                        The
      STANDARD
c                       BEARER
                         A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                 \





                                              `





                        we must, in a good sense of the word,
       .     .     .





     broaden our outlook, gain an appreciation for
     traditions other than those of Dutch Calvin-
     ists, consider carefully the problems and
     struggles which others face in other lands so
     that we can be appreciative of them and
     recognize that they vary -from our own, and
     (to use the words of Paul) become all things
     to all men if by any means we might save
     some.

                                           See "Our Calling in Today's
                                    Ecclesiastical World" - page 53


t                                                            Volume LVI, No. 3, Nov. 1,1979-


 50                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                           CONTENTS:                                                                                             ISSN 0362-4692
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MEDITATION



                                                        Sarah's ram
                                                 to Conceive Seed
                                                                 Rev. H. Veldman


                  "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a
              child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
                  `Therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead, so many as' the stars of the
              sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. "
                                                                                                                                                         Heb. ll:ll-12

   Why is this scripture recorded here? Why is Sarah                           as follows: "By faith also with Sarah Abraham
mentioned as a heroine of faith? Of course, we must                            received ability for the conceiving of seed when he
permit this text to stand as it is. Some would read it                         was past age." The emphasis, then, falls upon


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  51



Abraham. This interpretation cannot stand. It is             now doubted whether they would have a son, that
simply an attempt to avoid the difficulty inasmuch as        there was still a glimmer of hope in her. No, the Bible
they would maintain that the conceiving of seed              tells us that it had ceased to be with her after the
belongs to the man. The text, however, declares that         manner of women. At first, Sarah's and Abraham's
the woman here receives strength for the conceiving          faith in the fulfillment of the promise was not
of seed.                                                     exclusively a matter of faith. At first, this fulfillment
  But, according to Genesis 18: 12-15 Sarah laughed          had also been considered physically possible. They
in unbelief. How, then, can it be said of her that she       thought that they could fulfill this promise of
believed and judged the Lord to be faithful Who had          Jehovah. This also appears from the fact that Sarah
promised? This explains why this text is recorded            gave Abraham her servant, Hagar, to be his wife. Had
here. Sarah also believed.                                   Sarah given up all hope as far as she was concerned, she
                     ****is**                                did not consider it hopeless from the viewpoint of
                                                             Abraham. Now, however, all has changed. Abraham,
  Sarah believed? Does not the divine record tell us         too, was as good as dead. And Ishmael was not to be
that she laughed and that, therefore, she did not            the heir. And when the Lord came to Abraham at
believe? Why, then, do we read her name here, in             Mamre, Sarah laughed when she heard the Lord tell
Hebrews 11, among the heroes and heroines of faith?          her husband that they would have a son. This was
  To conceive seed, we understand, is a physical act.        unbelief. She did not believe the promise of the Lord.
The text tells us that Sarah received strength to              So, the question must be asked: how must this
conceive seed by faith. But, to  ,conceive seed is not       faith of Sarah be explained? Hebrews 11 places her in
simply an act of faith. Women do not conceive seed           the ranks of those who act by the power of faith.
simply by believing. The conceiving of seed is not a         Genesis 19 holds her before us as one who did not
spiritual but a physical act. The question is, therefore,    believe the word of the Lord. Yet, we read that by
surely pertinent: what does the holy writer mean             faith she received strength unto the conceiving of
when he writes that Sarah conceived by faith?                seed. She had become completely impotent. Now,
Besides, she laughed and therefore did not believe.          however, she believes. And by her faith her physical
  Of Sarah we read that she was "past age." Literally        desire and strength return. She is again able to
we read: contrary to age. She was now eighty-nine            conceive and have a son.
years old; she had reached that age when the bringing          What did Sarah believe?
forth of children had become impossible. And this
also applied to Abraham. We read of Abraham in this            First, she judged, or considered, God faithful Who
text that he was "one as good as dead."                      had promised. This means, on the one hand, that she
                                                             judged the Lord to be able to fulfill it. God would
  And now she did not believe. Abraham and Sarah             surely not give a promise He could not fulfill. And,
had received the promise. Indeed, they had received          secondly, the Lord would not fail her. He would be
this promise already in Mesopotamia. Later the               faithful to His promise. Sarah believed in God's
promise had been repeated several times. Jehovah had         unchangeable faithfulness. Secondly, Sarah, mind
promised them an innumerable seed. For several years         you, judged this  IZOW.  She judged this when she was
it was not too difficult for them to embrace this            past age, when the fulfillment of God's promise had
promise. Upon entering the land of Canaan Abraham            become a matter of life arising out of death.
was seventy-five years old and Sarah was sixty-five            This also applies to us. Indeed, for us, too, God's
years of age. The bringing forth of a child at that time     promise is a matter of life out of death. We are by
was not humanly impossible. But now they had                 nature dead in sins and in trespasses. And what do we
become old. To be sure, they had pelagian-wise,              believe? Today people speak of God's promise as a
attempted to assist the Lord in the fulfillment of His       general offer of salvation. But, what do we believe?
promise. When Abraham and Sarah were eighty-five             We believe that we are hopelessly and helplessly lost
years and seventy-five years old respectively, Sarah         in sin. We believe that God is able to save us and
had proposed to her husband to take Hagar to wife,           fulfill His promise. Indeed, He did save us upon the
thinking that Hagar's son, the son of her servant,           cross. And we also believe that He is able to fulfill it
would be considered her son and serve as the heir.           in us, being God Almighty, and that He will save us to
But, this was unsuccessful. The Lord informed them           the uttermost, in heavenly glory and immortality.
that Ishmael would not be the  promised  seed.  And                               ******
now they had come to a state of utter hopelessness.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old and Sarah                    How was this faith of Sarah effected?
eighty-nine when the Lord, accompanied by two                  The purpose of the Lord's visit to Abraham at
angels, visited them at Mamre. Indeed, this visit surely     Mamre is obvious. This visit did not concern Abraham
revealed that Sarah was past age. It is not so that she      primarily. On the one hand, the Lord had already


52                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



appeared to Abraham according to Genesis 17. Then                                         them (Abraham and Sarah) as good as dead."
the Lord had told Abraham that his wife would bear                                        Believing in God, through that faith, Abraham and
him a son. And Abraham had believed and had                                               Sarah were made alive again, so that a son could be
submitted himself and all that were born in his house                                     born to them.
to the rite of circumcision. And, on the other hand,                                        We must also apply this to ourselves. We must
the Lord immediately asks Abraham: where is Sarah,                                        believe the word of the Lord. How much richer is the
thy wife? Hence, what the Lord tells Abraham is                                           word of God as we have it today in the scriptures
obviously intended for the ears of Sarah. The incident                                    than what Abraham received at Mamre! Jesus has
at Mamre, therefore, concerns primarily Sarah.                                            come, has suffered and died and is risen again, and is
   Now we know that Sarah had  note believed. True,                                       now exalted at the right hand of the power of God.
for a long time she had undoubtedly cleaved to the                                        Indeed, we have the fulfillment of the promise in
word of the promise of the Lord. Day after day she                                        Christ Jesus, our Lord. And that Word also speaks to
had lived in the expectation of the fulfillment of the                                    us of things invisible. It speaks to us of the
Lord's promise to her and Abraham. But her faith                                          forgiveness of our sins, life, and glory everlasting in
had not always been the evidence of things unseen,                                        the new heavens and upon the new earth. But we
and the substance of things hoped for. She had                                            believe and trust that God is faithful. He will surely
believed the word of the Lord as long as the                                              fulfill His promise in us. And, in that faith, be it
fulfillment of the promise had appeared to her as                                         against all odds, and seemingly all things are against
humanly possible. But now she had given up on the                                         us, we will fight even unto the end, believing that the
promise of the Lord. She was becoming older and the                                       victory is certain and the crown sure.
prospects of a son were becoming dimmer. In                                                                   ******
unbelief she had suggested to her husband that he                                           This faith of Sarah was rewarded. Its immediate
take Hagar to be his wife. And, now, at Mamre, she                                        result, of course, was that she became a mother.
laughed in unbelief.                                                                        Greater, of course, is the other result mentioned in
   What now had happened that she believed?                                               this particular word of God. We read here of an
    How wonderful is faith! How often the people of                                       innumerable company. But, please note the character
God experience the power of faith in times when                                           of this innumerable company. The text refers to the
everything appears hopeless.                                                              promise given Abraham, it refers to the elect of God
    First, the word of the Lord had come to her at                                        out of all nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues.
Mamre. Secondly, the Lord operated in Sarah. He not                                       However, this people is born of God, through the
o n l y   r e v e a l e d   I s a a c 's   b i r t h   t o   h e r ,   b u t   a l s o    power of faith. And faith is not something Sarah had;
accompanied this revelation by His Spirit and grace,                                      it was given unto her. This people, therefore, has its
working in her, removing her unbelief. And, thirdly,                                      inception in the miraculous birth of Isaac. Isaac,
through faith she received strength to conceive seed.                                     according to Romans 9, is the child of the promise,
She believed the word of the Lord. She believed Him                                       born through the wonder of the promise, a child of
to be faithful Who had promised. Her faith was the                                        God's wonderful grace, as it operated through the
evidence of the things invisible. And so she received                                     faith of Abraham and Sarah, God's gift to them.
strength to conceive seed. She trusted in God that He                                       And what is true of Isaac is true of all this seed of
would make her dead womb alive again. She                                                 Abraham. We bring forth children like unto ourselves,
submitted to the word of the Lord and was eager to                                        dead in sins and in trespasses. But God calls His own
have a child, and this in spite of the fact that she was                                  from our children, until one day the Body of our
almost ninety years old. "Therefore sprang there even                                     Lord Jesus Christ will be full and His Church shall
of one, and him as good as dead," or, literally,                                          have been gathered unto the praise and glory of His
"Therefore sprang there even of one (Abraham) and                                         wonderful grace.





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                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 53



GUEST EDITORIAL




                               Our Calling in Today's
                                  Ecclesiastical World
                                                   Prof: H. Hanko




(Editor's Note. Because of an abundance of material         their origin in the fact that we have, perhaps
for this issue, some of which should not be delayed,        somewhat unconsciously, the notion that the only
we give our editorial space to this transcript of Prof.     people who can really be faithful to the Scriptures are
Hanko's address to the annual meeting of the                Calvinists of the  Reformed faith who have their roots
Reformed Free Publishing Association. In this guest         in the Netherlands and are not too far removed from
editorial my colleague states some things, I believe,       Dutch speaking forbears. The fear is that, should we
which need saying and from which our readers may            extend our influence beyond these narrow confines,
well benefit. HCH)                                          we will surely sacrifice our heritage and fall prey to
  In the past two decades, there has been some shift        false doctrine. Better it is, so the reasoning goes, to
in emphasis in our churches. Our calling has been, in       stay within  .our own small circles, shout occasionally
some respects, significantly altered because the Lord       at the evils in our mother Church, and confine
is calling us to new fields of labor. For many years, as    ourselves to the task of limiting our labors to
Protestant Reformed Churches, we spent a great deal         Protestant Reformed congregations.
of time consolidating our position, developing the            It is my contention tonight that we ought not be
truth which God had given to us, and combatting             this way, and that we must bend every effort to avert
heresy even as it arose in our own circles. Insofar as      this kind of narrow parochialism which will vitiate
we paid attention to churches outside our own               our labors.
sphere, we paid special attention to the Christian            In order to do this, we must, in a good sense of the
Reformed Church, our mother denomination, and               word, broaden our outlook, gain an appreciation for
spent much of our time and energy in pointing that          traditions other than those of Dutch Calvinists,
church to her errors and calling to the faithful to         consider carefully the problems and struggles which
leave her and come with us.                                 others face in other lands so that we can be
  This has been changing in recent years. The change        appreciative of them and recognize that they vary
came about, first of all, with the calling to work in       from our own, and (to use the words of Paul) become
Jamaica. Since that time we have had increased              all things to all men if by any means we might save
contacts with and increased callings to labor in other      some.
spheres: among Presbyterians in the South, where              To this matter I wish to address your attention. I
Rev. van  Overloop  is now working; among Chinese in        am aware of the fact, of course, that this does not
Singapore; among people from Presbyterian                   directly affect our  Standard Bearer,  and that,
background in New Zealand and Australia.                    perhaps, this is not the ideal forum for saying these
  As we shift our emphasis in order to be obedient to       things; but in defense of my choice of topic I want to
these callings, certain problems have come up within        remind you, first of all, that the  Stan@ard  Bearer  is
our fellowship which have tended somewhat to                vitally a part of all this and ought to continue to be
stymie our labors and which have served as obstacles        such; and, secondly, that neither our churches nor the
which we must overcome if we are to perform the             Standard Bearer  can get on with the task without the
work which God gives us to do. These problems have          wholehearted support of all our people.


 54                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



  There are a few truths concerning the Church of           with this. I do wonder sometimes whether, while we
our Lord Jesus Christ to which our attention must,          pay lip service to this truth, we really, in our hearts,
first of all, be directed and which shall serve as a        would wish that it were not so. But be that as it may,
foundation for what we have to say.                         on this we are, I think, agreed.
   In a sense, these truths all come down to the one           But there is another aspect to this question. That
truth of the catholicity of the Church of Christ. It is     Church which has such a wide diversity must express
not my intention tonight to deal at length with this        itself also in such a way that that diversity comes to
remarkable and astonishing truth concerning the             manifestation. As I was talking about the Church up
Church of our Lord; but a few points are worth our          to this point I was really talking about what we call
notice.                                                     the organism of the Church. I want now to say
  The catholicity of the Church fundamentally               something about the institute of the Church. The
implies her unity. There cannot be, in the Church of        body of Christ comes to manifestation in this world
Christ, true catholicity unless there is also a             in institutional form. That is, it is always the calling
fundamental unity. This unity of the Church is the          of the believers in Christ to manifest themselves in
unity of Christ the Head of the Church. The whole           the world by adopting the institute of the Church,
body of Christ is one, only because the whole body          the pattern for which we have in the Scriptures. The
has Christ as the Head. This unity comes to                 Church must get organized. It must be constituted
expression especially in the unity of one faith, for all    into a congregation with officebearers, so that the
the Church of Christ is united in this one, central, and    Word of Christ can be proclaimed in that Church and
fundamental point: all the Church believes the same         go forth from that Church in an official way. That
truth, for all the truth of God is in Christ Himself,       Church takes on the marks of the true Church only
and union with Christ is possible only through the          when that Church organizes herself into an institute.
truth of which Christ is the full revelation.               How can you have the pure preaching of the Word,
                                                            the proper administration of the sacraments, and the
  But that very unity is the unity of the body of           exercise of Christian discipline unless you have a
Christ. And so the catholicity of the Church implies,       congregation with ministers, elders, and deacons and
at the same time as unity, a very wide diversity. If        the gathering of believers and their seed?
you have a thousand identical pieces of board you
never have a unity among those pieces even though             It is the burden of what I have to say tonight that
you pile them all atop each other. If you have a            this institutional Church must also manifest herself so
thousand identical leaves, you never have a tree,           that her diversity remains intact.
because to have a tree you must have branches and             There is something natural and inevitable about
trunk and roots. If you have a thousand identical           this. God sees to it that this is exactly what happens.
Christians you can never have a unity which can be          It is our calling to recognize this, appreciate it, and
compared with a body. For that kind of unity you            strive earnestly to maintain it. Let me explain.
need Christians who are different from each other,            I n   t h e   h i s t o r y   o f   t h e   C h u r c h   p r i o r   t o   t h e
even though (and just because) they are held together       Reformation there was an effort made to maintain
in a unity by their one confession of the truth as it is    the Church in some kind of institutional unity. For
in Christ and as we have it in the Holy Scriptures.         many centuries, from a certain point of view, these
  God has ordained that that kind of catholicity of         efforts were successful. That is, there was really only
the Church comes about by means  .of a Church               one single denomination which we now call the
which, after Pentecost, is gathered from every nation       Roman Catholic Church. But even in those days of
and tribe and tongue. The Church is most surely a           institutional unity, there was really no true unity.
catholic Church, and its catholicity is due to its wide     For, although the Church was one in a formal,
diversity within its principle unity.                       institutional way, nevertheless, there were important
  That means that there has got to be more in the           differences of many kinds, especially between the
Church than white Dutch Calvinists of Reformed              Eastern Church and Western Church which really
background. The Church has got to include Germans           made two separate denominations. So clear-cut were
and Swedes and Italians and Jews and all the rest.          these divisions, that they were, in fact, finally
And, even more strikingly, that Church has got to           recognized and the Church went through what is now
include blacks and yellows as well as whites. Others        called the Great Schism of 1054. After that date,
need us, for we too are part of the Church. But let it      especially the Western Church did remain one
never be forgotten that we need them as well, for           institutionally as it was founded throughout all of
they too are part of the Church.                            Europe. But here too the differences between various
                                                            national parts of the Church were so great that the
  Now all of this is rather elementary. I doubt very        unity was in some outward form only. And indeed,
much whether there is anyone here who disagrees             the efforts to preserve even this outward form of


                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                             55



unity resulted in untold heresies with which the                                       emphasis, differences which express fully the
Romish Church was corrupted in the time before the                                     catholicity of the Church and which make it a fit tool
Reformation. The Church of Germany, e.g., was quite                                    in the hands of God to gather a catholic body of
different in many important respects from the church                                   Christ.
of Italy. And the Church in Italy was, in its own way,                                     Our Church Order recognizes this fact when it
quite different from the Church in France or in                                        speaks of the truth that "Churches whose usages
England.                                                                               differ from ours merely in non-essentials shall not be
   The Reformation brought about a change of                                           rejected." (Article 85) I .am aware of the fact that it is
thinking in this respect. The Reformers, while seeking                                 not always so easy for us to tell the difference
sometimes closer institutional unity for purposes of                                   between "essentials" and "non-essentials"; but I fear
combining their forces against the threat of Rome,                                     that, while it is true that much of the ecclesiastical
nevertheless did not press for this institutional unity                                world usually brushes aside true essentials as
as the  sine  qua  no?z of church fellowship. Calvin in                                non-essentials,         we have a tendency to do the
Geneva recognized fully the churches of England,                                       opposite. However that may be, the point is that here
Scotland, the Palatinate, the Netherlands, Bohemia,                                    lies our calling.
etc. even though he had no formal institutional ties                                      The goal of the Church of Christ is not the kind of
with them.                                                                             e c u m e n i c i t y   w h i c h   i s   e x p r e s s e d   i n   o u t w a r d
   The point was that as the Reformation took root                                     institutional unity. We do not pursue such goals, nor
in every different land, the Church developed along                                    ought we. It is better, healthier, more in keeping with
different lines. These lines along which the Church                                    the nature of the Church that the Church throughout
developed were determined in large measure by the                                      the world remain separated in denomination and
particular historical circumstances which brought                                      congregational institutions than that she come
about the Reformation in these lands, by the history                                   together under one broad and all-encompassing
of the people within these countries and by the                                        institutional roof. The latter is not only impossible; it
customs, habits, and mores of those who were to                                        is not desirable and ought not to be our goal.
constitute the membership of these churches. The                                          Let Presbyterians remain Presbyterians and let
r e s u l t   w a s   t h a t   t h e r e   w a s   a   r e m a r k a b l e   a n d    Reformed remain Reformed. This fact cannot alter
astonishing agreement between all these churches in                                    the unity which we have in Christ.
matters of the truth of Scripture. One need only to                                       All of this places upon us a burden.
read the creeds of the French, Scotch, English,
Dutch, and German churches to find out how close                                          I can, I think, best get at this question by facing the
was this unity of the truth. But while there was                                       negative. There is a lingering attitude among us, on
agreement on these questions of the truth, there were                                  the one hand, that we can really have fellowship and
also many differences between them. There were                                         contact only with those who are like us in every
differences in emphasis  - even emphasis on doctrine.                                  respect, i.e., with those who are in every way
The Dutch churches, in the heat of the Arminian                                        Protestant Reformed. If these people. are not
controversy, produced the Canons of Dordt with its                                     Protestant Reformed, they are,  ipso  facto, suspect.
so-called five points of Calvinism  - something which                                  And until such a time as they become Protestant
no other church anywhere produced. There were                                          Reformed, they are beyond the pale of our notice and
differences in church order. The form of presbyterian                                  concern and outside the possibility of ecclesiastical
church government produced and developed among                                         fellowship. On the other hand, if we are successfully
presbyterians is somewhat different from that which                                    to do any work among others, this kind of work must
arose out of the struggle for religious liberty in the                                 be geared to making people Protestant Reformed in
Netherlands. There were differences of many kinds.                                     every respect. They must become  - and to all this
                                                                                       our labors ought to be geared  - like us in confession,
   This is as it should be. As God plants His Church in                                every aspect of walk, every expression of doctrine,
different lands and countries, in different cultures                                   and, indeed, even in matters of Christian liberty. If
and among different peoples, God puts His Church in                                    our work is not geared to that goal, we are remiss in
these lands that that Church may be a witness to His                                   our duty and suffer under the ever present threat that
truth to the people in that place; for it is His purpose                               we will lose our heritage.
to gather His Church from these people. To witness
effectively to these people so that the elect may be                                      It is this danger which will, if it persists, threaten
gathered, the Church must be a truly indigenous                                        our calling in these times in which we live.
Church, for else it will not be a successful witness or a                                 Insofar as we are called by God to witness
means to gather God's people in that place. As an                                      throughout the world to the truth, we are called to
indigenous Church it must take differences of                                          do this in such a way that we recognize this wide
expression, differences of form, differences of                                        diversity which does and must exist within the body


56                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



o f   C h r i s t   a l s o   a s   i t   c o m e s   t o   i n s t i t u t i o n a l    races. We have worked long in Jamaica and are about
manifestation.                                                                           to begin work in Singapore.The people there are from
   We labor in this country. Our labors are especially                                   an entirely different race and their background,
geared to calling out of apostatizing churches a                                         character, and nationality are fundamentally different
faithful remnant. Up to this point in our history we                                     from our own. While indeed God calls us to labor so
have labored almost exclusively among those who are                                      that these people in these areas are instructed in the
of Dutch Reformed background. There was little                                           truth, we must nevertheless, remember that we may
problem in all this, for those among whom we                                             not attempt to make them Protestant Reformed in
labored were much like us and the problem scarcely                                       the sense of a church in the Grand Rapids area. It is
existed. But now this work has gradually been                                            the burden of our calling to teach them to develop
extended to Presbyterian denominations. This                                             into congregations which will grow indigenously so
presents a problem, for the people with whom we                                          that they can be effective witnesses in the area in
shall have to work are not Dutchmen, Reformed, and                                       which God has placed them.
Calvinists. We come up against a people with different                                     This will require of us no little work. We shall have
ecclesiastical background, with a different heritage,                                    to learn all we possibly can about them: about their
with different ways of thinking and different ways of                                    background, their character, their own unique life
expressing themselves. Common grace does not mean                                        which they live in their culture. We shall have to
the same thing down south as it means in Grand                                           appreciate these differences, recognize them for what
Rapids among Christian Reformed people. Here it is                                       they are, adapt ourselves to them, and labor with
downright heresy. There it may be heresy too, but it                                     much wisdom to preserve their own identity.
may be nothing but an incorrect way of expressing a                                        This will take, on the part of those who labor
truth which we all believe. Here it means the                                            there, much sanctified wisdom. They shall have to be
destruction of the antithesis and a denial of total                                      able to distinguish clearly between what is essential
depravity. There it often means nothing more than                                        and what is non-essential; between what belongs to
providence. And, while it may be incorrect to call                                       the basic unity of the Church of Christ and what
providence grace,                 t h e   d e b a t e   c e n t e r s   o n   t h e      belongs to the diversity of manifestation. This is not
correctness of terminology, not the truth versus the                                     an enviable task, for it will be difficult at best.
lie.                                                                                       Yet the best way in which this can be
      It may be that within our own country God wills                                    accomplished is that we, here at home, do the same.
that' we all become one institutionally, for we are                                      If we are indeed to support these many labors unto
now united in a common purpose within the confines                                       which the Lord has called us, we shall have to do this
of our country. God will bring about that unity; but                                     by becoming ourselves acquainted as much as possible
only if we reckon with the fact that Presbyterians, if                                   with the differences in background so that we too can
they are bound by the Scriptures have something to                                       appreciate what it means that God gathers into the
teach us just as well as we have something to teach                                      one Church a diversity of members from every nation
them. And the unity achieved will be richer and more                                     and tribe and tongue.
blessed because we have been enriched by each other.                                       If we do not do this we shall be frightened to enter
      The same is true as our outreach extends beyond                                    the work; we shall obstruct the work at every turn
the boundaries of the United States. As you all know,                                    with our objections; we shall try to draw back into
we have contact with churches in many different                                          our shells; and we shall make ourselves unworthy of
countries of the world. Each has its own peculiar                                        our calling. God forbid that this happens.
calling of God.                                                                            We live in exciting times and we have been
      It is precisely this fact which controls the work                                  singularly blessed by God. Let us move forward with
which God calls us to do also among people of other                                      faith that God will use  us  to accomplish His purpose.




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


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                57





                                            Question Box
                                                     Rev. C. Hanko





  A reader asks:                                              saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion
     What is the meaning of the similarity in the             on them, because they fainted, and were scattered
  expression of Micaiah found in I Kings 22: 17,              abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." In the previous
  "Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep having            verse we are told that Jesus went about all the cities
  not a shepherd," and that of Matt.  9:36, "the              and villages (of Galilee) teaching in their synagogues,
  multitude scattered abroad as sheep having no               and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing
  shepherd"?                                                  every disease among the people." Mark informs us
                                                              that at this time large crowds of people forced
  These  .two expressions obviously point to similar          themselves upon Jesus, giving Him little time to be
occasions.                                                    alone. (Mark  6:33). Among  these.people were those
  In I Kings 22: 17 these words are spoken in                 who were merely interested in seeing signs and
connection with the prophecy of Micaiah concerning            wonders, or were hoping that Jesus might deliver
the tragic end of wicked king Ahab. As you know,              them from the power of the Roman government by
Ahab had begged Jehoshaphat to join him in war                setting up an earthly kingdom. But there were also
against the Syrians. Jehoshaphat foolishly consented,         elect children of God, who were weary and heavy
but not without fear and trepidations. It may have            laden because of the burden of their sins and
been a common practice for Jehoshaphat to seek the            hungered after the true Bread of life. These starved
approval of Jehovah before going to battle, but in this       and languished under the empty teachings of the
instance when the alliance with wicked Ahab was               scribes. When they heard Jesus preach concerning the
bad enough, but besides that, he was also risking his         kingdom of heaven, and saw His preaching confirmed
own life and his army in battle, he was especially            by His miracles, they pressed upon Him, seeking their
eager to seek the approval of the Lord. Ahab was well         salvation in Him. Yet the time had not come for the
prepared for such a situation. Scripture informs us,          full revelation of salvation. Jesus still had to suffer
that even though Ahab had made the  Baa1 worship              and die, arise again, and ascend to glory. It was on
the national religion of Israel, he himself still had  his    Pentecost that the full blessing of salvation came to
owlz prophets of Jehovah, which he also consulted.            these hungering souls with the outpouring of the
(verses  22,23). These prophets knew how to cater to          Holy Spirit. Therefore Jesus was filled with com-
the whims of the king by speaking the things that             passion for them, for they were still like sheep
Ahab wanted to hear, while still, as tool of Satan,           without a shepherd. In the verses that follow He says,
they pretended to bring the word of Jehovah. There            "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are
was one exception, of whom Ahab said, "I hate him,            few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that
for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but              he will send forth laborers into the harvest."
evil." Evidently he had quite recently spoken the               Both of these passages actually refer back to
Word of the Lord to Ahab and was therefore placed             Numbers 27: 16, 17. There Moses had come to the
in prison. Now he is called out of prison to warn the         end of his earthly ministry and would soon pass
king that he will die in battle, and then he is sent          away. As a faithful servant of Jehovah he is
back. As a warning to Ahab Micaiah says, "I saw all           concerned about the future welfare of God's people.
Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have no        Therefore he pleads with the Lord, "Let the Lord,
shepherd: and the Lord said, These have no master:            the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the
let them return every man to his house."                      congregation, which may go out before them, and
  In Matthew  9:36 we read: "But when he (Jesus)              which may go in before them, and which may lead


58                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



them out, and which may lead them in; that the              calling. They were false teachers who led the sheep
congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have         astray, committing them to the dangers of thorns and
no shepherd." From this passage it is evident that the      thistles and wild animals in the wilderness in which
worst thing that can happen to Israel, or to the            they hopelessly wandered. The true sheep of Jesus
church of God at any time, is that they are as sheep        Christ were fully aware of this, so that when they
without a shepherd. A faithful shepherd leads the           heard Jesus speak they eagerly heard Him, longed to
sheep out of the sheep fold to allow them to graze in       hear more, clamored with spiritual hunger for the
green pastures. He also leads them back to the safety       Bread of life. When John the Baptist came preaching
of the fold. Ahab failed to do this. In fact, he did the    and teaching, thereby opening the door of the
very opposite, leading Israel away from God into the        kingdom of heaven, the true people of God were like
arid desert wastes of  Baa1 worship. Therefore the          the violent who stormed into the kingdom. Thus also
Lord would kill him in battle. The prophet Micaiah          when Jesus came, they recognized the fact that Jesus
obviously is not concerned about wicked Ahab, but is        spoke with authority, and not like the scribes. Jesus is
concerned about the sheep of God's flock who                deeply aware of this hunger for the Word, not only
wander about the hills like wasted, lost sheep. There       among those who crowded upon Him at the moment,
was a similar situation at the time of Jesus, since the     but also among all the true sons of Abraham. The
scribes fed the people stones for bread. Therefore          church saw the dawning of the new day, and eagerly
these hungry souls pressed upon Jesus, and Jesus            awaited its coming through the cross and resurrec-
looked forward eagerly to His accomplished work on          tion, the ascension and the outpouring of the Holy
the cross, that He might ascend to the Father to send       Spirit on Pentecost. Even though they did not fully
forth His Spirit upon the church at Pentecost. Today        understand how and when Christ would enter into
there are many lost sheep "of the house of Israel"          His kingdom, they did long for that day.
who wander about like sheep without a shepherd,               In this connection a few remarks are not out of
scattered and driven apart by false teachers. Well may      place.
we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers
into His harvest. The end of the ages is drawing near.        First, God is the Lord of the harvest. He gathers
                                                            His own harvest by sending out laborers to work in
                                                            His vineyard. A person must be called and qualified
                                                            by the Holy Spirit to carry out this work.
                                                              Second, God requires of us that we pray that He
  The same reader who sent in a question about              may send forth laborers. It is through the prayers of
Matthew  9:36 also asks:                                    His church that God carries out His work. He does
      "Does Matthew  9:37,38 emphasize in con-              not work independently, but creates in the hearts of
  nection with Matthew  9:36 a famine of the                His people the need and the prayer, and also answers
  Word or a shortage of laborers (preachers) or             those prayers in harmony with His will and the desire
  both?"                                                    of His people. Think, for example, of Hannah's
  In the context in which Jesus speaks of praying for       prayer for a son, or even on Revelation 8: 1-8.
laborers in the vineyard, it can well be said that the        Third, this implies that the church at all times, but
emphasis falls on the famine of the Word rather than        especially in such crucial times of apostasy in which
on a shortage of laborers, or preachers. Verse 36           we are living, eagerly desires and prays that the Lord
speaks of the fact that Jesus had compassion upon           of the harvest send forth laborers, in order that the
the multitude, because they were harassed and spent         Word of God may be proclaimed to the ends of the
with exhaustion, they were like sheep without a             earth, God's church may be gathered and preserved,
shepherd. The teachers in Israel were like hirelings        and His kingdom may come. True mission zeal is
who allowed the sheep to scatter and wander about in        motivated by the longing for the coming of the Day
confusion, failing to lead them in the green pasture of     of the Lord.
the Word of the prophets. Whereupon we read, "Then
saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is             The same reader who sent in the previous questions
plenteous, but the laborers are few."                       about- Matthew  9:36-38 also presents this question:
  From the point of view that God supplies the                   "Matthew speaks of the instructions in
laborers for His vineyard, there can never be a lack of       preaching and also of the giving of power which
laborers to carry out His divine purpose. God's cause         Jesus gives to his twelve disciples. Did the
never suffers because God fails to supply it with             disciples go out to preach at this time? If so,
preachers or under-shepherds of Jesus Christ. But the         how is this possible, seeing they did not
point of view of the text  .is exactly that those whose       understand the cross until after Jesus' death?"
duty it was to feed the sheep in Israel failed in their       Matthew 10 implies the calling to the discipleship


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 59



as recorded in Matthew 4: 18-22, just before Jesus                 preaching as he prepared the way for the coming of
delivered the sermon on the mount. Now Jesus sends                 the Savior. Now, as Luke puts it, the kingdom of
these disciples out to preach, entrusting to them the              heaven is come nigh unto them. Luke  10:9. This is
divine power to cast out unclean spirits, cleanse the              God's kingdom. And therefore it is the kingdom of
lepers, heal all manner of sicknesses and diseases, and            God's dear Son, Jesus Christ. It is  spiritual,*and
even to raise the dead. (see verses 1 and  8). Obviously           heavenly in character. Its citizens are the broken of
the power to perform these miracles had to serve as a              heart, the poor in spirit, who mourn because of their
seal on their preaching.                                           sins, the meek who hunger and thirst after the
                                                                   righteousness that is in Christ Jesus, the merciful and
  There are at least three things that must not be                 the pure of heart who have peace with God and enjoy
overlooked.                                                        the hope of eternal life. That kingdom Christ would
  First, the disciples must not bring their message to             establish through His death and resurrection, and
Samaritans and gentiles. Even though the time was                  through His ascension when He would sit at the right
drawing near for the gentiles to be gathered in, and for           hand of God on God's throne. That was the message
the church to become universal, this time had not yet              that the twelve were told to proclaim to the lost
come. Verse 5.                                                     sheep of the house of Israel. Regardless of whether
                                                                   the disciples understood the details, or even whether
  Second, the twelve must preach to the lost sheep                 the lost sheep understood the details, the message was
of the house of Israel, that is, to the elect of God               clear,. the kingdom of heaven was at hand, even
among the Jews. The field of labor was limited to                  drawing nigh. The true believers were being spiritually
Galilee and  Judea. Verse 6.                                       prepared for the new dispensation that was soon to
  Finally, the specific message entrusted to the                   be ushered in on Pentecost. Those who believed that
twelve at this time was, that "the kingdom of heaven               Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living
is at hand." Vs. 7. This was the contents of John's                God, could rejoice in that expectation.

TRANSLATED TREASURES



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



(In the last installment of this translation Kuyper was talking    operation and exercise of this authority. Just as the
about the exercise of authority in the church. He had              ear ceases to hear and the eye ceases to see when the
mentioned a  direct  authority, i.e., an authority by which        person to whom belongs that eye and ear loses his
Christ rules directly over His church. He concluded the last       consciousness, so also those offices can no longer
paragraph with the statement: "But also with the use of means      perform any spiritual function when the church
the King exercises authority through men, and only this            grows cold and lifeless. And, vice versa, just as an
mediate authority is relevant here." Thus, he now turns to a
discussion of mediate authority.)                                  awake and living person can neither hear nor see if
                                                                   the eye or ear is disabled or taken away, so also the
  This mediate authority this King exercises in two                church cannot let her granted authority function
different ways, viz., either through the whole church,             properly unless the organs of the office are developed
or through those in her midst who are clothed with                 in her. The correct and right proportion is precisely
the office. This takes place in such a way that the                maintained in this way. All authority is in Jesus, is
King grants His authority actually and really to the               given by Him to the whole church, but is bound to
church as church. But at the same time He provides                 the offices for its proper functioning. The church
her with offices to which the church is bound in the               does not create these offices but she receives them,


60                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



just as also the body does not make the ear but is          to believers if there is no church or if the church
rather enriched and adorned by God with eye and             which was there fell away. Further, in an already
ear, To proceed correctly it is necessary to distinguish    existing church, believers also have the right to judge
between what part of authority the church exercises         concerning receiving attestations and admission to the
through the special office and what part of authority       Lord's Supper. They have the right to designate
is bound to the office of believers. In addition to the     persons for office, to bring differences to  classis and
particular  function'of the eye, the ear, the nose, the     synod, to be present as listeners at ecclesiastical
mouth, the brains, etc., there are also in the human        assemblies, to delegate deputies to other churches, to
body common functions such as generation of heat,           a p p o i n t   g u a r d i a n s   a n d   k e e p   a n   e y e   o n   t h e
perception, etc. And thus also in the church of Christ      management of the churches' property. Thirdly,
there' are, alongside of each other, the common             concerning the  administration of justice. This
operations of the whole body of the church and the          includes the right of believers to exercise the first
particular operations through her special offices. Both     steps of discipline in particular differences, to
these common and particular exercises of authority          withdraw from  unfit fellow members and office
extend over three areas, viz., over that of the means       bearers, to judge concerning excommunication and
of grace, over the order of the church, and over            readmission, to protest against ungodly ecclesiastical
discipline.                                                 conditions and demand remedies, or to proceed, if
      The church exercises authority in the area of the     necessary, to the organization of one's own
means of grace, in the first place, because she receives    consistory whenever the church becomes aggrieved,
power to dispense the word and sacraments and to            and, finally, if the church appears to be entirely lost,
bind them on the conscience. This is the ministry of        to send to that sham or false church a letter of
the keys in the preaching and through particular            separation and to manifest the true church elsewhere.
admonition, from which the sacrament as a seal of              On the other hand, the church is bound to the
the Word must not be separated. But also, secondly,         official offices for the particular authority in which
she does this through opposing that which these             e ccl e si astical government comes to expression.
means of grace oppose, and by judging error and             Consequently, these rights belong to the office
confessing the truth over against it. Without error         bearers: first, concerning the means of grace, they
there would be no confession. But now, because error        have the right to minister the Word with authority in
always was, is now, and will ever be to the end,            the gathering of the congregation, to lift up
confession is inseparable from the essence of the           supplications and prayers, to dispense the sacraments,
church.                                                     and to decide concerning the confession of the
      Likewise, the church exercises authority over the     church in ecclesiastical gatherings. Secondly,
order which shall exist in her midst, and does that in      concerning the order of the church, they have the
two different ways, viz., first through the drawing up      right to regulate the affairs of the church and
of a church order and  composing,further  ordinances;       establish  .rules of order, to direct the affairs of the
and, secondly, through the execution of the articles        church according to those regulations and execute the
of this church order and these additional ordinances.       decisions. The office bearers or those delegated by
      And, finally, the church exercises authority over'    them have the right to serve as officers in the
discipline. She does this, first, by rightly admonishing    gatherings of the congregation, to represent the
those who stray in doctrine or life, and, if need be,       church in meetings with other churches or in the
by punishment and excommunication. She does this,           gatherings of  classis and synod, to examine matters
secondly, through reinstating the penitent in honor         coming to lower or higher assemblies and make
and through taking them into the circle where the full      decisions with respect to these matters, to confer the
enjoyment of the means of grace is tasted.                  office on newly chosen persons who have been
                                                            appointed to it and ordain them in it. And finally,
      Of this threefold power, the general authority        what concerns, in the third place, the administration
which belongs to the whole church ought first to be         of justice, they are to exercise discipline among
considered; then the particular operation of this           themselves, to warn with authority and to censure, to
authority which is bound to the offices.                    p u n i s h   i n   u n i o n   w i t h   t h e   c o n g r e g a t i o n ,   t o
  The following belong to the church  ,as a whole.          excommunicate and receive again into the church;
First, that which concerns  the means of grace.             and, in connection with the coming of wolves into
Included in this is the obligation and the right to         the congregation, they are to protect the believers
witness, to confess, to pray, and particularly to           against them, and, if need be, to separate the believers
admonish, as also the freedom of prophecy.                  as an aggrieved church; and, when this is of no avail,
Concerning the  order of the church.  This includes the     to assemble in a new place in a newly established
right of establishing a church, a right which belongs       church.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       61


THE DAY OF SHADOWS





                               Further Grief of Mind
                                               Rev. John A. Heys





  How he came upon the information we are not             becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to
told, but of Esau we read that he saw that Isaac          much wine, that they may teach the young women to
blessed Jacob and sent him away to get a wife from        be sober, to love their husbands, to love their
Rebekah's family in  Haran. It is quite plain from the    children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home,
silence that prevails upon the pages of Holy Writ that    good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word
Rebekah did not reveal either to Isaac or to Esau her     o f   G o d   b e   n o t   b l a s p h e m e d . " P a u l   g i v e s   t h e
knowledge, that Esau intended to kill Jacob as soon as    admonition because it is not always heeded.
the days of mourning for Isaac's death were past. And        And that Isaac and Rebekah should have spoken to
this is not right.                                        their son after he married heathen wives cannot in
  It was not right that Isaac and Rebekah did not tell    this light be denied. T h e   W o r d   o f   G o d   w a s
Esau himself that Jacob was being sent to Rebekah's       blasphemed by Esau's marriage. And not in
brother's house for a God-fearing wife. The lines of      bitterness, not in anger, not with an uncivil tongue,
communication in the family had plainly broken            but in love and with the Word of God they should
down since Esau took to himself unbelieving wives         have approached him,  and; if he needed it, because
out of the land in which they dwelt. Here too we          they had been silent about these things before he
simply read that these wives were a grief of mind to      married these heathen wives, they should have
Isaac and Rebekah. We read not one word of reproof        pointed out to him the evil of his deed. They. have
or rebuke, or for that matter of any word that these      only themselves now to blame for Esau's subsequent
parents spoke to their older son in connection with       deed of taking a daughter of Ishmael to try to get
this deed. They showed it. Esau was aware of their        back into the good graces of his father and still obtain
displeasure, and this we will see in a moment. But no     part of the birthright blessing.
fatherly, motherly admonition was forthcoming. And           The same is true about this intent to kill Jacob.
when parents are silent they invite more evil in their    Rebekah had a calling to speak to her son about this.
children, as becomes plain in subsequent history.         Perhaps it would  - and indeed it did  - all blow over.
Now there are times when father and mother must           His anger cooled off, and in time he, to all practical
keep silent. When their children establish their own      purposes, forgot Jacob's deed, and was satisfied with
home, they must know when to speak and when to            his own large herd of cattle. The fact remains that
refrain from speaking. This whole mother-in-law           Rebekah, the mother, allowed his sin to go
problem, of which the world speaks so flippantly, and     unrebuked. He was not shown the evil of his rage and
sometimes humorously, is a very real problem, and so      intent to kill. Isaac knew nothing about it and could
often due to the fact that mother cannot keep silent      not speak to his son, but Rebekah, the mother, knew
in her son's home, or in her daughter's. Not that         and fails in her calling to teach her son to love his
fathers are above this and create no tense situations,    brother, and to walk in love before God.
but the tendency on the part of the mother is usually        And as pointed out, seeing that Jacob has been
greater to have something to say in her son's or          blessed  - that is, the blessing is repeated upon him  -
daughter's home. Now there is also a time when            and he is sent away for a God-fearing wife, Esau, after
mother and father should say something, and not fail      some thought upon the matter, goes out to take a
to do so. Turn to Titus  2:3-S and note, "The aged        daughter of Ishmael to wife to seek thereby to please
women likewise, that they be in behaviour as              his father. He will not follow Jacob; and with that


62                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



anger in his heart he had better not do so. But his          things of His holy will. One may be accused of being
unbelieving heart and mind leads him to add to his           proud when that one calls Esau profane and an
sin, which had not been explained to him by his              unbeliever. But is it not plainly an act of pride to dare
parents, by taking another unbelieving wife. This time       to disagree with what God wrote Himself? And let
she comes from Abraham's fleshly seed, from Ishmael          not be forgotten again that other Word of God in
his firstborn, the son of Hagar.                             Hebrews  11:6 that without faith it is impossible to
      Esau, the unbeliever, plainly does not understand      please God. Not being born again, not having faith, it
that God's covenant does not run in the flesh. He            is simply impossible that Esau in this deed of taking
knows nothing of the truth that they are not all Israel      one of the fleshly seed of Abraham to wife can please
that are of Israel, Romans  9:6, and that he is not a        God. It is doubtful that this pleased Isaac and
Jew that is one outwardly but inwardly, Romans               Rebekah. They did not send Jacob to Ishmael for a
2:28, and that is not circumcision that is of the flesh      wife but where they had reasons to believe that there
but of the heart, Romans  2:29. Ishmael is of the flesh      were believing children of God.
of Abraham, just as surely as his father Isaac is. They        And that parents in the church must do today.
have different mothers, but Abraham is father of             Today we cannot, as Abraham did, go and get a
both of them. And, wrongly, Esau assumes that                believing husband or wife for our children. Nor need
something good runs in the line of the flesh, so that        we send them to far off lands as Isaac did. But we
in Ishmael's daughter he can find that which Isaac           certainly ought not to take them away from the
and Rebekah would find acceptable, if not indeed             covenant sphere and for material gain or other fleshly
delightful. We read that "When Esau saw that Isaac           reasons bring them where they can only find
had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to  Padan-aram,         Canaanites for husbands or wives. The world makes
to take to him a wife from thence; and that as he            much of compatibility. And indeed it is a beautiful
blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt         word' and an important one. But in the church it
not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan . . . and         should be understood that spiritual compatibility
Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not         comes first, and may not be a later consideration, if
Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and           you can get it. One must get it or one must not
took unto the wives which He had Mahalath the                marry! Paul tells the believing husbands and wives
daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of            who before their conversion married unbelievers that
Nebajoth, to be his wife."                                   they shall not leave these unbelieving mates but so
  Now marrying one who is a fleshly descendant of a          live before them that there may be a witness to these
believer may satisfy a parent in the church, but the         unbelieving mates of what Christianity is all about.
silence of Scripture on this point as far as Esau and        And God is pleased sometimes to use these chaste and
Isaac are concerned may be construed as a testimony          godly walks to bring His elect to the faith. But that
that Isaac did not approve of this any more than he          same Paul insists that one always marry in the Lord.
did of marrying the Canaanitish women. But the holy          He, in I Corinthians  7:39 writes, "The wife is bound
God must be satisfied, not merely the believing              by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her
parent. This Esau does not give one moment of                husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to
consideration. It is his father whom he seeks to             whom she will; only in the Lord." She is free to
please, because he still wants and is seeking at least to    marry any believer. She may not marry an unbeliever.
get a piece of that birthright blessing.                     And that holds true just as well for those who have
  May we so judge of Esau? May we call him an                not married and are not widows or widowers. They
unbeliever and present his motive as evil? There are         shall marry in the Lord. One must find a husband or
those who are going to object and criticize our              wife that is spiritually compatible, or not marry.
evaluation of this deed of Esau. But the judgment is           God made Eve to be an help meet for Adam. And
not ours. It is not an attempt to play God and delve         the word meet means fit, suitable, compatible.
into  .what men  like- to call God's "hidden will."          Indeed, the Hebrew has but one word which means
Scripture gives us this judgment. Scripture says,            help. But can you imagine the Almighty and All-wise
"Esau have I hated" in Romans 9 : 13. And that is the        God, Who says of all His works that they are very
word of God Himself. And again in Hebrews 12: 16             good, making an help for Adam that was not fit,
God says that he was a profane person. Hated of God          suitable, compatible? And can this mean anything
and declared profane by God Esau cannot have been            less than spiritual compatibility? Would she be any
a born again child of God. And Jesus  - let us beware        help at all to Adam if spiritually there was not
lest we dare to call Him a liar  - said that except a        complete agreement of thought and desire? Should
man be born again he cannot see the kingdom. Much            our young people settle for anything less? And what
less then can he perform the works of that kingdom.          ought to give covenant, believing parents grief of
One does not accidentally please God and do the              mind more than to find their son or daughter married


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     63



to one who is no help spiritually, one who strives               compromise of seeking merely one who is related to
with that son or daughter against the truth and                  believing Abraham by blood ties was not only folly. It
righteousness, rather than to strive for these? What             was-sin. The churches had better emulate Isaac and
should give believing parents more grief than to see             Rebekah and not Esau.
that the husband or wife of their daughter or son will
not help to bring up the grandchildren in the fear of              The churches had better impress strongly on the
God's name? Listen once to John when he writes in                minds of their young men and women that this one
III John 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear that             quality of spiritual compatibility comes first, and that
my children walk in truth." He says that of his                  "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of
spiritual children. But is that not also true then of our        Canaan." Never mind temporal beauty of face. Never
physical children?                                               mind congenial natures and delightful company as far
                                                                 as fleshly standards are concerned. Never mind wealth
  And those churches today who have not the
spiritual  20/20 vision of Isaac and Rebekah, who look           and social standing. There is more at stake here than
the other way when their youth associate socially                one's flesh and its gratification. The glory of God, the
with the world, and do not warn their youth against              defense of the truth, and the spiritual strength of the
mixed marriages and spiritual incompatibility had                church must be of primary concern. Let our young
better take a long, hard look at this lesson which God           people listen to Christ Himself when He tells them to
preserved for us here on the pages of Holy Writ. Isaac           seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
and Rebekah sent Jacob away to a place where he                  Otherwise that child of God will add to himself grief
could expect to find a believing wife. Esau's                    of mind, and God's glory will denied.


FROM HOLY WRIT


                               Exposition of Galatians
                                                      Rev. G. Lubbers




T H E   W O R K S   O F   T H E   F L E S H   M A N I F E S T    to God. They have legally died unto sin. There are no
(Galatians 5 : 18)                                               longer  debtors  to live unto the flesh. (Rom. 8: 12)
  Paul writes, "manifest are the works of the flesh."            Such we were once when we did not yet have the
No one needs to be in doubt whether he is walking                Spirit of Christ, when we were not yet led by the
according to the Spirit or according to the flesh. The           Spirit of Christ. Then we were under the Spirit of
fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh are as far        bondage to fear; we were under the sting of death in
apart as the poles of the earth. For the works of the            our heart and conscience. (Rom. 8: 15) In a sense at
flesh are indeed manifest as being such works of the             that time we were free from righteousness. (Rom.
flesh. No Christian need be mistaken!                            6:20). Then we were yet married to the old husband.
                                                                 By the law of that husband of sin and death, yes, by
  The writer to the Galatians is still  persuing  the            that law were we legally married to sin. We did not
subject of the inner battle which the Christian wages            yet know of the conflict between the flesh and the
with his flesh by the power of the sanctifying Spirit.           Spirit. We were not yet Spirit in-dwelt. We were not
The believer must walk at liberty; he must not walk              the temple of the Holy Ghost. But now we are legally
as do those who are under law, under the power of                married to another, namely, to Jesus. Who is raised
sin. For the power of sin is the law, as a law-principle.        from the dead, to bring forth fruits unto God. (Rom.
(I Cor.  15:56;  Rom.  4:15;  5:13;   7:5, 13) He must           7:3,4)
crucify the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof.
For the heirs of the kingdom "have crucified the                   It is of paramount importance in this battle
flesh" once and for all. All who are the possession of           between the flesh and the Spirit to keep in mind that
Christ, all who have been redeemed with Christ on                the  right  (authority) of the sinful flesh to assert itself
the Cross of Calvary, stand in a new legal relationship          in our members has been taken away, wholly taken


 64                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



away, by the death of Christ on the Cross and by the           briefly let these pass  in  review.  Fornication  refers to
power of His resurrection! He who fights sin in his            all illicit sexual intercourse, whether one is married,
members is standing on solid ground! He looks for              or not in the marriage-state. It must not once be
the hope of righteousness, legal righteousness; yes, he        named amongst the saints. The Bible does not use the
looks for the final justification to receive the               terms of the modern church-world, who would gloss
inheritance as a chosen heir in the day of Christ. For         over the sinfulness of sin, by speaking of sexuality
he is by faith righteous before God and is an heir of          and sexualness. It calls sin by its real and proper
everlasting life. And everyone who has this hope upon          name: fornication. And then it says: let it not be
God, the hope to  see  God as He is,  purifies  himself.       named amongst you. (Eph.  5:3) Sexual intercourse
Such is the saved status of those who must fight the           outside of holy wedlock is not mere creaturely
good fight. (Gal.  5:5; I John  3:3) Here is the basic         "sexuality," but is lusts of the flesh. It is the
Christian ethics of the liberated sinner.                      transgression  of the revealed commandment of the
   Yes, the regenerated, called, elect sinner has flesh.       LORD. Upon such  comes the wrath of God. (Eph.
He has a law of sin in his members which wars                  5:6) Fornication is the proper works of the children
constantly against the Holy Spirit of God, as He               of disobedience, the reprobate world. (Eph.  2:2)
powerfully and efficaciously sanctifies us in the hope         Uncleanness  is moral uncleanness in whatever guise.
of eternal life and glory. Paul enumerates these               This is lustful, luxurious, profligate living. Such was
"works" `of the "flesh." He does not simply list some          the Graeco-Roman world, the pagan-world, which
possible lusts, a mere cataloging of them for easy             was not under the power of the Gospel in Paul's day.
study-reference, but he is turning you and me inside           It is the sodomy of men with men co-habitating, and
out. He holds, as it were, the mirror before our eyes.         women with women practicing the sin of lesbianism.
We are so dull and slow to recognize ourselves for             Notice well, dear reader, that these are the sins in our
what we really are, that Paul tells us who are before          flesh and in the flesh of our children!
the bar of God, where we must fight sin with a free              Then Paul mentions  lasciviousness.  Such is the
and good conscience. Paul writes of "the" flesh in us.         wanton excess, lewdness, debauchery, the shameless
And this flesh we must recognize in our sinful                 walking in sin. It is paraded even on the television of
affections. Perhaps a better translation of the Greek          our day: it is the "in" thing, the acceptable form of
tois patheemasin  is "the passions." These are the             our society: in schools, in churches, in homes, in men
inner, driving, sinful inclinations and powerful forces        and women in high positions of government. All this
of sin as an impelling sin-law. And these passions             we are to flee and crucify as the temples of the Holy
reveal themselves in lusts, which are unlawful desires         Spirit. These are the lust of the flesh which war
of every color and hue. Paul does not give a complete          constantly against the Spirit within us.
and exhaustive list here. It is, however, such a
representation that Paul can say "and such like."                But we must proceed. We notice that Paul now also
(Gal. 5: 2 1) From here on, we can recognize any lust          cites all forms of false religions. He sums these up
of the flesh, whenever and wherever such lust reveals          under the terms:  idolatry  and  witchcraft  Idolatry
itself in our life, wherein we are Spirit-led. Paul is free    and witchcraft are really the spiritual roof of
from our blood, having given sufficient instruction            fornication. The worship of idols is as foolish as it is
and warning on this point. We now know the kind of             wicked. It is foolish because it is the worship of a
works of the flesh to recognize in our flesh. Paul             nothing..  it is the worship of a mere appearance. It is
really says; Which are of  such a kind!  (atina)   We find     trying to make a visible image of the invisible God. It
many more manifestations of the flesh in us than               is a mere figment of man's sinful imagination. Paul
what is here listed.                                           tells the men of Lystra, who imagined that he was
                                                               Mecurius and Barnabas was Jupiter, to desist from
THE LIST OF WORKS OF THE FLESH GIVEN                           their contemplated worship of them by saying: "Sirs,
HERE BY PAUL. (Galatians 5 : 19-2 1)                           why do ye these things? We also are men of like
                                                               passions with you and bring you Gospel-tidings, that
  Paul gives the following list: Adultery, fornication,        ye should turn from  these vanities  unto the living
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,             God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea and
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,        all the things that are therein." (Acts 14: 15) (Read
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,  revellings,,        Psalm 115 :3-8) The sin of witchcraft is closely
and such like. Most interpreters find that Paul gives a        connected with idolatry. The term in the Greek used
certain order and classification here.                         for "witchcraft" is connected with mixing herbs and
  The first sins mentioned, lusts and passions, are            drugs. There is much of this going on in pagan lands
those which pertain to the transgressions of the               and also here in the United States of America, which
seventh commandment: "Thou shalt not commit                    is fast turning pagan. It is man grasping at the straws
adultery." All uncleanness is accursed of God. Let us          as a drowning man. Basically it is the sin of willing


                                                                                                                                                                       1

                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       65



disobedience to the revelation and law of God. It is                                     another." (Gal.  5:  13b) The Greek term ech thrai is in
man in his final doom. (Rev. 21  :S) It is rebellion,                                    the plural tense: enmities. The plural indicates
fighting against God's clear revelation, keeping the                                     enmities of every kind, in all and every relationship of
truth down in unrighteousness. When there is a                                           life. It is the great and basic corrupter of
"dope-problem" in the church we must point the                                           human-relations in the world and in the flesh in the
"victim"  (?) to his sin of rebellion and disobedience                                   church. Always this enmity crops up in one form or
to the clear commandment of God. Thus did Samuel                                         another in the church of Christ here on earth. We
a d d r e s s i n g   S a u l , w h e n   S a u l   d i s o b e y e d   t h e            must ever remember that we were reconciled to God
commandment concerning slaying the Amelekites:                                           when we were only filled with enmity toward God
"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and                                   and our neighbor, full of enmities, when we were
sacrifice, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold,                                  reconciled to God. Constantly the flesh makes it so
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than                                    that we are in need of reconciliation with our
the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the  sin of                                         neighbor. Here we see that by nature we hate both  God
witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the sin of idolatry.                                  and our neighbor.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he                                         From this enmity is born contention, strife. All the
hath also rejected thee from being king." (I Sam.                                        wranglings in the church, in families, between
15  :22) Those who "practice" idolatry and witchcraft                                    individuals, sinful, hateful wranglings come forth
shall not inherit the kingdom of God! They may have
a "ride" in their dope and drugs, but it is the road                                     from this hatred and envy. This is also a sin, a work
                                                                                         of our flesh, which is evident. Paul writes in Rom.
which leads a Saul to the witch of  Endor, and leads
the hell-bound world to eternal destruction! They                                        13: 13, "not in strife and jealousy." Such was the
who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with these                                    strife in the Corinthian church. It was party-strife
affections and lusts! Let us remember it.                                                concerning Paul,  Apollos,  Cephas, and Christ. This is
                                                                                         especially the sin of the "legalist." We are told that
    Furthermore, Paul also speaks of the sins against                                    amongst the Greeks there was the legend concerning
the  sixth commandment:  "Thou shalt not kill." Also                                     t h e   g o d d e s s   `Eris" w h o   w a s   t h e   g o d d e s s   o f
t h e   m u r d e r o u s   n a t u r e   o f   o u r   s i n f u l   f l e s h   i s    dissension. She caused all the contention in the
mentioned. Here the vail is really lifted on our sinful                                  world. But Paul puts the finger on the hurt in our
flesh, in which there dwells no good at all! (Rom.                                       life: it is in our sinful flesh, which are lusts, and the
7:18)                                                                                    evil affections. These must be crucified in our
   The first sin mentioned is the sin in which is                                        members with Christ.
exhibited the very opposite of "by love serve one

ALL AROUND US


                                               The Church in New Zealand
                                                                          Rev. G. Van Buren


   A short notice in the  Banner  of Oct. 5, 1979,                                           their only problem will be the disposal of their empty
caught my attention  - particularly because of our                                           buildings. Accusing his denomination of being "so
contact with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church                                                busy looking after the one found sheep that they
there. The article portrays a sad picture of the general                                     have ignored the 99 who are lost," archdeacon
church situation  - which likely is not a great deal                                         Herbert G. Boniface said that Sunday school atten-
better in this country.                                                                       dance has dropped 63 percent in the last 15 years. He
                                                                                              said that in New Zealand only four percent of the
         Anglicans in New Zealand were told by one of                                        population attends Sunday worship.
     their high church officials that 30 years from now

                                                             On Situation Ethics
   An editorial in the  Presbyterian Journal,  Sept. 26,                                 ethics" within the churches. This form of "ethics"
1979, points out some of the evidences of "situation                                     (and it is not "ethics" at all) suggests that what is


66                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



done in love, though in violation with  iaws  of God or               down a proposal on "weighted voting" for ratifica-
of men, can rightly be done by children of God. The                   tion by a majority of the presbyteries rather than by
editor of the  Journal sees  this now in the decisions                the constitutional three-fourths of the presbyteries.
taken by some of the denominations in our land:                          It appeared in the decision of the 1979 General
         Last week . . . we carried in our news pages the             Synod of the Reformed Church in America simply to
      story of a civil trial in which representatives of the          declare that women may be ordained and let it go at
      Presbyterian Church US appeared in court with                   that  - after  sljc attempts to have the constitution
      documents purporting to be minutes of meetings of a             changed to permit such ordination had failed.
      certain board of trustees - meetings which, in fact,               Now it appears in the presentation of official
      had never been held and minutes of which, therefore,            papers to a civil court in a civil suit - "minutes" of
      were evidently fabricated.                                      meetings which never took place.
         We're not repeating the details because the details             We thought we had seen the limit when we
      do not matter. What matters is what situation ethics            witnessed a former moderator of the PCUS testifying
      or "the new morality" has done to the moral                     in civil court that people long dead were, according to
      consciences of churchmen in general and some                    his testimony, members of a "loyal minority"
      Presbyterians in particular.                                    entitled to a local church's property. We should have
         It is mind-boggling that at the very top levels in           known that the virus had penetrated deeply when we
      the Churches today, and in such contexts as                     became aware that nobody really cared that such a
      proceedings in the civil court, the truth is considered         thing should have happened. . . .
      expendable if a fabrication will achieve a desired
      purpose.  That is an idea central to the theme of             The editorial rightly deplores this "situation
      situation ethics - that we do not live by rules and         ethics." This evil does indeed appear in many places,
      regulations, but by what is "the loving thing to do" -      many churches, and under various circumstances. It is
      in this case, what will best achieve a goal considered      nothing more than that first lie of the devil to Eve,
      desirable.                                                  "Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." The
         The philosophy of situation ethics appeared in the       "new morality" is not new at all. Only it comes often
      decision of the 1978 PCUS General Assembly to send          in different guises.





                                        More of the "Unchurched"


  Calvinist Contact,  Sept. 21, 1979, quotes a report                    Mr. Oliver says that only one-third of the
which reflects upon the church situation in Canada.                   population has "any functional relation to God in the
Some of these findings also are of interest  - and                    traditional sense." "Secularism is the principal orien-
added indication of the great apostasy taking place                   tation of the majority," he says.
over the whole world.                                                    Some other conclusions are also startling. We often
         Despite the apparent winds of charismatic change            talk about the "mainline" churches  - Anglicans,
      which rippled across the land in recent years and              Lutherans, the United Church. But there is a new
      despite a "born again" attitude within some of the             mainline made up of newer Protestant groups which
      mainline churches, Canada is no longer a Christian             tend to overshadow those traditional, older churches.
      country.                                                           "Many newer and smaller religious groups have
         Well over half of the nation holds a belief in              gained in strength to the point where they can be
      secularism - that the world is all there is and that           considered to have achieved mainline status. They
      they might as well enjoy life while they can.                  presently outnumber the more traditional Protestant
         These findings are based on a report by church              Churches."
      growth researcher, Rev. Dennis Oliver, a 37-year-old
      Presbyterian. He has spent the past five years doing              He bases his arguments on average numbers
      research work at the Canadian Church Growth Centre             attending services rather than on official church rolls
      in Regina, Sask. His findings reveal a religious reality       or census figures. Far more  Pentecostals attend
      which totally contradicts the widely held belief that           church on any given Sunday than Anglicans  -
      Canada is a Christian country.                                 256,000 compared to 187,374.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      67


      The Jehovah's Witnesses' Sunday gatherings ex-              number of independent traditions) now have a
   ceed those of the Lutherans. More gather to attend              combined average Sunday attendance of 397,000.
   services of the major Mormon church than those of              This is greater than that of Canada's leading
   any Lutheran or Holiness (Salvation Army, Christian            Protestant denomination, the United Church, which
   Missionary Alliance, etc.) denomination. And there             has 378,156,.
   are now more Muslims in Canada than Presbyterians,                 If you want to put a tag on Canada's religious
   who have sunk steadily over the past decade to a                stance, then you could say that the religious segment
   current figure of about 169,000.                                of Canada is mainly Roman Catholic. That church's
      Mr. Oliver says that the churches which are                  communicant membership stood at 10 million,
   generally lumped together under the title Evangelical           according to 1978 statistics. But even more signifi-
   or Conservative-Evangelical (including most Baptist             cantly is the fact that approximately 46 per cent of
   churches, all  Pentecostals,  some Mennonite and a              them are active in church attendance. . . .





                                               Churches in Court


  Our own past history involved some of our                          For more than a century, the bodies merged into
congregations going to court in order to secure their             the UPCUSA, often called the Northern Pres-
properties. Repeatedly, churches with doctrinal dif-              byterians, have operated on the principle that
ficulties resulting in "splits," find that the courts             property is held in trust for the parent body. This
appear to decide that properties go with the loyal                policy evolved primarily from an 1871 U.S. Supreme
                                                                  Court ruling, Watson vs. Jones, which said that
group (though it be but a small minority), There have             decisions of church courts were final in cases
been  in recent years and months, some changes in this            involving "connectional" churches.
respect.  Christianity Today,  Sept. 21, 1979, reports
on some of this:                                                     However, in its July 2 ruling involving the
                                                                  Vineville church, Jones vs. Wolf, the high court said
      A mailman in Macon, Georgia, has to know his                that if "religious societies" want local church
   Presbyterian churches. Otherwise, he might deliver             property to revert to the denomination in the event
   mail to the wrong Vineville Presbyterian Church.               of a congregational schism, they can either write such
   There have been two churches by that name in Macon             provisions into their constitutions, or local con-
   for the past six years - the result of a church split.         gregations can write such provisions into their local
      But what was once only a matter of local                    charters.
   confusion, now has attracted the concern of several               Specifically, in its 5-4 majority ruling, the U.S.
   mainline Protestant denominations as well as Roman             Supreme Court gave state courts the freedom to
   Catholic and Orthodox bodies. At stake is the                  decide church property ownership cases on secular
   question: Who owns the church property of a local              considerations when the denomination's constitu-
   congregation - the congregation or the parent body?            tional provisions are not specific. The court said, "We
      A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving the            cannot agree that the First Amendment requires the
   Vineville church seemed to cast a vote on the side of          states to adopt a rule of compulsory deference to
   the local congregation. For that reason, at least one          religious authority in resolving church property
   group  - the United Presbyterian Church in the                 disputes. . . ."
   U.S.A.  - rang its alarm bells. At a hastily called
   meeting on September 16, the church's Missions                Understandably, some of the larger denominations
   Council voted whether to convene a first ever special       were shook up about the above decision. Defections
   General Assembly.                                           continue within these denominations. But the prop-
      If called, the General Assembly would consider an        erty question is ever a major consideration. Churches
   amendment to the church constitution that would             which realize that they will not necessarily lose their
   clearly specify that local church property is held in       properties, might be more ready to leave an  apostatiz-
   trust for the entire denomination.                          ing denomination.


68                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



THE LORD GAVE THE WORD




                                               Missions by the Word
                                                     of, the Risen Lord
                                                                   Prof Robert D. Decker


      In the gospel according to John, chapter  21:3-14                              n o t h i n g   c a n   h i n d e r   t h a t   g r e a t   w o r k .   I t   i s
(for text consult your Bible), we read of the third                                  accomplished by the power of the word of the risen
appearance of the resurrected Christ to His disciples.                               Christ and not even the gates of hell can prevail
Each of these appearances is a manifestation of the                                  against that power.
risen Christ. According to vs. 1 Jesus showed Himself.
That was necessary because He is now the resurrected                                    The scene is the Sea of Tiberius or Galilee. This
Christ, and the former relationship to the disciples                                 must have brought to the minds of these seven
has been transformed. It's the same Lord Jesus, only                                 disciples many pleasant memories, for much of Jesus'
now He is raised from the dead. Unless Jesus reveals                                 ministry had been in this vicinity. Here many had
Himself He cannot be known. Thus, too, each of                                       been restored to health, many a leper was cleansed,
these appearances of the resurrected Christ reveals                                  many blind received sight, and deaf their hearing.
some aspect of the gospel of the resurrection.                                       Here the demon-possessed had been set free, and
                                                                                     along these shores the gospel of the kingdom had
      So it is with the appearance we consider in this                               been proclaimed with gracious words. It was by these
article. In this double miracle at the Sea of Galilee the                            shores too that some of the most significant events of
risen Lord demonstrates the task and calling of the                                  the Lord's ministry occurred. They would never
apostles. They are to be fishers of men. They are to                                 forget the feeding of the five thousand with a few fish
preach the gospel and be instrumental in the                                         and loaves, nor the rejection of Jesus which followed.
gathering of the church. And they will do that only in                               How could they forget the night He came walking on
the power of the word of the risen Lord. At the same                                 the angry waves of this very sea and then by a word
time the risen Lord will supply all their needs. Thus                                calmed the wind and the waves? But something else
the work of the disciples will be carried out in the                                 t h e y   a p p a r e n t l y   d i d   f o r g e t .   E a r l y   i n   t h e i r
power of Jesus' word and in Jesus' fellowship. Really                                acquaintance with the Savior they had decided to go
what Jesus does is to demonstrate the great                                          fishing on this very sea. They toiled all night and
commission: "Go ye into all the world and preach the                                 caught nothing. Then the Master came, and at His
g o s p e l   t o   e v e r y   c r e a t u r e . " T h i s   i s   w h a t   i s    command they cast the net once more and, lo, there
demonstrated by the command: "Cast the net on the                                    were so many fish the net broke. Jesus had told them,
right side of the ship." Jesus also promised: "Lo, I am                              "I will make you fishers of men." He had called them
with you always even unto the end of the world."                                     away from their earthly occupations.
This is demonstrated by the words: "Ye shall find," a
multitude of fish and "come and dine," I will provide                                    They are here in Galilee because of the command
all your needs.                                                                      of the Lord. Jesus, just before the betrayal, had told
      What a wonderful word and what a powerful word                                 them to go to Galilee. He had told them two things:
that is. A wonderful and powerful word it is for the                                 the shepherd would be smitten and the sheep
church of all ages, for the church today. These                                      scattered and, after I am risen again I will go before
disciples, who became the apostles, constitute,                                      you into Galilee. But they didn't understand. They
together with the prophets and Christ as the                                         went right on arguing who would be the greatest in
cornerstone, the foundation of the church. And the                                   the kingdom of heaven. And Peter vowed never to be
Word of God is very simple: "I will build My                                         offended in the Christ, as did also the rest of them.
church." Not men, not the disciples, not the                                         After the resurrection the angel reminded them of
preachers of today, but  I  will do that work. And                                   this word. He told the women to tell the disciples, He


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               69



goes before you into Galilee as He said.                      So Peter says: "I go a fishing." Yes, Peter, the
  Thus we find them in Galilee but now weary of             impulsive man of action. . . . It is so characteristic of
waiting. They had remained at Jerusalem at least a          Peter the disciple who had fallen so deeply after
week. Twice the Lord had appeared to them in the            boasting of his faith in the Lord. Peter, whose name
upper room and now they are at the sea waiting for          had been especially mentioned by the angel, "Tell the
the fulfillment of the promise. But it seems so long to     disciples and Peter"; Peter, who had been privileged
them. Every day they look with expectation for the          by a private appearance of the risen Savior, in his own
Christ to come, but He does not. Was He perhaps             characteristic way takes the initiative: "I go a
grieved with  them.because they were offended in Him        fishing." What does this mean? Much more than
and had left Him? Why does He not come as                   meets the eye. Some say the disciples are quite
promised? They seem to have forgotten their own             innocent and didn't mean any  hhrm. It was perfectly
slowness to understand.  .He had spoken to them             natural for them to go about the business of fishing,
plainly of His suffering and death and of their being       for they had to eat, and they didn't know what was
offended and of the resurrection. All these things          in store for them. This does not meet the test of the
they forgot. They were offended. In the darkness of         Scriptures. Peter says literally: "I am going away to
the cross they forgot all about the resurrection. Fools     fish," not just going to fish, but I go away to fish.
they are and slow of heart to understand. And so are        The term means to withdraw oneself, to depart, and
we.                                                         that is precisely what Peter decides to do. They had
                                                            the word of Christ: "I will make you fishers of men."
  But knowing our own sinful weaknesses we can              And they had been instructed to go to Galilee. They
understand their situation. Everything is so different.     had been promised the Spirit of Christ and still Peter
They know that Jesus is risen from the dead. All the        says, "I am going away to fish." Peter decides to leave
appearances proved that. They had seen Him, talked          the Word. He asks no questions and does not invite
with Him, and eaten with Him. There could be  ,no           the others. He merely announces his intentions. He
dpubt  about the resurrection. But everything is            says in effect: "You may wait here all you want; you
changed. Their former  rel$ionship was so different.        may do as you please. But I have had it, I can wait no
Now the Savior comes and He goes. The daily                 longer; I just do not know what the Lord wants or
fellowship is gone. And even when He is with them           when, if ever, He will come. I'm going away to fish."
He seems so remote. Jesus seems to belong to them           The others respond immediately: "We. also go with
no longer. It's just all too much for them: the terrible    thee." We are with you Peter. So they enter into a
cross, the strange resurrection, the waiting.               ship, utterly discouraged, perhaps even disgusted.
  Thus, weary of waiting, they go fishing. Seven of         Away they go, fishing. It is back to business as usual.
them are there. Five are mentioned by name. They
are the three intimates of the Savior: Peter and the          And in that night they caught nothing. They
sons of Zebedee, James and John. Thomas, who had            toiled, they labored, they cast their net into the sea
worshipped the risen Christ and who had put his             and drew it out again all the weary night long. The
fingers into the nailprints in His hands and who had        plain, simple, blunt fact is, their fishing is an exercise
cried, "My Lord and my God," is also there.                 in futility. They caught nothing. And they grew more
Nathaniel, in whom there is no guile, one of the first      weary and impatient as the night wore on. So it is
to confess Jesus as the Son of God, is present too.         often with the church of the risen Lord. What is the
Two others are not mentioned by name, which                 use of preaching and teaching the gospel of our Lord
indicates they were not of the eleven apostles but          Jesus Christ? What is the use of all the struggle? There
belonged to that broader group of disciples who             is  so. much unbelief and so much rejection of the
followed Jesus.                                             Word and opposition to it. Let's go fishing, the
                                                            church is often tempted to say.
  Already the prophecy of Jesus is happening: "I will
smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered."         Suddenly, "when the morning was about to
There are only five of the twelve, which means the          come," the weary disciples are  called by the word of
apostolic band is breaking up. They had been                the risen Lord. All night long they had been fishing
together for three years and they were inseparable.         (and these were experienced fishermen who knew the
The bdnd of their fellowship had been their special         `Sea of Galilee), but they caught nothing. Suddenly,
relationship to Jesus; but now He's gone from them.         6hen the dawn is about to break, they see through
And had the Lord not returned in the Spirit, we may         the darkness a man standing on the shore, but they
easily surmise what would have happened. They               know not that it is Jesus. They know not that it is
would never have stayed together. They would have           Jesus  - not because of the darkness, nor because of
returned to their former life. They could not of            the distance, for they weren't that far from shore; but
themselves, this means, preach the gospel of the risen      they see Jesus  atid know Him not, simply because He
Lord. Christ Himself had to do it through them.             is the risen Christ. He is the same Jesus and He has


70                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



nailprints in His hands, but now He is raised from the                             be fishers of men! I told you that! And you will find
dead. The mortal has put on immortality, the                                       - so many that you will not be able to get them into
corruptible has put on incorruption, the natural has                               the ship."
become spiritual, and the image of the earthly is now                                That is the word of encouragement to the church
the image of the heavenly. And they could not                                      today, represented so vividly in those faithless, weary
recognize the Lord unless and until He reveals                                     disciples. The church can be so discouraged in the
Himself by the word. The point is that they and we                                 work. It is such a struggle. Often the church is
live by faith and not by sight, and faith comes by                                 inclined to give up, for no one, it seems, wants the
hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord.                                       truth. The church must hear this word then: "Cast
  T h e   L o r d   s p e a k s   t o   t h e m   a f f e c t i o n a t e l y :    t h e   n e t . " Preach the Word, the life-giving,
"Children", "my boys." That is a word full of                                      world-destroying, powerful resurrection Word of the
patience and love, over against the unfaithful                                     gospel of Jesus. Preach that Word and do not give up
impatience of the weary disciples. "My boys," means                                and do not say: "I am going away to fish." Preach the
the Lord never forsakes His-beloved. Then Jesus asks                               Word! And the risen Lord from the shore of heaven
a question which expects a negative answer. Gently                                 gives the word of direction, the word of power. That
but firmly He asks: "Children, have you any meat?"                                 Word will draw the multitude of fish into the net. It
We may paraphrase the question this way: "Children                                 will do that; it cannot fail. Sinners will be brought to
you do not have any meat do you?" Curtly the                                       repentance and faith, and the ungodly will be
disciples answer, giving vent to their frustration:                                condemned. Jesus Christ will build His church. Of
"No," and they go on with their fishing. But the risen                             that there is no doubt.
Lord has shown their efforts, attempted apart from                                   Casting the net of the gospel, the church need
His word, to be futile.                                                            never be discouraged, need never say it is too much,
      Then Jesus gives the command, the promise: "Cast                             and need never fear. Rather the church must hear the
the net on the right side of the ship and you shall                                Word: "Come and dine." Another miracle greeted the
find." Did they recognize the voice? Did they catch                                eyes of the weary disciples as they came to shore.
the note of authority? Did it remind them of that                                  There was a fire of coals, and on it a fish and some
time once before when Jesus told them to cast the                                  bread. It was all prepared for them by the risen Lord.
net? We do not know. But without argument or                                       They did not have to go fishing at all. How little faith
objection they obeyed and they found. The net was                                  they really had. Jesus has the food all ready for them.
so full that, struggle though they would, they could                               0 yes, it served to reveal the Lord to them. We read
not get it into the boat. How must we understand                                   that none dared ask Him who art thou; they knew it
this? There is only one explanation: Jesus drew that                               was the Lord. But it also served to encourage them in
multitude of fish into the net.                                                    the great task which lay before them as apostles and
      Now they know Him! John says to Peter: "It is the                            preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. "Come and
Lord." Who else could it be but the Lord? Simon                                    dine" means (though they did not understand at the
Peter forgets the fish, throws the fisherman's coat                                moment) "I will provide." Jesus is saying to them in
about him and splashes through the water to Jesus.                                 effect: "I will be with you  alway even unto the end
The other disciples come in the boat, dragging the net                             of the world. Preach the Word then, and take no
behind.                                                                            thought for your life, what ye shall eat, what ye shall
      Now these weary disciples are encouraged by the                              drink, or what ye shall put on. Just preach the
word of the risen Lord, by two words really. First                                 resurrection Word."
Jesus instructs them: bring of the fish which ye have                                May the church of our Lord Jesus Christ in these
now caught. No, they do not have to bring the fish                                 last days hear this word: "Come and dine." May they
for food, for Jesus had that all prepared, -But the                                hear the word: "Cast the net  - preach the Word."
Lord means to lay bare their foolishness and lack of                               The church does that in the power of the risen Christ
faith. Bring forth the fish- ye have now caught,                                   and never in its own strength. And the church may be
caught by the power of My word. "Look at all those                                 assured that the saints of God will be gathered out of
fish," Jesus means to say. Peter hastens to drag them                              the nations, a church will be built for Christ, and
in. There are one hundred and fifty-three in all, great                            Christ will provide as He gathers by His Spirit and
fish. "Bring them forth, look," Jesus says, "you went                              Word out of the whole human race those children to
fishing and you caught nothing. Apart from Me ye                                   everlasting life. Some day soon the saints of all the
can do nothing. You cannot even be successful at                                   ages will come and dine with Him in the glory of the
fishing, apart from my word. And anything  y.ou                                    new Jerusalem. That Word is sure, for it is the Word
attempt apart from My word is only going to end in                                 of the risen Lord. Let the church then be on with the
failure. Still more: be not faithless but believe. You                             task of preaching the gospel wherever the Lord opens
went fishing, and you will go fishing again. You will                              the doors and leads the way.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                    71





                                          Book Reviews

THE PIETY OF JOHN CALVIN,  An Anthology                        Dr. K. Schilder. The first volume,  Christ in His
Illustrative of the Spirituality of the Reformer;              Sufferirzg   (468 pp.), takes us through the capture of
Translated and edited by Ford Lewis Battles with               Christ. The second volume,  Christ on Trial (550  pp.),
music edited by Stanley Tagg; Baker Book House,                takes the reader through the condemnation of the
1978; 180 pp., $9.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)             Savior. The third volume,  Christ Crucified (562  pp.),
  Perhaps the                                                  covers the crucifixion and the burial of our Lord.
                  best  way to give the reader some idea
of the worth and value of this book is briefly to              Incidentally, in the information on the back cover of
review the contents. In the introduction appears an            these volumes, Volumes 1 and 2 are reversed in order.
interesting essay on the whole concept of piety as                Especially for those unable to reach Dutch  - and
found in the writings of the  Genevan  Reformer.               Dr. Schilder's Dutch is by no means the easiest  - this
Chapter 1, entitled "The Spiritual Pilgrimage of               is a worthwhile reprint of what has become a classic
Calvin," reproduces Calvin's own account of his                in Lenten literature. The late Henry Zylstra did a
conversion which is taken from the preface to his              masterful job of translation and succeeded in
Commentary  oy1  the Psalms.  Chapter 2, "The Kernel           conveying in the translation something of Schilder's
of Calvin's Faith" is taken from the first chapter of          sparkling style.
the 1536 edition of the  Institutes.  Because this                True, one will not always agree with Schilder's
edition was later extensively enlarged by Calvin, the          exegesis. Small wonder! For Schilder did not always
material included here was also greatly expanded.              agree with himself, as is evident from the fact that he
Chapter 3, "Calvin on the Christian Life," is taken            undertook an extensive revision of the Dutch edition
from the 1539 edition of the  Institutes  published in         of his trilogy before his death, a revision which was
Strasbourg. Chapter 4, "Calvin on Prayer," is taken            interrupted by his death before he completed the
from the 1536 edition which also was later expanded.           third volume. Besides, Schilder was given to poetic
Chapter 5 includes several prayers of Calvin which             flights which sometimes seem to have a rather
were used by Calvin in the weekday services and                tenuous exegetical basis, but which nevertheless add
before and after his exegetical lectures. This section         to the enjoyment of the reader. But the main point is
includes also some examples of the order of worship            that Dr. Schilder certainly had a profound grasp of
used in the worship services. Chapter 6, "Metrical             the centrality and the cosmic character of the cross of
Psalms Translated by Calvin," includes an important            our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures.
introduction along with several of the Psalms                  This does not fail to come through in these volumes.
themselves. Chapter 8 is entitled, "Prose-Poems
Adapted from Calvin." The book concludes with an                  One more remark: do not expect easy reading
Epilogue on "Calvin on Christ and the Church."                 w h e n   y o u   r e a d   t h e   Tril,ogy.  E n j o y a b l e ?   Y e s .
                                                               Instructive? By all means. But you must be prepared
  The book is also filled with copious footnotes               to put  on.your thinking-cap.
which are very interesting and includes a textual
reference.                                                        This reprint is bound in a durable plasticized paper
                                                               binding, one of the reasons it can be offered at the
  We heartily recommend this book to our readers.              attractive price of $24.95 for the set. Highly
The price is very reasonable. It will not only appeal to       recommended.
students of Calvin, but to a much wider reading
audience which will find much pleasure in some of
Calvin's finest devotional writings. We are pleased to
report the publication of the book to the readers of                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
the Standard Bearer.                                              The Council of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church expresses its
                                                               sympathy to its fellow Elder, Mr. Clarence Kuiper and his family in the
                                                               loss of his father, MR. HENRY  KUIPER, SR., the patriarch of our
T H E   S C H I L D E R   T R I L O G Y ,   Klaas Schilder;    congregation and father and grandfather of many of our members, who
translated by Henry Zylstra; Baker Book House,                 passed into Glory at the age of ninety-five years.
Grand Rapids, Michigan. 3 volumes, paper, $24.95.                 "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance
(Reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema)                             shall be forever." (Psalm  37:18).
                                                                                                     Rev. M. De Vries, Pres.
  This is a reprint of the famous Passion Trilogy of                                                 Phillip  J. Lotterman, Clerk.

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

                                           -~  -~  ----
 72                             -..             THE STANDARD BEARER                 ,___


                                News From Our Churches
  Again this month there is quite a bit of news                Houck preached his inaugural sermon in Hope Church
concerning calls extended by various of our congrega-          the following Sunday. Rev. Houck is serving as home
tions. Candidate Ronald Hanko has accepted his call            missionary in the Lansing/Charlotte, Michigan area..
from Covenant Church in Wyckoff, New Jersey, to                   Redlands has extended a call to Rev. David
become the second pastor of this young congregation.           Engelsma. Their trio also included Rev. Marvin
Their current pastor is leaving soon to labor as               Kamps and Rev. Dale Kuiper.
missionary in Singapore.                                          The congregation of our Southeast Church in
   Rev. Jason Kortering has accepted the call ex-              Grand Rapids was rather surprised to see Rev.
tended to him by our Loveland, Colorado congrega-              Schipper on their pulpit on the Sunday morning Rev.
tion. Rev. Kortering preached his farewell sermon in           Carl Haak was scheduled to preach his first sermon as
Redlands, California on Sunday, October 7. The                 their new minister. Rev. Schipper informed the
Kortering family left for Loveland on October 8th.             congregation that Rev. Haak was in the hospital with
Rev. Kortering was installed as Loveland's new pastor          blood poisoning. This condition had developed from
on Friday, October 12, by Rev. Marvin Kamps, pastor            a sore on his hand. Rev. Haak did obtain a four-hour
of our  Doon, Iowa congregation. The Loveland                  leave from the hospital on Sunday evening in order to
congregation was planning a welcome program for the            preach. He has now recovered from his illness.
Kortering family on October 26.                                Southeast scheduled a welcome program for their
   Our Hope Church in Walker, Michigan has called              new pastor on Thursday, September 27.
Rev. Wayne Bekkering of Houston, Texas to be their                The Reformation Day lecture in the Grand Rapids
pastor. The Hope trio also included Rev. Bernard               area is scheduled for October 30 at the Calvin College
Woudenberg and Rev. Dale Kuiper.                               Fine Arts Center. Rev. David Engelsma will speak on
   Ordination services for Steven Houck were con-              "Evangelism and the Reformed Faith."
ducted in Hope Church on September 19. Rev.                                                                     K.G.V.

                                                 Report of Classis  East
                                  September 12, 1979    Hudsorzville  Prot. Ref C/zurch
       Classis East met in regular session September 12,       decisions taken.
1979, at Hudsonville. All the churches were                       The request for emeritation of Rev. R. Harbach
represented by two delegates. Since the major portion          was again presented by Hope Church.  Classis granted
of this meeting was devoted to the examination of              permission pending the submission of statements
pastors-elect Carl Haak and Steven Houck, delegates            from two medical doctors concerning Rev. Harbach's
ad examina  Revs. Engelsma, Miersma, and Lubbers               e y e s i g h t .
were also in attendance. Rev. A. den Hartog chaired
the meeting.                                                      The Finance Committee reported expenses of
                                                               $7 12.02 which amount also includes the expenses of
       As mentioned above, the  classis was privileged to      the delegates ad examina from Classis West.
hear the peremptoir examinations of two candidates,               Hope and Covenant requested classical appoint-
C. Haak and S. Houck. God's covenant faithfulness
was again witnessed when, at the end of the day,               ments. Appointments were give to Hope only
                                                               since Candidate R. Hanko is considering the call to
Southeast was authorized to ordain and install their           Covenant. The schedule adopted for Hope is as
pastor-elect, C. Haak, and Hope was authorized to              follows (evening service only): September 23  - Rev.
ordain and install S. Houck as missionary to the East          Van  Baren, October 7  - Rev. Bruinsma, October 28
Lansing/Charlotte, Michigan area.                              - Rev. Joostens, November 11  - Rev. Woudenberg,
       In other business,  Classis again received a letter     November 25  - Rev. Heys, December 9  - Rev. De
from the people in Skowhegan, Maine requesting help            Vries, December 23  - Rev. Haak.
should a local church or the Mission Committee not                Classis will meet next in Holland on January 9,
provide any.  Classis decided that it was unable to            1980.
treat this matter since neither the Skowhegan people                                        Respectfully submitted,
nor  Classis East had been informed of any official                                         Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk


