           The                                           /
      STAlVDAI?D
          BEARER!  _
/                   A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE     I




       .  .  . it is not too strong a statement. to say

     that we are commanded by God to live in
     such a way that we can also pray, in good
     conscience before God:  ;"I have walked
     before thee in truth and with a perfect heart,
     and have done that  whicih is good in thy
     sight." It is well that we ask ourselves very
     seriously the question whether we can
     indeed make this prayer  ~ our own. If we
     cannot then there is something radically
               I

     wrong.
       See "My Sheep Hear My iVoice" -pg. 403


                                                        Vc$ume LVI, No. 17, June I,1980 A


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                              !.                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
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       Meditation-                                                               Editor-in-bhief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
            Revealed By the Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386           Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Arie  denHart
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            An Omitted Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389        Editorial  bffice: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION


                                         Revealed By The Spirit
                                                                    Rev. M. Schipper

                     "`But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
                 man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
                    But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: foe the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
                 deep things of God. "
                                                                                                                       I Corinthians 2:9, 10


       But asit is written . . . !                                                     ning of the world men have not heard, nor
       The apostle,, guided infallibly by the Spirit, is led                           perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, 0
to reflect on an utterance of the prophet Isaiah                                       God; beside thee, what he hath prepared for him
(Isaiah 64:4), not only to repeat it, but to expand on                                 that waiteth for him."
it.                                                                                      The apostle, without altering essentially the con-
       The prophet had written: "For since the  begin-                                 tents of Isaiah's message, alters the tone of the


                                            THE STANDARD BEAR:ER                                                       387



message from direct conversation to objective reve-       righteous and wicked, sin and grace, move to
lation; while at the same time changing the               realize the divine purpose. Nothing happens by
pronoun "him" into the plural "them," and the last        chance or accident in ages past, present, or future;
part from "waiting for him" into "that love him."         but  di  is directed by the ineffable wisdom of the
The heart of the message, however, he allows to           sovereign God. The fall of our first parents in
remain unaltered. The ancient prophet in prophetic        Paradise, the deluge which destroyed the first
vision marveled at God's preparations for His             world,, the rainbow of promise, the rise and fall of
people as he saw them on the dark background of           the nations, the true and the false prophets, the in-
Zion's desolation, preparations so marvelously            carnation, death, and resurrection and the glorious
,great that he observes that from the beginning of        ascension of Christ, the manifestation of  theSpirit
the world no mere man with all his senses could           of Pentecost, the preaching of the gospel, and the
perceive. The apostle, on the other hand, beholds         gathering of the church out of all nations, the battle
those same divine preparations, once hidden in the        of  thei ages, the parousia, the glorious second
eternal wisdom of God, as now revealed through            coming of the Lord Jesus Christ - all in their time
the Spirit in the gospel.                                 appear and perform according to the eternal
  Of that hidden wisdom, or the wisdom of God in          ,wisdom and for the purpose of God. Such is the
a mystery, the apostle in the context had been            idea of:the  hidden wisdom, now revealed. But there
speaking.                                                 is more.
  Hidden, that is, in the eternal God, and ordained          The  japostle  speaks, as did Isaiah, of the things
by him before the world of our time was founded,          which  1God hath prepared for them that love him.
according to which and unto which end, he deter-          And this includes the new heavens and earth where
mined our glory - the eternal glory of his church.        righteousness shall forever dwell. Prepared are
                                                          they in the eternal wisdom of God. All that  wait4
  That hidden wisdom is now revealed  - first of          for their final and glorious manifestation is the ulti-
all, to the apostles, then, through them unto the         mate passing away of the present world of sight,
church, through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Who          and the coming of the glorified Christ with His holy
searches out the deep things of God as He searches        angels.; And also included in that new creation is
out all things, the Spirit, Who is given without          what  :he Scriptures call the inheritance of the
measure unto Christ and by Him poured out into            saints  in light.
the church. It is the Spirit of Pentecost, Who
reveals to us the divine mystery concerning those            Note; here how the apostle emphasizes the great-
things which never entered into the heart of man to       ness of them. Not able are our present  Senses  to
conceive, but which God hath laid up for them that        perce$e them. They defy our present understand-
love him.                                                 ing. Neper  could we as we are now composed with
                                                          a l l   ou;r  i n s t r u m e n t s   o f   perceptibi1it.y  a n d
 Such is the contents of the gospel of revelation         understanding. be able even to imagine the things
the apostle had received, and which now he de-            God has prepared for those who love him, How
clares unto us - again, not in the wisdom of men,         many and how great the things God has prepared!
but in the power of God.                                     Prepared they were not only in the eternal wis-
  Eternal, adorable wisdom!                               dom  of God, but also in time by our Lord Jesus (
  Hidden beyond and behind all the things of our          Christ.  .Based they are on His meritorious and re-
present vision! The reference, no doubt, is to the        demptive work, wrought in His perfect sacrifice on
eternal, sovereign, and all-wise counsel of the living    the cross, attested to in his glorious resurrection
and incomprehensible God. For the apostle, having         from the dead, and finished in His majestic ascen-
spoken of the hidden wisdom, continues by inform;         sion to God's right hand, where now He prepares in
ing us: "which God foreordained before the world          Father's house many mansions for His people and
(the ages) unto our glory." That is the counsel of        preserves their inheritance. All of these have to do
redemption, according to which the all-wise God           with our final and eternal glory. Of this latter the
wills to attain unto His highest glory through the        apostle made mention in the context (verse 7).
most appropriate means. In the very center of this          Marvelous revelation!
eternal, unchangeable will of God is the Christ,            For God has revealed to us through the Spirit -
Who in Proverbs 8 is described as the Wisdom per-         so we read literally in the text. Always the subject
sonified. And with that Christ is the church, given       of revelation is the invisible, eternal, all-wise God.
unto Him by the Father, which must participate            Revelation therefore is always a divine act. It is the
with Him in His glory.                                    work of God whereby He unveils and discloses
  Within the brackets of time, as with unseen             what was hitherto hidden and unknown in Him-
hand, all things, large and small, good and evil,         self. Revelation is an internal disclosure to the  be-


388                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


liever. Of little significance, for example, would the    counsel. And that means that the creation with its
vision of the four beasts to Daniel have been             myriads of creatures is essentially as they were
without the interpretation by the angel. And the          eternally in the mind of God. It means too that
revelation to the seer of Patmos could not have           events of history, from the creation of the world to
been disturbing to him were it not that the God of        the second coming of Christ, are known by Him,
revelation had shown to him the things which must         because He it is Who works in all things to realize
shortly come to pass. So also it must be understood       the purpose of God.
in the text. The apostle is speaking of the revelation      The omniscient Spirit, Who discovers the depths
of the things God has prepared for them that love         of God and of all things, is the sole medium of reve-
him, but it is the revelation through the Spirit.         lation. He is the inerrant Author of the Holy Scrip-
  Never could the vision and the interpretation of        tures, and as He has come to dwell in the church as
the things God has prepared have come up into the         the Comforter Who would lead the church into all
mind of mere man. Though the Creator has en-              the truth, He is also the Author of salvation within
dowed man with amazing senses of perceptibility           us. It is He Who regenerates us, giving unto us the
and understanding  - and it may be said of mere           life  Of the resurrected and glorified Lord; and it is
man that he possesses natural wisdom  - there is          He Who applies the saving merits of Christ to our
no eye, or ear, or heart in man that could possibly       hearts and lives; and it is He Who through the
have penetrated into the mind of God to perceive          gospel, the good news of salvation, reveals unto the
the things of His plan. Nor could mere man with all       church the deep things of God.
his faculties have understood the revelation of the         This leads us to point out finally how the Word of
purpose of God as it unfolds in history. The apostle      God in our text speaks of the recipients of this reve-
stresses this point in the context (verse 8) when he      lation of the Spirit.
says: "which none of the princes of this world
knew: for had they known it, they would not have            When the apostle says in the text, "but God hath
crucified the Lord of glory."                             revealed them unto us," he is referring, first of all,
  What God has prepared for them that love Him            to himself and all the apostles. The apostles and
can only be known by divine revelation. And               prophets are the repositories into whom the Spirit
divine revelation is realized only through the Spirit     first commits the revelation of the mysteries of
- the Spirit Who searcheth all things, yea, the deep      God. Ordained and qualified they were by the
things of God.                                            Spirit not only to hear and understand the
                                                          testimony of the Spirit concerning the hidden
  In this brief but most profound statement the           wisdom of God, so that unmistakably they received
apostle explains the mystery of revelation. Job tells     it, but they were also officially appointed and quali-
us by implication (Job  11:7) that no man by              fied to speak that word of revelation and infallibly-
searching can find out God. And that means that           to write it. Thus it is, as the Scriptures testify, "holy
God is an incomprehensible deep; and no mere              men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
man, curious as he may be, can by searching               Ghost" `(II Peter 1:21b); and again, "All Scripture is
discover the depth of the being of God. But Paul          given by inspiration of God. . ." (II Timothy 3: 16a).
tells us here that this is the sole prerogative and       So they could not but speak and write of the things
function of the Holy Spirit. That the Spirit searches     which they had heard and seen.
out the deep things of God must mean, therefore,
first. of a&that He does this within the being of the       r\ior should it be forgotten that the central reci-
Triune God eternally. The Spirit searches out the         pient of revelation is Christ Himself. He is the
deep things of the Father and reveals them to the         Logos, the Word of God, through Whom all that is
Son, and the deep things of the Son and reveals           revealed of God is made known. He it is Who was
them to the Father. In the Spirit the Father and Son      appointed and sent to reveal the Father. He spoke
know each other perfectly and have in that Spirit         no word of Himself, but only that which the Father
most intimate fellowship. Secondly, it must mean          gave Him to speak. And it is He also Who receives
that the Spirit searches out the depths of the attri-     the Spirit without measure and in turn pours out
butes, the thoughts, the will of God, that is, His        that Spirit into the church, and into the apostles
decrees and plan. So there is nothing in God that         first. That is why, before Christ ascended into
the Spirit does not know, and what He knows He            heaven and gave promise to the disciples of the
knows most perfectly. In the third place, that Spirit     coming Spirit, He said, "he shall testify of me."
also searches out and knows all things (unlimited).       And it is also the truth that, upon the foundation of
And that must mean that all things in history, the        the `apostles of which foundation Christ is the chief
things that come to pass within the brackets of           cornerstone, that Christ will build His church,
time, are known to Him also. He discovers that            against which the gates of hell shall never prevail.
they are precisely the things of God's eternal            Butjthere is more.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          389


  The recipient of revelation is also the church of        Blessed hearts, which are no longer dead in
Christ.                                                  natural-depravity, but made alive by the regenera-
  Beautifully they are described in the text as          ting  Spirit of grace, and so enabled to understand
"them that love him."                                    concerning the things which have abiding value -
                                                         the things God has prepared for them, and unto
  And that means, first of all, that they have been      which; they are graciously preserved. Blessed they
made to believe the word of Christ as it comes to        are, too, because in them has been shed abroad the
them through the apostles. It makes no difference        love of God, the divine intention of which is that
really whether we read the text with- Isaiah who         they may be cornformed to His image, and be per-
says: "that waiteth for him;" or, with the apostle:      fect as iHe is.
"that love him." They that love him, wait for him;
and the converse is also true, namely, they that wait       Blessed Spirit of Christ!
for him are moved to do so by their love for him.          That wonderful Comforter, Who has come to
                                                         abide in us, stilling our hearts which so often are
  And always that waiting or loving is the work of       fearfu! because of the things we see and hear in this
the Spirit of Christ within them. That Spirit opens      vale of tears  - He not only leads us into all the
their eyes, which by nature are closed. Their ears,      truth, but also stablishes our hearts and joins us by
which by nature are deaf, and their hearts, which        faith to the Invisible.
by nature are without understanding, are
unstopped and renewed. In one word, that Spirit of          That glorious Revealer of the hidden wisdom of
Christ regenerates them and renews them in               God makes known unto us concerning the divine
principle, so that they are enabled to perceive          preparations, which we could never know with our
according to the measure of grace the things of the      meager human understanding, nor sense with all
kingdom of heaven. They behold, in accord with           our human faculties.
revelation, the things God has prepared for all             Such revelation moves us to exclaim with awe:
those who love Him. So they possess the hidden                 0) God, how good Thou art
wisdom through the Spirit.                                       To all the pure of heart,
  Blessed eyes, which, though they cannot yet per-               j    Though life seems vain.
ceive all the beauty of the inheritance of God laid            Burdened with anxious care,
away for them, nevertheless by faith fix their be-               i I groped in dark despair,
holding of Jesus Who has promised!                               :    Till in Thy house of prayer
  Blessed ears, which, though they are not able as                      All was made plain.
yet to catch the strains of heavenly music, are            There in thy house, under the proclamation of
nevertheless able to discern the Word of God, the        Thy Word, Thy Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of my
Holy Gospel of good news, that speaks to them in         glorified Redeemer, made known unto me the
sweetest tones concerning the glory that is theirs in    eternalmystery.
the day of Christ!                                         Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!


EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

                                   An Omitted Text


  In the May 15 editorial concerning the Study                D'r. Boer again argues that this text is only relevant
Report on the Boer Gravamen I inadvertently                  if the "decree of reprobation" has been proven from
omitted the Study Committee's treatment of one of             Scripture elsewhere in the Canons. The use of this
the Scripture passages involved. While this makes            text, as in the preceding instances, is based on the as-
no essential difference for the discussion, neverthe-         sumption of the existence of a decree of reprobation
less for the sake of accuracy I should have included         in Scripture.
it. The passage is Romans  9:20. Concerning this                This question is raised in Romans 9:20 as an answer
passage, cited in Canons I, 18 and criticized by Dr.          to someone who is challenging God's sovereignty. In
Boer, the Study Report states:                                fact; the objector has questioned human responsibility


390                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



       over against God's sovereignty. A dimension of that            Once again, therefore, the committee is in essen-
       sovereignty was expressed in 9:18 - God's sovereign-         tial agreement with Dr. Boer. They agree with him
       ty to "have mercy" and to "harden." In the analysis          that Romans 9:20 really has nothing to do with sov-
       of Romans 9:19-24  given above, the limited and tem-         ereign reprobation, though they somehow try to
       porary character of this "hardening" was described,          maintain that it does have something to do with
       and Paul's continual insistence that God cannot be           God's sovereignty. In addition, the committee
       held responsible for the condition of the "nonelect"
       was demonstrated. Election is the decree which be-           comes perilously close to teaching conditional
       stows the gift of God's free grace, but the "just severi-    reprobation already here. For the statement that
       ty of reprobation" is the result of man's own sin, not       "the  .`just severity of reprobation' is the result of
       the result of a decree of God. Though Romans 9:20 in         man's own sin, not the result of a decree of God" is,
       its context does not deal with election and reprobation      at the very best, a highly ambiguous statement.
       as coordinate and parallel concepts, the passage is            Once again, however, Dr. Boer is really justified
       rightly used in I, 18 to reply to those who challenge        by the committee.
       God's sovereignty.


                                      Reformed VotiabularvL

  In our creeds and, in fact, in Reformed theology                  ing decision...  .I' And again: "And this is the deci-
in general there is an entire body of terminology                   sion of Reprobation.. . ."
which has grown up over the years which may be                        Now the simple fact is that in both of these
called our "Reformed vocabulary." Partly this vo-                   articles the Canons employ a perfectly good and
cabulary has been derived directly from Scripture.                  understandable English word. They use the noun
Partly it has been developed in the process of the                  decree  and the verb to decree. Not only so, but the
development of dogma on the basis of Scripture.                     English translation in these instances is solidly
Thus, for example, in connection with the doctrine                  based on the original Latin. In fact, it is virtually a
of predestination there are such terms as: counsel,                 transliteration of the Latin. But the point is that
decree, will, good pleasure. Or there is such a term                there is no conceivable and sound reason, linguisti-
as providence, and in connection with it terms like                 cally: speaking, for changing this to "decide" and
preservation, cooperation, government.  There are                   "decision." The old translation is more accurate,
terms in connection with the doctrine of salvation                  and the old translation is perfectly understandable,
such as regeneration, justification, sanctification, per-           not only for theologians but for everyone.
severance.  Examples could be multiplied. In all
areas of doctrine there are such terms which belong                   Another example of the same thing, this time due
to what may be termed our Reformed vocabulary.                      to the fact that the Study Committee follows the
                                                                    Revised Standard Version, is found in connection
  However, in some circles this Reformed vocabu-                    with: Matthew  11:25,26.  This passage speaks of
lary is being eroded and is being replaced by a new                 God's  good pleasure,  and the Canons quote the
and strange set of terms. What the motivation for                   passage as referring to God's good pleasure. How-
this change may be, I do not know. It appears to                    ever,: in the Study Report (see May 15 issue) this
me, however, especially in the light of the fact that               becomes "gracious will." This time the change of
the changes are unnecessary and unreasonable,                       terminology is not only inaccurate and unneces-
that the attempt to substitute a new vocabulary is a                sary,  I but it also seriously affects the text and its
deliberate one, and thus also a deliberate attempt to               meaning. "Gracious will" is by no means the same
get rid of the old vocabulary.                                      as "good pleasure." The latter is both a Scriptural
  Of this I was reminded when I read the new                        termland a term which has found its place in our
translation of Canons, I, 6 and 15 offered by the                   Reformed vocabulary.
Study Committee on the Boer Gravamen. In Article                      Now why is this change of vocabulary so
6 this new translation runs in part as follows: "It is,             serious? And why should we guard against discard-
however, due to God's eternal decision that some                    ing of this vocabulary?
are endowed with faith by him within time, and
that others are not so endowed... According to this                   The reason is very simple.
decision.. . ." And in Article 15 the same language is                These words of our Reformed vocabulary have
found:  ". . . .concernmg whom God made the follow-                 meaning. They stand for certain concepts. And if


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                            391



you discard the terminology, you inevitably discard       class,  ito convey both  - the language of the faith
- whether you intend to do so or not  - the con-          and the concepts of the faith - to the church in its
cept as well. The result eventually is that. a genera-    generations. This may well be stressed in our day;
tion grows up that knows neither the language nor         in fact, it cannot be stressed too much. The minister
the concepts, that is, the body of truth which the        in his, preaching and teaching must develop and
church believes and confesses.                            explain Scriptural and confessional concepts to the
                                                          people of God, so that they may be instructed and
  To be sure, we must not have only the vocabu-           founded in the truth, in the faith once delivered to
lary. We must have the concepts which that vocab-         the saints. But to do this successfully and in the
ulary denotes and connotes. It is the duty of the         course of generations, the maintenance and the use
minister, both in the pulpit and in the catechism         of our Reformed vocabulary is indispensable.


                   The Canons and Reprobation
                                       Reinterpreted

  No one should be fooled by the Study Report on          Arminian controversy and there never would have
the Boer Gravamen. There is a possibility of this:        been any Canons. The Study Committee has a two-
for the conclusion of the Report seems to condemn         pronged attack. In the first place, they deviously
Dr. Boer's position and to maintain the doctrine of       reduce: the doctrine of reprobation to a doctrine of
reprobation. And I have already heard of some who         Zimited kZection. This, of course, is nothing else than
thought that the Study Committee's Report was             a doctrine of singZe predestination. This is the same
commendable because it upheld the doctrine of             doctrine which Boer wants, which Daane wants,
reprobation.                                              and which Berkouwer wants. Remember, it was
  Nothing could be farther from the truth.                Berkouwer who a few years ago openly stated that
                                                          he and! his churches did not want double predesti-
  Both the Study Committee and Dr. Boer repu-             nation., The Study Committee is not open about it;
diate the Reformed doctrine of reprobation as             nevertheless they plainly teach it, if you take the
taught by the Canons. Both arrive at the same des-        trouble to analyze their devious and lengthy report.
tination, but by different routes. Dr. Boer in the        The second prong of the attack is the changing of
main - though his prejudice sometimes prompts             sovereign reprobation to conditional reprobation:
him to say evil and false things about the Canons -       God  only rejects those who reject him. They ac-
in the main understands and sets forth the teachings      complish this also in a very devious manner; but
of the Canons on reprobation. But he disagrees, and       when you analyze the Study Report, this is what
he claims the Scripture passages cited do not prove       the report accomplishes in a very learned and
the Canons' position. This is the same position as        devious and adroit manner.
that taken by many in the Netherlands today, as
well as the official position of the Gereformeerde          Frankly, if I had to choose between Boer's
Kerken. Significantly, the Study Committee agrees         position and the Study Committee's position - and
almost entirely with Boer concerning the Scripture        understand well, I want neither  - I would choose
passages. And having cut away the Scriptural              for Boer. Boer is at least open and frank in his
underpinning of the Canons, like Boer, they might         rejectio'n  of the Canons' doctrine.
just as well have stated their agreement with Boer          There are several steps in the process by which
forthrightly. Now, however, they complicate things.       the Study Report attempts to put across its position.
They too, do not want the Reformed doctrine of            It would be interesting to conduct a step by step
reprobation. In fact, they deny it. But they follow a     analysis of this entire "learned" report. But this
different route, a more devious and deceptive             would require too much space. We will have to be
route. In fact, their report is a masterpiece of          content with a more condensed and summary treat-
mental gymnastics. What is that route? They  rein-        ment. To these steps, in my opinion, belongs a mis-
terpret the Canons and make them teach what they          representation of the history leading to the Canons.
do not teach, never intended to teach. In fact, if the    To them belongs a misrepresentation of the written
Study Committee's doctrine were the Reformed              opinions of the theologians at Dordt. To them
doctrine, there never would have been an                  belongs: a misrepresentation, I believe, of the main


392                                                       THE STANDARD BEA,RER


thrust of Dr. Boer's gravamen. But all these things                       to say that it is the testimony of Scripture that "not all,
we will have to pass by. I want to point out, if                          but some only, are elected, while others are passed
possible, the main line of the committee's reason-                        by...." In other words, that Canons in I, 15 under-
ings. To do this, I call your attention, first of all, to                 stand God's passing by of some not as the content of a
what the report states concerning the meaning of                          separate decree but as an action of God which is in-
the word  reprobation,  pp. 359-360:                                      volved in, and therefore a facet of, the one decree of
                                                                          election.
         4. The Meaning of the Word  Reprobation:                       Now there are elements of truth and elements of
         It appears that the word  reprobation  (in Latin,  repro-    error; in the above. It is certainly true that  tradi-
       tio) was  not,always  used by the delegates to the Synod       tiona!lly  the decree of reprobation has been distin-
       of Dort in the same way. As was noted above, the               guished into preterition and damnation. It is also
       delegates went to great pains to distinguish clearly be-       true that, while these terms are not used, this same
       tween God's  passing by (praeteritio)  of fallen man with      distinction may be found in the Canons, as the re-
       his grace and God's condemnation (damnatio) of man             port states.
       on account of his sin. It was made very clear in the re-
       ports from the various delegations that no other cause           But the elements of error are serious, and they
       for God's passing by could be found than his good              pave; the way for the corruption of the truth of
       pleasure, whereas the cause for God's condemnation             reprobation of which I accused the Study Report
       of man was man's sin and unbelief.                             above. The elements of error are two:
         In their reports to the synod the delegates often            1) The report conveniently overlooks the fact that
       used the word reprobation  as a synonym for passing by         by "damnation" is meant the decree of damnation.
       (praeteritio) or nonelection (nonelectio), thus explicitly     And accordingly, it also opens the way already here
       distinguishing it from  condemnation (damnatio).  A            for conditional reprobation. It is certainly true that
       number of delegates, however, used the word  reproba-          man':s sin is the cause of condemnation. But it is not
       tion (reprobatio) to refer to both passing by (praeteritio)
       and  condemnation (damnatio).                                  true that man's sin and unbelief are the cause of the
                                                                      decree  of condemnation. The latter is the Arminian
         This variety of usage, whereby the word  reprobation         error; which occasioned the Canons.
       sometimes means only passing by (praeteritio) but at
       other times both passing by (praeteritio) and condemna-        2) The report in the last paragraph quoted above
       tion (damnatio)  is reflected in the Canons, precisely in      makes the Canons teach that reprobation is but a
       the two articles against which the gravamen is direct-         facet, of the one decree of election. Now the com-
       ed. In I, 6 the phrase "that decree of election and rep-       mittee's own correction of the translation of
       robation" (decretum illud electionis et reprobationis) re-     Canons I, 15 should have guarded them against
       fers to reprobation in its narrower sense, as the              making the statements which they make in this last
       equivalent of nonelection or passing by, with only             paragraph. For the change in the translation exactly
       God's good pleasure as its cause. In I, 15, however,           shuts the door on a doctrine of single predestina-
       the phrase "and this is the decree of reprobation" (de-        tion. :Nevertheless,  the committee goes right ahead
       cretum reprobqtionis) refers to reprobation in its broad-      and introduces this idea here. It is correct, you see,
       er sense, as embracing both preterition (nonelection,          to say that both election and reprobation are facets
       or passing by] with God's good pleasure as its cause,
       and damnation, with man's sin as its cause.                    of the one decree of predestination. This is nothing
                                                                      but the old doctrine of praedestinatio gemina, double
         In this report, whenever there is a danger of being          predestination. But it is not correct  - and the
       misunderstood, we shall make clear in which sense              Canons do not teach this in I, 15  - to say that
       we are using the word reprobation. In harmony with
       the teaching of I, 6 and I, 15, however, the committee         reprobation is but a facet of the one decree of
       affirms that no other cause can be found for the pass-         elect&n.  This is the error of single predestination.
       ing by than God's sovereign good pleasure, whereas             But it is very plain that Canons I, 15 goes out of its
       the cause of  condemnation  is man's sin and unbelief.         way `to posit a distinct and positive and active
         One further comment should be made. The fact                 decree of reprobation -just as Dr. Boer claims in
       that I, 15 speaks of "the decree of reprobation" should        his gkavamen.
       not be understood as implying that this is a separate            To take this second matter first, one can trace a
       decree or decision of God which stands wholly by it-           consistent and ever clearer attempt on the part of
       self, independent of the decree of election. The decree        the Study Report to reduce what is called the
       or decision of reprobation is to be thought of as an as-       preterition-aspect           ( p a s s i n g   b y   a s p e c t )   o f
       pect of a single decree or decision. The fact that I, 6        reprobation to such a single predestination
       speaks of a "decree of election and reprobation"
       makes this clear, as does also the statement in I, 8,          doctrine, to reduce reprobation from a positive and
       "There are not various decrees of election, but one            active decree of God to pass by and to leave in the
       and the same decree...." It should be noted in addition        common misery to a mere doctrine of non-election
       that even I, 15, which speaks of "the decree of repro-         and ultimately to a literal statement of limited elec-
       bation," begins with a discussion of election, going on        tion.`But  limited election is not the doctrine of the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                 3 9 3


Canons, and it is simply preposterous to attempt to                 to eternal life is not universal, but limited. If
impose it on the Canons.                                            election is limited to certain persons, or to a certain
   Here are several quotations from the Report                      body of persons, there are some who have not been
which prove that the Study Committee takes the                      elected. To say that some have not been elected, we
position which I impute to them:  - p. 362 Dort                    believe, is only another way of saying that not all
points out, however, that according to scriptural                  have been elected.
teaching God decides to choose onZy some as recipi-
ents of this gift of faith, and so to choose only some                At this point the report produces some alleged
for the salvation which he, on the basis of the work                scriptural  ,proof for their position, all designed
`of Jesus Christ, has decreed as consequent upon                   merely to show the same idea, that if some are
faith. It is God's eternal decree to select certain                 elected, others are not elected.
ones for the gift of faith and to pass others by for                  But: now note that this doctrine of limited elec-
this gift. This choosing of some and passing by of                 tion becomes the doctrine of reprobation, so that
others can be thought of as a single (complex)                     the terms can be interchanged. On page 396 we
decision. But we can also speak of the former phase                 find the following:
of this decree as the decree of election and of the
latter as the decree of reprobation. Reprobation, as                     We have seen that the Scriptures do not teach a doc-
understood in Article I, 6, is a passing by with                       trine of reprobation which makes God the cause of the
respect to the gift of faith.                                          unbelief of man and which describes God as  con-
                                                                       der$nmg  people wholly apart from their merit or de-
-p. 369 (Speaking of Calvin and Berkhof) In other                      merit. We have also seen, however, that the Scrip-
words, these Reformed theologians taught the                           tures do teach a kind of "doctrine of reprobation"  -
"doctrine of reprobation" because they were                            that is, that God's election of people to eternal life is a
convinced that the kind of election to eternal life                    limited one, which does not include all men. This be-
which the Bible teaches  is a  limited election....                    ing,the  case, there are some who have not been elect-
                                                                       ed to eternal  lie. If one prefers, therefore, instead of
-p. 370 These words, that is to say, are a statement                   speaking of a "doctrine of reprobation" he could
about divine election  - a statement which under-                      speak about a "doctrine of limited election" as anoth-
scores and illumines the unmerited grace of that                       er way of saying the same thing. The aspect of this
election. That statement is this: election is limited,                 doctrine which has just been described is commonly
not universal; some only are elected, while others                     called preterition (or passing by).
are passed by.  This  is the testimony of sacred                      There you have it! The committee has at last
Scripture. The body of scriptural material alluded                 arrived literally where it wanted to arrive:  repro-
to, in other words, is not a group of passages which               bation,rs  nothing but limited election.
independently prove the doctrine of reprobation,                      Space forbids more in this issue. Perhaps - if the
,but rather a group of Scripture passages which                    whole `matter has not been decided by our July 1
affirm that  election is Zimited.  (Virtually the same             issue 7 we can discuss the committee's doctrine of
thing is stated in the next paragraph.)                            conditional  reprobation at that time. But I assure the
-p. 391 It is the conviction of your committee that                reader, that the committee disagrees with and con-
the scriptural teaching on election is this: election              tradicts the Canons also on this score.

FROM HOLY WRIT


                            Exposition Of G&tians 6
                                                       By Rev. G. Lubbers :



THE GREAT COMMANDMENT FULFILLED                                    selves" to the Lord of the Sabbath" to work by His
IN SARAH'S CHILDREN (Galatians 6: 10)                              Spirit in us." It is truly the beginning of the eternal
                                                                   Sabbath in this life (Is.  66:23). It is truly a walking
   Our verse still is a continuation of the spiritual              in  neyness of life which is not according to the
keeping of the Sabbath; it is the "yielding of  our-               oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:6).


 394                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


   We are here exhorted to "work the good to all."            then shall be placed over much there (Luke  16:ll;
 The "good" is something useful, profitable, a bene-          Matt. 25:34-40).  Also here God is not mocked (Matt.
 fit to our fellow men and fellow Christians.                 25:45; 46). God looks for the infallible fruits of elec-
 Sometimes this "the good" refers to the eternal              tion of grace in the free-born sons of Sarah.
 good of being presently forever with the Son of God
 amongst His redeemed brethren and sisters in glory           THEiREAL  ISSUE OF THE GOSPEL TRUTH
 (Rom.  8:28). We are to do "good" even where evil            SET  :IN BOLD RELIEF ONCE MORE  (Gala-
 is done to us, overcoming evil with the good (Ram;           tians:6:11-16)
 12:21). Those who do good have praise from those               It is my understanding that now Paul took the
 who are in authority (Rom.  13:4).  We are to work           pen from the hand of his amanuensis; he now con-
 with our hands the good, that we may have to give            cludes the last paragraph of the letter with his own
 to him that wants (Eph.  4:28). And whatsoever               hand.; (See Lightfoot, Greijdanus, and others.) Paul
 good we do, be we slave or master, we shall receive          will now recapitulate the entire situation in Galatia
 a reward from the Lord  (Eph.  6`:8). Notice that the        and the erroneous teaching, which is worthy of
 "working good" in our text is the same as "doing             God's anathema, in a few words. For, although
 good" in verse 8. This is evident from the "where-           Paul  jdoes not state it explicitly, here rings the
 fore" let us do good!                                        sound of Paul's anathema in every syllable. Paul
   There is no limit to the working the good. We              thus ends this epistle on the very keynote on which
 must do this as we have "opportunity." We must               he sounded the warning against corrupters of the
 buy out the time (Eph.  516). Paul had given in-             Gospel in Chapter 1:8,9.
 struction thus to do good,. that no opportunity to do          Paul will now in "large letters" set forth the very
 good be left undone. The love of Christ must con-            heart of the issue, once more, in a glorious personal
 strain us! The poor were the great concern of the            confession. Ever Paul would preach nothing else save
 apostles Peter and James when Paul met with them             Jesus Christ and him crucified (I Cor.  1:18-25; 2:2).
 in Jerusalem (Gal.  2:lO). And had not Paul given            In that Cross of Christ he glories, with solid
 instruction to these Galatian churches and                   boasting in the LORD, the covenant God (I Cor.
 prescribed collections to be taken in their midst            1:30,31). Notice that Paul says that he writes in
 upon every first day of the week (I Cor. 16: 1,2)? For       large "letters." Always remember and never forget
 such performing of mercy is the quintessence of              what I here write to you. The word for letters in the
 keeping the Sabbath Day (Matt.  12:1,2; Luke 6:2-9;          Greek text is  "gramma,"  which is something
 John  5:9-18). And now Paul, including himself,              written or cut with a stylus in the ancient manner
 says, "let us work the good to all." Perhaps the             of writing (Robinson Lexicon). The writing on the
 great directive for this doing good to all we have in        Cross; was in such letters (Luke 23:28). Paul is, evi-
 that beautiful heart-searching parable of the "good          dently, not referring to the length of this letter to
 Samaritan" (Luke 10:30-37).                                  the Galatians, for this letter is relatively short when
   But such good we must work "particularly to                compared with both the epistles to the Romans and
those who are of the household of faith." Mercy               the Corinthians. Rather Paul is calling attention to
 begins at home. The household of faith are all those         his own handwriting, wherewith he did not merely
 in whose heart God works by His Spirit, and who,             sign this letter, but wherewith also he concludes
 therefore, confess "the faith". This faith is the truth      this letter in the last paragraph. What a beautiful
 in Jesus, the twelve articles of faith. That faith is the    paragraph! It comes straight from the heart of the
 manifested truth in Jesus' crucifixion, death, and           great: apostle, and it goes directly to the very
 resurrection, is evident from Eph.  21:19-22.  See           marrow of the entire letter once more. It is a superb
 also Gal. 3:7, 23, 25. Faith has now come in Jesus.          defense of the truth of the Gospel in Christ.
 We are such a household of this faith, confessing
 this faith and walking by this faith through the             THEi  EXPOSING OF THE WICKEDNESS OF
 power of the Spirit. This household of faith is in           THOkE   W H O   A P O S T A T I Z E   F R O M   T H E
 many lands, composed of those who are far and                -FAII'H  (Galatians 6:  12,13)
 near. One day these shall all be in that one great              Paul takes all these apostatizers and Gospel-cor-
 Fatherhouse with its many mansions (Gal.  6:lO;              rupters in one mighty swath of his apostolic pen.
 Eph. 2: 19). To these of the household of faith we           Writes he, "as many as will to have a good face in
 show mercy, and perform the weightier things of              the flesh." There is not one exception allowed; all
 the law: judgment, mercy, and faith (Matt.  23:23;           are cut out of the same cloth. They are mere  face-
 Micah  6:6-g). Thus we make friends of the                   savers, who lose their soul. The term in the Greek is
 mammon of unrighteousness, and we will be                    ezposoopeesai,   which means: make a fair appear-
 received into eternal habitation in the ages to come         ance.: There is something insincere and very hypo-
 (Luke 16:9).  Where we are faithful in little here, we       critical about all these apostatizers. They are really


                                                    THE STANDARD BEAFiER                                             395


very double-minded: double-souled they are. They                ence. These false teachers are very adamant. Their
want to try to live in a spiritual detente with the             purpose? To find comfort for their own accusing
Jewish law-mongers, who are a scandal in the                    conscience that others too are being circumcised,
church. They will do this by fatally compromising               who had confessed to find their all in the only
the truth of the Gospel itself. They would place the            Name; given under heaven whereby we must be
free children of heavenly status and birth under the            saved, (Acts 4: 12). They would boast (have ground
bondage of the law, by circumcising them with the               for boasting  - haucheesoontui) in  the flesh of you!
Old Testament rite of the Covenant, making them                 What a low, mean motive!
in duty-bound to fill the whole law. Thus Christ
would be of no profit for them at all. They would               PAUC'S  GREAT AND EXEMPLARY CON-
still be in their sins (Gal. 5:2; I Cor. 15:17).                FESSION (Galatians  6:14-15)
  These apostatizing confessors are ashamed of the                Paul here sets forth forcibly and clearly the  onZy
Cross of Jesus! They would escape the persecution               ground of boasting given under heaven. He sets this
for the sake of the Cross which was  the  offense to            his boast in sharp opposition to those who boast in
the unbelieving Jews. Christ they really dare not               the flesh of other men, or in a mere rite of circum-
confess before men. Their  motive  is to escape any             cision; instead of in the fulfilled promise of God.
suffering with Christ, Who atoned for our sins on               Because of the excellency of the latter, he counts
the Cross. They virtually deny Him Who came to                  the former as so much dung and loss. He boasts in
fulfill the Father's will (John  4:24;  5:36;  17:4;            the knowledge of the excellency of Christ Jesus
19:30). For this Christ, Who is the end of the law for          (Phil. 3:4-l 1). Yes, Paul really confirms this his holy
righteousness to everyone who believes, whether                 resolution of boast in Christ with an oath: God
Jew or Greek, they will not confess with their lips,            forbid, (mee genoitej! May God prevent in His mercy
because they do not believe in their hearts. There-             that he (Paul) would ever glory or boast in anything
fore, they are intimidated by the fury of the Jewish            except in the %ross of Christ. At a very crucial point
zealots; they will have the names of being Chris-               of doctrine or maintenance of the truth of the
tians, while at the same time they will to placate              Gospel, Paul uses this affirmatory path often (Rom.
these haters of the Cross, who stumble at the stone             3:4,6,31;  6:12,15;  7:7,13;  9:14;  ll:l,ll). In the Old
laid in Zion. They are like the seed sown in stony              Testament Scriptures we read such a beautiful
ground (Matt.  13:5,6,20,21). From such the true                "God forbid" from the lips of Samuel and Jonathan
believers must distance themselves in order that                (I  Sam!. 12:23;  14:45). This oath can only be spoken
they may bring forth fruits in patience, hundred-               by hallowed lips of those who sware by the God of
fold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold (Matt.  13:23; Luke              truth  (Is.  65:16). Paul feels his deep and profound
8:15).                                                          reliance upon God to keep him in the confession of
  These face-savers are also very insincere, just as            the truth.
were the Pharisees (Matt. 23:4). Paul says that they              Paul would only and ever boast in the Cross of
who would have the Galatians circumcised are not                Christ! This Cross is most definitely of our Lord
interested in keeping the law. Circumcision is not              Jesus Christ. Notice:
an end, but it is the fleshly means to an end, to wit,            1. The Cross is here singled out. In the Greek,
not to be persecuted. They would place a heavy                  Paul uses the definite article. This points out the
burden on others, burdens which annihilate the                  well-known Cross of Christ as being in a class all by
' `light burdens' ' of Christ (Matt.  11:30; Gal.  1:7;         itself. There were many crosses and crucified ones
4:12). They play with the souls of men. They put                in the annals of Rome; historians speak of many of
the pressure on them with constraining speech to                these crosses. But the Cross on which the Lord of
be circumcised. (For the term "constrain" see Matt.             glory died, stood at Calvary between two other
14:22; Mark  6:45; Acts  28:18.) No, they did not               crosses of malefactors outside of the gate of
"compel," coerce them to yield their false teaching,            Jerusalem (Luke 23:33; Heb. 13:12,13).  Paul will go
as did Paul when he persecuted the church in his                outside of the gate and bear Christ's reproach. He
ignorance through unbelief (Luke  14:23; Acts                   will not count the blood of Christ an unclean thing,
26:ll; I Tim. 1: 12-16). They pressure them to yield            neither will he trample the Son of God under foot
to their false teaching with overmastering influ-               (Heb. t0:29).


3 9 6                                       THE STANDARD BEAkER


SIGNS OF THE TIMES


           The Last Time: How Are We Living?
                                               Rev. R. Flikkema,



   In our series under the above heading, we have         word. has proceeded from the mouth of Him Who is
now reached the final article that I have been called     and Who was and Who is to come. Babylon the
upon to write for this rubric. And, therefore, that       great is fallen, is fallen!
means that we will finish this series with the               What a horrible sin was and is Babylon's sin.
powerful Word of God as that is set forth for us in       This chapter brings us before a great banquet hall
the fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel.                  wherein are gathered King Belshazzar, his wives
   From the point of view of history, approximately       and concubines, and no fewer than one thousand of
seventy years have gone by from the beginning of          his lords, his mighty men. In this banquet hall a
chapter one up until the beginning of chapter five.       great: feast is in progress. Food in abundance is
We have noticed many things that have happened            brought out. The wine is flowing freely. The king,
during those seventy years. Daniel and his three          his women, and his lords are making merry. Every-
friends were taken into Nebuchadnezzar's court            one is having a good time. And sin is being commit-
and were subjected to a horrible plot. Daniel by an       ted!  .The horrible sin that is being committed
act of faith refused to eat of the king's meat. Nebu-     consisted in the first place in this, that all those who
chadnezzar dreamed a dream of a great image               weresgathered  in that banquet hall were thoroughly
which was crushed by a little stone. Daniel's three       drunk. They were stone drunk. Bleshazzar, his
friends were cast into a fiery furnace because they       women, and his lords had been tasting the wine for
refused to bow down to a great image. God brought         some: time, and the wine was now beginning to
upon Nebuchadnezzar a horrible insanity as pun-           taste  igood. In the very drunken state of everyone
ishment for his horrible pride.                           concerned, that sin of drunkennes led to another
   And all the while God's people sat by Babel's          sin: the sin of the most horrible and basest degener-
streams and wept. They wept! Why did they weep?           acy. The king's women were at that feast. They
They wept because for seventy long years they had         were; not there because they were expected to be
been in Babylon's land. For seventy long years they       there!. On the contrary, the very opposite is true.
had been subjected to fierce opposition and hatred.       The king's women were simply not allowed at such
But most of all they wept because for seventy long        royal; festivities such as were in progress in the
years they had been separated from the land of            king's banquet hall. Such a thing was totally un-
Canaan and from the House of God. Oh, how they            heard of. But at this festivity, at this king's feast,
longed for that House of God and for the fellowship       they were there. And they were there because King
of God that that House provided. For that reason          Belshazzar had wanted them there. And he had
God's people wept.                                        wanted them there in order to please the king's
                                                          drunken men! But such was not the end of it. For in
    But now their tears are all wiped away. God hath      the midst of their drunken state, and in the midst of
wiped away all tears from their eyes, for the Word        their `horrible lust, the king utters a command. A
of God to His people, as that is expressed in this        command which ordered his servants to do some-
fifth chapter of the Book of Daniel is, Babylon the       thing; which was also unheard of or allowed,
great is fallen, is fallen! God reigns over the           namely, a command to bring in the vessels of the
kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He             House of God, in order that the king and his lords
will. The victory is of the Lord and of His Christ.       and his women might drink therefrom! We must
Hence, no more tears need God's people, who are           understand that also that sort of thing was totally
in Babylon's land, shed.                                  unheard of. Oh, the-wicked nations of Babylon's
    And that, esteemed reader, is also the Word of        day had no qualms about seizing the vessels out of a
God to you and to me in these last times. The Lord        given temple. But it was simply forbidden on the
our God has also wiped away all tears from our            part of those wicked nations of Babylon's day to
eyes as we live in the midst of this world, Babylon's     use those vessels for any purpose. But Belshazzar
land. He has! He has exactly because this powerful        did not give a snap about that. He did not care in


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               397


 the least about that which was ordinarily forbidden          and `insignificant as far as the world is concerned,
 or unheard of. He had already brought in the                 and it says to us, if you are any indication of the
 women, and now he had brought in the vessels of              greatness and the powerfulness of your God, then
 the House of God. From those vessels which had               your God is not much! Look at you. You are small.
 been dedicated to the service of Jehovah God, the            You  lare insignificant. You are nothing. And
 king drank. And having drunk from those vessels,             because you are small and insignificant and
 the king "praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of        nothing, your God must be small and insignificant
 brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." Notice that.         and nothing. And because your God is small and
  He praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass,        insignificant and nothing, He deserves to be
' of iron, of wood, and of stone!                             mocked!
    And that was his horrible sin. At that feast  Bel-          But you can not mock God! I know that we
  shazzar praised gods that are no gods. He praised           emphasized that in our last article. But we must
  them, that is, he worshipped them. He bowed                 emphasize that once again. You can not mock God.
  down to them. He extolled them as being the cause           God will have those who hold Him in derision, in
  of all of Babylon's greatness. And in so doing he           derision. And that He will is vividly manifest in this
  mocked the living God. He mocked Jehovah of                 chapter. In the midst of Babylon the great's
  hosts, the One only true God Who lives and reigns           mockery of God, God sends a finger. A finger
  forever. He mocked the one God Who reigns over              which writes a message on a wall. A message which
  the kingdoms of men and giveth them to whomso-              declares to all the world, Babylon the great is fallen,
  ever He will. And he did that, mind you, with               is fallen! God did that with Babylon of old. Belshaz-
  God's own vessels! That is the point. The king used         zar, his women, and his lords were busy mocking
  the very vessels which had been dedicated to the            God. And then all of a sudden it happened! Fingers
  service of Jehovah God to mock God! By his action.          of a man's hand came forth. And having come
  whereby he brought the vessels of the House of              forth,' those fingers wrote three words on the wall
  God to his feast, and by his action whereby he              of that banquet hall: Mene, Tekel, and Upharsin.
  drank wine from those vessels, his word was, my             Oh what an awesome frightening thing that must
  gods are great. My gods of wood and stone are               have been to see those fingers writing those words
  powerful. And who is Jehovah Whose vessels these            on that wall. And it was! Belshazzar was frightened.
  are? Jehovah is nothing. All that Jehovah is good for       At the sight of those fingers Belshazzar was literally
  is to provide vessels from which I might drink              terrified! The joints of his loins became loosed. His
  wine. In utter comtempt and derision did the king           knees began to shake. And we read that at the sight
  hold Jehovah.                                               of those fingers his "countenance was changed."
    That was Babylon's sin. And that is Babylon's sin         His face became pale. At the sight of those fingers
  still today. Still today Babylon, this world, never         all the color drained from his face. He was terrified.
  ceases to mock our God. Still today this wicked             And in his terrified state he calls upon his wise men
  world glories in all its greatness. Still today this        to interpret those words. But as so often before, the
  wicked world glories in all that it has done. Still         wise men can not interpret those words. Finally he
  today. this wicked world gathers at its great feasts,       calls upon Daniel. He attempts to give Daniel a gift
  becomes drunk on its wine, commits horrible forni-          if Daniel will only tell him what those words mean.
  cation as a result of its great lust. And, in the midst     That  igift Daniel refuses. He says to Belshazzar,
  of its horrible degeneracy and baseness, still today        your gift I do not want. I will have nothing of it.
  this wicked world dares to mock God! The world              And I will have nothing of it because you have
  today, as it did in the past, has no use for God. We        mocked God. You have mocked God even as your
  live in a thoroughly wicked and godless world.              father, Nebuchadnezzar, mocked God. Do you not
  And, indeed, the most striking reality of it all is that    remember that? Your father mocked God. And,
  the world today still uses the same means that it has       too, do you not remember what happened to your
  always used to show that it has no use for God. By          father exactly because he mocked God? This is
  that I mean simply this, that the world still today         what jhappened. He was driven from among men.
  uses the very vessels of the House of God which             He ate grass as the oxen. The dew of heaven fell
  have been dedicated to the service of God in order          upon: him. All of that happened to your father
  to mock God! What are those vessels, those vessels,         because he mocked God. And now you also and
  which have been dedicated to the service of God?            this great Babylon which dare to mock God shall
  Unmistakably those vessels are you and me. Those            experience the just condemnation of God. You, 0
  vessels are the very Church of Jesus Christ. We are         king, land this great Babylon shall fall! "Mene: God
  God's chosen vessels whom He has dedicated unto             hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it." That
  His service. And the world today looks at us, God's         is, God hath set the limits of the kingdom of
  chosen vessels; its looks at us who are so very small       Babylon, and this Babylon has come to an end.


3 9 8                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                              /


"Tekel: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art       cross,! God brought His condemnation and just
found wanting." That is, God hath placed you on         judgment upon this world. Through Jesus Who
His balance scale, and you have not measured up.        died upon the cross, the world is numbered and
You have not measured up on the scale of God's          weighed and broken and fallen! It is fallen utterly
righteousness. You are found wanting. "Upharsin:        to its everlasting ruin! But through Jesus the
The kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes          Church is saved. It is saved through the very blood
and Persians." That is, your kingdom, Babylon the       of the lLamb by Whom God crushed this world, and
great, is divided, all broken up. Babylon the great,    by Whom God brought His just judgment upon this
which you thought was so invincible is all broken       world:
up. It is fallen, 0 king, by the hand of the God           And for us who live in these last times, that is the
Whom you mocked!                                        Word; of God which we must never forget. Our
   Indeed, those were Daniel's words. No, they          tears that we shed as we walk in these last times
were the very words of Jehovah, the living God          through Babylon's land are all wiped away. They
Himself, to the Babylon of long ago. And they are       are wiped away by Jehovah the God of our salva-
the words of Jehovah, the living God Himself, to        tion, Who lives and Who reigns eternally. Babylon
the Babylon of this world. To the Babylon of this       the great is fallen, is fallen. But we are risen: risen
world which dares to mock God, God says, you are        through Christ Jesus, risen to stand with Christ
numbered. You are weighed and found wanting.            Jesus forever!
You are broken. And you are fallen. Numbered,              That to be sure is the Word of God to Babylon.
weighed, broken, and fallen  by. My Son! Yes,           And that to be sure is the Word of God to us who
esteemed reader, those are God's words to the           live in these last times. Be comforted with that
Babylon of this world. Through Jesus Who died           Word.; Are you? Do you live with that comfort?
upon the cross, God crushed the horrible mockery        Remember these are the last times. But the
of this world. Through Jesus Who died upon the          question is: how are we living?


THE DAY OF SHADOWS


             Prayerful and Propel: Preparation

                                              Rev. John A. Heys





   Having been strengthened inwardly by his             enemies of God. We are children of  light in the
wrestling with God in prayer the night before,          midst of a generation of children of  darl&ress.  And
Jacob now faces a most critical moment in his           when we.make friends with these children of dark-
earthly life. Physically exhausted from his             ness by disobeying God, we find that we are face to
wrestling with the arm of flesh, in that night-long     face  wrth a far more formidable Enemy than these
struggle until the day began to dawn, but with          children of darkness. "Know ye not," James asks,
spiritual strength graciously given to him, he goes     "that the friendship of the world is enmity with
to meet the man who twenty years before made            God?" James 4:4. We ought not overlook that truth;
known his intention to kill him.                        and by; all means, we ought not try to talk it away.
   He goes to meet Esau, his twin brother as far as     We are surrounded by enemies; and if as God's
the flesh is concerned, but a spiritually different     friends: we walk in obedience to Him, these
brother as far as the soul is concerned. He goes in     enemies of God, seeing God in our walk, are going
obedience to God, Who commanded him to return           to oppose us. Yet this is far to be preferred to dis-
to the land of his fathers. And let it be understood    obeying God in order to obtain or retain the
that walking in obedience to God will always bring      friendship of the children of darkness and experi-
us face to face with enemies. We live in a world of     ence the wrath of an holy God.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 399


  Now these enemies of God are not always those            man who has no fear of God in him. The future is
of other races and nations and families. They can          clouded by what may happen today.
be and often are blood relatives. That surely was            Understand well that Jacob has divided his
the case here in the family of Isaac. Jacob, who had       family  so. that Esau, if he kills some of the wives
just received his new name, Israel (Prince of God),        and children, will not be able to kill all of his seed.
goes to meet an enemy who is his blood brother,            Remember also that Jacob has no certainty that he
but is called by God Himself a "profane person."           himself will escape Esau's sword. God had given
When Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, had obeyed              him no such promise. When God gave rich promis-
God and left Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan, his       es to Abraham that he would inherit the land, this
obedience brought him where he was surrounded              did not mean that Abraham himself personally
by enemies of another race and people. He, the             could; be sure that he would live to see the day
descendant of Shem, came by God's command into             wheniall of the land from the River of Egypt (which
the land of the descendants of Ham whose son,              is not'the Nile) to the River Euphrates would be his
Canaan, was the object of the curse pronounced by          to live in and enjoy as his land. God gave it to Abra-
Noah. And God is beginning to fulfill His promise          ham in his seed. And God gives it to Abraham and
to Shem that Canaan would be a servant of servants         to us' in that the new creation will be ours. So,
to his brethren. But with Jacob now it is a case of        although God repeatedly promised Jacob to make a
enemies that are not only related by blood ties, but       great nation of him, and to give him that land pro-
of a brother so closely related to him that at birth he    mised to Abraham, Jacob could not conclude that
had hold of this brother's heel, and that came into        he personally would escape Esau's sword to live
being through the same conception and birth.               long enough to be able to say of that land of Canaan
  Jacob knows of his brother's hatred and of the           that it! was his, and that all the Canaanites had been
threat which he made to take his life. This is             driven out. Jacob never did have such a fulfillment
evident in that he sends his servants ahead to             of God's promises to him; and he died in Egypt
assure Esau that he is not coming to take his posses-      when' none of his seed was in the land that was
sions away, and that he has plenty of cattle and           promised. And so the danger that Jacob himself
riches which he did not take from his brother.             might; die that day was very real to Jacob, and in
Jacob also knows that his brother is able to destroy       very fact. It was not a matter of unbelief for Jacob
him and all his family, and then take possession of        to fear such death at Esau's hand. He understood
all his cattle for which he worked those six hard          full well that God's promise would be fulfilled in
years in the house of  Laban his father-in-law. It is      his children; and in fact it was in his children's
indeed a critical moment in his life when the day          children many generations farther down the corri-
has come for him to meet his brother. It is not            dor of history.
merely a case of meeting a brother not seen for a
long time. It is not a case of a reunion with one who        Yes, God did promise Jacob at Bethel to be with
has been letting you know how much he misses               him in all his way and to bring him back to this land
you. It is the case of one who deceived meeting the        (Genesis  28:13-15).  But it is Jacob's vow that
one whom he deceived. And it is the case of one            Jehovah will be his God, if He will bring him back
who believes in God meeting one who is not ruled           "in peace" to his father's house. God did not tell
by the fear of God. Although they are twin broth-          Jacob that he would return in peace and would es-
ers, they are in no sense of the word alike. Spiritu-      cape Esau's sword. Similarly today, we have God's
ally they have a different source of life. In outward      word for it that we, as those that fear Him, shall see
appearance they were very different from birth.            our children's children, according to Psalm  128:6.
The one now is a strong healthy man, with four             That  1;s no promise, however, that in  this  Zife  all
hundred men like him, all fully equipped with              those that fear God are going to see their children's
sword and spear. The other is a cripple who has            children on this earth, and in this life. It points to
difficulty walking to meet his brother, and is com-        the new Jerusalem where we shall see our chil-
pletely unarmed as far as weapons of war are con-          dren's children in the glory of God's kingdom. And
cerned. And it is to be understood that Jacob is un-       that means a whole lot more than merely seeing
easy. We must not make light of the situation and          them in this life before we die. So Jacob is assured
                                                           his seed shall obtain the land, while Jacob himself
ignore the facts in the case. There was very real
danger here for Jacob. The events of this day will         cannot conclude that he will live to see that day.
reveal what the future holds for Jacob. The past is          God did tell Jacob in that wrestling match that he
colored with shameful deeds of deceit and works            must m the way of prayer, and in full reliance upon
which occasioned this hatred in Esau, and threat-          God, expect God to keep all His promises. He did
ened death to Jacob personally. The present is filled      teach Jacob that he must not in sinful ways seek to
with the potential explosion of vengeance of the           obtain what has been promised. God even changed


 400                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


his name to Israel (Prince of God) because he pre-         sent Isaiah the prophet to tell him that he would re-
vailed through prayer. Yet here as well God did not        cover: God even told Hezekiah through Isaiah that
promise Jacob that Esau would not kill him. What           he would. live another fifteen years. Did he then
Jacob was sure of, and what God promised him,              refuse that treatment of the lump of figs, and say,
was that Esau could not kill all his seed. Therefore       "Godipromised me I would not die, and so I do not
it is that he prays that beautiful prayer, "0 God of       need that lump of figs"? And he had the promise of
my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac,             living! another fifteen years, which Jacob did not
the Lord which saidst to me, Return unto thy               have.  iThrowing  caution to the winds and walking
country  ,.and to thy kindred, and I will deal well        carelessly is not walking by faith.
with thee: I am not worthy of the least of thy mer-          No, Jacob is throwing himself upon God's mercy,
cies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast showed         and is holding on to God's promise when he puts
to Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this       his seed with their mothers in the safest place that
Jordan, and am now become two bands. Deliver me            he can find there on the way to Bethel. He is
I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the         holding on to God's promise, and because of his
hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and        firm conviction that God will give him seed like the
smite me, and the mother with the children."               sand of the seashore, he does what God gave him to
   Note: "Deliver me, I pray Thee," which shows            use  to; defend and make safe this seed which must
that Jacob had not the promise that Esau would not         live, and which he is sure will live. In this we may
kill him. Note also that the ground for his assurance      not accuse him of wrestling with men, or of trusting
in the next verse is that some of his children will es-    in the `arm of flesh.
cape, "For Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good,          Jacob could be very tricky and deceptive; and
and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which            Jacob  icertainly  had a besetting sin. But we must
cannot be numbered."                                       not lose sight of the fact that the new principle of
   In light of all this, we must not judge Jacob to be     life was in him. His name Israel, or Prince of God,
utterly carnal and up to his old tricks in seeking         contains the name of God, and Jacob had God not
safety from Esau, and in striving to keep his              only in his name, but in his heart as a reborn child
children from Esau's sword. His tremendously               of God. We ought, therefore, to seek to find mani-
great gift to Esau is another matter with which we         festations in his life of that new life and its faith, as
will have to deal later. But putting his wives and         we take note of what shows up his carnality and
children in separate groups, those of the handmaids        works; of unbelief. We ought to rejoice as greatly
first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and          when we hear him speak words of faith, as we feel
Joseph last, was not a matter of trickery or of            sad when we see him wrestling with men.
unbelief.                                                    Therefore his prayer after he heard that Esau was
   All use of means for safety is not to be con-           coming with four hundred armed men should
. demned. Carelessness is never God's way. We may          assureius of his great faith in God. How humble he
not pray to God and then sit down and wait for Him         is here before God to confess that he is not worthy
to keep us safe, when danger is present and life is        of  the; least of all God's mercies. How firmly he
threatened. Jesus never rebuked those who came to          clings `to God and pleads in full trust and confi-
Him for healing. Scripture never tells us to throw         dence in God when he cries, "Deliver me from my
all caution to the wind and just pray and pray and         brother....whom I fear."
pray. If we run to the physician without any
thought of God, if we seek means and put our trust           Do not close your eyes to Jacob's sins, nor to the
in these means, we sin greatly. But if after we have       sins of fellow members in the church. But by all
committed the whole matter to God, we make use             means: rejoice in their acts of faith. Help them to
of the means which He has made available, we may           fight their sins, but let them also know that you
not be called carnal, and be accused of walking in         have noticed their faith in God and that you rejoice
unbelief. After Hezekiah prayed for his life when          that they too are His children with the same
desperately ill, and in fact "sick unto death," God        promises that you have.


                                            THE STANDARD BEAdER                                                401


GUESTARTICLE


                               The Fear of the Lord
                                                Rev. R. G. Moore.



  The Spirit of Christ through the holy writer of the      the appearance of evil or sin. Or, as we read in
Proverbs instructs us in wisdom and understand-            another Proverb, that pride, arrogancy, the evil
ing, the beginning of which is the fear of the Lord,       way, and the froward mouth does Jehovah hate, see
according to the Spirit in Prov.  1:7 and Ps.  111:lO.     Prov.  j  8:3. True godly fear is to depart from evil
The wisdom of the Proverbs is at the same time             (Prov.  16:6, Job 1:l).
simple, and profound. The proverbs give                      Positively once again, the fear of the Lord  is. a
instruction in godliness and this over against             strong confidence; for God's children have a place
wickedness and foolishness. And as there is                of refuge in the mercy, in the eternal love and care
nothing new under the sun, these proverbs are              of Jehovah (Prov. 14:26,27).  The fear of the Lord is
surely timely for us to consider.                          thus trust and hope and is a fountain of life to us
  Thus in this article we have chosen to write             (Provi   14:27, Job  4:6). Also, the fear of the Lord is
concerning a most fundamental calling of God's             the opposite of being afraid; it brings peace to the
people as it is set forth by the Spirit of Christ in       soul of the child of God. And in its strength God's
Proverbs  3:7. There is a growing tendency in the          childr,en walk as instructed by the Lord and as they
church to depart from godly reverence and fear in          receive grace to hear.
our day. Spiritualness is on the wane, it is even as         The world of wicked men also walk in fear; but
Christ has said of the last time, "the love of many        the fear of the wicked world is the fear of men. It,
shall wax cold." And because of this growing incli-        too, is the beginning of wisdom  - a wisdom in
nation of the world, we too can easily be swallowed        their own eyes, a leaning on their own understand-
up in the ungodliness of our age. Let then the Word        ing. It is a fear of which we are to have no part! And
of God be a warning to us. May we have grace to            they, too, are very busy instructing in their wisdom
hear! For only then shall we continue faithfully to        and in leading men to their understanding. They
manifest the church of Jesus Christ.                       teach, that all things are to be done for the common
  The Proverb that forms the basis of this article is      good of man. But this fear is the opposite of that in
Proverbs  3:7. We quote it: "Be not wise in thine          our text, it is not the hating of evil, but is the
own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil."            seeking of it.
The fear of the Lord is indeed the reverence of              This fear is built upon the arrogancy, pride, and
God's holy name, and the desire and activity of            the froward mouth. It is a delight in one's own
serving Him in all things. The Scripture teaches us        strength and work, a standing upon one's own abili-
that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom       ties and understanding. Their confidence is in
(Prov.  1:7). It is the instruction of wisdom (Prov.       princes and chariots; their ability to sustain self is
15:33). And to do God's commandments is                    on the foreground - both physically and material-
understanding (Ps. 11O:lO). The true fear of God is,       ly, as,well as spiritually. It comes down to a trust in
according to this word, a deep spiritual, ethical          no one outside of self. This' is not the way of the
knowledge and understanding of Jehovah, our                subject of the kingdom of Christ. We may not live
covenant God.                                              in such selfish doubt and lack of trust in the ways
  In the second place, negatively, the fear of the         of our God, or the means He uses to gather His
Lord is the hatred of evil - all evil, with no excep-      church. For this selfish, self-serving fear is not a
tion! This is especially significant over against the      fountain of life but a veritable fountain of death.
present emphasis on synthesis in this present life,       The wicked in their way cast up spiritual mire and
also as seen in the church world. Often the church         dirt. Their tongues are tongues of fire, gnashing
says today that we must enter the evil works of            upon: one another. And for them there is no rest.
man in order to understand and to change them.             May this not be said of us.
However, the fear of the Lord is not even to take on         It is obvious then that fearing is either the activi-


402                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



ty  of faith, or the activity of unbelief. Note that        leaves one in trouble of soul with only anxiety and
there is no inbetween. Faith may never in its true          despair, weariness and finally death.
sense be used to describe the wicked's trusting or            Thus Jesus instructs us to fear the Lord and
fear. Faith is the gift of God bestowed upon the            depart from evil. This may lead us to question why
elect of God alone. And it has its source in the re-        this instruction is necessary. For since it is true that
generated heart of the child of God. On the other           faith  is a gift of God to His elect and also that the
hand, unbelief is the word Scripture uses to                elect  itrust in the Lord and fear Him by grace
describe the fear and confidence of the wicked              through faith, and further that grace is not a thing
world. And unbelief has its source in the old man of        from which we can fall, we could then ask, why
sin. Thus the unbelieving world always says there           does the Lord admonish us to fear Jehovah and
is no God, and seeks wisdom in their own eyes,              depart from evil? Can God's children do otherwise?
leaning on their own understanding. God's elect,            The answer of course is quite simple: we still have
the upright in heart, living consciously in faith by        in this life our old nature that still clings to us. We
grace, trust in Jehovah alone, and walk in the fear         have but a small beginning of new obedience. And
of the Lord.                                                may we not forget this in our preaching and in-
  The object of the true, godly fear of the children        struction. Further, then, we also understand that
of God is Jehovah, the living covenant God.                 the admonition of God's Word is the means of
Jehovah is the eternally changeless God, the I am           grace whereby Christ powerfully leads His children
that I am. Our trust and hope is not in the unstable        from sin and strengthens them to stand consciously
ways, goals, and philosophies of man, but in the            in faith fearing Jehovah's precious Name.
eternally perfect will of Jehovah. Our God is He
Who is revealed to us in the inspired and infallible          Wezhave in this life so much that yet clings to the
Scriptures. He is made known to us in Jesus Christ,         wisdom of our own eyes  - a leaning on our own
the God of our salvation.                                   understanding, which prevents the godly fear of
                                                            Jehovah. We must remember that by nature our
  Thus, to fear Jehovah, His children must know             understanding and our wisdom (the `wisdom of
Him! Faith is rightfully spoken of by our confes-           our own eyes) is darkened, corrupt, and untrust-
sions when they call faith the certain knowledge            worthy. It hates God and will not put its confidence
and hearty confidence of the child of God. These            in Him. It is only as our understanding is come
two are intimately connected. To know God is to             under lgrace that we shall fear God. This we receive
trust in Him alone, and to give to Him all glory, to        in regeneration as Christ's Spirit grafts us into
fear and reverence His most precious Name. Our              Christ! and gives us faith to believe. This faith
hope then is in His grace alone to save and in His          Christ lpowerfully  activates by His Word as it is pro-
Sovereign good pleasure to save us in His Son, Jesus        claimed. But even so, again I say that new obedi-
Christ. This means then for us that we can rely             ence is just a beginning. Thus the Lord over and
upon His Word for the knowledge that leads us in            over again admonishes His church and calls them
the pathways of true wisdom and comfort. By grace           out of jdarkness  into the gracious fellowship of the
God's people do so seek His Word. They lay fast             living God. Against this calling to spiritualness do
hold on His word proclaimed. They turn again and            not rebel!
again to the confessions given to the church by the
leading of the Spirit of Christ for their learning.           Ourexperience as Gods children is certainly one
They steadfastly cling to the means of grace God            of need for this Word. All too often we assume a
provides them. And they grow and long to grow in            position of being wise in our own eyes. Much of our
the understanding of Jehovah. This spiritual aspect         life is on this level. So often there is much of the
of life is their overriding concern and seeking. Thus       earthy, and little of the truly spiritual in our lives.
they are prepared for the preaching from Sabbath            This can and is indeed a cause of much anxiety, and
to Sabbath. They love to gather together to study           even the cause of being afraid in this day. But even
the Scriptures in fellowship of the saints; they come       this is  .because  we trust only that which we have
to catechism with a longing to grow in the truth -          immediately in our hand. We are not trusting Jeho-
rather than looking to see how much work they can           vah, nor do we fear His Name, the God of our
get out of, etc.                                            salvation.
  $And so knowing Jehovah and seeking Him, they               Christ admonishes us for our sanctification and
trust in Him with all their hearts and in all their         for very life itself. It is His means to make us aware
lives. They see it is their calling to fear Jehovah, but    of our  i sin, weakness, and frailty. He calls us to
also that it is their gracious privilege to do so. And      repent  I and makes us aware of our calling before
they have peace, for their trust is in the unfailing        .God.  I&t at the same time the assurance comes to
God of their salvation. The opposite of being wise          us in the way of our trust and godly fear. For the
in one's own understanding or in one's own eyes             command of Christ is always accompanied by the


                                             THE STANDARD BEAkER                                                403



promise. They are knit together. Take note of this         iniquity in the blood of His own Son. And by grace
in the context of our text, in verses 1 & 2; 3 & 4; 5 &    He applies this Word to our hearts, He renews our
6; 7  & 8; or in Proverbs  14:26,27. The Lord directs      understanding. And our God quickens our faith,
the paths of His children, and He is changeless            leading us in the fear of His wondrous Name. He
from eternity. Our God blots out our sin and               gives to His own life eternal!

MY SHEEP HEAR MY' VOICE


                                   Letter to Timothy


                                         May 15,198O         The best way to understand what is a good. con-
Dear Timothy,                                              science before God is to consider an example of this
   In our last letter we discussed the wonderful           in Scripture. Such an example is found in II Kings
power of confession which God works in the hearts          20:3.  :If you consult the history which forms the
and lives of His people, by which power God's              occasion for this text, then you will discover that
people escape from the vicious cycle of sin which,         Hezekiah was king over Judah. He had instituted a
apart from confession, drags them deeper and               great  lreform  in the southern kingdom after the
deeper into sin's bondage. Confession is exactly the       terrible apostasy of Ahaz. He had brought Judah
great power whereby the shackles of sin are broken         back again to the service of God and had banished
by which we are held captive. It is the God-given          idolatry from the land. But, in chapter 20, we read
means whereby escape is effected from sin's                that Hezekiah was sick unto death and that Isaiah
slavery. It is the way in which we gain dominion           the prophet was sent to him to tell him to set his
over sin rather than sin having dominion over us.          house, in order because he would die and not live.
                                                           Now Hezekiah did not want to die. We are not told
   We were discussing this in connection with the          specifically the reason for this, but it is possible that
conscience. We talked about the fact that when the         the reason was that he had, as yet, no son to sit on
sinner continues in the way of sin, his conscience         the throne of David after he died. That this is
becomes more and more hardened to sin and his              possible is suggested by the fact that his life was
spiritual sensitivity to sin is more and more lost. A      prolonged fifteen years and that his son, Manasseh,
good conscience comes about, therefore, through            was twelve years old when he began to reign. This
confession. It is this truth which we must investi-        would seem to suggest not only that Manasseh was
gate in our present letter.                                born after Hezekiah was told he would die, but that
  What does it mean to have a good conscience              Manasseh was the only son Hezekiah had who
before the Lord? This is the crucial question. It is so    could! reign over Judah. However that may be,
crucial because it is only when we have a good con-        Hezekiah did not want to die; and so he prayed. His
science before God that we can have the joy of sal-        prayer is given to us in verse 3: "I beseech thee, 0
vation, the peace that passes understanding in our         Lord,  : remember now how I have walked before
hearts and lives, the assurance of God's favor and         thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have
love upon us, and the spiritual and mental well-           done that which is good in thy sight."
being which we so greatly crave. It is only when we          If you stop to think about it, this is a remarkable
have a good conscience before God that we can              prayer. I can recall that when I was a child I
have serenity and quietness of spirit in the midst of      wondered how it was possible for Hezekiah to pray
this life no matter what the circumstances of our          a prayer such as this. He speaks in the prayer of his
life may be. Whether we have prosperity or                 life which he had lived and describes that life as a
poverty, sickness or health, an easy road to walk or       walk before God with a perfect heart and in truth.
a life filled with trouble and distress, if we have a      He mentions that he did that which was good in
good conscience before God, we have the                    God's! sight. There is no mention made of sin at all.
assurance that all is well and we have peace and joy       And he uses this as a basis for his request that his
in all our life.                                           life be spared.


 404                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


   One would almost get the impression that Heze-            draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
 kiah is making in his prayer the loud boast of the          faith,; having our hearts sprinkled from an evil con-
 Pharisee in the temple who thanked God that he              science, and our bodies washed with pure water"
 was not as other men were. But this cannot be, for          (VSS. i9-22).
 God heard this prayer of Hezekiah and sent Isaiah              So `true is this that in the Old Testament there
 back to him with the words: "Thus saith the Lord,           was only a limited reality of a good conscience
the God of David thy father, I have heard thy                before God. We read of this also in Hebrews  lO:l,
prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal           2: "For the law having a shadow of good things to
 thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the            come, and not the very image of the things, can
 house of the Lord."                                         never with those sacrifices which they offered year
   Nor can it be that Hezekiah was simply not                by year continually make the comers thereunto
aware of the many sins which he had, as a matter of          perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be
fact, committed in his life. This is impossible for          offered? because that the worshippers once purged
any child of God, whether he lived in the Old or in          should have had no more conscience of sins." The
the New Testament. He certainly knew, as we all              idea here is very clearly that, because the blood of
know, that he was a very great sinner. And yet he            the animalsacrifices could not take away sin, those
prays: "Remember now how I have walked before                who brought such sacrifices never ceased to have a
thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have             conscience of sins. No doubt, when they brought
done that which is good in thy sight."                       their sacrifices by faith and saw in those sacrifices
   Nor is this prayer of Hezekiah an isolated case in        the perfect sacrifice of Christ Who was to come,
Scripture. It is a theme which is repeated often, in         they also experienced forgiveness. This is clearly
the Psalms for example. To quote but one example,            taught throughout Scripture. But the fact remains
the Psalmist of Psalm 119 sings: "So shall I keep thy        that these animals could not make a perfect sacri-
law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk           fice and the offerings had to be repeated. The result
at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy     was that the "conscience of sins" constantly
testimonies also before kings, and will not be               returned. We have the perfect sacrifice of Christ
ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy                    once  ;offered  on the cross; and by His sacrifice,
commandments, which I have loved. My hands                   "our hearts are sprinkled from an evil conscience."
also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I              Now this means two things. It means, in the first
have loved;. and I will meditate in thy statutes"            place; that the child of God has a good conscience
(vss. 44-48).                                                before God when he brings all his sins and guilt to
   That this appears as a recurring theme in Scrip-          the cross of Calvary and, by faith, appropriates the
ture is certainly due to the fact that this ought to be      perfect sacrifice of Christ as his own so that he
and can be the prayer of every child of God. In fact,        stands before God in the righteousness of Christ.
it is not too strong a statement to say that we are          When he lays hold, by faith, on Christ's perfect
commanded by God to live in such a way that we               work  :and relies upon the one, finished sacrifice of
can also pray, in good conscience before God: "I             Christ then, he knows in the depths of his heart
have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect          that biefore  God he has no sins. Then he can say: "I
heart, and have done that which is good in thy               have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect
sight." It is well that we ask ourselves very serious-       heart,: and have done that which is good in thy
ly the question whether we can indeed make this              sight.`;'
prayer our own. If we cannot, then there is some-               But it is immediately obvious that this cannot be
thing radically wrong. We must arrive at that point          all. Hezekiah in his prayer says more than this. He
in our lives when we can truly make this prayer our          does not only speak of the fact that, even though he
own. Then we have a good conscience before God.              is a  smner, he stands forgiven in the blood of the
  But the  .question  is: how is this possible in the        promised Seed; he also speaks very emphatically of
light of the fact that we sin continuously and that,         his walk as being in truth and with a perfect heart;
to use the words of our Heidelberg Catechism, even           and he claims that he has done that which is good
our best works are corrupted andpolluted by sin?             in the `sight of God.
  The answer to this question is to be found in the            This also refers to the cross of Christ, but from a
cross of Jesus Christ. This is, e.g., stated literally in    slightly different point of view. When our Savior
Hebrews 10: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness            made  iHis perfect sacrifice for sin on the cross He
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a        not only died for our sins and for our guilt, but He
new and living way, which he hath consecrated for            also earned for us full and complete salvation. He
us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and         earned for us not only justification but also sanctifi-
having an high priest over the house of God; let us          cation, He earned for us deliverance from sin but


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             4 0 5


also a new life of holiness and uprightness of heart.     tion, walks in good conscience before God. His sins
One who walks in good conscience before God is            he confesses; his guilt he leaves at Calvary; his life
also one who so lives out of the power of the cross       he lives in the shadow and by the power of the
of Christ that he appropriates for himself the life of    cross.1
Christ earned for him on the cross. And living out          Then it is true what our Belgic Confession so
of the perfect sacrifice of Christ, he lives in the       beautifully expresses, though in a negative way:
holiness of life which Christ earned for him.             "In the meantime, we do not deny that God
  This lies in the nature of the case. When the child     rewards our good works, but it is through his grace
of God goes to the cross with the burden of his sins      that he crowns his gifts. Moreover, though we do
which trouble him so greatly, he confesses his sins,      good works, we do not found our salvation upon
cries out for forgiveness and mercy, and pleads to        them;: for we do no work but what is polluted by
be delivered from his sins through the power of           our flesh, and also punishable; and although we
Christ's cross. He repents of his sins! He turns away     could, perform such works, still the remembrance
from them! He forsakes them! He leaves them all           of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them.
behind! This is implied in confession itself.             Thus then we would always be in doubt, tossed to
 But he knows that he cannot leave his sins               and fro without any certainty, and our poor con-
behind and "walk in a new and holy life" in his           sciences continually vexed, if they relied not on the
own strength. And so he walks every moment in             merits of the suffering and death of our Savior"
conscious dependence upon the power of the cross.         (Article XXIV).
And, walking in conscious dependence upon the               Next time we shall have to'see  how this is impor-
power of Christ Who lives in him, he walks in the         tant for our spiritual and mental well-being.
ways of his God.                                                               Fraternally in Christ,
  Then he also, walking in the way of  sanctifica-                             H. Hanko





                                       Book Reviews


I BELIEVE IN THE CHURCH,  by David                        gives iinsight  only into what is being done today in
Watson; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,               an effort to revive dying congregations.
1978; 368 pp., $4.95 (paper). (Reviewed.by Prof. H.       SAFE IN THE HARBOR?,  by Jimmy Lyons;
Hanko)                                                    Reformation Educational Foundation, Manassas,
  This book is part of the "I Believe In. .  ." series    Virginia; 1979; 42 pp., $1.40 (paper). (Reviewed by
which Eerdmans is publishing. It is authored by the       Prof. H. Hanko)
Pastor of St. Michael-le-Belfrey Church in York,            Jimmy Lyons is a missionary evangelist at large
England. The author came to this Church when it           in the Presbyterian Church of America. He wrote
was very small and all but dead. Using the methods        this book as a sort of diary which he kept on a
advocated in this book, the author built up the           "round-the-world" trip to visit places of poverty in
church into a large and flourishing congregation.         Southeast Asia and India. It is his purpose to tell of
Abandoning in large measure the traditional view          the incredible suffering of the Vietnam refugees, of
of the Church and advocating a restructuring of the       the indescribable poverty of the masses in India, of
Church in almost every respect, the author pre-           the efforts which are being put forth by the Church
sents a view of the Church which, though not in           to alleviate some of this suffering, and of the
accord with the Scriptural doctrine of the Church,        solemn duty which the Churches in America have
is in his judgment better suited to meet the de-          to support these relief efforts. The book is not
mands of the Twentieth Century. It is not much            intended to be theological, nor is the bit of theology
help in the all-important study of ecclesiology and       contamed in it soundly Reformed. Its intention is


406                                          THE STANDARD BEAhER



more to give some  impresSion  of the suffering              While the book is intended to be a pvacticcd  guide
among the poor and displaced in Asia. But it is            to the work of elders and while there is some
almost too brief even to do that.                          material in the book concerning the idea of the
  The  .book can be ordered from REF, Inc., 9400           office, we nevertheless consider the book deficient
Fairview Avenue, Manassa, Virginia 22110.                  in this respect. I suppose it is difficult to say how
                                                           much on this subject is too much  when'the  book
  I might add that the Reformed Educational                aims  !to be practical. But the fact remains that a
Foundation which has published this pamphlet is a          clear understanding of the office as to its Scriptural
printing concern founded by men of the Presby-             idea is important for an understanding of the work
terian Church in America which  offer$a complete           which elders must perform. That the book lacks
line of printing services and has as its goal the          this becomes also apparent in places. Some of the
publication of materials of a Reformed and                 advice given to elders would apply equally well to a
Presbyterian nature.                                       busy executive in charge of a large manufacturing
THE ELDERS HANDBOOK,  A Practical Guide                    plant.
for Church Leaders; by Gerard Berghoef and Lester            The book is written with too broad a purpose in
De Koster; Christian's Library Press, 1979; 303 pp.,       mind! I mean that the book is intended to serve all
$12.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                       elders regardless of their church affiliation and re-
                                                           gardless of the type of church polity embraced in
  Gerard Berghoef is a furniture manufacturing             their particular denomination. It is therefore not
executive who also served as elder in the Christian        always specific with respect to Reformed Church
Reformed Church for twelve years; Lester De                Polity and does not take a definite stand on particu-
Koster is at present the editor of The Banner. These       lar doctrinal issues.
two have collaborated to prepare a book which can
serve as a guide to ministers and elders in the work         There are serious mistakes in the book. I
which Christ places upon them in the congregation.         mention three of the outstanding ones. In the first
                                                           place,, the book does not have a correct view of the
  The book is written from the viewpoint of Paul's         relationship between the autonomy of the local
last admonitions to the elders in the Church of            congregation and the authority oi the broader
Ephesus which are found in Acts  20:28-31.  It has         assemblies. While this subject is not treated in de-
six main sections to it: these sections cover the idea     tail, the authors state:
of the eldership, the calling of elders in relationship
to each other, the calling of elders in relation to the          Presbyterian and Reformed Churches locate au-
                                                              thority, derived from Christ, in the congregation's
church both on the local level and on the level of            eldership. Broader assemblies derive their, authority,
the broader ecclesiastical assemblies, the calling of         by delegation, from the local council or consistory or
elders with respect to particular problems such as            session. The  classis,  presbytery, conference, and
divorce and remarriage, etc., and the calling of el-          agam, the synod, general assembly, general confer-
ders with respect to the future. There are many               ence can act for the local unity because .they  are pre-
worthwhile aspects to the book, some of which                 sumed to be but extensions of it. It is out of this con-
ought to be mentioned. Generally speaking, the                texq  that this handbook is written, allowing for such
book is written from a conservative and Biblical              denominational adaptation as required. (p. 38)
viewpoint and can be used by elders within our               In the second place, the book takes a wrong view
own Churches. It has many excellent practical              of divorce and remarriage. It allows for those who
ideas in it for particular aspects of the work of          are divorced and remarried to be members of the
elders and much practical advice which is helpful          Church. This is contrary to the Scriptures, although
in the many problems which elders confront. I              well within the position of the Christian Reformed
have no doubt but that the book can be read and            Church.
studied with profit by anyone who is determined to           In the third place, the book openly advocates
perform the work of his office in harmony with the         financial help from social agencies and government
Scriptures. It has also a rather lengthy section           funds for the poor and, in fact, speaks of a broad
which deals with particular texts which can be             function of the Church in social work. There is a
used by elders in different problems which they            promise in the book that another volume will
meet and in different aspects of their work. This          appear i on the work of the deacons, and, presuma-
section alone is very worthwhile.                          bly, these questions will be treated more fully in
  Nevertheless, there are weaknesses in the book. I        that volume. But this viewpoint is nevertheless
do not dwell on.these weaknesses to leave the im-          wrong.!
pression that the book is not worth getting; but             Nevertheless, we recommend this book to those
rather to serve as a guide to those who make use of        who are elders for it has much in it which can be of
it, so that they may know for what to beware.              good use to them in their work.


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             407


                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On June 15, 1980, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.               On June 9, 1980, the Lord willing, our dear parents, MR. AND
JOHN BISHOP will celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary.                  MRS. MARTIN DOEZEMA, will commemorate their 60th wedding
                                                                            anniversary. We thank God for the years He has given them together.
   We, their children and grandchildren are thankful to our Heavenly
Father for Christian dedicated parents and for the covenant training           May they confess with the Psalmist: "The Lord is the portion of
which they have given us. Our prayer is that God will continue to           my inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are
bless them in their remaining years together.                               fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."
   "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon       (Psalm  1!6:5-6)
them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children;"                               John Timmer
(Psalm 103: 17).                                                                                   Jay and Ruth Doezema
                      -                                                                            Ken and Gloria Doezema
                             their children and grandchildren,
                                                                                                   eight grandchildren
                                  Elaine  Brockhouse
                                     Cindy, Cheryl, Merlyn, Loren,                                 ten great grandchildren
                                     Steve and Howard                                              A daugher, June Timmer, and a granddaughter,
                                Alvin and Ardis Mejeur                                             Sandra Timmer, have passed on into glory.
                                     Rhonda and Debra
                                Clarence and Sandra Tinklenberg                                       IN  MEMORIAM
                                     Craig,  Pamella,  Julie and Kevin         On April 26, 1980, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto
                                Douglas and Sara Bishop                     Himself  : our dear daughter and sister, and wife and mother,
                                     Ryan, Bradley, Chris, Lane             DOROTHY JANE CHABOT (VAN DYKEN), at the age of 28 years and
                                     and Tracy                              3% months.

                                Henry and Nancy Tuinstra                       Services were held on April 30, in the Lynden (WA) Protestant
                                     Tanya, Cameron, Bonnie and             Reformed Church with Rev. Dale Kuiper officiating.
                                     and Denise                                "Our souls are joyful in the Lord, in whose Salvation we rejoice."
                                                                            (Psalm 35, Psalter No. 92).
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                              Mr. and Mrs. Paul Van Dyken, parents
   The Ladies Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed                                       Mr. and Mrs. S. Daniel Van Dyken
Church expresses its sincere sympathy to one of our members, Mrs.                                  Mr. Gordon Chabot, husband
Bea Talsma, in the loss of her mother, MRS. WIERINGA.                                              Jason Paul, son
                                                                                                   Nathan Richard and Seth Daniel, nephews
   May our Covenant God comfort her with His Word and Spirit in the
assurance that  - "all things work together for good to them that                    /             Alyssa Beth, niece
love God."  (Remans   8:28).                                                                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                              Rev. G. Van  Baren,  Pres.
                                              Mrs. H. Zwak, Sec'y.             On  June 27, 1980, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.
                                                                            HENRY  VELTHOUSE will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
                                                                            We,  the;!r children, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for the
                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                        Christian home and Christian education they have provided us. We
                                                                            pray that the Lord will continue to bless and keep them in His care.
   On June 17, 1980 our parents, MR. AND MRS. CHARLES                       (Psalm  1:28).
PASTOOR will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We are                        I
thankful to our heavenly Father for keeping them for each other and                              their children and grandchildren
for us, their children  and.grandchildren.                                                          John and Jerri Velthouse
   "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits." (Ps.                                   Debbie and  Jodie
103:2).                                                                                              Irv and Barb Velthouse
                                   Cornelius and Joyce Pastoor                                     Dawn, Amy, Kari and Sara
                                        Mary,  Linda,`Jane  and Charles                            Bob and Sharon Velthouse
                                   Harry and Thelma Boonstra                                            Robbie and Emily
                                        Jeanne, Anne and Sarah              Grand Rapids, Ml

                                   Carol Ann Pastoor





                                  News From Our Churches

   Rev. Gise Van  Baren, pastor of our Hudsonville                          program and social hour for Rev. and Mrs. Heys on
Church, has declined the call extended to him by                            Friday evening, May 30 in the church. Members of
our Redlands, California congregation.                                      our neighboring churches were invited to attend
    Rev.` John Heys is retiring after preaching his                         and to!extend  best wishes to Rev. and Mrs. Heys.
farewell sermons on June 1. The congregation of                                Holland's. trio for a new pastor includes Rev.
our church in Holland, Michigan is scheduling a                             David: Engelsma, Professor Herman Hanko, and


  THE STANDARD BEARER
           P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                __----_______-~~                   ~-.     ~~-     -.~.





                                         -  --~--   ~__--   ~-~  ~_~  ~~  __               ..-





408                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



Rev. Bernard Woudenberg. The trio for our Hope           on May 6 in our Kalamazoo Church to deal with
Church in Walker, Michigan, includes Professor H.        plans to proceed with the construction of a new
C. Hoeksema, Rev. G. Van  Baren, and Rev. B.             church building.
Woudenberg. A special congregational meeting to             Steps are being made toward the construction of
extend a call to one of these men is scheduled for       a new church building for our congregation in
May 21.                                                  Redlands. A grading permit was obtained in early
  Two deacons from our Hudsonville Church, Ted           May and grading was begun on the property where
Miedema, Jr. and Bob Garvelink, along with Rev.          a new church is to be erected.
Woudenberg, pastor  .of our church in Kalamazoo,            The council of our South Holland, Illinois church
Michigan, left for Jamaica on May 12 for a week's        has decided to designate all future collections taken
stay to see to the distribution of benevolence in        in the catechism classes for the poor. The South
connection with the destruction there of last year's     Holland Council also decided to discontinue the
floods.                                                  annual congregational picnic because of a lack of
  The Hudsonville Sr. Young People's Society has         interest over the last few years, but then later de-
scheduled a senior citizen's appreciation program        cided `to schedule a picnic after all - but on a some-
and coffee for June 17. A similar event was held in      what reduced scale.
First Church for the senior citizens of that congre-        The South Holland Men's Society sponsored a
gation in early April  - also sponsored by the Sr.       public lecture on March 24 in their church. Rev.
Young People's Society.                                  Engelsma spoke on the topic "Evangelism and the
  The Grand Rapids area Sunday School Teachers'          Reformed Faith." Refreshments were served after-
Mass Meeting was scheduled on May  20 in South-          wards! in the church basement.
east Church. Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma was to speak             The annual Ladies Circle Hostess Supper was
on an interesting but un-named topic.                    held  iu our church in  Doon,  Iowa on March 26.
  The Mr. and Mrs. Societies' Spring League              Rev. Kamps spoke on the topic "S.O.S." Perhaps
Meeting was held in our Hudsonville Church on            the meaning of that topic was evident to those in
Tuesday, May 6. Rev. Carl Haak spoke on the topic,       Iowa, but to some of us it is not.
"How We Should Prepare Ourselves and Our Chil-             The choir presented a program in our Loveland
dren For the Last Times."                                Church after the evening service on Easter Sunday.
  Rev. G. Van  Baren lectured in Kalamazoo on            The offering taken was for new Psalters and Bibles
Tuesday evening, April 29. His topic was `"The           in the church.
Practical Importance of Election." This public             The; newly reconstituted Radio Choir sang three
lecture was sponsored by our Kalamazoo congrega-         numbers before the evening service in First Church
tion. Rev. Van  Baren also gave this lecture in the      on Easter Sunday. The Radio Choir recently record-
Grand Rapids area on May 8 in the South Christian        ed five numbers which will be used on the
High School Auditorium in Cutlerville. A cassette        Reformed Witness Hour Radio broadcast in the
recording of this lecture is available. Send your        near future.
request with $2 to: The Reformed Free Publishing           A Quiet Thought from the Southeast bulletin:
Association, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, Michi-         "Those who think much of themselves, think little
gan 49506.                                               of Christ."
                                                              !
  A special congregational meeting was scheduled                                                  K. G. V.


