             The
      STA~VDARD
c B E A R E R
              A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE



       But grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our
     Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

       .  .  . To grow in the knowledge of Christ our Savior
     does not mean merely to increase in intellectual
     knowledge of Him. Intellectual growth is indeed
     important and necessary. . . . But the apostle is not
     merely interested in the fact that our heads are filled
     with the knowledge of Him. We must not only know
     about Him, but we must know Him. We must not
     only know that He is a perfect Redeemer, but we
     must know Him as our Savior. . . .

       And the relation of these two, grace and knowl-
     edge, is not such that we first grow in grace, and then
     in knowledge; but we grow in grace as we increase in
     knowledge. The latter is basic for the former.

                                                    See "A Final Warning
                                   and Admonition"  - page  338.

                                                  Volume LV, No. 15, May  I,1979
c                                                                                   d
                                                            ISSN  0362-4692


     338                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                              CONTENTS:                                                                                           ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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     Meditation  -                                                           Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                             Departkent Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev.  David  J. Engelsma
        A Final Warning and Admonition . . . . . . . . . .  .338              R e v .   C o r n e l i u s   H a n k o .   P r o f .   H e r m a n   H a n k o ,   R e v .   R o b e r t   C .   Harbach:
                                                                             R e v .   J o h n   A .   Heys,   R e v .   M e i n d e r t   J o o s t e n s ,   R e v .   J a y   K o r t e r i n g ,   R e v .
                                                                             George C. Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev. Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.
     Editorials  -                                                           James  Slopsema,   R e v .   G i s e   J .   V a n   Baren,  R e v .   R o n a l d   V a n   O v e r l o o p ,
                                                                             R e v .   H e r m a n   Veldman,   M r .   K e n n e t h   G .   V i n k .
        A Legitimate Gravamen . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . .34 1        Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
        Of Arminianism And "Logic-Chopping" . . . .  .343                                                     4975  lvanrest  Ave. S.W.
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     MEQITA TIO N



                         A Final Warning and Admonition
                                                                 Rev.  M. Shipper



                  "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know th%se things before, beware lest ye also, being led
                  away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
                      But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour  Jesus Christ. "
                                                                                                                                                  II Peter 3: 17,  18a.



        To these words all that needs to be added is, "To                      Peter to the beloved pilgrims. Final they are also
     him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." and the                        when you consider that most probably the apostle
     apostle's second epistle is ended. The words of our                       sealed his faith with a martyr's death soon after the
     text really constitute the final word of the apostle                      last word of this epistle was written.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 339



  It is evident, too, especially -from the first part of    church and the believers in Christ can remain
the text, that the apostle is reflecting on what he had     steadfast is the Word of God.
written in this epistle and in the preceding context,          To fall from your steadfastness implies therefore
from which he concludes that it is necessary to give        that you depart from the truth, from the Word of
this final word of warning and admonition. The word         God. Now, of course, in the strict sense of the word it
"therefore" always in, Scripture, and so also here,         is impossible `for the believers in Christ to fall away
indicates that a conclusion is drawn in the text from       from the truth. This would certainly imply a falling
the preceding context. This is indicated also from the      away of saints, which is quite impossible. The church,
words "seeing ye know these things." What these             viewed from the aspect of her election in Christ,
things are which the readers of this epistle know must      cannot fall away. However, when the church is
be. determined from what the apostle had written.           viewed organically, that is, as she develops histori-
Not only do they know that the day of the Lord is           cally, and is thus composed of a two-fold seed,
coming and what will take place when He comes, but          righteous and wicked, elect and reprobate, it is not
they also know that prior to His coming there will be       only possible but expected. When the apostle for
scoffers and false prophets who will deny His coming,       example in chapter 2 writes of the coming of false
and who will privily bring in damnable heresies, by         prophets, and that many shall follow their pernicious
reason of whom the truth will be evil spoken of and         .ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be
many will follow their pernicious ways. The tempta-         evil spoken of, this could happen only in the church,
tion will be there to be led away with the error of the     as she comes historically to manifestation in the
wicked.                                                     world, not outside of her. And always the reality is
  So, in a negative sense, the warning is in place, not     that some, and even many, will depart from the faith.
to give heed to the error and thus fall from their own      This is what we must expect. Also here it becomes
steadfastness. And, positively, the beloved pilgrims        evident that they are not all Israel that are called
must be exhorted and admonished to grow in the              Israel.
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus              But why then must the church be warned if it is
Christ. It should be noted that if the apostle              the corrupt seed that always falls away? The answer is
considered it necessary to express this warning and         two-fold: in the first place the ungodly in the church
admonition nearly two millenia ago, it certainly            must know that when they turn away from the truth,
behooves us, upon whom the end of the ages is come,         they incur great condemnation. Always the Scriptures
to give attention to what the Word of God says in this      stress the truth that they who have known the truth
text.                                                       and have departed from it shall be beaten with many
  The heart of the warning in the text must be found        stripes; but, in the second place, this warning is
in the words, "beware lest ye also . . . fall from your     necessary also for the true children of God. We must
own steadfastness,"                                         not forget that they live in the flesh and in an old
  Now certainly these words imply that, for the             nature which will never be subjected to the truth.
moment at least, they to whom this is addressed were        That old nature is always prone to the error of the
standing fast. To stand fast implies, first of all, that    wicked. Consequently it is necessary that the apostle
you have a place to stand. It implies that your feet        sound the warning.
are firmly planted on solid ground. It implies, too,
that while you are firmly fixed, there are external            Beware lest ye also. . . !
forces bent on moving you from your place, against             That word "beware" comes from a word that is
which you must take a stand to be able to endure.           .used in the military, where the soldier is placed on
This whole idea is beautifully illustrated in the figure    guard as a sentry. If that sentry is not alert, watching,
of the rock on  the. coast of Maine projecting into the     ready to fight the enemy, he may be destroyed, and
Atlantic where the billows smash themselves against         those over whom he is set to guard may perish with
the rock but never succeed in moving it from its            him.
place.                                                         The apostle means to say that the power of the
  That solid ground on which the believers in Christ        error of the wicked is so strong that if the child of
remain steadfast can only be the truth of, God's            God is not on guard he may be enticed to the error,
Word. All other ground is sinking sand. The church of       and so he would fall away from the truth. This is true
Christ is built upon the solid ground of the doctrine       of error in any form. And especially is this true with
of the apostles and prophets as it is the revelation of     respect to the error which denies the coming of Christ.
Christ. Of that foundation Christ is said to be the         One who falls for that error will suffer the effects on
chief cornerstone. To this idea we will return              the whole of life. He will not live in hope. He will
presently, but it is important to see at this juncture      become worldly-minded, and spiritually indifferent.
that the only `solid ground on which the Christian          Against this error of the wicked we are to stand


340                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



guard. And that means that we expect the enemy,             holiness comes to manifestation in our lives. Our
and are prepared to withstand him. It means that we         assurance of justification is more perfectly estab-
stand fast in the truth.                                    lished, and our walk in sanctification develops and
  How important is this word of warning today! In           comes more and more in evidence.
the world about us there is naturally no concern               It must be clearly understood that we do not have
relative to the coming of Christ. There is concern          these graces of ourselves. They are all in Christ as the
about mundane things. Right now there is consider-          grace of Christ, and by Him are given unto us.
able disturbance over the energy crisis, and the               It must also be understood that to be steadfast in
government is projecting plans to cope with it for          the truth is not a static experience, as a pillar or post
years to come. All seem to be concerned about the           is fixed in the ground, but the children of God are
possibility of war in the Middle East, and they are         alive and they grow as the tree that is planted in the
shuttling back and forth to establish peace. You hear       soil. Standing in the grace of Christ they grow and
an awful lot about our national debt which steadily         increase in grace.
increases, and we are warned that for years and years
to come we, our children, and our grand-children will          To this the apostle adds: "And in the knowledge of
be still struggling with it. Then there is frightful        our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." To grow in the
concern about inflation, and nobody, Democrats or           knowledge of Christ our Saviour does not mean
Republicans, knows what to do about it. But no one          merely to increase in intellectual knowledge of Him.
in the government or, so it seems also in the church,       Intellectual growth is indeed important and neces-
mentions the coming of Christ.                              sary. It is extremely important that we increase in the
                                                            knowledge of Him as He is revealed in the Scriptures.
  This worldlimindedness rubs off on the church             This we can do by faithfully studying the Word of
where too the concern is about social and economic          God, and by faithfully coming under its proclama-
problems, and the cry is for world betterment  - as         tion. Only through the Word and its faithful
though we are all going to stay here forever. And in        proclamation can we come to know Christ. The purer
our affluent society things are really pretty nice down     the preaching of the Word is, the purer will also be
here. Who wants Christ to return and spoil it all? If       our conception of Him. But the apostle is not merely
Christ is mentioned at all, it seems as if it is in the     interested in the fact that our heads are filled with
question of the scoffers of Peter's day: Where is the       the knowledge of Him. We must not only know about
promise of His coming? All things continue as they          Him, but we must know  Him. We must not only know
were. Yes, even the children of God get carried away        that He is a perfect Redeemer, but we must know
with this philosophy.                                       Him as our Saviour. The knowledge is therefore one
  Indeed, we need this word of warning! Not only            of spiritual experience.
must we be alerted at our post, having on the full             And we must notice that this is an admonition, an
armor of God to stand, but we need to be reminded           exhortation, which is directed to us. We are exhorted
that we know our Lord is coming quickly. And this           and admonished to grow in the grace and in the
glorious truth must so pervade our heart and mind           knowledge of Christ our Saviour and perfect Media-
that we constantly live in hope, and are quickened          tor.
spiritually so that we are able to remain steadfast to
the end, and are not moved from that Word of God               The apostle, therefore, does not consider his
by the temptation to error.                                 readers and us to be dead pots into which the grace
                                                            and knowledge of Christ is deposited. Nor are the
  But grow in the grace and in the knowledge-of our         grace and knowledge dead objects that we carry
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!                              around with us. But they are living, spiritual realities,
                                                            capable of increasing in the use we make of them, as
  That is the positive admonition and exhortation in        we come regularly and faithfully under the Means of
the text. To grow in grace is to increase in all the        Grace. So also we grow spiritually, while also the
virtues of grace which by the grace of God are              grace and knowledge grow in us as we develop in the
bestowed upon  us.  All these virtues of grace are in       grace and knowledge of Christ our Lord.
principle bestowed in the grace of regeneration. In
seed form, as it were, the graces of faith,  lqve, hope,       And the relation of these two, grace and knowl-
righteousness, holiness, etc., are ours in the wonder of    edge, is not such that we first grow in grace, and then
the new birth in Christ. Through the  rain and              in knowledge; but we grow in grace as we increase in
sunshine of the Word and Spirit of Christ these graces      knowledge. The latter is basic for the former.
are fertilized and blossom out in our Christian                Both the warning and the admonition in the text
experience. So we increase in all Christian virtues.        are very urgently to be heeded. "Ye therefore,
Our faith expands, our love grows, our hope is              beloved, seeing ye know these things before, be-
quickened, our righteousness becomes plain, and our         ware. . .  ." So the apostle  stresses the urgency.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 341



  As beloved of the apostle, but especially of Christ,        What is our positive calling then? As `we already
you know from all that the Word of God declares             suggested, we cannot remain static, inactive, station-
that there will be heresies in the last times. Heresy is    ary. You either grow in spiritual stature, or you go
not something peculiar to the day in which the epistle      backward and grow weak and wobbly. Urgent  ,it is
was written. As long as the truth of God is                 that we increase in the knowledge of God's Word, for
maintained and faithfully proclaimed in the world           only so will we grow in the grace of our Lord and
there  will.be opposition to and denial of the truth. It    Saviour Jesus Christ.
is imperative, that we be prepared for this. Nor is           So we will be steadfast, immovable, when the error
apostasy something peculiar to the day of the apostle.      of the wicked assails us.  And so will we be prepared
Fact of the matter is that Scripture predicts that in       for the coming of Christ our Lord.
the last days the apostasy will be great. This also we
know. And it is urgent that we remain steadfast.



E D I T O R I A L S
Prof H. C. Hoeksema




                             A Legitimate Gravamen


  Twice in recent months the claim has been made            on and on . . .
that Dr. Harry Boer's gravamen is not a legitimate            "You see, if the terms of the debate are set so
gravamen. The argumentation is that the Boer                narrowly, in fundamentalist, biblicist style, calling for
gravamen is a "prove it" gravamen, that it is simply a      explicit biblical proof of that sort, we are bound to
request for the Christian Reformed Church to give           flounder about in a kind of confessional abyss `til the
Scriptural proof for the doctrine of sovereign              Lord returns. And that because the high-sounding
reprobation, and that the Synod is not a kind of            expressions, `just the Bible,' or `just tell me what the
"question-box" and cannot be called upon to render          Bible says,' are not as simple or  3s innocent as they
proof for the various doctrines set forth in the creeds.    might seem." (pp. 3, 4)
  The Rev. Nelson Kloosterman made this claim in              Editor Lester De Koster has made the same claim
The Outlook  (February, 1979). After writing rather         in  The Banner,  asserting that the Boer Gravamen is
confusedly about the nature of a gravamen, he               not a legitimate gravamen and that it should be
continues as follows:                                       marked "Return to Sender." In  The Banner  of April'
  "It is important to note the possible results in the      6, 1979 Dr. De Koster repeats this assertion. Among
life of the church from here on if Boer's gravamen          other things, he writes:
and its suggestions are accepted. His strident demand         "This suggestion (call it a well-meant offer?) was
for `the express testimony of Scripture' will, no           not intended to be tricky or cute. I think I speak for
doubt, be repeated in the years to come by those            many of you in repudiating the notion that any of us
seeking indubitable prooftexts which command the            may put the Mother of Believers to a `prove to me'
practice of infant baptism, seeking incontrovertible        test. To those who claim to find Biblical doctrines
biblical evidence for the doctrine of the  tri-personal-    better expressed than her confessions express them,
ity of God, and asking for unquestionable proof for         the Church owes a ready ear; but to those who would
the correctness of the Heidelberg Catechism's inter-        put her on trial to `prove' to their satisfaction what
pretation of the necessity of Christ's burial ("To          she confesses over the centuries, the Church should
prove thereby that he was really dead," Q. 41). And         be deaf. She knows, in advance, that in fact no


342                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



`proof' is likely to satisfy this kind of challenge.                      prove  the doctrines set forth in the confessions. If
 "She should be  d&af, I noted, not only out of                           this were true, of course, there would be "open
self-respect, but equally out of determination to keep                    season" on the confessions for gravamina; and it
good  order. One confession involves another. . .  ."                     would indeed result in an intolerable situation. It has
                                                                          been suggested that the doctrine of the.Trinity and
   A little later De Koster suggests that the door                        the doctrine of infant baptism could then be
might be opened to whole series of "Grove it"                             challenged and a demand for proof of these put on
gravamina and that "One `show me' gravamen could                          Synod's agenda. Maybe there is even more fact than
follow hard on the heels of another."                                     imagination in such a suggestion.
   Now, in the first place, it  would seem a bit tardy to                    However, the Boer gravamen is far more serious
begin talking about the legality of Boer's gravamen.                      than a simple demand for proof. It is true, of course,
Has not the Synod of 1977 received the gravamen as                        that Dr. Boer demands of the Christian Reformed
properly before the churches? In fact, did not the                        Church to furnish him "the express testimony of
Synod of 1975 already declare of the notorious Boer                       sacred Scripture" (the language of Canons I,  15). in
"Letter" about reprobation that Boer raised a matter                      support of the doctrine of reprobation as set forth in
of legitimate concern? Further  - although I would                        Articles 6 and 15 of Canons I. On the surface of it,
certainly disagree with the manner in which the                           therefore, this would seem to be a mere "prove it"
Synod of 1976 tampered with the Formula of                                gravamen. However, Boer is no fool. He knows very
Subscription and with  th& methods of filing and                          well which are the Scriptural proofs that the Canons
dealing with gravamina  - is it not true that the Boer                    offer and which they call "the express testimony of
Gravamen is fully in harmony with those newly                             sacred Scripture." Hence, the largest part of Boer's
adopted rules? Still more, has not Synod given its                        gravamen is devoted to his attempt to demonstrate
committee the mandate "to study the gravamen in                           that the Scriptural proofs offered by the Canons  do
the light of Scripture, and to advise Synod of 1980 as                    not prove  what the Canons claim they prove. In other
to the cogency of the gravamen and how it should                          words, Boer claims to have given the lie to the
further be dealt with by Synod," saying nothing at all                    Canons' words, "the express testimony of sacred
about studying or advising on its legitimacy? And,                        Scripture." He then proceeds to state that he himself
finally, following the decisions of 1975, 1976, and                       knows of no other Scriptural proof. And only then
1977 has there been any protest raised about this                         does he demand of Synod to furnish such proof. It
aspect of the Boer Gravamen? It would seem,                               seems to me that while it is negative, the Boer
therefore, that while this might, to some, be a neat                      gravamen is nevertheless a perfectly legitimate  grava-
way out of a knotty problem, it is rather late to raise                   men in itself. And if the Christian Reformed Synod
this point now.                                                           agrees with Boer's exegesis, there is only one
   But, in the second place, the question arises                          conclusion to which the Synod can come, namely, to
whether this is a correct representation of Dr. Boer's                    declare Articles 6 and 15 of Canons I null and void.
gravamen, or whether it is a gross over-simplification                    This is the same conclusion to which the Synod of
and under-estimation of his gravamen. I trust that I                      the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands was
hardly have to state that I disagree with Dr. Boer's                      forced: the language of Articles 6 and 15 is not in
position on reprobation. At the same time, however, I                     harmony with the Scriptural givens.
do not think that Dr. Boer is so simple or so naive as                       The alternative is for Synod's committee and the
to think that anyone can simply call on the church  to                    Synod of 1980 to show conclusively that Boer's
                                                                          exegesis of the Canons' proof-texts is incorrect and
                                                                          that the Canons do indeed furnish the express
                           NOTICE!!!                                      testimony, of sacred Scripture in support of the
                                                                          doctrine of reprobation. Then, of course, Dr. Boer
   According to the decision of the Synod of 1978, the Consistory of      would be faced by the alternative of either bowing to
the First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, was
appointed the calling church for the 1979 Synod. The Consistory of        the decision of Synod or saying farewell to the
First Church hereby notifies our churches that the 1979 Synod of the      Christian Reformed Church because he can no longer
Protestant Reformed Churches in America will convene, the Lord            sign the Formula of Subscription.
willing, on Wednesday, June 6, 1979, at 9 AM in the First Protestant
Reformed Church. The pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday              For many reasons it is to be hoped, too, that the
evening, June 5, at 8 PM in First Church. Rev. John Heys, President of
the 1978 Synod will preach the sermon.  Synodical delegates are           Christian Reformed Church will not be misled by
requested to meet with the Consistory before the service. Delegates in    this propaganda about the legitimacy of the Boer
need of lodging should contact Mr. Theodore Looyenga, 1125 Adams          gravamen, but will forthrightly face up to it and deal
St., S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507.                                  w i t h   i t .   Chief  a m o n g   these  r e a s o n s   i s   t h a t   o f
                                            Theodore Looyenga,  C'lerk    ecclesiastical honesty!


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         343





                       Of Arminianism And "Logic-Chopping"



  When all  the dust  ,being  .raised about the Boer              You will discover that the  Arminian mind pro-
gravamen clears, it will, I trust, still be necessary to       duces a number of logical objections to the mind of
deal with the burden of Dr. Boer's gravamen, which is          the Canons; like these:
an exegetical one.                                                1. If God reprobates, He forecloses the well-meant
  Meanwhile, there is much dust being raised; and at           offer of salvation to alJ men. But, in fact, the Bible
least some of it ought to be exposed as just that  -           teaches both reprobation and the well-meant offer.
dust. An example may be found in the editorial                    2. If God decrees from all eternity, He abrogates
department of  The Banner  (April 6, 1979, pp. 10,             man's choice and responsibility.  But, in fact, the
11). Far, be it from me to agree with Harry Boer's             Bible teaches both God 3 decrees and man's free will
doctrinal position, but I believe that Editor De Koster        and responsibility.
does his former colleague of  The Reformed  Joumal                3. If God elects, He  must reject, and therefore
injustice by accusing him of basing his gravamen on            reprobation is only the logical implicate of election.
his own logic. In the meantime, Dr. De Koster's own            `But, in fact, the Bible makes no such connection. In
references to Arminianism and to logic-chopping  -             ways higher than we can lay hold  ox God chooses
whatever that may mean  - are  fir from accurate.              and God passes by - and affords no "reason" for
                                                               either except His own good pleasure.
  In the first place, it is news to me that "Arminius             4. If God  .reprbbates,   He may be charged with
and his followers . . . filed a gravamen against the           responsibility  for man's sin. But, in fact, the Bible
teaching of Belgic Article 16 and related doctrines."          repudiates even the suggestion: God forbid!
If only they had filed a gravamen, things might have              And so on. All of these are logical efforts  to lowei
gone differently at the time of the Synod of                    God's thoughts to the level of our thoughts, and to
Dordrecht. But my history books and my "Acts of                reduce  God's ways to our ways. And you will  fmd, I
the Synod of Dordrecht,  1618-19" show, for one                think, that when all the talk subsides, the critics of
thing, that it was all but impossible to get  the              the Canons have been moving on logical assumptions
Arminians  to put their views black on white, and that         like these all along -while charging, of course, that it
even at the Synod itself they had to be admonished             is the Canons "that bend any desired Scripture to its
and reproved and threatened in order to get them to            foreordained meaning".
present their views. In the second place, while the           Of the four examples of logical objections pro-
Arminians themselves wanted to be treated as equals         duced by the Arminian mind, numbers "2" and "4"
at the Synod and wanted simply to "review" the              and their replies may stand, provided that "free will"
confessions along with the Counter-Remonstrants,            in "2" is correctly understood.
the fact is that the Arminians (with the erudite Simon        However, riumber "1" is not an objection raised by
Episcopius at their head) were hailed before the            the Arminian mind, and its answer is not an
Synod as defendants, who were on trial for heresy.          expression of the Reformed mind, or mind of the
Would that the Christian Reformed Church today              Canons. The reverse is true. "If God reprobates
were strong enough to imitate Dordrecht! I assure           (sovereignly), He forecloses the well-meant offer of
you that there would have been multiple heresy trials       salvation to all men." That is indeed the Reformed
(and convictions) long ago!                                 mind, the mind of the Canons. More specifically, it is
  In the second place, however, when Dr. De Koster          the Protestant Reformed mind  - and we were never
writes about "logic-chopping"  - whatever that may          accused of having an Arminian mind, only of being
be  - he sorely misrepresents both Arminianism and          Reformed in the fundamentals, with a tendency to
the Bible. De Koster writes as follows:                     one-sidedness. The "Arminian mind" is the very
       When it came to logic-chopping, Arminius out-        opposite: God's well-meant offer of salvation fore-
    distanced most others in his time - while accusing      closes sovereign reprobation.
    them of falling victim to . . . logic!                    `The italicized reply to "1" is not the mind of the


344                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



Canons nor the mind of God (the Bible). It is the           connection many times. In fact, as often as it uses the
Christian Reformed mind, adopted in  1924. And              verb "eklegein" (to c oose
                                                                                    h       out of), it makes this
while I am glad to see the First Point of 1924 come         connection; and it also makes the same connection in
out of hiding in the current discussion, I must needs       various other passages of Scripture.
point out that it is a contradictory mind, which no           Incidentally, while the claim is made (also by Dr.
rational human being can accept. Furthermore, it            De Koster) that the "great theologians" do not draw
involves ascribing contradictions to the Bible, and         this conclusion, a careful study of John Calvin
thus to God Himself. Simply put, it means: 1. God           himself will reveal that in his treatise on "The Eternal
wills the salvation of the reprobate. 2. God does not       Predestination Of God" he not only makes this
will the salvation of the reprobate, but their              connection, but ascribes it to Scripture. Commenting
damnation. Men like Berkhof and H. J. Kuiper tried to       on Ephesians  1:4, in reply to Pighius, he states: "`In
escape this, contradiction by calling it a mystery. R.      the first place, there is, most certainly and evidently,
B. Kuiper spoke of a paradox. Editor De Koster, I           an inseparable connection between the elect and the
fear, is suggesting the same thing in different language    reprobate. So that the election, of which the apostle
when he speaks of God's thoughts and ways being             speaks, cannot consist unless we confess that God
higher than our  .ways. Men like Boer, Daane, Stob,         separated from all others certain persons whom it
and Dekker are at least honest enough to face up to         pleased Him thus to separate." (p. 45) And again,  p.
this obvious and intolerable contradiction. But they        75,  he writes: "The mind and intent of the apostle,
choose the Arminian position, and foreclose sovereign       therefore, in his use of this similitude, are to be
reprobation.                                                carefully observed and held fast  - that God, the
  Example "3" is a true statement if only it would          Maker of men, forms out of the same lump in His
be  completely stated. Completely stated, it would          hands one vessel, or man, to honour, and another to
read : "If God elects some out of the mass of               dishonour, according to His sovereign and absolute
mankind,  it follows that He rejects (passes by) the        will. For He freely chooses some to life who are not
rest. In this sense reprobation is nothing but the          yet born, leaving others to their own destruction,
logical implicate of election." God does not merely         which destruction all men by nature equally deserve.
elect and reject, choose and pass by. Election and          And when Pighuis holds that God's election of grace
reprobation have personal and definite objects; and         has no reference to, or connection with, His hatred of
those objects are mutually exclusive. James Daane's         the reprobate, I maintain that reference and connec-
objections to the "logic of numbers" to the contrary        tion to be a truth. Inasmuch  as the just severity of
notwithstanding, as surely as election is personal and      God answers, in equal and common cause, to that
definite (and this is the teaching of the Canons), so       free love with which He embraces His elect."
surely are the rest of mankind the -"non-elect," or the       Personally, I would rather be in the company of
reprobate. Moreover, the Bible itself makes this            Calvin than that of Pighuis. How about you?

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD



                                 News From Victoria

                                              Prof Robert D. Decker




  In 1974 Hope Protestant Reformed Church of                Rev. Harbach has been preaching and teaching the
Walker, Michigan called the Rev. Robert C. Harbach          Gospel in Victoria, British  Cblumbia.  Of this labor he
to serve our Churches as a Home Missionary. For             writes in the succeeding article. We are sure that the
several years Rev. Harbach served in Houston, Texas         reader will appreciate Rev. Harbach's trenchant
where a Protestant Reformed Congregation was                analysis of the ecclesiastical and religious situation in
organized as a fruit of his labors. For some time now       Victoria.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                            345





                                 Let the Isles Be Glad


   "The Lord," no less than the Lord Jesus Christ, the        Spoken, God's Covenant Faithfulness, and The
eternal King of kings, "reigneth," as Head of the             Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. One person has
church, and Head over  al! things for the church; "let        read  De Geloovigen En Hun Zaad.  Copies of The
the earth rejoice;" why? because all authority in             Standard Bearer are mailed out by a faithful reader of
heaven and in earth is given to Him risen from the            the same, and the group works together in preparing a
dead; so "let the multitude of the isles be glad" (Ps.        two-page  Calvinist Contender  for mailing. The truth
97:  l), including isles and maritime lands to which our      of the gospel is further spread abroad by means of a
churches have had the blessed privilege of sending the        weekly,  15minute radio broadcast aired  ,out of
gospel  - Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia,         KARI, Blaine, Washington, on Saturday mornings.
Singapore, Vancouver Island. "Let the sea roar, and           The program is called "Bible Truth Meditations," and
the fulness thereof' (Ps.  98:7), because the glad            reaches not only Victoria, but well up into the island.
sound of the gospel continues to go out to the islands        Services and the broadcast are advertized regularly in
of the seas.                                                  three newspapers, one here, one up-island and one
                                                              over on the mainland, all, of course, in British
  Looking at a map of the North American continent            Co!umbia.  In this way, it is hoped, a radio audience
back home in the Midwest, one gets no proper sense            to our program will be built up. Some three
of geographical orientation with respect to the island        responses, so  fai-, have been made to this radio
last mentioned. For it is then represented on the map         endeavor.
by  htidly more than a mere speck. Now we are on                The usual maze of religions is found here as
that tiny speck (how small and insignificant we are!),        elsewhere and everywhere on this continent. There
and it's all quite different., The "speck" seems huge         are sensationalistic and hand-clapping charismatics, the
with a stretch nortliward of wilderness crammed with          usual string of prophetic preachers, the hordes of
forests,    mountains, lakes, rivers, swamps, bogs,           " h e a l i n g " hucksters, the fast-decaying apostate
streams, farmlands, and the ubiquitous rocky promi-           churches, and the increasing number of anti-church
nences. It would take months and months,  .if not             groups. The latter are little independent knots of
years, to discover all that the island affords.               professing Christians who claim that as the end of the
  The Lord brought us to a fine group of saints here          age draws nearer, believers will increasingly separate
who requested catechetical instruction, Bible study,          themselves from the institution of the established
preaching, and worship services. For a while, there           churches, to meet in private homes for independent
was also a Bible study class held bi-monthly on the           Bible study. The institute of the church is viewed
mainland near to Lynden, Washington. The children             with suspicion and avoided, even though the Bible
here have been taught the second time around in Old           teaches that there will always be true church
Testament Bible history. Adult Bible study has                institutes in the world,. like the seven churches in
proceeded through The Essentials of Reformed                  Asia, and that right up to the return of our Lord on
Doctrine and more than half way into the Belgic               the clouds of heaven. This trend does embrace many
Confession. With delight the beautiful contents of the        sincere people, but sincerely wrong, and so all the
Heidelberg Catechism are regularly studied and fed            more dangerously wrong, as the trend, of which they
on. Series preaching has seen us through three of the         are a part, is both schismatical and part and parcel of
epistles and into a fourth. Regular worship and Bible         the present apostasy. Then there is the being
study is supplemented with personal reading in the            "Calvinistic" without being Reformed. Arminianism
Beacon Lights, The Standard Bearer, the Reformed              and Semi-pelagianism are the popular opiates of the
Dogmatics, The Triple Knowledge, Therefore Have I             masses.


346                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  But it matters not that we may have to stand alone       but with the 3 16 souls in the household of Abraham.
in all this bleak, arid religious wilderness: It is our    Could he, where he was, be a witness to his children?
calling to let our light shine before men, and to "set     Isn't it a fact that the only way he could be an
up the standard toward Zion" (Jer.  4:6). For a-while      effectual,. consistent witness to them would be for
in our meetings we were able to count some half            him to leave the cities of the plain that then he might
dozen nationalities represented in attendance. Ordi-       point them to the house of Abraham as the then true
narily, it has been our firm, faithful few who             Bethlehem or House of Bread? And what about his
continue with us, growing spiritually in the truth.        children? Were they not without the benefit of a
Some of our ministers have visited us, most of whom        strong parental witness? Did they know and love the
have preached here. We enjoyed having them,                truth as did their father? Were they, as their father,
`although there were not multitudes flocking out to        children of God? Were they, too, vexed with the
hear them. These are days when preaching is largely        filthy manner of life of the wicked? Could they be
ignored, especially Reformed preaching. It is pushed       said to possess "righteous souls"? Did they have the
aside for dashes of religious entertainment. Men who       slightest interest as to where the True Bread could be
occupy the pulpit (I hate calling them ministers) do       found? Were they not wholly concerned, rather, with
not preach the Word, do not produce sermons. The           a secure economic and advantageous social life?
people do not hear the Word. Many of them do not           ("Remember Lot's wife.") When did they ever give a
ask for bread, being satisfied with stones, which is       thought to the Word of God for the good of their
what they get. Then will their children ask for bread,     souls? The church in Abraham continues to this day
or for an egg? It's unlikely. Any way, they only get a     (Gal.  3:26, 29). The church in Lot was in that day
stone or a scorpion. The church service is cluttered       lost in its generations. In Lot's family there was a
with pageants, dramas, films, discussion panels, and       "famine, not a famine of bread, nor of thirst for
an overload of music (religious jazz) and  people-         water, but of hearing the words of the Lord" (Amos
participating programming. When young men enter            8: 11). It must also be said of Lot's children, and of
the seminary, seldom is it to learn to become a            those like them in our day: "My people are destroyed
preacher. Rather, it's to become a counselor, a            for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected
chaplain, a minister of music, a minister of youth, a      knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be
minister of visitation, or a minister of education (a      no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of
sort of Sunday School superintendent). Recently, a         thy God, I will also forget thy children" (Hos.  3:6).
president of a Bible institute was introduced as an          Without the pure preaching of the Word, we
internationally known author and Christian film            become like God-forgotten children, tossed to and fro
maker. In the days when we were students in a Bible        with every wind of doctrine. The younger generation,
institute, all the teachers were also preachers and        then, slips father away from God than have their
pastors of churches; and, where there was a female         parents. But the preaching of the Word is still to be
teacher, she was the wife of a preacher. Preaching can     heard. By it we learn to know the truth, embrace it,
be eclipsed by film-making. Preaching is allowed to        love it, live in it, and gain heaven by it. Under the
slip from being the chief means of grace. Many turn        preaching of the gospel is that promise ours,  "I will
from preaching to private Bible study. The two             never leave thee nor forsake thee." Preaching is a very
should go together. To turn from the divinely              serious stewardship, a weighty trust committed to
appointed instrument of the church institute to            Christ's ministers. We are all answerable to Him as to
independent Bible study is a deception. There ought        how we use and respond to the divine appointment of
to be a turning away from the apostate churches.           "the foolishness of preaching." For by such means
Some in these churches are true Christians. They           the sovereign God purposes to save those who believe,
grieve over the deadly falling away from the truth.        and to gather together in one the children of God
They themselves know the great truth of sovereign          scattered abroad. "Let the multitudes of the isles be
grace. They know that- the preaching of the Cross,         glad" because they hear the joyful sound of the
foolishness to those who are perishing, is the power       gospel. Then let us be glad and sing:
of God to those who are being saved. But no one is
saved in the purveyance of error. These things they                From Greenland's icy mountains,
see, know and deplore. But do their generations know               From India's coral strand,
these things? Do their children hear the truth?  Do               Where Afric's sunny fountains
they get bread, or only stones and gravel? Are their               Roll down their golden sand,
parents a witness to them? Can they point their                    From many an ancient river,
children in the right direction? Was Lot in Sodom a                From many a  palmy plain,
witness to his children? Lot knew God's pure truth.               They call us to deliver
He was painfully aware of the corruptions all around.             Their land from error's chain!
He knew the true church was not there where he was,                                          Rev. Robert C. Harbach


                                                                 THE  STAtiDARD  BEARER                                                  347



QUESTION BOX



                               About Pharaoh and His Host
                                                                        Rev. C. Hanko




Dear Question Box Editor:                                                              2) In Exodus  14:27,   15:4,  and Deut.  11:4 the
   Will you please comment on these questions?                                       drowning of Pharaoh's army is mentioned, but no
                                                                                     mention is made of Pharaoh. Pharaoh may have led
    1. Did Pharaoh die in the Red Sea?                                               the army up to the sea, and then sent the army on
   2. Is Exodus 15: 19 proof that he did die?                                        ahead, while he stayed behind.
   3. Does Exodus  14:28 seem to say that those who                                    3) The only reference to the perishing of Pharaoh
went into the Sea died, but some of the Egyptians                                    in the sea, according to this contention is found in
stayed on land? "All the host of Pharaoh  that came                                  Psalm  136:15, where we read, "But overthrew
into the sea after them,  there remained not so much                                 Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea: for His mercy
as one of them."                                                                     endureth forever." This is regarded either as poetic
                                      Sincerely,                                     license, or is ascribed to the fact that the poet had
                                          An Iowa Reader                             not been properly informed.
                                                                                       On the other hand, we certainly cannot question
                                                                                     the infallible inspiration of Psalm 136: 15. That must
REPLY                                                                                stand.
   We appreciate  ,your question. The Standard Bearer                                  In fact, it  is in the light of this clear testimony of
is always eager to hear from its readers.                                            Scripture that we must understand the account of the
   Your main concern is, Did Pharaoh drown in the                                    crossing of the Red Sea as we have it in Exodus 14.
Red Sea at the time of the exodus, or did he not?                                    We note,
   Most commentators and some historians simply                                        1) That Exodus  14:8-10,  13 leaves the impression
assume that he did drown, without burdening                                          that Pharaoh led his army of charioteers and
themselves with the question of who this Pharaoh                                     horsemen, which `followed after him. Verse 10 states,
might be, the date of his reign, etc. Other historians                               "And when Pharaoh drew nigh. . .  ."
and commentators, among whom is Dr. W. H. Gispen                                       2) There is no mention made of the fact that
in his commentary on the book of Exodus (Korte                                       Pharaoh withdrew to allow his army to pass through
Verklaring der Heilige  S&rift), maintain that king                                  the sea before him. Verse 16 does tell us, "And I
Pharaoh did not drown at that time.                                                  (Jehovah) will. get me honour upon Pharaoh, and
   They base this on the following:                                                  upon his host, upon his chariots and his horsemen."
    1) At the time when God sent Moses to Egypt to                                   In the light of that verse the passage you refer to
d e l i v e r   H i s   p e o p l e   T h u r m o s e   I I I   w a s   k i n g .    (14:28), "all the host of Pharaoh that came into the
(1501-1447 B.C.) His successor was Amenophis II                                      sea after them, there remained not as much as one of
(1447-142 1 B.C.), during whose reign the exodus is                                  them," must mean that Pharaoh and his entire host
supposed to have taken place, approximately 1445                                     perished in the sea.
B.C. It is interesting to note that these dates have                                   3) Moreover, as you point out, Exodus 15: 19
been changed by later findings, so that Thutmose II is                               states, "For the horse of Pharaoh went- in with his
said to have reigned from 1482 to 1450 B.C. and                                      chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the
Amenophis II from 1450 to 1424 B.C. And the                                          Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them."
exodus is reckoned at 1447. It is further maintained                                 This is a synedoche; it certainly cannot mean the
that the mummies of both of these kings have been                                    horse without the rider. We can also refer to Psalm
found.                                                                               73:53, and to Psalm 106: 11, the latter declaring,


 348                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



"And the waters covered their enemies, there was not        deliver God's people. In that case, there must have
one left."                                                  been a Pharaoh who reigned for a short time, that is,
   Those interested in chronologies will wonder how         who reigned during the ten plagues and the departure,
this harmonizes with the dates of the reigns of             only to drown in the Red Sea. In that case
Thutmose III and Amenophis II. We realize, of               Amenophis II was his successor. In any case,
course, that these dates are a bit flexible, and that       chronology must be brought in harmony with
there is not perfect agreement about these dates. It        Scripture, not Scripture with the findings of men. We
seems possible that Thutmose III is the king referred       must always bow before the Scriptural "It is
to in Exodus  2:23, who died about the time when            written."
Moses was called in  Midian to return to Egypt to



                               Letter for the  Standard Bearer

Dear Prof. Hanko,                                           not forget, in the first place, that it is not our human
   After reading the  Standard Bearer  of Jan.  1, 1979,    sentiment but the clear teaching of Holy Writ that
I felt like talking to you. The reason is the book          may be the only standard for our faith and doctrine.
review about "Daylight", by Rev. Andrew  Kuyven-
hoven. You wrote: "Most are not of exegetical                  "Secondly, we must also remember that even our
nature, but are rather brief meditations `hanged on' a      human sentiment is sinful, and that we certainly
given text: all tend to be practical rather than            cannot summon the holy and righteous God before
doctrinal. They can be read with profit by those who        the bar of our feeling without going far from the path
enjoy devotional literature."                               of truth."
   After I read this I felt worried and concerned.            When Rev. H. Hoeksema answers Dr. Hepp in "Van
                                                            Zonde en Genade", p. 237, he writes: "We are not
   We here in Edmonton came out of the Christian            concerned about a word. We are not engaging in a
Reformed Church in 1975. We read before much of             verbal dispute. We are fighting against a world and life
Rev. A. Kuyvenhoven's writings. We learned how he           view of which Dr. Kuyper gives an example in his
taught the two-sided covenant.                              book, `Common Grace'. That view is no good and is
   I will quote from a Family Altar, Feb.,  197 1: "The     not Reformed; not only in the sense that it deviates
coming of Christ divided the Jewish nation into two         from what is stated in our Confessions concerning the
groups. One group accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the        sinner who is dead in sins and iniquities, but also
other group rejected Him.                                   because it deviates from the fundamental line of the
   "A battle raged between these two groups about           Reformed faith in the historical sense." (Translated.)
who could call himself a real child of Abraham. . . .         When we read some of the writings (in our papers),
By a  life of faith the sons of Abraham show that they      then I ask: Is there really Neo-Calvinistic teaching
have believed the gospel. . .  ."                           among the Protestant Reformed members?! Are we
  Here is a minister who believes the world and life        blinded?
view of the Neo-Calvinist. Is this really literature to       It is hard to describe how dangerous this teaching
be recommended? If it is not doctrinally sound, how         and the results are. We went through this all and do
can it be devotional?                                       not like to experience it again.
  The most modernistic C.R.C. churches here, which            I talked with my children about the danger of Rev.
are now called "community churches" because they            Kuyvenhoven's teaching. They also know that God's
do not want to be called confessional churches, they        covenant is one-sided. This is Scriptural. But if in the
use Rev. Kuyvenhoven's writings.                            Standard Bearer  Rev. Kuyvenhoven's writings are
  Rev. H. Hoeksema wrote in the  Reformed Dog-              recommended, what will our answer be to our
matics,  p. 768: "It is of course true that the doctrine    children?
of eternal punishment seems very severe and harsh to          A devotional booklet not based on Scripture is
our natural sentiment and human feeling. But let us         misleading.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  349



   `"Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed               conception of the covenant held so widely within the
Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall            Christian Reformed Church is a view not according to
not now be ashamed, neither shall his face' wax pale.          the Scriptures. But I have not seen anything in the
But when he seeth his children, the work of mine               writings of any of our people which suggests such a
hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my             bilateral view of the covenant. So far as I know, the
name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall            unilateral and sovereign nature of the everlasting
fear the God  .of Israel. They also that erred in spirit       covenant of grace is held among us without excep-
shall come to understanding, and they that murmured            tion.
shall learn doctrine." Isaiah 29: 22-24.                         But it is not, I think, this which you mean by
  And doctrine  is  life!                                      Neo-Calvinism. I have an idea that you probably refer
                                                               to writings which speak more of the relation of the
  Wishing you the Lord's blessings,                            Christian to culture. Your reference to Neo-Calvinism
                   Your sister in Christ,                      is probably a reference to the views of the A.A.C.S.
                   `Mrs. F. Tolsma                             so widely promoted in Canada and in this country. I
                                                               do not think it necessary to get into this question in
REPLY                                                          detail. But I want to assure you that, so far as I know,
  Although it is true that I recommended the book              there is no sympathy for this Neo-Calvinism in our
by Rev. Kuyvenhoven for those who enjoy devotional             Churches. Nor is there any sympathy for the world
literature, this recommendation by no means must be            and life view of Dr. A. Kuyper as developed in his
interpreted as a blanket approval of all that the book         three volume work on common grace.
contains. In our book reviews we often recommend                 Nevertheless, we must remember too that we
books which are worth reading even though they                 firmly believe that this present creation is God's
must be read with discernment. We assume our                   world, ruled and ordered by God. And God calls His
readers possess such discernment and that all the              elect people to labor in this present world antitheti-
writings of men are compared with the infallible               cally and for the cause of the kingdom of heaven.
standard of God's Holy Word.                                     I appreciate deeply your concern about these
  Your remarks about Neo-Calvinism, however, need              things, your willingness to write, and your evident
a bit longer reply. It is certainly true that the bilateral    concern for the truth of the Scriptures.



                             Letter from Covenant Church, Wychoff, N.J.


To our sister churches,
Greetings in the name-of our Lord Jesus Christ.                driveway is under way. About this we are very
   Since you have shown such great concern for us by           excited.
your gifts toward our building fund, we consider it of           The sale of our bonds is not going as well as we
interest to you to keep informed about the progress            would like. We therefore urge all who are able to
of our building project. We are indeed very thankful           consider purchasing our bonds. A complete prospec-
for all the many gifts which we have received and give         tus giving all the details of our offering is available by
thanks and praise unto the Lord for all His benefits.          writing our treasurer, Mr. Clarence De Groot, 176
We received some very sizable gifts, including one of          Prescott Ave., Prospect Park, New Jersey 07508, or
$10,000 from Hope church of Grand Rapids. This has             by calling (201) 790-4732.
made it possible for us to begin the actual work on
our project. We are holding to our original plan not to          Our plans are to continue working on the project
use any of the money received through the sale of our          as the Lord provides the means. Meanwhile we wait
sanctuary bonds until the entire offering is sold.             upon Him to realize the desire of our hearts at His
However, since we received the large gifts we decided          appointed time for His glory.       .
to use these gifts to do as much work on the project                                      Covenant Prot. Ref. Church,
as possible. Already the work of clearing and                                                     Wyckoff, New Jersey
excavating the area for the church building and the                                             (by Rev. A. den Hartog)


z.350                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



                          II Corinthians - The Authority
                                           of the Word (2)

                                                     Rev. J. Kortering




    Paul continues to explain to the Corinthians his joy         open door at Troas (there was a church there and
in the affect which his former letter had upon them.             they desired him to stay and preach, see Acts  20:6),
    3. Paul adds another reason as to why he did not             but he stayed only seven days, which included his late
return immediately to Corinth, viz., he wanted to                night sermon when Eutychus fell out of the window.
spare both the church and himself unnecessary grief,             He was so eager to learn about the welfare of Corinth,
(II Cor. 2:1-4). If he returned to them immediately              that he had to travel on in search of Titus who was on
and found them in a state of anguish and spiritual               his way back from Corinth. This is pastoral compas-
uncertainty, it would make him grieve; and if that               sion at its peak. He went into Macedonia looking for
were so, he could not function as a pastor to them               Titus, and when he found him and learned of the fact
(who would make me glad? vs. 2).                                 that the church of Corinth received his epistle and
                                                                 responded correctly, he jubilantly praises God for the
    4. The action by the church of Corinth in                    success of the word, (vs. 14-17). A few words
disciplining the man guilty of incest is proof that the          describes it all, "Thanks be to God who causes us to
gospel produces reconciliation in the way of re-                 triumph through the savor, of the gospel." Savor has
pentance and forgiveness (vs.  5-l 1). Notice how                to do with smell, aroma. I suppose Paul reflects upon
gently Paul now deals with the church regarding this             the Old Testament sacrifice of burnt flesh, which was
entire matter. The fact that they excommunicated                 followed by the sweet smell of the incense. This is
him indicates that as a church they were receptive to            true of the gospel, It is God's savor, sweet in the holy
the Holy Spirit's instruction. Now they have to be               nostrils, for it is effective both in them that are saved
careful that they do not go too far. They should                 and in them that perish. Paul rejoices in that God
think about willingness to forgive him, and make it as           accomplishes His purpose through the gospel. He
easy as possible for him to return to the fold of the            personally rejoiced in this for God had just used him
church, lest he be swallowed up with over much                   to write that important letter that bore fruit in the
sorrow, (vs. 6,7). This sinner must have given                   church of Corinth. Who is sufficient to these things,
indication of sorrow for sin and a desire for                    tz be used by God not only unto salvation, but also
forgiveness. Now the church must confirm their love              unto destruction? Who will accept this mandate and
to him by receiving him again, (vs. 8). In this way the          bow before such fruits? Not man, but a humble
church at Corinth would show by their deeds that                 servant of Jehovah will. The glory returns to God in
they were obedient to the gospel of love, (vs. 9). In            both dimensions.
this joyful activity, Paul would gladly join in and
eagerly forgive him, (vs. 10). This too would prevent              The Corinthian saints are epistles of the Holy
Satan from gaining influence by working despair in               Spirit and as such are living proof of the power of the
the heart of the repentant. Joyful forgiveness                   gospel (3: l-l 8). Paul refers to "epistles of commenda-
encourages heartfelt repentance, always!                         tion," (vs. 1). These were letters which the church
                                                                 would send along with a minister or missionary
         5. Paul explains to the Corinthians his eagerness to    attesting to his orthodoxy and faithful labors
learn of their welfare, and having learned it to rejoice         (something we still do today when a minister accepts
in the triumph of the gospel, (2: 12-17). What a                 a call to another congregation). Paul raises the
tremendous display of pastoral concern. He had an                question of the need he has for such letters as he


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 351



labors in the church of Corinth. His response is that         True, the persecution affected him. He was troubled,
he does not need such letters, for the members of the         perplexed, cast down, bearing in his body the dying
Corinthian church are themselves letters written by           of Christ., But it did not leave him distressed
the Holy Spirit as an attestation of his labors as            (suffocated, without room to live), nor in despair
missionary pastor (vs. 3). In this way he also silences       (give up), forsaken (no one to help), destroyed (taken
the accusation made by some that he labors for self           out of service). The, reason for this is "for Jesus
acclaim, (vs. 1). The glory is God's, for it is His work,     sake," (vs. 11). The flesh must be put down so that
(vs.  5,6). This writing by the Holy Spirit upon the          Christ can be exalted. He is encouraged by persecu-
hearts and lives of God's people is now contrasted to         tion for two reasons. First, God Who raised up Christ
the Old Testament law, written upon stone, (vs.               will daily raise up Paul, and in the end`raise him up to
6-l 1). It is contrasted as to "spirit." The old is the       everlasting life. Secondly, affliction produces a
letter that  killeth for it said, "Cursed is everyone that    greater degree of thanksgiving to God which ends in
continueth not in all things which are written in the         God's glory. He concludes by making a comparison be-
book of the law to do them," Gal. 3 : 10. The New             tween affliction and glory. The one is "light and for a
Testament spirit is different. It is liberty: "Stand fast     moment";     the other has an "eternal weight." The
therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made           light affliction works for that eternal weight of glory.
us free," Gal. 5: 1. Paul refers to this in verse 6 as the    It even made him a better minister of the gospel. Well
spirit that giveth life. Also the ministration was            may we ponder whether we are or would be
different. The Old -Testament law was one of                  influenced in this manner by tribulation.
condemnation; the New Testament gospel administers               9. He was encouraged to press on in his ministry
the righteousness of Christ, (vs. 9). Finally, the            for he was sure that upon his death, God would
contrast is that the old is done away with in Christ.         receive him into heaven, (5: l-l 0). We can understand
He fulfilled it `by keeping the law perfectly and             why Paul was encouraged by this fact. Even though
making satisfaction for its curse upon the cross. Now,        our earthly house (body) may be destroyed by
in Christ, the spirit of life remaineth forever, (vs. 11).    disease, torture, even death, we have a house with
 The gospel preaching is so effective because of its          God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
clarity and liberating power, (vs. 12-18). Continuing         What is that house? Some suggest it is a reference to a
the reference to Moses' brightness of face, Paul refers       temporary, intermediate body which we will have
to the veil that had to be placed over his head, Ex.          only from the time we die to the time of the
34:33. This veil represented two things: the revela-          resurrection of our own body. Others suggest it is a
tion of God was veiled in that it came as type and            reference to our future resurrection body. More
shadow, through the blood of lambs and feasts of              correctly, it refers  ,to heaven itself, heaven is the
grain, etc.; but also the hearts of the people were           house in which the souls of the saints enter upon
blinded as beneath a veil, (vs. 14, 15). Christ took          death to await the resurrection of their own bodies at
that veil away and now the opposite is true. The              the coming of Christ (John 14: l-3). In this present
gospel is God's revelation in clarity and beauty, (in vs.     body we groan, but in death we will exchange one set
18 he speaks of the glory of the Lord) and the                of clothes (this earthly body) for a heavenly house in
response is that we rejoice in the freedom of God's           which we will be able to enjoy life to a greater degree.
glory.                                                        What a beautiful description of death  - absent from
  The effect of such a gospel is that the believer is an      this earthly body, but present with the Lord. For this
epistle of the Holy Spirit which proves God's                 cause we say with Paul, "We faint not!"
indwelling presence which He accomplishes through
the faithful labors of a preacher.                               10. As an ambassador of Christ, he only sought
                                                              the welfare of the church (5:  11-21).  He was
   7. Paul preached in plain language and no one              motivated by the fact that God would judge him,
could blame him for unbelief (4: l-6). The fact that          hence he sought God's approval (5: 16). By pointing
some did not believe was not due to Paul's craftiness         this out to the Corinthian church, Paul did not exalt
or deceitful use of the Word; but the god of this             himself. Rather, it gave them reason to defend Paul
world (Satan) blinded such a one. Paul preached               before his false accusers who glorify outwardly, (vs.
openly, plainly, appealing to every man's conscience.         12). He sought the good of the church whether sane
After all, the light of Christ shone upon Paul's heart        or insane (as it might appear to some, but in fact was
(on the way to Damascus) and by the Word preached,            not). God is the one Who called him as a new creature
Christ now shone forth in the hearts of the people.           in Christ, and this qualified him to be a fit instrument
   8. Even suffering did not hinder his ministry, but         to serve in the ministry of reconciliation (this is for
helped him  (4:7-18). The treasure (his ministry as a         people to return to God in the way of faith in Jesus
preacher) was in an earthen vessel, so that the power         Christ, our righteousness). With this call, he was
and glory might be God's and not man's in any way.            truly an ambassador of Christ; he had authority to


352                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



speak in the name of Christ and bring His message. If         description of how they should demonstrate their
they oppose Paul, they oppose Christ.                         love by not being unequally yoked with unbelievers,
       11. Paul sought their good, and this demonstrated      but by being spiritually separated unto Jehovah. The
that he was motivated by love (6: 1-18). As a                 figure of an unequal yoke was taken from. farming of
co-worker of God, see I Cor. 3  :9, God was pleased to        that day. A yoke was the wooden frame that bound
work through Paul. It seems strange to speak of               two oxen together and fastened them to the plow or
"receiving the grace of God in vain," (vs. 1). IS this        cart. It was crucial for the two animals to be of the
proof of the Arminian view of falling from grace?             same strength and temperament. Imagine the plight
Grace, here, refers to the message of grace, namely           of the farmer who had a pony yoked with an ox. So
redemption and reconciliation of chapter 5. If a              it is true spiritually, if we are yoked to an unbeliever
person hears it with the outward ear, but not with the        in marriage or in business (as a partner or union
heart, he receives it in  vain. The quote from  Tsa.  49:8    member) the Christian cannot work in the right
substantiates this from the ministry of Isaiah. As a          direction. There is no concord between Christ and
minister, he did not give offense; he was patient in          Belial (a name that signifies wickedness; e.g., son of
the midst of all kinds of distress, faithful in many          belial was a wicked man). The call to spiritual
adverse circumstances, and this should  proie beyond          separation comes to each of us from our heavenly
any doubt that his heart was open to them in love             Father Who jealously protects those whom He loves
and he desired that they would respond in like                (vs. 18).
manner, (vs. 11, 12). Here follows a beautiful                                    (To be continued)


ALL AROUND US




                       "Church Order and Anarchy"

                                                  Rev. G. Van Baren





  In the April 1979 news bulletin of the Association             In the article, there is pointed out two "misconcep-
of Christian Reformed Laymen there appears a                  tions." They write:
quotation from this rubric, which was entitled:                      Misconception  number one  holds that the "lower
"Women in Office" (Standard Bearer,  Feb. 15, 1979,               ruling bodies" are the servants of the supreme ruling
page 235). That article commented on a letter from                body: synod. Misconception  number two  holds that
North  Blendon Christian Reformed Church which                    classes and synods are the servants of the local
appeared in the Banner. In that letter, the consistory            consistory as  the  supreme ruling body.  Both  suffer
                                                                  from an error which they have in common: they
of North  Blendon informed the denomination that                  discuss the entire issue in terms of who is The Boss in
they "do not and will not consider this decision of               the church. The implied premise is that someone
Synod (on women in office of deacon) settled and                  must be the  final authority, either the consistory or
binding upon the conscience and practice of our                   synod. The one holds that ministers and elders are the
congregation." The A.C.R.L. Bulletin uses my article              errand boys of synod.  The other  holds that the dele-
to point out that no anarchy is involved. I would                 gates to classes and synods are the errand boys of the
quote part of their article and comment on some of                local consistory.  Both  misconceptions destroy the
their criticism. Those who would desire the entire                integrity of the office as it has been established by
article, can write the A.C.R.L., Box 1303, Grand                  Christ in the Church.
Rapids, MI. 49501.                                              The article continues by explaining what is the


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        353


proper relationship between consistory and  classis                  previous News Bulletin, the Stated Clerk and the
and synod:                                                           Synodical  Interim Committee in the CRC, essentially
                                                                     agree with this position of the  Standard Bearer. So in
      They  (classis and synod) are there  to  sewe the              principle does  De  Wachter,  which considers it a
   local consistories. They are called together upon the             weakness in the present Church Order to allow a local
   request  of the local churches, which takes turns in              consistory the right to review a synodical decision on
   convening them, so that no one church is continually              its Biblical merits, before it accepts such a decision as
   burdened with the organizational work involved,                   gospel truth, and adopts it as its own decision. If the
   while maintaining the principle of equality among the             mere act of publication of such a decision must be
   churches. When their work is completed, they cease                characterized as an act of anarchy, one is left to
   to exist. They are to act only upon matters duly                  wonder by what word in the dictionary the  actual
   brought there by the churches themselves. They are                decision  not to abide by what Synod said must be
   never to initiate action on their own.               Major        qualified. It is remarkable how scared certain people
   assemblies that go beyond the agenda presented by                 are of the printed word, and in this age, of the taped
   the churches are one of the greatest dangers in                   word. The Pope sent thousands of people to the stake
   Reformed church polity.. Delegates to classes and                 merely because they printed, or had in their
   synods have a task that is `limited by the Church                 possession, a printed copy of the Belgic Confession.. . .
   Order, their credentials and their agenda. Any step
   beyond that is usurpation of authority. . . .                        . . . The Standard Bearer makes a big issue of the
      . . . They (the consistories) agreed to abide by the           fact that the Church Order (Art. 29) states that an
   decision of the major assemblies,  provided these                 ecclesiastical decision must be considered settled and
   decisions agree with Scripture. What they said in                 binding, unless it is proved to be in conflict with
   effect is that it is quite all right for a classis and synod      Scripture. It reads this article to mean that this must
   to decide upon the matters before them, but that any              be  proven to someone.  It can hardly mean to prove
   such decision does  not become effective until it has             this to oneself. What it must mean, according to
   been looked over and reviewed on its Biblical merits              the Standard Bearer, is that this must be proven to the
   by the local church.  They did not give away the                  body against which one is aggrieved. But that body
   authority entrusted to them by Christ!. . . .                     has been disbanded. Synod of 1978 is no more. That
                                                                     should have alerted the author that he was reading
      The  Standard Bearer  states that the North  Blendon           something into the Church Order which is not there.
   CRC faces a dilemma: anarchy or anti-scriptural                   For a correct reading of the Church Order he should
   submission. The author labors under a serious                     have gone to Scripture. How did the Bereans prove
   misconception. He conceives of a synod as the                     the teachings of the Apostle Paul? Mind you, those
   equivalent of a civil government. As to the State the             Bereans were simple folks, and they subject the words
   rule of Scripture is: Let every soul be in subjection to          of an Apostle, a man directly appointed by the Lord
   the higher powers (Romans 13). Resisting these                    to speak His Word to a searching examination. How
   powers is revolution and results in anarchy. To                   did they prove tf;at Paul spoke the truth?  From
   curtail revolt and anarchy, the civil government has              Scripture. And that is how in the church we "prove"
   been given the power of the sword. But in the church              synodical decisions. That's what the Church Order
   we do not recognize "higher authorities." We                      means when it states that in the church ecclesiastical
   recognize office bearers only, who have equally the               matters shall be dealt with in an ecclesiastical manner.
   same power and authority, wheresoever they are (Art.              The church has her own "style" in proving things.
   30 Belgic Conf.). In the church we do not even for a              Not by compulsion, not by managing the news, but
   moment yield with submission to "authorities," that               by comparing the words of men (synods) with the
   the truth of the gospel might continue with you                   words of Scripture. To maintain order and decency in
   (Galatians 2). Paul says that God is not a respecter of           the church, the Church Order has mapped out an
   persons, therefore we are not to be respecter of                  orderly procedure. In the case of the women-in-office
   persons. When Peter speaks according to Scripture,                decision that procedure is very simple: do not consider
   his words are received as from a brother in Christ. But           the issue settled and binding. In other words: reject
   if Peter acts cowardly, and plays false with the gospel           the decision. Who must do this rejecting? Of course,
   and the church, as the Synod of 1978 did, we must                 first of all each and every member of the church. But
   do what Paul did:  publicly oppose  these false teachers          since no believer in the CRC is an atom that exists all
   to their face! As the apostle Paul considers it his duty          by himself, he acts in concert with his fellow
   to publicly oppose another Apostle, so it is the duty             believers, as a member of the local church. And the
   of our faithful office bearers to  publicly face  false           consistory of the local church makes that rejection
   office bearers, and disqualify them by dismissal from             known to the other churches via its membership in
   their office, if they persist in their heresy. That is not        the  classis and synod. There is nothing mysterious
   a matter of facing a dilemma, but a simple question of            about this that should confuse anyone, or cause
   obedience to the teachings of Scripture.                          anyone to holler: anarchy.  The CRC  of  Nortft
      The  Standard Bearer  considers the  mere act  of              Blendon  has invoked a rigftt  that she, and every other
   publication  by the North  Blendon  Church in  The                church in the CRC, has reserved for herself under the
   Banner,  that it is not bound by the women-in-office              prevailing Church Order. A church does not live in a
   decision, an act of anarchy. As indicated in our                  vacuum. The rights of a church are not directed to a


354                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



       vacuum. Every right carries a responsibility. In the        4. I find rather interesting the description of the
       present situation we are dealing with a clearcut case     writer concerning the two "misconceptions" about
       of heresy and disobedience to Scripture. What is          who is "Boss": the Synod or the Consistory. I would
       required in these circumstances is discipline. We are     suggest that within Reformed church polity, we
       dealing with a hard core df modernists who have far       ought to insist first on the  autonomy  of the local
       too long had their own way in the church. We are          consistory and church. It is the local manifestation of
       dealing with a determined group of people who are         the body of Christ. A denomination consists of an
       bent on destruction of .the CRC as a church of Christ.
       That situation cannot be tolerated. That situation is     organization of a number of such churches on the
       not subject to discussion either. We are not dealing      basis of agreement in doctrine and confession.
       with a debatable issue. If the coming Synod proves        (Therefore we speak of our denomination as Protes-
       unwilling to declare the women-in-office issue out of     tant Reformed Churches, not "Church," as though
       order, and does not declare the teachings of Drs.         the denomination were that.) However, the auton-
       Allen Vefhey and Harry Boer, and a number  of other       omy of the local  church is limited by its denomina-
       prominent men among us unscriptural, there will be        tional ties, obviously. The local church assumes
       only one way left to deal with these issues: namely,      obligations and  responsibilitie$  within the denomina-
       that the faithful churches re-unite the CRC on the        tion. As long as it is part of the denomination, the
       basis of Scripture and the Confessions, and if at all     local church cannot ignore these obligations  while
       possible, preferably the Church Order of Dort as          remaining part of the denomination. 
       maintained by us prior to 1965. The Revised Church                                                       It is not a
       Order is an amateurish piece of work, and a potential     question of Synod being the "boss." I refuse to  be-
       hazard witness the proliferation of virtually autono-     placed with  De Wachter  in that regard. But I have real
       mous Boards and the papal powers bestowed upon or         difficulty with the claim, "What they (consistories)
       assumed, by the Stated Clerk. Forewarned is fore-         said in effect is that it is quite all right for a  classis
       armed. The Rev. Van  Dellen and others who                and synod to decide upon the matters  before them, but
       predicted this development have been proven right.        that any such decision does  not become effective
       Let us not ,commit the same mistake twice.                until it has been looked over and reviewed on its
   1. I hesitate to respond to anonymous writers.  I             Biblical merits (and approved?  - G.V.B.) by the local
have never understood the practice of the ACRL in                church.  They did not give away the authority
writing its bulletins this way. Surely all of its                entrusted to them by Christ!" And later, concerning
members are not unitedly in support of  every  word              the published decision of a CRC that it refuses to
written and all do not assume responsibility for every           "consider this decision of Synod settled and
word  - at least I would hardly think so. A writer               binding," the bulletin states, "The CRC of North
ought to assume full responsibility for what he has              Blendon has invoked a right that she, and every other
written  - and consequences for this, if there are such.         church in the CRC, has reserved for herself under the
                                                                 prevailing Church Order." Truly does the autono-
  2. The writer of this bulletin attributes `views I             mous church have the right to reject anti-Scriptural
presented as those of the  Standard Bearer.  The editor          and anti-confessional decisions of  classis and Synod.
and other writers in the  Standard Bearer  do not                Not only  that, they have the duty and responsibility
necessarily espouse the views of any individual writer.          before God to do that. I do not fault North  Blendon
So if there is any error or wrong in my article, I'll            for a decision and publication of it in this connection.
assume full responsibility. The views are not neces-             My problem is that North Blendon does no more than
sarily those of the Standard Bearer.                             that.  It announces publicly no decision to protest.
  3. The writer(s) of the bulletin correctly point out           Nor does it announce its intent to be separate from
the hierarchy evident in recent actions of the CRC               the denomination because of this heresy. It will
Synods. He (she?) correctly sees the contradiction               nicely remain part of the denomination  while  refzlsing
between this form of activity and the Reformed                   to abide by the  Synodical decision.  This position I
system of church government. However, the writer                 regard as inconsistent and  event un-Reformed. But
likely lived many years within the CRC denomination              perhaps North  Blendon has taken other action not
which in 1924-25 already practiced even worse                    announced publicly in the  Banner.
hierarchy when two classes suspended and deposed                   5. But it also struck me that the Synod of 1978
ministers and consistories in the common grace                   made  such a decision that no one could possibly act
controversy. Surely those who have lived within the              in violation with it. So, what then does the decision
church communion of those who practiced that kind                of North  Blendon really do? How are they going to
of hierarchy over 50 years ago, could hardly have                implement their decision? The Synod also said that
reason to expect anything different today. The writer            one need not install women deacons; North  Blendon
would be  well-advised to trace some of the current              will not install women as deacons; so North  Blendon
hierarchy back to its roots. Until such past action is           is not opposing Synod's `decision. Or: does their
condemned, what could he expect?                                 decision mean that riow they will refuse to support


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       355



the College and Seminary where this is maintained?          obliged either to submit to  Synodical decision  - or
Are they going to refuse to support such mission            leave the denomination and find another more in
activity where this might be taught? Are they going         agreement with the Word of God.
to refuse to allow ministers  irrtheir pulpits who teach        7. Nor do I believe that I "read into the Church
this  - though they are in good standing in the             Order something which is not there." Surely it is true
denomination? Are they refusing such to partake of          that the body making the decision is disbanded at the
the supper of the Lord who maintain this heresy?            close of its sessions. Neither  classis nor Synod are
  6. The writer of the bulletin objects to my claim         continuing bodies. But the writer(s) of the bulletin
that one must prove to the erring body their violation      knows well that the Reformed church polity allows
of Scripture and confessions. It is plainly true that       for and demands protest and appeal. Obviously, this
one must first prove to himself the error of a decision     can not be directed toward the body  disbanded  which
-before he can prove this to others. But if this is all,    had made the decision. But, protest must always
the result would be anarchy. The ACRL will soon             come to the following gathering of the Synod. Have
discover this for themselves if they do manage to           y o u   n e v e r   d o n e   t h a t   -  e v e n   t h o u g h   y o u   a r e
begin a new denomination. Can one, for instance,            protesting to a. body that did not make the original
prove  to himself  that the decisions of the Synod re       decision?
a-millennialism are in error  - and then remain in the         8. Brethren, in spite of my comments and some
denomination while teaching something contrary? If          points of disagreement, I would assure you that my
"proving" something means that one need prove it            sympathies are with you and with North  Blendon. I
only for himself, the church soon will be filled with       wholeheartedly commend you for your opposition to
people of many conflicting views concerning Scrip-          all heresy. It is our prayer that through all of these
ture and the confessions. I maintain that one has to        struggles, doubtlessly so difficult for you at the
prove from Scripture and confessions to  classis or         present stage, His Cause may be maintained and His
Synod. If Synod will not be convinced, `then one is         Word yet purely taught even till Jesus comes again.


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                     Letter to Timothy

                                           May 1, 1979      several considerations.
Dear Timothy,                                                  In the first place, there cannot be any question
  In my last letter to you I finished our discussion of     about it that this work does indeed involve the
some of the qualifications which a pastor ought to          government of the Church. It is not necessarily a part
possess in order to work effectively with the sheep         of discipline, if by discipline is meant the exercise of
over which the Lord has placed him. I do not want to        the keys of the kingdom. But discipline is a much
pursue this matter further at this time, but I do want      broader term and includes more than censure and
to say a few words about the role of the elders in the      excommunication. Its basic meaning is, after all,
whole area of pastoral work.                                instruction. So we also speak of "The discipline of
  It is my judgment that, generally speaking, we do         the Word" as that Word is preached to all God's
not involve the elders sufficiently in this aspect of       people on the Lord's Day. The Word which also the
labor. It is true that the elders are called to perform     elders are called to bring is a Word of instruction to
the work of the  government  of the Church, and that        God's people in particular circumstances in which the
this means that elders are to be engaged especially in      Lord has placed them. And that Word, in its very
discipline. But this distinction must not be so forced      nature, has always a certain correcting power when it
that the elders are barred from doing the work which        is applied to the heart by the sovereign operation of
involves helping those who are in distress and beset        the Holy Spirit. The elders also bring that Word.
by problems of every sort.                                     In the second place, the elders are the only ones in
  That this is also the work of elders follows from         the congregation at certain times who are in a


356                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



position to do this kind of work. This is true when a       sciences you can add  labor,atories to your school so
congregation is without a shepherd or when, for one         that students have actual experience in cutting up
reason or another, the pastor is absent from his flock.     frogs and such like things.. But you cannot make a
The responsibility for all kinds of pastoral labor falls    pastoral laboratory in the Seminary because you
exclusively on them.                                        cannot move life itself in all its complexity and
   In the third place, they are often best equipped to      diversity into a lab. You cannot, make a scientific
do this kind of work. It is, after all, a fact that a       study, within the walls of the school, of the troubles
minister comes into a congregation as a total stranger.     and problems which beset the people of God. You
It takes him at least several months to come to know        cannot pull out a man's soul and place it under some
anything about that congregation at all and a much          theological microscope in the Poimenics class. And
longer period of time to know the congregation              not only does a pastor really learn what pastoral work
intimately. In that congregation he stays for  five or      is all about when he actually does the work, but he
six years (sometimes less, sometimes more) and then         continues to learn all his life long. There are never
he leaves for another flock. But the elders are often       two problems which are exactly the same because
men who have been born and raised in a congrega-            there are never two people who are exactly the same.
tion, or who are, at least, members of a congregation       Experience is everything. And an elder can gain that
for a much longer time than the minister. They know         experience just as well as a pastor.
the congregation better. They have closer contact              In the third place, it may very well be that elders
with the congregation. They are better able to              need some help and guidance, some instruction and
understand the strengths and weaknesses of a given          assistance in this work. But there are really no
congregation (for, if I may put it that. way, a             significant reasons why such help cannot be given. I
congregation taken as a whole also has a personality,       know that ministers and elders are all busy and there
a particular character. In fact, it has struck me over      is little time for extra meetings and extra work.
the years that a congregation does not even change its      Nevertheless, in an important matter such as this, it
personality very much even though one generation            would be worth considering that a minister spend
may die and another generation take its place.) They        some time giving his elders some instruction in these
have known the members more intimately in their             matters, or, if it would work out better, that the
lives and problems. We talked a bit last time about         minister and his elders meet periodically to discuss
how essential it is for one to know the sheep with          principles and methods of pastoral work. At the very
whom he works. But elders know these people far             least, ministers and their elders should spend some
better than does the pastor.                                time at every consistory meeting going over the
                                                            current problems in the congregation and discussing
   For these reasons elders are often in an excellent       them. I am increasingly convinced that ministers
position to. do pastoral work. And they ought not to        ought not, as a general rule, labor in this area entirely
be barred from this.                                        independent of and without the knowledge of the
  It is often objected that a pastor is in the best         elders. And I am increasingly convinced that the
position to do this kind of work because he is trained      e l d e r s   s h o u l d   t a k e   m o r e   o f   t h i s   w o r k   u p o n
for it in the Seminary. There is, of course, an element     themselves.
of truth in this. But there are several considerations         The strength of our system of church government
that do not make this objection very serious.               and the strength of the Church of Christ rest greatly
  In the first place, a student in the Seminary does        upon the office of elders. Never must we minimize
not really get all that much formal training in this        that office. Never must we neglect it. Never must it
area. If fact, in our Seminary he gets only one             be shunted aside or made into a kind of Board of
semester of two hours of such formal training. This         Directors. Never must an elder be denied his
does not mean that matters of pastoral concern do           God-given place and calling within the congregation.
not come up in many other courses and in many                  Let the elders assume more of this work within our
other connections. But the fact remains that his            churches. God will bless our elders so that they can
training is quite skimpy. We might make a good case         perform this work; and God will bless our Churches
for an expansion of this part of our Seminary               through this work. It is indeed my own experience
curriculum; but the fact remains: this is the way it        that elders are well able to do it if only they are
presently is.                                               encouraged and instructed as much as possible.
  In the second place, any minister will tell you that,        We must turn now to other subjects, but we shall
while the training he received in the Seminary is           wait with that until another letter.
necessary and invaluable, it was after all, when he
actually began his pastoral work that he really began                                                        Fraternally in Christ,
to learn what this work was all about. In the natural                                                        H. Hanko


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    357



TRANSLATED TREASURES

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


                       Chapter 2                                the life of believers which forms a church remains
                                                                inactive. The church reveals herself as a visible body
        The Proper Formation of the Church                      only when the impulse towards the fellowship of the
                                                                saints begins to work in the company of the believers
(After having laid down some general principles, Kuyper now     and in obedience to the word. Then the result of this
turns to the subject of the proper form which the church of
Christ in the world must take. His argument is that it is       activity of faith in the believers is that they walk in
necessary to understand the church in her proper form before    mutual fellowship, join hands, form a visible church,
one can understand how the church loses this proper form and    and by this formation bring into existence a church
becomes ripe for church reformation.)                           which is formed in personal and communal obedience
                                                                to the Word of God. Only God and His Christ know
13. In What Way the Formation of a Church is                    whether this forming work of the activity of faith in
Brought About.                                                  the company of believers is genuine and pure, i.e.,
  When we speak of the formation of the church we               comes forth from an impulse of the person of the
refer exclusively to its perceptible manifestation, i.e.,       Holy Spirit in a part of the mystical body of Christ.
to her visible appearance; and thus not to her inner,           But this is something which men can never know, at
mystical, and spiritual existence. To the question,             least in the absolute sense. He who does not know the
who fashions this visible form of the church, it must           heart can be misled by appearance and pious show,
be answered, God. Or, to be more specific, Christ               and as greatly as the gift of discerning the spirits'is
does this through the believers by means of the                 present in God's elect, sometimes in large measure,
leadership of the office.                                       this gift is always exceptional and never perfect. This
                                                                is the reason why the rule must always be applied
  God does this:  1) through His counsel in which is            that every judgment concerning the hidden life of
to be found the decree concerning the mystical                  the heart,  (iudicium  de intimis)  must be avoided, and
essence of the church; 2) through His miracles and              every judgment in the church must be made only
revelations by which the foundation is laid upon                concerning what men confess with their mouths and
which the church shall be built according to the                show in their visible walk.
decree; 3) through His word and Spirit working the
calling and the gathering of His elect; 4) through the            By believers as instruments of church formation,
impulse toward establishing a church which He works             we understand, therefore, such persons who by
in His elect through the fellowship of the saints; and          their pure confession of the truth of God and their
5) through the demand for a confession of the word              virtuous walk, proclaim themselves openly as be-
with which He comes to each believer.                           lievers. This is a rule which includes the idea that
                                                                seldom will a church be established which, already in
  Without the counsel of God there could be no                  its origin, has not hypocrites who slip into the
people of God and thus no church could make its                 gathering of God's saints.
appearance.                                                       For such an establishment of the church through
  I n   t h e   s a m e   w a y , this impulse towards the      the instrumentaiity of believers the following are
communion of the saints and this demand for a                   necessary: 1) freedom to come together, to deliber-
confession become perceptible first if the saints reveal        ate and decide; 2) a desire and declaration to join
themselves by attempting to associate together in               together in a common bond; 3) agreement with the
obedience to the word. And it is by this that God the           demands of the Word of God in their formative
Lord has bound Himself to the use of the means of               activity; and 4) the duty and freedom to untie
the active manifestation of the believers in the                personally this bond when such a bond would make
forming of His visible church.                                  obedience to the' Word of God impossible. Out of
  A certain number of believers, living in the same             that principle each ecclesiastical bond is always
village or in the same town, but without the ministry           dissoluble; or better yet, it falls apart of itself as soon
of the word and orderly fellowship, does not yet                as what was established as the church of Christ
form a visible church because then that function of             degenerates into a church of Antichrist.


358                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



   Finally, this formation of churches through the            In connection with an established church, it is
instrumentality of believers never comes into being         necessary to make a sharp distinction between the
apart from the leadership of the office.                    form of the institute as such and the essence of the
   A church is no society, gathering, or association        church which manifests itself in that institute. The
which regulates its interests according to its -own         essence of a visible church is and always remains the
choice and insight and is represented through certain       invisible church, provided that one includes with this
functionaries who form it according to their own            the increated inclination to manifest itself externally.
ideas and who determine its membership. If the              The invisible church is the body of Christ, i.e., the
church in her visible form were such a society, then it     organic union of all the elect through the Holy Spirit
would be no more the true, spiritual, mystical church,      under Christ as its Head. Thus if there are living in a
i.e., a real church, and would thus forfeit the name of     certain city or village a number of living members of
church. It would not then be formed principally by          this body of Christ, then the essence of the church is
God Himself and only instrumentally by the be-              there. And this essence comes to consciousness as
lievers. It would, apart from God, be simply a human        soon as these members, even though in a defective
creation. So as not to be this, but rather to be, by        way, exercise the communion of the saints and have
God's work, an essential and actual church, it must         the mind and will to bring this communion to fuller
conform itself to that form ordained by God. Not the        and surer ecclesiastical manifestation as soon as this is
will of believers, but God's will; not human choice         possible. Societies such as are established by non-
but God's word must be the formative power which            ecclesiastical sects or antichristian groups are ex-
controls its origin. Hence, already in its beginning and    cluded from this. They are excluded not because no
origin, a church is tied to the office. -This indicates     living members of Christ are included in these groups,
that the assembled believers who proceed to form a          nor because men do not attempt to exercise the
church do not have the least power over themselves          fellowship of the saints in these groups, but because
and out of themselves, nor out of or over each other;       the mind and the will is lacking to manifest
but they must together kneel before the only One            ecclesiastical formation when that becomes possible.
Who alone has power over them, i.e., before the Lord        A newly engrafted branch, even though  for. the
their God. They therefore possess no power of their         moment it does not possess leaf or cluster, yet
own. Thus they cannot take up or take over any              possesses the essence of the grapevine. It possesses the
power; and therefore they have no other obligation          esssence' of the grapevine because it is certain that it
than, in obedience to God, to designate men who are         develops out of itself towards the budding of leaf and
clothed with power. This power comes not through            blossom and thus towards the formation of clusters
them but through God and for God's sake.                    of grapes. So also a gathering possesses the essence of
   The church receives  .officebearers and in this way      a church, even though its officers do not yet
reveals herself as an organism only through t-he            function, as soon as it is definite that it, growing and
divinely instituted office of believers. The body           further expanding, shall acquire these officers who
which they form actually becomes and manifests              function in their office. On the other hand, a wild
itself as the church in the fullest sense only by the       vineyard is no vineyard and lacks the essence of the
guidance of these officebearers.                            vineyard even though its trunk shoots up very high
   This office can come into being either from              and it is covered with the most luxuriant foliage,
without or from within.                                     simply because it, though growing, never can produce
                                                            a single cluster of the noble grape..
   It comes from without when overseers from other
churches help in the formation of such a church. Or it        The essence of the church, therefore, does not lie
originates from within when such a body which has           in the means of grace nor in the institution which
freely withdrawn from all fellowship with neigh-            these means of grace help to introduce. No vine
boring churches designates, through the office of           certainly, to keep the same figure, can live, much less
believers, persons concerning whom they ask God to          thrive, without moisture and light, earth and warmth.
place them in office.                                       But who would ever look for the essence of the vine
                                                            in moisture and warmth? In the same way, no church
   There are thus three requirements for church             can live without the means of grace. But the essence
formation. First, the operation of the Triune God in        of the church must never be thought to lie in the
the fellowship of the saints. Secondly, a determina-        means of grace, of whatever kind that may be. And
tion of believers to associate together in submission       the same even applies to those institutions which
to God's word. Finally, the establishment of the            these means of grace serve. To keep a peach tree alive
office to distinguish the church of God from  all other     it must be fed with manure, irrigated with water, and
societies.                                                  covered with leaves to protect it from the frost. But
14. What Constitutes the Essence of an Established          neither the nourishing of the root nor the watering
Church Which Proceeds Towards Church Formation.             nor the reeds with which the gardener cared for it


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                359



belongs to its essence. So also the means of grace                          David's house remained the house of the Messiah even
cannot be suitably administered to the church                               though an Ahaz and a Manasseh and an  Amon raged
without ecclesiastical regulation; without a church                         in horrible worship of idols, because a Hezekiah had
building, without a baptism font, without bread and                         to be born from Ahaz and a Josiah from  Amon.
wine. But this in no way implies that this regulation                          On the other hand, a church which in earlier times
and that which proceeds from it belongs to the real                         blossomed can go so far that all living members die
essence of the church.                                                      out and no seed of the Lord is recorded there any
   The essence of the church always lies exclusively in                     longer. As a result of this, the means of grace
her church-forming power. And this power rests, for                         disappear and the institutions are corrputed. It is then
the invisible church, directly in God, and for the                          possible for a church to reappear in that same town,
visible church, in the members of the body of Christ.                       but only by forming a new church, and no longer by
   It follows from this that a gathering in which there                     means of a shoot out of the trunk which is not only
are no longer many members of the body of Christ                            cut down but has died within. We need therefore
has Post the essence of the church and retains nothing                      neither  ,add to nor subtract from the description of
but a mocking image of the church even though it                            Christ given by our fathers: "That it is a holy
may continue formally pure in its institution. And on                       gathering of true believers in Christ who expect all
the other hand, each church still retains the essence                       their salvation in Jesus Christ, are washed by his
of a church as long as it still bears in its bosom a                        blood,  sancitified, and sealed by the  Holy- Spirit.?'
group of living members of Christ even though all her                       This description applies equally well to the invisible
institutions are corrupted. Even a tree entirely cut                        and to the visible church, and thus applies just as well
down still retains the essence of a tree as long as there                   for each local as for the church in general.
is still life in its roots.                                                    However, in this connection, one ought to keep
   Naturally, we do not' mean by this that each                             before his eye the fact that the essence of a church
church, no matter how corrupt, shall remain a church                        can be considered from a double viewpoint. The
as long as there still are a few children of God                            church can be considered from the viewpoint of her
inactively remaining in it. But, on the other hand,                         essence according to her ability  @otentia)  or her
these children of God or this group of members of                           essence according to her operation  (actu).   Dynamite
Christ always maintain the ability in themselves either                     is dynamite even though it has not yet exploded,
to reform the church of God or to form it anew. As                          because it carries in itself the potential to explode.
long as acorns remain at one's disposal, the essence of                     And so a gathering possesses the essence of a church
the oak is not lost; but it can, though hidden,                             even though it may lack every office, because it
manifest itself again. However, the further treatment                       continues to have the ability to establish the office.
of  this,point  will come in its proper place.                               According to this ability, or as some said in years
                                                                            gone by, reckoned according to potential, nothing
   At this point it is sufficient to note that one ought                    else is necessary for the essence of the church except
not to be too hasty in his judgment concerning the                          the gathering of believers in Christ, because this
church. Without doubt a group of elect is necessary                         gathering has in itself the ability to establish and use
for the first manifestation of the essence of the                           the office and the means of grace. On the other hand,
church, a group of people who are mature and                                according to its operation, or  actu,  as men used to
resolute confessors. Young children, or people who                          say, the office as well as the means of grace cannot be
have not yet made confession, even though they                              separated from the essence of the church. And
belong to God's elect, are incapable of church                              whereas the essence almost always appears  actu
formation. In an existing church on the other hand,                         (actively) in the visible church, our fathers have
the seed of the church is indeed reckoned a part of it,                     correctly placed the essence of the church in "the
and the essence of the church has not been lost even                        gathering of the believers." And yet they referred to
though the last of the adult elect have died out and                        the word and sacraments protected by the discipline
no elect among the youth have come to conversion.                           of the church as the earmarks of the true church.

              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   The Martha Society of the  Doon  (Iowa)  Protestant Reformed                On May 13, 1979, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.
Church wishes to express their sympathy to a fellow member, Mrs. Jean       PETER ZANDSTRA will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. We,
Wynia, and her family in the death of her sister, MRS. MARLENE              their children, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the Christian
ALSUM.                                                                      home they have provided for us and for His guidance during our years
                                                                            together. We pray that the Lord will continue to bless and keep them in
   May they be comforted by the words of the Apostle Paul with the          His care.
assurance that  I'- all things work together for good to them that love                                                   Joel and Marcia Zandstra
God."  (Remans  8:28).                                                                                                                   Emily Kay
                                                                                                                          Paul and Donna Zandstra
                                                   Rev. M. Kamps, Pres.                                                     Neal and Jeanne Hanko
                               Mrs. John Van Den Top, Vice Sec'y.-Treas.                                                             Bern Zandstra
                                                                                                                                     Ruth Zandstra

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





  360                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                                News From Our Churches

     Our Southeast Church in Grand Rapids has                  The Mission Committee also recommends that the
  extended a call to Rev. David Engelsma, pastor of our      congregation try to go to the area in which they are
  church in South Holland, Illinois. The call was            responsible for mission labor so that they can meet
  extended after a congregational meeting on March 19.       with the people, see the field, be encouraged and
  The trio also included Rev. Arie den Hartog and Rev.       encourage the work. This kind of work must have
  Bernard Woudenberg. Professor Herman Hanko de-             financial backing and prayers, but it must also have
  clined the call extended to him previously by the          the love, attention, and prayers which can only be
  Southeast congregation.                                    given by individuals and families.
     The Council and the congregation of our South             The Council has proposed to, and received ap-
  Holland Church have been working toward the goal           proval from the Mission Committee for, a list of five
  of calling a missionary to work in a field for several     ministers who could be considered for a call to labor
  years. Recently, the South Holland Council informed        as missionary in Birmingham. They are Rev. den
  the congregation of their investigation of this project    Hartog, Rev. Kortering, Rev. Slopsema, Rev. Van
  and have also made a proposal that the congregation        Overloop, and Rev. Woudenberg.
  call a missionary and begin labors. At present, the          A special congregational meeting was held in South
  council felt that there are three possible fields of       Holland on April 9 to decide on the mission field and
  labor available. They are Jamaica, Birmingham,             to call a missionary from the trio of Rev. Kortering,
  Alabama, and northwest Washington. Some work is            Rev. Slopsema, and Rev. Van Overloop.
  being done in  the.northwest Washington area by our
  congregation in Lynden, Washington. The South                Our Hull, Iowa, consistory has informed the
  Holland Council has recommended that labors be             churches that they "grant Rev. Mark Hoeksema, upon
  begun in the area of Birmingham, Alabama. The              his request and advice of  Classis, release from the
  greater Birmingham area has a population of about          ministry under Article 12 of the Church Order."
  one and a half million. Several of our ministers and       From a trio of Rev. D. Engelsma, Rev. J. Slopsema,
  professors have been to this area and report that the      and Rev. R. Van Overloop, Hull has extended a call
  area seems to have a good potential for mission            to Rev. Engelsma.
  labors. There have been several requests for a               The League of Eastern Men's and Ladies' Societies
  missionary from our churches to come and work in           met at First Church in Grand Rapids on April 10.
  this area. Seven families attended a recent meeting and    Rev. George Lubbers spoke on "Angels in the Holy
  expressed interest in the doctrine taught by our           Scriptures."
  churches. These people have a Baptist background             South Holland has scheduled a public lecture in
  and are interested in the Bible and in preaching.          their church on April 30. Professor Robert Decker
     The Council has recommended the Birmingham              plans to speak on "The Church's Calling to Mission
  area for the following reasons: it is a field recom-       Work and the Believer's Calling to Witness."
  mended by the Mission Committee, the people have             The Reformed Witness Hour still has copies of two
  asked for help from the Mission Committee of our           cassette tapes available for $2.00 each. Each of these
  churches, and this field is the closest of the three to    contains 60 minutes of music sung by the Radio
  the South Holland Church. This work `is to be              Choir. One tape is all Psalms and the other contains
  accomplished under the new rules for missionary            Psalms and Anthems. One hundred ninety-seven
  labor in which the work is to be the work of the local     copies of these tapes have been ordered to date. Write
  church, not the Mission Committee of Synod. The            to: The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230,
  Mission Committee will contribute financially and          Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501.
  assist the local church when help is needed. A final         The Spring Lecture in the Michigan area is
  reason for this field is that the request for help has     scheduled for Wednesday, May 2, at 8:00 P.M. in
  been for labor on a more continuing basis than to          Hudsonville Church. Professor H. Hanko plans to
  have different people coming in for a few weeks at a       speak on "The Virtuous Woman."
  time.                                                                                                      K.G.V.


