                                  .
     .szNbARD  ,;

BEARER
f- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





8
                 "not . . . in  the  same manner" is
       .  0 l



     not intended to  deny that election and
                                  -.
     reprobation are the same in that both are
     decrees; both are eternal; both are
     sovereign and unconditional; and both
     are decisive  for  men's everlasting
     destinies.

                      See "The Reformed  Doktrine
                      of Reprobation" L page  256


                                        Volume LV, No. 11, March 1, 1979 1


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                           CONTENTS:                                                                                                                  I
                                                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                ISSN 0362-4692                        I
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                                                                                                                                                                I
MEDITATION


                                             God's Gift of Faith
                                                                      C Hanko



                 Ques. 20. Are all men then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ?
                 Ans. No; only those who are ingrafted into him, and receive 611 his benefits, by a truk
              faith.
                                                                                            Lord's Day 7, Heidelberg Catechism

Only                                                                                                                                                                 t
   The sin burdened soul asks in wretched misery, Is                                That raises another anxious question, How can I
there no way of escape from the righteous judgment                           make. satisfaction for my sin? Though I wash myself
of God? Is there no way in which I may be restored                           with strong soaps or powerful antiseptics I cannot
to God's favor and have peace with God? The answer:                          wash away a single guilty stain. Scripture answers:
Yes, there is an only way. `Satisfaction must be made.                       What is impossible with man is possible  iwith God.
God's justice must be satisfied. The debt of sin must                        God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself,'
be paid to the last penny. (Lord's Day 5).                                   nevermore to reckon sin unto His people. There is


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       243



one only Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. (Lord's           in the last day. (I Pet.  1:5). By. grace are ye saved
Day 6,  &es. 18).                                           through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift
  Yet a question gnaws at the soul: How do I know           of God." (Eph.  2:8).                        -
that this is true? The one and only answer that can
ever be given is, Scripture is God's infallible revela-
tion, fully inspired, completely authoritative. The         The Gift of God
mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Therefore the glad
tidings of salvation is nothing less than God's sure          We are brought back to the question of our
promise directed to the -heirs of grace. (Lord's Day 6,     Catechism: "Are all men then, as they perished in
ques. 19).                                                  Adam, saved by Christ?" We readily confess that all
                                                            men, including ourselves, perished in Adam. "For as
  One more question: How do I know that this                by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
promise is for me? My own heart responds: By faith,         sin;    a n d   s o   d e a t h   p a s s e d   u n t o   a l l   m e n ,   f o r
by faith only. For by faith we are ingrafted into           that all have sinned." (Rom. 5: 12). `The ques-
Christ, to receive Christ and all the benefits of           tion now is, Are all men saved in Christ?
salvation. The confession is aroused within us, not         Is Christ eternally appointed to be the Mediator of all
once, but ever anew, "I believe!" This is my comfort,       men? Was the atonement of the cross intended for all
my only comfort in life and death, for body and soul,       men? Did Christ pay -the debt of sin for all men as
that I am not my own, but belong to my faithful             they perished in Adam? To those questions there is
Savior Jesus Christ.                                        but one positive answer: No! Scripture is very plain
  How wonderfully this confession harmonizes with           on that. Christ did not die for all men. All men are
all that is taught us in Scripture. Let us recall just a    not saved by Christ, neither according to God's
few references. We read that Abraham believed in the        intention, nor in reality.
Lord, and the Lord Jehovah counted it to him for              But who then are saved? Our book of instruction
righteousness. (Gen.  15:6). Here the word for              teaches us, "Only those who are ingrafted into him
`believed' means `to carry.' The figure calls to mind       (Christ), and receive all his benefits, by a true faith."
one who bears a heavy load; he bears up under it,
even though it threatens to crush him. God had                We are reminded that 90% of an iceberg lies hidden
promised to the patriarch Abraham a son in his old          under the surface of the water. A skyscraper has its
age.  .Can- God give a son to an old man who is married     foundation firmly imbedded in the ground on solid
to a barren woman? Can the promised Seed still be           rock. Jesus speaks of the wise builder who by faith
born of two who are as good as dead? Yet Abraham            builds -his house, not on the shifting sands of his own
stood firm in accepting the Word of God that                works, but on the solid Rock, Jesus Christ.
promised the impossible. He believed in God. By that          That we are ingrafted into Christ has for us
faith he was assured that his Savior would surely           tremendous implications.
come to deliver him from sin and guilt and impute to          First, without being ingrafted into Christ by a true
him righteousness, making him worthy of eternal life,       faith one cannot be saved. Faith is not a mere assent
as if he himself had merited it. Scripture comes with       to the truth of Scripture. It is not a matter of opening
the recurring assurance, the just man lives. Only he        the door of one's heart to allow Jesus to enter. Nor is
who is just before God has eternal life. He has that        it a reaching out of the hand to accept the proffered
life because he is righteous in the sight of the living     salvation, or a making of a decision to let Christ
God. He has that righteousness imputed to him by            change one's life.
faith. He carries the assurance within him of eternal
life by that same faith. "The just shall live by faith."      Second, we are like dead branches of the old,
What a wonderful experience it is for the sin-troubled      gnarled tree of Adam, dead and rotting. A dead
soul that cries to God for mercy, to hear Jesus say to      corpse cannot see, or hear, or respond. Jesus teaches
him, Thy sins, though they be ever so many, are             us that except a man be born again he cannot see the
forgiven thee! Our sins. are forgiven as if they never      kingdom of heaven, much less enter. We are not
did exist. The word for "believing" in the New              worthy to be saved, nor can we want to be saved, nor
Testament means "to bind," "to join together." What         will we be saved if that salvation depends on us. We
a rich concept! God binds Himself to us by the bond         need to be tom loose from the fallen human race to
of living faith, so that we are one with Him as His sons    be ingrafted into Christ, in order to be saved.
and daughters, the heirs of salvation forever. That           Third, ingrafting implies a union with Christ. There
faith is like a private telephone line that keeps us in     is what is sometimes referred to as a mystical union
constant contact with God and with our fellow saints.       with Christ, which goes back to eternity. Paul makes
Thus we are kept by the power of God  through faith         the confession, "For  ,to me to live is Christ." (Phil.
unto the salvation that is waiting to be revealed to us     1:2 1). This already implies that we have no real life


244                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



apart from Christ. We lie in the midst of death under         Christ. that we mav bear fruit in Him.  (Rim. 11: 17).
God's righteous judgment. Christ is the sole reason           In John 15 Jesus calls Himself the true vme and refers
for our salvation. God chose Christ as the great              to His disciples as branches, which draw their life from
Servant in His House, the revelation of His glory, the        the vine, and only thereby are able  to/ bear fruit.
Head of the church, which is given to Christ. as His          Christ bears fruits unto life eternal in us. The bond
body. We are as intimately one with Christ as the             that unites us to Christ is the bond of faith. Our
body is one with its head. We are chosen in Christ as         Canons speak of that faith as a gift of God,
individual members of His Body. The overwhelming              "conferred, breathed, and infused." "He  1 who works
wonder of grace, so deeply humiliating, is that we            in man both to will and to do, and indeed  bll things in
should be counted among that people that God has              all, produces both the will to believe, and the act of
chosen  unto. Himself `as His peculiar possession in          believing also." (Canons III, IV, article 14).
everlasting glory. 0 the depths of the riches of that            Fifth, along with faith the Lord spreads His love
grace! Each of us can only ask, Why me? Why me,               abroad in our hearts. Our hatred is turned to love,
who only deserves eternal condemnation as the worst           love to God and  tothe neighbor, by the very fact that
of sinners?                                                   our heart is renewed. The life of Christ pulsates
  There is also that wonder already mentioned in our          within us. What a radical change that brings in our
Catechism, that God has established a mediatorial             lives. Our entire attitude toward God  and; toward His
union between us and Christ. Eternally Christ stands          dealings with us undergoes a radical change. We
as the representative Head of His people, their               repeat the cry of  Psalm 38,
Prophet, their Highpriest, their eternal King. The Son                                                      I
of God takes on our flesh and blood, to become like              "0 Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither
unto His brethren in all things, only sin excluded.              chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Born out of the sons of Adam, in the covenant line of            "For thine arrows stick fast in me,  a& thy hand
Abraham, as the royal Seed of David He joins Himself               presseth me sore.                        I
with His people as one with them, their Mediator and             "There is no soundness in my flesh  ibecause of
Savior. Just think of it: when He took upon Himself                 thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones
the wrath of God, it was God's wrath against our sins               because of my sin.
that He took. When He stretched out His arms to be               `&For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as
spiked to the cross, we were nailed with Him on that                an heavy burden they are too heavy for me."
accursed tree. When He suffered torments of hell, we          The plea of Ephraim becomes our plea:  I"Tum. me,
suffered those torments in Him. When He cried, "It is         and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God."
finished,' we shouted our victory in Him. When He             (Jer. 3 1: 18). We experience a common bond with the
died, we died. When He arose, we arose. When He               publican as he stands hardlv within the temple gate,
ascended to heaven, we were exalted into heavenly             beating his breast with the  &y, "God be irmerciful to
perfection with Him. I lend my ear to Paul's                  me a sinner." (Luke 18 : 13). With the Phil' )pian jailer
testimony, "And you . . . were dead in trespasses and         we ask, "What must I do to be saved?" (1!i:ts  16:30).
sins. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love       We hear the voice of Jesus calling, "Con1e: unto me,
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in              all ye that labor and are heavy laden,  ami I will give
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by             you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and  116;am of me;
grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together,          for I am meek and lowly in heart: and y.e shall  find
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ         rest unto your souls. For my yoke is ea`?Y,  and  my
Jesus. Eph. 2:  1,4-6).                                       burden is light.  "
  Fourth, Christ establishes a vital union between            "I believe"
Himself and us by His work of grace in us. Our                   "How blest is he whose trespass hath i-reely been
Highpriest in the heavens intercedes for His people on             forgiven,
the basis of His atoning work of the cross. He is also          Whose sin is wholly covered before t:h.e sight of
heard by the Father, Who  ladens  Him with every                   heaven.
spiritual blessing, which, Christ, in turn, bestows on          Blest he to whom Jehovah irnputeth  no1:ijhis sin.
His people. The first blessing, that is, the first work of      Who hath a guileless spirit, whose  hc:zu-t is true
grace in the heart of the dead sinner is regeneration.             within."
Regeneration is the implanting of the heavenly life of
Christ in our hearts. Or, to express it a bit differently,      With the apostle we can say, "I am  U-L :ified with
regneration is that act of God whereby we are                 Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but  C n-ist liveth
ingrafted into Christ to become partakers of Christ           in me: and the life which I now live in  the flesh I live
and of all His benefits. Paul speaks of the fact that we      by the faith of the Son of God, who lov d me, and
as natural branches of the wild olive tree of Adam are        gave himself for me." (Gal.  2:20).
bra-ken off to be ingrafted as living branches into             For to me to live is CHRIST.


                                               THE  STANbARD BEARER        ,!                                     245



EDITORIAL
Prof H. C Hoeksema





                              Creed in Crisis, Indeed!


  It is rather well-known, though thus far little              synod further appointed a committee of nine (3
discussed, that the Christian Reformed Church has              elders, 3 pastors, and 3 theological professors) "to
before it a gravamen by Dr. Harry Boer against the             receive the reactions of individuals, consistories, and
doctrine of reprobation as taught in the Canons of             classes, to study the gravamen in the light of
Dordrecht, I, A, 6 and 15. A "gravamen" is a charge            Scripture, and to advise the Synod of 1980 as to the
of error against the confessions of a church. Since            cogency of the gravamen and how it should further
those confessions are the subordinate standards of a           be dealt with by synod." Finally, the Synod of 1977
church  - subordinate, that is, to Scripture itself  -         advised "the churches that all communications
and since those confessions for their authority appeal         concerning the gravamen be sent to the Gravamen
directly to Scripture itself, it is in the very nature of a    Committee by June 1, 1979."
gravamen that it charges that the teaching of the                Thus far there has been very little public discussion
creed is not the teaching of Scripture or is contrary to       in print of this gravamen, and there has been no
Scripture. It follows from this that the sole test to be       head-on debate on the issue with which the Christian
applied when a church is confronted by such a                  Reformed Church is confronted in the Boer  grava-
gravamen is the test of Scripture itself.                      men.
  In his so-called "confessional-revision gravamen"              It was a hopeful sign, therefore  - so I thought  -
Dr. Boer petitioned the Synod of the Christian                 when  The Outlook  (February, 1979) presented an
Reformed Church in 1977 to apply this test and with            article by the Rev. Nelson D. Kloosterman under the
him to declare that there is no "express testimony of          title, "Creed In Crisis." For in a very real sense the
sacred Scripture,", as the Canons claim there is, to           Canons of Dordrecht  are. in crisis in the Christian
support the Reformed doctrine of reprobation as set            Reformed Church. Note carefully: I do not say that
forth in  the Canons. The reader must bear in mind             the doctrine of reprobation or two articles about
that I am stating the matter very politely. In actual          reprobation are in crisis, but the  Canons  themselves
fact Dr. Boer does not only "murmur at the just                are in crisis. If the Christian Reformed Church heeds
severity of reprobation" (Canons I, A,  18), but he            Dr. Boer's gravamen, the Canons of Dordrecht will be
growls and snarls at it and vilifies it, and concludes by      destroyed and nullified as far as that denomination is
calling it "a grievously unbiblical, therefore  un-            concerned. The word "crisis," therefore, is not too
Reformed, indeed, unchristian doctrine."                       strong.
  The Christian Reformed Synod of 1977 accepted                  My hopes, kindled by the title of the Kloosterman
this gravamen and, following its own rules, declared           article, however, were doomed to disappointment.
"that it is before the churches for their considera-
tion." The pertinent rule in this case in effect declares        The reason?
`.`open season" on the gravamen and thus, of course,             The Rev. Kloosterman utterly fails to meet the
on the confession. It reads:  ". . . when the con-             Boer gravamen head-on, to face its real claim, to
stituted synod declares the matter to be legally before        demonstrate the fallacy of Dr. Boer's exegesis of the
it for action, all the signers of the Form of                  "express testimony of sacred Scripture" which the
Subscription shall be free to discuss it together with         Canons adduce, and thus to show that the Christian
the whole church until adjudicated by synod." The              Reformed Church should reject the Boer gravamen.


                                                                                                             1
                                                                                                             1
246                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



   In the first place, the Rev. Kloosterman claims to            In the second place, Dr. Boer's explanation of a
have objections against the procedural demands of             gravamen is not his private concoction. -Let me
Boer. Dr. Boer claims in his gravamen: "A gravamen,           remind Rev. Kloosterman that in 1976, when matters
in its very nature challenges the  Scriptural validity  of    pertaining to the Formula of Subscription and the
a given teaching. It overleaps  creedal and theological       fling of gravamina were under consideration at the
authority and appeals directly to the Bible itself.           Christian Reformed Synod  (Acts,  Article 64) a
Gravamina should therefore neither depend on nor be           definition of a gravamen by Dr. D. Nauta was quoted
refuted by  creedal or theological considerations. In a       from the  Christelijke   Encyclopedic;   and in it is found
proper gravamen procedure neither creed nor theolo-           this statement: "Such a gravamen  mush be based
gy has any authority." In harmony with the above,             directly upon the Bible."                           I
Dr. Boer does two things in his gravamen:                        In the third place, in that same article  h 1976, in
1) He claims to have demonstrated that the several            laying down regulations about procedure in sub-
Scriptural passages cited by the Canons do, in fact,          mitting a confessional-revision gravamen, his own
not prove reprobation at all.                                 Synod made reference to the statement from the
2) He demands of the Christian Reformed Church                Formula of Subscription cited above (Article 64,
either to furnish him Scriptural proof of reprobation         point c).                                                I
or to abandon and to declare null and void the                   In the fourth. place, the 1977 Synod of the
doctrine of reprobation as taught by the Canons.              Christian Reformed Church specifically instructed the
   In several paragraphs Kloosterman objects that it is       committee on the Boer gravamen "to  I study the
both impossible and incorrect for the church to               gravamen in the light of Scripture, and to advise the
answer Boer "without referring to theological as-             Synod of 1980 as to the cogency of  i the  grava-
sumptions or confessional declarations." And he               men. . .  ."                                             I
claims that it is "doubtful that Boer's procedural               It seems to me, therefore, that from a formal or
demand is acceptable or his definition of a gravamen          procedural viewpoint Dr. Boer is in the right.
defensible."                                                     All of which would seem to suggest that for the
  Now if Kloosterman's claim is true, then, of course,        Rev. Kloosterman  - and for any others who think as
there is no "Creed In Crisis" whatsoever. Then Boer's         he does  - the crisis is even more serious than it first
gravamen has no validity; in fact, it is not even a           appeared to be. For if there is a crisis and one does
proper gravamen. And then the Christian Reformed              not even seem to realize the nature of that crisis, then
Church has no case before it against the Canons. It           the situation is indeed serious. For how will one deal
can simply dispose of the Boer gravamen on                    with a crisis if he does not see its real nature?
procedural grounds, without facing the necessity of              This writer has no way of knowing, of course; what
answering its claims and arguments. The crisis is             the Gravamen Committee may or may not have
nothing but a false alarm.                                    received by way of reaction from individuals and
                                                              churches. This, however, is obvious: thus  ifar no one
  But Kloosterman is wrong.                                   has dealt with Dr. Boer's exegesis of the Scriptural
  When a creed is challenged  - as it is in a gravamen        passages cited by the Canons in public print.
- then you certainly cannot appeal to another creed             Don't come with opinions of theologians! Don't
to defend i-t. You surely cannot appeal to the                even come with the views of commentators about this
opinions of theologians, however illustrious they may         or that text! Face Boer's arguments. Demonstrate
be. No, it is exactly the claim of that creed, "This is       that his explanation of the texts concerned is utterly
the truth of the Word of `God." It is exactly the             incorrect. Show that Boer's appeal to Scripture is
authority of that creed that it is subordinate only to        wrong and that the Canons' appeal to Scripture is
Scripture itself. And there is, therefore, but one court      correct. That is the issue! Nor is it difficulti to do this.
of appeal with respect to a creed: Scripture!                 My very first reaction when I read Boer's gravamen a
  In the first place, this is plainly in harmony with         couple of years ago was that it was some of the
the language of the Formula of Subscription, in               poorest, weakest exegesis I had seen in a long time.
which officebearers "declare . . . that we heartily             Nevertheless, that is the only proper way to deal
believe and are persuaded that all the articles and           with the Boer gravamen. If the brethren of  The
points of doctrine, contained in  .the Confession and         Outlook  fail to do this, they deserve to lose the
Catechism of the Reformed Churches, together with             Canons in 1980. Moreover, seeing  that~ the Boer
the explanation of some points of the aforesaid               gravamen has become public property in the Christian
doctrine, made by the National Synod of Dordrecht,            Reformed Church,  The Outlook  should gainsay Dr.
1618-`19,   do fully agree with the Word of God.  "           Boer publicly, so that at least some of the Christian
(italics added)                                               Reformed constituency will perhaps begin to  under-


                                                     THE STANDARD-BEARER                                                        247



 stand why Boer is wrong and the Canons are right.                   death as described
    Don't shadow-box! Face the issue!                                4. and which is characterized by distinctly positive as
                                                                     well as negative actions on God's part.
                                                                        In this gravamen the following paragraphs examine
                                                                     whether  the. data  which the Canons themselves
   But I fear the crisis is even worse.                              adduce as "the express testimony of sacred Scrip-
                                                                  ture" in support of  .t.he doctrine of reprqbation do
   In the last part of his article the Rev. Kloosterman              indeed carry the weight of evidence they are alleged
deals briefly with the  material  of the Boer gravamen.              to contain.
Again, however, Kloosterman fails to see the point;                At the end of this part of his gravamen Boer
and, in so doing, he fails to recognize the real nature          writes: "The analysis that has been-made shows that
of the crisis. In fact,  he&i effect denies that there is        the texts adduced assume throughout rather than
any "Creed In Crisis." What is really in crisis - such is        establish an eternal decree of reprobation. They fall
the only conclusion one can properly draw from his               altogether short of proving the biblical validity of the
statements  - is not the Canons, but "some com-                  doctrine in that they do not show. . .  ." And here
monly held misunderstandings of the Canons."                     Boer mentions the same four points quoted above.
Meanwhile, in a statement about  .the Conclusion of
the Canons Kloosterman gives real reason to doubt                  Now if you compare Boer's statements with
whether he himself understands and believes the                  Canons I, A, 6 and 15, you will discover that they are
doctrine of reprobation as taught by the Canons.                 a rather accurate summary of the main lines of the
                                                                 doctrine of reprobation as taught by the Canons.
  In this part of his article Kloosterman writes as              There is no reason to criticize the Boer gravamen on
follows:                                                         this score. Boer does not misread the Canons, as
       The central question facing the Christian                 Kloosterman alleges.
    Reformed Church lies at this point: Is Dr. Boer's
    understanding of the Canons accurate? Is what he               On the other hand, Kloosterman gives real reason
    claims the Canons say really what they say? Or is his        to doubt whether he.understands the Canons correct-
    accusation against the church a caricature, reflecting       ly and whether he himself believes. the doctrine of
    some  commonly held misunderstandings of the                 sovereign,         eternal, unconditional reprobation as
    Canons?                                                      taught by the Canons, He does this in several
       I assert that -it is the latter. In .which case church    statements about the matter of divine causation in
    education is the necessary corrective, not surgery on        connection with a quotation from Boer. But especial-
    the creeds.                                                  ly does he give grounds for suspicion in the following
  Quite in' harmony with the above position,                     paragraph:
Kloosterman claims that Boer is fighting not the                       Dr. Boer pays scant attention in a mere ten lines to
Canons, but L. Berkhof's dogmatics. Writes he:                       the Conclusion of the Canons. That Conclusion is a
                                                                    very important statement (somehow lost on us, we
       . . . It seems, however, that Boer's argument- is             admit!) which provides interpretative guidelines for
    with L. Berkhofs  Systematic Theology rather than               the body of the Canons. It is this Conclusion which
    with the Canons of Dort. If that is so, a book review           shatters those commonly held misunderstandings
    would have done the job. There was  co need to                  with which Boer argues.
    agitate the church by way of such an appeal to synod.          This is, of course, the worn-out reference to the
  Again,  t if Kloosterman believes this, he can only            statement in the Conclusion in which the Synod
come to the conclusion that the alleged crisis of                repudiates the false charge, the calumny "that
which the title of his article speaks is nothing but a           in the same manner  (eodem  mo80) in which election
figment of the- imagination. There really isn't any              is the fountain and cause of faith and good works,
"Creed In Crisis."                                               reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety."
  Now let us put this to the test.                                 Kloosterman does not enlarge on his claim. But, in
  What does Harry Boer understand the Canons to                  the first place, he is altogether wrong when he
teach concerning reprobation? Both at the beginning              suggests that the Conclusion "provides interpretative
and the end of the main body of his gravamen, he                 guidelines for the body of the Canons." Who in the
himself states it. At the beginning he writes:                   world writes a lengthy creed, and then states that this
       Supporting data of Scripture must therefore               creed must be interpreted and needs interpretative
    establish in terms of "express testimony," that is,          guidelines, and adds such guidelines at the end? Our
    plainly, unambiguously:                                      fathers of Dordrecht were not fools! All they do in
    1. the existence of a divine decree                          the Conclusion is repudiate various false charges made
    2. which has been made in.eternity                           by enemies of the truth. In the second place,
    3. which condemns a segment of mankind to eternal            Kloosterman opens himself to the suspicion that he is


                                                                                                            /I/!
248                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                          It1I
guilty of the very thing which opponents of the               worse than it first seemed to be. For the Klooster-
Canons' doctrine of reprobation have done in the              man is really in agreement with Boer on t:;I:. doctrine
past: they played this statement of the  Co&lusion            %f  repi'obation,  while he himself does not dTTen realize
over against Articles 6 and 15 of Canons I in order to        the true nature of the crisis in which the k`anons are
make the Canons after all deny, or at least hesitate to       involved in the Christian Reformed  Churn{ht. Facilely
teach a genuine doctrine of sovereign reprobation.            to suggest that "a book review (of`,I Berkhof's
G. C. Berkouwer did this  in  his  Divine Election.           Systematic Theology)  would have done tl-iejob" and
James Daane more than once did the same thing; I              that there was no need of a gravamen  i!5i face-value
once accused him of trying to make the tail (the              evidence that Kloosterman does not even  I-1;alize what
Conclusion) wag the dog (the Canons proper). Harry            the battle is all about.                        1
Boer understands the Conclusion in the same way,                 And if this view is prevalent among th I conserva-
but he is not satisfied with the alleged "drawing back        tives in the Christian Reformed Church,  t:;c:n there is
at the brink" by the Conclusion. All of them are dead         not much hope for the Canons at the Sync5C1 of 1980.
wrong in their interpretation. And now the Rev.
Kloosterman seems to suggest that this position is               And if the latter is true, then there  is;/ 1not much
after all correct. Let him be warned that all three of        hope for the Christian Reformed Chillrch as a
the men' mentioned above have ended up by                     Reformed denomination.
completely denying the Reformed doctrine of repro-                                                            I
                                                                 Make no mistake about it: this is not m `ely a case
bation and repudiating the teaching of the Canons. A                                                       $I
                                                              of a "Creed In Crisis," but it is a case of  tl Christian
few years ago Dr.  Berkouwer openly stated that he                                                         'le
                                                              Reformed Church in crisis, i.e.,  stand; g in the
did not believe, the doctrine of double predestination!                                                    p
                                                              judgment. The issue in the trial is: do you 9:penly and
   But again, if this argumentation of Kloosterman is         officially subscribe to the Reformed faith ii:1 set forth
the answer of him and others to the gravamen of               in the confessions, or do you openly an                     officially
                                                                                                           $
Harry Boer, then it follows that the crisis is even           repudiate it? More about this later.                  1L
FROM HOLY WRIT





                              Exposition of Galatians
                                                    Rev.  G. Lubbers




OUR ONLY HOPE AND EXPECTATION OF                              forgiven, whose iniquity is pardoned." ;C;Ps.  32:l;
RIGHTEOUSNJ33S  - continued (Gal. 5 : 5,6)                    Rom.  4:7) It is the justification of the  `ILmgodly."
  Paul speaks here of the  "hope  of righteousness." It       (Romps   4:5;  5:5-11) Such is this bount,e:ous righ-
ought to be crystal clear that this is the  righteousness     teousness, that where sin abounds grace  qoes much
of God  which is revealed in the Gospel, as power of          more abound. (Rom. 5: 12-21) It is the  ri+teousness
God unto salvation. This is first of all a forensic, legal    of the obedience of one man out of many offenses
concept. It is the righteousness of God which Christ          unto justification; it is the free-gift of  g<ace alone.
merited for us on the Cross of Calvary, and not some          Such is this righteousness. Now,  thei hope of
righteousness of God whereby He justifies good men            righteousness refers to the  final standing in judgment
and condemns evil men. This is the righteousness              for God and to be acquitted in the court  &f God out
which is  imputed  to the heirs of the kingdom of             of bounteous grace alone for Christ sake.  *his is our
heaven. Paul dealt very incisively with this in Romans        hope of righteousness which shall  not be put to
4:1-24.  It is the righteousness which makes David            shame. God has shed his love abroad in  our~hearts. He
exclaim, "0 the blessedness of the man whose sins are         did this because he established His love to  + when we


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               249



were yet sinners (Rom.  5:5,  6), when we were yet            and steeped in sin and iniquity. What does a mere
weak, helpless sinners, enemies of God. Such is our           "rite" avail any mortal? Could the mere rite and ritual
rock-bottom hope of righteousness in the day of               of "circumcision" avail and have power to give peace
Christ. Of this Paul is here speaking and he contrasts        with God and the assurance that our sins are no
this to all the sinking-sand righteousness of the works       more? They are, by themselves, nothing more or less
of man, which are stinking in the nostrils of God.            than superstitious rites. They are then no more than
  Now this is what "we" expect, the whole church in           heathen rites, beggarly principles. The same is also
both dispensations, the child-church and the  adult-          true of "baptism" as a mere rite: much water, little
church. The Old Testament church looked and                   water, barrels and oceans of water  - they all avail
expected this in and through the shadows and types            nothing. They have not the power to take away sin.
of the Christ to come. The New -Testament church              This is only effected by the blood and Spirit of Jesus
"expects" this on the basis  of'the work of the Lamb          Christ.
of God Who said "it is finished." But subjectively we           The inward cleansing is by faith in Christ. This is a
also are very certain of this our hope of one day             faith which is the fruit of the love of God which the
standing acquitted at the bar of God. We have a hope          Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts. Paul speaks here in
in  .heaven laid away for us. (Col.  15, 23, 27) It is the    verse 6 of "faith working by love." The term
hope of glory to be revealed in all the church, the           "working" is the translation of the Greek passive
hope of salvation in Christ's day. (Rom.  8:24; I Thes.       participle "energoumenee": wrought by, energized.
5 : 8) This is the living hope which is ours through the      This is the term from which our English word
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is not         "energy" is derived. Everyone in our day is  energy-
an uncertain hope, but it is a glad and certain               conscious. All talk about conserving energy. The
expectation, which rejoices with joy unspeakable and          supply may become scarce, because the sources will
full of glory. It is what all the prophets searched out       run out; the `water. will cease to come from the pump
when they looked for the sufferings to come upon              because the well is dry. But this "energy" here has a
Christ and the glory to follow. (I Peter  1:8-l 2)            fountain that never runs dry; they are represented by
  This we expect! We wait for it with great and               the fountains of living waters of the Spirit. (John
earnest waiting of a living hope! That is not the             4:10-15;  7:37-39) God has put "energy" in love of
expectation of those who would be under law. They             the Spirit. This is throbbing love of God to us in
are without hope and without God in the world.                which we love God. (I John 4: 19) This is the
They are under God's curse of the law.                        covenant life of which Jesus speaks in John  17:21:
                                                              ". . . as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they
  It is good to see this and never forget it.                 also may be one in us . . . that they may be one as we
  For what we hope is not our effort, but it is "by           are one." Such is the mystery of this energy of love
the Spirit." He is the deep and abiding agent of our          of the Spirit in our hearts. That mystery of love is the
hope and expectation. It is the Spirit of Christ in our       mystery of faith. Have you ever noticed that the
hearts. Christ lives in our hearts, the hope of glory.        English noun "belief" and the verb "believe" has in it
(Col.  1:27) Such is this riches of the glory of this         basically the term "love." To believe is to love! We
mystery among the Gentiles.  (Cal.  1:27)  That is the        only believe in one whom we love! Him alone we
secret of this joyful expectation. It is first-fruits of      trust with the heart whom we love with the heart.
the Spirit and of the full harvest.                             We just spoke of the term "believe" as being
  This Spirit works "faith" in our hearts. He works           basically identical with the term to "belove." Let us
in our hearts the firm assurance of hope and faith            try to see this. The Dutch term for what is
that our sins are all washed away. God sees no                well-pleasing to us is "belieft." When we say, "may it
iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in       please you," in English, in Dutch we say,  `als het  u
Israel: the LORD his God is with him. (Num.  23:21)           belieft."  And we also say in the Dutch,  mag het  u
Our glad assurance of faith is that there is for us,          believen.  Drop the  "n" from the word  `believen"  and
forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life for      you have the word "believe." Now this is akin to the
Christ's merits. This is not the boast and glorying of        German "lieben," to love. He that "believes" in the
those who would be under law. There is no song of             Son has everlasting life. Such a believer loves the Son
victory upon their lips. Heaven's joys are not their          as did the adulterous woman who loved much; she
portion in this life. But such is our hope, our only          believed much because she was forgiven much. (Luke
hope in life and in death in Christ Jesus our Lord!           7:47) Now Jesus was her "beloved," whose feet she
  In verse 6 Paul amplifies this thought a bit more.          does not cease to kiss, and she dries his tear-washed
Surely we stand on solid ground in our waiting by the         feet with her hair. 0, wondrous love that energizes
Spirit for the hope of righteousness by faith. For            faith. Thus it is when we believe in Jesus: it is a love
nothing else avails for the poor sinner, guilty, corrupt,     that does not doubt His love and grace. Only such


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250                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



faith which is energized by love has power. 0 Simon,        individual in mind whom he does not  calI by name?
Simon, thou work-righteous Pharisee, I have some-           Certainly the Galatians knew who he was; or who
thing to say unto you, said Jesus  to' this man who         they were. But someone has prevented them from
only had the "rite" of circumcision which had not           running the race of faith in obeying the truth of the
power to give  ,him a thanksful-heart! May that never       Gospel, namely, that salvation is not only to the
be said by Jesus to us!                                     Jews, and not only to the Greeks, but that it is to all
                                                            who believe, whether they be Jew or Greek, male or
PAUL'S PASSIONATE APPEAL THAT  GALA-                        female, bond or free, and that it is a matter of being a
TIANS CONTINUE TO RUN BEAUTIFULLY -                         new creature in Christ, the. true Israel  OG God. Paul
Galatians 5 : 7- 12                                         speaks more often in this letter of this "truth of the
                                                            Gospel." (Gal.  2:5;  2:14;  3:l; and  5:7) This is the
  Paul has more than the tongues of men and angels,         Gospel which they have heard of Paul/ who was
and more than understanding of all prophecies and all       separated by God to  preach,the  Gospel. Now who has
mysteries, and a faith that can remove mountains. He        the audacity to stop you from obeying this "truth"
himself has loved. It oozes from every syllable and         and walk in the lie? Who? Who has been trying
letter in these few verses which we will'now discuss.       systematically and cunningly to have  i you stop
In spite. of all the back-slidings here in Galatia, Paul    "obeying" the truth, being persuaded by it? The term
has a love which believes all things, which endures all     in the Greek means that someone has "cut into" and
things; he has a love that suffers long and is kind. He     impeded one's course, to prevent him  frqm running
has the great heart of a great servant of Christ who        well.                                           I
loves Christ and loves his sheep.                             One thing is certain, this "persuasion," which now
  That love believes all things and gives credit where      is introduced, is erroneous and cannot satisfy and
such is due we see in that beautiful  spiritual-            must be a fleeting thing. For it is not out of  God,.the
psychological approach in verse 7, where we read,           Father, but is out of the evil one. It does not rest on
"Ye have run well (beautifully  -  Kazoos).  It was a       the Rock, Christ Jesus, the chiefest corner stone.
good account that these brethren had given in the           Paul's letter often refers to God, the Father, as the
race to the final hope of righteousness. They had           one "who called you." This refers, of course, to the
walked in both justification and sanctification. They       inward, almighty, saving calling to faith and to final
had rejoiced in the forgiveness of sins, and they had       glory. For this reason the church is denominated, the
walked in newness of life. They had walked in a faith       called in Christ Jesus. (Rom.  1:6, 7) As such they are
which is energized by love, and they had not been           the beloved of God, and are called out of darkness
foolish to believe that a mere "rite" of circumcision       into God's marvelous light to declare  his/ praises. (I
had any power to justify or to sanctify and enrich          Peter.  2:9) Yes, they are sanctified in Christ, called to
life. Nor did they view their baptism as a mere             be saints, that is, they are saints by virlae of this
"rite," but they viewed baptism as a sign and seal of       calling. (I Cor.  1:2) Unto such "called"  the preaching
the righteousness which is by faith. (Rom. 4: 11)           is the power of God'and the wisdom of God. (I Cor.
  But someone had interfered with their running.            1:24)  And this calling is  .the fruit of their election. (I
Paul asks, "Who did hinder you that ye should not           Cor.  1:26, 27, 28) And the purpose of  bhis divine
obey the truth?" In Chapter 3: 1 he asks, "Who hath         calling is that the poor, the base things may be made
bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth?"           glorious, so that no flesh may glory save  m the Lord.
Does -Paul not know? Does he have a certain                 (I Cor.  1:29)                                      /





          The
   STANDARD BEARER
       makes a thoughtful gift
            for any occasion.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 251



 BIBLESTUDY GUIDE





                                         II  Corinthians
                       The Authority of the ~Wor,d (1)
                                                  Rev. J. Kovtering





   This is the second letter that Paul wrote to the          to Ephesus and poured out his indignation in a severe
 church at Corinth. The first epistle was written. from      epistle which he sent, on by the hands of Titus. Before
 Ephesus while Paul labored there on his third mis-          Titus could return, events took a disastrous form in
 sionary journey. He had heard from the `congregation        Ephesus and Paul was forced to leave that city in peril
of Corinth `by means of a letter brought to him              of his life. He went to Troas, but, unable to wait
 perspnally by members of the church. They had need          patiently there for tidings of the  issue.in Corinth, he
 of counsel, and his first letter contained the message      crossed to Macedonia and met Titus, possibly in
which the Spirit would speak unto the church. It             Philippi. The report was happily reassuring; the
 naturally concerned many problems in the church. It         majority of the congregation returned to their old
 was written in warm pastoral counsel accompanied by         attachment, and the heavy cloud of doubt and
 urgent  ,warnings to correct evil.                          anxiety was dispelled from the apostle's mind. He
                                                             then wrote again  - the present epistle, and forwarded
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ,                                     it by Titus and other brethren, he himself following a
   What  happened.in  the'interim between the writing        little later, and finally wintering in Corinth as he had
 of the first letter and this second one? The answer to      originally planned." Vol III Page 7 18.                      .
 this question divides commentators into two groups.           The other side of the argument insists that there is
 On the one hand, some believe that Paul wrote a             insufficient evidence of a "harsh letter" which has
 special letter, full of harsh warnings, as a result of a    been lost. Rather, they suggest that the joyful re-
 personal visit he had made to Corinth and in which he       sponse in the second epistle as we have it in the Bible,
 had learned of the magnitude of evil in the church.         is a result of the first letter which we also have in the
 They suggest that this second epistle  is.a response to     Bible. Meyer and Hodge and others take this position,
 the fruit of that lost letter and personal visit. The       summarized by Hodge as follows:  ."After  then apostle
 International Standard Bible  Encyclopaedia gives ex-       had written his former letter to the Corinthians, and
 pression to this view. "After the dispatch of I Cor.,       had sent Titus, either as the bearer of -the letter or
 news reached the apostle of a disquieting character;        immediately after its having been  sent' by other
 probably both Titus and Timothy, on returning from          hands, to ascertain the effect which is produced, he
 Corinth, reported the growing menace of the opposi-         seems to have been in a state  0-f unusual depression
 tion fostered by the Judaizing party. Paul felt im-         and anxiety. The persecution to which he had, been
 pelled to pay an immediate visit and found only too         exposed in Asia placed him in continued danger of
 sadly that matters had not been overstated. The             death,  1:8, and his solicitude about. the church in
 opposition was strong and full of effrontery, and the       Corinth allowed him no inward peace  7:5. After
 whole trend of things was against him. In face of the       leaving Ephesus, he went to Troas but although the
 congregation he was baffled and flouted. He returned        most promising prospects of usefulness there  pre-


252                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



sented themselves, he could not rest but passed. over         and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of
into Macedonia in hopes of meeting Titus and obtain-         .God in him are yea and in him Amen, unto the glory
ing from him intelligence from Corinth, 2: 12, 23.            of God by us," II Cor. 1: 19, 20.
This letter is the outpouring of his heart occasioned           The same thing is emphasized in his dealing with
by the information which he received. More than any           the special need of the Jerusalem Church. In the
other of Paul's epistles, it bears the impress of the         midst of his instruction, he appeals to the Word of
strong feelings under the influence of which it was           God, the Old Testament Scripture: "And God is able
written. That  the.Corinthians  had received his former       to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always
letter with a proper spirit, that it brought them to          having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to
repentance, led them to excommunicate the incestu-            every  good work;  (As it is written,  He hath dispersed
ous person, and called forth, on the part of the larger       abroad; he hath given to the poor; his righteousness
portion of the congregation the manifestation of the          remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to
warmest affection for the apostle, relieved his mind          the sower both minister bread for your food and
from the load of anxiety, and filled his heart with           multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of
gratitude to God. On the other hand the increased             your righteousness). Being enriched in every thing to
boldness and influence of the false teachers and              all bountifulness which causeth through us thanks-
perverting errors which they inculcated and the frivo-        giving to God," II Cor. 9: 8-l 1.
lous and calumnious charges which they brought
against himself, tilled him with indignation. This              Finally, his appeal to the authority of the Word
accounts for the abrupt transitions from one subject          comes to its own in the last part of the epistle. Here
                                                              he deals with the attack upon his preaching. "For
to another, the sudden changes of tone and manner             though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the
which characterize this epistle. When writing to the          flesh; (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
Corinthians as a church, obedient, affectionate, and          but mighty through God to the pulling down of
penitent, there is no limit to his tenderness and love.       strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every
His great desire seems to be to heal the temporary            high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
breach which had occurred between them and to                 of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to
assure his readers that all was forgiven and forgotten        the obedience of Christ," II Cor.  10:3-5.
and that his heart was entirely theirs. But when he
turns to the wicked, designing corrupters of the truth          Following this line of thought, we can take the
among them, there is a tone of severity to be found in        general theme, the authority of the Word,  &id apply
no other of his writings, not even in his epistle' to the    it now to the three main divisions in the letter.
Galatians." Commentary page 207.                              Chapters l-7 deal with Paul's response to the fruit of
  In light of the fact that we have no accounting of          repentance and reconciliation of  differebces as a
the supposed "harsh letter," it seems safest to confine       result of his first letter. Chapters 8 and  9i deal with
ourselves to the epistles recorded in the Bible. Besides      the special need for collections for the poor in
that, we can also rejoice in that God brought results         Jerusalem. Chapters  lo- 13 consist of Paul's' answer to
through His Word which was inspired and sent to the           those who were continuing to stir up trouble over his
Corinthians by the Holy Spirit and not by some                duty as an apostle of Christ to minister the Word in
personal letter of Paul.                                      the churches. We wili follow these general guidelines.
  The date of the letter can only be ascertained in           AN EFFECTIVE WORD FOR ALL OF LIljE
that it followed closely, more than likely within a             After the usual salutation, Paul expresses a beauti-
year; the first epistle. It was written sometime in the       ful doxology which' has  `the theme of comfort. This
year A.D. 55 or 56.                                          indicates his frame of mind, he has just come through
  There is difficulty in trying to summarize in a few         a double trial, his concern for the church of Corinth's
words what the message of the apostle is in. writing          battle against evil within and his own escape from the
this letter. Since it is a response to the fruits of a        enemies that, tried to kill him. How beautiful then is
previous message, it quite naturally concerns the             the exalted note, "Blessed be God, even the Father of
authority of God's Word. Paul was aware of the fact          our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
that his writing the letter was not only in the capacity      God of all comfort; Who comforteth us  fin all our
of a friend, but a servant of Jesus Christ: "Paul, an         tribulation that we may be able to comfort them
apostle of Jesus Christ,  by the  will of God," II  .Cor.    which are in any trouble. . .  ." (vs. 2-7)    ~
1: 1. He said the same thing in his first letter, I Cor.        1. God spared Paul's life so that he could preach
1: 1. Hence, the joyful fruit of that Word written            the Word of God  (1:8-l 1). While at Ephesus his life
must be ascribed to God alone. "For the Son of God,          was endangered by the uprising -of the multitude,
Jesus Christ,  .who was preached among you by us,             (Acts  19:23-41).  Here he refers to his travel in Asia.
even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea           He -must have been surrounded by the wicked Jews

                                                                                                            j
                                                                                                            I


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  253



who sought to kill him, probably even to torture him          these plans also for their welfare. He did not want to
(vs.' 10, so great a death). It was so bad that Paul had      come. to them with a rod of correction and in anger,
no hope of escape. He was delivered, however, by              hence he decided that they should first have oppor-
none other than Christ Who answered the prayers of            tunity to respond to his letter and correct their evils
the saints. God willed that he should continue to             and thus he would spare them his wrath, (see vs. 23).
preach the gospel.                                            This change was not in lightness (vs. 17) nor for
 ,2. Paul did not go back on his word  (I: 12-24).            personal gain, but for their spiritual welfare. Hence
Paul told the Corinthians that he would come to               his word  .was true to them and not contradictory. The
them directly from Ephesus. However, already in his           promises of God, spoken through him, are yea and in
first letter, he notified them that he changed these          him Amen, (vs. 20). So firm. is Paul in this, that he
plans and he would come to them by way of                     seals it with an oath: "I call God for a record upon
Macedonia (I Cor.  16:5).  Some in the church inter-          my soul," vs. 23. Here we see the sanction of this
preted this change by Paul as proof that they could           oath by the Holy Spirit. It was crucial for Paul's
not trust his word. If he could not be consistent in          future ministry in Corinth and every other place, that
little details, how could he be true to the Word in his       they  believe  him as a worthy ambassador of Christ.
preaching? Paul's answer to this nonsense is two-fold.        He calls God to witness his heart, word, and deed.
First, he had made the original plan for their welfare.       This indicates how seriously Paul took this matter
He had thought that if he would go directly to                and how only God Who knows the heart could really
Corinth from Ephesus they could visit together first,         settle. it. With such force, all the people of God
and then he would enter into Macedonia from                   should let  that.matter  rest.
Corinth, thus allowing a return visit later (called in vs.
15 a second benefit). However, secondly, he changed                               (to be continued)

IN HIS FEAR




                                      G o d l y   F e a r
                                                 Rev. Arie den Hartog





  True godly fear is that fear of God that causes a           the mountains and the rocks to fall on them to hide
man to reverence the Lord with holy awe and to                them from the wrath  of.God. The ungodly fear God
worship Him in humble adoration. Godly fear is the            with terror and dread. It is this fear that shall torment
profound spiritual attitude that dominates the heart          the ungodly in hell. Godly fear is born out of the love
and soul of the child of God who is conscious -that he        of God in the hearts of God's elect. It is the fruit of
lives in the presence of the sovereign, majestic,             the operation of grace in the saints of God. Godly
infinitely glorious, almighty, perfectly holy God. The        fear causes men to come to God, to bow down at His
godly man knows he is under the solemn obligation             throne, to worship and adore Him. Godly fear makes
to serve and live for this God. This God the                  a man desire to be ever near unto God, to dwell in His
god-fearing man desires with all his earnest longing to       presence, to know Him in all of His wonderful glory
obey and to please. Godly fear stands in contrast to          and majesty, greatness, and goodness.- Godly fear
the fear of terror and dread. The fear of terror and          causes a man to long to worship Him forever and ever
dread- is born of enmity against God. The fear of             in heaven.
terror and dread causes a man to flee from the                  Godly fear is the-very heart of true godliness. The
presence of God in dread of His holy and righteous            godly man is everywhere described in scripture as the
wrath. It will cause men in the last day to cry unto          man that fears the Lord. That man who is devoid of


 254                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



the fear of God is devoid of true Christianity. Scrip-       such a lack of the fear of God among us is that there
ture often uses the term "the fear of God" to                is so little true knowledge of God. Modem day Chris-
describe the whole of true godliness.        '               tianity has changed the truth of Go.d into the lie and the
   In what exactly does this fear of the Lord consist?       glory of the incorruptible God into the image of the
We said in our first article on this subject that much,      creature. The many heresies about who and what God
even the majority of modern Christianity today is            is which are so prevalent today have made God after
completely devoid of all fear of God. Yet the very           the vain imagination of man. This god is not the true
heart of godliness according to the scriptures is the        God Who has revealed Himself in the scriptures. This
fear of God. It is urgent therefore that we ask the          god is not worthy to be feared. There is no reason for
question, what does it mean to fear God? Do we               men to fear him because his nature and being are not
really know what it means  to.fear and tremble before        such that they would instill fear in the hearts of men.
the Lord? Does our life manifest that we fear the              The fearful God is the Sovereign God. From
Lord? In this article and the next I would like to           eternity to eternity He is God and God alone. There
examine some of the main characteristics of the fear         is no God beside Him. He reigns supreme over all. He
of the Lord.                                                 has determined all things in His eternal counsel. He
   True godly fear is born out of a profound spiritual,      has created all things by the Word of His power. He
conscious knowledge of who and what God is. Only             upholds all things by His almighty word. He rules
the man who knows God truly as He has revealed               throughout all history. He rules over all nations and
Himself in His Word will fear the Lord. The true             over every man individually. He rules over all of our
knowledge of God which engenders fear is of course a         life. He directs all things according to His own
living, personal, spiritual, knowledge of God. One can       purpose and good pleasure. He declares the end from
have a dogmatic and intellectual understanding of the        the beginning and from ancient times the things that
nature and being of God and of all His attributes and        are not yet done. He does all His good pleasure. None
yet not- be moved at all in his heart and soul with fear     can resist His will. "Why do the heathen rage, and the
and awe before that God. The fear of God is the              people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
reaction of the man who knows that God is the                set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,
Sovereign God, infinitely majestic, almighty in power        against the Lord, and against his anointed . . . He that
and perfect in holiness. The man who truly knows             sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have
who God is can only stand in holy awe and reverence          them in derision." Psalm 2: 1, 2, 4. He is unchange-
before Him. There can be no other reaction of the            able in His sovereignty. He is the sovereign God of
godly man in the presence of God than that he falls          predestination Who has before appointed the eternal
down upon his face with fear and trembling in utter          place of every man according to His good pleasure.
humility to worship and adore Him. The fear of God           From eternity He has according to His wonderful love
comes upon a man when he recognizes the great                and mercy chosen some to an eternal life of blessed-
distance that there is between himself and  God;when         ness with Him. In order to reveal His awful justice
he understands how infinitely great God is and how           and holy wrath against sin He was pleased to deter-
very small he himself is in the presence of that God.        mine others unto eternal destruction. He is the
The fear of God is the only possible reaction of a man       sovereign potter Who makes of one piece of clay a
who knows what a miserable wretched sinner he                vessel  of- honor and another of dishonor. He
himself is and what it means that God is the                 sovereignly saves His elect through the wonder works
perfectly holy God. Even the angels in heaven stand          of regeneration, faith, and sanctification. He repro-
in fear before the Lord. The seraphims are said to           bates the ungodly sovereignly in the way of their own
cover their faces and their feet in the presence of the      wickedness. It is such a God Who is to be greatly
Lord and to cry  continualiy, "Holy, holy, holy, is the      feared by men. A god who is dependent on the will of
Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory."        men to realize His -counsel and salvation need not be
The whole company of the redeemed in heaven shall            feared. Such a god is completely under the control of
forever fear the Lord, giving unto Him all praise and        men and they can do with him as they please. Such a
-adoration saying, "Blessing and honor and power and         god changes according to the whim and fancy of men.
glory be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and           He is not god at all and is not worthy of fear. To fear
unto. the lamb." Revelation 5: 13 If the angels of           God is to know Him as the Sovereign One. To fear
heaven and the perfected saints worship the Lord in          Him is to know that He is God and we are the
godly fear how. much more then ought mere mortal             creatures of His hand, made for His own purpose and
men who are but miserable wretched sinners fear and          glory. To fear Him  is. to know that our life is.
tremble in the presence of the great and holy God!           completely in His control. He will do with us
                                                             according to His own good pleasure.
  As we said in our first article on this subject, it is
without doubt true that the  mairrreason why there is          The god-fearing man knows that God is the


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        255



infinitely majestic, great, and all-glorious God. The              the irresistible almighty power of His grace. He is able
 god-fearing man considers the vast creation around                to cast down the most wicked rebellious man into
 him and stands in awe and fear, knowing that his God              destruction, or take that same man and cause him to
is so great that He made it all by the word of His                 believe on Him and seek His face.
power. At the same time, He is infinitely greater
than all His creation. So great is He that                            The God Who is to be feared is the perfectly Holy
before Him the nations are as a drop on a bucket and               God. He is holy in all of His wonderful virtues. He is
 as the dust of the balances. The god-fearing man                  the God of unfathomable love, of amazing grace and
knows that God dwells in heavenly majesty that                     unchanging mercy. He is the true and faithful God.
infinitely transcends all the glory of the earthly.                He is perfectly righteous in all His judgments. All of
Therefore. God is an awe-inspiring and fearful God.                the virtues of God are characterized by perfect
The god-fearing man knows that God is the God of all               holiness. He burns with unchangeable love toward His
glory Who dwells not in temples made with hands,                   people, and at once is a consuming fire to the
nor is He worshipped by men's hands as though He                   ungodly. The fearful God is not a god who loves all
needs anything. So glorious is God that man can                    men with an unholy affection that is characteristic of
never add anything to His glory. Such an  awe-                     men. He is a God Who can and does love only those
inspiring and fearful God is little known in much of               whom He has made holy through the blood of His
modern day Christianity. The god that is worshipped                Son Christ Jesus. None other than a holy man can be
by many today is very little more than man. He can                 the object of His holy affection. He hates sin and the
be addressed as a mere man without the need for any                sinner with holy infinite wrath. He so hates sin that
sense of awe and reverence before him. He is depen-                He will cast the godly sinner into the eternal fire of
dent on man to add to his own glory as though he                   hell. He is not therefore a God who merely passes by
lacks something. He is characterized with many of the              sin or regards it lightly. Such is the god of most of
limitations and weaknesses of man. He is  dependent                what calls itself Christianity today. Such a god need
upon the strength and numbers of men to accomplish                 not be feared. Before such a god, man can live as he
his work and to glorify his name. How different such               pleases without any or much concern for his sin and
a god is from the fearful God of the scriptures.                   iniquity. The fearful God of the scriptures is so holy
                                                                   that He could not allow the sin of His people to go
   The fearful God is the Almighty God. He is not a                unpunished. Rather than allow that sin to go unpun-
god who is limited by and dependent upon the will                  ished He poured out His wrath upon His own beloved
and actions of men. He is  a' God Who is infinitely                Son on the cross. So fearful and awful is His perfect
more powerful than all the powers of the world. In                 holiness! Therefore the godly man who knows that he
fact, He is the God to Whom all power alone belongs.               is a miserable, wretched sinner casts himself down in
He is a God Who is able to do whatsoever He pleases.               fear and trembling before God and pleads for mercy.
Nothing is impossible for Him. He is able to destroy
all the wicked with one word of His mouth. He is not                  May God grant that we' know God as the  awe-
a god who needs to go pleading and begging-with man                inspiring fearful God that He is, and so tremble with
to  .come to him. He is a God Who saves His people by              true godly fear before Him.

                                         CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY

  All young men desiring to- begin studies this fall in the        comes supplied with a testimonial of his consistory that he is a
Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches,            member in full communion, sound in faith and upright in
located at 4949 lvanrest Ave., S.W., Grandville, Michigan          walk, and also a certificate from a reputable physician showing
49418 are hereby notified of the Theological School Com-           him to be in good health.
mittee meeting to be held on March 15, 1979 at  7:30 P.M. in         A complete high school education and the equivalent of a
the Theological School Building.                                   .four year (125 hour) college education  .are required for en-
Pre-seminary Department:                                           trance into the, seminary department. Moreover, each entrant
                                                                   into this department must produce evidence that he has credit
  Permission to pursue the pre-seminary course of study shall      for the required college courses. Requirements are listed in the
be granted by the Theological School Committee. A transcript       school catalog, available from the School.
of grades from High School and College (if any), a letter of         All applicants for  enroljment in the seminary department
testimony from a student's pastor or consistory, and a certifi-    must appear before the Theological School Committee for
cate of health from a reputable physician shall be submitted       interview before- enrollment. In the event you cannot be
along with the student's application.                              present at this meeting, please notify the undersigned secretary
Seminary Department:                                               of your intentions, prior to the meeting. Mail all correspon-
  Permission to pursue the Theological course in the seminary      dence to the Theological School.
shall be granted by the Synod, upon recommendation of the                                                   John Buiter, Secretary
Theological School Committee, to such an aspirant only who


256                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE





                                The Reformed. Doctrine
                                        of Reprobkion
                                                Rev. David Engelsma





             "not. . . in the same manner"                  even a decree. By the phrase,  "not . . . in the same
                                                            manner," the fathers of Dordt meant to say that
  Two more recent arguments against reprobation             reprobation is not God's eternal ordination of -some
raised in the Reformed churches today are of greater        men to perdition, as election is the ordination of some
concern. The first is an argument based on the phrase       t o   l i f e .
in  the "Conclusion" of the Canons of. Dordt, "in the          It is odd, to say the very least, that the Canons,
same manner." The entire sentence reads: "The Re-           logical to a fault, to hear the foes of reprobation
formed Churches not only do not acknowledge but             speak, so soon and so fatally forgot their logic, that at
even detest with their whole soul . . . (the notion)        the end they contradicted everything they had just
that in the same manner in which the election is the        taught.
fountain and the cause of faith and good works,
reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety." In          It is also passing strange that for more than 400
the "Conclusion,"                                           years the Arminians and Roman Catholics never
                       the Canons warn against certain      noticed this chink in Dordt's armor.
misrepresentations and misunderstandings of the doc-           To tell the  .truth, it is to be wondered whether the
trine which they have just finished setting forth in the    learned critics of everything Reformed now appearing
body of the Canons. One such  miSconception is that         among us do not take us for a pack of ninnies.
reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety "in
the same manner" (Latin:  eodem modo)  in which               The Canons. did not commit such a blunder; "not
election is the cause of faith and good works. This         . . . in the same manner" is not intended to deny that
little phrase now is used to attack the doctrine of         election and reprobation are the same in that both are
reprobation as presented in the body of `the Canons.        decrees; both are eternal; both are sovereign and
The Canons are used to refute the Canons  - a clever        unconditional; and both are decisive for men's ever-
trick  if it can be  brought off.                           lasting destinies.
                                                              What the Canons intend, they make perfectly
  The argument goes like this. In the body of the           clear: reprobation is  not the cause of unbelief  in the
Canons, the Reformed fathers erred in their teaching        same manner in which election is the cause of faith.
of reprobation, especially in I, 6 and I, 15. There,        Rightly seen, this is a strong statement, especially in
they taught an eternal decree consigning men to hell,       light of the effort that the Arminian party was
which decree God carries out by withholding faith           making to attach to the Reformed teaching the
and by hardening. But in the "Conclusion" the               blasphemy that God is the author of sin. It is a strong
fathers saw the light and did a complete about-face.        statement because it does not deny that reprobation
Election and reprobation are now completely dif-            is the cause of unbelief in any sense whatever, only
ferent; reprobation is quite unlike election. Reproba-      that it is the cause of unbelief  in the same manner in
tion is not eternal, not sovereign, not efficacious, not    which election is the cause of faith.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 257



  The explanation of the Canons' statement is, first,         truth that the Church must proclaim promiscuously
that the sole blame for unbelief is the sinner's, not at      the promise that whosoever believes shall be saved.
all God's. Whereas all the praise for faith is God's, all     These are truths that no Reformed man questions;
the guilt of unbelief is the sinner's. The sinner fell in     these are truths that every Reformed believer cher-
Adam; the sinner is conceived and born with a totally         ishes.
depraved, unbelieving nature  - for which he is fully            But by the offer is meant the teaching that God
responsible; the sinner wickedly refuses to obey the          loves all men with a love expressed by the gospel of
call of the gospel. The doctrine of reprobation in no         Christ; that God sincerely desires to save all men by
way whatsoever minimizes the responsibility and guilt         the gospel-call; that God's grace in Christ is universal
of the unbeliever, much less transfers it to God.             - for all men.
   Secondly, reprobation is not the cause of unbelief            This is a powerful argument against reprobation, in
in the sense that God infuses unbelief into good men.         th,e end an invincible argument. If God is gracious to
In this manner, election is the fountain and cause of         all and desires to save all, He  could  not have ordained
faith: God efficaciously works faith and good works           some to perdition. The offer flatly contradicts repro-
into unbelieving and bad men. But in the case of the          bation, and it does so in a way that is unmistakably
reprobate, God withholds the gift of faith and piety          clear to the people.
from wicked men and instead hardens `them in their
own unbelief. God does this, i.e., withholds faith,             By this time, the irresistible power of the argument
according to the determinative decree of reprobation.         from the well-meant offer to overthrow the Re-
In this sense,  reprobation  is  the cause of unbelief, as    formed doctrine of double predestination is evident
Jesus Himself expressly stated in John  10:26:  "But          in the life of Reformed Churches. In 1965, Dr. M. J.
ye believe not,  because ye are  not of my sheep. . .  ."     Amtzen wrote a little book entitled  De Crisis in de
He does not say that their not being of His sheep is          Gereformeerde Kerken (The Crisis in the *Reformed
caused by their not believing; but he says that their         Churches  of the Netherlands).  The crisis is that these
not believing is caused by their not being of His             churches "have come dangerously close to the abyss."
sheep, i.e., their being reprobate. God eternally de-         Three prevalent errors in the churches are responsible
creed concerning them that He would not give them             for this crisis: the denial of the authority of Holy
faith and conversion; according to this decree, He            Scripture; the denial of the authority of the confes-
withholds faith from them in time.                            sions; and the denial of double predestination in the
                                                              form of the denial of reprobation.
        "The We&Meant  Offer of the Gospel"                     Amtzen, then a member of these churches, gives a
 -The second more recent argument is the most                 staunch defense of double predestination. Having
serious of all the attacks on reprobation  within the         completed this defense, he is immediately confronted
Reformed Churches today. It is the most powerful              by the argument of the well-meant offer of grace
argument  with the people  in Reformed Churches. For          ("Het welmenend aanbod der genade"). "One of the
heresy to make headway, there must be a certain               most important arguments which one thinks he can
receptivity on the part of the people. It is greatly to       lodge against the classic doctrine of election is the
be feared that the attack on reprobation will be              following: If God has determined from eternity that
victorious on a large scale, because of the appeal that       not all are saved, then the preaching of the gospel is
this argument has for the people.                             made powerless; it is a threat to the seriousness of
  I refer to the argument against reprobation that            preaching. For how can one then maintain that God
appeals to God's universal love and grace; God's              seriously offers grace to all?" (my translation of the
sincere desire that all men be saved; and God's               Dutch -D.E.)
well-meant efforts in the preaching to accomplish this          Misled by A. C. De Jong's presentation of
universal salvation. It is widely assumed that God            Hoeksema's rejection of the offer and not seeing the
loves and desires to save all men. The popular mind           essential difference between the well-meant offer and
holds that this is the very foundation of missions. If        the "serious call" of the Canons in III, IV, 8, Amtzen
the notion is questioned, John 3: 16 is immediately           cannot refute the argument of the offer against
quoted as proof: "God so loved the world. . .  ."             reprobation. The most that he can do is to warn
  All of this is contained in a teaching known as the         against overemphasizing the offer ("the dispropor-
doctrine of "the well-meant offer of the gospel, or           tionately strong emphasis on the general offer of
"the free offer of the gospel." We must be clear here.        grace must inevitably lead to a preaching of universal
I do not refer to the truth that the Church must              atonement") and to point out the grave error of those
preach'the gospel to all men, as God opens the doors;         opposing reprobation by means of the well-meant
I do not refer to the truth that the Church must call         offer (they make themselves guilty of the teaching of
everyone to believe on Christ; I do not refer to the          "an equally powerful call to all, and of resistible


2 5 8                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



grace, and a regeneration that can again be  `an-             conquered and undestroyed, it will conquer and
nulled' ").                                                   destroy. With its victory over predestination, the
   This is something, but it is not enough. For the           Reformed Churches of the Netherlands will plunge
argument of the well-meant offer against double               over the precipice at the bank of which they are
predestination remains in the field, a bit bloodied and       poised.
somewhat battered, but undaunted for all that.  Un-                         I    (to be continued)

THESTRENGTHOFYOUTH




                                     Walking Honestly
                                                Rev. Rodney Miersma


   The Holy Scriptures are the written record of the            As one makes his sojourn as stranger and pilgrim in
revelation of God and of His will with respect to the         a strange land he must always be conscious of his
creature. Many passages of Holy Writ speak directly           conversation, that is, one's walk as to its outward
concerning our walk while here upon the earth. One            manifestation. This is very important because that
of these passages was penned by the Apostle Peter in          which is outward is motivated by inward principles.
his first epistle, the second chapter, verses 11 and 12.      One's walk includes his thoughts, desires, and intents
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and               of the heart for they regulate the members of the
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against       body with respect to that which is without.
the soul; Having your conversation honest among the             Scripture speaks of the walk of the ungodly and of
Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as             the godly. The ungodly is inwardly corrupt, thus, his
evildoers, they may by your good works, which they            outward conduct and manifestation of life are
shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."          revealed in every kind of abominable work. When he
  The apostle is writing to the church here on earth,        speaks, he lies and curses. When he sings he rejoices in
the whole church, not just fathers and mothers,               the works of darkness. The songs that the world puts
grandfathers and grandmothers, but to the young               out today have their source in hell as one can readily
people as well. Very often the younger generation             hear. You see, the ungodly does not have grace, does
tends  to.forget this with the result that they brush off    not have faith; and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
such admonitions as found here. But you too, young
people, are strangers and pilgrims during your present          However, the apostle is concerned with your walk,
lifetime. This is not something that one puts off until      the walk of the godly as it is motivated by the
later years. For some they may not be these later            principle of grace. Such a walk manifests itself both
years.                                                       negatively and positively. Negatively, one abstains
                                                             from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. This is
  Strangers . . . probably better translated as              all that arises out of and appeals to the old man in us.
boarders. A stranger is one who lives in a home, but         The devil likes to work on this old man especially in
who does not belong to the family. He has no right in        the youth. This is the impressionable age. This is the
the house; he simply lives in the house. This is your        ages when young people tend to shrug off the parental
and my position in the world; we are in it, but do not       authority and want to do their own thing. Well, the
belong to it.                                                _ devil will show you plenty of things to do. The
  A pilgrim is almost the same thing. He is one who          ungodly theater beckons you with its colorful display
travels in a foreign country to which he does not            of wickedness which makes adultery and fornication
belong. He is a citizen of another country, namely, an       the way of life, something to seek for fulfillment of
heavenly country. Consequently, as long as he is in          life., The radio, television, and cheap paperback books
this world he does not build his foundations deep,           do the same thing. Sin is no more sin, but erotic
but pitches his tent as he moves from day to day.            pleasure  - so much so, that if we do not do these


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 /:      259



things our life has no meaning at all. Yes, peer            honestly, for you are a pilgrim and stranger whose
pressure is great; everybody does it.                       citizenship is heaven.                               1'11
   But God here instructs us to abstain. This means           This calling will be difficult for you and all of
that in no way may we indulge in or make provision          God's children. According to the nature  oq the flesh
for these fleshly lusts. Do not try to find something       you are quite at home in the world, a citizen seeking
good in these evil practices, for there is no good          the things of the flesh and of darkness. But you have
there. Whatever arises from the flesh is wicked.            obtained mercy, your life is changed, you have a
  This, of course, involves a fight. Fleshly lusts war      heavenly citizenship. Because of this, the Gentile
against the soul. Peter refers to the soul of the           world will speak against you who are a  St&anger and
Christian that has been regenerated. The fleshly lusts      accuse'you of being evildoers. That is the way it was
fight against this soul which is now governed by a          .in Peter's day. When there was an earthquake or a
new principle of life. The Christian, therefore, is a       pestilence the Christians were blamed. When they
stranger and a pilgrim. Fleshly lusts do not belong to      refused to worship Caesar as God they  werektreated as
the kingdom from which the Christian is born. Result        criminals. So it`always is. The church is either laughed
. . . a fight. Not just simple shadowboxing, but a fight    to scorn or persecuted. If she is faithful, what
to the death. In the measure that you fight you will        happened to Christ also becomes her  etperience.
overcome and be  sanctified;`and in the measure that        Thus, the life of the Christian is very  difficuit.
you do not fight you shall be overcome and walk in            Now God has a purpose for us and our honest
darkness.                                                   walk. Something that we do not always  tl&.rk about.
                                                            Peter is  talking,`about  our life and its relationship to
  The other side of this admonition is the positive         the day of visitation. The day of visitation; can refer
side: walk honestly. Walk in the way that is good,          to the day of God's judgment and to the  iday when
beautiful. One is honest in his walk when in every          God visits with His grace. The latter is meant here.
respect he manifests himself to be what essentially he      The day when God calls the sinner out of darkness
is, a Christian. Honesty is the opposite of the lie.        into His marvellous light, when He converts /`the sinner
Therefore, the outward manifestation of our life must       from His evil way.                               11I,
be good, that is, in harmony with our inner life which
is good because of regeneration. The moment that we           The idea is that  .the Gentiles may see your good
walk contrary to that inner principle we are                works, and glorify God when He visits them also with
dishonest, we live the lie. God is the God of truth. He     His grace. Christ said in Matt. 5: 16, "Let your light so
hates the lie, dishonesty, and a walk that is patterned     shine before men, that they may see  $our good
after the world of which we are not citizens.               works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
                                                            Peter says almost the same thing here. These good
  But do not fear. You can do it. No, not by                works are those which proceed out of true; faith, are
yourselves, but by grace. By grace you are impelled to      done according to the law of God,  and:, unto His
fight against fleshly lusts; by grace you are impelled      glory. They are truly the manifestation of  an honest
also to walk a new  .and holy life. "Not by might, nor      walk.
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."         The ungodly will not glorify God unless they are
(Zech.   4:6)                                               converted. But when God visits them in  His:grace and
  The apostle goes on to say that this must be done         converts them, they will see the good walk of the
among the Gentiles. The  Ch;  tians in Peter's day          Christian in an altogether different light. When once
were scattered among the Gentile.., who served other        they falsely accused the children of God, and
gods, and who were satisfying the lusts of their flesh.     slandered them whom they observed were walking
In the wider sense the term Gentiles refers to the          honestly, they will now glorify God for His grace,
present evil world, with  its`corrupt practices, and its    which they behold in the good works of the
ungodly system. It is the world with all its                Christian. Thus, when we reveal ourselves as those
departments, politically, economically, and socially.       who are partakers of the anointing of Christ; when we
In the midst of that world you and I are called to          walk in all good works which God before prepared in
walk.                                                       order that we should walk in them, God is pleased to
  We must not try to seclude ourselves in the               use that Godly walk to bring others to conversion.
physical sense of the word. Many sects have tried and         Did you ever stop to think about that?  icertainly,
have failed. As long as the Christian lives in the flesh    God gathers His church by His Word and Spirit, but
he must take the world along with him no matter             He also uses us and our walk to bring the unbeliever
where he goes. Your calling is to go about your daily       to Christ. Our actions speak very loudly/' to those
work in the midst of the world, but as you do so, you       around us. Do your actions speak of a  newlilife, or of
do not seek the places of ungodly amusement or the          the old man? May God give unto us  contir@ally  that
dens of vice and sin. No, wherever you go you walk          grace to walk honestly to the end.              I
                                                                                                            II(/I!


260                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



ALL AROUND US





                                              "Tobacco Is . . .$7
                                                      Rev. G. Van Baren



  There is an old Methodist ditty (I think it must                     "Among the age group 13 to 19, there are now 6
have been "Methodist") that went something like                     million regular smokers. One hundred thousand chil-
this: "Tobacco is a filthy weed, and from the devil                 dren under 13 are regular smokers," according to the
doth proceed; it stains your hands and bums your                    1,200-page  report of Dr. Julius B. Richmond. He
clothes, and makes a smokestack of your nose." One                  described cigarette smoking as the "largest prevent-
could always get a good laugh from that  - especially               able cause of death in the United States."
when quoted to good Calvinists who all knew how                        The report stated that "lung cancer has increased
the fathers puffed away at the old Synod of Dordt.                  fivefold among women since 1955" and "the per-
Of a Methodist one could expect such sort of odd                    centage of girls aged 12 to 14 who smoke has
ideas. But a good Calvinist and his tobacco could                   increased eightfold since 1968."
seldom be parted. And a good Reformed man would                        Dr. Richmond's report reiterates warnings against
listen with approval when all sorts of sins would be                smoking first made in 1964 by the then Surgeon
condemned  - until something might be said of                       General Luther Terry, whose statement was based on
tobacco.                                                            6,000 scientific papers. The new report presents
                                                                    additional information underscoring the earlier warn-
  There is, it seems to me, good reason to consider                 ings, based on findings of some 30,000 research
this whole matter seriously. First, there are' the                  papers.
reports seen increasingly which describe the harmful                   The papers show there is now almost unanimous
effects of smoking. If there is anything to these                   agreement among doctors and scientists that cigarette
reports, and none have successfully challenged them,                smoking is harmful to  health and causes diseases,
ought this not to affect the action of the Christian?               including lung cancer and heart ailments. . . .
Does Scripture have anything to say concerning mis-                    The new report warned that the death rate for
use of the body?                                                    smokers was two-thirds higher than for non-smokers
  Secondly, I am deeply concerned about some of                     among both men and women, and that new research
our young people in this respect. Many imitate their                ties smoking more closely to cancer and heart
parents. Some consider it a mark of manliness to                    diseases.
smoke. I have observed how a large number of young                     Women smokers were also warned that if they
people come to conventions prepared to smoke. They                  smoke during pregnancy, they face the possibility of
might forget their Bibles, or the discussic-  1 outlines  -         "creating long-term, irreversible effects on their
but remember to take even cartons of cigarettes. And                babies."
they freely use them. Ought one to say nothing  -                      "Smoking accounts for an estimated $5 billion to
even when  15-year-olds  are involved? Their folks do               $8 billion in health care expenses," the report stated.
it; their peers do it. Anyone who is anybody does it.               "No person, given these staggering costs, can reason-
Some probably do this without parental knowledge                    ably conclude that smoking is simply a private con-
                                                                    cern;  it. is demonstrably a public health problem
or consent; others do this with their full awareness.               also."
  But listen to some of the report as quoted in                        Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Secretary of Health, Edu-
Christian News, Jan. 22, 1979.                                      cation and Welfare (HEW), said in a foreword to the
         A new report on the dangers of cigarette smoking           new Surgeon General's report that "this document
       by the Surgeon General of the United States ex-              reveals with dramatic clarity that the cigarette is even
       presses concern with the sharp increase in recent            more dangerous.- indeed, far more dangerous  - than
       years of young smokers and women who smoke.                  was supposed in 1964. . . ."


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          261



       The Tobacco Institute,in  defending the $17 billion      that no Scriptural principle or teaching could per-
   tobacco industry at a press conference, charged that         suade them to relinquish it? Then  theie is reason for
    the new smoking report was  "tiore  rehash than             real -spiritual concern. May I quote finally from  These
    research. . . ."                                            Times,  a magazine of the Seventh-Day Adventists
  Now you can take the reports for what they are                (hardly Calvinists or Reformed) as quoted in the
worth. Perhaps you are -able to prove them wrong.               column of Ann  La.tiders (who is a questionable
But if these are even  half  correct, what implications         authority on many subjects)? The quote might just
are there for the child of God?                                 give us a  few more things to think about:
  We read in I Cor. 6: 19-20, "What? Know ye not
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost                                             I Am Your Slave
which is  in you, which ye have of  God,  and ye are not               You are closer to me than any living creature. You
your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore                 repose in my pocket just over my heart.
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which                    With my lips I caress you more than I do all the
are God's." Now it  is'true  that the context condemns             members of my family.
"fornication" in which one "sinneth against his own                    When I awake I turn to you and follow you all day
body." But the fact remains that anything which                    long. I worship at your shrine with burnt offerings at
harms this body, called the temple of the Holy Spirit,              constant intervals.
would violate the mandate of verses 19 and 20. Does                    On my desk the fires seldom go out on your altar.
smoking, in light of the many reports, harm that                    I call on you for help more than I call on my Creator.
temple of the Holy Ghost? If it does, then what?                   I pay more money for you than I give to the church
  One can well recall the instruction approved by our              and all charities.
forefathers at Dort (while perhaps puffing away at                     I mix your nicotine incense with the mucus of my
their  cigtis) as recorded in Lord's Day 40 of the                  throat, lungs, and nostrils and blow it into the faces
Heidelberg Catechism. This treats the sixth command-                of my family and friends. Normal breath goes down-
ment, "Thou shalt not kill." It teaches that the sixth             ward, but your smoke floats in the air; so I force all
commandment means "also that I hurt not myself,                    in the room to breathe this stifling refuse.
nor wilfully expose myself to any danger." Would                       I risk my life for you. By heavy smoking I take
this apply to the danger of smoking as well? If it is               one chance in ten of having lung cancer because of
true that the life span of the smoker is noticeably                you. You see this in the color of my fmgers, teeth
shorter than that of the non-smoker (attributed, it is             and skin.
said, to the smoking), is there not an "exposing one's                 I  just suck one end of the cigarette while you
                                                                   smoke the other end. 
self to danger"? If it is, then what?                                                         I am your slave!
  Finally, there is the question of idolatry. Are some            And, as the saying goes, "put that in your pipe and
so enslaved to a habit, so insistent on maintaining it,         smoke it."





                             Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats

  Evangelical Action,  December 1978, quotes a tract                has gradually toned down her testimony; then winked
with the above name written by Rev. Archibald                       at and excused the frivolities of the day; then she has
Brown. I quote some pertinent parts:                                t6lerated  them in her borders. Now she has adopted
                                                                    them under the plea of "reaching the masses."
       An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so
    gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can             My first contention is that providing amusement
    hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it          for the people  is nowhere spoken  of  in Scripture  as a
    has developed at an abnormal rate,  even for evil. It           function of the church. If it IS Christian work why
    has worked like leaven until now the whole lump                 did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world,
    ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing            and preach the gospel to every creature"  - that is
    than hinting to the church that part of their mission is        clear enough! So it would have been if He had added
    to provide entertainment for the people with a view             "and provide amusement for those who do not as yet
    of winning them!                                                relish the gospel." No such words, howev$r,  are to be
       From speaking out, as the Puritans did, the church           found. It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again,


262                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



       "He gave some. apostles, some prophets, and some,               first link in the chain of their conversion stand forth.
       pastors and teachers  - for the work of the ministry."          There are none to answer. The Mission of Amusement
       Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Ghost is                produces no converts. . . .
       silent concerning them.                                               How about the other-side? Though I have never
          Were the prophets persecuted because they                    seen a sinner saved, I have seen any number of
       amused the people  - or because they refused? The               backsliders manufactured by this new method. Over
       Gospel of Amusement  has no martyr-roll.                        and over have young Christians come to me in tears,
          Again, providing amusement is in direct antago-              as they had lost their peace and fallen into evil. Over
       nism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His             and over again has the confession been made, "I
       apostles. . . .                                                 began to go wrong by attending amusements pa-
          When many went back because of the searching                 tronized by Christians." A young man in agony of
       nature of His preaching, I do not hear Him saying,              soul said to me, "I never thought of going to the
       "Run after those friends, Peter, and tell them we will         .theatre until my minister told me there was no harm
       have a different style of service tomorrow. Something           in it! I went, and it has led me from bad to worse. I
       short and attractive with little preaching. We will have        am a miserable backslider, and he is, responsible for
       a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will          it."
       be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter; we must get the
       people somehow. . . ."                                        Paul emphasizes the point in I Cor.  2:2, "For I
                                                                   determined not to know anything among you, save
          Lastly, the Mission of Amusement fails to effect         Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." And in I Cor.  1:21,
       the end desired. It works havoc among young con-
       verts. Let the careless and the scoffers who thank          "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by
       God because the church met them halfway speak and           wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolish-
       testify. Let the heavy-laden who found peace through        ness of preaching to save them that believe." Let us
       the concert not keep silence. Let the drunkards to          never, then, minimize the necessity of that "foolish-
       whom the dramatic entertainment had. been God's             ness."





                                                   Book Review


CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH IN THE BOOK OF                               short. If you consider the fact that each Psalm is
PSALMS,  by Andrew A. Bonar; Kregel Publications,                  quoted in its entirety and  tlnat the print is large, then
1978; 457 pp., $12.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H.                       some 450 pages seem hardly adequate to deal with
Hanko)                                                             the rich truths of the Psalms in any definitive way.
  This book is one of Kregel's classic reprints and a                There is considerable Hebrew in the text, but this
part of the Kregel Limited Edition Library. The                    is usually confined to parentheses and footnotes, so
author was an Eighteenth Century minister in the                   that the general reader need not lose the train of
Free Church of Scotland. He has prepared this short                thought because of it.
explanation of the 150 Psalms.                                       It seems to me that the chief value of the book is
  In some respects this is an interesting and valuable             to be found in gaining some idea of the main thought
book. Its value lies in the fact that it gives short               (although one need not necessarily agree with the
summaries of the Psalms so that one is able to gain a              author in every case) of each Psalm and in aiding one
concise idea of the main thought of each Psalm. Each               when he makes the Psalms a part of his devotional
section in fact ends with a one statement summary of               reading.
the Psalm being treated. In these short summaries the                The book reminded me of the tine treatment of the
author shows that he, generally speaking, has a good               Psalms which the late Rev. Vos prepared in the Dutch
grasp of the Psalms and appreciates the Messianic                  for earlier  Standard Bearers.  It made me wish that
character of many of them.                                         this material could be translated and made available
  But the summaries are very short  - almost too                   to the reading public.


                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     263


                                                                         NOTICES i!`!
                                                The Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need of a
                                          1 teacher-administrator for the upper grades and a part time kindergarten
                                            teacher for the 1979-80 school year. Send applications or enquiries to:
                                            Henry Hoekstra,  RR#2  - Hull, Iowa 51239.





                   ANNIVERSARY NOTICE                                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   On February 6, 1979, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS. BEN                         The Young Adults Society of First Protestant Reformed Church of
BLEYENBERG celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.                             Holland, Michigan, wishes to express their sympathy to their fellow
   We, their children are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the                 members, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Windemuller in the death of her
Christian home and spiritual guidance they have given us. It is our               brother, MR. STEVEN COOK.
prayer that `God may continue. to bless them, strengthen them, and                    May they be comforted by the words of the Apostle Paul with the
keep them in His care in the days ahead;                                          assurance that "all things work together for good to them that love
                                                                                  God."  (Remans  8:2&I.
 their children                              Mr. and Mrs. John Hoksbergen                                              Rev. C. Hanko, Leader
    Mr. and Mrs. Tunis Jansma                Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Bleyenberg                                             Mrs. Deane  Wassink,  Sec'y.
    Mr. and Mrs. John Haverhals                 24 grandchildren
    Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rynders                  9 great-grandchildren





                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY-
   On March IO, 1979, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.                    On March 11, 1979, the Lord willing, our parents, MR.  & MRS.
HENRY  MIERSMA will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. We,                 WILLIAM KAMPS will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. We
their children, though many miles from their home, are thankful to                their children, are thankful to God for the years that they have had
God for them and are grateful for the Christian home and the Christian            together, and for the covenant instruction we have received. We pray
education they have provided for us. Our prayer is that God will                  for God's continued guidance and blessing upon them in the years to
continue to bless them as they go through life's pathway together.                come.

                           Rev. and Mrs. Rodney Miersma  (Pella)                     "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
                              Eric Jon                                            them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."
                           Rev. and Mrs. Dale Kuiper  (Lynden)                    (Psalm 103:17)
                              David                                                                                       Harry  & Evelyn Langerak
                              Bradley                                                                                    Bill, Brenda, Jonathon,
                              C h r i s t o p h e r                                                                         David, Joel, Sara
                              Bethany                                                                                     Myron  & Patricia Moody
                              Phillip                                                                                        Emily
                              Victor                                                                                      Chuck  & Dort Kalsbeek
                           Mr. and Mrs. Gary Holstege  (Hudsonville)                                                         Lenora, Jeff, Becky,
                              Mical.Gerrit                                                                                  John, Dorothy
                           Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur  Postma  (Southwest)                                                       John  & Carolyn Cleveland
                              Brian                                                                                         Aaron, Jason, Leah
                              Steplien                                                                                    Henry
                           Mr. and Mrs. Gene Van Bemmel  (Doon)                                                           Earl
                           Alvern Miersma  (Redlands)

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

                                            ~_ --~--~--.-Fi---.--  ~. . ~~--
264                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                                News From Our Churches'
  Our Southeast Church in Grand Rapids has called                               In addition to Christmas cards and letters, Rev.
Professor Herman Hanko to be their pastor.                             Harbach writes that he even received a crock pot of
   Rev. John Heys, who is now in Christchurch, New                     cheese from Houston, Texas. Rev. Harbach continues
Zealand, and Rev. Robert Harbach, in Victoria,                         to be busy with preaching, leading Bible Study classes,
British Columbia, have written of late.' Both of these                 giving an occasional lecture, making personal con-
ministers and their wives very much appreciate the                     tacts, writing his little paper called the `Calvinist
mail they have received from  Standard Bearer  readers.                Contender' in which he is now engaged in an
Rev. Heys writes, "We look eagerly every day for our                   exposition of the five points of Calvinism and in
mail lady, yes a mail lady on a bicycle to deliver our                 producing a weekly radio program, "Bible Truth
mail, and news from our churches is always most                        Meditations" (KARI-AM, 550, Saturday,  lo:45
welcome." Rev. Heys also writes about the area in                      A.M.). Rev. Harbach writes, "In many ways, only
which he is now working: "From our newspapers and                      eternity will tell or reveal all the fruit of our radio,
even from short wave radio  - which is beamed to                       publications, and tape ministries under God's bless-
every corner of the earth for our servicemen on the                    ing. How wonderful it is that we may have a part in
American Forces Radio and Television Service  - we                     this blessed work of spreading the good word of God!
have heard of your cold and blizzards. But the                         May it all continue to go out to the ends of the
summers here are not as warm as at home (Holland,                      earth."
Michigan, USA). The summer average is only 72                              The Isabel bulletin informs us that although Rev.
degrees F. The nights can be quite cool, and the                       Marvin Kamps and Mr. Dewey Engelsma had intended
mornings cloudy; but in the afternoon it can really be                 to leave for Singapore this month to labor with a
warm, and the sun is powerful. One thing we have to                    group of young people there, their trip has been
get accustomed to is that the north wind brings us                     postponed.
warm weather  - from the equator  - and the south                          The services conducted as church extension work
wind brings us cold from the South pole. Quite                         in Bradenton, Florida, by our First Church, have
different. They tell us that the weather settles down                  continued. Rev. Arie den Hartog, pastor of our
to real warm summer weather in February." New Zea-                     Covenant Church in New Jersey, preached there for
land may not have as warm a summer as we do in the                     three Sundays, concluding with February 4th. In a
mid-west, but 72 degrees sounds very good  - it is                     newsletter to the congregation of First Church, Rev,
about 7 degrees on a Michigan February evening as                      den Hartog writes, "It is our conviction that the Lord
these lines are being typed.                                           is blessing the work there (Bradenton) and showing us
  Rev. Heys also writes a bit about his schedule.                      an open door to labor for the gospel. We do not say
"Our week here begins with Sunday School first on                      there are no difficulties connected with the work.
the Lord's Day and then the A.M. service at  1l:OO                     Nor do we know what the Lord's purpose may be as
A.M. The evening service is at 7:00 P.M. Monday                        far as possibilities for establishing a church. Presently
night is school night; and I have been teaching                        however there is much reason to continue the work.
Hebrew Grammar. On Tuesday evening we have a                           This is especially true because of the good attendance
Bible Study and Prayer Meeting at which I deliver a                    at the worship services. We therefore want to
`meditation' for about 45 minutes. Thursday is                         encourage you to' continue to support this work
Catechism day; and every other Friday we meet with                     through your prayers and offerings." Rev. den Hartog
a group of young people from various churches who                      has been followed by Rev. Kenneth Koole, pastor of
are interested in the Reformed Truth. Next Friday,                     our church in Randolph, Wisconsin. Rev. Koole will
the Lord willing, I will speak to them for the sixth                   be followed by the pastor of First Church, Rev.
time on the Holy Spirit and His work in the Church.                    Meindert Joostens.
After an hour of instruction we have question hour;                        A quote from  Spurgeon carried in the  Redlands
and usually we soon forget the subject of the night                    bulletin :
and get into such matters as election, in fact the five
points of Calvinism. Some of these young people,                                "Your strength is seen in what you stand for; your
both young men and young women are found coming                        weakness in what, you fall for."
to the services on Sunday."                                                                                              K. G. V.


