      STANDARD
            BEARER
                A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       In the fullest sense, the organism of the
     church is not completely expressed except in
     the entire mystical body of Christ. . . . On the
     other hand, it is possible to speak of a partial
     organic manifestation of this complete organ-
     ism, for, just as the nature of the whole
     organism is outlined in each living cell, so is a
     church organism present where the church is
     perceptible in an unmistakable way according
     to her ecclesiastical essence, i.e., in every local
     church.

                See "Translated Treasures" - page 368


h                                                   Volume LV, No. 16, May  15,1979  -


362                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


                         CONTENTS:                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                           ISSN 0362-4692
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                                                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
   Abraham's Blind Obedience . . . . .I . . . . . . . . . .362         Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma,
Editorials  -                                                           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 .   H a r b a c h .
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                                                                       George C. Lubbers, Rev. Rodney  Miersma,  Rev.  Marinus   Schipper,  Rev.
   The N I V  - Confused and Confusing . . . . . . .365                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   Overloop,
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MEDITA TIO N



                                                      Abraham's
                                             Blind Obedience
                                                           Rev. H. Veldman




                  "`B-v faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after
             receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. "
                                                                                                                                                                  Heb.  11:8


   Two things, among others, always stand out in the                      Him blindly, never questioning Him. And, secondly,
life of every child of God. First, we must always                         this faith will always demand of us self-denial. We
believe, unconditionally, in God. We must believe in                      may never seek ourselves. Always we must deny


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               363


ourselves, be willing and ready to follow Him.               induce Abraham to obey this call, to induce him to
   How vividly this is exemplified in the life of            leave his country, the family and community he
Abraham! Indeed, this also applies to God's people           undoubtedly had learned to love. We have no promise
prior to Abraham, as recorded in Heb. 11: Abel,              here. Everything here was indefinite, except one
Enoch, Noah. But it is surely true of Abraham.               thing: the call. The call was very definite. Abraham
Abraham was called by God to go to a country the             knew that God had called him.
Lord would show him. No promise was given him. He              We ask: why such a call? We might ask: might not
did not even know the way. And for this he must              God, at least to some extent, have told Abraham
leave everything behind. And what did he get when            something about the country to which he must
he finally arrived? He dwelt in it as a sojourner, with      travel? That it was about four hundred miles away,
Isaac and Jacob; he lived there and died there, never        give him some idea of the way, and that after
getting as much as a foot of ground in it. This is the       twenty-five years he would have a son? Would this
life of the Christian in the midst of the world.             not have made Abraham's task, already difficult, a
                                                             little easier? Why, then, was Abraham called this
                     ITS OBJECT                              way? Because he must trust in the Lord and in His
   Abraham left all  - for what?                             Word exclusively. Abraham's obedience is a blind
  We may read literally: "a place which he was               obedience. He knows nothing, either of the way or of
destined, appointed by God to receive into an                the goal; but God knows it. That is quite enough. We
inheritance."                                                must believe, exclusively, His Word.
   For us, in the New Dispensation, an inheritance is          This, of course, surely applies also to us. We have
something that is ours because of the death of the           here a principle `that was denied by man in Paradise.
                                                             Adam was created God's servant. The Lord was his
Testator, God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our         Sovereign. Always he must reveal that God is God,
Lord. All this God's people in the Old Dispensation          that he, man, was called to love the Lord his God
understood only typically and symbolically. Even so,         with all his heart and mind and soul and strength.
for Abraham to receive it as an inheritance meant            And, as king under God, he was called to obey God,
that it was not earned by Abraham, that it was given         obey Him unconditionally. This obedience of Adam
to him as something which God had willed to him.             -was now put to a test. The Lord forbade him to eat
  What would he receive? On the one hand, the                of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Mind you,
earthly Canaan is meant. To this land the Lord would         there was nothing wrong with the tree. The only issue
presently lead him. This is plain from this text. This is    `here was God's command, God's word, God's right to
also verified by what we read in Gen.  12:7 and  15:7.       tell him what to do and what not to do. He must ask
On the other hand, however, we read in Acts  7:5 that        no question, simply obey the Lord. And Adam fell.
-"He gave him none inheritance in it." And in Heb.           Yes, when he fell he made a very definite choice. He
11:9-10 we read that he sojourned in the land of             refused to permit the Lord to tell him what to do. He
promise, as in a strange country. Indeed, Abraham            refused to submit to God unconditionally. He refused
would surely receive this earthly land of Canaan. But,       to obey simply because God had spoken it. God's
he would receive it only in its heavenly reality and         word was not enough for Adam to be obeyed.
fulfillment. And Abraham knew this, inasmuch as he             And for us? To be sure, we know something. We
looked for the heavenly city which has foundations,          know where we are going ultimately. The Lord has
whose Builder and Maker is God.                              revealed to us certain things of the City that has
  Abraham was called to leave all  - how?                    foundations. But, we know nothing about the.way. All
  It is true that the Lord would bless Abraham, make         we know is: where He leads me I must follow. All we
a great nation of him, as great as the stars in the sky.     know is that we must do His will, all things for the
Yet, of this nothing is said when the Lord calls him         sake of His glory. All we know is that somehow all
out of Ur of the Chaldees. All we read here is that the      things work together for our good. Besides, is it not a
Lord calls him to a land that He  would show him.            good thing that we know not what lies before? Our
Nothing is said of that land. Abraham obeyed, not            sole calling is to obey God's  word: His will we must
knowing whither he  went. He did not know where he           do, individually, collectively, everywhere and in all
was going; he did not even know the way. The land to         things. We must obey, blindly  and\unconditionally,
which the Lord called him was some four hundred              never be motivated by practical  or-`utilitarian con-
miles away, and the way would lead through trackless         siderations. This is the sole question: what will the
deserts. He would not know where he was going,               Lord have me to do?
from one day to the next. The Lord simply told him
to "pack up and leave," told him nothing of what                              ITS DIFFICULTY
awaited him. There is, therefore, really nothing to            What an insurmountable difficulty for Abraham!


364                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


     First, he must completely deny himself. He is             Indeed, this is humanly impossible. It is impossible
called to leave all: his father's house and kindred          because we must completely deny ourselves. It is
(Acts  7), his city and country that had become dear         impossible because we must do all for God's sake, and
to him, all to which he had been tied and attracted in       by nature we hate Him. Yet, whoever refuses to deny
the midst of the world. Besides, he must go to a land        himself is not worthy of the Lord and is no disciple
completely strange to him. He knew nothing of the            of Him.
land, did not even know the way.
     How tremendously difficult for him! He must pack                         ITS POSSIBILITY
up and leave everything. If we bear in mind that it
was some four hundred years ago that the Lord had              We read: "By faith Abraham, when or while being
destroyed the world with a flood, that the world had         called, obeyed." So, his obedience was immediate. He
surely fallen away from God, that, according to              obeyed this call of the Lord as soon as it came to
Joshua 24, also his immediate surroundings were              him. However, this also means that God's call itself
filled with idolatry and superstition, so that the Name      was of such a nature that the father of believers
of the true God was not known among them                     obeyed. As the Lord called Abraham, He accom-
anymore, we can easily imagine the reaction of               panied this call with His almighty Spirit and word,
Abraham's call upon his community. The community             efficaciously enabling Abraham to obey it. This
undoubtedly considered him a fool. Asked by his              divine call to Abraham was, therefore, accompanied
neighbors whither he was going, he had to tell them          by the Lord's own almighty, irresistible word.     I
that he did not know. Then, when asked in what                 Abraham obeyed by faith. And faith is the
direction he was going, he told them that he did not         substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
even know the way. Then they probably came to him            not seen. Faith is surely that gift of divine grace,
with all kinds of objections. Is it not the height of        whereby we are united with the living God, live out
folly to leave home and community and have not the           of Him, put all our trust in Him, because His love has
faintest idea of where one is going? Perhaps Abra-           been shed abroad in our hearts; we are changed from
ham's neighbors tried to convince him that he had            the love of. self to the love of God. Faith  ; is
been the victim of hallucinations. Fact is, he must          confidence and trust, and confidence is an act  ;of
have told them that God had called him. So, perhaps          hope. Abraham believed in God, loved Him; and,
he had had a dream, had merely dreamed things.               believing God, God's Word is enough; he did not care
     Nevertheless, Abraham persisted in his call. Indeed,    to disobey the Lord, and, trusting in God, even
Abraham had surely told his kindred and community            though he must deny himself completely, God' is
that he was certain of only one thing: God had called        faithful and true, and Abraham knew that the God  !he
him. And that was enough. The Word of the Lord               loved and in Whom he believed would never  desert!or
meant everything to him.                                     leave him.
     And for us?                                               In this sense we, too, must believe in God. As He
                                                             leads us we will follow. We will never question His
     We understand the difficulty. Submitting to the         guidance; we have learned, by grace, to  dehy
Word of God may involve us in the loss of all things.        ourselves and consider ourselves nothing; we will
Must we obey His Word only because it is His Word?           gladly forfeit and lose all that He may be glorified.
Must we follow where He leads  LIS  and trust that all is    Indeed, He will be glorified and finish His work  inus
well, even then when sickness and calamity and               whether we now see and understand it or not.
distress and death may be our lot? Must we follow
Him to a glory beyond the grave, all because of His            Where He leads me I will follow.
promise that He will save us to the uttermost? Must            And then, only then, are we safe and secure, now
we do what He says, even when it involves  us  in            and even forevermore. He will surely lead us into the
nersonal disaster and we cannot possibly visualize  any      heavenly Canaan, the `City of our God, the City that
relief? And the answer is an emphatic YES.                   has foundations, Whose Builder and Maker is God.  :




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



I


                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           365



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




                                                         The NIV-Confused
                                                                and Confusing


   In many quarters the recently published New                                       some instances emphatically the opposite is true.
International Version of the Bible is being hailed as                                  Recently my attention was drawn to a change of
the best yet, and even destined to displace the long                                 translation which is needless, inaccurate, and down-
established King James Version.                                                      right confused and confusing. The passages of
    Several years  ggo we offered criticism of the NIV's                             Scripture which are concerned are very significant, too,
version of the Gospel according to John when it was                                  for the understanding of the whole idea of the
tentatively published in a separate booklet. Since                                   promise, of the unity of God's covenant, and of the
then we have said nothing further on the subject  -                                  organic idea of the church from Jew and Gentile. I
neither when  t&e  ,New Testament was completed and                                  refer to Galatians 3 as it quotes from the book of
published nor when the entire Bible was offered in                                   Genesis and makes the point that the seed of
this new translation.                                                                Abraham is primarily and centrally Christ. In  Gala-
   Our silence, however, does not mean a change of                                   tians 3 the NIV correctly uses the English translation
m i n d .   W h i l e   i t   m a y   b e   t r u e   t h a t   a m o n g   t h e    "seed" and "seeds." Notice, by the way, that the NIV
multiplicity of new translations and new versions the                                uses quotation marks to indicate direct quotations  -
NIV is at least in some respects the best, we continue                               something to which I have no objection, except-that
to believe that the King James Version is far and                                    it is not always possible to discern  the limits of a
away to be preferred to any of the new versions                                      direct quotation (John 3 is an example. Which are
which have made their appearance, the NIV included.                                  Christ's words to Nicodemus, and which are the
This is not because  we simply adhere slavishly to the                               evangelist's words of explanation?). But in Galatians
KJV. We do not belong to those who almost equate                                     3 the quotation marks are supposed to indicate a
the King James Version with the autographs and who                                   quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures. Notice
seem to be averse to any textual criticism, especially                               how the NIV consistently translates by "seed" in the
if it happens to agree with the Westcott and Hort                                    following instances:
text. In fact, we believe that in some instances the                                     16. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his
radical arguments which have been made against                                           seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds,"
other versions and for the KJV have done the cause                                       meaning many people, but "and to your seed,"
of the KJV more harm than good. We do believe,                                           meaning one person, who is Christ.
however, that among the English versions the KJV is                                      19. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was
still the best. We believe, too, that the argument that                                  added because of transgressions until the Seed to
the KJV cannot be understdod because of its archaic                                      whom the promise referred had come.
and Elizabethan language is largely invalid. We                                          29. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
believe, further, that the new versions have in many                                     seed, and heirs according to the promise.
instances proved to be dangerously inaccurate and in                                   It is evident that in the case of Galatians 3 the
other instances downright heretical and in still others                              translators had no objection to the use of the English
lacking in significant improvement. Finally, we also                                 word "seed." And they were correct. This is both an
believe that the very multiplying of translations tends                              accurate rendering of the Greek word, and it is a
to create  confusiop as far as memorization and both                                 perfectly good English word. Any dictionary will
public and private reading are concerned.                                            show that the word "seed" is not archaic, but a good
    A study will reveal that also in the case of the NIV                             and understandable word for the idea to be expressed
all change is by no means improvement. In fact, in                                   here. The NIV in this instance correctly did not


366                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



depart from the translation of the King James                         this quotation: Genesis  12:7, Genesis 13 : 15, Genesis
Version. Moreover, in the case of verse 16 it is `an-                 24:7. And what do we find in the NIV translation of
accurate term to make plain the crucial distinction                   these Old Testament passages? Here they are:
between the plural and the singular. You could not                        Genesis  12:7, but the LORD appeared to Abram and
use the word "offspring," for example, because it                         said, "To your offspring I will give this land."
offers no distinction between singular and plural.                        Genesis 13 : 1.5, All the land that you see I will give to
  But if this is the case, then it is inexplicable to me                  you and your offspring forever.
why the same translation is not given in a chapter like                   Genesis  24:7,  "The LORD, the God of heaven, who
Romans 9. If the translation is good and acceptable in                    brought me out of my father's household and my
Galatians 3, why is it not equally good and acceptable                    native land and who spoke to me and promised me on
to render the very same Greek term denoting the                           oath, saying, `To your offspring I will give this land'
same idea by the same English word in Romans  9?                          -he will send his angel before you. . .  ."
Yet in Romans  9:6-S we read the following in the                        Moreover, you will  find that the NIV consistently
NIV:                                                                  avoids the use of the term "seed" in any context
          6. It is not as though God's word had failed. For           which concerns the promise to Abraham and his seed.
       not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.              Thus, for example, the familiar language  of-Genesis
  7. Nor because they are his descendants are they all                17:7 is rendered as follows: "I will establish my
       Abraham's children. On the contrary, "It is through            covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and
       Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 8. In             you and your descendants after you for the genera-
       other words, it is not the natural children who are            tions  to come, to be your God and the God of your
       God's children, but it is the children of the promise          descendants after you."
       who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.
  Compare this with the King James Version:                              And there you have confused translation Number
                                                                      Two, which can only be most confusing to a reader.
          6. Not as though the word of God hath taken
       none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of            Can you imagine a reader who reads Galatians 3 : 16
       Israel: 7. Neither, because they  ,,are the seed of            and takes note of the distinction there made between
       Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall            the plural "seeds" and the singular "seed?" Next he
       thy seed be called. 8. That is, They which are the             takes note of the handy references to Genesis
       children of the flesh, these are not the children of           provided by the NIV. But when he turns to Genesis
       God: but the children of the promise are counted for           he does not find the word "seed" at all. He finds
       the seed.                                                      "offspring" or "descendants," in every instance the
                                                                      same singular Hebrew word,  zera.  What can he only
  Here we have confusion Number One, therefore.                       conclude? Paul's, or rather, the Holy Spirit's crucial
And this can only be confusing to the reader.                         point based on the Old Testament Scriptures is false!
  But the NIV created worse confusion in connec-                      Confusing!
tion with Galatians 3. Do not overlook the fact that                     Or can you imagine a preacher preaching on
Galatians 3 : 16 makes a decisive point of the fact that              Galatians 3: 16 and referring his congregation to
the Scripture itself does  not.say "and to seeds," but                Genesis for proof? No matter which passage he
"and to your seed." It does so in order to make the                   chooses from Genesis, he will have to say, "Congrega-
very important point that the seed of Abraham is                      tion, the NIV is confused and confusing in this crucial
Christ, and that the promise is to Christ. The NIV                    instance. It really  .does not say `descendants,' which is
even seeks to emphasize this by using quotation                     plural, nor `offspring,' which can be either singular or
marks to indicate what the Scripture does not say and                 plural. In this crucial instance the old King James
what it does say. Further, the NIV furnishes a                        Version is much to be preferred. For the Scripture
footnote to supply the Old Testament references for                   says `seed,' just as Paul writes in Galatians 3: 16."



                                   Exit  Prsf. Dr. H. Vander aan
                                                      Pro5  Dr. H.  Vatlderlaatl


  In  Faith  In  Foczw  (March,  1979), the monthly                   there is published without comment a letter from
magazine of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand,                     Prof. Dr. H. Vanderlaan to the Board of the


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                               367


Reformed Theological College, Geelong, Australia.             fession to be a confession. He cannot  accept  what the
Prof. Vanderlaan has been professor of philosophy             Westminster says on such important subjects as the
and Christian education at Geelong since 1975,                light of nature, the counsel of God, God Himself, and
having taken up his work there shortly after the              predestination. Note, too, that Vanderlaan singles out
dismissal of Dr. S. Woudstra from the same college. It        the Westminster Confession, but does not exclude the
should be kept in mind that the Reformed Theo-                other Reformed creeds; no doubt he cannot accept
logical College, while operated by an association, is         what they say on the same subjects any more than he
nevertheless supported by and, to an extent, under            can accept the Westminster. Moreover, he is so "open
the supervision of the Reformed Churches of New               minded" that expressions such as "the Reformed
Zealand and of Australia, sister denominations..              faith" and "Reformed theology" are beyond his
  In this published letter Dr. Vanderlaan informs the         understanding of the gospel. Small wonder that,
Board that he does not wish to have his contract              according to his complaint, he was  labelled as a
extended for another four or eight years, but that he         "liberal." One would be inclined to ask: what did he
plans to go back to the Netherlands. Among his                expect? From his own self-description he is as liberal,
reasons are the following:                                    if not more so, as the most liberal men in the
                                                              Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands.
       Firstly, I cannot subscribe any more to the
   subordinate standards in your Constitution. Especial-        No doubt there are those in the two Reformed
   ly the Westminster Confession is for me a stumbling        denominations down under who will think, if they do
   block. It is not only not a confession  - it is a          not say, "Good riddance!"
   theological treatise formulated by a group of theo-          Yet the fact that Dr. Vanderlaan writes as he does
   logians  - but also its content makes it for me
   impossible to accept it as a standard for the Christian    and leaves Geelong apparently on his own volition
   faith e.g. the way it speaks about the light of nature,    does not speak well for the Reformed Churches in
   the counsel of God, God himself, predestination etc.       Australia and New Zealand. It only means that the
                                                              latter are less liberal and  less tolerant than Dr.
      Secondly from the very beginning after my coming
   here, I became aware of the fact that my attitude and      Vanderlaan. For, in the first place, of course. Dr.
   approach to theology and the church are quite              Vanderlaan did not  become  liberal in 1979, but has
   different from that of my colleagues, of most of the       entertained these views all along. He himself states
   students and of the people in the Reformed Churches        that he was aware from the beginning of his sojourn
   in general. From the side of the students it brought       in Australia that his attitude and approach to
   from the very beginning accusations and suspicion.         theology and the church were quite different.
                                                                                                  .
   When I was just three weeks in Australia some              Naturally, too, this could not  remam a secret as soon
   students with a colleague tried to -get rid of me.         as he began to teach and express his views. Yet he was
   Today I am labelled  as a liberal.                         not dismissed from Geelong  - as was Dr. S. Woudstra
      Further my idea of the church and of theology           - but was allowed to serve out his term and to leave
   implies an open mindedness which I do not find here.       voluntarily. The deputies responsible for supervision
   Terms as "the Reformed faith" and "Reformed                of Geelong in behalf of the churches in New Zealand
   theology" are beyond my understanding of the               and Australia were at least liberal enough not to oust
   gospel. . . .                                              him. In the second place, it should not be forgotten
  Vanderlaan concludes by saying:                             that while Dr. S. Woudstra was ousted from Geelong
                                                              for his views on predestination and on Scripture, he
      Personally I cannot live another four years  - let      was tolerated and given a clean bill of health in
   alone twenty years  - within the Reformed Churches         Classis Victoria of the Reformed Church of Australia,
   and at the College, which show the above mentioned
   pattern. I become more and more alienated from             so that  ,he was admitted to the ministry there. In the
   these churches. There are more things which I could        third place, it was  a- known fact at the time of his
   mention. It is not a decision which I have taken           coming to Australia that Dr. Vanderlaan was in
   overnight, nor on my own. Discussions with others  -       agreement with Dr. Woudstra's views; nevertheless, he
   pro and. contra  - have helped me to come to this          was accepted and installed as professor at Geelong.
   decision. . . .                                              Meanwhile, the Reformed Churches of New Zea-
  There will undoubtedly be some who will draw the            land cannot escape co-responsibility for the toleration
conclusion from Dr. Vanderlaan's letter that it at            of such a self-confessed liberal as Vanderlaan. About
least speaks well for the atmosphere in the Reformed          the time of our tour in 1975 the Rev. G. I.
Churches "down under," while it speaks ill as far as          Williamson (who, by the way, never responded to my
Dr. Vanderlaan's views are concerned. The latter              open letter to him a few years ago) made much of the
cannot subscribe to the Reformed and Presbyterian             fact that the New Zealand churches now had a
creeds, especially not to the Westminster Confession.         contractual agreement with Geelong, so that they had
He does not even consider the Westminster Con-                a voice in its supervision and in safeguarding the


 368                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


 college's adherence to the confessions. He also took       Focus. One wonders  what happened to the safeguard
 strong exception to our criticism of the stance of the     when a thorough-going liberal is tolerated for four
 Reformed Churches and of our charge that they are          years  atid then allowed to depart apparently on his
 apostatizing. And now the letter of Prof. Vanderlaan       own initiative !
is published without comment in their  Faith In

TRANSLATED TREASURES




                  A Pamphlet on the Reformation
                                       of the Churches
                                                 by Dr. A. Kuyper





 (Note: Kuyper is still talking in this paragraph of the    birth and death, "and hath determined the times
proper formation of the church. In this connection he       before appointed" (Acts  17:26). But geographical
has talked about the relationship between the church        division is by the choice of the individual believers.
as organism and the church as institute, the  reltition-    This does not mean that the believers can split from
ship between the office of believers and the special        each other or join together at will, but it is
offices in the church, and how the institute of the         u n d e r s t o o d   t h a t   t h e y   a r e   b o u n d   b o t h   t o   t h e
church is actually formed. It is, in  Kuyper"s judg-        limitations of their dwelling as God has fixed them
ment, necessary to understand the true nature of the        and to the urge for unity which is an integral part of
church in order to understand how the church can            the body of Christ.
deteriorate and degenerate and why the church is in             God has fixed the boundary of each man's
need of church reformation. He continues his                habitation and it is through His providential rule that
--discussion of what the church is and ought to be in       the boundaries of lands are fixed and that there are
the following paragraph.)                                   divisions of cities and towns. Thus it is one and the
15. How the Church is Divided aAd is Yet One.               same God Who on the one hand guides the lives of
   The mystical body of Christ is one, and all the          lands and peoples, of cities and towns, and Who on
parts of it  belong- together. Therefore the church of      the other hand forms His church and maintains it.
Christ shall only come to complete manifestation            Both aspects of life arise out of this principle and are
when it, after it has completely triumphed, shall sit       related to each other, although they never merge.
with Christ on the throne. Every temporal manifesta-        And to the Mediator is given both kingship over the
tion of the church is partial and imperfect. The            church and all power over lands and nations, cities
church is divided throughout time because the elect         and boroughs.
who live today cannot exercise the communion of the            The believer must indeed reckon in the matter of
saints with the elect from Augustine's time any more        church formation with the distinction of people and
than with the elect of the past three or more               people, land and land, region and region, town and
centuries. But the church is also divided geographical-     town. The one body of Christ manifests itself
ly because the believers, according to the limitations      independently in different lands, in different ways, in
of their natures can exercise continuous communion          different regions and districts, and also in towns and
of the saints only with those who live in the same          cities which lie alongside of each-other. The unique
place with them. God governs this temporal division         character of each local church must not be lost from
directly, through the appointed time of each man's          sight by believers in the formation of the church. Nor


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 369


must be lost from sight the bond which binds her             organic groups.
together with churches from the same district or               To be convinced of this one need only ask himself:
again with churches from the same region or again            what constitutes the essence of a church? To answer:
with churches from the same land. God's providential         the essence of a church consists on the one hand in
decree and rule divide the church into local and             the sphere of believers and on the other hand in the
regional and national churches, but also the unity of        administration of the means of grace. It is certain
the body of Christ holds these separate parts together       therefore that one neither adds to nor subtracts  from
in organic communion.                                        the essence of a church if a local church temporarily
  This is so true that the church of one land must           isolates itself and then remains separate. This would
retain the. consciousness that she is the church of          undoubtedly have influence on the outward form of
Christ only along with churches of other lands. This is      the church but not on her essence. As soon as a
the reason why our fathers at the Synod at Dort also         gathering is simply a manifestation of the body of
invited the foreign churches.                                Christ, her essence as church is assured.
  However, this short description is not adequate.             Moreover, the word "organism" ought to be
  The presentation given here that the local church is       understood in the right sense. But this sense is varied.
the primary manifestation of the church of Jesus             In the fullest sense, the organism of the church is not
Christ and that the classes and regional church come         completely expressed except in the entire mystical
into existence secondarily through the federation of         body of Christ. To the full organism of the church
these local churches is an idea not generally main-          belong all her parts: those already present, as well as
tained.                                                      those which are still to come. On the other hand, it is
                                                             possible to speak of a partial organic manifestation of
  We are not now going to speak of the  Congrega-            this complete organism, for, just as the nature of the
tionalists and Independentists any more than we will         whole organism is outlined in each living cell, so is a
speak of the Romish idea of the church. To suppose,          church organism present where the church is per-
as Independentists do, that each group, each congre-         ceptible in an unmistakable way according to her
gation, is an organic church unity, or as Rome, that         ecclesiastical essence, i.e., in every local church. And
the organic church unity is manifested chiefly in a          finally I can take the word "organism" in yet a third
world church, is an error which is advocated by none         sense to express the natural living bond by which the
among  us.                                                   separate organic manifestations of local churches
  But we ought to examine the opinion of those who           stand related to each other. But then I get nothing
judge that our national church forms the organic             else but a relative and elastic idea which can, to a
unity and the classes and local churches exist only as       greater or lesser extent, be expanded, and which can
parts or cells in this organic unity.                        never, for this reason, take the place of the organic
   As was said before, we readily grant: 1) that we          idea of ecclesiastical unity which is already present in
reject the Independentistic notion, that each congre-        the local church.
gation or  sach parish can express organic church              It is not true to say that this latter idea was held in
unity; 2) that the bond of unity among churches of           the beginning of the reformation but changed during
the same nation is not arbitrary but is arranged and         the history of the last three centuries. When our
allotted by the `divine determination of homes and           Reformers rose in this land, the local church had
cities, by the union of a common past, by the urge           already existed for many centuries, and so the local
towards love and fellowship, and above all by the            churches had a church bond for many ages and had
unity of the Body of Christ of which all local               aimed already at that time at national boundaries. On
churches are the manifestation; and 3) even though all       the  other hand, our fathers never hesitated a moment
confederative church union may be disturbed for              to return immediately to the local church and to
a long time, nevertheless the local churches of the          restore out of this local church the church bonds of
same nation, though they are without a visible bond          land and nation. But Holy Scripture settles everything
of unity, actually belong together and ought to come         by its decisive testimony. It does this in a two-fold
together, the sooner the better.                             way.
  On the other hand, it is asserted: 1)  that.each  local      In the first place, the holy apostles always referred
church possesses in itself the essence of a church; 2)       to a local church with the singular:  ekkleesia,  or
that the external bond comes to expression with              church. They used the plural  ekkleesiai  for churches.
other churches properly in no other way than in the          They never used the singular,  ekkleesia,  or church, to
way of confederation; and 3) that organic unity is           refer to the external organic ecclesiastical unity of the
only formed by the invisible church since in this            churches. They addressed themselves to the church of
invisible church the local churches are the organic          Rome, to the church of Corinth, but they write:  tais
parts and the classes and national church are only the       ekkleesiais tees  Galatias,  i.e., to the churches of


370                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



Galatia. Even the churches of this one province Paul        churches themselves were addressed as existing
does not regard as an external organic unity, but as        individually. Their essence as church is not in any
organic entities with their own individual existence.       way defined as being dependent upon an external
  Secondly, one will never find in the writings of the      connection with the other churches. Each local
apostles even a trace of the idea that the apostles         church is expressly  recognizkd as  ekkleesia  tou
considered the merging of local congregations into a        kuriou,  i.e., a church of the Lord.
national unity a condition for the preservation and             For this reason, therefore, we maintain that
essence of the church.                                      Scripture, history, and precision of  tefminology all
  And what is even more emphatic, when the Lord             agree with the idea that the local church is the
Jesus Himself gives in Revelation 2 and 3 the seven         essence of the' church. And if this is true, then it
letters to the holy apostle John for the seven              cannot be denied that the church unity from which
ekkleesiai,   i.e., the churches in Asia Minor, the Lord    we must proceed is not in a world church, nor in a
showed the organic unity of the seven churches in the       national church, nor in classes, but exclusively in the
unity of the seven candles on one candlestick. But the      local church.

G&T ARTICLE





                               The Working of Satan
                                              Rev. Robt. C. Harbach





  1. In the trends he promotes. Witchcraft, spiritism,      day's science." So now, with revived interest in
fortune-telling, astrology  - things of the ancient Dark    questions of "immortality," how to deal with the
Ages past  - right? Thirty years ago, right! but today?     shock of death, and what happens to man in and after
Wrong! far from it! For the masses of people deny           death, para-psychology, by-passing the revelation and
the doctrine of divine revelation and providence,           providence of God in reaching out to the other side
turning, instead, to these occult "sciences," so that a     of the grave, delves into the occult to come with
revival of them appears under the guise and euphe-          answers to these pressing questions.1 Today it is a
mism of para-psychology. The latter claims to be a new      well-known fact that a popular scientific institute has
science, but it deals in the old field of the psychic,      been established in Duke University* for purposes of
the metaphysical in the sense of supernatural phe-          studies in parapsychological research. This means that
nomena. This includes necromancy, although that             the universities are increasingly acquiring a sensitivity
term is not used any more. It also includes interest in     for communication with the supernatural and for
clairvoyance, another defunct term, or prediction of        spirit manifestations, hence special university course
the future, as in astrology's horoscope (the Devil's        divisions for the study of ESP (extra-sensory percep-
horror-scope). Para-psychology claims that all these        tion) and psychic research, that is, meddling in the
occult "sciences" have prophetic and practical possi-       divinely forbidden sphere of spirits.
bilities. This is, indeed, a remarkable switch and trend
in human interests. For three decades ago, this entire
area of esoteric dalliance was regarded by men of           IThe Providence  of God,  by G. C. Berkouwer, Eerdmans, 1952, pp.
                                                            2527.
education, intellect, and science with contempt as the
cheapest ignorant superstition. But now their think-        `The  Kingdom of the Cults,  by Walter R. Martin,  Bethany Fellowship
                                                            Publishers,  1977,  p. 200; Occult Bondage and Deliverance,  by Kurt
ing is undoubtedly, "Yesteday's superstition is  to-        Koch,  Kregel,  1976,  p. 26.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     371



   2.  In the arts he develops.  No less than  Satanism      terrorism and war, war, endless war (v. 7, 9).  Our
has invaded the highest institutions of learning. The        end-time wars culminate in the war which finally ends
dominating university outlook may still be said to be        all wars, the great war of Armageddon. Reference is
a rationalistic one, yet there is a definite trend to the    made here to war decreed and to the devilish modern
metarational, bordering close to the superstitious           war machines  (v. 13-17). So Satan heads vile,
masses of Asia, Africa, and, to a great extent, South        seducing spirits spreading delusive propaganda, de-
America where the peoples are governed by a                  ceiving rulers of the earth and the whole world to
mediumistic philosophy.3 Among the superstitions             plunge themselves pell-me11 into the madness of that
and demon worship in West Africa and Haiti, this evil        last battle (Rev. 16: 13-14). Here we see what evil
worship is known as Voodoo; in Africa and Jamaica it         spirits in this modern age are doing.
is known as Obeah. The Hebrew Old Testament                     We also need to know more about what spirits can
prophets called it Obh. Involved in this occult morass       do. To this end, consider that a spirit: (1) can lift and
is all fortune-telling, spiritism, use of the  Ouija         hurl down a human body (Lk.  9:42; Mt. 17:  15), (2)
(perhaps from the Fr.  oui  and the Ger,  ja, yes;  the      move aside a heavy stone (Mt.  28:2), (3) agitate the
devil's yes to God's no) board, the divining rod,            waters of a pool (Jn.  5:4), (4) poke a man in the ribs
fortune-cards, astrology, palmistry, telekinesis (the        (Acts  12:7),  (5) open locked doors (5: 19; 12:  lo), (6)
causing of objects to move by some mental or                 shut lions' mouths (Dn.  6:22), (7) shut a man's
supernatural powers, as in table-lifting, glass moving       mouth (Lk. 11:  14), (8) trick and deceive men,
and levitation), automatic writing, spiritistic seances      succeeding with lies to do so (I K. 22: 19-23; I Tim.
and mental telepathy. All these works of Black Art,          4:1),  ( 9 )   d r i v e   a   p i g   i n s a n e   ( L k .   8:33),  ( 1 0 )
spiritist mediums, witches, wizards, and the demons          overpower seven men, wound, strip, and leave them
(I Cor. 10: 20) behind them are under the terrible           naked (Acts 19:  16), (11) catch, possess, and
curse of God (please read Lev. 19: 3 1;  20:6) and are       strengthen a man to break heavy chains (Lk.  8:29 and
worthy of death (Ex. 22: 18;  Dt.. 18:  10-12). The          parallel p&sages), and they are, although wrongly,
people of God must not dare to touch any of these            worshiped (Rev.  9:20; I Cor.  10:20).
things, not even with the proverbial ten foot pole and
from behind a foot-thick lead barrier. The only safe            But it is Christ Who opposes the Dragon and his
refuge from these deadly evils and their deathly             black diabolonians, fighting victoriously for His
effects is in the sacrifice and precious blood of our        Church throughout this entire age (Rev.  6:2). The
covenant God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.                      heathen nations oppose Christ and His Church, as
                                                             controlled, severally, by demonic powers. Persia, for
   3.  In the powers he  corztrols.  So Satan and his        example, has a prince, not the king, not the shah, but
dark minions are the principalities, powers, the             a contending spirit, the supernatural power behind
world-rulers  df the darkness of this world and the          the Persian idols and gods. Just as the holy angels are
cause of so much spiritual wickedness in high places         sent forth in behalf of the heirs of salvation, so
(Eph. 6: 12). The Devil is the angel of the bottomless       demons are active in behalf of the world-kingdom of
pit, whose name is also Abaddon (Heb.), or  Appol-           Satan (Dn. 11: 13, 20). But in the great day of the
lyon (Gk.), i.e., Destroyer. He is king over hordes of       Lord, He shall punish both the demonic hosts behind
demons, two hundred million in number, which, in             the world rulers and those rulers themselves (Isa.
huge clouds, smoke up out of the pit to obscure the          24:21; Jer.  46:25).
Word of God with the wraths of hell (Rev.  9:2).
They, like hellish grasshoppers with scorpion power,            4. In the proximity of his operations.  All this
turn the atmosphere to a black murk, revealing God's         being true, it cannot well be maintained that all
curse on the current polluted atmosphere of modern           demonic activity is either a thing of the past,
education, human wisdom, the vagaries of philoso-            something evanescent in the time of our  Loyd's
phy, on the riches and luxuries of men, `their art,          earthly ministry, or that such machinations today are.
politics, business management, and government. All           fraudulent. We are inclined to believe the reports
                                                             heard from many missionaries, of intense demonism
this is ravaged and brought to a shambles by
irresistible demonic activity stirring up lust, greed,       on the foreign mission field, of which Japan is said to
and war.                                                     be the most difficult. Here at home, spiritism is more
                                                             widespread than ever, and it would seem not only
   The actually unimaginable picture presented in this       naive, but dangerous to shrug it all off as a form of
chapter of Revelation is that of a black pall from hell      cultic and heretical fraud. The heresies, cults, and
hanging over the earth, the darkness of  .the pit            sects are but ingredient  mi.xtures in Satan's brew.
overspreading the world, a tidal wave of hell's vomit        Besides, the bookstore on the mall is loaded with
sweeping, over both heathendom and civilization in           volumes on witchcraft, Satan-worship, and all the
the demonic delusion of the cults and heresies, and in       related works of darkness. Shall we then say that
3ibid., pp. 9,  17.                                          demonism may be a horrifying reality in the


372                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



Gog-and-Magog fringe nations of heathendom, but             Men love darkness, not light, because their deeds are
not here in our land of churches? Wasn't it the devil       evil. Satan is the prince of darkness, for he darkens
who was behind "the murder of the innocents,`:              their understandings, keeping them in the dark,
perpetrated by the monster  Herod; and isn't it the         blinding their minds with hatred, ignorance, supersti-
devil and his evil spirits who deceive and ensnare souls    tion, the black errors of the occult, keeping the light
today into the covenant-breaking wickedness and             of the glorious gospel from dawning upon them, that
mass-murder of abortion? Isn't it the prince of this        there never should be a dawning for them (Isa.  8:20,
world who increasingly fosters the insidious idea that      margin). This is not so much Satan's activity in
our children are wards of the state? With this              heathendom keeping the gospel light out of the
ideology in force, we stand to be restrained from           world, but more his malicious operations in keeping it
teatihing our covenant seed the religion of Jehovah,        out of the churches. Where the churches have
only to have our children taken from us to be               departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing
programmed by the state to serve the god of this            spirits and doctrines of demons which is that wisdom
world.                                                      James calls not from above, but earthly, sensual, and
  5. In the blinding policy he employs. It is the god       demoniacal  -  hi those churches you have Satan's
of this world who in  OUY  day  blinds the minds of         kingdom. "From such withdraw thyself."
unbelievers, "lest the light of the glorious gospel of         Finally, tie briefly outline the history of God's
Christ should shine unto them" (2 Cor.  4:4). Satan is      arch-enemy. For his original majesty and sinless state,
that god, for one reason, because so much homage            see Ezek. 28:  12-l 5; his original rebellion against God,
and allegiance are paid him by the multitudes in the        Isa. 14: 12-14; his present kingdom, Eph.  6:12; his
world, and, for another reason, that God has given          part in the Fall of man, Gen. 3:1-7; his present
him power to rule in the world with the sceptre and         wicked activity, I Pet.  5:8; his followers' final lot, Mt.
bondage of death (Heb. 2: 14). Increasingly, in these       25:41; his own final lot, Rev.  2O:lO.a
evil times, men become his willing slaves, and.more            Hallelujah! Maranatha!
atid more openly worship him  as Satan  (Rev.  13:4a).      4The Standard Bearer,  Vol. 52, p.  537.


THESTRENGTHOFYOUTH




                                           Being Happy
                                               Rev. Ron Van Overloop





  "Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth; and let thy             Young people, are you happy?
heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth."                    Do you want  to.be happy?
  Are young people happy?                                      If you are honest with yourself, I think that you
  Someone might answer that question with a firm,           will have to say that you do not always want to be
"Yes." He might continue with this explanation, "It         happy. There are times when you actually want to be
seems as if they are always laughing. They do not           nasty, when you delight in a cruel word, when you
want to take anything seriously. There is usually           take pleasure in being moody and slouching around
laughter heard in the hall of any high school."             the house like a grouch.
  Someone else might answer, "Not always. Apart                Did you know that God commands us to be happy
from their peers they can be untalkative and generally      all the time? God tells  us  that we must rejoice always,
very moody."                                                evermore !


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                373



   Is it not remarkable? Some people charge Christi-       be  hahpy and to rejoice evermore, it is impossible to
anity with making people sad. Maybe it is because          go too far.
they have met too many disobedient Christians or             Some people should not be happy. That's  right.
faith-without-works Christians.                            Some people should not rejoice always. If you cannot
   God tells us that we must rejoice and be happy,         call Jesus your Friend, you ought not be happy. If
evermore. Look up Philippians  4:4 and I  Thessalo-        prayer is only work and an obligation, then you will
nians 5 : 16.                                              find it hard to be happy at all times. But if your
   Because Jesus has suffered, we are encouraged,          hope is fixed on Jesus and what He did on the cross,
commanded, and enabled  .to rejoice. We ought to           then you may rejoice. If you are really a partaker of
rejoice that there is a command to rejoice. Who wants      the life of Christ, then you can rejoice.
to be sad or silent when God says, "Rejoice                  Our happiness may not be fanatical. There are
evermore"?                                                 some restless, excitable folk who cry "Hallelujah" at
   This divine command is directed to each one of us       anything or nothing. We want excitement, but of a
individually. No one can be happy for you. One             proper kind. We covet a high and holy joy. But
might have a personality to cheer you, and -his            remember that joy always acts upon the truth. Your
presence might cheer you, but  happifiess is a thing       joy must come out of a clear understanding of the
you must practice yourself.                                things of God, or it does not profit you anything.
                                                           You may exhibit joy only when you can justify it.
   God has not left it to our own choice whether we
will sorrow or rejoice. This is personal and perma-          Your joy, in order to be at all times, is a power of
nent. There are some things which are to be done at        the new nature which God works in you by His
one time, and some at another. But rejoicing is for all    Spirit. It is a full conviction that whatever God does
times, forever. There are some things which when           is right. It is an agreement with the providence of
done once are finished and need never be done again,       God, no matter what it brings. It is an intense delight
but you are never done with rejoicing. It is first and     in God Himself and in the person of His dear Son.
last; beginning, middle, and end.                          And consequently it is a quietness and calm of soul
                                                           which passes all understanding.
   Some say that we must only have the habit of
rejoicing. They say this because they think you              The object of such rejoicing is first God. The
cannot do it always. I know what they mean, but I do       psalmist called God his exceeding joy (Psalm  37:4
not know how we may say that in the light of               and  43:4). Is God your joy? Do you find every
Philippians  4:4 ("alway") and I Thessalonians 5 : 16      attribute of God to be an inexhaustible gold mine of
("evermore"). These verses expressly tell us that we       precious joy? Or have you not thought of it that
must never leave off being happy.                          way?! Do you find more joy in your car than in
                                                           God's electing love? Do you find more joy with a
   It is a sin not to rejoice. It is a sin not to be a     date than with God's unchanging grace? Do you find
happy Christian. The next time you meet a happy            more joy in making a jump shot than in God's
Christian, do not criticize him before you criticize       illimitable power? Do you find more joy in worldly
yourself for not rejoicing.                                music than in God's transcending glory? Do you
   How do we rejoice? How can we be always happy?          delight more in sin than in the fact that God is your
   I think that it is obvious to all of us that we must    Father? Think of it!
make a distinction. We are not told by God to rejoice        Think of Jesus. Consider His love and rejoice (John
always in things. That is a carnal happiness. But that     15: 11). Or are you thinking that such activity can
is often, too often, the source of our happiness. Such     wait until you become older? Did you ever ask
happiness is impossible to have always. It is de-          yourself where you  got the confidence that you were
pendent on circumstances. Then we are happy when           goingtolive to be older?
things go well; but what happens when things do not          Do you rejoice as you should? As you want? Is this
go well? Then we are happy when we have a date, but        true spiritual happiness missing?
what happens when we do not have a date. Then we
are happy when the basketball team wins, but when it         Then you, confessing child of God, must be busy.
loses. . . .                                               Gird yourself for holy exercise and labor.
   Be careful. The most we can say is that we may            And why not labor for  sucl~  a precious possession?
rejoice in the things of this life. BUT we are             When you  have other desires, you seek to have them
forbidden to rejoice too much in these things. These       fulfilled, do you not? When your stomach tells you
earthly things are like honey: nice, but too much          that you are hungry, do you not get busy and find a
makes you vomit (Proverbs 25: 16). You can easily go       way to satisfy that hunger?
too far with such joy. But when God commands us to           Do you not have evkn more hunger for this joy?


374                                              THE  STANDARD BEARER



What bliss to rejoice evermore!                                 Look directly to the Word of God. Sit still with the
  Then we must be busy, seeking to obtain such a             Word. Enter into your closet with it and meditate
blessed joy.                                                 upon what God has spoken, promised, commanded.
  How?                                                          Why should we not be happy, since all is ours?
                                                             When the past and all its sins are blotted out and
  Believe  and the thousands of blessings promised           when the future and all its wants are provided, why
will cause joy to spring from your soul.                     not be happy and rejoice?
  Begin  hoping  for the resurrection, the second               One of the most precious fruits of such rejoicing is
coming, and the glory of heaven. The hope of the             the strength it provides against temptation. You may
righteous shall be gladness, Proverbs  10:28.                be the object of temptation, but its earthly pleasur-
  Love  and be happy. "Let all those that love Thy           able bait will not entice you as much if you are
name be joyful in Thee." Psalm' 5: 11.                       already happy. The joy of the Lord is an armor.
   Trust.  "Let all those that put their trust in Thee          This joy shuts out worldly hilarity from your
rejoice." Psalm 5 : 11.                                      heart. If one is already happy, he will not seek his
  Such faith, hope, love, and trust the Lord implants        happiness from the world. If one is already rejoicing,
within us that we might rejoice. The Lord implants           then the proffered joy of the pleasures of Egypt are
these that we might exercise ourselves in them..             resistible.
  Pray. Pray without ceasing. Pray for this joyous              Parents, make your homes happy. Make your
contentment in the ways of the, Lord.  .Prayer can           homes such that your young people will find it
make the darkening cloud  remove  so you will rejoice        difficult to go away every night. Make your homes
and be happy.                                                places of joy so that they will want to bring their
                                                             friends home with them.
  Seek this blessed happiness in the way of singing.
Sing not the songs of the world, but the songs of               We are not inclined to go after worldly mirth when
Zion. Sing the Word of God in psalm. Sing of the             we are happy in the Lord.
experiences of the saints of old. Then joy and                  So "rejoice  iy  the Lord  alway, and again I say,
happiness shall settle over you.                             rejoice."

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE




                                    Letter to Timothy


                                            May 15, 1979     defeat our present purpose in this discussion. Never-
Dear Timothy,                                                theless,. there are some broad lines which we' ought to
                                                             have clearly before our minds before we proceed. We
  The time has come in our correspondence to turn            cannot, after all, do our  work properly unless we have
our discussions to some general principles of psychol-       some understanding of what Scripture has to say on
ogy which underlie the work of the pastor in the             this subject.
congregation in which God has called him to labor.              You notice that I say, "Scripture." We are
  Before we begin this discussion, there are some            interested particularly in what the Scriptures have to
general remarks which ought to be made.                      say:There are, of course, questions which arise in this
  In the first place, it will not do to enter into a         connection. Are the Scriptures of such a kind that
detailed and lengthy discussion of all the principles of     they are able to give us such principles of  psychol-
psychology. As important as this -may be, it would           o,g? Are the Scriptures a textbook of psychology?


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               375


Are the Scriptures the only source of information in                      development than to study the Scriptures. It would
this area? Is it possible, in other words, to glean also                  be the principle, the sufficient knowledge-source of
from the study of man himself some principles which                       all our wisdbm, and it  wc$d  make all further study
belong to psychology?                                                     superfluous.
  To answer some of these questions, I want to                                One feels the weight of these criticisms. They are
quote rather at length from Dr. H. Bavinck's book,                        not really  without foundation, because now and then
"Biblical and Religious Psychology." The quote is                         one meets with such a view in the Church. Is not
                                                                          Scripture a lamp before the feet and a light on our
rather interesting and sheds light on the broader                         path? What do we have to do with all that worldly
question of the relation between the Scriptures and                       wisdom which is nothing else but idle philosophy? . . .
other subjects which might be taught in any school,
as well as the relation between Scripture and                                 The question, if there exists such a subject as
                                                                          biblical psychology, is reduced to a principle of very
psychology. The translation is mine.                                      general application. Applied in another form and to
       But just as  soon as we begin to think of that                     other subjects, it comes to our attention again and
   subject which bears the name of Biblical Psychology,                   again in the practice of life as well as in the world of
   we face a great difficulty, a difficulty which is                      thought. Whenever we circumscribe that principle in
   repeatedly felt and discussed and which has given rise                 the abstract, it comes down to the question: In what
   to different opinions. The question is asked whether          `.       relation does Scripture stand to nature, particularly
   such a subject actually exists and can lay claim to the                to general revelation; the person of Christ to the
   right of existence. There are those who give, without                  works of His Father in creation and providence?
   hesitation, an affirmative answer to this question and                     Does special revelation take up in itself everything
   marvel somewhat concerning the question itself. How                    which lies before us in nature and history? so that we,
   would the Bible, which from beginning to end                           in order to come to know everything with regard to
    deals not only with God, but also with man, his                       nature and history, need to do nothing other than to
   origin, fall, redemption, destination  - how would it                  investigate the Scriptures? There are indeed those
   not also contain all those data which are necessary for                that reason this way theoretically, but they then, at
   the construction of a psychology? The assert then                      the same time, contradict the practice in their own
   that the Scriptures present to us all the material for a               life. . . .
   complete and systematic psychology; that this
   psychology, when built upon the Scriptures, has by                         But now on the other side: are the Scriptures
   far the preference over that scientific psychology                     related so loosely to nature that they never in any
   which is constructed by man himself from the                           way concern themselves with, never speak  concem-
   investigation of human nature.                                         ing, and shed absolutely no light on, nature? Is
                                                                          Scripture only a light on the path to heaven, and is it
       But  theie have been serious arguments raised                      in no respect a lamp  ,for our feet as we walk in the
    against this opinion. The Bible, it is said, is certainly             paths of this earth? But this is in conflict with reality
   not given for the purpose that we should be able to                    because Scripture by no means limits itself only to
    derive from it a complete psychologY.  Because it is a                purely religious-ethical and heavenly things; but each
   book of the revelation of God and, yet further, of                     moment it also deals with those matters which concern
    redemption in Christ, we must use it for that end and                 earthly life.
   not for all sorts of scientific pottering. It is only
    authoritative for-us in those truths which lie on the                There is here a rather lengthy digression; bu.t
    religious-ethical level and which concern the mutual               Bavinck goes on to say:
    relation of God and man; but it may not apply to US
    as a source of knowledge for all kinds of science. If                     The significance which Biblical psychology has for
    the Bible gives us a scientific psychology, one could                 our study appears, in the first place, from this that
    with equal right assert that a scientific cosmology,                  Scripture speaks of the same man who still exists,
  : geography, astronomy, physics, general history, logic,                lives and thinks, feels, wills, and acts. It is really the
    philosophy, etc., ought to be constructed from the                    Scripture itself which can give us knowledge of this
    Bible; and where then is the independence and                         weighty truth because it deliberately teaches the joint
    freedom,of all these sciences? We would return to                     origin of the whole human race and the unity and
    those times in which theology, and in particular,                     unchangeableness of human nature. It testifies that
    dogmatics, arrogated itself to be the only and                        man, in spite of differences in race, language, nation,
    complete science, and it alone knew how to give an                    civilization, notwithstanding the fact that he has
    answer to all possible and impossible qutstions. Just                 become a sinner and also that he has been delivered
    as then, so also now again, all science would be                      and renewed from sin, remains always the same
    swallowed up by theology; or at least would be                        according to his being, with the same soul, the same
    deprived of the right of independence and free                        needs, the same inspirations and aspirations. . . .
    investigation. Why, e.g., still search nature and man,                    Also in this area, particular revelation adapts itself
    heaven and earth, if the Bible gives us infallible and                to man who exists by virtue of creation and
    perfect information concerning all these things? We                   providence, and who, though remaining essentially
    would then have nothing more to do for scientific                     the same, is still the object of our investigation. But it


376                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


       adapts itself to him only insofar as it has need of it            men,.full  of grace and truth.
       for its own purpose. It thus furnishes no popular or
       scientific psychology any  more than it hands us an              It is clear from the quote from Bavinck that he
       outline of history,  geograpfiy,  astronomy, husbandry,       considers the Scriptures to be determinative in any
       etc. To this extent it is completely accurate to say          psychology. He does not deny the fact that there may
       that the Bible does not teach us how the stars move,          indeed be certain truths learned concerning man, even
       but how we go to heaven.                                      from a psychological viewpoint, from a study of man
          .  . . Holy Scripture never makes use of abstract,         himself. But he nevertheless gives to Scripture such a
       philosophical ideas, but always speaks the rich               prominent place that all that we learn concerning
       language of life. Thus there is a need of good exegesis       man from observation and study must be understood
       to understand its correct sense, and to translate its         and interpreted in the light of the Scriptures. With
       meaning into the words of this time. It is not suitable       this we agree wholeheartedly. Although the Scrip-
       for nor intended to be a textbook or a scientific             tures give us the principles on the basis of which we
       handbook.                                                     must develop a Christian viewpoint to history,
          But if we investigate it according to its own              geography, and all the natural sciences, this is more
       principle and nature, it yields a threefold benefit for       than ever true of psychology. And this is so because
       us for our psychology. In the first place, it teaches us      the Scriptures deal with  mm.  Scripture is the
       to know man as he is and as he shall always remain, in        revelation of Jehovah God in the face of Jesus Christ
       his origin, essence, and destiny. . . . It follows, in the    as the God Who saves His people through Christ.' It
       second place, that the study of Holy Scripture                stands to reason, therefore, that Scripture will be full
       introduces us to man's soul life in a way in which no         of what must constitute a genuine Christian  psychol-
       other book does or can do. It describes for us what           %Y.
       changes in that man, who remains the same according
       to his essence, are  atid are produced through sin and          We agree, of course, as any one is bound to agree,
       grace. It follows that man through these changes,             that the Scriptures are no textbook on  psycholoOT.
       until, in the deepest hiding places of his heart, it          But this does not alter the fact that here we  find who
       brings to light what happens in secret, and manifests         man is, how God created him, what is the nature of
       itself also in this sense to be a Word of God which is        his life as a man, what is the nature of his life as a
       living and powerful and penetrates to the dividing of         sinner, what is the nature of his life as a regenerated
       soul and spirit. And finally, it never does all this in       child of God.
       abstract conceptions, but it makes us see everything
       in the full reality of life. It puts persons on the stage       To the Scriptures then we must turn above all else.
       for us, which are worthy of each one's considerations,          And with this we must end our discussion for the
       and who together form a gallery which can never be            present.
       seen anywhere else. And among them, or better, high                                                 Fraternally in Christ,
       above them, Christ stands, the unique One among                                                     H. Hanko





         ubs                                                                                                           RD


                                                                                  May 1, 1979





Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:
         No news is good news, they say sometimes.               And while we have not had much                                 :::::jjj::::::::::.
                                                                                                                                :::::::::::::::::::::f
news of special note, nevertheless we deem it a good policy to stay in touch with                                               :-....: ..,..........
                                                                                                                                     . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                  ::::::::::::::::i:::
our constituency and to keep you informed of the affairs on "Seminary Hill."                                                     :::::::::::::::::~i:
                                                                                                                                :.:.:.:.:: :..,.....
                                                                                                                                 .:.:.:.:.:::::::i:.:
         The end of another school year is fast approaching. For the entire student                                                .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.y.:::
                                                                                                                                  .:::: . . . . . . . . . . .
body (7 seminarians and 5 pre-seminarians) this means an accounting in the form of $$$~~
examinations.      For our four senior seminarians it means the prospect of synodical                                           :':::::::;:::;:::::.
examinations with a view to candidacy for the ministry, and it also means the con- %$$$z;
elusion  of seven years at our school.        These   y     o     u     n    g       m&n   are  the   first  to  spend   four  iii~ri~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                 .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
pre-seminary and three seminary years with us.                   Needless to say, while we are                                    :..: . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                  ::::::::::::;:::::
happy for them and with them at the prospect of candidacy, we of the faculty shall $~~~$~~;~;~;~;~
miss their presence at school.                                                                                                    .:::::::::::::::::
                                                                                                                                  I::::::::::::.:.:
                                                                                                                                  . . . . . . . . . . . . . :.:.
         Of interest                                                                                                              . ...:: :......
                         to you will be the fact that with our spring issue we have com-                                         :::::::::j::::::
                                                                                                                                 . ...:: :......
pleted twelve volumes of our Protestant Reformed Theological Journal. TO US it                                                     ':.:.:.:.:.:.:.I
                                                                                                                                   :::::::;:~:~:::~
hardly seems possible that it is already twelve years ago that we began this pro-                                                 ::::::::::::::::
ject.      We began with some degree of trepidation.                   We were surprised that 100 copies $~~$$i;
was hardly enough when the first issue went out.                       You may be interested to know                               .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.
                                                                                                                                  :::::::::::::::
that our present mailing list has 436 addresses.                       Of these, 118 are in foreign                               :::j::::j,:::
                                                                                                                                  . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                  '::::::::::::::
l a n d s .
            Countries included are Scotland, England, Ireland, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil,                                               ::::::::::::::
Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, Ivory Coast, The Netherlands, Wales, Mexico, the                                                    :::::::::::j:
                                                                                                                                  :.:.:.: ::...
                                                                                                                                  . . . . . . . . :.:.:.
Philippines, Singapore,, Finland, New Hebrides, France, Germany, and South Africa:                                                ':::::::::::::
                                                                                                                                    :::::::::::::
The Journal has grown to be no little project, as you may see; at the same "1;; it ir;5;:;ii:i
has served as an effective means to make people acquainted with our school.                                                        :::::::::::::
                                                                                                                                   `:;:;:::::i::
present a new and more attractive format of the Journal is being considered; with                                                   :::::::::::;
the consent of our Theological School Committee, the spring issue will be published $;;;$
in this new format.                                                                                                                '.'.... :...
                                                                                                                                        .,...
                                                                                                                                     :::::::::::
         Our library continues to`grow.      Although our ample shelf space is far from                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                                                                                    :::::::::::
full, we are working steadily at the addition of quality books to the library.                                                     .:.:.:.:.::
                                                                                                                                   '.:.:.:.I.:
Prof. Hanko directs this work.          We have added some $1700.00 worth of books this                                              :.:.:.:.:.
                                                                                                                                    .:.:.:.:.:
                                                                                                                                    ::::::::::
year.      We have also begun to build up a microfilm section in the library. Very                                                 :::::::I:.
gratifying is the fact that various gifts from persons and organizations in and out':2:;$
ofour churches have amounted to $750.00 this year; these gifts have helped greatly :;:!!;!;i
toward meeting our library expenses and are much appreciated.                                                                       . . _.:..:
                                                                                                                                   :..:...
                                                                                                                                     :.:.I.:.
                                                                                                                                     .:.:.:.:
         Please continue to remember our school in your prayers.                                                                     :.:.:.:.
                                                                                                                                    ::::
                                                                                                                                    ::::
                                                                                                                                   ::::
                                                                                                                                    .:.:.:.I
                                                           Yours in our Lord Jesus Christ,                                            .'.'_..
                                                                                                                                     .'.'...
                                                            f&Q . j&&p-L                                                           :::.
                                                                                                                                :::. ::: ::: ::: ::... ::::::  :.:.:. ::... ..'... . 
                                                                                                                                       . . .
                                                           (for the Faculty)


378                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



 FROM HOLY WRIT





                                           Exposition of
                            I Thessalonians 4: i 3- 18
                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers





  Due to pressures of life and business it was not              In this Scripture passage Paul is revealing some
-possible for me to write this time on our  `Galatian         details concerning the resurrection in the last day, the
series. We hope to continue this series, God willing, in      Day of Christ's Parousia. The hope of this Parousia is
the next issues of the Standard Bearer.                       the great theme here' in this first Epistle to the
  There was evidently concern in the hearts of the            Thessalonians. It is noteworthy that Paul mentions
Thessalonian believers concerning what would happen           this "coming" (Parousia) at the  end- of each of the
to those who had died and had been buried. Was                five. chapters of this letter. See I Thes. 1: 10; 2: 19;
there hope also for their resurrection from the dead?         3:13;  4:15;  5:23. All refer to Christ's coming from
The article of faith concerning the resurrection from         heaven to judge the world in righteousness, and to
the death is not shared by the pagan, Gentile world.          raise the believing "dead," who have fallen asleep in
They do not have this hope. The resurrection from             Jesus. Blessed hope -of the resurrection!
the dead is the hope of Israel. The  Sadducees  denied
and ridiculed the hope of the resurrection. (Matt.            THETWOFOLDAXIOMOFOiJRFAITH.
22:23-31) They, err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor            Paul writes, "For if we believe that Jesus died and
the power of God. (Matt.  22:29)  Heathendom will             rose again." (Verse 14) This conditional sentence
not receive the teaching concerning the resurrection          does not imply that it is doubtful that this is the faith
from the dead, as is evident from the reply of the            of the church. Paul says, "if we believe." The entire
unbelieving Athenians to Paul in the Areopagus. (Acts         church believes this historic fact -as an undoubted
17:32)  Paul is deeply concerned that the believers in        article  .of faith. That was the central theme of the
Thessalonica may not live and die in the deep                 preaching' of the Apostles. (I Cor. 15: l-4) Thus he
helplessness and, hopelessness of "the others" in their       can write, "so we preach and so ye believed." (I Cor.
city! He would not have them ignorant of the                  15: 11) If this were not true, we would still be in our
teaching of the Scriptures and of the power of God.           sins, yea, we would be of all men most miserable. (I
They must know that all things are possible with              Cor. 15: 19) For then we would only have hope
God, the Almighty God, Who raiseth the dead and              in Christ for this life!
calleth the things that be not as if they were. They-
must know that God has given this power unto the                But now it is true that  Jesus  died; He died
resurrected and glorified Christ. (John  5:21)                according to the Scriptures for our sins. (Isaiah  53:5,


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                379



6) His name is JESUS, for He shall save His people              the last day. It is said with deep reverence: God
from their sins. He did not come into this world to             cannot deny Himself. God would prove false at
die for Himself. He died as the Head of His people,             Calvary and in the morning of the resurrection, if
the last Adam, the Lord of glory. He died as the One            presently the dead do not rise with Christ. It
Who had power to lay down His life in sacrificial               behooved God, out of Whom, and by Whoni'and unto
obedience for our sins; He died as the Lamb of God,             Whom all things are, in  ,bringing many sons to glory,
the great Passover Lamb, the end  .of the law for               to perfect the captain of our salvation through
righteousness to everyone who believes. Jesus died              suffering. (Heb. 2: 10)
and His blood is the blood of sprinkling, the blood of            Those who believe in Jesus are connected with
the Mediator, which speaks better things than the               Christ by a true. living faith, and receive all His
blood of Abel. (Heb.  12:24) Yes, through the eternal           benefits. These benefits are centrally the forgiveness
spirit, Jesus offered Himself without spot to God to            of sins, through the redemption in Christ's blood. But
purge our conscience from dead works to serve- the              it also means sharing in Christ  resurrection  life, His
living God. (Heb. 9: 14) Even on the resurrection               immortality and glory. God will be glorified in the
morning we are told not to fear because we seek Jesus           Son of Man, as this is exhibited in the glorified
"who was crucified." (Matt.  28:5)                              church. And when the church, the believers, receive
   Such is the first pillar of our faith: It is the rock of     all Christ's benefits it implies also the benefit of
ages !                                                          resting, sleeping in the grave where Jesus was buried,
   There is a second basic consideration given here.            dying in the Lord. For whether we live or die we are
Pauls writes, "If we believe that Jesus died and  rouse         the Lord's. (Rom.  14:7, 8)
again. " Now this second great gospel-truth must follow           But this is the great hope of the church: to be
from the first. Writes Paul in Rom.  4:25, "Who was             brought with  .Jesus by God from the grave, in the
delivered for our offenses, and was  raised again  for          resurrection unto life. God is just. The saints who
our justification." Resurrection  .must follow the              are connected with Jesus as members of His body,
crucifixion. Fact is, there can only be a blessed               have the right to be sons in the light in glory, heirs of
resurrection where there is satisfaction for sin. With          everlasting life. They have a place prepared for them
that truth Jesus comforts John on Patmos: "Fear not;            in the Father's house with its many mansions! (John
I am the first and the  last: I am he that liveth, and          14:1-3) 0, let not our heart be troubled! 0, death
was dead: and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and             where is thy sting, o, grave where is thy victory?
have the keys of hell and death." (Rev. 1: 17, 18)              Death has lost its sting which kills us; the sting of sin
Hence, the Gospel-truth that Jesus arose for our                of guilt and condemnation has been removed. God
justification and eternal glory is the necessary                will bring us with Christ and give us the complete
concomitant of His dying for us. The former is based            victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Cor.
upon the latter.                                                15:55-57)
   Now if it is a fact that we believe these twofold
Gospel truths in our hearts, then there follows                 THE WORD OF THE LORD JESUS HIMSELF
something which is just as certain. It means that the           THROUGH PAUL (I Thes. 4: 15)
other articles of faith stand anchored in the eternal             Yes, this is a word which is really a "mystery." (I
justice and wisdom of God. The good work which                  Cor.  15:51) This word concerns that which was hid in
God has begun for us He will finish even unto the day           the secret counsel of God before the foundations of
of Jesus Christ in His Parousia, to take us with Him in         the earth, but which was revealed in these last days
the air, so that we may ever be with the Lord.                  for us, who hope in God, the living God. (I Peter
                                                                1:20, 21) It is not just a bit of general information
                                                                concerning future things to satisfy our curiosity, but
WHAT GOD WILL SURELY DO IN LIKE MANNER                          it is the Word of eternal consolation and comfort for
(I Thes. 4: 14)                                                 us who believe that Jesus died and rose again! It is the
   Paul writes "even so them also which sleep in Jesus          word of comfort for all those who have "received
will God bring with him."                                       double from the hand of the LORD for all of their
   What a beautiful sentence concerning the sure                sins." (Isaiah  40:2)  Jesus, the chief prophet Who
work of God! It is the only possible, divine                    reveals the secret counsel of God concerning our
conclusion that can follow. It is not a mere logical            salvation, here gives some details concerning the
conclusion of faith. It is the word of the revealed             manner of the resurrection. No, the veil is not lifted
mystery of God which is great. It is the justice of             on the exact  time  of this great mystery of the
God: The same God Who is faithful and just to                   resurrection. We are to be watchful unto prayer in
forgive                                                         hope !
            us  our sins in Jesus, is also the same faithful
and just. God to bring  LB  with Jesus from the dead in           Here are some very carefully articulated steps in


380                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



the events of that glorious hour, when we shall see          the host of the angels will be summoned. All the
the sign of the Son of Man.                                  angels of God will worship Him, and be the
   1.1 "The Lord Himself shall descend from                  ministering spirits. It is the day of harvest when the
heaven." (I Thes. 4: 16) Heaven must receive Him till        angels will be the reapers, and they will bring in the
the restitution of all things. (Acts  3:21) All the          elect from the four comers of the world. (Matt.
prophets  sp.oke of this great return of the Lord of         24:3 1) For Christ will come with all His holy angels
hosts in His day. All searched out the manner of the         upon the clouds of heaven. (Matt.  24:30)
sufferings, and the time, and also the  glory  to follow.       4) It will be with the sound of the trumpet. It is
(I Peter 1: 11) A study of all the prophets shows this       the Trump of God, the great call to the worship and
to be true. Think of such prophets as Abraham "who           service of heaven. (I Cor.  15:52;  II Thes.  2:7)
saw them from afar and rejoiced." (John  8:56) Think            5) Then the dead in Christ shall rise first. Here the
of the perspectives in Isaiah 53: l-l 2; Psalm 2; Psalm      "dead in Christ" is not opposed to dead "outside of
110: 1 ff. These all spoke by the Spirit of Christ. And      Christ," the reprobate, but refers to the dead who
now, by the Word of the Lord, Paul tells us that this        have died all through history, fell asleep in the Lord,
Lord and Christ will return himself. Come, Lord              in distinction from those who will then still be the
Jesus, yea, come quickly. Amen!                   :          believers living on earth. Not all shall sleep. But all
  2) He  .will come with a, "shout." The term'here           shall be changed. (I Cor.  15:5 1) But the order is: first
means: war cry, victory shout. The shout of the              those who are asleep in the grave (their bodies) and
victorious captain of our salvation, as he comes riding      then those "who remain." And so the one will not
on the white horse, conquering over sin and death            "go in" before the other. All go to heaven at the same
and over all our foes. What a glad triumphant shout          time in their resurrected, glorified bodies. That is the
of victory! No, He will not be riding on the lowly ass'      thrust also of Hebrews 11: 39, 40. The perfection of
colt, but He shall ride in the majesty of His glory,         the body must wait till that day!
which He received from the Father at His own right              This is meant to be pure comfort. The message is
hand.                                                        full of comfort; it is the balm of Gilead indeed!
  3) It will be with the "voice of the archangel." All       Comfort one another with these words.

IN HIS  FEAR





                                     The Fear of God
                                    and Our Conduct
                                                Rev. Avie den Hartog





  In our recent articles we have been dealing with the       there is so little sense of the fear of God even among
great scriptural theme of the fear of God. We have           those who profess themselves to be Christians. In our
stressed throughout the great importance of fearing          last article we stressed that the fear of God is placed
God.. The fear of God is the very heart of true              in the heart by God Himself. It is not something that
religion. Repeatedly scripture characterizes the true        is found in the heart of the natural man. It is placed
people of God as those who  fear  God. The reason            in the heart of man through the operation of His
why there is so little true religion in our day is that      grace and Holy Spirit as a fruit and benefit of God's


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                              381



covenant of grace. God places His fear in our hearts in     The god-fearing man knows that God in perfect
harmony with our moral rational nature. This is             justice is the awful judge of the wicked, the
explained in Philippians 2: 12 and 13 where we are          consuming fire in His holiness to the ungodly but the
told to "work out your own salvation with fear and          rewarder of the righteous. The god-fearing man
trembling. For it is God Who worketh in you both to         knows that God requires absolute perfection and
will and to do of His good pleasure." That God works        holiness, perfect obedience to His law, and a life that
His fear in our hearts is therefore in perfect harmony      is lived only for His glory to perform His will. The
with the fact that He in His Word exhorts us to fear        god-fearing man cares not what men require, nor
Him. Scripture is full of exhortations that tell us to      what men see or know. For man is by nature evil and
fear God. Over and over did Moses the servant of the        therefore he will always reward and exalt the wicked
Lord-exhort Israel in his last discourse recorded in the    and persecute and debase the righteous. The only
book of Deuteronomy to fear the Lord and to keep            thing that matters is what God requires of us, what
His commandments. "Oh, that there were such an              He knows and sees not only of our outward actions
heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all        but also of all our thoughts and desires. The
my commandments always, that it might be well               god-fearing man knows that God always rewards the
with them and with their children forever." Deuter-         righteous with everlasting favor and blessing and the
onomy  5:29 So does the Lord plead with His people.         wicked with His terrible just condemnation and
In the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon comes to the            eternal destruction. For all this there is a compulsion
final conclusion: "Let us hear the conclusion of the        in the heart of the child of God to fear the Lord his
whole matter: Fear God, and keep His command-               God. This drives the child of God to his knees with
ments; for this is the whole duty of man."                  fear and trembling to plead with the Lord to work
Ecclesiastes 12: 13                                         His own fear in his heart.
  That God exhorts us to fear Him surely means that           There is only one motive that can drive the child of
the fear of God is something practical. It is something     God to keep God's commandments and to walk in a
that involves our everyday conduct in the whole of          proper way of sanctification and that is the motive of
our life. The one predominant motive that must              the fear of God. Unless the fear of God is in the heart
characterize the whole. of the life of the child of God     of man he will not keep the law of God. The apostle
is the motive of the fear of God. Faithful adherence        Paul emphasizes this in Romans 3. There he vividly
to doctrine is indeed of utmost importance. However,        describes the great wickedness of the natural man.
this is only of value when sound doctrine has the fruit     "There is none righteous, no not one; there is none
of producing the fear of God in the heart of a man..        that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
This surely ought to be the case according to what we       God. They are all gone out of the way. They are
have said already about what it means to fear God.          together become unprofitable; there is none that
The fear of God is produced by a profound spiritual         doeth good, no, not one,. Their throat is an open
understanding of who and what God is. Sound                 sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit;
doctrine all ultimately has to do with who `and what        the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is
God is. The knowledge of God's sovereign majesty,           full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to
infinite greatness, majesty, and glory and of His           shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways;
perfect   holiness and righteousness can produce no         and the way of peace have they not known." Romans
other reaction in the heart of the regenerated child of     3: 1 O-1 3. Then the conclusion of this whole matter
God than the reaction of fear and trembling. The more       comes in verse 18. "There is no fear of God before
the Christian knows the true doctrine of God, and that      their eyes." Heathen, ungodly men through the ages
in' a true spiritual sense, the greater becomes his rea-    have sought to legislate morality and ethics without
son to fear God. All of this must come to manifesta-        God and without His fear. They have seen the
tion in  the. daily life of the child of God.               outward advantages of right living and morality and
  The fear of God must be the one motive that               the chaos that is caused by wickedness and im-
governs and controls all of our life in every sphere.       morality. But in all of this they can only be a
That fear of God causes us to hate evil and strive          complete failure. Nothing can motivate a man to right
against it with all our heart and strength and              living except a profound sense of the fear of God. All
positively to love the right and strive with all our        the reason for the corruption and wickedness among
might toward the holiness and perfection of God. The        men is that there is no fear of God before their eyes.
god-fearing man knows that God is perfectly holy and        Also the child of God is motivated to walk in the way
true and righteous, so holy that He loves only the          of righteousness in his life only if he truly has the fear
good and hates the evil. The god-fearing man knows          of God in his heart and this dominates and controls
that God is everywhere present and that He knows all        the whole of his life. It is for this reason that God
things, even the thoughts and intents of man's heart.       would teach  LIS  His fear and that we must teach our


302                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



children to fear God. Evil comes into the church of               scripture speaks specifically of the fear of God with
God also when the great sense of the fear of God                  regard to virtually every area of our life. We are told
becomes less. Unholy living, worldliness, secularism,             directly to fear God in our homes, in our relation-
and materialism have their roots in a dying sense of              ships as husbands and wives. We are told to nurture
the fear of God in the church.                                    our children in the fear of God. The employee is told
   How urgent it is that we are known above all as a              to obey his employer, not as a men-pleaser but
God fearing people. Only then shall it be well with us            because of the fear of God. The fear of God is said to
and shall we be blessed. The constant refrain of the              be the beginning of all wisdom. The fear of God is the
Psalmist is, "Blessed is the man who fears Jehovah,               one motive that drives the child of God to chaste
walking ever in His ways." Above all things, in the               living. It is because he fears God that he does not use
bringing up of our children we must nurture them in               his body for immorality as the world does. But in the
the fear of the Lord. It is only the people who                   fear of God he knows that his body is the temple of
manifest a profound sense of the fear of the Lord in              the Lord and is to be kept pure. It is with fear and
all of their'conduct that will be truly God-glorifying.           trembling that the people of God go up to the house
                                                                  of the Lord to worship Him. In our future articles we
   All of this has tremendous implications for all areas          shall consider the implications of fearing God for
of our life. It is therefore not at all surprising that           some of these areas of our life.





                                                 Book Reviews



THE TRINITY IN THE UNIVERSE,  by Nathan R.                           potential motion, motion as embodied-space, time as
Wood; Kregel Publications, 1978; 220 pp., $5.95.                     successive motion. It shows what is the vast and true
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                         ielativity among them. It shows the infinite circuit of
                                                                     the universe, out from the mind and power of God,
  This is a reprint of an older work. Nathan Wood                    through space, motion and time, back into the mind
was born in 1874 and spent the last years of his active              and  eteinity of God. It shows the process of
life as President of Gordon College of Theology and                  existence, the same in all things, and shows that there
Missions in Boston, Massachusetts.                                   is no conflict between "being" and "becoming,"
  This is a fascinating book and rather difficult to                 because "being" is, within itself, "becoming." It
                                                                     shows the law of prbgress and of change and fixity irr
summarize. The author's main thesis is that the                      the universe, and the method of human progress. It
trinity of God is reflected and revealed in every                    shows the procedure and pattern of moral action, and
aspect of this earthly creation. But it is perhaps better            the basis of the good. It shows the forms of reality, or
to let the author speak himself. On page 2 10 he offers              the true, and why they are what they are, and why
the following summary of what he has to say:                         the process of reason is what it is. It shows the nature
       The Trinity, imaged in the universal law of                   and reason of the beautiful. Wherever there is a
   Triunity, explains the deep things of the unjverse. It            universal thing, there, apparently, is triunity, and
   shows why space is what it is. It shows why matter is             always with the same relations and characteristics.
   what it is. It shows why time is what it is. It explains          Triunity in the likeness of the Three in One is the
   why human existence i's exactly what it is. The                   structure, the pattern, the unity, the process, the
   Trinity, imaged in the universal triunity, is the basis           progress, the reality, of the entire universe. The
   of unity in all thi'ngs. It shows that unity lies, not in a       Triune being of God is the mighty solution of the
   common substance, which is impossible, but in a                   riddles of the Universe.
   common structure and pattern. It underlies the                   It is not within the scope of this review to evaluate
   relations of space, matter and time. It shows space as         the argument of the author. There is only one remark


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                383


which ought to be made. It seems to me that the                            being "the almighty and everywhere present power of
author, in the development of his thesis,. does not                        God."
escape the error of Pantheism. As is evident from the
quote above and from other remarks in the book, he                            Nevertheless, this is a provocative and  thought-
expressly repudiates Pantheism. Nevertheless, in the                       stimulating book. It is somewhat difficult reading,
course of the argument he "bridges the gap" between                        but can be read by anyone who has a mind to do a
the spiritual essence of the creation and the material                     little studying. It will bring many rewards  - even
character of the world with God's  power. He then                          though one may not always agree with the author.
explains how God's power becomes through "ether"                           But I particularly recommend the book to the
(Note: rightly or wrongly, the so-called "ether                            thoughtful reading of those Christian School teachers
theory" once held by almost all scientists, has since                      who are busy in math, the sciences, or philosophy. In
been disproved), light, space, and time. But the                           fact, because they are better able to evaluate certain
question remains: Can God's power be so separated                          aspects of the book than I, I would like to hear the
from His essence that in this way the evils of                             reactions of those teachers who take the time to read
Pantheism are avdided? I think not. Our own                                it and think about it..
Heidelberg Catechism defines God's providence as


WITHHOLD NOT CORRECTION,  by Bruce A. Ray;                                 knowledge, righteousness,  and holiness. Secondly, the
Baker Book House, 1978; 140 pp., $3.45 (paper).                            book does not take the approach of the covenant.
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                               The idea is that God uses discipline as a means to
   There are occasionally books which come out                             save. All our children, according to the book, are
which one wishes were found in every home and                              bound for hell; discipline will reverse this. The book
studied by every parent. This is one such book. It has                     would have been markedly improved if it had taken a
to do with the discipline of children as an important                      covenant approach.
and necessary part  of. their upbringing. The book                            There is one especially interesting passage in the
makes a strong (and successful) attempt to be Biblical                     book which I take the liberty to quote. It was
throughout and to point Christian parents to what                          originally written by Pastor Al Martin. It is worth
the Scriptures have to say about this whole matter of                      pondering by all of us.
discipline. In my judgment, chapter 4 was especially                               Considering that men are so naturally bpposed to
good, for in it the author deals with the necessity of                         the doctrines of grace, and living in a day when
leading children to conform' to Scripture in all their                         &minianism  has had the field and there is suspicion,
life; he points out that this  is.the most important part                      if people can look to the `homes of Reformed
of discipline.                                                                 Christians  and see there a structure of order and a
   I cannot speak of all the good points in the book. I                        cohesions  and a respect for authority that stands out
urge especially those who have younger children at                             in direct contrast to the shoddiness and shallowness
home to read the book and study it. I also                                     of the man-centered kind of thinking that has
recommend it for discussion at Mr. and Mrs.                                    permeated our churches, it will be one of the most
Societies, if such societies are looking for interesting                       powerful arguments for the truths we claim to
and important material for after-recess discussions.                           believe, and one of the most effective ways to shut
                                                                               the mouths of our gainsayers. But without it, dear
   There are two points of criticism. The first point is                       fellow ministers of the gospel and fellow Christians
that in chapter 1, the image of God in man .is defined                         who love the Reformed truth, the truth of the
as that which makes man different from the animals;                            Scriptures, much of what we say will be abortive and
thus chiefly in terms of rationality rather than                               come to naught.


                            NOTICE!!!                                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   According to the decision of the Synod of 1978, the Consistory of          The Ladies Society "Ruth", of the Hope Protestant Reformed
the First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, was          Church, (Walker, MI), expresses sympathy to one of its members, Mrs.
appointed the calling church for the 1979 Synod. The Consistory of         John N. Dykstra, in the sudden death of her brother, MR. MARVIN
First Church hereby notifies our churches that the 1979 Synod of the       KROONDYK.
Protestant Reformed  1 Churches in America will convene, the Lord             "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen thine
willing, on Wednesday, June 6, 1979, at 9 AM in the First Protestant       heart: wait, I say on the Lord." (Psalm  27:14).
Reformed Church. The  pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday
evening, June 5, at  8 PM in First Church. Rev. John Heys, President of                                       Rev. R. Van Overloop,  Pres.
the 1978 Synod will preach the sermon.  Synodical delegates are                                               Mrs. P. Zandstra, Sec'y.
requested to meet with the Consistory before the service. Delegates in
need of lodging should contact Mr. Theodore Looyenga, 1125 Adams
St., S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 495'07.
                                             Theodore Looyenga, Clerk


THE STANDARD  BEARER
       P.O. 80x 6064             - -   ---~   - - - -   - - -
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506



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                                                                   ~_^__     ..-.,.       --.L
                                  ~__ ___-- -~~-


384                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



                                News From Our Churches


  Rev. Ronald Van  Overloop  is considering a call                    In many of our churches, the Sunday School is
extended to him by the congregation of our church in                concluding the current session. The Sunday School in
South Holland, Illinois, to be a missionary in                      First Church in Grand Rapids ended the year with a
Birmingham, Alabama. Rev. Van  Overloop  is the                     written test on the twenty lessons which the students
pastor of our Hope Church in Walker, Michigan. He                   studied during the year. On the following Sunday,
spent several months last year as "minister on loan"                April 8, the students had opportunity to recite the
to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church of Christ-                      verses which constituted their optional memory work
church, New Zealand.                                                for the year.
  The mission station formerly located in Charlotte,                  The Young People of First Church presented a
Michigan, has been transferred to East Lansing.                     JAMAICA program  in. Southeast Church on March
Meetings are held in the Seventh Day Adventist                      15, in Faith Church on April 12, and in Hudsonville
Church in that city. This work was begun in January                 on April 18. The program featured pictures by Mr. C.
of this year under the supervision of our Kalamazoo                 Prince, and Jamaican music performed with guitar by
Church. It has been reported that seven families                    the young people. Refreshments -followed the pro-
regularly attend the services. The change in meeting                gram. Mr. Prince brought his slides to South Holland
place will allow for a greater growth potential and is a            on April 20.
more central location for those in attendance.                        The Church Extension Committee of our congrega-
  Rev. David Engelsma, pastor of our church in                      tion in Loveland, Colorado, recently mailed 450
South Holland is considering calls from Southeast                   copies of a pamphlet entitled, "Disciples Establish
Church in Grand Rapids and from Hull, Iowa.                         The Church,!' by Rev. Marvin Kamps.
  Classis West was scheduled to meet in special                                     .
session the first week of May in Loveland, Colorado.                  The, Men's and Ladies' Societies of our church in
                                                                 Redlands, California,. scheduled some interesting
  The consistory of our church in Isabel,, South                    discussion topics this spring. They included: "Life
Dakota, has recently made a change in the celebration               After Death,`! "`Under What Circumstances Should
of the Lord's Supper in that the congregation now                   Our Protestant Reformed Ministers Be Permitted To
recites the Lord's Prayer in unison at the conclusion               Preach` in Denominations Other Than Our Own," and
of the sacrament.                                                   "What Guidelines Should' Our Ministers Follow When
  Another milestone has been attained. For the first                Preaching in Other Churches." The  Redlands Young
time in three and one-half years, a bulletin has been               People's Society invited the  ,congregation to an
received from our church in  Doon, Iowa. Probably                   informational meeting reg'arding the `79 PRYP Con-
only one-half credit should be given though, as the                 vention which  Redlands is sponsoring on March 12.
bulletin was received through the good offices of a                 Slides of the Pine -Summit Camp where the conven-
Western correspondent for this column who hap-                      tion is to be held were shown and the convention
pened to be traveling through the  Doon area. The                   steering committee  .gave the details of their plans
Doon bulletin reported that a special congregation                  completed to date.
meeting was scheduled for February 19 to consider a
proposal to raise the pastor's salary. Also, the  Doon                The Sunday School Teacher's Mass Meeting was
Young People's Society was to sponsor a Request                     scheduled for May 7, in our church in Holland,
Program on March 11. (The Young People of First                     Michigan. Mr. Fred Hanko was the scheduled speaker.
Church in Grand- Rapids are scheduling a similar                      The Mr.  & Mrs. League Meeting was scheduled for
program on May 23.) After receiving a bulletin from                 May 8 in First Church. Rev. David Engelsma was to
Doon,  only Kalamazoo remains to be heard from. . . .               speak on "Remembering the Lord's Day."


