         T h e
    STANDARD
. . BEARER
f- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                 .


     As the sceptics laugh a speaking serpent out
 of the garden, so do they repudiate, publicly,
 the speaking of Balaam's ass; the swallowing
 of Jonah by a great fish; and many other
 wonders, too numerous `to mention. They
 have a little god; and the god they leave with
 Reformed saints, after they have ruled out the
 miracles of the Bible; is a god no bigger than
 the mind of  20th century men and no more
 potent than the allowances of  20th century
 science. This is their god, and they are
 welcome to him.

                      See "The Reformed Doctrine
                        of Reprobation' - page  34

                                       Volume LVI, October 15, 1979 J


26                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                      THE  STANDARD  BEARER
                              CONTENTS:                                                                                           ISSN  0362-4692
                                                                                        Semi-monthly. except  monthly  during June, July. and August.
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                                                                              Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer  C. Hoeksema
      What Is Your Hope? . ,,....................26                           Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Arie  denHartog,  Prof.
                                                                              R o b e r t   D .   D e c k e r ,   R e v .   D a v i d   J .   Engelsma,   R e v .   R i c h a r d   F l i k k e m a ,
Editorial  -                                                                  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 .   J o h n   A .   Heys,  Rev.
                                                                              K e n n e t h   Koole,   R e v .   J a y   Kortering,   R e v .   G e o r g e   C .   L u b b e r s ,   R e v .
                                                                              R o d n e y   Miersma.   R e v .   Marinus   S c h i p p e r ,   R e v .   J a m e s   Slopsema,  Rev.
      A New Chapter in the Westminster                                        G i s e   J .   V a n   Baren,   R e v .   R o n a l d   V a n   Overloop,   R e v .   H e r m a n   Veldman,
                                                                              M r .   K e n n e t h   G .   V i n k .
         Confession? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29    Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                              4 9 7 5   lvanrest   A v e .   SW.
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MEDITA TIO N



                                             What Is Your Hope?
                                                                  Rev. M. Schipper




                    "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to
                every man that mketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
                   Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may
                be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. "
                                                                                                                                                      I Peter 3:15, 16.

      It is evident from the context that the apostle is                        closest to their brethren in Christ the instruction
giving final instructions to his readers respecting their                       pertains' first of all to their relation to them. In
relation to their fellow men. And because they stand                            respect to the brethren the believers are to live in


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    27



unity of purpose, to be compassionate, pitiful, and          in an expectation. The children of God are looking
courteous, which means that they exercise hearts that        for something which they expect to receive. Second-
are humble, tender, exemplifying brotherly love.             ly, this hope manifests itself in a calm assurance that
Instead  of rendering evil for evil, as by nature they       the object they expect will surely come to them.
would be inclined to do, they are to bless. This is          There is therefore in this hope no doubt. As the term
their calling in respect to those of the same household      "hope" is used in our daily speech there is always the
of faith, to those who are of their Christian brethren.      element of doubt in it. When we are asked whether
                                                             we are going to do this or that, we say: I hope so,
  But the apostle is concerned also with respect to          which means that we are not quite sure. There are so
the relation the strangers and pilgrims must realize         many things that could happen which may make the
concerning those who are unbelievers, the children of        doing so uncertain. But when Scripture uses the term
this world. The believers do not live in physical            "hope" there is not the faintest semblance of doubt
isolation, in local separation  from the world; but they     in it. It means that the object of one's hope is
live in the world, though not of it. They are                absolutely sure, and that we are assured of its
confronted daily by evil men, who despise the                reception. In the third place, this hope manifests
righteous. Of their terror the believer  isjnot to be        itself therefore in a certain longing for its object. It is
afraid, and when they are required to suffer for             not a cold, indifferent expectation, but the desire for
righteousness' sake they are to count it a matter of         the object is so strong that one possessing the hope
pure joy. The children of God must learn to sanctify         can hardly wait for its reception.
the Lord in their hearts, and be ready to give answer
to everyone who asks concerning the reason of the              Make no mistake about it, one possessing this hope
hope that is in them.                                        cannot hide it under a bushel, nor can he remain
                                                             silent about it. It must come to manifestation in our
  Being ready to give answer concerning the reason           lives, in our daily walk in the world. It is because the
of your hope  - that is the thrust of our text quoted        world of sinful men about us do not have this hope,
above.                                                       and they observe in us that we have it, that they are
  The hope that is in you!                                   bound to ask us to give a reasonable account of it.
  This epistle is often called, and correctly so, the          Be ready to answer everyone asking you a reason
epistle of hope. The reason for this is the fact that the    of the hope that is in you, says the apostle.
apostle throughout dwells on this grace and spiritual          You understand, of course, that no one is going to
activity. The idea that hope is a grace finds its            ask you to explain your hope if it is not seen in your
principle in regeneration. As all the graces of salvation    walk that you possess it. If you never speak of it, and
are implanted in our hearts in seed form in                  you never reveal it in your attitude in your daily
regeneration, so also among these graces resides the         walk, no one is going to wonder what motivates you,
grace of hope. The spiritual activity of this grace is       or as they say, what makes you tick. But as soon as
prompted and encouraged by the promises of God set           you show that you are different from the world, that
forth in His Word. Not only are we saved in principle        you seek the things other worldly, that you are
in the moment of regeneration, but we are promised           expecting that which the world cannot see, then the
the perfection and fulfillment of that salvation in the      worldlings will ask you to explain. And then you
day of Christ, in the new creation where righteous-          must not be found just with a mouth full of teeth,
ness shall dwell. It is with a view to this that the         but you must speak, and give to them an intelligent
apostle wrote earlier in this epistle: "Wherefore gird       answer, the reason of your hope.
up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the           This inquiry concerning our hope may come about
end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at          when you are hailed before magistrates and officially
the revelation of Jesus Christ." (I Pet. 1: 18) That this    under oath are required to speak. Or, this may come
hope has its principle in regeneration is clear from         about in an unofficial manner when your unbelieving
what the apostle writes in I Pet.  1:3ff:  "Blessed be       neighbor may marvel at the way you treat him. He
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which           may say to you that he has been observing you for
according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us             some time and is wondering why you live as you do.
again unto a lively (living) hope by the resurrection of     And he will ask for your explanation. Then your
Jesus Christ from the dead. . .  ."                          answer will be not a blind testimony, but an
  Because this hope is implanted in our regenerated          intelligent word that clearly defines your actions.
heart, and because the nature of the activity of this        And this means that you know what you are talking
hope is to look for the fulfillment of the promises of       about, and that you leave the impression that you
God concerning the perfection of our salvation, this         know what you are talking about. It means that you
hope comes to manifestation in a threefold way in            are founded in the truth of God's Word, that you
our experience. First of all, this hope is characterized     believe in and live from His promises. It means that


28                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


there is no semblance of hypocrisy in your life and         the text there is reason to believe that he conceived
walk, but a clear demonstration of the fear of God.         of the danger that the Christian who still lives in the
      To be able to give such an answer one must be         flesh might give answer in the spirit of pride or
sanctifying the Lord Christ in his heart. And that          boasting. When the Christian is made to suffer for
means that our regenerated hearts are the very              righteousness' sake, and when he is confronted with
temples in which Christ by His Spirit dwells. Because       the question concerning the reason of his hope,
all the issues of the  he&-t are concentrated in Christ,    because he is still in the flesh he may either be afraid
they also will be consecrated to Christ and the things      of his  persecuters, or he may assume the attitude of
of His heavenly kingdom. It means also that Christ is       boasting. The little conjunction "but" that introduces
sanctified in our hearts as Lord, the One Who               the text seems to indicate that. Therefore it is
purchased us with His own precious blood, and Who           necessary for the apostle to say, "be not afraid of
therefore possesses us in body and soul. And, being         their terror, neither be troubled"; nor must we
His property, we are also His servants. He is our Lord      assume the other attitude of pride and boasting,
Whom we serve from the heart. Where this service            leaving the impression that somehow we are better
obtains in our walk in hope,  it will not take the world    than the ungodly who question us. If such would be
about us long to observe, nor will it take long for         the case, we would spoil all, and our conversation in
them to ask Who or what it is that motivates us in all      the world would become tainted, lose its spiritual
our actions. And lest you deny Him with your                color, and would be hypocritical. Such it must not
silence, you must speak.                                    be! Rather are we to give answer with meekness and
                                                            fear.
      Moreover the apostle adds, "having a good con-
science that when they speak against you as of evil            Meekness, because our testimony is not vindictive
doers, (or, speak evil against you), they may be            and vengeful, but gentle and mild. It is not the
ashamed that accuse your good conversation in               testimony of one who is going to get back at his
Christ."                                                    adversary, but that of one who knows that all
                                                            vengence belongs only to his Lord. And this explains
      Conscience here is the ethical-moral consciousness    how, like Jesus, the sheep of Christ bear silently the
within us which registers in us when we are                 kersecutions heaped upon them by the wicked. The
confronted with good or evil. It is the voice within us     adversaries of Jesus were amazed at His meekness,
that tells us whether what we do or contemplate             and Pilate wondered at His silence. Thus it must also
doing is good  or evil. The word means literally: to        be with us. When we remember that by nature we
know together with. And in this case to know                also were ungodly as the rest, and God in His
together with God or Christ the Lord what is His will       sovereign mercy in Christ saved us when we were
and whether or not we comply with it. That is why           ungodly, proud, and boastful, then all our pride
the apostle speaks of a "good" conscience. Such a           crumbles into the dust, and meekness takes its place
conscience makes us to be fully aware that we live in       in us.
harmony with the will of the Lord. The ungodly
about us do not possess a good conscience. They have           Fear, not the fear of fright, but the fear of love and
a conscience  alright, and that explains how they can       trust! The Christian is not afraid of their terror, but
be ashamed when they falsely accuse the children of         he fears the Lord Whom he loves, and in Whom he
God, unless, as Paul says in a certain place, their         places all his trust. It must become evident to the
conscience is seared as with a hot iron. When that is       worldlings that- we fear the Lord because His love has
the case then their conscience no longer speaks, for it     been shed abroad in our hearts, and out of that love
is insensitive through their awful depravity and God's      we would do nothing that is displeasing to Him.
judgment over them. But the apostle in our text is            And where this meekness and fear is manifested in
not speaking  i.n general terms about the conscience.       our walk in hope, all the more will the question rise
He refers specifically to the conscience of the child of    out of the mouths of the worldlings: What is it, this
God whose conscience is good because it tells him           hope that is in you?
that he is living according to the Lord's will even           And you and I must be ready to say precisely what
when he is required to bear the false accusations of        it is. Our hope will then become our confession. And
the ungodly while he is in the performance of God's         our confession will be the expression of all that we
good pleasure. The purpose of the good conscience in        believe our Lord has promised us, which promise
giving an intelligent answer concerning our hope is         stretches out to the perfect day, the day of Christ.
that those who falsely accuse may be ashamed.               Let us never be ashamed of our hope! Let the world
  This the Christian does, not in pride or boasting,        be ashamed that falsely accuses, for so it shall be
but in meekness and fear.                                   when it discovers through your answer that they have
                                                            been persecuting those who are innocent, those
  Because the apostle adds this to the exhortation of       whose citizenship is in another world.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  29


EDITORIAL
ProJ: H. C. Hoeksema





                               A New Chapter in the
                           Westminster Confession?


  Some of our readers will recall that until shortly       that Mr. Stafford had, in fact, not been excom-
before the Rev. C. Hanko and I visited Australia in        municated but had departed before excommunication
1975, our  synodical Committee for Contact With            was consummated.
Other Churches was attempting to have discussions
by correspondence with a small Australian denomina-          On our part, we had looked forward at that time to
tion known as the Presbyterian Reformed Church.            possible discussions with the Presbyterian Reformed
This denomination was born out of the apostasy of          Church. Our contact by correspondence had at best
the mainline Presbyterian Church of Australia. It is to    been slow and tedious up to that time, and we had
be distinguished from another small denomination           hoped to conduct some substantive discussions
with whom we still maintain contact and which is           especially on such subjects as have been closely
connected in our memories especially with the name         connected with our history, common grace, and the
of the Rev. Charles  Rodman, the Evangelical Pres-         offer of the gospel. As a result of the adamant
                                                           attitude of the moderator, however, there was no
byterian Church. We no longer have contact officially      official contact and no discussion.
with the Presbyterian Reformed Church; in fact, this
contact was broken off by them in 1975 just a few            Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Reformed Church has
weeks before our Australasian tour was scheduled to        gone its own way with respect to important matters
begin. Due to the fact that we were also planning          of doctrine, such as common grace and the offer of
contact with the Rev. John Stafford, of the unaf-          the gospel, which would surely have been subjects of
filiated Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ryde, and         discussion if our respective denominations had con-
due to the fact that Rev. Stafford was in charge of        tinued talks with respect to possible relations
arrangements for the New South Wales and Queens-           between us. One might think, at first, that this was
land segment of our visit, the moderator of the            good. After all, does it not mean that the Pres-
Presbyterian Reformed Church, the Rev. Gerald              byterian Reformed Church arrived at its position
Kastelein, suddenly called off all plans for our           independently and free from any outside influences?
contact with them, on the ground that the Rev.             But this is not true. First of all, it is contrary to the
Stafford had been excommunicated by the Pres-              very idea of the unity of the church and the nature of
byterian Reformed Church. Our Contact Committee            ecumenical relations. There should be discussion and
at the time remonstrated with Mr. Kastelein, pointing      mutual assistance and guidance between churches  -
out that we were not in a position to pass judgment        until  it might become plain that there are funda-
on the case and that the mere fact that we were also       mental and insuperable differences (not differences
contacting Mr. Stafford and that he was assisting with     which involve non-essentials) between church groups.
tour arrangements did not mean that we were                In the second place, it is a simple fact that there is a
choosing sides or refusing to recognize their dis-         veritable morass of ideas and conceptions in the
cipline. But all was to no avail! As matters later         areas of common grace and the offer of the gospel in
turned out, we obtained documented proof (pub-             which it is easy to become ensnared. In close
lished by the Presbyterian Reformed Church itself)         connection with this, thirdly, our Protestant  Re-


 30                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



formed Churches, because of their peculiar history             I. It pleased God to commit to the church the
and development, as well as their fifty years of               preaching of the gospela wherein the whole counsel
experience, have something to offer when it comes to           of God, including the accursed state of man on
these subjects. It would have been worth their while           account of sin, the eternal plan of redemption, the
for the Presbyterian Reformed Churches at least to             redeeming work of Christ for sinners, and the
listen to us before they would have proceeded to so            effectual application by the Holy Spirit of the
important a matter as adding a chapter to the                  benefits of his death,b is to be preached to all men
                                                               without distinction,= together with the solemn
Westminster Confession. The same would hold I                  command to repent and believe, God's earnest
should think, with respect to another Presbytehan              entreaty to be reconciled to Him and His free offer of
denomination in their own country, the Evangelical             full salvation to all sinners,d  whereby He promises
Presbyterian Church. The latter, just because of their         that whosoever truly repents of his sin and believes in
peculiar history, would have a contribution to make            the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish but have eternal
to a fruitful discussion of the subject of the offer of        life.e
the gospel. Attempt should have been made at                   II. The Holy Spirit employes this offer of life and
communication between the two groups.                          salvation unto sinners in the administration of the
       I write the above in spite of the fact that this        covenant of grace to gather the elect out of every
proposed addition to the Westminster Confession has            kindred and tongue and people and nation in order to
been preceded by a study by the Rev. Ken Stebbins              confer upon them all the saving benefits which Christ
                                                               has purchased for them by His death.f  This purpose,
of the subject of the offer. In his recently published         to the glory of God, iS the chief end of preaching the
work,  Christ Freely Offered, he also gives attention to       gospel which is the power of God unto salvation only
our Protestant Reformed writings to a limited degree.          to those who  be1ieve.g  For God, out of mere free
But even some of the things written by Rev. Stebbins           grace and everlasting love towards the elect, not out
- and he engages in some rather scathing criticism of          of a love towards men in general, did send Christ, and
our views; though his criticism  has little substance  -       that effectually to redeem all those and those only,
are only so much evidence that face-to-face and                who were from eternity chosen to salvation."
church-to-church contact might have produced con-              III. Yet as many as are called by the gospel are
siderable enlightenment and have been much more                unfeignedly called; for redemption has been pur-
fruitful. (We do, by the way, intend to review Rev.            chased certainly for each who will receive it;' and not
Stebbins' book in the future.)                                 only that but God has declared most sincerely and
                                                               truly by an oath in His Word that He has no pleasure
   But perhaps the above may be called water over              in the death of the wicked but rather it is His nature
the dam.                                                       to delight that those who are called should come to
   For the fact of the matter is that the Presbyterian         Him in repentance and faith.k
Reformed Church of Australia has gone its own way.             IV. Therefore the free offer of the gospel also serves
It has had the boldness to draw up and to propose to           to manifest the goodness of God, particularly His
their Sessions (consistories) for approval an entire           kindness and longsuffering in extending to sinners a
new chapter to be added to the Westminster                     season of grace,' and His holiness in exhorting such to
Confession as Chapter XXXIV, "Of the Offer of the              turn from unbelief,m as well as the righteousness of
Gospel and God's Grace Therein." What the present              God and the wickedness of the unbeliever" who so
status of this proposed new chapter may be I do not            despises, not only this most gracious offer, but indeed
know; perhaps it has already been approved  (?). At            every perfect gift which God, out of His goodness,
                                                               gives to hirn;O and thereby the unbeliever brings upon
any rate, it was published in their magazine,  The             his head greater condemnatiomp
Protestant Review,  last March; at that point it was to
be sent to the Sessions for voting under what is               V. Although according to His eternal and immutable
known as the Barrier Act. We quote the following               purpose God governs all the actions of all His
                                                               creatures, including the rejection of the gospel by the
from The Protestant Review:                                    wicked,q yet it is not the fault of the gospel, nor of
- Free Offer of the Gospel. An overture was received           Christ offered therein, nor of God who calls men by
from the Wollongong Session requesting Presbytery             the gospel and confers upon them various gifts,' that
to adopt a chapter on the Free Offer of the Gospel            many who are called by the ministry of the word
into the Confession. This chapter had been prepared           refuse to come and be converted; the fault lies in
over the past two and a half years by the Presbytery           themse1ves.s
and it was decided to hand down the text to Sessions          VI. The preaching of this glorious gospel ever
for voting under the Barrier Act. The chapter is to be        remains the burden of the visible church;t which duty
included as Chapter XXXIV of the Confession under             it has not taken unto itself, but was thereunto called
the heading "Of the Offer of the Gospel and God's             by its king and head Jesus Christ, whose commission
Grace therein." The proposed text as amended by               to the church is its only warrant to-offer salvation to
Presbytery is as follows.                                     men." It is to the praise of the glory of God's grace or


                                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                             31


justice that His word shall accomplish that which He                                  q. I Sam.  2:25;  I Kings  22:22;  Prov.  16:9;  Jer.  10:23;  Matt.
pleases;" but as the effect of the word preached                                          13:10-15;  Lk.  22:22;  Acts  2:23;  Rom.  9:10-24
depends upon God who has no pleasure in the death                                     r. Rom.  1:16;  Mk.  10:21;  Lk.  9:55c   19:41;  Heb.  1:9; Job
of the wicked, so the church of God, while it abhors                                      8:3;Ps.  11:7;  33:5;   92:15;  Is. 65:12;  66:4;  Jer. 19:5;  I Jn.
                                                                                          1:5.
man's  wilful rebellion,"' has no pleasure in his                                     s Matt.  13:1-23;  Lk.  7:30;  Rom.  7:13;  II Thes.  2:10-12
destruction, but rather seeks the good of all menX                                    t. Is.  13:l  et passim; Ezek.  3:17;   33:7;   Zech.  9:l;  Mal.   1:l
and rejoices with the angels of God over one sinner                                   u.  ICor.4:1;IICor.5:18;cfEzek.3:4-11
who repents-y                                                                         v. Matt.  11:25-26;   13:14-U; II Cor.  4:3-4
                                                                                      w. II Chron.  19:2;  Prov.  8:13
                                                                                      X.  J o b   31:29f;   L a m .   2:ll;   L k .   19:41;   R o m .   9:14;   L k .
                            REFERENCES                                                    6:35f;   9:54-56;  Acts  20:31;  Rom.  11:14;  II Cor.  2:4;
                                                                                          5:19-20;  6:l
a. Matt. 28: 19-20                                                                    Y.  -
b. Acts  13:16-41;   20:24-27;I  Cor.  15:1-6
c. Acts  17:30;  Rom.  10:12-13  (see  also letter a)                                     At this point I  wish to make only a few
d. Acts  20:21;  II Cor.  5:11,   18-2O;Is.   45:22,  Lk.  24:47,  Jn.                preliminary remarks.  A more  detailed discussion will
    7:37f                                                                             have to wait for a later issue. My remarks are as
e. Acts  3:19;   16:31
f. Acts  26:18;  Rom.  8:29f;  Rev.  5:9                                              follows:
g. Lk.  9:54ff;  Rom.  1:16;  II Tim. 2:8-10                                          1. This is out of place in the Westminster Confession.
h. Jn.  17:6-10;  Rom.  5:8,8:20-39
i. Eph.  l:ll, 14                                                                     If a chapter on this subject is to be added, it should
k. Ezek.  18:23,   31f;   33:ll;  Jon.  4:2,  11                                      not be added at the end, following the chapter on the
1. Acts  14:15ff;   17:25-27;  Rom.  2:4                                             last  things; but it should be inserted at the proper
m. Is. 55  :6-7
n. Rom.  3:5-6                                                                        place in the Confession.
o. Lk.  6:35;  Rom.  1:20-21;  Matt.  5:44-48;  Jas.  1:17                            2. This is indeed a bold move. To my mind, the
p. Prov.  1:24-33;  Matt.  i1:20-24;  Lk.  12:47f;  Rom.  2:5
4. Ex.  lO:lf;Ma&.   11:25f;  Acts  &:27f                                            Presbyterian Reformed Church will no longer have
r. Jn.  3:17-20;  Matt.  23:37;  Job  34:10-12.                                       the Westminster Confession if they add this chapter
s. Ex.  10:3;  Jn.  3:17-20                                                           and make it an actual part of their creed. The
t. I Cor.  9:16
u. Rom.  16:26:  I Cor. 1: 17: I Thes.  2:4 (see  also letter a)                     Presbyterian Reformed Church will no longer share
v. Is.  55:ll;IICor.   2:16f .                                                        the same confession with Presbyterianism the world
w. Ps.  139:21f;  Rom.  12:9;  II Thes. 2: 12
x. Prov.  24:17;  Phil.  3:18;  Matt.  5:44;  Rom.  1O:l; Gal.                        over. From this point of view, I could understand if
    6:9-10                                                                            they wished to add a Declaratory Statement while
y. Lk.  X:7,  10                                                                     leaving the Confession intact. Rightfully, they should
                   ADDITIONAL REFERENCES                                             now give their confession a new name. The PRC has
a. Mk.  16:15;  Acts  1:s                                                            neither the legal nor moral right to revise the
b. Rom.  15:19;   16:25;Eph. 3:6-11                                                  Westminster Confession all by themselves: for it is
c. Matt.  22:14                                                                      not their private possession, but belongs to all
d .   M k .   16:16;   J n .   3:36;   6-29ff; Acts  3:19;   17:30;   M a t t .      Presbyterians. This is all the more true in view of the
    11:28-30;  Is. 55:l5; Jn.  6:35;  Acts  2:38;   13:38f
e. Jn.  3:16;  Rom.  10:8-11                                                          fact, in my opinion, that their addition is funda-
f. II Thes.  2:13                                                                    mentally out of harmony with the rest of the
g. Jn.  3:17;  Acts  13:48                                                            Confession.
h. Jn.  15:13f;  Acts  20:28;  Eph.  1:4; 2:3-7;  5:2,  25; I Pet.
    3:18;1  Jn.  3:l                                                                 3. While there are many statements with which one
i. Heb. 9: 12; I Pet.  1:4
k. Lam.  3:33;  Hos.  11:8;  Deut.  5:29;  Ps.  81:13;  Is.  45:22;                  can agree, some of which were evidently borrowed
    48:18                                                                            from our Canons of Dordrecht, my general evaluation
1. Rom.  3:1-4;  9:22;   10:8-21  (cf Ps.  19:1-4)                                   is that this is one of the slickest statements of
m. Deut.  32:29;  Ezek.  33:ll;  Acts  3:19;  II Cor.  5:20                          two-track theology that I have seen in a long time. It
n. Rom.  9:22
o. Is.  26:lO;  Hos.  2:8,  9; Rom.  1:18;   2:4;  Ps.  145:8f;  Prov.               out-distances the Christian Reformed Three Points
    29: 13; Matt.  6:25-34;  Lk.  6:35f;  Acts 14: 17; I Tim. 4: 10                  and the Murray-Stonehouse presentation.
p. Hos.  9:15;   M a t t .   10:14-15;   J n .   3:18;   15:22-24;  Acts
    13:46;   18:6;  II Thes.  1:8                                                         Further comment later.




       The STANDARD BEARER
        makes a thoughtful gift
        for a shut-in.


 32                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



THE LORD GAVE THE WORD





                                                       Mission Principles
                                                                     ProJ: Robert D. Decker


                                                  (From the Perspective of the Gospel Navvatives)

       One cannot understand the period of the Gospel                                  rationalists, as is obvious from their mocking question
Narratives          a p a r t   f r o m   c o n s i d e r i n g   t h e   Inter-       to Jesus concerning the woman who had seven
testamentary Period. This is that period of history of                                 husbands. (Cf. Matthew  22:23ff.) There were also the
some four hundred years which runs from the death                                      Pharisees. One might call them the "formalistic"
of Malachi to the birth of our Savior. Much of Jesus'                                  Pharisees. These emphasized the external observance
teaching remains unintelligible apart from an under-                                   of the law and really taught that salvation must be
standing of this period and the phenomena which                                        earned by doing the works of the law. The Pharisees
characterize it. In addition there are several of these                                were condemned by Jesus in the strongest of terms.
characteristics which have direct bearing on the whole                                 (Cf. Matthew 23)
subject of missions.                                                                     By far, however, the greatest single factor affecting
   It ought to be noted at the outset that the number                                  Missions has to be the Dispersion. We have already
of Jews in Palestine was considerably reduced during                                   noted that many Jews remained in the East. They
this period. Only a few cared to return from the                                       were also dispersed in the West. During the four
Babylonian Captivity, while the vast majority re-                                      hundred years, Jews migrated to Egypt, Greece,
mained in Babylon. This means that remnants of                                         Macedonia, Italy, and Galatia. The dispersion saw the
Judaism were preserved in that Eastern part of the                                     rise of the synagogues, where the dispersed Jews
world.                                                                                 gathered to hear the law and the prophets read and
                                                                                       expounded. It is noteworthy in this connection to
   That remnant which returned to Palestine did not                                    observe that the Apostle Paul in his missionary
have a very easy time of it. They were constantly                                      journeys often began his preaching in the  syna-
harassed by the nations surrounding them. So much                                      goguges. These dispersed Jews also engaged in a sort
was this the case that it can be said that Palestine                                   of mission work of their own, for many proselytes
became the battleground of the nations. The Jews                                       and "God fearers" were gained to the Jewish religion.
s u f f e r e d   t e r r i b l y , especially under Antiochus                         All of this served to enhance the spread of the
Epiphanes, the terrible old dispensational manifesta-                                  Gospel, which is to the Jew first but also to the
tion of Antichrist. Nevertheless, what God did in this                                 Gentile.
period is bring the entire world under the rule of
Rome. Thus the spread of the Gospel throughout the                                       This brings us to the period of the earthly life of
united world  (Pax  Romana)  which understood a                                        Jesus, A.D. l-33. This is in a certain respect a unique
common language (Greek) was greatly enhanced.                                          period in the history of the realization of the promise
T h e r e   a l s o   a p p e a r e d   d u r i n g   t h i s   p e r i o d   t h e    of God. It is unique because Christ has come, but He
Septuagint, the translation of the Old Testament into                                  has not yet come in the full manifestation of His
Greek.                                                                                 Kingdom of glory, the parousia. The prophets as we
                                                                                       noted did not distinguish between the first and
   This period saw as well the emergence of two                                        second advents. They saw only one coming of Christ
infamous sects against which the Savior directed so                                    and could not see, therefore, the history of the New
much of His preaching and teaching. There was the                                      Dispensation which lay between the advents of our
sect of the Sadducees, which denied the resurrection                                   Lord. Similarly, in this thirty-three year period Christ
and the realm of the spiritual. These Sadducees were                                   has come but not yet.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  33



  The period is unique too because apparently the            true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
appearance of the Lord has no effect. Jesus appears          and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship
for a little while and then He disappears. He comes          him. (John  4:22,  23) The disciples were sent to "the
and He goes and nothing is changed, or so it seems.          lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew  10:5, 6)
There is no apparent effect, as least not immediately.       Other passages which indicate the same are Matthew
The only begotten Son of God is born of the virgin.          15:24  and John  12:20-22.
He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh. He preaches          Nevertheless the universality of the gospel is
for some three and a half years, performs some               anticipated. In his song the aged Simeon speaks of
miracles. Then Jesus is brought to trial before the          Christ as "a light to lighten the Gentiles." (Luke
Church and the world and sentenced to death. He              2:32)  There was the visit of the  wisemen from the
suffers and dies the cruel death of the cross. He is         east shortly after the birth of Jesus. (Matthew 2: 1-12)
raised from the dead and forty days later ascends to         This is an example of the Gentiles' coming to Mount
glory. And there is no visible effect.                       Zion as foretold by the prophets. Jesus told
  During this period the Kingdom is not yet come,            Nicodemus in that very familiar but often mis-
but it has come near. This is the message of the             interpreted text: "For God so loved the world, that
forerunner, John the Baptist, who preached in the            he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
desert: "Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at           believeth in him should not perish, but have
hand" (literally, "has come near," Matthew  3:2).            everlasting life." (John 3 : 16) The world in this verse
Likewise we read of Jesus: "Now after that John was          is the cosmos. In response to the faith manifested by
put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the        the centurion, Christ speaks of the "many who shall
gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time           come from the east and west and sit down with
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:             Abraham . .  ." (Matthew 8 : 11 ff)
repent ye, and believe the gospel." (Mark 1: 14, 15)            Again, closely related to this is the fact that the
Then when Jesus sent the disciples to lost sheep of          preaching of the gospel is connected with the end of
the house of Israel He instructed them: "But when            all things, the final judgment of the world. When
they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another:       Jesus spoke of the signs which herald His return at
for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over       the end of the ages He said: "And this gospel of the
the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come."          kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
(Matthew  10:23) That "till the Son of Man be come"          witness unto all nations; and then shall the end
means essentially the same as "the Kingdom of                come." (Matthew  24:14)  In a very real sense,
Heaven is at hand." This refers to the imminence of          preaching effects the judgment of God and brings the
the coming of Christ in all the glory of His Kingdom.        consumation  of all things. This becomes the great
   Still more, Jesus often refers to the period              incentive and encouragement for the church in its
between His first and second advents. We may remark          mission work.
in this connection that Bavinck refers to this as the           All of this becomes much clearer after the
"interim." (Cf. J.H. Bavinck,  Introduction To The           resurrection. When the disciples are discouraged and
Science  Of  Missions)  We prefer not to use this            inclined to go back .to their former occupation of
terminology, for "interim" can imply something               fishing, Jesus appears to them and through a
meaningless or insignificant. This certainly is not true     miraculous draught of fish reminds them of their
of the new dispensation. Some of the instances in            calling to cast the net of the gospel into the sea of the
which Jesus speaks of this period may be found in the        world in order to gather the  fish (elect) into the
following passages: Luke 14: 15; Matthew  22:8;              kingdom. (John 2 1: 1-14) Just before His ascension
Matthew 2  1:33-44;  Luke 19: 1 l-27; Matthew                Jesus charged the disciples (and thus the entire New
25: 14-30. During this time while the Feast is being         Dispensational Church) in the words of what has
prepared or while the nobleman (Christ) is in a far          come to be called, the Great Commission:  ". . . Go ye
country, the guests must be called to the Feast and          into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
the talents must be developed in the service of the          creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be
Lord. All of this is accomplished chiefly by the             saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
preaching of the gospel. This period, as we shall see in     (Mark  16:15,  16; cf. also Matthew  28:19,  20; Luke
clearer light later, is preoccupied with missions.           24:47;  John  20:21)  The Apostles (and thus the
   Closely related to the foregoing is the fact that         Church) are promised the Holy Spirit Who will enable
during the period of Jesus' earthly ministry the gospel      and empower them to carry out the task. (Cf.
is still limited to the Jews. Jesus said to the Samaritan    Matthew 28: 18; Luke  24:49;  Mark 16: 17ff.)
woman at Jacob's well: "Ye worship ye know not                  From all of this we may draw the following
what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of           conclusions regarding the gospel narratives and
the Jews. But the hour  cometh, and now is, when the         missions. The Kingdom has come near at this time. It


 34                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



comes in full in the cross, resurrection, ascension, and     baptize all nations. Hence, Christ is the Sender, the
pouring out of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Through the       One Who gathers the Church by means of the
preaching of the gospel by the church the elect are          preaching of the gospel. Christ through His Spirit is
gathered and the Kingdom will come in its final              also the power which makes the preaching effective.
manifestation at the end of the ages. Christ speaks of       Finally, by that preaching the end of all things is
the gathering of His elect out of all nations. Christ        effected. The Kingdom comes through judgment.
commissions the Church (through the apostles who                Let the Church, also as represented in our
together with the prophets and with Christ as the            Prodestant  Reformed Churches, be on with the great
chief cornerstone formed the foundation of the               task: of preaching the gospel to the nations. That must
church) to preach the gospel everywhere and to               be done for a witness. And then shall the end come!

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE





                             The Reformed Doctrine
                                         of  Reprobation
                                                 Rev. David Engelsma




   In previous issues of The Standard Bearer, we have        by the enemies of reprobation themselves. Openly,
given an extended defense of the doctrine of                 they state that the object of their enmity is "decretal
reprobation against the attacks made upon it within          theology."
the Reformed churches. We may be permitted to take             Since the counsel of God is nothing other than the
the offensive for a moment.                                  decreeing God Himself in His sovereignty  - God
  Denial of an eternal decree of reprobation is, by          willing, God planning, God ruling  - the denial of
virtue of this fact, denial of Biblical election as well,    reprobation, and with it the denial of the whole
specifically election as the choice of definite in-          counsel of God, is the denial of the decreeing,
dividuals out of the human race. It is the denial of the     sovereign God of Holy Scripture. Where the denial of
Divine counsel of predestination.                            reprobation entrenches itself, that God is overthrown
  Denial of the counsel of predestination is the             of Whom the saints have ever confessed, "our God is
denial of the whole counsel of God. For God's                in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath
election in Christ of a Church out of the whole              pleased" (Psalm 115  :3) and Who says of Himself, "I
human race is the heart of the counsel of God. All           am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there
else in the counsel, the determination of creation and       is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning,
history, is related to the decree of Christ and His          and from ancient times the things that are not yet
Church; the decree of providence, in every detail,           done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
serves the decree of predestination. "When the most          my pleasure" (Isaiah  46:9,10).
High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he         The denial of predestination is part of a war that is
separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the         raging along the entire front of the historic Reformed
people according to the number of the children of            faith. The objective of the enemy is the sovereignty,
Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is       that is, the Godhead, of God. The kingdom, the
the lot of his inheritance" (Deut.  32:8,9).                 power, and the glory of God must be seized and
  That the current attack on reprobation is, in fact,        destroyed in the confession and preaching of the
an assault on the counsel of God as such is indicated        Church.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  35



  It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the       see himself as a creature .who has plunged from the
denial of the  inerrant inspiration of Holy Scripture        heights of a glorious creation in the image of God to
and in the denial of Scripture's clarity and trust-          the depths of a fearful guilt and wretched depravity,
worthiness that accompanies the denial of inerrancy.         by his own wilful disobedience. No longer is he to see
God was not able to inspire a book that is holy and          himself as completely exposed to God's wrath and
divine. He was not able to breathe forth a Word that         wholly dependent upon God's grace. No longer is he
is His Word and His Word only. Corrupted as it is by         to see the God before Whom he lies as the God of
the fancies, follies, and falsehoods of men, the Bible       awful justice  - yet requiring the perfect obedience
cannot be thought perfectly to reveal the glory of           man cannot give; offended in His most high majesty by
God, clearly to set forth His works and ways,                man's original and actual sins; demanding that sin be
authoritatively to prescribe His will, and reliably to       punished with hell. (It is not surprising that denial of
teach truth in everything it says. Nor can it command        the fall is followed by a denial of the cross of Christ
an un-critical, childlike belief and obedience. Stripped     as satisfaction of the justice of God.) At the most,
of His Word, God loses His scepter and sword. He is          where denial of the fall obtains, man is the morally
now a powerless king.                                        weak product of the evolutionary process, retaining
   It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the      some savagery from his animal ancestors, more to be
rejection of the Reformed, Biblical doctrine of              pitied than blamed. Although he has been inclined to
creation for the notion of theistic evolution. Banished      sin against God from the beginning (this is what the
are the majesty, wisdom, power, and goodness of the          "myth" of Genesis 3 is supposed to teach), man has
God Who spoke and it was done; Who covered                   many noble qualities, representing, as he does, the
Himself with light as with a garment, stretched out          high point heretofore of the evolution of all things.
the heavens like a curtain, and laid the foundations of      His future is bright, if only he will exert himself to
the earth; Who gave "unto every creature," to use the        eradicate his social sins  - racism, capitalism, sexism,
elegant, but factual language of the Belgic Confession,      and the like. God will lend man a helping hand in this
"its being, shape, form, and several offices to serve its    struggle for "salvation." Is not God obliged to do so?
Creator." What is left is a remote deity who presided        Why else does He exist? And, when you get down to
over the beginning of things by natural causes in a          it, is not He really to blame for man's present
distant age (or merely witnessed the beginning, if we        condition, since He is the One Who has made man
are to believe Jan Lever) and a god who is lost in the       through the evolutionary process?
evolutionary process by which that beginning                   It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the
developed into the world of today.                           denial of the cross as the satisfaction of the justice of
  It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the       God. On this front also, the war rages today in the
denial of the historicity of the account of the fall in      Reformed churches. Men deny that the death of
Genesis 3 by denying ,a speaking serpent. Denial of          Christ was the suffering of the punishment of God's
the historical truthfulness of the fall breaks the Word      wrath, at God's hands, in the stead of a guilty people.
of God, indeed makes a shambles of Scripture's               This is to deny  the  revelation of the matchless
trustworthiness, clarity, and authority. Nor is the          righteousness and amazing love of God. Such is His
Word that is broken only the Word concerning man's           righteousness that, as our Reformed form for the
disobedience, guilt, and death. It is also the Word          Lord's Supper puts it, rather than sin should go
concerning God's grace in Jesus Christ. Does no one          unpunished, God has punished it in His beloved Son
see that the mother-promise itself of Genesis 3 : 15,        Jesus Christ, with the bitter and shameful death of
out of which developed all the gospel that was               the cross. Such is His love toward us that He "sent his
fulfilled in Jesus Christ, although it was addressed to      Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John
Adam and Eve standing by, was spoken by God  to              4:9,10).  Also, denial of the cross as satisfaction is
the serpent?  If there was no serpent, to what, pray         denial of the efficacy of the cross as the saving work
tell, was the Lord speaking when He said, "And I will        of God. What did the cross actually accomplish? Why
put enmity between thee and the woman, and                   did God have Jesus die at all? If the cross was not
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy           atonement, it was a cruel stupidity.
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel"? Obviously, to           It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the
nothing, so that denial of the speaking serpent is           denial of the miracles, the "wonders," to use Biblical
denial as well of the speaking God. Those who openly         language, of Scripture. As the  sceptics  laugh a
are robbing the Church of the truth of the fall are          speaking serpent out of the garden, so do they
secretly stealing the truth of the gospel.                   repudiate, publicly, the speaking of Balaam's ass; the
  Denial of the fall wars against God's sovereignty in       swallowing of Jonah by a great fish; and many others
yet another way. It exalts man in his relationship           wonders, too numerous to mention. They have a little
with God; thus, it abases God. No longer is man to           god; and the god they leave with Reformed saints,


36                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



after they have ruled out the miracles of the Bible, is          A new god is raised up, a  Baa1 imported from the
a god no bigger than the mind of 20th century men             Zidon of Pelagianism, humanism, modernism, and the
and no more potent that the allowancesof 20th                 spirit of the age (which is the spirit of Antichrist). In
century' science. This is their god, and they are             his nature, the new god is Man glorified; as to his
welcome to him. We are determined that they shall             word, he says whatever his interpreters desire him to
not establish this vanity in the Reformed Church in           say at the moment; concerning his will, it is the
the stead of Him "Whose wondrous works my soul                sanctioning of all the lusts of sinful flesh. Infinitely
amaze." Now they carry their assault on God's                 pliable is this very un-sovereign god before the
wonders to the wonder of wonders  - the incarnation           pressure of modern culture. His wisdom is the most
of the eternal Son of God. Craftily masking their             recent insight of the theologian, the scientist, and the
purpose as difficulty with the formulations of the            philosopher.
Council of  Chalcedon (which confessed the in-
comprehensible union of two distinct natures in one              To this strange god, the Reformed people are
divine Person in Jesus, by the wonder of the eternal          bowing - hearing his prophets in the pulpit,
Word becoming flesh), speaking gravely of the                 worshipping him at church, knowing him by in-
influences of Gnosticism and Greek philosophy on              struction in catechism class and schoolroom, honor-
the church fathers, these enemies of the works of             ing him in  synodical pronouncements, and obeying
God lay hostile and profane hands on the mystery of           his precepts (permissions!) in daily life. Once again in
godliness itself: "God was manifest in the flesh"             the history of the Church, it is true: "They sacrificed
(I Tim. 3: 16).                                               unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew
                                                              not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your
      It is the sovereignty of God that is at stake in the    fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou
setting aside of the law  - the will of God for the life      art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed
of the Church and each member. In the public,                 thee" (Deut. 32:  17,18).
official disregard in Reformed churches for the law of
God concerning the inviolability of marriage; God's              Since this is the issue in the Reformed churches
hatred of divorce; the subjection of the woman in             today (to say nothing of Protestantism at large),
marriage; the monstrous wickedness of homo-                   those sleek preachers speak falsely who cry, "Peace,
sexuality; the teaching and rule of the Church by men         peace," when there is no peace. Woe to them. This
only; the authority of employers; the evil of political       must be the motive that rouses up the fainthearted in
revolution; the right of private property; the duty of        the churches, both officebearers and laymen, to
the Church to stick to her spiritual task; the                contend earnestly for the faith. It is not a time to
responsibility of the magistrate to execute the               think of ecclesiastical place and prestige, of earthly
murderer; and even the bloody murder of unborn                ease, or of friend and kindred dear. It is a time to
babies  - in all this disregard for the law of God, the       confess the great Name of God by word and deed  -
authority of God over men,  over His own people,  is          "My God is (the sovereign) Jehovah." It is a time to
challenged.                                                   return, if we have sinfully departed, to the Rock of
      Jehovah is dethroned in Reformed Israel. His            our salvation. It is a time to keep ourselves from
covenant is forsaken; His altars are thrown down;             idols. It is a time to reject the heretic. It is a time to
and, if His prophets are not slain, they are hated and        believe, love, tremble at, proclaim, confess, defend,
slandered, while the seminaries ruin those who ought          and obey the Reformed faith, the glorious truth of
to be His prophets.                                           the holy Word of the ever blessed God.

BIBLESTUDY GUIDE

                       Esther - God's Providential Care
                                                  (concluded)
                                                    Rev. J. Kortering


      We are examining the background for the feast that      had assembled in Shushan, hoping to please the king
Esther had with  Haman and the king during which              with their favors and become queen. Among them we
she interceded for the life of all Jews. The fair virgins     also find Esther (star). Mordecai, her uncle and step


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father (Esther's father was Abihail 2: 15 and both he                                  killed, young and old alike, even little ones, on that
and his wife had died  2:7), had recommended to her                                    appointed day, 3: 13. Now what?
t o   e n t e r   t h e   c o n t e s t .   M o r d e c a i   h a d   n o t a b l e      Mordecai's response is recorded in 4: l-3. He led
forefathers, one being Kish the father of Saul, and                                    the Jews in anguished cry. We see evidence of enough
others who were taken into captivity. Both Mordecai                                    religious tradition that they expressed it in sackcloth
and Esther were raised in captivity  2:5, 6; and their                                 and ashes, a sign of repentance before God; yet here
moral character reflects this in two ways. First, they                                 we have no such mention at all. This must have
saw no evil in Esther's marrying a wicked, divorced                                    attracted much attention throughout the city. Even
king who was trying to get a wife on the basis of                                      the maids of Esther inform her of Mordecai's
carnal lust. Second, they consented to hide the fact                                   behavior,  4:4. After he refused a new set of clothing,
that Esther was a captive Jew, 2: 10. This meant that                                  she sent her trusted chamberlain, Hatach, to inquire of
she also could not practice her Jewish faith. She could                                him. He informed Esther of the plot of  Haman and
not pray as Daniel, or talk about her God. Evidently                                   furnished her with a copy-of the decree of the king to
she didn't do this anyway.                                                             put all Jews to death and urged her to intercede with
   Esther's great beauty prevailed upon the king and                                   the king,  4:5-9. She returned a message to Mordecai
he made her his queen, 2:  15- 17. The king celebrated                                 through Hatach reminding him of the danger
her success with a feast and declared a holiday, made                                  involved, that anyone who appeared before the king
release to the provinces 2 : 18.                                                       uninvited and if he refused the sceptre, it meant
                                                                                       certain death. Besides, she has not been invited for
   Mordecai continued to take interest in Esther's                                     the past thirty days already, 4: 11. Mordecai insisted
welfare by appearing before the king's gate and                                        that, due to extreme danger, death to both of them
inquiring about her. This gave him access to a bit of                                  and all Jews everywhere, she should try. He indicates
inside information that two chamberlains plotted to                                    his traditionalism by expressing faith in the certain
kill the king,  2:21-23. When he told Esther, she                                      salvation of the Jews, 4: 14. Esther agrees and asks
informed the king and when it was judged to be true,                                   Mordecai as well as her maidens to fast for three days.
the two culprits were hanged and Mordecai's                                            If I perish, I perish, she says, hardly trusting in God
faithfulness duly recorded. This fact will be a turning                                to deliver, 4: 16.
point in all this history.
                                                                                         Esther is well received by the king, 5: l-5. She
   Now  Haman enters into the picture. He is the son                                   puts on her royal apparel and stands in the outer
of Hammedatha, the Agagite, 3: 11. We can't be                                         court. The king extends the sceptre and assures her
certain if this is a reference to  Agag, King of Amalek,                               that her request will be granted unto half of the
mentioned in I Sam.  15:8,33.  He was elevated to the                                  kingdom. She does not make known her plight at this
number one position under the king. Being in this                                      time. Rather she requests that the king and  Haman
position, all subjects of the kingdom were to bow                                      come to a banquet which she has prepared for that
down to him and recognize his office and to worship                                    evening. The king is delighted and calls  Haman. At
him. Mordecai refused,  3:2. Did he do it for religious                                the banquet the king renews his desire to know the
reasons? If he did (see  3:4, according to which verse                                 queen's request. Again Esther seeks to win his favor
he told them he was a Jew) he surely was inconsistent                                  by inviting the king and  Haman to another banquet
in religious matters, as we saw in his counsel with                                    the following day. This too is accepted,  5:6-8.
Esther. We can hardly make him a hero of faith, as
Daniel's three friends were before Nebuchadnezzar,                                       Haman is encouraged by this special recognition.
Dan. 3. At any rate, he persisted in refusing to bow                                   With a joyful and glad heart he rides home. On the
before  Haman even when his friends warned-him,  3:3,                                  way, he is hurt by Mordecai as he once again publicly
4. Finally  Haman reacted in wrath and sought                                          refuses to bow. When he arrives home he spends the
vengeance against  him  not only, but, having learned                                  evening with his wife, ten sons, and friends, 9:7-10.
he was a captive Jew, against  all  Jews. He resorted to                               He tells them of his promotion, of the two banquets
astrology (cast lots, pur,  3:7) and according to later                                he has with the king and queen, but of his bitter
details, 8: 12, the date was the 13th day of the                                       disappointment with Mordecai. They suggest he put
twelfth month of Adar when all Jews would be killed.                                   Mordecai to death by getting the sanction from the
He brought his scheme to the king,  3:8, 9, and                                        king the next day, in the meanwhile to build the
represented the Jews as rebellious and dangerous to                                    gallows, a high supported stake, to hang him upon,
the safety of the kingdom.The only solution was to                                     5:9-14.
kill them all. He would pay the soldiers for doing it,                                   God's cause however, is not with  Haman but
in the meanwhile confiscating their property and                                       Mordecai and Esther. During the night He kept sleep
returning that to the coffers of the king,  3:9. The                                   from Ahasuerus so that he had read to him the
king approved and the decree was sealed and sent by                                    chronicles of the kings and was reminded of the favor
messengers throughout the realm that all Jews will be                                  of Mordecai in saving his life. He asked if Mordecai


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was rewarded and learned that he wasn't. He decided                              meaningless. The new decree would allow the Jews to
that he will attend to this that very day, 6: l-3.                               stand for their life, to kill those that attacked them
       While the king is thinking on this,  Haman comes to                       and to confiscate their property, 8:3-14, especially
him. He intends to ask for the death of Mordecai.                                verse 11. This the king granted and notified all the
Instead the king asks him, "what shall be done unto                              countries of the kingdom. There was gladness  amongst
the man whom the king delighteth to honor?"  6:6.                                the Jews, 8: 15-17.
Haman thought the king had him in mind, so he                                      When the great day of testing came, the Jews
generously suggests, the royal robe of the  king,.his                            prevailed mightily. Instead of a mass slaughter of the
horse, his crown, and a herald to announce this great                            Jews, the enemies of the Jews were killed. The Jews
honor, 6:4-9. I suppose a king of the stature of                                 in Shushan were granted an extra day. During the
Ahasuerus could easily be preoccupied with many                                  first day 500 enemies were killed and the ten sons of
other things so that he forgot his decree to kill all                            Haman, 9: l-l 1. During the second day 300 more
Jews. Now, however, he honors one.                                               were killed and the bodies of the ten sons of  Haman
       The king entrusts  Haman to make the necessary                            were hanged on a tree, 9:  12- 15. Throughout the
preparations and carry them out immediately.                                     kingdom, 75,000 others were killed. In all instances
Imagine the terror in poor  Haman's soul. He did it                              the property of their enemies was not confiscated.
nonetheless, but couldn't wait to get home to cry on                               In celebration of this victory the Jews celebrate the
his wife's shoulder and get counsel from his wise men,                           Feast of Purim, meaning feast of lots,  9:20-32. By
magi, 6: 12-14. They warned him that he was                                      casting lots their life was in danger, but through
beginning to fall before this Jew and he would not                               Esther, their lives were spared. They were instructed
overcome. Quite some news to receive just before                                 by Mordecai to keep both days as feast days and to
leaving for the banquet with the king and queen.                                 do this annually, 9  :2 1. This the Jews did during the
                                                                                 time of Esther and have since.
   At  the second banquet, the king asks Esther to                                 The book closes with a reference to Mordecai's
inform him of her request. She asks him for her life                             great power as leader of the Persian kingdom, 10: l-3.
and that of her people, "We are sold, I and my people
to be destroyed, to be slain, to perish," 7:4. If it were
only to be slaves, she would not bother, but it was
her life. The king doesn't understand: "Who is he and                            QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
w h e r e   i s   h e ? "   E s t h e r   p o i n t s   t o   Haman: "The           1. As you review the book of Esther, compose a
adversary and the enemy is this wicked  Haman,"  7:6.                            list of "evidence" which would seem to indicate
The king is furious. I suppose everything fits  together                         whether Mordecai and Esther were true believers in
for the first time, the plot, the decree, his wife a                             God or not. Would you agree that the evidence seems
Jewess. He rushes to the garden to think. Upon                                   to condemn them as not possessing true faith?
returning he finds  Haman pleading with Esther to                                  2. Discuss how this history proves that the wicked
intervene for his life, but  Ahasuerus thinks  Haman is                          may have a sense of religion and moral responsibility
trying to force her to lie with him. The sentence                                yet are spiritually corrupt.
r u s h e s   f o r t h ,   d e a t h   t o   Haman.  O h ,   y e s ,   t h e
chamberlain knows of the gallows for Mordecai, so                                  3. Express in your own words how the main
these become the very instruments for  Haman's own                               theme is developed in the book: God uses even the
death,  7:7-10.                                                                  wicked to serve the salvation of His people. Include
                                                                                 some of the "little" details.
THE FEAST OF PURIM 8:1-10:3                                                        4. How does the book show that chance is not our
   Now that the arch-foe of the Jews was out of the                              comfort but the providence of God?
picture, there was a vacancy as prime-minister. Esther                             5. How does  Haman illustrate the truth, "pride
was drawn closer to the king and he rewarded her                                 before fall"?
with the house of  Haman, which she in turn gave to
Mordecai. As she confided in the king she also told                                6 .   H o w   d o   t h e   r u l e r s   o f   t h e   w o r l d   t o d a y
him what Mordecai meant to her, and the king made                                contribute to the well-being of the church? Isn't it
him the number one man under him, 8 :  1,2.                                      just the opposite today, that they kill God's people?
                                                                                 Is there conflict here?
   The most important question still remained: what
about the decree of the king to slay the Jews? It was                              7. Show that the salvation of the Jews meant the
the decree of the Medes and Persians, unchangeable                               salvation of God's people and basically the salvation
and irreversible. Esther attended to that very well.                             of the church of all ages.
She entreated the king to make a new law which                                     8. Even though God is not mentioned in the book,
would have the effect of making the first one                                    how does the book extol God?


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                39



MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE





                                       Letter to Timothy


                                       October 15, 1979
Dear Timothy,                                              "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out
  In our last letters we had talked about the creation     of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the
of man by God  - that God formed man out of the            midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a
dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the       potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and
breath of life. I tried to stress that God created man     thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Psalm
as one  whole  and that our distinctions between body      22:14, 15. While this Psalm speaks prophetically of
and soul, while important to understand the kind of        Christ, it nevertheless arose out of the historical
creature man is, must not lead us to chop man into         circumstances in which the Psalmist found himself.
different pieces. Because of God's act of creation,        And the main source of his complaint is found in vs.
man is, according to Genesis 2 :7, one living soul.        1: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me;
                                                           why art thou so far from helping me, and from the
  I want to discuss with you in this letter some of        words of my roaring?" Quite clearly, his anguish arises
the practical implications of this.                        from being forsaken of God; but all this has affected
  We have mentioned the distinction which Scripture        his bones and his bowels, his strength and his tongue.
makes between body and soul only in passing. We            We may consider these expressions mere figures of
have stressed rather the idea that God has created         speech, but they are more than that. What he writes
man in such a way that he stands related to this           concerning his bodily state was true. God's forsaking
earthly creation  on  the one hand, but that he also       him brought physical suffering as well as anguish of
stands related to God and spiritual things on the          his  soul.  That this is true is clear from the fact that
other hand. From this viewpoint, he has two aspects        David  speaks of Christ  - in fact it is Christ Who is
to his creation. And these two aspects of his creation     really speaking through David. And what is men-
cut right across the distinctions of body and soul.        tioned in the Psalm literally happened to Christ when
With both body and soul he stands related to the           He hung on the rough cross of Calvary to die for our
creation; with both body and soul he stands related        sins. The same is true of Psalm 116. In this Psalm too
to God and to the things of heaven. He has, as it          the Psalmist cries out that the Lord's hand is heavy
were, two sides: one side stands facing this creation,     upon him and that he was deeply afflicted. On the
while the other side stands facing God. Yet even these     one hand, whatever may have been the nature of his
two sides cannot be separated from each other. With        affliction, it affected him in his body, for he cries out
the whole of his being he belongs to the creation and      in vs 2 that he was very near to the grave and the
with the whole of his being he faces God and               pains of the grave laid their hands upon him. But
confronts the calling to serve Him.                        when he finds strength in God it is because he speaks
  I am always impressed with the fact that Scripture       to his soul: "Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul; for the
itself emphasizes in many ways this basic unity of         Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast
man. When the saints cry out in deep affliction they       delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears,
speak, as it were, in one breath of this affliction of     and my feet from falling." vss. 7, 8.
both body and soul. Job cries out to his friends:            But the opposite is also true. This is evident from
"How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in             the miracles which the Lord Himself performed while
pieces?" Job  19:2. David, prophetically, speaks of        on  earth. It has always struck me that Jesus makes no
deep suffering of both body and soul when he writes:       distinction between healing the infirmities of a man's


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40                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



body and healing the deadlier disease of man's soul.         when they say that yet in this day miracles of
This is particularly illustrated in the healing of the       physical healing accompany the work of salvation.
paralytic, a miracle recorded for us in Mark 211-12.         They are wrong on several counts. They forget that
You recall that the crowd had pressed about Jesus in         the miracles of Scripture were a part of the gospel as
the home where He was staying so that the doors              signs of the gospel while the Scriptures were not yet
were all jammed with people. When four men came              completed. Now that we have the full Scriptures we
with this paralytic on a pallet they could not find a        have no more need of the signs. They are wrong too
way to get the man to Jesus. And so they tore a hole         because they forget that we are not healed in our
in the roof of the house and lowered the afflicted           bodies until the final resurrection when the full
man to Jesus. When Jesus saw this and the faith of           power of death is destroyed in us completely. This is
the men (that they were so intent on getting the             why Pentecostals always tend towards perfectionism.
paralytic to Jesus that they were even willing to            If our bodily infirmities are healed in this life, then
wreck a stranger's house and risk the charge of              we are completely healed also from sin. Why we are
destruction of property), Jesus said to the paralytic:       not also delivered from death is a problem that no
"Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." Now this was a             Pentecostal has been able to solve.
strange thing to say. He said nothing to the paralytic            Thus, when Jesus healed from the sicknesses and
about his disease or about healing him of his                diseases which afflicted the people in Palestine, He
infirmity. Simply: "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The          delivered them also from the power and dominion of
Pharisees complained about this, and their complaint         sin. There seem to be almost no exceptions. Those
was that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy. Their                who were healed were also saved. And many times
reasoning was that only God could forgive sins; that,        the saving was a work of Christ which took place at
therefore, if Jesus took this authority upon Himself,        the same time as the healing. Man is one. God saves
He was making Himself God; that, therefore, He               the whole man.
blasphemed. But Jesus knew their hearts. His
response was: "Whether is it easier to say to the sick            There are many different kinds of passages in
of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say,          Scripture which speak of the same truth. The
Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye            example of II Corinthians  9:8 comes to mind: "And
may know that the Son of man hath power on earth             God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I       that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things,
say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy        may abound to every good work." Paul is telling the
way into thine house." They were both one and the            Corinthians here that God will supply all their needs
same to Jesus. To heal the man's bodily infirmity was        so that they always have sufficient. He is making no
the same as to forgive the man's sins. We usually            distinction between the needs of the body and the
interpret this to mean that the sicknesses which Jesus       needs of the soul: all needs will be supplied by God.
healed and cured were pictures of the spiritual              And this supplying of all needs the apostle calls
sickness of sin  - lameness a picture of the inability to    "grace": God is able to make all grace abound toward
walk in the ways of God's commandments; blindness            you. But that he is not merely talking about spiritual
a picture of man's inability to see the things of the        needs is evident from the fact that this appears in the
kingdom of God; etc. And all of this is certainly true,      context where Paul is speaking of the need of the
for Jesus Himself explains this in the case of the man       Corinthians .to take up the collections which he will
born blind. After the miracle the text tells us of the       pick up when he arrives so that he can take these
following conversation between Jesus and the Jews:           collections to Jerusalem. He is saying: "Do not give
"For judgment I am come into this world, that they           grudgingly or of necessity, but give cheerfully. God
which see not might see; and that they which see             loves a cheerful giver. But when you give cheerfully,
might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees               you will give liberally. Do not worry about your
which were with him heard these words, and said              needs being supplied. God loves a cheerful giver and
unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If        He will manifest His love by caring for all your needs
                                                             -
ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say,             spiritually and materially. For the believer they are
We see; therefore your sin remaineth." But while all         all really one."
this is true, it nevertheless remains a fact that Jesus           The Heidelberg Catechism has apparently the same
repeatedly made no distinction between a man's               idea in mind when it explains the fourth petition:
infirmities and his sin and between healing a man and        "Give us this day our daily bread." We usually
saving him. It may be that healing of disease belongs        interpret this to refer to a prayer in which we ask
to the body and sin to the soul; but the two are so          God to provide for the needs of the body, while the
much one that they may not be separated.                     next petitions go on to talk about the needs of the
                                                             soul.  But the Heidelberg Catechism does not recog-
      This does not mean that the Pentecostals are right     nize this distinction. It makes this petition refer to


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           41



both material needs and spiritual needs: "Be pleased              and to be merry. But Jesus told this parable to
to provide us with all things necessary for the body,             illustrate the truth that "the life of a man consisteth
that we may thereby acknowledge thee to be the only               not in the abundance of the things which he
fountain of all good, and that neither our care nor               possesseth." vs. 15. And when his soul was required
industry, nor even thy gifts, can profit us  without thy          of him that very night, Jesus says: "So is he that
blessing;  and therefore that we may withdraw our                 layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
trust from all creatures, and place it alone in thee."            God."
Q &A. 125.                                                           God created man one living soul. We must not cut
  The rich fool made the mistake of thinking that his             him up. We must recognize and deal with his basic
whole life was nothing else but earthly. Luke                     and fundamental unity.
12: 13-21. He stored away vast quantities of earthly                 Perhaps in our next letter we can discuss what the
possessions and then took the attitude that he had it             implications of this are.
made in life. He could retire from work and enjoy
himself. And he told his soul that his soul need have                                              Fraternally in Christ,
no care, for he had all he wanted to eat and to drink                                              H. Hanko

ALL AROUND US




                                           "Freedom" of Religion
                                                        Rev. G. Van Baren



  The United States of America is known as the land                   represents the interests of 200,000 homosexuals in
of the free. Prominently mentioned in this regard is                  the city. The organization which he directs, the Gay
the freedom of religion. However, it appears that                     Rights Advocates, seeks to advance the homosexual
increasingly that "freedom" has limitation. In the                    cause through civil court action. He is not out for the
Presbyterian Guardian  there is a report from a small                 money, at least not in our case, but for principle.
Orthodox Presbyterian congregation in San Francisco                      We were threatened with lawsuit ten months ago.
which is being sued because it "fired" its homosexual                 Who would have thought that immorality would be
organist. The organist was not a member of the                        so bold as to bring suit against a church of Jesus
congregation, and was released from his position                      Christ!
when it became known that he was living in sin. The                      . . . We will fight this affrontery to the church of
article states:                                                       Christ. Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord. Neither the State
                                                                      nor any group of men can dictate to the church
       We  have been sued:  Myself as pastor, my                      which he purchased with his own blood. They are not
    congregation, and our presbytery have all been sued               asking for this man's job back. They are demanding
    by an avowed homosexual because we would not                      that the laws of God give way to the laws of sinful
    allow him to participate in the worship service by                men. . . .
    playing the organ.                                              And so develops the opposition to God and His
       Our city of San Francisco passed a city ordinance          Cause. One can imagine that it might not be long
    banning discrimination based on sexual orientation -          before some sue to ensure the protection of women's
    homosexuality. This law was signed on April 11,               "rights," and minority "rights," or children's
    1978 by a mayor who was some months later                     "rights." Under laws presently existing, the church
    assassinated by the only city supervisor that voted           might well be held guilty of violating some of these
    against the ordinance. Justice `was not done to the           "rights." One can see already now the beginning of
    mayor nor was justice done to the assassin.                   the fulfillment of the prophecy of God concerning
       . . . The attorney for the plaintiff is fighting for       the attempts of the antichristian power to silence the
    homosexual rights in San Francisco. Technically he            church.


42                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER




                                             "Blue-penciling" the Psalms

      Having recently faced the question whether there                 about sin without also proclaiming the good news of
was a real serpent who spake to Eve in Paradise, and                   the gospel of grace, the announcement of God's
whether there was a real earthquake at Christ's                        answer to evil. Of this the psalmists seem to have had
resurrection, the Christian Reformed people now-face                   no more than a vague and preliminary idea, and that
another question: ought some of the Psalms be                          was often eclipsed by the harrowing circumstances in
"blue-penciled"? Some seem to think so. In the                         which they found themselves. For Christian con-
Banner  of Sept. 14, 1979, Marlin Van  Elderen                         gregations to take these ancient curses on our lips
                                                                       would be to leave out "God's way of righting
expresses his strong concern about "deficiencies" in                   wrong" (Rom. 1: 17 NEB). Worse yet, to make such
the Psalms.                                                            prayers our own is to forget that for all of us the
          Flipping through the  Psalter Hymnal during the              most important wrong righted by God's grace is that
       offertory one Sunday morning, I happened across the             -ti our own heart.
       setting of Psalm 109 in No. 220. Its title is fairly               Some may argue that no song can by itself
       benign: "0 God, Whom I Delight to Praise." Little               "represent the full range of the revelation of God," so
       hint there of the invective soon to rise to the surface.        that the deficiencies in how the imprecatory psalms
       Take the hopes expressed for the wicked in stanza               talk about evil are no more serious than the ways in
       five, for instance:                                             which other hymns fail to convey the whole of the
             "Let sudden death upon him break,                         truth about anything. I disagree. The way in which
             His office let another take,                              the imprecatory psalms - and their versifications in
             His children and his widowed wife                         the  Psalter Hymnal  -  fall short of the goal of
             Pursue the homeless beggar's life."                       representing the full range of God's revelation opens
          A quick check of the Bible showed these intensely            the door to self-righteousness. They are far too
       unpleasant wishes to be a pretty accurate rendering of          dangerous to our spiritual health for us ever to sing
       the psalmist's own words (109:8-10,  as translated in           them.
       the New International Version):                                    And if these verses ought never to be sung, perhaps
          "May his days be few; may another take his place             they ought to be left out of the new edition of the
       of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his           Psalter Hymnal now being prepared.
      wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars;           The above article is not surprising, of course. There
      may they be driven from their ruined homes."                 has been the continuing debate in the C.R.C.
          . . . The exile lament of Psalm 137 probably             concerning the idea of "infallibility" of Scripture.
      expresses the emotion that is hardest for con-               There is the adoption by the C.R.C. Synod a number
       temporary sensibilities to tolerate:                        of years ago of "Report 44" which appears to allow
          "0 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,           for the above kind of interpretation of Scripture.
      happy is he who repays you for what you have done            There is the toleration of views expressed by Dr.
      to us - he who seizes your infants and dashes them           Verhey. No wonder an article as the above can  appear
      against the rocks."                                          in the official church paper.
          Mercifully,  Psalter Hymnal No. 285  does not              Yet how sad that the article should appear in a
       attempt to reduce that to iambic rhymes.                    Reformed magazine. How sad that the Holy Spirit is
          A common reaction, I suppose, is to wish that            presented as such a cruel tyrant or ignorant mover of
      sentiments like these had somehow fallen by the              the psalmist. Sad it is that what the Spirit worked, we
      wayside before the psalms had attained their place in        "ought never to sing."
       the canon. To be sure, the original authors were              If the Psalms are the Word of God, then these
      probably more hard-pressed than most of us will ever         "imprecatory" parts are His Word too. Would one
      be, and so might perhaps be forgiven for asking the          dare to "blue-pencil" God's Word? Will any object?
      Lord to repay their  enepies  - whom they saw
      primarily as His enemies - in the same hard currency,          It is sad but true that one can not meddle with the
      eye for eye, tooth for tooth, murder of innocents for        truth of the absolute infallibility of Scripture without
      murder of innocents. Still, we are tempted to wonder,        ultimately destroying the trustworthiness of all of the
      why couldn't these who put this book together under          Bible. If one can blue-pencil some of the Psalms
      serener conditions, and we confess, the Spirit's             because these seem to conflict with God's "love,"
      guidance, have blue-penciled the thirst for revenge          then he can do that with any part of Scripture. Any
      and vindication?                                             who know the development of this same heresy in
          . . . But no Christian minister may speak thus           other denominations, can know what will happen


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         43


soon in the C.R.C. too  - unless God change the                 consistent with God's love. Soon one finds reason to
course of this denomination. Before long, one denies            deny miracles of the Bible  - then even the atonement
the admonitions of Scripture  - because a "loving"              itself. There seems to be no stopping of this sort of
and "merciful" God will not so speak to His people.             reasoning short of a return to the truth of the full
Then one denies the existence of hell  - for it is not          inspiration of the Bible.



                                    The AELC and the Trinity

  The development of error is seen all about us. The                League, that Christ was not the only way to heaven.
Christian  News of July 23, 1979, comments on                       Wilken had already cast doubt upon the virgin birth
differences between the Missouri Synod  - Lutheran                  of Christ in the Pentecost, 1965 Una Sancta. He
Church and the break-away group called Association                  argued in the March, 1968 Una Sancta that Christian-
of Evangelical Lutheran Churches with their semi-                   ity is just one of the many world religions which have
                                                                    gradually evolved in history.
nary: Seminex. The article points out:                                 The lead article in Seminex's February, 1979
      The AELC also differs with the LCMS on the                    Currents in Theology  in Mission is by Robert Wilken
   ordination of women and having homosexuals serve                 on the Athanasian Creed. The AELC clergyman
   as clergymen.                                                    rejects a real subscription to the Athanasian Creed.
      However, the differences between the AELC and                 The Athanasian Creed teaches that Jesus Christ is the
   LCMS go far deeper than even abortion, homosexual-               only way to heaven and that historic Christianity is
   ity, and the ordination of women. The AELC allows                the only saving faith. Wilken can't accept this.
   its theologians to reject the historic Christian faith              Now he argues in the latest  Dialog  that the
   itself. Any AELC defender who doubts this should                 doctrine of the Trinity is another doctrine which has
   read "Liturgical Piety and the Doctrine of the                   no real scriptural support but is a doctrine which
   Trinity" by Dr. Robert L. Wilken in the Spring issue             gradually evolved. According to this AELC clergy-
   of Dialog.                                                       man, the Arians (early Unitarians who rejected the
      Dr. Robert Wilken is an AELC clergyman who                    deity of Christ) actually had more scriptural support
   teaches at the University of Notre Dame. When he                 than the Trinitarians. . . .
   taught at the Jesuit Fordham  University in the Bronx,
   there were some Roman Catholics in the Bronx who               The article continues by quoting more of this
   were not pleased with the liberalism of an LCMS              heretic clergyman. One must surely be impressed that
   professor who was teaching at their school. Dr.              the heresies which were condemned in the early
   Wilken told us in 1967 at the  LCMS's  New York              history of the New Testament church are re-surfacing.
   convention that he did not believe in the virgin birth       Once more, the very fundamentals of Christianity are
   of Christ. He also said in the presence of his friend,       being denied. Evidence, it is, of the apostasy of which
   Rabbi Solomon Bernards of the Anti-Defamation                Scripture clearly foretold.


THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                         The Supplanter is Sent Away
                                                      Rev. John A. Heys



  Having been taken advantage of by his wife,                   intention to bless, and cut off from the covenant
Rebekah, and his son, Jacob, and in his blindness               blessing the son to whom he intended to give it all.
having been deceived, Isaac blessed the son he had no           He could soothe his conscience by taking the  pcsition


44                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



that after all Esau was the firstborn. And we quickly         capable of the evil deeds that one sees in the world
and quite easily do that ourselves. We will look for a        and outside of the church. Yet it is true. See the most
"technicality" that will defend us in that which we           evil man or woman walking on this earth, and then
know we should not have done and which in others              say, "There but for the grace of God go I." And
we do call sin. We will also defend a false doctrine the      believe that your children also, unless kept by that
consequences of which we know will cause other                grace of God from the sins of the world, will do all
points of doctrine to fall, but we will nevertheless          the sins the world displays. We have to learn and
look for a text behind which we can hide and defend           believe that, apart from the grace of God, our
ourselves and save face. Now we read nowhere' that            children are not different, and no better than those of
Isaac did try to defend his position of sending Esau to       unbelievers. We have not given them any spirituality.
get venison so that he could bless him. But he                We have not transmitted our own faith into them and
certainly knew God's word spoken about these two              given them just a bit of our spiritual life. We do give
sons and recorded in Romans 9 :  9- 13. And he did seek       them part of our own evil natures. We, the leopards,
to go in the other direction and trembled greatly             give them their spots (Jeremiah  17:23); we the fallen
when God turned the tables and caused him, through            race give them fallen natures; we who by nature are
this deception of his wife and son,  to.bless  him whom       sinners bring forth winners. We ought therefore not
he had not intended to bless, and to cut off complete-        to be surprised when our children do the deeds found
ly from a blessing him to whom he intended to give it         in the children of the world, but we should stand
all.                                                          amazed, dumbfounded, and exceedingly thankful
      Incidentally there is comfort here for the Church       when we see that God has wrought a miracle in them
in the midst of this world. God's Word will stand. His        and brings them to the faith and its confession, to a
promises are sure. His people will be blessed no              walk of faith and a life of sanctification.
matter who tries to curse them and to keep them                  Isaac's blindness kept much away from him
from their divinely decreed blessings of His kingdom.         w i t h o u t   a   d o u b t .   A n d   J a c o b   w a s   n o t   s u c h   a
It may be through deceit; and it was through a                fait h-manifesting young man either. One can
shameful betrayal that brought God's own Son to the           understand that a parent does not want to believe the
cross and into the depths of hell that we might have a        worst about his son, and when even those children
blessing; but, as we sing, "His saints shall not fail; but    who do manifest faith manifest also the flesh, it
over the earth their strength shall prevail."                 becomes hard for the parent to consider one of his
      Isaac, apparently, though in his blindness he had       own flesh a child of God and the other a child of the
plenty of time to think it through, and had much less         devil. And if all Isaac knew of Esau was that he
to distract himself from other matters (as we with            married these heathen wives, we could understand
sight are often drawn away), never gave much                  that he did not expect or even consider possible the
consideration to the explosive situation that now             murder of Jacob by Esau in such a fierce wrath by a
existed. He knew of Esau's bitter disappointment,             hardened heart as Rebekah finds out is being planned.
and undoubtedly also of the earlier bitterness that              But Isaac had God's word  - not only that God had
resulted when Jacob bought the birthright for a mess          said before the children were born, "Jacob have I loved
of pottage, taking advantage of a famished brother            and Esau have I hated," but in the very blessing
whose craving for food was overwhelming. He did not           which gave  all to Jacob. And that blessing Isaac
however expect Esau to be filled with such hatred             repeats when he sends Jacob, the supplanter, away.
that he would contemplate and plan the murder of              GOD ruled Esau out completely. That Isaac knows.
his brother. Was his natural love for this son so strong      He said it. He said, according to Genesis  27:33 and
that he would not entertain thoughts that his son             35, "I .  _ . have blessed him, yea and he shall be
could do such wrong and was incapable of such                 blessed. Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath
hatred?                                                       taken away thy blessing." It is taken away. There is
                                                              no blessing for Esau. For listen again, "I have made
      He must have known that Esau was profane. He            him thy Lord . . . and have sustained him: and what
had experienced that Esau walked in a carnal way, for         shall I do now unto thee, my son?" Isaac confesses
we read that Esau's marriage to heathen Canaanitish           that there `is nothing to give Esau. What can he do,
women caused him to have grief of mind. Yes, these            now that God has given all the blessing to Jacob?
women were a grief of mind, or bitterness of spirit, to
Isaac, but that means that Esau's marriage to them               With Rebekah it is otherwise. She understands
also was a grief of mind.                                     human nature, and knows her sons better than her
                                                              husband does. How does it happen that she is always
      And parents can get that way. Though they believe       in the right place at the right time to hear the right
and confess that their children are conceived and             words to get for her son what she wants and to
born in sin, they do not think that their children are        protect him from his twin brother`? To be sure it is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    45



not chance. There can be no question about it that            Is it that she, knowing the explosive nature of Esau
God's hand is at work here to bring her to these              will cool off soon, sees no need to tell Isaac the whole
places at these times. He Who had spoken to Rebekah           story? Is it the mother-love that she still had for
before the children were born and said that the elder         Esau? For he, after all, is also her son, and she
would serve the younger will not leave things to              expresses here no desire to be robbed of them both in
chance. He will not let one part of one word slip to          one day.
the ground unfulfilled. He will dot every i and cross           One thing stands out, Jacob is sent away under the
every t, and in such a way that when His promises to          pretext of getting a God-fearing wife, while the main
us are all fulfilled, we will find that He does much          reason for his dismissal is to escape the death Esau
more than what we thought His promises would give             intended to inflict. Now Rebekah meant that with all
us. We, with the Queen of Sheba, will say, "The half          her heart. She, too, was grieved when Esau married
was not told me." Human, earthly words cannot tell            the unbelieving women of Canaan (Genesis  26:35).
us the richness of what God's covenant has in store           She did love Esau as well as Jacob; and Isaac did love
for us. It serves to cause us to know that we shall be        Jacob as well as Esau. And Rebekah did not want
blessed. It does not deceive and understate. But it just      Jacob to emulate his brother and take to himself
cannot say fully what we shall enjoy when we see              anything but a believing wife. She was a believing
face to face.                                                 child of God. She was a spiritual woman; and we
  God, however, uses means in His works of                    must not let sins  - which we all commit as well  -
providence. And Rebekah did not just happen to be             brand her as nothing but a scheming, crafty woman
told when Esau made known his plan to kill Jacob as           who is to be accused of unprincipled use of principle.
soon as the days of mourning for his father were over.        She, because she and Isaac had spoken about these
(This in fact was a day farther in the future than            matters before, when Esau brought them such grief of
either Isaac or Esau contemplated, because all things         heart, was sure that Isaac would agree to this
are worked according to God's counsel and not man's           departure of Jacob. She was not so sure that he
will.) He used Rebekah's deep concern. He used her            would believe that his favourite son would fall to
love for Jacob to make her suspicious of Esau's               such an horrible sin as to murder his brother to get
behaviour and to realize that it was not mere bitter          the birthright blessing for himself. She does honour
disappointment, but devilish hatred toward Jacob              her blind husband with the right to make the
that smouldered in his heart. She understood her sons         decision. She lays the matter before him and does not
better than her husband did; and so often a mother            ignore him.
does, beyond anything the father senses.                        And the supplanter is sent away. Rebekah does not
  Esau said in his heart that he would kill Jacob, but        realize that, as far  as. she is concerned, she is sending
he also let his lips declare it, because God wanted it        him out of her life forever. We never read of her again
that way so that Rebekah would hear and Jacob                 in connection with Jacob. When he does come back
would be saved. Now there are those who explain               twenty years later we read only that he came to his
that although Esau had an explosive nature and could          father, Isaac, in Mamre. No mention of Rebekah is
get violently angry, he cooled off swiftly and forgot         made. Esau spent a few more years with his mother.
easily. There is truth in this, as we can see twenty years    Jacob is with his mother's tricky brother. Rebekah
later. Esau is satisfied with his wealth and receives         had a few more years with Esau. She had none with
Jacob back in peace. Rebekah also knew this, but              her favourite son, Jacob. He has God's blessing, but
there is danger before that hot anger cools off; and          his sin (and hers)- does rob them of each other's
Jacob was in danger. He is the supplanter and he has          fellowship here below. And undoubtedly Rebekah
supplanted his older brother; but now for his safety          suffered this loss the most. Jacob soon became
he must be sent to Rebekah's brother till Esau's anger        enamoured with Rachel and forgot his mother.
"turn away from him." In fact Rebekah calls it his              The supplanter is sent away from father and
"fury," a word that means heat. Esau was indeed hot           mother, and from the land he will, as supplanter,
with anger, boiling inside to kill Jacob.                     inherit. But he was not sent away from God's grace,
  Do we here sense a little more of the craftiness and        and his return is sure. As the words of the hymn have
trickery of Rebekah? We are told that she knows of            it, "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go." In Him
the murder plot: But she comes to Isaac with an               Jacob is supplanter, not in his own power  - although
entirely different principle, namely, a God-fearing           Jacob often lost sight of this. And He is the
wife for Jacob. Is she being kind to her blind                everywhere present help and refuge of His people.
husband? Is she working from the principle that what          Being sent away from the Father all the way to hell
he does not know will not hurt him? And why should            for us, He has made it sure that all whom God chose
he die with that awful thought that his son is waiting        in Him will supplant the world. Truly the meek  shall
for him to die so that he can cause his brother to die?       inherit the earth, though now the Esau's hold it tightly.


46                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


                                              Book Reviews
THE DEEPER FAITH, AN EXPOSITION OF THE                          THE CONSUMMATION OF HISTORY, A Study of
CANONS OF THE SYNOD OF DORT,  Gordon                            the Book of Revelation, by` George G. Weeber; 1978;
Girod; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,  Mich.; 135              Distributed by Baker Book House; 283 pp. (Reviewed
pages, $1.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. C.                  by Prof. H. Hanko)
Hoeksema)                                                                Here is another book to add to the list of recent
      This is a reprint of a book published earlier by          expositions of the book of Revelation. It is a rela-
Reformed Publications.                                          tively short but pointed and helpful explanation of
      It is hardly to be classified as "an exposition of the    the book and is recommended for use by our readers.
Canons of the Synod of Dort." While there is abun-              It has a great deal of interesting and important
dant reference to the Canons, and while this little             material in it and it quotes rather extensively from
book is certainly faithful to the doctrines set forth in        Rev. Hoeksema's commentary on Revelation, "Be-
the Canons, it is not a detailed exposition of the              hold, He Cometh."
Canons by any means. I would classify it rather as an                    The one objection to the book is that it is rather
exposition of the Five Points of Calvinism along the            brief and somewhat inconclusive at key points. Never-
lines of the Canons of Dordrecht. As such, it is                theless, the book is a worthwhile addition to one's
certainly faithful to the teachings of the Canons and           library and will be helpful in a study of Revelation.
is interestingly written, instructive, and very clear and
concise.
      If I had any negative criticism, it would be the fact
that the antithetical note is largely absent in this
book. It does not sufficiently take into account the
fact that the Canons stand opposed to and sharply
expose the Arminian heresy. This could be due to the
fact that the Rev. Girod's denomination, the Re-
formed Church in America, recognizes only the posi-
tive section of the Canons, but fails to give  creedal
status to the Rejection of Errors.
      Recommended.

          Jesus, my God, my Friend, my King,
          Whom heav'n and earth adore;
          The wonders of thy Word I sing,
          But never can explore.

          Thy word in  cov'nant undertook
          To bring salvation in:
          Thy Word upon mount Calv'ry shook                                                                                                  AYERAGE  NO.   COPIES   EIC"         ACTUAL   NO_   COPIES   OF  SINGLE
          The gates of hell and sin.                             ID.             EXTENT   AND   N(\TYRE   OF   CIRC"LATION                   ISSUE   OVRINC   PRECEDlND           lla"EP"BLISHEDNE~.REPTTO
                                                                                                                                                     22   MONTHS                            FlLlND   DATE

                                                                I A TDTlL NO. COPIT rR,nlrD ,NePnu  R"",                                I             1,900                  I 1,900                                    I
                                                                 I.  PAlO   ClRCYLATlDW
          Thy  pow'rful Word can intercede                              I.  5ALr_ST"RO"T"   DLILIRS~NDS-I1I1IEl*,ITIILET                                       0                                        0
                                                                          Yr*DOmI*"DCOY?ilLR          %.LEI

          And grace divine impart;                                      2.  *AILsYm*Erl,PT,Ol(,                                                       1,650                               1,651
                                                                E. TDTlL PND ClRCULAllon mm m, lOBl  ."d IOBZ,                          I             1.650
                                                                                                                                                       ~,     _~             I 1.651
          Can change the soul, supply its need,                                                                                                                                              I     -
                                                                                                                                        I                                    I

                                                                0.  PRLS   ~)IITRIB"TIDN      D"   MA,L.CAII,~II  OR  OI"Ss?   *SAN*
          And sanctify the heart.                                       IIUrLEI,COYILIUFWTII",   1.40   OT"EI   FlEE   CDIlEl                                 50                                   51
                                                                L. TOTAL D)I*Tmt~YT,D1(  ,S"rn MC0ndc.I                                               1.700                  I 1.701

          Thy sov'reign Word knows no control:
          Its conquest none can tell:
          Its triumphs reach from pole to pole,
          To heav'n to earth, and hell.

          Summon'd by Thee, all worlds shall come,
          From seas and tombs shall start;
          Thy Word shall welcome Christians home,
          And bid Thy foes depart.


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                        47




                                                                YOU ARE INVITED!
                                                                            to the
                              2nd ANNUAL CHICAGOLAND REFORMATION DAY LECTURES
                                                                      to be held;
                                                                  the Lord willing,
                                                                             at
                                             Illiana Christian High Auditorium, Lansing,  Ill.

                                                                h * ******

                                                                This year's theme is:
                                    "`A SERIOQ5 CALL TO A REFORMED AND HOLY LIFE"

              Speakers and topics will be:

              Wed., Oct. 24  -
                   Rev. G. Van Baren: "SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD"
                   . . . setting forth the truth of the antithesis as concerning movie attendance, dancing,
                        unionism and other forms of worldliness.

              Wed., Oct. 3 1 -
                   Rev. M. Joostens:  "HONORING MARRIAGE"
                   . . . setting forth the biblical teaching on marriage, the idea of faithfulness in marriage
                         even as God in Christ is faithful in love to His church; taking up such matters as
                         divorce and remarriage; warning against the evils of marital unfaithfulness; calling
                        the saints to marital fidelity.
              Wed., Nov. 7  -
                   Rev. D. Engelsma: "`REMEMBERING THE LORD'S DAY"
                   . . . setting forth the Bible's teaching on Sabbath observance, warning against desecration
                        of the Lord's Day, calling the saints to good Sabbath keeping.

              All meetings begin at 8:00 P.M.
              Question  & Answer period after each address
              Cassette tapes of each speech will be made available
                                                                                                       Sponsored  by:.
                                                                                      Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                                      South Holland, Ill. 60473





          30 YEARS OF FAITHFUL SERVICE                                                         REFORMATION DAY LECTURE
   This September marked the 30th Anniversary of the ordination of                    The Annual Reformation Day Lecture is to be held Tuesday,
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema as minister of the Word of God in our churches.               October 30, 1979, at the Calvin College Fine Arts Center at 8 P.M. Rev.
We thank our faithful covenant God for these years of service to our               David J. Engelsma will be the speaker. His subject will be  "EVAN-
churches as a minister of the Word, as professor in our seminary, and as           GELISM AND THE REFORMED FAITH."
a spiritual leader in the causes of the Kingdom of God.                                                                           The Lecture Committee

   "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will
I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy
shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shall thou establish in the
very heavens." (Psalm  89:1, 2)
                                      Theological School Committee
                                      Protestant Reformed Churches
                                      John Buiter, Secretary

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


                                j Vll
48                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                -


                                         REPORT OF  CLASSIS WEST

      Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches         of the Church Order by answering specific questions
met for three days, on September 5-7, in Isabel,               directed to the  Classis by the delegates of the
South Dakota. The agenda was heavy; and there was              consis tory.
little time, day or night, that was not taken up in the          The consistory which has been advised by  Classis
work. Nevertheless, the delegates enjoyed the hos-             previously to work with its pastor concerning a
pitality and fellowship of the saints in Isabel, as well       certain teaching of his which  Classis condemned
as good fellowship among themselves.                           informed  Classis that the pastor has retracted his
      Nine ministers, thirteen elders, and two deacons         teaching and has expressed sorrow for the trouble
represented the churches of the West and did their             that this caused the church.  Classis received this
work. Rev. R. Moore led  Classis in opening devotions          report with joy.
on Wednesday morning. He read Isaiah 33 and                      In executive session,  Classis advised one consistory
addressed the  Classis with a devotional speech on             to proceed with the erasure of a baptized member
verse 2: "0 LORD, be gracious unto us; we have                 and advised another consistory to proceed with the
waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our          erasure of a baptized member and the second step of
salvation also in the time of trouble." Rev. W.                censure with two confessing members.
Bekkering then presided over the  Classis.                       Classis heard the report of a committee that had
      The happiest work of the  Classis was the examina-       been appointed to help a consistory with difficulties.
tion of Ronald Cammenga, who had accepted the call             The consistory asked that the committee be con-
of the Hull, Iowa congregation. Mr. Cammenga                   tinued, and  Classis granted this request.
preached before the  Classis on Tuesday evening, in a
special worship service of the Isabel congregation. His          A classical appointment schedule for the Redlands,
text was Joshua  24:14,  15. On Wednesday,  Classis            California church was approved: Oct. 28, Nov. 4  -
examined him in the areas required by the decision             Flikkema; Nov. 18, 25  - Kortering; Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23,
appended to Article 4 of the Church Order. With the            30, Jan. 6  - Lanting; Jan. 13, 20  - Kuiper; Feb. 3,
approval of the  synodical delegates from  Classis East,       10  - Koole; Feb. 24, March 2  - Moore.
Classis approved Mr. Cammenga's examination and                  The proposal of Randolph to increase the remuner-
advised Hull to proceed with his ordination, which             ation of lost wages for elder delegates attending
Hull has since done.                                           Classis from $30 to $40 per day was adopted.
      Classis treated several protests and appeals, most of      Classis decided to hold its next meeting in South
them in executive session.                                     Holland, Illinois in March, 1980. Breaking with
      It responded to a consistory's request for help          tradition,  Classis set the date as the first Tuesday of
regarding the financial situation and ministerial duty         the month.          Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
of a minister dismissed from service under Article 11                              Classis West


