. A bit later,
Liberated brethren have not shown much inclination                 especially in connection with our Declaration of
to discuss these matters with us, either in Canada or              Principles, there was no little polemical exchange
in the Netherlands. After the De Wolf group departed               between De Reformatie and the Standard Bearer. But
from us in `53, all discussion was broken off; and the             it was precisely many of those writings which
article now under discussion is one of the few, if not             convinced us of the wrongness of the Liberated ideas
the first, to make any further reference to this                   about the covenant and the promise, and which led
subject. For my part, I welcome discussion of this                 eventually to our adoption of the Declaration of
important truth any time. Personally, I would even                 Principles in an effort to insure that our Protestant
welcome official discussions between our churches.                 Reformed Churches would not be invaded by the
However, such discussion would have to be far more                 heresy of a general, conditional promise. Personally, I
basic than that offered by Mr. Geertsema; and it                   can recall many of the events of those years; and
would have to follow a different method and evince a               though I was not yet in the ministry at the beginning
different tone. For one thing, in the articles quoted I            of that history, I lived very close to the events of that
was not discussing the truth of the covenant in                    time; and in the later history involving these matters I
general, but merely answering a reader's questions                 played an active part.
about the specific subject of covenant-breaking. In                  But let me recall some of the earlier events.
the course of that discussion I assumed a certain                    First of all, it should be remembered that ever
knowledge of related truths on the part of my                      since 1939 (the time of his first visit to this country)
readers; and in more than one instance I made only                 our churches and our leaders had a goodly measure of
brief, passing reference to various important facets of            respect, friendship, and sympathy for Dr. Schilder.
the truth. If Geertsema wishes to have discussion (or              And I believe that as a result of the contacts in 1939,
debate) on the entire subject of the covenant, fine!               Dr. Schilder had gained in respect and friendship for
But' then let us have in-depth discussion, not critique            us, and also in sympathy for our views and position
on the basis of some passing references. For another               and struggle over against the Christian Reformed
thing, I do not like to have words put in my mouth                 Church in the matter of the Three Points of Common
and to be misrepresented. When brother Geertsema                   Grace. During World War II, of course, we largely lost
does that  - as he does in his article  - then he is not           contact, though I recall that we made efforts through
really criticizing me and my views, but fighting a                 government channels to inquire concerning his wel-
straw man; and that, of course, is both dishonest and              fare prior to United States entry into the war.
futile.                                                              As soon as communications were re-established
   Hence, by all means let us have  open  and  thorough            following the national liberation of the Netherlands,
discussion.                                                        we began to hear about the schism in the Nether-
   Nevertheless, I will reflect on and respond to some             lands. We heard of the decisions of the Synod of
of the points made in  Clarion's  "Press Review."                  Sneek-Utrecht concerning the various doctrinal dif-
                                                                   ferences prevalent in the Netherlands already in the
Background                                                         1930s; and we were, of course, especially interested
   Near the end of his article, Rev. Geertsema writes              in their decisions about common grace and about the
as follows :                                                       burning issue of the covenant. We heard about the
                                                                   hierarchical actions of the General Synod in sus-
           I also cannot understand that the struggle of the       pending such esteemed men as Dr. Schilder and Dr. S.
       liberation in The Netherlands, and all the articles and     Greijdanus and many others.. We heard  ab5ut the Act
       books of Prof. K. Schilder and others from that time,       of Liberation and the fact that the Liberated move-
       did not convince the Protestant Reformed people
       that they are wrong with their idea of a covenant           ment was growing by leaps and bounds. And, very
       with only the elect, and that they are not less wrong       frankly, our Protestant Reformed sympathies were
       with their unscriptural idea of a real covenant besides     with the Liberated, not only because of our friend-
       a "covenant sphere" for those children who belong to        ship toward Schilder, but even more because of the
       believing parents, but are not elected. . . .               unjust and hierarchical actions of the Synod in their
   There is a reference to history here, specifically to           high-handed and wholesale expelling of officebearers.
the struggle of the Liberation in the Netherlands and              Remember, too, that we knew something about
to the related writings of Dr. K. Schilder and others.             hierarchy by experience from our own history of
Geertsema expresses amazement that these things did                1924!
not convince us of the wrongness of our views.                       But we were intensely inquisitive about one  mat-


                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                175



ter: what were the views of the Liberated theologians                                is not that we are ignorant. Nor is it that Schilder and
about the covenant and baptism over against the                                      others-did not make their position clear. We know the
position of the synodicals.                                                          Liberated ideas of the covenant and the promise, and
   Well do I remember when we began to get reliable                                  we want nothing of them. We hold them to be
i n f o r m a t i o n .   W h e n   t h e   f i r s t   n u m b e r s   o f   D e    contrary to Scripture and the confessions. And if we
Reformatie  reached us after the war, we were simply                                 are to discuss these things thoroughly  - and I suggest
flabbergasted. I well remember that the late Rev. Vos                                that this be done with equal space  in Clarion  and
visited my father with one of those early numbers                                    Standard Bearer  - then it must be on the basis of
completely blue-pencilled, marking those sections                                    Scripture and the confessions, too. Perhaps  CZarion
which made it plain that the Liberated churches were                                 could begin by demonstrating that Heyns's view, or
addicted to what is known among us as the Heynsian                                   Prof. Veenhof's view as spelled out concerning the
view of the covenant, the view of a general, con-                                    general promise in  his  Appdl,   is consistent with our
ditional promise of God for all children of believers.                               Baptism Form.
The only element of Heyns's view which we did not                                    Misrepresentations
discover in  De Reformatie  at that time was the
element of a sufficient grace to all, children of                                       A discussion of these matters, however, cannot be
believers either to accept or reject the objective right                             fruitful as long as misrepresentations and "straw
to the blessings of salvation bestowed upon them in                                  men" are presented, as is done by Geertsema in his
the promise, an element specifically spelled out in                                  "Press Review."
Prof. Heyns's Ca teehe tics.                                                            There are several such misrepresentations.
   You must remember that Heyns's view was and is                                       In the first place, Rev. Geertsema writes: "The
anathema to us of the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                  Protestant Reformed view of the covenant is, accord-
It was so long before your Liberation. Herman                                        ing to what Prof. Hoeksema writes, God's covenant
Hoeksema disagreed with it already as a theological                                  with  the elect."
student under Heyns's instruction. Remember, too,
that it was principally Heyns's view which was                                          Now I will not hide the fact that we want to hear
adopted in the doctrine of the well-meant offer of                                   the heart-beat of election in all the structure of the
salvation in 1924  - a matter intimately connected                                   truth, including especially the truth of the covenant. I
with the whole position of our churches.                                             am not ashamed of this. Nor am I afraid of the
                                                                                     bogey-man presented later in Geertsema's article
   Further, you must remember that from 1945                                         when he writes: "In my opinion this is wrong (i.e.,
forward (and you can read of it in the  Standard                                     with our view): a whole theology or dogmatic system
Bearer,  Volume 22) we made it abundantly plain by                                   is built up on the point of election, and everything is
public and private writing that we stood diametrically                               pressed into the framework of this election." That
opposed to this Heynsian view and that there was no                                  kind of charge is sheer nonsense. But to write that
room for it in our Protestant Reformed Churches.                                     "the Protestant Reformed view of the covenant is . . .
Incidentally, Prof. Heyns was even quoted at length                                  God's covenant with the elect" is not only gross
and with approval by the Rev. R. H. Bremmer in  De                                   over-simplification, but it is serious  misrepresenta-
Reformatie  at that time (Vol. 20, No. 51).                                          tion.  What is the covenant? What is its nature? Is it a
   It was under these circumstances that we neverthe-                                means to an end, a way to a goal, as so many
less gave Dr. Schilder a sympathetic hearing in                                      theologians present it? Or is it the end itself, and, as
1947-48. He preached and lectured. We held two                                       Bavinck once put it, "the very essence of all religion."
lengthy conferences with him. We questioned him,                                     You see,  .when you merely say "covenant with the
and he answered in his typical Schilderian manner.                                   elect," you have not yet said anything about the
And while at least some of us were convinced that he                                 nature of that covenant itself. And the latter subject
personally was and intended to be Reformed, we                                       is important, also for the question of covenant-break-
were not at all convinced that the Liberated view  .of                               ing.
the covenant was not Arminianism applied to the                                         In the second place, Geertsema suggests that I did
covenant.                                                                            not answer the question concerning covenant-break-
   Things developed, both here and in the Nether-                                    ing. Writes he:
lands. To make a long story short, the result was the                                          Now a difficulty arises for me: the Bible speaks
present situation in which the Liberated and the                                             about breaking the covenant. This breaking of the
Protestant Reformed continue in sharp disagreement                                           covenant can only be done by those who are placed
and in separate church existence.                                                            in the covenant relation with God. Can we then break
   But I want to emphasize that we are well ac-                                              an eternal covenant?
quainted with. the Liberated position and writings. It                                  However, two things should be noted in this


176'                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



connection: 1) I do not concede and I did not write           confront and answer the question: how can an  eternal
that the covenant can be broken only by those who             covenant (as the Baptism Form speaks of it) or an
are placed in the covenant relation with God. This is         everlasting  covenant (as Scripture repeatedly speaks
Geertsema's assumption, not my position. 2) The               of it) be broken?
whole thrust of my articles on this subject was                 Finally, it is a gross misrepresentation to suggest as
explicitly that we cannot break the eternal covenant          Geertsema does that the implication of our  presenta-
in the sense of severing the covenant relationship. An        tion of the covenant is that God says to some
eternal covenant can be violated, sinned against,             children in baptism (i.e., to the reprobate children):
transgressed against; but it is in its very nature'as an      "To you I give nothing. For you your baptism is a
eternal  covenant that its bond of friendship cannot be       fake baptism, an empty form." I assure the brother
broken.                                                       that he can find  n,othing of the kind in our Protestant
  In the third place, Geertsema devotes two or three          Reformed writings on this subject. This presentation
paragraphs to suggesting that I deny the unity of the         is his, not ours. And it is an illegitimate conclusion on
covenant, separate between the old covenant and the           his part from our view. I also insist, however, that any
new, and even find two covenants in the old                   view which teaches that baptism seals a general,
dispensation, viz., a national covenant with Israel plus      conditional promise to all that are baptized is
a covenant with the elect. He further suggests that I         contrary to Scripture and the creeds and is just as
admit that the national covenant could be broken  -           guilty of holding forth to believing parents a vain
again in the sense of not merely transgressing against        hope as is the view of presupposed regeneration.
it but in the sense of severing its bond. Again,                The Lord willing, I will devote a separate article to
however, Geertsema sucks  th'is out of his thumb, not         the subject of my conception of a historic sphere of
out of my articles. I repeat: if there was anything           the covenant,. to which Rev. Geertsema takes such
plain in all three articles, it was my insistence that the    strong exception. In conclusion, I must express
covenant cannot be broken in the sense that the               wonderment at the things which Geertsema writes. I
relationship can be severed, and that, too, precisely         do not understand how he can write them if he has
because it is God's eternal covenant.                         seriously read and studied the voluminous Protestant
  Meanwhile, the Rev. Geertsema should seriously              Reformed writings on the subject under discussion.

THESTRENGTHOFYOUTH



                                   A Sure Foundation
                                                 Rev. Rodney Miersma




  We have reached that point in time when we once             man of sin and putting on the new man which has
more see the passing of the Old Year and the ushering         been renewed in Christ Jesus.
in of the New Year. Tradition dictates that this is the
time for revelry and merrymaking. This is when one              Young people, this is very important that we
"turns a new leaf" in order that he may now live              remember our God especially at the turn of the
much better, having set aside all his bad habits. The         calendar year. What do you see when you look back
world does  this, of course, apart from the fear of the       over the past year? Do you not shudder a bit? The
Lord. The believing child of God does not make all            year gone by reads like a very dirty book. Now
kinds of foolish New Year's resolutions which he              certainly we do not condone such reading in our
knows he is not going to keep anyway. No, the child           every day life. But that is what our life looks like
of God lives each day of his life putting off the old         when we view it in the light of God's Word. How


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  177



terrible! All our evil thoughts, desires, words, and           blood of atonement that opened the way for them to
actions are before us and we are mortified at the sight.       approach God. There they saw sacrifice for their sins
And apart from God we would do as the wicked, flee             after which they poured out their souls in thanksgiv-
terrified to the hills crying with a loud  ,voice; "Fall on    ing and praise unto God. The blessedness of this was
us." We are so ashamed of our actions at home with             that in this way they experienced fellowship with
respect to our parents and brothers and  sisters, and of       God.
our attitude in school, and church, or at work.                  That temple, now realized in the gathering of the
  Now it must not be condemned that you feel this              saints from all nations, tongues, and tribes, called the
way, that is, sorrowful for past transgressions. No,           church, has a foundation. And it is because of this
this certainly is our calling and one of the three things      sure foundation that, we can face the New Year in
that we must know in order to live and to die                  confidence. The foundation is none other than the
happily. But what do we do now? As mentioned we                Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
certainly do not cry unto  the hills to fall on us.            As the Son of God He is the revelation of the Father,
Certainly not! The knowledge of our misery is only             the Father having appointed Him to be the first-born
one part of a three-fold knowledge to live and die             of all creatures, the first-begotten from the dead. He
happily. We also have the knowledge of our redemp-,            is the Head of the church, the Word, Who alone can
tion in Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him is our all. By           reveal the Father to us.
faith we do not bury our heads in the sand,  ,but fix            That Word of God is recorded for us in the
our eyes upon the Lord "which hope we have as an               Scriptures. The Old Testament prophets were filled
anchor of the soul," Hebrews 6: 19. We flee not to the         by the Spirit of Christ. Christ spoke of Himself and of
hills but unto the Lord Who "is my rock, and my                His coming, of His redemptive work, whereby He
fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in            makes all things new. That Word became flesh and
whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my              revealed the mysteries of the kingdom. All that He
salvation, and my high tower," Psalm 18 : 2. We can do         prophesied He accomplished and He went to sit at
this because we have the certain knowledge and                 God's right hand from where He spoke through the
assured confidence that "the foundation of God                 apostles. We still have that solid foundation because
standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth              Christ still works through that same Word. He made
them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth              that Word the chief means whereby He gathers,
the name of Christ depart from iniquity," II                   defends, and preserves His church. Think of it! He is
Timothy 2: 19.                                                 the Shepherd Who knows His sheep and calls them by
   Let us pause a few moments at this point in holy            name and leads them  tq glory.
writ and see what strength and encouragement it can               That is the foundation upon which we stand. And
give to us as the return of Jesus Christ upon the              the text has something very assuring for us as we
clouds of heaven advances one year closer. Paul is             contemplate our stand for another year. The assur-
well aware of the many struggles that each. child of           ance is three-fold: 1) It is  God's  foundation; 2) it
God must endure. He had suffered many hardships                stands,  3) it stands  sure.  In other words, we can stand
himself. Even at the writing of this epistle he was in         fearlessly upon this foundation because, in the first
prison. Timothy was now in Paul's place preaching in           place, it is God's. God wrote that Word, moving men
Ephesus. As a young minister he was facing many                by His Spirit so that always it was Christ speaking
difficulties in the way of opposition from false               through them. The devil tries hard today to under-
teachers. But Paul gives Timothy and us, yea, the              mine that truth by saying that the Scriptures are the
whole church of all ages encouragement to keep up              product of God  and  man, or that they are no more
the good fight of faith because the church of God              than fables. But therein lies insecurity. Therein lies a
stands, and it stands sure. This must be our incentive         feeble grasping for a renewed life based on New
to be steady and faithful as we face the New Year.             Year's resolutions and the work of self. Whatever is
   Young people, do you realize what Paul is saying            built on that shall surely fall. But God's foundation
here? Remember, you are the body of Christ; you are            speaks of God and therefore it  stands.  That Word is
the temple of the living God, the house in which God           just as  stire and firm as God Himself. Times may
dwells forever. It is this house, you, that stands sure. I     change, but God never does, nor does His Word.
know that Paul here does not say house; he says,
foundation. However, you do not have a foundation                Therefore, it stands  sure.  Whatever false winds of
without a house. Furthermore, he speaks of a great             doctrine may blow, however fiercely the devil shoots
house in the next verse. This is neither a new or a            his darts at us, the foundation shall not be moved.
strange figure in the Scriptures. The figure refers to         What is so assuring in all this is that whatever is true
the temple of the Old Dispensation in which God                of the foundation is also true of the house. This is
dwelt. in the Most Holy Place. There Israel saw the            true because when Satan attacks Scripture, the


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


foundation, he does so with the express purpose of         John in chapter  6:37, "All that the Father giveth me
destroying the church, you and me and all the other        shall come to me; and him that  cometh to me I will in
saints. But if the foundation is sure then we who are      no wise cast out."
the house will not be swept away by the storms               What a comfort! What encouragement! We are
because we are firmly grounded upon the rock, Jesus        engraven  in the palms of God's hands and no forces
Christ.                                                    of darkness can ever snatch us out. This Word simply
       I direct this to you especially, young people. I    throbs with the love of God for us, eternal love,
know that we all need this Word. But it is the very        unchanging faithfulness, which keeps us forever
nature of youth to want to strike out on his own. In       founded on the firm foundation of the Word.
youthful exuberance one seemingly has the answers            This brings us to the other side of the seal, "Let
to all of life's problems. And so often we are not         every one that nameth the name of Christ depart
patient enough to wait upon the Lord and let Him           from iniquity." This is the blessed  fi-uit of election,
show us the way. Then we become like Jacob who             the carrying out of God's promise in us. Here we see
sinfully tried to obtain the birthright and its accom-     the evidence of what God promised us on the other
panying blessing in his own way, a sinful way. We          side of the seal.  Tht: work of God in our hearts causes
must wait upon the Lord and stand upon His                 us to name the name of Christ, that is, to confess that
foundation.                                                Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. This means
       How then are we to be sure that we stand on that    that we confess Him as the anointed of God, the
sure foundation? The text provides us the answer,          promised Messiah, our only Savior. Further, it means
"The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every        that we have the Spirit in our hearts. Thus, in God's
one that nameth the name of Christ depart from             house we stand as prophets, priests, and kings, vessels
iniquity." This is God's seal, His sign of surety, His     of honor which gladly serve to praise God Who dwells
mark of genuineness. The seal here has two sides.          in that house.
Both sides say something different, but somehow we           That Word upon which we stand works in us and
realize that the two sides belong together. On the one     calls us to depart from iniquity. By the power of
side we see the objective promise of God's Word to         God's Word and the working of His Spirit we love
us, and on the other side is the subjective experience     God's law.  .In all that we do we seek to be pleasing to
of that promise in our lives. How do we know that we       God and to our neighbor. We mentioned in the
stand sure? Because "the Lord knoweth them that are        beginning of this article that there were three things
l-h." That, youthful children of God, points to            necessary for us to know that we may live and die
nothing less than the sovereign election of God. Our       happily; here is the third, living a life of gratitude
God does not and did not choose His own out of a           unto God.
mass of people because of some redeeming virtue in
them. But He chooses them, wills them, forms them,           This is how we seek the New Year, seeking the glory
each according to His purpose for them in His house.       of God and the welfare of His church. It is only in
These were given to Christ, His only begotten Son,         this way that we manifest that we are on a firm
Who in turn died for them on the accursed tree. Hear       foundation, the Word of God itself.


IN HIS FEAR


                              The Terror of the Lord

                                               Rev. Arie Den Hartog





       We began in our last article to discuss the  im-    We called attention to the fact that almost all true
portant scriptural theme of the FEAR OF GOD. We            sense of the fear of God is gone from the modern
showed how prevalent this theme is in the scriptures.      Christianity we see around us. We emphasized that


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                179



this is in no small measure due to the many current             and he is waited for of the sword. He wandereth
heretical notions of who and what God is. The God               abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth
of modem day Christendom is not a God to be                     that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. Trouble
feared.                                                         and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail
  In discussions of what it means to fear God it has            against him, as a king ready to the battle."
often been stated, and that rightly so, that scripture            God Himself will have men to know that terror and
knows of two kinds of fear of God. There is the fear            dread. He reveals His wrath from heaven against all
of terror and dread and the fear of holy reverence and          the unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
awe. The one kind of fear of God causes man to flee             unrighteousness. He reveals His terrible judgments
from the presence of God with terror. It will make              continually in the earth. He does not leave man
men in the last day cry unto the mountains to fall on           without a testimony of that terror in their hearts and
them and to the hills to cover them from the wrath of           souls. He writes the work of the law in their hearts,
God. The fear of awe and reverence draws men to                 their conscience also bearing witness and their
God in the love of God. The fear of reverence and               thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one
awe causes a man to desire ever more to be near unto            another. Try as men will they cannot blot out the
God. That God fearing man earnestly longs to know               consciousness of that terror. By all sorts of means
ever more of His glorious majesty, perfect holiness,            men try to blot it out. They  .make, themselves busy
and blessedness. That fear causes him to desire                 with the things of this world. They occupy them-
earnestly to be pleasing unto God. It moves men to              selves in the revellings of sin and wickedness. But
come to God in deep humility, acknowledging in                  again and again that terror comes back to them.
great sorrow all their sins before Him and pleading for           God is indeed a terrifying God to the sinner. It was
His mercy. It causes him by grace to strive against all         Adam and Eve who first came to know that,
sin and flee from it. The fear of reverence and awe             immediately after they had fallen into sin. Once they
causes men to bow in humble adoration and worship               had known the blessedness of fellowship and
of God. The fear of terror is the fear that charac-             covenant communion with God. They had greatly
terizes the ungodly man, the impenitent sinner who is           rejoiced at the voice of God in the garden as God
filled with hatred against God. That man is altogether          came to walk and talk with them. In what is perhaps
devoid of the fear of reverence and awe before God.             the most pathetic passage of all of the scriptures we
The latter fear is characteristic only of the child of          are told what fear took hold on them after they had
God; it is the fruit of  gFace in his life; it is the result    sinned. When they heard God now walking in the
of the fact that the love of God has been shed abroad           garden they hid themselves because they were afraid.
in his heart.                                                   They became terrified of the righteous and holy God
  In our present article we shall concentrate on the            because they knew how awful their sin was in  His
fear of God that is best described as the terror or             presence.
dread of God. It is the terror and dread of the natural           Ever since the fall men have been terrified by the
man as he is made consciously aware that God is the             presence of God. And surely for the ungodly sinner
holy and righteous Judge of heaven and earth. It is the         God is a terrifying God. How many witnesses of that
horror of the man who comes to understand that God              do we have in scripture! Think of the terrible
is a terrible judge, that He is the discerner of the            judgment of the flood whereby the Lord destroyed
thoughts and intents of man's heart and that He will            the entire world. Consider the awful judgment of fire
righteously judge all of the thoughts and desires, the          and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
idle words and wicked deeds of man. It is the awful             Consider how the Lord in severe judgment first sent
horror of the man who knows how terrible the                    ten terrible plagues on Egypt and then drowned
consequences of his sin before the holy majesty of              Pharaoh and all his hosts in the Red Sea. Think of
God are. He knows that the righteous and holy God               the revelation of God to Israel on Mount Sinai at the
will in perfect justice finally place him in the place of       time of the giving of the law. There were thunderings
everlasting damnation, the place of weeping and                 and lightnings and the mountain shook and there was
gnashing of teeth, the place where the worm dies not            a thick cloud upon the mountain and the Lord spoke
and the fire is not quenched, the place of outer                in a voice of a loud trumpet. The children of Israel
darkness, complete separation from God. That terror             became so terrified that they begged Moses that the
is the cause of terrible anguish in men. Job speaks of          Lord no longer speak with them directly but that He
this in Job  15:20-24:  "The wicked man travaileth              speak only to Moses. Think of the awful judgments of
with pain all his days, and the number of years is              the Lord upon Israel in the wilderness. Think of the
hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his             terrible judgment of the Lord upon Uzzah who
ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.          touched the holy ark of the Lord. Think of the
He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness,          judgments of Nadab and Abihu. How often the


     180                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     prophets spoke of the terror of the Lord. "Therefore            The terror of the Lord must be declared in every
     He hath poured upon him the fury of His anger, and           place, by the preaching of the Word and by the
     the strength of battle; and it hath set him on fire          testimony of the saints. It must be declared to all
     round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet         men, both to God's people and to the ungodly. The
     he laid it not to heart." Isaiah  42:25 "I have trodden      ungodly must know the terror of the Lord that in the
     the winepress alone; and of the people there was none        day of judgment they may be left without excuse.
     with me; for I will tread them in my anger and               They must not be told the lie that God loves all men
     trample them in my fury." Isaiah 63  :3 The Psalmist         and is gracious to all men. They must be told that the
     speaks of the anger of the Lord in Psalm 90: 11:             holy and righteous God cannot and does not love the
     "Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even                  sinner, for that would be a denial of His  pery being as
     according to thy fear so is thy wrath."                      the Holy God. They must be told that the anger of
       The New Testament speaks the same language. The            the Lord is upon the wicked.
     writer of Hebrews writes, "For if we sin  wilfully after       Scripture speaks in many places also of the terror
     that we have received the knowledge of the truth,            of the Lord to God's people. It has often been said
     there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a             that God's people do not fear God with a fear of
     certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery  in:          terror and dread. This is surely the teaching of the
     dignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that       scriptures. The blessed gospel to the saints of God, to
     despised Moses' law-died without mercy under two or          those who believe His word and repent from their sins
     three witnesses; of how much greater punishment,             and turn unto Him with all their heart is fear not. The
     suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath             love of God that is shed abroad in the hearts of the
     trodden under foot the  Son of God, and hath                 saints drives out fear. Yet this must not be misunder-
     counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was          stood in the sense that the teaching of the terror of
     sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite           the Lord is not to be declared among the saints.
     unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath          Already in the  garden  of Eden there was a threat
     said, vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recom-             added to the command of obedience for Adam and
     pense, saith the Lord. And again the Lord shall judge        Eve. They may not eat of the tree of the knowledge
     the people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands     of good and evil, for in the day that they would eat
     of the living God." Hebrews 10: 26-3 1                       thereof they would surely die. Moses in his masterful
       How awful it is that we hear today so many false           discourse in the book of Deuteronomy told Israel
     prophets and heretics who are denying that God is a          over and over again to fear God and keep. His
     terrible God. The notion that God is a God of just           commandments and serve Him and they would be
     and holy wrath against the sinner is heard very little       blessed in the land of promise. But to this he added
     in our day. Many would even seek to deny this by             over and over that if they would at all forget the Lord
     making a caricature of such a God. Just recently I           their God His anger would be kindled against them
     heard a minister deny this by saying that God does           and He would destroy them as He had destroyed the
     not constantly go ranting and raving about heaven            heathen nations before them. The.Psalmist speaks of
     because of the sin of mankind. The vast majority of          the terror of the Lord in verse 11 of  Psalm  90 saying:
     modem day preaching speaks about a God who loves             "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?  seven
     all men and a God who is graciously disposed to all          according to thy fear so is thy wrath." Because of this
     men. What an awful deception such preachers are              in the following verse he prays, "So teach us to
     propagating. How this kind of preaching causes men           number our days that we may apply our hearts unto
     to think that God is pleased with them in spite of           wisdom." In connection with speaking of the cutting
     their continued impenitent wickedness. All the while         off of Israel the apostle  Paul warns, "Be not
     the Lord is angry with the wicked every day and His          highminded, but fear; For if God spared not the
     curse is continually in the house of the wicked. Yet         natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not
     modern day preachers would lead men to believe that          thee." Romans  11:20-2 1. Paul speaks of the terror of
     all is well, there is no need for fleeing from sin, there    the Lord in connection with the urgency of the
     is no need for repentance because the Lord loves you         preaching of the gospel. "Knowing therefore the
     and has a wonderful plan for your life. The scriptural       terror of the Lord, we persuade men," II Corinthians
     teaching of hell is made the object of mockery and           5: 11. The passage from Hebrews 10 quoted above is a
     jest. More and more churches are teaching the heresy         very severe warning against those who would  apos-
     that scripture does not speak of an eternal hell, that       tatize from the faith. Though the love of God has
     such is completely out of harmony with a loving God.         expelled terror from our hearts it is only the faithful
     A Presbyterian minister in our area said recently,           and obedient child of God who is free from that
     "One thing I know for certain, that God will surely          terror. The terror of the Lord is used to keep us  from
     not place any of His creatures in hell."                     disobedience and apostasy.



L


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                181


FROM HOLY WRIT





                              Exposition of Galatians

                                                     Rev. G. Lubbers





CHRIST HAS MADE US TRULY FREE FROM SIN                         free from both the  guilt  and the  corruption  of sin.
AND GUILT (Gal. 5: 1)                                          (Heid. Cat., Questions 60, 61, and 64)
                                                                 However, the apostle is here interested in the
  Paul now comes to the great "therefore." Stand               "yoke of bondage" of the law, which would rob us of
fast  therefore,  says he. In the light of all that the law    our justification by grace through faith. And that is
teaches concerning the two sons of Abraham, one a              an intolerable yoke. That yoke was Egypt's bondage
bond-son and the other a freeborn son, we must                 for Israel of old. From this cruel bondage God
identify ourselves as being sons of Sarah, of Jerusalem        delivered Israel, under the blood of the Passover lamb
above. We are not under law, under sin any more. We            in the night of nights when Israel. went forth trium-
are now free with a freedom wherewith Christ has               phantly, marching out of Egypt. And then comes the
liberated us. And since we are not sons of the                 great "precept of the Gospel" to Israel in the words
bondwoman, Hagar, but of the freewoman, Sarah, we              of the Covenant, "I have delivered you, I am your
are born from above by the Spirit and we are indeed            God, the LORD." Now walk at liberty and have no
freeborn, and ever remain in God's church.                     other God but serve only your great Covenant God
  Here is the great precept of the Gospel of liberty.          and deliverer. (Exodus 20: 1; Deut.  5:6) Yes, yes, here
Here is the unique freedom from sin, guilt, and                we have the great precept of the Gospel in the Old
corruption. Christ has become for us wisdom of God,            Testament! And it is read each Sunday morning in our
righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemp-            public worship service. It does not put us under a
tion. We must not try to stand in any brand of                 "yoke of bondage" once more at all, but it is the
liberty. Those who do not stand in this liberty,               royal law of liberty for erstwhile captive slaves, you
holding fast to it by faith, clinging to the  Gospel-          and me. Hallelujah, Amen! And the `ten command-
teaching, must needs become legalists or antinomists.          ments say, "Stand, therefore, in the liberty whereby
The former have a "yoke of bondage," the latter are            Christ has made you free." Never, never forget that I
men of sinful license, who use their liberty as an             have delivered you in the blood of the Lamb, slain
occasion for the flesh to revel. In this "stand fast" we       from the foundations of the earth. My little lambs in
do not have a legal demand of law, but we have the             Egypt were but a type of the Lamb of God which
fundamental precept which flows from salvation in              carried away the sin of the world.
Christ itself. It is our "reasonable service" in Christ.         People of God, let no one bewitch you with
(Rom. 12: 1) This is the very logic of grace which             enticing words!
cries out, "God forbid." (Rom. 6: 1, 15) It is the
impossibility to once more place. oneself under the              The giving of the law is connected with Calvary'!?
principle of law as well as to walk in sin that grace          fulfilment of the law.
may abound. Justification and sanctification are  both           Yes, precepts  of the Gospel! And these are the
ours in the blood of Christ, His death and resurrection.       precepts of the Gospel by which God works grace
Both Christ's righteousness and holiness are ours in           through the Holy Spirit. And let no man, not even an
the satisfaction of Christ. Our liberty is that we are         angel from heaven, separate this preaching of the


182                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



precepts of the Gospel from the operation of the            attention to the purported sabbath-breaking of his
Holy Spirit, be it then to damnation or to salvation.       disciples: their plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath
We must not tempt God in the church. (Canons of             when they were hungry. (Mark  2:24) Paul would have
Dort, III, IV, 17) In these precepts, connected with        the Galatian readers take particular notice of what he
the preaching of the Gospel, we hear that great             here is saying. It must sink deep down into their
ambassadorial cry: be ye reconciled to God. Let us          hearts. Secondly, notice that Paul says, "I, Paul, say
heed it!                                                    unto you." I, Paul, the called apostle of Jesus Christ
   There are two parts to this precept here in  Gala-       not by men, but by God himself, (Gal. 1: 1) separated
tians 5: 1. They are two sides of the same coin. On the     unto the Gospel from my mother's womb, (Gal. 1: 15;
one hand we must stand in our liberty. That is on the       Rom. 1: 1; Acts 9:  15), I say unto you, Do not take
foreground. Really, when we stand in the liberty            this lightly, brethren! Thirdly, notice this statement is
wherewith Christ has made us free with all our heart,       one which partakes of an ultimatum; there is finality
mind, soul and strength, then we will be free; and are      in it. Anyone who is circumcised, after he has become
fleeing all yoke of legal bondage. We then cling to the     a believer, by such an act of  circu-recision comes to
Cross of Christ, where through law we died unto law,        stand in the legal status before the throne of God, the
that .we might live unto God.  (Ram.  7:6; Gal.             judge of heaven and earth, as not being in Christ's
2: 17-19) And so we do not become entangled once            atoning work on the Cross! He is not righteous before
more under a yoke of bondage, and tempt God. (Acts          God and an heir of everlasting life. Christ profits such
15:10, 11)                                                  a man in nothing. All the merits of Christ and the
                                                            benefits of Christ for such a man are zero. Paul does
   Once more we must not become "entangled" with            not merely say: Christ shall  not  profit him. Not at all.
the yoke of bondage. We must not go back to                 He says Christ shall profit  you in nothing.  The Greek
zealously keeping days, months, times, and years            term is  `"ouden. " In Romans 8: 1 we read that there is
from a mere law-principle. We are not sons of Hagar,        condemnation in reference to nothing  (ouden)  to
Sinai, but we are born from above and are free. We          those who are in Christ Jesus. Paul lists the catalogue
keep the sabbath from the principle of being free to        of this  "ouden" in Rom.  8:3 l-39. All things work
serve the Lord on His feastday, set aside for us. Yes,      together for good to those who love God, the called
yes, that is God's  precept  of the Gospel. It cannot be    according to His purpose of election. But here all that
ignored with impunity. (Heb.  10:25-31)  It is a ter-       is attributed to the believers are denied to those who
rible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.       "are circumcised." They are totally under law!
Such is the lot of all who count the blood of Christ a
common thing, and do despite unto the Spirit of               Paul enlarges upon this in verse 3 of Gal. 5. He
grace. But heeding the precepts of the Gospel leads to      repeats this more strongly and with great clarity and
freedom, is freedom, is holding fast our freedom in         emphasis. He repeats with great protestation. He
Christ, and never, never becomes a "yoke of bond-           becomes the witness in the witness chair in God's
age," for it is the light burden and the easy yoke of       court. He solemnly affirms here something to every
Christ. (Matt.  11:28-30)  It is the commandment of         man, who becomes circumcised: they are totally
Christ which is not grievous. (I John  5:3) Thus we         under the, law, and under the whole law of Moses
never get entangled in the yoke of bondage, but stand       with all the impact of, "do this and thou shall live",
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free!      and "cursed is every one that continueth not in all
                                                            things which are written in the book of the law to do
CHRIST PROFITS NOTHING TO THOSE WHO                         it." For circumcision is the Old Testament bloody
DESIRE TO BE UNDER LAW: CIRCUMCISED.                        sign which said that the true sacrifice had not yet
(Galatians 5 : 2-4)                                         been brought, and that the righteousness which is
                                                            ours by faith had not yet been realized! It said, in
  Paul makes a very solemn declaration here which           effect, that Christ had not yet died. This was indeed.
amounts to an ultimatum. Writes he, "Behold, I Paul         accounting the blood of Christ a common thing, a
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall       treading under foot the Son of God, and doing
profit you nothing." (Gal.  5:2) There are three things     despite unto the Spirit of grace. And such have no
in this strong sentence which call for our attention. In    profit in Christ, yea, they are in the legal status of
the first place, that he begins by saying "behold."         being servants and not sons, who have the Spirit
The term in Greek in the New Testament is  "ide."  It       crying in their hearts: Abba, Father. This brings
is used at the beginning of sentences as an utterance       these Galatians and all who desire to be under law up
of one who wishes that something should not be              short. It should stop them in their tracks!
neglected by another. (Matt.  26:65) It is used by
Caiaphas in his judgment hall when he would con-              Yes, the whole law these circumcised are debtors
demn Jesus for what he called "blasphemy." And it is        to do. We, who are in Christ and have the Spirit, are.
employed by the Pharisees when they called Jesus'           not debtors unto the flesh to serve the flesh. But


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     183
                                                            -

such, who would be circumcised and return under                  who have no hope in Christ.
law, are indeed debtors to serve the flesh. They are                Writes he very emphatically, "for we expect the
not free, but they are in spiritual bondage. The law             hope of righteousness out of faith"! What a beautiful,
cannot make alive, and the law cannot give the power
to do the law. These did not die to law through law              concise statement of our position in grace! In the first
to live unto God. Such are fallen from Christ, from              place, Paul here puts himself in the class of the entire
grace, who would be justified by law. They have                  body of Christ, the totality of all believers, who
wholly come to stand as those for whom Christ is of              belong to Christ, and who are, therefore, the real
"none effect." There is not any power of grace and of            Israel of God, the spiritual children of Abraham. This
the Holy Spirit to save them, neither is there any               is a glorious confession of faith. It is the key-note of
atonement for such!                                              the confessions of the church, "We confess with the
  Well may the Galatians and we distant ourselves                mouth. . .  ." And in this confession we are saved.
from this law-righteousness in all its forms. A little           Furthermore, he speaks of the earnest expectation of
leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Beware of the                   the church. The term in the Greek is  "ap-ek-dech-
leaven of the Pharisees. (I Cor.  5:6; Matt.  16:6, 11;          ometha.  " It means to assiduously and patiently wait
Matt.  23:3, 13)                                                 for the final salvation and final justification in the
                                                                 day of Christ. Thus it is employed in Romans  8:23
OUR ONLY HOPE AND EXPECTATION OF                                 where Paul speaks of the church's waiting for the
RIGHTEOUS  (Galatians  4:5, 6)                                   final, public adoption of sons, when all creation shall
  Paul draws here a very strong and marked contrast              be delivered from the bondage of corruption to the
in these verses between the true believers and those             glorious liberty of the children of God.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE





                                          I Corinthians
                                   God is Faithful (2)

                                                  Rev. J. Kortering





  4. Sexual sins condemned and instruction given                 helpful, but always impair. Fornication is a  sin,  not a
regarding marriage, (6:  12-7:40).  In this section Paul         matter of Christian liberty. Eating food is a matter of
deals with two basic issues.                                     Christian discretion. It satisfies a physical need. But
  First, the fact that fornication is not a matter of            sex is not the same; our bodies belong to Christ (vs.
Christian liberty (6: 12-20). Christian liberty is ex-           15). He redeemed them (vs. 20). Through the resur-
pressed as, "all things are lawful to me, but all things         rection of Christ, our bodies belong to Him eternally
are not convenient," or helpful, (6: 12). Sins are not           (vs. 14). Fornication violates the exclusive union we
lawful. They are condemned by God. Nor are they                  have with Christ; it is a spiritual act of adultery (vs.


184                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



15-17).  Hence it is a sin against the body which is the      situation was different and so he sets forth two
temple of the Holy Spirit (vs. 18).                           principles. First, there is no sin in the food itself, (vs.
   Secondly,. there are times when it is better to be         l-7). Second, we may not give offense (vs. 8-13). A
single (unmarried) than married  (7:1-40). We must            strong Christian knows that idols are vanity; but if a
remember that Paul was writing during a time of               weak Christian thinks there might be something to an
distress, persecution (vs. 26). He does not belittle          idol; he would be tempted to sin and worship the
marriage in general. Consider that Paul specifically          idol, hence be offended. We must be careful that we
states, in I Tim.  4:3, that "forbidding to. marry" is a      do not lead another into sin and thus give offense.
sign of  apostasy;  and in Eph.  5:22-33  he tells us that       Paul illustrates this principle from his own life.
marriage is a reflection of Christ and His marriage to        There are times in a Christian's life when he will deny
the church. Paul also instructs those who have not the        himself something for the sake of weaker brethren.
"gift of continence," who have the desire for sexual          Paul did this in connection with taking money from
expression, that they should marry (vs.  7-9), and also       the churches. As an apostle, he was entitled to
married people must not look upon  sexual.reiation as         financial support  (9:1-18). The churches were obli-
something bad, but that which must be considered as           gated to support him, even should he be married, as
part of marriage, so much' so that he warns husbands          was the case with Peter, vs. 5. The ox that ground
and wives not to  .abstain from sexual relations for a        corn in Israel ate freely and was not muzzled, (vs.
long period lest they be tempted to sin, (vs. 3-6).           S-10). Yet, he did not take money for his preaching.
Divorce is wrong and a married person should not              Rather he engaged in tent-making as a means to
seek the spiritual advantages'of being not married by         support himself in order that no one in Corinth could
leaving his spouse `(vs. 11). Also regarding unequal          accuse him of preaching for money, (vs.  15-l 8). In his
marriages, in which one is a believer and the other an        ministry he accommodated Jews and Gentiles in
unbeliever, brought about by the conversion of only           many ways, in order that he might gain the more, (vs.
one spouse after their marriage, he writes that if the        19-23). In this way a Christian gains the prize of the
unbeliever is willing to live with the believer, then the.    high calling, (vs. 24-27). This says something to
believer should accept this (the marriage is sanctified       ministers and members of the church concerning a
by one being a believer and perhaps the believer may          willingness to deny ourselves legitimate things for the
be the means to save the unbeliever). If the unbeliever       sake of the gospel of Christ. The history of Israel in
departs, let him depart (vs. 12-17). Incidentally, this       the wilderness is proof for the  need  of self-denial
same principle applies to circumcision and servants,          (10: l-8). They were well taken care of, yet they
(vs. 18-24). He goes on to advise virgins (both male          yielded to idolatry, fornication, and tempting Christ.
and female persons who are unmarried) that they                 There is another reason why they should not eat
should not marry, not because it is wrong, but                meat offered to idols. They themselves might sin. The
because there are two advantages in remaining un-             Co.rinthians  faced this temptation. If they saw
married. First, they will have less suffering during the      nothing wrong with it, they might want to attend the
time of tribulation (it is a fact that during persecution     public feasts in the city. If they did this, it would be
a husband and wife and parents carry more of a load           an act of idol worship, because such a one identified
when they see their loved ones suffer) and Paul would         himself spiritually with the feast,  (10:9-22). It is a
spare them this, (vs. 25-31). In addition, unmarried          different matter if one buys food in the market and
people have more time and effort to devote to the             eats such food at home, (vs.  lo-27),  provided that no
service of spiritual things than married, (vs. 32-35).        one makes a big deal about it. If someone says, I
Hence parents too must not forbid the marriage of             bought this in the market and it was offered to idols,
their children, but must counsel them concerning the          he obviously is tempting, and one should not eat of
responsibilities of marriage and  to  marry in the Lord,      it, (vs. 28, 29). This might lead him to justify
(vs. 36-40).                                                  idolatry.
  During this discourse, Paul refers to the lack of             6. The problem of women appearing in church
commandment and he gives his opinion, (vs. 6, 12,             without a veil (1  l:l-16). The veil upon a woman's
17, 25, 40). By commandment he refers to the Old              head was a symbol of sexual modesty and willing
Testament Scripture. He cannot quote from it; there           submission to her husband. This was not only true in
is no reference. His opinions are spiritually guided          the church of Paul's day, it was part of eastern
and inspired so that they are indeed the Word of God,         culture everywhere. Paul proceeds to show that by
binding upon the churches, vs. 17.                            wearing the veil, believing women would express their
  5. The problem of eating food offered to idols              agreement with these two qualities. God established
(chapters S-10). According to Acts  15:29 the Council         that the responsible head of the woman is the  .hus-
at Jerusalem decided that the Gentile converts should         band, and the wife must submit herself to him, (vs.
abstain from meat offered to idols. The Corinthian            4). And a woman without a veil acts as a shorn


                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    185



woman, one marked as a whore (vs. 5, 6). Both must                                   reduced to this one thing, that they made too much
accept their God-given place which was determined                                    of it.
already in creation (vs. 7-9). This is especially true in                               Quite naturally, when the whole church is excited
public worship when the angels are present (vs. 10).                                 about speaking in tongues, some will speak out of
As head, man is not independent of the woman, nor                                    human emotions and not of true spiritual enlighten-
by submission is a woman slave to a man, but both                                    ment. Paul warns them that they should know the
need each other and assist each other (vs. 11, 12).                                  difference, since they were converted from idolatry,
Even the natural growth of the hair indicates that                                   and all spiritual activity should acknowledge that
God wants a woman covered, while a man loses hair                                    Christ is Lord (12: l-3). The purpose of speaking in
and becomes bald, (vs. 13-15). This is a spiritual                                   tongues should be profit, edification (vs. 4-7). Speak-
matter at heart and therefore he adds that anyone                                    ing in tongues is only one of many gifts  tihich the
who wants to argue over this point for the sake of                                   Spirit gave the church. Paul mentions wisdom (to
argument must not be entertained (vs. 16). We must                                   enable one to lay hold of the gospel), knowledge (set
learn from this that outward conduct both in dress                                   forth the revealed truth), faith (ability to triumph by
and appearance reflects what we are inside. As Chris-                                its power), healing (restore health to the sick), mira-
tians we must not project ourselves as ungodly, but as                               cles (a broader term including raising the dead),
children of God.                                                                     prophecy (receiving revelation from God and speak-
   7. The problem of corrupting the celebration of the                               ing it forth), discerning the spirits (able to see
Lord's Supper (11: 17-34). The church of Corinth con-                                difference between truth and error), speaking in
nected the Lord's Supper with eating a meal. This                                    tongues and interpreting them (foreign languages and
influence may have come from two sources:. the                                       to convey the truth of the gospel while others could
heathen were accustomed to eating a meal with their                                  translate this), verses 8-10. One thing is clear, these
sacrifices; and the Christian churches were celebrating                              gifts are of the Lord alone (vs. 11).
love feasts in which they provided a meal for the poor                                  To understand the place of spiritual gifts in the
and distressed, (see Acts  2:42,46).  Now the Corinthi-                              church, Paul now draws a comparison between  the
ans decided to have this meal in the church; and                                     human body and the church. He enumerates these
sometime during or after the meal they added the                                     points: first, as the body is a living organism, so also
sacrament  of, the Lord's Supper. This explains the                                  is the church, (vs. 12-13); second, as there are many
corruptions mentioned here and the stern warning                                     organs yet one body, so there are many members yet
that by so doing they were worse off (vs. 17-l 9). At                                one church, (vs. 14); third, as all the members of the
these feasts some were neglected and went hungry                                     body are not alike, so also in the church, (vs. 19);
while others drank too much and became drunk (vs.                                    fourth, as all members of the body need each other  or
20, 21). This practice took  away from the Lord's                                    they cannot function, so also in the church, (vs. 15,
Supper its purpose, namely to look to Christ for                                     16); fifth, as God has determined the place of each
spiritual food and not to come to the supper for                                     member of the body, so He also does this in the
natural food or even alcoholic drink (vs. 22). Paul                                  church, (vs. 18); finally, as even the least esteemed
reminds them of the original purpose as instituted by                                member of the body is important, so in the church,
Christ (vs.  23-25), which requires of them confession                               (vs. 20-23). From these points of comparison, Paul
of sin and self-examination (vs. 26-29). Mutual                                      draws out the following principles that apply to the
discipline is important because God will judge those                                 situation in Corinth and so for us as well. First,
who corrupt it (vs. 29-33). Social eating and Christian                              whether a member has special gifts or not must not
hospitality must be practiced at home, and the                                       interfere with the harmony of the church, because
sacrament of the Lord's Supper reserved for the                                      God tempers the whole church by giving to the
church service (vs. 34).                                                             member that lacks, a special gift, (vs. 24); second, all
   8. The problem of speaking in tongues and the                                     the members must care for each other to prevent
o r d e r l y   c o n d u c t i n g   o f   t h e   c h u r c h   s e r v i c e s    division, (vs. 25); and thirdly, there is a mutual joy
(12: l-14:40). Speaking in tongues was one of the                                    and sorrow reflected in the triumphs and defeats of
many special signs given to the New Testament                                        the membership, (vs. 26). The conclusion to all of
church by the Holy Spirit to show His presence. By                                   this is that God gives offices and gifts to the members
speaking in tongues a person spoke in a foreign                                      of the church not for their personal exaltation, but
language with which he was not acquainted. Joel                                      for the well-being of all the members. It is good to
prophesied this would take place, (Joel  2:28), and                                  seek the best gifts for the sake of the entire church,
Christ mentioned it, (Mark  16:17,  18). In the                                      (vs. 28-3 1).
Corinthian church it became part of their worship
service. This led to many abuses, all of which can be                                                  - to be continued -


186                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE





                                    Letter to Timothy



                                      January 15,1979
Dear Timothy,                                                Word to His people is distinct from the calling to
                                                             exercise authority over God's people. This surely is
  You will recall, if I may for a moment review our          not the case.
discussion, that we were talking about this whole
question of whether Scripture permits women to hold            While it is true that the authority which any
the office of deacon. In an earlier letter we showed         officebearer possesses in the Church is an authority
that Scripture nowhere speaks of deaconesses. Be-            by virtue of his office to which Christ has called him,
cause this was somewhat of an argument from silence,         nevertheless, this authority is always and only the
we went on to show that Scripture expressly forbids          authority of the Word of Christ which the  office-
women to hold office in the Church. We briefly               bearer brings. Only Christ's Word ever has authority
examined two key passages, I Cor.  14:34, 35, and I          within the Church. And the officebearers exercise
Timothy 2: 11, 12, to show that women are enjoined           authority only when they come with the Word of
by Scripture to keep silence in the Church. But then,        Christ.
in order to answer the argument that this includes             And so this leads us to the third remark we must
deaconesses, we began a discussion of the nature of          make in connection with the right of men only to hold
the office of deacon to show that it is true of this         the office of deacon. It is not proper to distinguish
office as well as of the offices of elder and minister       between the office of deacon on the one hand and
that deacons exercise authority in the Church and            the offices of minister and elder on the other hand on
that they also are called to bring the Word of God.          the implicit or explicit grounds that deacons do not
We argued, first of all, that this was true on the basis     exercise authority, and that, therefore, as long as
of the two passages where the office of deacon is            women remain deacons only, they may hold this
spoken of in Scripture: Acts  6:1-7 and I Timothy            office for they are not in violation of the Scriptural
3  :8-l 3. And we argued secondly, from the nature of        injunctions found in I Cor.  14:34,  35. and I Tim.
the office itself. Christ is the only Officebearer in His    2: 11, 12. Or, to put it a little differently, if women
Church Who provides for all the needs of His people.         are given the right to hold the office of deacon, they
He does this through the special offices in the Church       are given the right to "speak in the Church," a right
because through these special offices He exercises           which Scripture expressly forbids.
authority over His people; but this authority is always        And this brings us to the fourth point which needs
the authority of His Word.                                   to be made.
  We must pursue this whole question a bit further.            It has always been maintained in Reformed Church
  When in the last letter I wrote to you that the            polity that there is what can only be called a certain
office of deacon is an office in which deacons both          overlapping of the offices. While it certainly is true
exercise authority and bring the Word of God, I did          that each officebearer is called by Christ to bring the
not mean to say that these are two distinct functions        Word of Christ according to the nature of his own
of the office. You must not conclude from these              office whether minister, elder, or deacon, it is also
remarks that the calling of deacons to bring God's           true that because the authority of each office is the


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                              187


authority of the Word of Christ, these offices neces-            sure. 5) Church visitation. 6) Administration of fi-
sarily overlap somewhat in the actual life of the                nances. 7) The general  admiriistration of benevolence
Church. There are many instances of that. For one                matters. 8) General business administration of the
thing, even our Church Order provides for some such              material interests of the Church. 9) Consideration of
overlapping. In Article 16 the work of discipline is             general correspondence.
assigned to both ministers and elders: "The office of               Now it is clear from all this that even in those
the ministry is to continue in prayer. . . and, finally,         congregations where elders and deacons meet sepa-
with the elders, to exercise church discipline and to            rately for their own unique work, there are many
see to it that everything is done decently and in good           matters which must be dealt with by both elders and
order." More particularly, however, Article 37 reads:            deacons. These matters involve the rule of the
"Whenever the number of elders is small, the deacons             Church. If women, therefore, are permitted to hold
may be added to the consistory by local regulation;              the office of deacon, they will also, in the nature of
this shall invariably be the rule where the number is            the case, be permitted a voice in certain aspects of the
less than three." Concerning this matter Van  Dellen             rule of the church. And then they will be in direct
and Monsma have some interesting remarks to make                 violation of the Scriptures.
in their  Church Order Commentary. They write:                      This fact extends far beyond even what we have
       "First of all then, the three offices of the N.T.         discussed above. If women are voted in as deacons
    Church are derived from Christ's threefold office and        there is nothing at all to prevent them from also
    correspond to these. . . . Each office has its distinct
    task, though the offices are more or less inter-related      leading worship services in the congregation in those
    and they have their unity in Christ.                         places where deacons are added to the Consistory.
                                                                 And so we could go on.
       "Whenever necessary these three types of  office-
    bearers may work together in governing the Churches             The whole point is that the principle of Article 84
    and in caring for the poor. Elders then act as assistant     of the  ,Church Order is a Scriptural principle. Article
    Deacons and Deacons as assistant Elders. Thus it must         84 reads: "No church shall in any way lord it over
    be done in very small congregations, numbering less          other churches, no minister over other ministers, no
    than three Elders.                                           elder or deacon over other elders or deacons." Posi-
       "This special arrangement of full cooperation of          tively stated, this article teaches that all the offices
    all the offices is altogether permissible in view of the     are on a plane of equality. And they are equal
    essential unity of the office in Christ. . . .               because they are all representatives of Christ through
       "From the foregoing it will be clear that when the        whom Christ is pleased to rule over His Church.
    Deacons are part of the Consistory they should be               There is still one other matter which we might
    considered to be full-fledged Consistory members.            mention in this connection.
    They have a voice and vote in all matters which
    pertain to the government of the Church, even as the            It sometimes appears that those who argue in favor
    Elders under these circumstances have a voice and            of women in office do so. on the grounds that by
    vote  in'all matters regarding the Church's work of          excluding women from office, women are pushed
    mercy. To deny the Deacons a right to vote in cases          into a position of inferiority in the Church of Christ.
    of discipline, for instance, would be contrary to the        The argument goes something like this. To hold an
    Church Order and the duties which have been im-              office is to hold a position of authority over others.
    posed on them by local arrangement." (p. 166)                Those who hold such positions of authority are, by
  The question might  be asked: But is this also true            virtue of that fact, placed in a superior position.
in those congregations where the elders and deacons              Those who are excluded from such positions of
meet separately? The answer is that even where elders            authority are placed in positions of submission to
and deacons meet separately, they nevertheless meet               authority, and are relegated to inferior positions in
together in matters which pertain to the congregation            the Church.
as a whole, among which matters are matters which
also concern the government of the church. Van                      This is a false argument and is based on a serious
Dellen and Monsma quote Jansen on what matters                   misconception of the whole office. The Scriptures are
ought to be treated by general meetings where both               very clear on the point that those who hold positions
elders and deacons are present. These include: 1) All             of authority within the Church do not occupy supe-
matters pertaining to the election of office-bearers:             rior positions over others so that they can, by virtue
Nominations;  final decision whether or not one                   of their office, relegate others to a lower status. Quite
chosen shall be called; consideration of objections               the opposite is true. This is clear, for example, from
registered; releasing one from his call to office, etc.           the Lord's teachings in John 13: 12-17. At the time of
2) The issuing and receiving of certificates of Minis-            the last celebration of the Passover Feast with His
ters arriving or departing. 3) Provisional consideration          disciples, Jesus had taken the opportunity to wash
of and decision regarding emeritation. 4) Mutual  cen-           His disciples' feet. After finishing and after answering


188                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



the objections of Peter, the Lord said: "Know ye              But He laid down a fundamental principle of
what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and             lordship here when He added: "Ye also ought to wash
Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your        one another's feet.  For I have given you an example,
Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also            that ye should do as I have done to you." The point
ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given         is that the disciples had to learn that to occupy a
you an example, that ye should do as I have done to        position of authority was  not  to occupy a position
you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not    superior to others. The truth is the very opposite. To
greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater     occupy such a position was to be a slave of those over
than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy      whom they were placed. Then and only then would
are ye if ye do them."                                     they properly fulfill their role in a position of
   Now Jesus' teaching here is plain. Jesus was the        authority. So it is always in the Church. Officebearers
Master and Lord of His disciples. He was their             are the servants and slaves of those over whom Christ
supreme Lord. Yet He took upon Himself the lowliest        places them. This is, from this viewpoint,  an inferior
of menial duties  - a task assigned to the lowest of       position. If this were understood properly, perhaps
slaves, And He did this because of the fact that He        there would not be all this silly propaganda for equal
was teaching them that as their Lord, He had to            rights for women in the Church.
become their Servant. His Lordship could only be              So, Timothy, we come to the end of the argument.
exercised properly by becoming the lowliest of their       From every point of view, Scripture forbids women
slaves. And He did this  when He suffered and died on      to hold office in the Church. May God keep us
the cross for them to take away their sins and secure      faithful to His Word.
for them washing by His blood.                                                       Fraternally in Christ,
                                                                                     H. Hanko

STUDIES IN ISAIAH





                          God's With Us! Fear Not!
                                              Rev. Robert C Harbach





  "For so spoke Jehovah unto me in the being strong        just naturally inclined to imitate anything violent and
of the hand (of God impelling me) and dissuaded            wicked. They do not see lurking dangers as their
(disciplined) me from going in the way of this people,     parents do. They are not able to distinguish clearly
saying, `Do not call conspiracy (treason) everything       and quickly right and wrong in a sound, mature way.
which this people shall call conspiracy (treason), and     Hence their need for constant instruction and guid-
its fear fear ye not, nor be awed (by their line).         ance. Some wrongs are hidden by "the plausible cloak
Jehovah Tsebhaoth himself sanctify ye, as He (is)          of public opinion," so that many are brought "to
your fear, and He your terror" (v. 11-13).                 adopt an established custom as if the will of the
  The picture in v. 11 is that of a father, who, by his    people had the force of a law to authorize their
hand, seizes his fickle, unresponsive child so as to       corruptions." This affects children so that they are
compel him, for his own good, to obey. Children are        liable to become addicted to the "Well, everybody is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               189


doing it"  defence mechanism. Everybody's doing it          upon the Lord. But to that faithless element, in the
doesn't make it right. We are not concerned with the        cases referred to, this was surely treason. When the
question, Is it popular? but with the question, Is it       prophets called upon the theocracy to act  theo-
right? But it is often surmised that if wrong gets to be    cratically, they were accused of conspiracy (E. J.
prevailing, then it must be right. Evil and wrong are in    Young). When the true Church calls upon the
this world in epidemic proportiqns. But an epidemic         churches in the world to stick to their one exclusive
of small pox. for example, does not make the disease        calling to conduct only ecclesiastical matters in an
desirable or socially acceptable, but rather all the        ecclesiastical manner, it is branded as obscurantist,
more dreadful! Men, in the natural sense, see these         obstructionist, and troublemaking.
things readily enough. Why are they unable to see              "Neither fear ye their fear." Do not fear the terror
them as they apply spiritually? Any dead fish can           of this people who think all is lost if they do not have
float belly up downstream; it takes a live fish to          the Assyrians for their allies. There is nothing to fear
swim against the current.                                   from those two kings,  who are no more than the two
  Isaiah himself had been disciplined and well taught       butts of smoking firebrands. The kingdom of Judah
in truth, righteousness, and godliness, that he might       can not fail, until Shiloh come, until Immanuel be
teach the more forcefully and effectually. One who          born of a virgin in His own land. Today, so many
teaches and preaches out of rich personal experience        believe our nation would be helpless without the
and from the heart is most likely to reach the hearts       United Nations connection we have, although there is
of his disciples. So the prophet says, The Lord             very little, if any, advantage to show for our alliance.
instructed me, disciplined me, and so dissuaded me          Our nation looks more to such alliances than it does
from going in the way of this apostatizing people.          to the Lord, being more like Ahaz than Isaiah. Some
They go astray, trusting in ungodly alliances and           in the nation like to frighten themselves, and others,
seeking counsel from spirit-mediums. To do this is to       with warnings of plots and conspiracies they are
fall into a Deistic denial of the providence of God.        always forecasting. It becomes an amusement, with
Many are dissatisfied with God's providence and have        every occurring evil, to look for evidence of a plot
long since given up trusting in it. They want               and to cry out, Conspiracy! Not that there is no great
something more (but certainly not more up-to-date).         deal of treason within the professing church. Just
So they turn to the occult, to such pseudonymous            recall the Remonstrants within the Reformed
sciences, as spiritism, astrology, witchcraft, Satan        Churches of the Netherlands. But the point is, Do not
worship, clairvoyance, extra-sensory perception and         be afraid: the Lord will preserve His remnant!
para-psychology, the latest form of necromancy. A
few years ago the high priests of the science hierarchy       We do not need some sort of fetish of neo-science
                                                            to ward off earthly dangers or to  exorcize unearthly
showed nothing but utter contempt for all this evil         demons. For the Lord of hosts himself is your holy
nonsense as infantilistic superstitious animism. Now        fear. Do not fear what these dabblers in deviltry fear.
they themselves are dabbling in and dallying with           Have a reverential fear of Jehovah, in which you
everything occult.                                          sanctify the Lord God in your hearts in faith and love.
  "Do not call conspiracy everything this people call       This means that you regard and treat Him as holy.
conspiracy." Remember Athaliah at the inauguration          King Saul, in going to a spiritist, a medium, regarded
of the boy king  Joash.  She cried, Treason! Treason! (2    God as vile, like the whole filthy business of the
Chron.  23:l3). She had made this motion, but was           occult. But He is the Holy One, the God of hosts, of
not seconded, as it was not treason, but reformation        the hosts of the armies of men, of the myriads of
and justice. God commands His prophets and His              angels and of Satanic forces. But if there is no fear of
saints not to be swayed by the false policy of crying       God before men's eyes, they will tremble continually
treason or conspiracy against them. Jeremiah, for           with inordinate alarm. The revival of witchcraft and
example, had preached that the nation must sur-             Satanism is evidence enough that they who have to
render to the inflooding enemy, that doing so they          do with this dark, offensive slime no longer know the
would be spared, while resistance would result in           true God, no longer believe in His holiness. Perplexed
their destruction. But the officers of state despised       and confused, they torture themselves with their
this as treason and put Jeremiah into a miry dungeon        mind- and soul-destroying iniquities, in which they do
for what they deemed capital crime. Amos, too, was          not sanctify the Lord in their hearts, but instead,
charged with conspiracy by the apostate priesthood          devote themselves to every loathsome abomination.
(Amos 7: 1 O-l 3). So Isaiah and his disciples might        They have, in effect, altered the glory of the
expect to suffer. All these prophets were branded as        incorruptible God into an image of corrupt man, and
conspirators against the state and its cherished, but       to images of birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles. They
corrupt foreign policy. For they opposed appeal for         make the living God a dead idol. Doing so, they
foreign aid, advocating instead absolute dependence         forsake the only haven of safety and protection. So


190                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



they, the fearful and the unbelieving, suffer troubled       days. So the fear of the Lord is the expression
minds, shattered nerves, chronic phobias, and                denoting the whole of true religion, the very at-
wretched uneasiness as God's just judgment on their          mosphere in which a Christian lives and breathes.
denials and insults to Himself and His holy Being.           Where there is religion, but no godly fear of Jehovah,
Hear what He says to the redeemed of the Lord: "I            there is no true religion. Godly fear consists in godly
even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou,             living, in knowing, loving, and living God's perfect
that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die,       will. At the very center of it all, godly fear is
and of the son of man who shall be made as grass, and        depending on the precious blood and sacrifice of
forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched           Christ Jesus as our only. ground of confidence.
forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the
earth; and `hast feared continually every day because           This one sacrifice was not enough for King Ahaz. A
of the fury of the oppressor,  `as if he were ready to       member of the Old Testament church, he apostatized
destroy? and where is -the fury of the oppressor?"           to totally abandon the worship of God. He went off
(Isa. 5 1: 12-13).                                           to worship when, where, and how he pleased. Drawn
                                                             to the latest in cultured, aesthetic religion, he went to
                                                             Damascus, where he thought he found it in a pagan
   Such as go to the occult for their religion, comfort,     altar. It was more of his idea of an altar, and he
and  cidance,  God has given over to a reprobate mind        wanted one like it. The old-fashioned Davidic altar
(Rom.  1:28),  and it is all a sign that God has forsaken    seemed abominable to him, and the abominations of
them. Comfort there is not from that source, neither         the heathen seemed beautiful to him. So he became
from, above nor from beneath  (8:2 1,  22), for they         an independent. But he was not content simply to
knock at the gates of hell to find a friend and get          abandon the religion of Jehovah in favor of his
benevolent advice. The danger of the occult is God's         neology. For he set  About  stamping out the worship
abandonment, to -be left to Satan, to be taken captive       of the Lord. He broke up the holy vessels of God's
at his will. Strange, how the perverted mind  .seeks         house, extinguished the lamp of Gdd in His temple
counsel other than from God, that is, from the  Devil,       and shut its doors. How much better to be able to
God's rival! As Milton makes that fallen angel say, If I     say, "My knee shall bend to God, and God alone; but
fail with heaven, I will succeed with hell. But a holy       if my knee never bends to God, you may depend
fear of God over all, blessed forever, is proof of the       upon it, it will soon be bending when I do not want it
grace of God's covenant, and leaves the covenant             to do so  - it will tremble before the face of man. If
member in perfect peace with the strength of                 you fear God with a deep and powerful fear, you
quietness and confidence.                                    shall fear nobody else; you should be able to say
                                                             before a fierce tyrant. like Nebuchadnezzar, with  .the
  This holy, gracious fear of  the Lord is especially        three holy children, `Be it known unto thee,  0. king,
the Old Testament way of expressing the whole of             that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
godliness. It does not merely express one Christian          golden image which thou hast set up.' The fear of
virtue; it expresses also worship of God, love for Him,      God is the death of every other fear. Like a mighty
motivation to please Him, avoidance of all evil, and         lion, it chases all other fears before it." (C. H.
diligently to walk in holiness and righteousness all our     Spurgeon).


                                         Book Reviews

COMMENTARY ON REVELATION,  by Henry                          For one thing, it has a valuable introduction of 219
Barclay Swete; Kregel Publications, 1977; 338 pp.,           pp., in addition to the 338 pp. of the Commentary
$12.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                         proper. The Introduction treats of matters such as
                                                             contents and plan of the book, Christianity in Asia at
  There are not many good commentaries on the                the time of writing, use of the Old Testament and
book of Revelation, so this volume is a welcome              other literature,  Doctrin6, history and methods of
additidn to one's library. The author lived in the 19th      interpretation, and many other subjects. Another
Centu@,  served as a pastor in an Anglican church and        valuable feature, especially for a minister, is that the
became professor, of pastoral theology at King's Col-        text contains the entire Greek text of the book along
lege, London in 1882.                                        with critical notes. Further, the interpretation  is.
  There are several valuable features about the book.        reasonably sober, brief and to the point.


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  191



   The main criticism of the book is the influence of                      Reformed and Presbyterian circles.
higher criticism. This is not all-pervasive, but it does                     Written from the Lutheran  persp'ective,  the book
require that the commentary be used with care. The                         sharply sets forth the Lutheran position, especially
author, e.g., believes that Daniel was not the author                      overagainst Calvinism, and, more especially, on the
of the last part of his prophecy; that the narrative of                    question of the sacraments. Its Lutheran bias is
Acts 2 is perhaps unhistorical; that inspiration has                       unmistakable.
some human limitations. The effects of this higher
critical approach can be seen, e.g., in the author's                          Especially valuable is the lengthy discussion of the
interpretation of Rev. 13. The beasts of this chapter                      attacks on Scripture made by the heretics as they
are made to refer to the Roman Empire because the                          sought to defend and develop the historical-critical
wound of the beast (the death of Nero) and the                             view of the higher critics.  There is a wealth of
                                                                           material here and many pungent and excellent criti-
healing of the wound (the story that Nero was not                          cisms of the method, which makes for good reading
really dead) were ideas influencing Christian thought                      for all who defend the integrity of Scripture and the
of that time.                                                              truth of its infallible inspiration.
   Nevertheless, the book can be of help in under-                            We recommend the book.
standing Revelation and in giving the student of
Revelation new ideas to ponder and study.

                                                                           PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, by
ANATOMY OF AN EXPLOSION,  by Kurt E.                                       H. C. G. Moule; Kregel Publications, 1977; 252 pp.,
Marquart; Baker Book House, 1977; 176 pp., $3.95                           $5.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)
(paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                         Kregel has printed a number of commentaries by
   The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church has been                             this same author, some of which have been reviewed
tom by conflict, which conflict is not yet over. This                      in these columns. This work on the Holy Spirit
book deals at length with the strife which has gone on                     includes a number of papers written by the author
in that Church body, and, as the subtitle says, it                         which are  collecteti for the first time in book form.
concentrates on the theological questions. The sub-                        These studies are more devotional than theological,
title reads: "A Theological Analysis of the Missouri                       although, of course, they include many theological
Synod Conflict."                                                           insights. Subjects such as the following are  .included:
   It includes a brief history of Lutheranism in this                      "The Dual Procession"; "Union With Christ by the
country and investigates the conflict from the broad                       Spirit"; "The Holy Spirit as the Interpreter of Scrip-
perspective of Lutheranism throughout the world. In                        ture"; "The Spirit Convincing of Sin"; "The Spirit
discussing especially the  theolqgical issues involved, it                 Glorifying Christ to  the,Soul"; and a treatment of the
takes a close look at how the heretics dealt deviously                     doctrine of the Spirit in the various New Testament
with the Lutheran Confessions and shows the danger                         writings. While adding little that is new to the truth
of this. This section of the book is valuable reading                      concerning the Holy Spirit, the book makes interest-
for those who must deal with the same problem in                           ing reading and is recommended.




              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   The Martha Ladies Aid Society of the Hull, Iowa, Protestant                The Ladies' and Men's Societies of the Randolph Protestant
Reformed Church hereby expresses its sincere sympathy to Mrs. Tom          Reformed Church expresses its  .Christian  sympathy to their fellow
De Jong and Mrs. Frank Vogel in the loss of their mother  - and to Mrs.    members, Mr. and Mrs. Ted Huizenga and Mrs. Grace Fisher in the
John Boer and Mrs. John Hoekstra in the loss of their sister, MRS.         death of their brother, MR. JOHN HUIZENGA, who passed away
ALBERT VOGEL, at the age of 88 years.                                      December 8, 1978.

   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."            In their bereavement may they find grace to speak the words of I
(Psalm 116:15).                                                            Peter  I:3  - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
                                             Martha Ladies Aid Society     which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
                                           Mrs. Nellie Brummel, Sec'y.     lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."




                                     Know the standard and follow it.
                                  Read  The Standard Bearer

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


192                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



                                News From Our Churches

   Rev. Kortering has declined the call extended to         study with interested people there. The Mission
him from our Southeast Protestant Reformed                  Committee expected to hold Sunday preaching ser-
Church.                                                     vices in Charlotte beginning on January 7. Rev.
   First Church in Grand Rapids has undertaken a            Herman Veldman has spent a number of weeks
church extension project in Bradenton, Florida. In          preaching in Skowhegan, Maine. He expected to
response to a number of requests that our churches          return there after the holidays. This work is in
do  s'ome work in this area, the First Church  con-         addition to the labors of our missionary, Rev. Robert
sistory has decided to hold preaching services in           Harbach, in British Columbia and to the work of Rev.
Bradenton beginning on December 3 1. Services will          John Heys in New Zealand.
be held in the auditorium of the Manatee Hotel at              The Reformed Witness Committee of our church in
309 10th Street. A midweek Bible Study class will           Redlands, California, recently sent out one of their
also be held. These services will be advertised in the      little papers entitled "God's Desire To Save" to 938
local media. Each of our ministers who spend a few          h o m e s   i n   t h e   Redlands  a r e a   a n d   1 4 6   o n   t h e i r
weeks in Bradenton will also be expected to do a            permanent mailing list. The Reformed Witness Com-
good deal of work in personal contacts with those           mittee of our church in Loveland, Colorado, sent out
who express interest in our churches. This work was         540 copies of the pamphlet "Discipleship In The Face
not conceived as a "winter church" for those of our         Of Apostasy." Loveland Men's Society sponsored a
people who spend some time in Florida during the            program on the mission work of our churches in
winter months, but as a genuine effort in church            Singapore on December 5. Rev. James Slopsema,
extension with a view to establishing a congregation        pastor of our church in Edgerton, Minnesota, spoke
in that area. Prof. Robert Decker will be the first of      and showed slides. Rev. Slopsema spent a month in
our ministers to preach in Bradenton. Prof. Decker          Singapore early in 1978.
expects to labor there for three weeks, leaving the            There was quite a number of special activities in
area on January 22. At this writing, the schedule of        our churches for the Christmas season. The young
those who are to follow Prof. Decker is not definite.       people of our churches in the Grand Rapids area
  The pastor of First Church, Rev. Meindert                 gathered on Sunday afternoon, December 24, in the
Joostens, expects to leave for Jamaica on January 17        new Faith church auditorium for their Christmas
with Mr. Clare Prince. This will be a short trip of         Mass Meeting. Rev. Van  Baren was the speaker. The
about 10 days. The mission work on the Island of            Hudsonville Choral Society presented their Christmas
Jamaica continues under the direction of our                program the same evening. The Hudsonville young
denominational Mission Committee. Rev. Joostens             people brought carols, bread, and other goodies to
and Mr. Prince will teach and preach, but also will         some of the shut-ins and elderly of their congregation
attempt to assist the struggling churches on the Island     the week previous. The young people of  Redlands
with some of the many problems they face.                   also went caroling at the homes of the senior
  There seems to be quite a bit of activity in the area     members of the congregation on December 19. After
of Missions and church extension activity in our            caroling, they held a Christmas party. The  Redlands
churches presently. The bulletin of our church in           Choral Society also presented a Christmas program
Pella, Iowa, contained this additional summary: "If         after the evening service on December 24. An offering
the Lord wills, Rev. Marvin Kamps and Mr. Dewey             was taken for new Psalters and Bibles for the new
Engelsma will travel to Singapore after the first of the    church  Redlands plans to build. The South Holland
year. They plan to labor there for a period of up to        Mr.  & Mrs. Society went caroling at the South Holland
two months. Rev. Mark Hoeksema and Rev; Wayne               Holland Home on December 7th. The Sr. Mr.  & Mrs.
Bekkering recently spent two weeks in Birmingham,           Society of First Church in Grand Rapids held their
Alabama. A young man from that area is presently            pre-Christmas meeting in the Holland Home in order
attending our seminary. Rev. Bernard Woudenberg             that the 15 members of the congregation living there
continues to travel from his home and church in             might join them. in Bible discussion, carol singing and
Kalamazoo to Charlotte, Michigan, to meet and to            refreshments.                                                  K. G.  V.


