     STANDARD

           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                   Y





       True thanksgiving..  .does not mean that
     we stand before our riches, and then feel at
     ease in our souls because all is carnally and
     materially well. We must be thankful be-
     cause God is good, always good to us as the
     God of our salvation. This goodness never
     depends upon anything; it always operates
     through whatever we may receive.
               See "True Thanksgiving"-page 74




c                                      Volume  LVII, No. 4, November 15, 1980  -


                         .

7              4                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



                                I-.              1.                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                       CONTENTS                                                                              ISSiv  0362-4692  :
         . .                                                                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and Augrist.
                                                                                                    Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                          Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
     Meditation-                                                                          Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
        True Thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74        Deparhnent   Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur  Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
     Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77    .denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                          Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
     E d i t o r i a l -                                                                  Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                          Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
        The E.P.C. of Australia-Revisited. . . . . . . . . . . . .77                      Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
                                                                                          Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
     My Sheep Hear My Voice-                                                                              4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                           Grandville, Michigan 49418
        Letter to Timothy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79        Church News Editor: Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
     The Lord Gave the Word-                                                                                    1313 Wilson Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                                Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
        The Objects of Missions . .1 . . . . . . . . .                  . . . . .81       Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                          articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
     All Around  Us-                                                                      Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to ap-
                                                                                          proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
        What Is. Anti-Semitism? . . . .I. . . . . .                      .  . . . .83     signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
                                                                                          munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
        And: License Teachers? . . . . . . . . . . . .                   .  . . . .84     Reprint Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
        The Reformed Ecumenical Synod . .                                .  .  . . .84    magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
                                                                                          reproduced in full; b] that proper acknowledgement is made; c) that a copy of the
     The `Day of Shadows-                                                                 periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
                                                                                          Business:  Office: The Standard Bearer
        A Sinful Reaction to Sin . . . . . . . . . .                             .85                       Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                           P.O. Box 6064
     Bible Study Guide-                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
        Matthew- The Gospel of the                                                        New Zealand Business Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                           c/o OPC Bookshop
            Promised Messiah (2) . . . . . . . . . . . .                 .  . . . .88                                      P.O. Box2289
                                                                                                                           Christchurch, New Zealand
     Signs of the Times-                                                                  Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $9.00 er year. Unless a definite request
                                                                                                                                           R
                                                                                          for discontinuance is received, it is assumed t at the subscriber wishes the  sub-
        Gas Warfare in Christendom: The Antichrist's                                      scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
                                                                                          billed for  renewal. If you have a change of address, please  notif the Business
           Drive to Annihilate an Elect People . . . . . . . . . 90                       Office as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience  o`; delayed deli-
                                                                                          very. Include your Zip Code.
     G u e s t   A r t i c l e -                                                          Advertising Policy: The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising of
        The Necessity of Reformed Apologetics . . . . . . . 92                            any kind. Annoucements of church and school events, anniversaries, obituaries,
                                                                                          and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
     Book Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94      the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
                                                                                          announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
     News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :. . . . . 95                    15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                          Bound  VoZumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                          cooies of the current volume: such orders are  dled
                                                                                                                                                1!     as soon as  uossible after
                                                                                          cohpletion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes  ma? be obtained
                                                                                          through the Business Office.

MEDITATION

                                                       True Tharnksgiving
                                                                             Rev. H. Veldman


                    "0 give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever. `I Psalm 136: 1



     We are called to give thanks to God because His                                         fore always good, because His mercy endureth
mercy endures forever. How strange! Do mercy                                                 forever, is unto everlasting. And then the psalmist
and thanks include each other? Does not mercy                                                sings of this mercy of the Lord, mentioning it not
presuppose misery and affliction?                                                            fewer than twenty-six times.
     How strange and wonderful is the underlying                                                 Shall we give thanks unto the Lord because He is
current of Psalm 136, called  by the Jews the Great                                          good and because His mercy endureth forever-in
Thanksgiving! God is good. He is good, and there-                                            our present age of great plenty? It is always  com-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               75


  paratively more difficult to be truly thankful in       their abundance! We so often think that our contri-
  prosperity~  than patient in adversity. Besides, we     butions deserve God's favour and recognition.
  must give thanks because of His mercy. Mercy pre-       Indeed, true thanksgiving is pure acknowledgment.
I supposes misery. Are His mercies upon us? Are we        All we can do  ,is say, "thank you," to the living.
  conscious of this? Do we know, also now, our            God. And then it behooves us to fall down upon our
  misery? All through Scripture we read this. Only        knees and thank the Lord that we might be able to
  then can we be thankful.                                say it.
                     Its Idea                               Thirdly, true thanksgiving is also always praise.
                                                          Of course! This can never be lacking if, as guilty,
    Give thanks, or thank the Lord. The Dutch reads:      condemnable sinners, we have received the
  Praise the Lord. The English is probably the better     amazing grace and salvation of the Lord. When a
  translation. We cannot exclude the word, praise.        beggar receives a beautiful suit of clothes, he will
  The element of praise cannot be separated from the      surely not wallow around in the mire with it. And
  idea of true thanksgiving. The Scriptures, too,         if, as spiritual beggars we have been gifted with
  speak repeatedly of blessing the Lord, as in Psalm      salvation, we will surely not wallow around with it
  103:1, and this word, bless, means literally, to        in the mire of sin. True thanksgiving means true joy
  kneel, and therefore expresses the idea of true         of heart and mind and soul. Then we will surely
  humility and contrition. However, the word of our       point to God and praise Him as the God of our
  text undoubtedly means, to give thanks.                 salvation, ever declaring the praises of our God.
    The literal meaning of the Hebrew word, thank,                           I t s   C o n t e n t
 is: to reach out and extend the hand. It.means, then,
 that we point to all the good things we have                God is good.
 received, that -we count all our blessings, one by          God is good in Himself. God's goodness has been
  one. It means, too, that we speak of all these good     defined in the past as His Self-Desirability. Now it
 things as gifts which we do not deserve but which        is surely true that the Lord desires Himself. This is
 we have forfeited, and that we then climb up to the      fundamental1 However, this definition really does
 living God, the Lord our God, and point to Him as        not tell us what the goodness of God is. It states
  the rich and beneficent Giver of all good, and then     only a result of the goodness of God. It does not
  declare as before His face the praise of His Name,      answer the question: why does the Lord desire
 and also speak of that praise to one another, in the     Himself?
 great congregation and in the midst ,of the world.         That God desires Himself is because He is the
    True thanksgiving always implies three things.        God of infinite perfections. God is good. God is the
    First, it is the acknowledgment of our own            Holy One, the Righteous One, the God of all light,
 undoneness and unworthiness.  .We never deserve          truth, and faithfulness. Whereas God is the God of
 anything. Nothing belongs to man. As creatures, we       infinite perfections, as the Triune God, His
 are always under obligation to God. Even if we           goodness is therefore His Self-Desirability, that the
 serve Him perfectly, we would still be the most un-      Lord desires Himself. He knows Himself as the
 profitable servants. However, we are not only            only absolute Good, and therefore desires Himself
 undeserving, but also wholly unworthy. We are            alone.
 always miserable, naked, condemnable sinners.              God is therefore also the overflowing Fount of all
 How tremendously important this is! We are so            -good.for all who fear Him. Indeed, God is always
 often unthankful and rebellious. So often we             good. .The attempt has been made to generalize the
 complain because we must suffer pain and discom-         goodness of God, to speak of a general goodness to
 fort. How different would be our attitude, as people     all men. This attempt, however, is a complete
 of God, if only we would constantly be mindful of        failure. The trouble is that they view this goodness
 our sin and condemnation. How wonderful it               of God from only one aspect, namely the aspect of
 would be if we would bear in mind the great God's        God's benevolence, kindness, pity. They forget that
 wonderful goodness to us, utterly worthless              God's goodness is His Self-Desirability, that the
 sinners!                                                 living God eternally loves and seeks Himself.
    Secondly, true acknowledgment is always pure          Indeed, there are other aspects and phases of this
 acknowledgment. We can never renumerate or               goodness of the Lord.
 recompense the Lord. What shall we render unto             The Lord is always good. When the creature is
 the Lord for all His benefits to us? We own nothing,     viewed as evil and perverse, then this goodness of
 and can therefore never repay the Lord. How little       the Lord is known as His wrath. When the creature
 we understand that the poor widow's mite has             is viewed as sinner, always impure, then this
 more value before God than what the rich give of         goodness makes him miserable, is known as His


76                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



curse. And when the sinner is viewed as guilty and            and we read of it that it endureth forever.
worthy of punishment, and the goodness of God                   Indeed, in this present time is much misery. It
punishes him with temporal and everlasting                    may appear differently at times. But the reality is
punishment, then that goodness of God has the                 that this world is really the valley of the shadow of
name of His righteousness and justice.                        death. Indeed, the curse of God upon sin is present
      It is exactly for this reason that God's goodness is    everywhere.
always particular. That God is good means that He               How, then, can we say that the Lord is good,
is the God of infinite perfections, always seeking            `always good? Is He good when He sends misery
Himself. There is, therefore, never any kindness,             and sorrow and death? And then, do we thank God
benevolence, compassion for the reprobate wicked              for that goodness? Mercy is the love of God where-
whom the Lord eternally and sovereignly has                   by He is moved with pity and compassion because
known and knows as wicked, whom His soul                      He loved us with an everlasting love. God's mercy
loatheth because He always loves Himself. And it is           is His love and desire to deliver us out of all our
for this reason that He is filled with kindness and           misery, to make us conformable unto'the image of
mercy only for His people, and this only in Christ            His Son in heavenly life and glory. And God is
Jesus, that He desires their good even as He desires          merciful, desires to deliver us out of all misery and
Himself, and that only for His own Name's sake.               death, also when He sends us misery and sorrow
      It is exactly this aspect of God's goodness that        and death?
receives all the emphasis in this word of God.                  This mercy endureth forever. It is from ever-
Indeed, we do not have here merely a bit of dogma.            lasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. This
We do not thank the Lord only because of the                  is also emphasized in this text by the name Lord, or
virtue of God's goodness. In this sense God is also           Jehovah. Jehovah is the I AM, the Rock, the Un-
good to the wicked, maintaining Himself as the                changeable One. His mercy is therefore everlasting.
only good God. This is in itself no ground for
thanksgiving. But the psalmist here is exhorting the            This is the ground for  all true thanksgiving.
people of the Lord to give thanks unto God for His            Eternally in God's counsel, and through all the
goodness, for the revelation of that goodness in all          history of this world, God is moved by mercy and
the riches of blessings for His own.                          compassion; it is the divine motive that  ,controls
                                                              every divine activity, whatever happens  .in the
      Indeed, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is            world, including the creation of the world, what-
good. That God is good is the content of this thanks-         ever the Church may experience, whatever we may
giving. It means that we have seen and observed in            personally experience upon our way.
all our life the goodness of the Lord upon us. It
means that we know and say that we have received                This is also the content of this psalm. Twenty-six
from the hand of our God nothing but good.                    times the psalm speaks of this ever-enduring
Indeed, we shall  `not give thanks only for those             mercy. In the verses 4 through 9 we read of His
things which we classify as good, omitting the                creative wonders. Then we are told of His wrath
things contrary to our flesh. We shall confess that           upon our enemies, upon Egypt and Sihon and Og,
God  is  good, that He is therefore always good in            and that He gave His people their land for an heri-
whatever is our portion and lot.                              tage. Always He is the mighty God, the God of
                                                              unchangeable love and mercy.
      Hence, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.
He is good, always, good in all things. Count your              Therefore we can give thanks, always. Indeed,
blessings, name them one by one, and do not omit              God is good, always good, always overflowing with
any. And, may the content of our thanksgiving ever            all the blessings of His lovingkindness. Therefore
be this goodness of the Lord. True thanksgiving               we know that all things are always working for our
does not c,onsist  in the things of this world. It does       good, because His mercy endureth forever.
not mean that we stand before our riches, and then              Indeed, give thanks unto the Lord, for `He is
feel at ease in our souls `because all is carnally and        good.
materially well. We must be thankful because God                His mercy endureth forever.
is good, always good to us as the God of our salva-
tion. This goodness never depends upon anything;
it always operates, through whatever we may                      The Standard Bearer
receive.
                     Its Ground                                 makes a thoughtful gift
      His mercy endureth forever.                                      on anv occasion.
      God's mercy is but an aspect of God's goodness,


                                            THE STANbARD  BEARER                                                   77


                                        E d i t o r 's   N o t e s

The Unnamed Sfudenf. His name is JonSmith.  He is             Publication &-news.  Several of our books, reprints
second from the right in the picture of the seminary          and new, are being delayed at the bindery. We urge
students in our special seminary issue. We first              you, however, to get your,Christmas  orders in; we
thought that our Yankee typesetter automatically              expect to be able to fill them. We also urge  you-
rejected the name of anyone from the Deep South.              again-to join the RFPA Book Club. As long as  The
But careful investigation proved that the omission            Voice Of Our Fathers is not yet published, you can
was a human error. Sorry, Jon!                                join the Book Club and take advantage of the big,
                                                              first-copy discount of 30% off the regular price of
                                                              $18.95. Write to: RFPA, Box 2006, Grand Rapids,
                                                              MI. 49501.

EDITORIAL


              The E.P.C. of Australia-Revisited
                                                   Prof. H.C. Hoehsema


  Various other obligations have prevented me                 ends. Already before we left home, we had been
until now from telling you a bit about my summer              invited to-preach and speak in these churches; and
experiences in Australasia and in Singapore, as I             on all three Lord's Days of our stay in Australia we
promised. This delay was not all bad: for it also             had the opportunity to preach the Word as well as
enabled me to see things a bit more in perspective            to speak, conduct question hours, and lead Bible
and to reach more mature judgments. In the rush of            classes.
travel and the excitement of new and interesting                 I spoke of visiting Australia, but actually that is a
experiences, the latter is not always possible.               bit of an overstatement. Actually, Australia is a
  Our chief purpose was to visit Australia, where             large land, as large in area as our United States. Our
we spent a total of three weeks.  ,We also spent a            visit was limited to the eastern coastal area, from
week in New Zealand (the North Island) and a little           the island-state of Tasmania far to the south to
more than a week in Singapore; but about these                Hayman Island, several hundred miles north of
parts of our trip later. Some five years ago, when,           Brisbane, Queensland, in the north. That took us
along with the Rev. C. Hanko, we visited various              from the southern temperate zone, where, since we
churches in that part of the world in what turned             were in the Southern Hemisphere, it was very
out to be a hectic, fast-paced trip, my wife and I            definitely winter, to the tropical area in the vicinity
dreamed of the possibility of returning some day on           of the Great Barrier Reef. As far as vacationing and
a vacation-trip, seeing more of the country, and              sightseeing were concerned, this area was quite
enjoying more of the hospitality of the saints with           enough to try to enjoy in three weeks' time. It is
whom we had become acquainted in that part of                 along this eastern coastal strip that you find most of
the world. This time I travelled in no official capa-         Australia's national population of some thirteen
city for the churches; and we could set our own               and a half million; and it is here, too, that you find
pace and draw up our own itinerary. And while our             the large cities, such as Melbourne, Sydney, and
chief purpose was vacationing and sightseeing, our            Brisbane. Although Australia as a whole is much
plans were such that we spent much time with                  more sparsely populated than our country, it is in
fellow-saints who had urged their hospitality upon            many respects like our own country. The  popula-
us five years ago and who, true to their word,                tion is cosmopolitan. Its large cities are much like
gladly received us and acted as our hosts and                 our large cities, though perhaps their social prob-
guides. We `purposely planned our itinerary so that           lems are not as acute as in our large cities. The
we would be with brothers and sisters of the Evan-            standard of living is much like the American
gelical Presbyterian Churches especially on week-             standard of living. And, generally speaking, the


78                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



religious and ecclesiastical situation `in that land is       Presbyterian Church, and there are several congre-
much as it is in our own land.                                gations there; the other center is in Queensland,
      We entered Australia at the Melbourne airport,          well over a thousand miles to the north. The E.P.C.,
where we had to make a connection to Launceston,              some of you will recall, is a group of churches
Tasmania, almost 300 miles to the south across Bass           which made a long and amazing journey during the
Strait. But it was at Melbourne airport that we had           1950s from virulent Arminianism and crusade
our first contact with God's people in Australia.             evangelism to the Reformed faith and a full com-
Pastor Van Baren had told us about his correspon-             mitment to the position of the Westminster creeds.
dence by letter and sermon cassettes with a Mr.               Pastor Charles  Rodman told the first part of that
Cameron Hope, of Mornington, Victoria, some 50                story in the Stpndard Bearer several years ago; I still
miles south of Melbourne. While we were not able              wish and hope he will finish that story some day
to go to Mornington, we did have a rather long                soon. (Please take note, Brother Rodman!)  Through
layover at Melbourne; hence, we had suggested to              a marvelous series of developments they came to a
Mr. Hope by letter the possibility of a short visit at        denial of the idea of a general, well-meant offer of
the airport. What a pleasant surprise it was to meet          salvation; and through an equally marvelous chain
Mr. Hope and his elderly mother there in the vast             of circumstances, while they thought they were all
reaches of the Melbourne terminal! Mr. Hope had               alone in the world in their doctrinal position, God
taken time off from his work and travelled up to              in His good providence brought them into contact
Melbourne with his mother just for the sake of face-          with us. That was the beginning of our friendship
to-face acquaintance and Christian fellowship for             and our contact.
an hour or so. Virtually their only spiritual nourish-          Five years ago, in behalf of the Contact Commit-
ment is by means of cassettes from Hudsonville                tee, Rev. C. Hanko and I made a whirlwind tour of
and Hope Churches and through  our.  Standard                 the Tasmanian churches. We spent an evening at
Bearer and other literature. It is probably difficult         Burnie, from Saturday afternoon to Sunday noon in
for us even to understand the circumstances of                Launceston, a Sunday evening in Winnaleah, and a
such isolated people of God. But it drew my atten-            Monday evening in  Taranna. Each time we barely
tion more than once that in the vast reaches of               became acquainted, and then we hurriedly moved
Australia one finds similar situations in various             on. This time there was opportunity for more
places-one or two or a few people of God who love             thorough acquaintance. We spent the entire week
and long for the Reformed truth living isolatedly             of our stay in  ,northern  Tasmania, visiting in
and in some instances far from other likeminded               Launceston, at Burnie in the northwest corner, and
Christians. One wishes that both for their own sake           at Winnaleah in the northeast part. Mr. Connors is
and for the sake of the churches they could be                an elder in the Launceston church, is clerk of that
gathered together.                                            congregation, and also clerk of Presbytery (classis).
      At the Launceston, Tasmania airport we were             He took the week off from his work as a building
met by Mr. Viv Connors; .and it was at the home of            contractor and acted as our chauffeur and tour
Mr. and Mrs. Connors that my wife and I and our               guide. Needless to say, we had much opportunity
daughter Candace had our headquarters for a                   to talk with one another as we travelled;. and on
week's unforgettable stay in the beautiful  island-           those days when the ladies went off by themselves,
state of Tasmania. It was winter in Tasmania, but             he and I spent many an hour discussing the truth,
the winters are not nearly as severe and snowy as             telling about our churches, and discussing both
our Michigan winters. Nights can be rather cold               those things on which we agreed and on which we
and frosty, so that a few quilts and an electric              have differences, as well as discussing the progress
blanket are welcome in bed; and a blazing fire in             of the relationships between our churches. All of
the hearth or an efficient gas heater are welcome in          our discussions were unofficial, of course; and we
the livingroom. But when it doesn't rain, the days            were both well aware of this. Nevertheless, we
can be rather mild and pleasant even though there             became better acquainted and came to a better
is a bit of a nip in the air. I must concede, too, that it    understanding of one another's positions and
was not as cold as five years ago. Besides, whatever          attitudes.
of cold there was, it was certainly overcome by the           ' One day out of our week we spent on a combined
warm hospitality and the Christian fellowship of              sightseeing and visiting trip westward along the
the Tasmania folk, and especially of the Connors. It          rugged north coast of Tasmania to Burnie. There
is sometimes said that you don't really get to know           we visited Pastor and Mrs. Fisk, newcomers to
people until you get your feet under the same table           Australia and to the E.P.C. since our visit five years
with them. Well, we became fast friends with the              ago. Mr. Fisk and I- had known one another by
Connors.                                                      correspondence when the Fisks lived in South
      Tasmania is one of the centers of the Evangelical       Africa.,Now we met one another face to face for the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 79



first time, and we spent a good half day of fellow-        north of Brisbane, to Winnaleah. In addition,
ship and discussion of our common faith there. We          Pastor John Lyons, now retired, drove in from
were only sorry that we were unable to revisit some        nearby St. Helens. The result was that we had a
of the Burnie folk whom we had met five years ago.         truly enjoyable get-together. On the way to and
   Another day and a half was spent in a delightful        through the park the men travelled in one car and
visit to Winnaleah and the northeastern part of            the ladies in the other. At the end of the afternoon's
Tasmania. Again, sightseeing was part of our               ride the men had to admit they had missed some of
purpose: we headed toward Mt. William National             the sights along the way. The reason? We were
Park and its abundant wildlife, to see in their            deeply involved in a theological discussion about
natural habitat such strange creatures as kangaroos,       post-millennialism!
wallabies, and wombats. But we also purposed to              In the evening at Winnaleah we enjoyed a fellow-
visit the folk of the E.P.C. of Winnaleah. Five years      ship dinner with many of the congregation. At this
ago we had made a. hasty visit and had enjoyed a           meeting I had the opportunity to introduce our
Sunday evening fellowship meeting at the home of           Protestant Reformed Churches, our history and our
Peter  Carins. At that time, due to some severe            doctrinal stand, particularly with reference to
troubles, the congregation at Winnaleah was                common grace, and fielded-a few questions after-
broken up. In the interim the breach has been              wards.
wonderfully healed; and we met several old friends           A large part of our contacts, however, was in
there, but also many new ones. Besides, in the             Launceston. About this and about the rest of our
interim of five years Pastor Philip Burley has             Australian visit, however, I shall write later.
shifted from Rockhampton, some  400-500  miles

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter to Timothv


                                  November.15, 1980
Dear Timothy,                                              not get too involved in that question for now; let's
  In our last letter we finished our discussion of         be content with saying that a "faculty" is a power
the conscience in the life of man and particularly in      which the soul possesses and which power is a
the life of the regenerated child of God. We have          particular function of the soul. It is generally
now to turn to the question of the place of the            conceded that the soul has especially two such
emotions in man's life-and again, particularly in          powers or functions: the power of thinking and the
the life of the Christian.                                 power of willing; or, the faculty of the mind and the
  This is a very difficult subject to discuss, and we      faculty of the will. Now the question which we face
need not, I think, enter into the question in detail.      is this: Are the emotions. (or feelings, or affections,
Such detailed discussion would carry us very far           -whatever you want to call them now) a separate
afield and would not serve any good purpose so far         power or faculty in the soul distinct. from and func-
as I can see. Yet some understanding of the                tioning alongside of the mind and will?
emotions is important.                                       There have been those in the past who have
  If one  .should make an effort to define the             taken this position. Dr. H. Bavinck, in his book,
emotions, one immediately runs into a problem.             PrincipZes   of Psychology, discusses this matter at
The problem has been faced many times in the               length and points out the dangers of doing this. I
past, and I do not know a better way to formulate          will try to summarize what he says about this.
the problem than this way: Are the emotions a                The chief danger which Bavinck sees in making
separate faculty of the soul? This is really not such a    the emotions or feelings a separate faculty is that
clear way to state the problem because the question        this causes the feelings "to stand outside the
immediately arises: What is meant by faculty?  Let's       control of the understanding and will, and thus


8 0                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



outside responsibility and guilt." His point is that                not responsible for his conduct since he was so
responsibility and accountability before God rest                   emotionally aroused.
upon man's rationality and morality. That is, a man                    How correct Bavinck was when he-pointed out
is responsible before God because he has a mind                     this danger. As, increasingly, this idea that the
and a will by which he is able to know the  differ-                 emotions are a separate faculty gained ground, so
en,ce between good and evil and know that it is his                 also did the idea grow that whatever conduct in
calling before God to do the good. But if the
         . .       .     .1       1  ,..        1       .1     r    man is rooted in the emotions is beyond the pale of
emotions are given maepenaent status, alongsiae or                  responsibility and guilt.
the mind and the will, then all such actions which
arise out of the emotions are also outside' the                       Bavinck goes on to point out that'when this same
boundaries of responsibility and guilt.                             principle is carried over into the area of religion,.
                                                                    then it becomes mysticism in all its different forms.
       This is an interesting point which Bavinck makes             He writes, "Feeling, released from the discipline of
because it is exactly what is happening in our day.                 the faculties of knowing and willing, becomes an
The trouble is that not only' is it true that emotions              independent fountain of knowledge; and the
are given a place in the life of the soul alongside of              balance is broken both in the life of the individual
(and relatively equal to) the powers of mind and                    man and in that of the people." So it is in the area of
will, but the emotions are even given a position of                 religion especially in what we call today, Neo-Pent-
superiority in the life of men. There have always                   ecostalism. Sometimes such mysticism takes the
been those who have stressed the importance of                      extreme form of making one's feelings the criterion
"feeling." They have said that emotions are the                     of truth so that special revelations come through
important thing. One ought to live in such a way                    the subjective faculty of feeling. But, more often
that his emotions come to full expression, that, as a               than not, religion is reduced to feeling spiritually
matter of fact, he is guided by his emotions in all                 "high." The knowledge of the faith is spurned and
that he does. This sort of position has all but deter-              the discipline of the activity of the will is ignored-
mined the kind of world we live in today. Not only                  all to make room for "feeling good." Religion is not
do emotions guide and direct men in all that they                   so much what you believe. Religion is what you
do, emotions even determine at last what is right                   feel.
and what is wrong. It is the emphasis which people
place upon feeling. Whatever gives them pleasure                      There is a great deal of this today also within the
in an emotional sense is what they do. They seek                    church of Christ. It is obvious, though, that this
their pleasure in "fun" because fun makes them                      must be avoided like the plague.
feeZ  good. They go to drugs and  alchohol because                    On the other side of the coin, however, there has
they give them a lift, give them a high, make them                  always been a certain tendency to deny the
feeZ good for a time. Whatever feels  good one does.                emotions altogether. It is, of course, impossible to
And the motto for a hedonistic age is: "If it  feels                do this in any kind of absolute sense. It is impos-
good, do it."                                                       sible to take the position that man has no emotions,
       But this same idea becomes a kind of standard of             or, at least, that man ought not to have any
right and wrong. When people do something which                     emotions, `that emotions are the baser side of man,
is contrary to God's Word and this is pointed out to                the more animal side, the lower aspect of his being.
them, then they cannot imagine that anyone would                    Man ought, if at all possible, to keep-his emotions
possibly question the morality of their conduct                     and feelings under such total control that he never
because, after all, it was fun to do and it gave them               does anything in an emotional way nor reveals that
a thrill and, "Do you want to take all our fun                      he has feelings of any kind.
away?" This same attitude is becoming increas-                         It seems to me that this is sometimes the conse-
ingly common among our children. They seem to                       quence of taking the opposite position, namely,
have the idea that if they feel like doing something,               that the emotions are not a separate faculty of the
they have a perfect right to do it, and the good                    soul, but are simply a part of the functioning of the
feeling which it gives them to do it is perfect justifi-            mind and  .the will. To use a figure: is the human
cation for doing it. That places the act beyond all                 person like a chariot pulled by three horses (the
criticism and outside'condemnation.                                 mind, the will, and the emotions), or is the human
       This principle is literally taken over in the area of        person like a chariot pulled by two horses (the
law and jurisprudence. The man may, in a fit of                     mind and the will)? If the latter is true then what
anger, murder his wife. But the very fact that he                   are the emotions? The possible and seemingly
was emotionally aroused by the anger which                          ready answer is that the emotions are only another
consumed him makes him innocent of murder and                       part of the mind. Just as the mind of man thinks,
excuses what he has done. And so the court                          reasons, ponders, understands, remembers, etc., so
declares him not guilty on the grounds that he was                  does the human mind also "feel." The emotions or


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    81



feelings are a part of the work of the mind-one            al that there is no room for emotions at all?
function of the mind among many.                              It ought to be obvious immediately that this is
  But it is this position which, it seems to me, has       impossible. Even if it were desirable, it simply is
led to the idea that we ought not really to be             not possible. We are creatures who are emotional,
emotional people at all. We ought, in so far as we         and all the theorizing in the world is not going to
are able, to keep our emotions so rigidly in check         change that one whit. We may draw up many rules
that they really never influence our conduct in any        of conduct which, whether written or unwritten,
respect. W.e ought never to be angry. We ought             disavow the emotionalin man and make any show
never to be sad-no matter how we are afflicted. To         of emotions a shame; but that is not going to alter
show grief when a loved one dies is wrong, and the         the fact that man  cannot be anything, else but a
more we can refrain from showing any grief, the            creature of feeling, a person with affections, one
more spiritual we are. We ought never to allow our         who came from the hands of his Creator with the
emotions to show through; then people will never           power of emotions. He may try to control them, to
know how we feel inside ourselves or how we react          hide them, to act.as  if they do not exist; but they are
to what happens to us and to others. The less emo-         there and they will be a part, an enormous part, of
tional a person is, the more he is to be praised.          our life whether we will or not.
  It seems that this has sometimes been the                   Even if we succeed in hiding our feelings from
position among us, and I wonder sometimes                  others, they are inside ourselves. They are there,
whether this is not, in fact, a characteristic of the      uncontrollably there; they are there because we are
Dutch-especially in comparison to other nationali-         made to "feel"; and without "feeling" we would
ties which are very emotional. .We are ashamed to          not be the kind of creatures God made us.
show our feelings quickly, are embarrassed by our             We want to take a look at the Scriptures and see
emotions, hide them from others when we can, and           what they have to say about all this. But we shall
try to control them in our own lives.                      have to wait until next time.
  Is this the way it ought to be? Ought we to be                                         Your brother in Christ,
such creatures of the mind and will that every part                                      H. Hanko
of our life is so completely intellectual and volition-

THE LORD GAVE .THE WORD


                            The Objects of Missions
                                              Prof. Robert D. Decker



  The question with which we are dealing is this:          of the disciples so that they understand how the
who are the proper  ~objects of mission work? To           Old Testament Scriptures teach "that repentance
whom or to which peoples ought the church direct           and remission of sins should be preached in his
the preaching of the gospel? In our last contribution      (Christ's) name among all nations, beginning at
we considered whether or not the church should             Jerusalem." In the Acts passage we find Christ
perform  mission.work  among the Jews. This is the         saying: "But ye shall receive power, after that the
question of what is sometimes called "the priority         Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be wit-
of the Jews." In that connection we presented a            nesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea,
rather lengthy quotation of the late Dr. J.H.              and in Samaria,  and unto the uttermost part of the
Bavinck (cf. Bavinck's Introduction To The Science of      earth." Bavinck argues that the Jews enjoyed a tem-
Missions pp. 69-72).                                       pomZ priority in that the gospel began at Jerusalem,
  In that book Bavinck takes the position that             but this priority holds no longer. The reason for this
Scripture makes no distinctions other than that the        according to Bavinck is twofold. Israel, because she
mission had to "begin at Jerusalem." In support of         rejected Christ, forfeited all her rights and privileg-
his contention Bavinck cites Luke  24:47 and Acts          es with respect to the gospel. Moreover, all the
1:8. In the former passage Christ opened the minds         promises to Israel are in principle fulfilled in the


82                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, in       myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
Bavinck's opinion, there is no special urgency to do      my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are the
mission work among the Jews.                              Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and
  With this position we must take issue. In Romans        the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the
chapter  .eleven  the Apostle Paul uses the figure of     law, and the service of God, and the promises;
the olive tree and its branches as an illustration of     Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning
the church and its members taken from both Jew            the flesh Christ came, Who is over all, God blessed
(the natural branches) and Gentile (the wild              forever. Amen." This is strong language!. The
branches). In verses seventeen through twenty-six         Apostle had "great heaviness and continual
we read, "And if some of the branches be broken           sorrow" in his heart. He even went so far as to say,
off (Israel), and thou, being a wild olive tree           "I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my
(Gentiles), wert graffed in among them, and with          brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive
tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou           This same Apostle, in a beautiful confession in
boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.      this same letter to the Romans, characterizes the
Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off,         gospel this way: "For I am not ashamed of the
that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief     gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto sal-
they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.         vation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first,
Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not        and also to the Greek' (1:16).  Itis always to the Jew
the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare        first and then  the Greek. For centuries the gospel
not thee. Behold therefore the goodness -and              was limited to the Israelites, with only a very few
severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but        exceptions. The ministry of Christ  .was almost
toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his            exclusively to the Jews, "the lost sheep of the house
goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And       of Israel." In obedience to Christ's command and
they also, if they abide not  in. unbelief, shall be      after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit the Apostles
graffed in: for God is  ,able to graff them in again.     began at Jerusalem, proceeded to Samaria  and then
For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is       to the uttermost parts of the world. Even in their
wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature       going to the uttermost parts of the world the
into a good olive tree: how much more shall these,        Apostles preached. to the Jew first and then the
which be the natural branches, be graffed into their      Gentile. The great Apostle Paul who is known in
own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye        the church as the apostle to the Gentiles followed
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should        that procedure in his missionary journies. Having
be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part      been ordained by the church at Antioch, Barnabas
is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the         and Paul embark on their first missionary journey.
Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be           Concerning the first stop on that journey we read:
saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion     "And when they were at Salamis, they preached
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness            the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and
from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them,            they had John also to their minister" (Acts 135).
when I shall take away their sins." This passage          The same is true of Antioch'in Pisidia (vs.. 14). Here
teaches that the natural branches (Jews), once cut        Paul preached a rather lengthy sermon to the Jews,
off because of their unbelief, may be graffed into        showing from the law and the prophets that Jesus
their own good olive tree again. God is able to do        of Nazareth is the Christ of God. After this sermon
that. They may become part of the church once             we read, "And when the Jews-were gone out of the
more. This is the special position and privilege of       synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words
the Jews who are the natural branches of the good         might be preached to them the next Sabbath" (vs.
olive tree. The wild branches, once cut off because       42). When on the next Sabbath day the unbelieving,
of unbelief, remain cut off. Hence mission work           envious Jews began contradicting Paul's preaching,
among the Jews ought never be ignored.                    Paul and Barnabas in the boldness of faith had this
                                                          to say to them: "It was necessary that the word of
  As a matter of fact the Apostolic Church certain-       God should first have been spoken to you: but
ly did not ignore the Jews, their "kinsmen                seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves
according to the flesh." Almost agonizing over their      unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
unbelief and rejection of Christ the Apostle Paul         Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us
ardently desired their salvation. This is what he         saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles,
writes in Romans 9: l-5: "I say the truth in Christ, I    that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in         of the earth" (vss. 46, 47). Notice how the apostles
the Holy Ghost,- That I have great heaviness and          put that: `It was necessary that the `word of God
continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish            should first. have been spoken to you." That was


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     83


necessary because the gospel is "to the Jew first                natural branches of the good olive tree they may be
and also to the Greek." When the gospel was                      graffed in again. For this very reason, should- the
rejected by the Jews the apostles preached to the                Holy Spirit open the door and show the church the
Gentiles. The fruit of that preaching was this: "And             way for work among the Jews, the church ought to
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and                preach to those people of whom according to the
glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were              flesh Christ came. This in brief is the Bible's teach-
ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of               ing concerning the Jews and their relationship to
the Lord was published throughout all the region.. .             and position in the church of all ages.
And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the               This does not mean there will be a mass conver-
Holy Ghost" (vss: 48, 49, 52). Thus the apostles                 sion of Jews near the end of the ages as many
continued from place to place in spite of the                    erroneously teach citing Romans 11. In this connec-
repeated rejection of the gospel and persecution by              tion the restoration'of the Jewish state in Palestine
the Jews. They went first to the synagogues (cf.                 has no particular significance from a Biblical point
Acts 14).                                                        of view. The fact is that God has His elect in every
  It may be said, therefore, that the Jews did enjoy             nation under heaven, both Jew and Gentile. These
a certain priority as the natural branches of the                the Son of God will gather by His Spirit through the
good olive tree. The gospel came first to them and               preaching of the Word. In this great work the
then to the Gentiles. Indeed it was necessary that               church must not and need not be ashamed of the
the word of God be spoken first to them. Through                 gospel for: ". . .it is the power of God unto salvation,
the Jews' rejection of the gospel the Word of the                to everyone that believeth, the Jew first and also
Lord goes to the Gentiles. It may also be said that              the Greek."
the Jews, still- enjoy a certain priority in that as

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren



                                What Is Anti-Semitism?


  Time,  Sept. 29, 1980, presented an interesting                   Jesus Christ is not the true Messiah? It is blasphe-
account in its religious section of a certain religious              mous."
leader who said that God does not hear Jewish                          Sensing more anti-Semitism than due respect,
prayers not made in Christ's Name. He was                            "those dear people" decided Smith's words should
promptly labeled "anti-Semitic" and many of his                     not go unnoticed. Last week the American Jewish
fellow church members berated him for the same                       Committee sent transcripts around the country. Smith
"sin."                                                              persists in his opinion, but many S.B.C. members are
                                                                     embarrassed over their leader's theology. Said Jimmy
     Last June in St. Louis, well-organized conservatives           Allen, head of the radio-TV commission and a former
   at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Con-                S.B.C. president, Smith's statement "doesn't repre-
   vention elected a stem-winding preacher named                     sent the position of most Southern Baptists. God
   Bailey Smith, 41, as president of the nation's biggest           listens to the needs of every person who calls on
   Protestant group  113.4  million members). Smith.. .             him."
   managed to keep a low profile until a big August
   political rally in Dallas, organized by the rising Protes-      This reaction is of more than passing interest-it
   tant right. Reporters flocked to a press conference           is also deeply disturbing and perhaps indicative of
   where Ronald Reagan was holding forth in favor of             that which we can expect in the future.
   biblical creationism, and so most of them missed                But what did Jesus say? Did He not claim, ". . .nei-
   Smith's address to 5,000 in the main arena. Said
   Smith: "It's interesting to me at great political battles     ther knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
   how you have a Protestant to pray and a Catholic to  -        and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him"
   pray, and then you have a Jew to pray. With all due           (Matt.  11:27)? Again, Jesus said in John  8:42, "If
   respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty         God were your Father, ye would love me: for I pro-
   does not hear the prayer of a Jew. For how in the             ceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
   world can God hear the prayer of a man who says that          myself, but he sent me." And did Jesus not say, "I


8 4                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh                   truth that Christians have ever maintained: access
unto the father, but by  me"  (John  14:6)? Now,                     to God's throne is only through Jesus Christ our
would any dare to accuse Christ, a Jew according to                  Lord, God's Son.
His flesh, of being anti-Semitic? To maintain that                     But the attack itself is disturbing. Will the Bible
one comes to God through Jesus Christ alone is the                   .soon be outlawed.because it is "anti-Semitic"? Will
teaching of Scripture. It is the truth that every child              churches be closed when they preach this  "anti-
of God must confess. If this "doesn't represent the                  Semitic" truth of Scripture? Will our Christian
position of most Southern Baptists," then they can                   Schools be forced out of existence because they too
not claim to be Scriptural, nor do they maintain                     maintain this "anti-Semitic" truth? What does the
Scripture. It is nonsense that when one quotes what                  future hold if these kinds of labels ("anti-Semitic")
Jesus said, he is therefore anti-Semitic (or  anti-                  are thus applied-and presumably most within the
Hindu, or anti-Moslem). He rather maintains the                      churches agree?


                                     And: License Teachers?

       This same issue of  Time  contained another dis-                 more, says Adler, the tests should be prepared "by the
turbing article about "licensing" teachers. The                         leading critics of our school system and of our
following is part of what was written:                                  teachers." Adler's plan could enhance opportunities
                                                                        for educated aspirants to become teachers by per-
          Doctors are licensed. So are lawyers, hairdressers            forming successfully on the  Kcensing  exams, while
       and real estate agents. Should schoolteachers be                 making the mere accumulation of required education
       licensed too?                                                    course credits less important....
          At present, most public school teachers are                  The proposition that teachers ought to be
        required only to hold state certificates. Unlike             competent should be a truism. The proposition to
        licenses, these are usually awarded automatically            have teachers tested and licensed, is a matter of
       when teacher candidates graduate from an accredited           deep concern. Who draws up the tests? Who mea-
        education program. Once granted, such certificates
        usually extend through a life-time of teaching-unless        sures the results-and by what standards? A
       the holder is convicted of a crime or proved flagrantly       teacher who is so foolish as to believe still the
        incompetent.. . .                                            creation account, will he perhaps fail the test? What
                                                                     of a teacher who still believes in God and Jesus
          . ..Adler's  plan: Require teachers to pass state board
        examinations before being allowed into the class-            Christ His only-begotten Son? Will such a teacher
        room. Tests of teacher competency are already                be regarded as "anti-Semitic"-and therefore fail to
        required in 14 states. But as Adler sees it, such tests      receive a  licence?  Competent teachers-yes;
        should be designed more broadly, to measure know-            licensed teachers by the state which may likely
        ledge not just of teaching theory and basic pedagogic        exclude those who serve God-no. The suggestion
        skills but of history, great literature and art. Further-    leads to increased state control and regulation.



                    The Reformed. Ecume.nical Synod


       This past summer the R.E.S. met in Nimes,
France (Southern France) from July 6 through 25.                     R.E.S. and the World Council of Churches. Some
According to the R.E.S. News Exchange, there were                    Reformed churches are members also of the
a hundred delegates from 38 member churches.                         W.C.C. There was also the continuing disturbance
There was some question whether the R.E.S. would                     about the doctrinal laxity of the Reformed Church
even survive in light of various disagreements                       in the Netherlands.
which had arisen among the member bodies. There                        At the beginning of the sessions, Dr. Paul G.
is disagreement about the dual membership in the                     Schrotenboer "had expressed concern..  .that  exces-


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            8 5



sive attention to internal problems would prevent                  create poverty, injustice and oppression. All
the churches from undertaking their service                        systems of our modern age are, to a lesser or larger
together in the world today. He also urged the                     degree, at fault at this point. In its prophetic
Synod to spend more time in praise and prayer.                     ministry the church should not only reject all total-
Both pleas were heeded."                                           itarian systems, whether they are of a left-wing or a
  The final conclusion of the meeting was that "in                 right-wing nature, because in such systems
the end all major decisions except one or two were                 injustice is built into the very fabric of the system,
taken almost without dissent."                                    but it should also critically evaluate and challenge
                                                                  the so-called capitalistic social order by asking
  Among the various actions taken was that the                     questions whether a society which considers as its
Synod decided to undertake a "biblical, historical,               primary value the pursuit of material abundance
contextual" study on human rights...." The report                  and uses all its resources for the fulfillment of this
of the Synod also informs that the "RES takes                      pursuit, can be a just society."
decisive action on homosexuality." The report
states:                                                              Finally, about the GKN, the Synod decided:
      In its decision the Synod recognized the intention of             Following many hours of discussion in Advisory
                                                                      Committee, the RES agreed without debate in plenary
   the GKN (Reformed Church in the Netherlands] in
   their pastoral concern in drawing attention to the suf-            session that the Reformed Churches in the Nether-
   fering, despair and experience of rejection to which               lands (GKN) had exercised discipline in the case of Dr.
   homosexual persons in many cases are being                         Herman Wiersenga, whose views on the atonement
                                                                      were found to be without biblical warrant. At the
  . subjected. The Synod also stated "in accordance with
   the traditional Reformed understanding of Scripture"               same time the Synod expressed its regrets that the
   that all homosexual practice is sin. It further stated             GKN had not restricted Dr. Wiersenga from expound-
   that "any advice or counsel that weakens the  resis-               ing his "impermissible" views in his official work.
   tance to sin does not help but actually harms both the             The Interim Committee had reported that in their
   struggling person himself and others who might be                  opinion the GKN had "faithfully" exercised discipline
   affected through him."                                             in the case, but the Synod substituted for this the
                                                                      word "officially."
  The Synod concerned itself again with the
"social injustices" in South Africa and urged its                       In the case of Prof. Harry Kuitert, whose views on
                                                                      Scripture are currently being studied by the GKN
member churches there to seek to remove such                          Commission on Church and Theology, the Synod took
structures. The Synod initiated another "final"                       note that the case is'still in process and that a report
study on the W.C.C. in order to resolve this troub-                   on the matter would be published in the coming
ling issue. Presumably the Synod of 1984 will make                    months.
a  -final  decision concerning dual membership in                    The quotations above-came from the R.E.S. News
R.E.S. and the W.C.C. Also, the Synod presented a                  Exchange  of Aug. 12, 1980. Though the report in
21-point statement concerning the social calling of                that News Exchange is very brief, one does receive
the church. As part of its statement, the R.E.S.                   the impression that the R.E.S. is concerning itself
declared: "the church  should~reali?e, however, that               increasingly with social issues-while papering
our  whole  world is burdened with structures that                 over the doctrinal disagreements which persist.

THE DA-Y OF SHADOWS'


                                A Sinful Reaction to Sin
                                                        Rev. John A. Heys



  Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, was defiled by                     ten years in the vicinity of Shechem.  Hamor  the
Shechem the son of  Hamor.  Although Jacob the                     father of Shechem was disturbed by the immoral
father of Dinah was in the land promised him, and                  conduct of his son, and he was fearful of the conse-
as far as the letter of the law is concerned was                   quences of his son's sinful liberties taken with
complying with the command to go to the land of                    Dinah. Subsequent events reveal that he had
his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, he tarried for about               reason to fear what Jacob's family might do. Yet we


86                                         THE STANDARD  BEARER



must see the truth of Psalm  105:14, 15  here,as  the    books and television, programs. When,. some years
explanation for that fear. We read, "He suffered no      later,  Israeli  entered Canaan from Egypt under
man to do them wrong; yea He reproved kings for          Joshua, God told them to break down every idol,
their sakes, saying, Touch not My anointed, and do       and to destroy all the idol worshippers, lest it be a
My prophets no harm."                                    snare to their children. This command came from
      The speech of Jacob's sons shows that they also    God and not from Joshua. It is not an idea of man
knew the letter of the law. For when  Hamor              that to expose your children to'the world is danger-
requested Dinah for his son, they refused such           ous. God warns us in all of Israel's history that the
marriage-even though Shechem and Dinah had               world is full of temptations for our children, and
behaved as one flesh, and the birth of a child might     that we must do all we can to keep our children
very well result from their evil deed-on the             from these, ternptations and from falling in them.
ground that their covenant daughters might not           We may not see how close we can bring our
marry the uncircumcised. What God meant by this          children to them without getting burned!
law is that no believer might marry an unbeliever.         It is not at all out of place today to warn parents
The mere act of circumcision does not make one           of covenant children that they are too permissive as
qualified to marry a believer. His circumcision          to where their children go, what they wear, and
must be an act of faith. And Jacob's sons presented      who they follow. Indeed, children will say-and we
to Hamor the matter of a mere cutting away of flesh      know that they do-"But everybody is doing it."
as a requirement for marriage in the covenant            AND THEY MAY BE CORRECT, that even in the
sphere.                                                  church they are doing it! Then the answer of the
  These sons of Jacob also corrupted the whole           covenant parent must not be, "But you are not
idea of circumcision by demanding it of all- the         going to do it!" Such an answer ignores and denies
Shechemites. They had something far different in         the truth that they are dealing with covenant
their minds and were speaking deceitfully. They          children in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells. You
used the things that are holy for their unholy           can rile your child, stir up his flesh and put his old
purposes. And although it is true that they never        man of sin on the defensive that way. But your
intended to marry the daughters of the land, they        calling is to address and approach your child in his
left that impression, and proposed circumcision so       new m&z in Christ. Your answer therefore must be a
that it could be realized.                               calm and yet definite, "But the God Who made
                                                         you, and Whose law you are obliged to keep,
  Well may we ask in all this, "Where is Jacob?"         forbids it and calls you to come out from among the
He holds his peace until his sons know about the         world and to be a separate people." We must not
defilement of Dinah. He takes no action himself,         sell short the Spirit in our children any more than
and he lets his sons answer  Hamor  and Shechem.         we must in the rest of the members in our church.
He also agreed to their corruption of the sacrament      All too often we think that we have to do it all; and
and that in this way there could be fellowship and       the still small voice of the Spirit using the Word of
intermarriage with these Canaanites. He put his          God just does not seem to have the power that we
sanction on such an outward conformity with the          think that we have ourselves for this awesome task
law, with keeping the mere letter of the law. A          of bringing up our children in the fear of God's
serious and momentous occasion was here. But             name.
God was not sought. His instruction was not
coveted. And does Jacob recede into the back-              Taking all this into consideration one can begin
ground and keep silent because he realizes his sin       to understand the words of Jesus when He asked,
in staying there in the land for ten years? He had       "Shall the Son of man find faith on the earth?" And
nothing to do with the treachery and deceit of his       we begin to realize that if the days were not short-
sons, but is he silent in a feeling of guilt, or in a    ened the very elect would be deceived. For our
desire to stay here longer and enjoy life there in       children live and grow up in a far more dangerous
fellowship of the unbelievers?                           world than did the children of the patriarchs in the
                                                         old dispensation. There were-places where parents
  Jacob had exposed his children to this very evil.      could keep their children relatively safe from the
He kept them where they could be influenced by           world, at least to a far greater degree than we can.
the heathen. Just turn to Genesis  35:2 and read of      Our children come in contact with hundreds more
Jacob telling his household to "put away the             children of the world than did Jacob's children. The
strange gods" that were among them. One cannot           automobile, the places of work, the television and
warn parents too often or too thoroughly about the       radio entrance into our homes, the easy access to
dangers of exposing their children to the world,         the magazines of the world and to their filthy books
whether that be in the schools of the world, or the      all serve to expose our children to the world in
immorality and evil philosophies of the world's          those things that their flesh wants desperately.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                87


Gone  are. the days when father and mother had              fornication and murder.
their children home with them on the farm, from               But to return to the narrative, Simeon and Levi
which it was a long and time-consuming journey to           quite plainly consider fornication worse than lying
go and meet other families and the youth of the             and murder. And there is such a tendancy  in us to
world. Jesus saw all this coming, and this is part of       put sins in classes of bigger and smaller sins. And
His reason for asking whether when He comes                 we, who lie and steal and murder in our hearts,
again He would find faith in our children. But we           take God's name in vain and desecrate His Sabbath,
had better beware lest we use all this as an excuse         in pride look down upon the fornicator as though
for not forbidding our children fellowship with the         we are above such things, while we fail to under-
world. Work with them we must; and therefore it             stand that every sin is an act of hatred against God,
becomes so important that parents do warn their             and fail to remember that the whole curse and
children about making friends in the world, and             death came into the world, not by a multitude of
against seeking careers that are going to take them         "big" sins, but by an apparently harmless deed of
away from the church that holds to the truth, and           eating a piece of forbidden fruit. But it was hatred
from worshipping God on the Sabbath day. They               of God! And that is why the wages of every sin is
must be taught to come out from among the unbe-             death.
lievers and be a separate people.
  Jacob's tarrying among the heathen not only                 Let it be noted that Dinah is now living with
occasioned the defilement of Dinah but also the             Shechem, adding to the evil. For we read in Genesis
murder committed by Simeon and Levi. And let it             34:26, "And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son
be remembered that these sins so often go hand in           with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of
hand. Years later it is David who murders to cover          Shechem's house and went out." Dinah was living
up his adultery. And today many are the parents             in fornication and plainly loved Shechem the unbe-
who do the same as Simeon and Levi. No, even                liever. And the brothers accuse Shechem of dealing
though we used to hear of shotgun weddings, far             with Dinah as an harlot. How easy it is, to see sins of
more often is it today that parents of daughters (and       others and of other families and be blind to your
strangely enough not of sons) have murder in their          own and those of your family. They see no sin in
hearts, and even with the mouth declare, "I could.          Dinah. They see no sin in cruel, cold-blooded
kill him!" And this is true. even when their daugh-         murder and deceit. They do not even stop at the
ters tempted these young men with their dress and           death of Shechem but "slew all the males" of the
ways, `and the parents did nothing to stop their            city! -Perhaps you say, "These men were now
daughters from advertising themselves. Such                 circumcised. The condition had been fulfilled and
hatred in these parents, and the hatred in Simeon           Dinah could now be the wife of Shechem. It is not
and Levi does not spring forth from a love of God:          .fornication  for her to live with Shechem." But
It is not because God's law is trampled under foot.         understand well that the brothers themselves had
It is not because God has been sinned against, but          made the arrangements for this unholy marriage.
rather that they have been humiliated, they have            And they are guilty of the sin of Dinah. They must
been sinned against, and their pride has been hurt.         see their own sin before they cast the first stone.
All such reaction to sin is a sinful reaction that is as    They must.weep over the sin, not the loss of family
evil  as the sin which they decry. It roots in love of      pride. They must teach the Shechemites the truth,
self. It comes from family pride, not love of God           sound doctrine, and not a little outward practice of
and of His law. -                                           circumcision.
   Then there are those who do not react so violent-          And Jacob? We would rather look away, for he
ly but,do say to their children (sons as well), "How        makes such a pathetic picture in this whole
could you do this to us?" Here too the question is          incident. He who held his peace, and did not
not, "How could you do such a deed of hatred                reprove Dinah, and he who approved of the
toward the living God?" And because they see it             marriage if only the external rite of circumcision
only as a sin against themselves, a breaking of their       was followed, now after that murder complains
trust, a blow to the pride of the family name, they         that his sons have troubled him  and made him stink'
are in no position to handle the matter spiritually         among the inhabitants of the land. But Jacob, Does
and to give good counsel to their children. Truly           not the whole thing stink in the nostrils of God?
this business of being a covenant parent is an              That should concern you first of all. And Jacob,
extremely difficult one. And blessed are those              Does not your whole stay in that land and failure to
parents who when. this sin enters their family are          heed God's command and go to your kindred stink
able to counsel their children and point them to the        in the nostrils of the holy God?
law of God first, and then to the cross of Christ             Would to God that church fathers, leaders of the
which blots out also this sin, yea also these sins of       congregations, elders, ministers, professors of  the-


88                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



ology seeing the evils in their churches would smell              radical surgery, if need be, so that the congregation
the stink that God smells. And then not try to cover              is a delight to God. The seven letters to the seven
it all up-it will smell under the rug just as fiercely,           churches in Revelation 2 and 3 demand that. Let us
and breed more putrifying foul matter-and find                    not react to sin in a sinful way. That stinks in God's
ways to keep it in the church, but remove it by                   nostrils, and it should stink also in ours.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE                                            '


                       Matthew-The Gospel of the
                                Promised Messiah (2)
                                                    Rev. J. Kortering


      The hope of the coming Messiah lived in the                 in Nazareth (2: 13-23). He is officially inducted into
soul of every faithful son of Abraham. Already in                 His office of Mediator through baptism by John.
the Garden of Eden, God had promised, "And I will                 This shows that the righteousness of His kingdom
put enmity between thee and the `woman, between                   is not in the works of the law, but through His
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and               atoning. blood at the cross  (3:1-17). Subsequently,
thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3: 15). The Jews                Satan challenges Him and offers Him the kingdom
came to know the Promised One as.the Messiah, a                   of man by suggesting that Jesus bow down to him
Hebrew name for the Anointed One. According to                    and forsake the dreaded way of the cross. Jesus
the law' and the prophets, Christ was coming as                   refuses this and obeys His Father's will  (4:1-11). In
Mediator of the covenant. He was going to over-                   this section there are five references to fulfillment
come the seed of the serpent and establish Himself                of prophecy.
upon David's throne forever. That throne was to be
one of perfect righteousness, for the law of God                    2. The Messiah sets forth the principles of His
would be the norm for rule. To attain that rule, He               kingdom  (4:12-7:29).  He began His ministry in
                                                                  Galilee by preaching to and healing the "lowly;"
was to make atonement upon the cross and liberate                 He called His disciples, and began to preach and do
His people from the bondage of the lie. In this
Mediator, the offices of prophet, priest, and king                miracles  (4:12-25). The theme of His ministry was
                                                                  the kingdom. Matthew refers to "kingdom of
blend perfectly in His one mediatorial work.                      heaven" thirty-three times and "kingdom of God"
Matthew speaks of this Messiah, Christ the Pro-                   five times. The Sermon on the Mount sets forth the
m i s e d   O n e .                                               spiritual principles of the kingdom, a description of
OUTLINE OF THE GOSPEL                                             the citizens  (beatitudes-5:1-16),  the place of the
   Let us now consider how the inspired apostle                   law in the kingdom, not as an external code (legal-
brings forth this theme in his gospel account.                    ism) but as an internal spiritual response, "be ye
                                                                  perfect as your Father is perfect"  (5:17-6:18).  The
   1. Prophecy realized in the coming of the                      kingdom is of such value that it must be before all
Messiah (1:  l-4:11). Christ's geneology is given in              things in the minds of the citizens  (6:19-34); the
three parts, from Abraham, from David, and from                   citizens must  live- in love with one another, follow
the return from captivity, ending in Joseph, Jesus'               the straight way, and be hearers and doers of the
legal father  (l:l-17).  It is interesting that this list         word as the wise man who built his house on the
includes four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and                      rock (7:1-29).
Bathsheba, all of whom were disqualified by
nature. This  accout provides indisputable proof                    3. The miracles of the Messiah show that He has
that Joseph was not the earthly father of Christ                  the power to realize His kingdom  (8:1-11:l). One
(1:18-25). The Messiah is not only for believing                  marvels at the extent of Christ's miraculous power:
Jews, but also for Gentiles. The visit of the                     over diseases such as leprosy (8: l-4), palsy (8:5-13),
wisemen proves this  (2:1-12). His presence, how-                 fever  (8:14-17), paralysis  (9:2-g), issue of blood
ever, arouses the hatred of, earthly kings, as seen in            (9:20-22), blindness (9:27-31); over demons (8:28-34,
Herod and his attempt to kill the Messiah, Who                    9:32-34); over powers of nature (8:23-27); and over
instead was taken to Egypt and ultimately grew up                 death  (9:18, 23-26). By these miracles, He did more


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                89



than show off power. These acts verified the words         among these events is the blessed teaching of Jesus
He spoke and directed men to the life of the               that He is the Bread of Life, as He fed 5000 (14: 15-
kingdom which in the future would be free from all         21) and 4000  (15:32-39). Power flows from Jesus
suffering. and spiritual opposition. He Himself was        into His disciples as Peter walked on the water to
the greatest miracle, being virgin-born and able           Jesus (14:22-36). The Jews reject him, so Jesus turns
thus to realize the kingdom in righteousness               to the daughter of the Canaanitish woman and
through His own death. Miracle-working power               heals her  (15:21-28). This tells us that Jesus'
was also given to the twelve disciples, to demon-          purpose was not to establish an' earthly kingdom in
strate that Christ works through His office bearers.       Jerusalem; rather He came to establish a heavenly
They must expect opposition from the kingdom of            kingdom upon the basis of righteousness. The cross
this world, the anti-Christ. In all this they must fear    was the only way.
not, for by their good confession Christ will confess        6. The establishing of the kingdom (16:13-27:66).
them before His Father in heaven (10: l-l 1: 1):           The disciples needed to be prepared for the cross.
  4. The nature of the kingdom of heaven  (11%             They too had an earthly idea of the kingdom, so
1353). This begins with a challenge from John the          Jesus asked them concerning His identity. He
Baptist (Art thou He that should come?), and Jesus'        confirms that He is the Christ (Messiah) and that
answer that the kingdom is. here in principle (11%         He and they must suffer in order to enter into the
19). The people of Galilee reject Jesus and He pro-        kingdom  (16:13-28). By the transfiguration, Jesus
nounces woe upon them, teaching that those who             showed them that His kingdom is heavenly and
hear the gospel and reject it will have greater judg-      that He must go  the.way of the cross to obtain it
ment than Sodom. He calls the weary and heavy              (17: l-8). The Father's hour will determine when, so
laden who are burdened with the guilt of sin to            they must now tell no man. At the proper time He
come for rest  (11:20-30). Jesus sets forth His            will be betrayed (17:9-27).
authority over the Sabbath day by teaching that it is        As Jesus looks to the cross, He renews with them
not kept by meeting legal demands, but in the spirit       the importance of life within the kingdom. They
of godliness (12: 1-14). Christ adds that His kingdom      must be humble and forgiving (Matt.  18:1-35).
will not come by outward show, but in the way of           Their whole life must be brought into the service of
meekness (12: 14-21). The healing of the man pos-          the King: their marriage  (19:1-15), their life and
sessed by a devil gave occasion for Jesus to teach         possessions (19:16-29). Our place in the kingdom is
concerning the kingdom of God over against the             not of works, but of grace, as the laborers in the
kingdom of the devil. Jesus insists that He does not       vineyard learned  (19:30-20:16).  So also we are to
act by satanic power, but that He has overcome             serve and not rule, as Christ taught the mother of
Satan and that all who are in the kingdom do like-         James and John (20: 17-28).
wise. Hence there is no sign for that generation but         The royal entrance into Jerusalem demonstrated
the prophet Jonah, calling to repentance (12:22-50).       to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that the way into
The parables set forth the true nature of the              Jesus' kingdom was not by outward victory over
kingdom more clearly, the purpose being that the           the Jews or over Rome, but the lowly way of
citizens of the kingdom  ,may believe, and those           suffering on the cross. The donkey testified to that
outside, left without excuse. Eight parables are           (X):29-21:11).  In addition to this, Christ established
taught here: the soil, the wheat and tares, mustard        His authority to cleanse the temple of God by His
seed, leaven, treasure, pearl, net, and the house-         blood (21: 12-27). The parables .He told at this time
holder. Each one adds certain truths concerning the        made it plain that Israel was ready to reject Him:
kingdom: that it is realized by the gospel and             the two sons (21:28-32), unjust husbandman (21:33-
received by hearing the word; there is an antithesis       41), marriage of the King's son (22: 1-14).
between the kingdom of Christ and  anti-Christ; it
grows from a small source to beautiful manifesta-            In return, the leaders of the Jews try to trick
tion like a mustard seed, and does that under great        Jesus in a series of debates. First, they try to see if
power like leaven; it is of great value as a pearl, and    Jesus was set against the Roman government, but
ends in the separation. of all mankind ( 13: l-52).        Jesus declares willingness to pay tax  (22:15-22).
                                                           Then the  Sadducees  argue with Him about the
  5. Christ's purpose re  the- kingdom  (1353-16:          resurrection, and He explains that life after death is
12). Opposition now increases. Jesus comes to              much different from the present  (22:23-33). The
Nazareth and is rejected, for a prophet is not             Pharisees come to ask concerning the first and great
honored in his own country  (13:53-58). John is            commandment, and Jesus speaks about the one
beheaded (14: 1-12). The disciples struggle with           principle of love  (22:34-40). Jesus takes the offen-
Jesus' severe denunciation of the Pharisees (15:1-20       sive and asks them concerning the Messiah
and  165-12). This led Jesus to say bluntly that He        (Christ), Who is He, and they are confounded
must die on the cross  (16:21-28). Interspersed            (22:41-46).


9 0                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



       The gospel now reaches its exalted climax in the                  God's Messiah  (27:39-44). Christ, however,
crucifixion of Jesus. The chief priests plotted                          finished His work, which was to establish right-
against Him (26: l-5); He was anointed for burial by                     eousness as the basis for His heavenly kingdom.
loving hands (26:6-13); Judas agreed to betray Him                       His heavenly  .Father confirmed His finished work
(26:14-16); He ate the last  passover and instituted                     (27:45-56). He is buried with the rich in His death
the Lord's Supper  (26:17-29); He wrestled in the                        (27:57-61).
Garden of Gethsemane, willing to go to the cross                           7. The Messiah accomplished His work (27:62-
(26:36-46); Judas betrayed him and, overcome in                          28:30). The enemies try  to.prevent the resurrection
guilt, took his own life  (26:47-56,  27:1-10). Jesus is                 by setting a guard (27:62-66), and later, by circulat-
taken to Caiaphas for trial, and, while there during                     ing a story that the disciples stole the body, they try
the night, Peter denied Him as Jesus had said                            to undo the reality of the resurrection  (28:11-15).
(26:30-35, 57-75). Christ is tried before Pilate, who                   The Messiah, the Lord of Heaven, however, cannot
attempts to rid himself of the responsibility, but                      be confined by guards, stony graves, or gossip. He
fails since he would rather be Caesar's friend than                     arose in majesty  (28:1-8)`. He verified it by
Christ's  (27:11-26). The soldiers mock the Messiah                     appearing to the women (28:9, 10). Finally, He gave
by poking fun of His kingship  (27:27-30). Jesus is                      His majestic commission to go to all the world and
crucified  (27:31-36). The superscription testifies of                  preach the'gospel of the kingdom (28:16-20).
His true identity  (27:37). The whole world rejects

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           Gas Warfare in Christendom:
            The Antichrist's Drive to Annihilate an
                                                      Elect People
                                                              Rev. R. Flikkema




         The place is not a pretty sight. I.V.`s drip fluid into                  Every few minutes his talk is broken by a racking
       skinny arms. Doctors and nurses scurry from  .one                    cough that nearly strangles him. He spits bloody
       wooden-slab bed to another, responding to pleas for                  sputum into a tin can. A H'mong nurse tells me that
       help. I am at Ban Vinai, a refugee camp along the                    he has chest pains, finds breathing difficult, cam-rot
       Mekong River just inside northern Thailand. It is                    eat.
       populated by some 35,000 H'mong (pronounced                                Nhia continues: "They hit us at the end of May at
       Mong) tribal refugees from the mountains of Laos.                    Nam Khing with the yellow chemicals. It was a white
       They suffer from severe malnutrition, malaria,                       plane like a Soviet helicopter-low enough so that I
       amoebic dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia and a                     could see the figures of two pilots. Immediately when
       host of parasites. For many there is a tragic complica-              they dropped the gas I fell to the ground vomiting
       tion: they have been gassed.                                         blood. My eyes burned; I could not see. I have the
         One of them is a friend of mine; yet I don't recog-                `red' diarrhea.
       nize him, although I have passed his pallet at least 20                    "It was a powder. When it touched my skin it
       times. Finally, through his pain, he recognized me and'              became sticky, like an ointment, and when water is
       sends a relative to bring me to him.                                 put on it, it becomes liquid." He stops for another
         Nhia Yang Vang, about 40, had once been vigorous,                  bout- of coughing. "You know, after a rain the
       energetic. Now he is a skeleton with sunken, haunted                 chemicals will get into the water and poison it. Now
       eyes. In a weak voice he tells me he had returned to                 that it is the rainy season it will be so easy to poison us
       Laos after I saw him in January. Concerned about                     a l l . "
       relatives, he had gone back there with a party of  19
       men for three months. During that time, he says, his                What you have just read are the opening para-
       team had been in areas sprayed by poisonous chemi-               graphs of an article in the October issue of the
       cals nine times.                                                 Reader's Digest,  entitled "Gas Warfare In Laos:


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  91



Communism's Drive To Annihilate A People."                the extermination of thousands of people whose
Immediately following that title, and preceding           only `crime' is that they were friends of Jehovah
those paragraphs that I have just quoted, you will        God." That is what I would read. And when those
find this sentence: "The article that follows is about    thoughts came into my mind, I tell you, I have .
genocide-the extermination of thousands of                never been so startled in all my life! I thought to
people whose only `crime' is that they were friends       myself: could that be? Is such a thing possible? In
of America."                                              future years, as the evil day approaches, could the
  Perhaps you receive the Reader's Digest in your         Antichrist in his drive to annihilate the Church
homes. If you do, perhaps also you have read this         actually use such sophisticated means as gas war-
article. I very strongly encourage you to do so. And      fare? And my answer to all those questions was an
I very strongly encourage you to do so thoughtfully!      awesome, yes! Yes, he could do that! And why not,
What I mean is, read the article. Then having done        so I thought? If that dying man could say at the end
so, put the article aside and think. Ponder in your       of the portion of the article which I quoted above,
minds that which you have just read. If you do,           "it will be so easy to poison us all," so also can the
maybe your thoughts will be the same as mine              child of God say that. "It will be so easy to poison
were after I read the article.                            us all."
  What were my thoughts? They were these.                   And it will! In the last days, when the Antichrist
Having read the article, I thought to myself: if these    will bend all his efforts to exterminate the Church
things be true, what a horrible, horrible thing is        with all of the sophisticated means at his disposal, it
happening to people these days. Literally                 will be so easy. You know as well as I that in the
thousands of people are being exterminated, killed,       days of the early Church, the Roman Empire, that
in communist countries because they did some-             manifestation of the Antichristian Kingdom, tried
thing which those communist countries did not             to exterminate the Church. It did! It used all the
like. And too, so my thoughts were, what horribly         means at its disposal to annihilate God's people.
sophisticated means are being used to exterminate         But it was a very difficult task. The means at its
those people. They were exterminated by dropping          disposal were not sufficiently sophisticated to
poisonous gas out of a helicopter! They were not          annihilate thousands upon thousands of God's
exterminated by swords and spears. They were not          people at one time. The Roman Empire used the
exterminated by communist gladiators or by wild           means of crucifixion to exterminate God's people.
beasts in a communist amphitheater. No, not even          The Roman Empire captured God's people and
by rifle or machine gun fire were those people            brought them into its amphitheaters to die at the
exterminated. Very simply and easily, literally           hands of gladiators and wild beasts. And there were
thousands were exterminated by gas warfare.               other means' which the Roman Empire used to
Those were the thoughts that ran through my               destroy God's people. But thousands upon
mind.                                                     thousands of God's people at one time, the Roman
  But then a different thought ran through my             Empire could not destroy. But the point is, the Anti-
mind, I picked up the article once more. I read once      christ in the last days can! He does not have to use
more the title of this article, that sentence under-      the means of crucifixion, gladiators, and wild
neath the title, and that last sentence of the portion    beasts in his attempt to destroy thousands upon
of the article which I quoted. And this horrible          thousands of God's people. All he has to use is gas
thought came to my mind. What if the title of this        warfare and literally thousands upon thousands of
article was changed somewhat? What if a -word             God's people will be destroyed!
here and a word there were taken out and a new              Well, you say, that is somewhat farfetched, isn't
word here and a new word there were supplied?             it? In order to destroy vast numbers of God's people
Let me see, so I thought, what if I would omit the        the Antichrist will have to separate God's people
word "Laos" in that title and change it to "Chris-        from the rest of the ungodly, wicked. Otherwise
tendom." What if I would omit the word "Com-              when he uses gas warfare to destroy God's people,
munism's" and change it to "The Antichrist's"             he will also destroy the wicked right along with
What if I omit the word "People" and change it to         them. That he will not want to do. I submit to you,
an "Elect People." And, with respect to that              however, that that is not at all farfetched. It will not
sentence underneath the title, what if I omit the         at all be difficult to separate God's people from the
phrase "that they were friends of America," and in        ungodly wicked. After all, the Bible tells us that in
its place substitute the words "that they were the        the last days the people of God will be separated
friends of Jehovah God." What then would I read? I        from the ungodly wicked. In the last days the
would read this, "Gas Warfare In Christendom:             people of God, if they truly manifest themselves to
The Antichrist's Drive To Annihilate An Elect             be the people of God, the friends of Jehovah God,
People. The article that follows is about genocide-       will not receive the mark of the beast. And by that


92                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



very fact they will be separated. They will be              some magazine entitled "Gas Warfare in Christen-
distinct. And if that be true, and it will, what will be    dom: The Antichrist's Drive To Annihilate An Elect
so difficult for the Antichrist to gather together          People. The article that follows is about genocide;
those distinct, separate people in an isolated area         the extermination of thousands of people whose
here and in an isolated area there and to exter-            only `crime' is that they were the friends of Jehovah
minate them with his sophisticated means? That              God." That may very well be the case. But even if it
will not be difficult at all.                               is, we the people of God, the friends of Jehovah
      To that you say: yes, but why be so morbid? I         God, whose only "crime" is that we are the friends
would rather not think about such thoughts. I               of Jehovah God, shall be delivered. We shall be
would rather think about the relative freedom from          delivered by the Son of Man Who will not ever,
persecution that I experience today. Let us just            ever permit the Antichrist to succeed in his drive to
think about today! I do not care to worry about             annihilate God's people. He will not! Never will the
what might or might not happen tomorrow. If per-            Son of Man permit His elect people to be annihi-
chance those be your thoughts, my response to               lated. How do we know that? Listen to the words of
those thoughts is this. In the first place, I am not        none other than the Son of Man as they are
morbid. I am simply realistic-as realistic as our           recorded for us in Matthew 24:29-31:  "Immediately
Lord Jesus Christ was when He said in John 15:18-           after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
20, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated           darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.
me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the        And the stars shall fall from heaven, and the
world would love his own: but because ye are not            powers of the heavens. shall be shaken: and then
of the world,  but. I have chosen you out of the            shall appear the sign `of the Son of Man in heaven:
world, therefore the world  hateth. you. Remember           and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and
the word that I said unto you. The servant is not           they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds
greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me,          of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall
they will also persecute you." With respect to those        send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
words of the Lord Jesus, I need say no more. They           and they shall gather together His elect from the
speak for themselves, and they are and shall be far         four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
more realistic than we care to admit. That is right!        Those are the words of comfort and assurance
Than we care to admit! None of us cares to admit            spoken to us by our Savior. And we know that they
that we shall be persecuted, and persecuted by the          are true, for He Who spoke those words, also spoke
means of which this article`speaks. I do not. When I        these words, "Heaven and earth shall pass away,
read this article in the  Reader's Digest,  when I          but my words shall not pass away." They are true
thought about this article along the lines that I have      and they are sure. In the assurance of those words
just written, I say once more, I was horrified.             then, let us watch. Let us watch as the true friends
                                                            of Jehovah God. To be a friend of Jehovah God may
  But that exactly brings me to the second thing            indeed be a "crime" in the eyes of the Antichrist,
that I want to say. I was not so horrified that I was       for which "crime" he may indeed attempt to anni-
cast into despair. Yes, it may very well be the case        hilate us, but in the eyes of Jehovah God, that is no
that the Antichrist shall attempt to annihilate God's       crime. On the contrary, it is the awesome calling
people by gas warfare and various other sophisti-           which Jehovah God has given unto us, our calling
cated means. Yes, it may very well be the case that         even unto the end!
sometime you and I may actually read an article in

GUESTARTICLE

           The Necessity of Reformed Apologetics
                                              Rev. Robert C. Harbach



I. Apologetics Considered as Merely Possible or In-         defends the Scriptures and sets forth the evidence
      evitable?                                             of their divine authority." Usually this means the
  The term  apologetics,  according to Stormonth's          evidence produced by reasoned argument. Then
dictionary, is "that branch of theology which               the definition would be acceptable to the traditional


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               93



or classical apologists, that is, to the Roman             knowledge, and doctrine of God as found in scrip-
Catholic and the Arminian defenders of the faith.          ture. Also, whatever apologetics we have are-in the
The Funk and Wagnalls dictionary defines it as             line of Kuyper, Bavinck, and Hoeksema, since our
"that department of dogmatics which deals with             theology is in that line.
the defensive facts and proofs of Christianity; the          But did not Kuyper practically reject apologetics?
science that purposes to vindicate, by defense or          He believed that no argumentation between the re-
defensive assault, the truth and absoluteness of the       generated and the natural man "can ever serve any
Christian religion," and that, we may add, over            purpose," and that "apologetics has always failed
against all the attacks and denials of the unbeliev-       to reach results, and has weakened rather than
ing world. Instead of "and proofs of" we would             strengthened the  reasoner."1 Apologetics he
rather say, "and positive arguments for" Christian-        regarded as "a broad field of detail-study (as over
ity. From these definitions it is apparent that there      against the study of principles, RCH) in which
is at least a hint that apologetics is no apologizing      laurels can be won, without penetrating to the deep
for the truth. For Reformed theologians and                antithesis of the two world-views (Reformed and
believers do not make excuse for the Christian faith       unbelieving, RCH) whose position over against
and life. Such an idea never enters into thesubject        each other becomes ever more and more clearly
among any school of apologetics. In apologetics we         defined" (ibid., 166). Whatever the full meaning of
may not -do what the Bible itself does not do. The         this statement, this much is clear, namely, apolo-
Bible does not say something like this: Pardon me          getics does not penetrate as deeply as the principle
for living! The Bible does use the term, as when, for      of regeneration allows,. nor does it go deeply
example, in Acts 22: 1, Paul preaches, saying, "Hear       enough  into.the  antithesis, and it does not occupy
ye  my  defense  (apologia), which I make...." Again,      itself sufficiently with the study of principles. This
according to  25:16, Roman law protected its citi-         is said to be especially true of the apologetics of
zenry in that he who is accused must have the              "Conservatism," which lacked a spiritual root,
accusers face to face, and must have license to            conceded too much to naturalism, and consequent-
answer  for himself (make his apology or defense)          ly in spiritual aerial combat was shot down in dis-
concerning the crime laid against him. So Paul says        grace (167). With this criticism we may agree since
(I Cor. 9:3), "Mine answer to them that do examine         it is criticism of what is called traditional apolo-
me is this...." In 2 Corinthians 7:ll it is translated,    getics. Under this head comes what sometimes has
"Yea,       (what)    clearing of yourselves!" Paul        been called the Princeton apologetic. Kuyper criti-
preached, "in  defense  and confirmation of the            cizes this apologetic in Charles Hodge, champion of
gospel" saying, "I am set for  .the  defense  of the       American scientific orthodoxy. Hodge's position
gospel" (Phil. 1:7, 17). Later he wrote, "At my first      was  to,take the facts of the Bible as the objects of
answer  no man stood with me" (2 Tim.  4:16); and          his theology. These facts and truths of scripture by
finally Peter counsels, "Be ready always to give an        the theologian must be collected, arranged, syste-
answer to every man that asketh" (1 Pet. 3: 15). An        matized, and authenticated. By his combination of
apologia,  then, is a verbal defense, a speech in          "facts and truths" on the one hand and their
defense.                                                   authentication by the positive science of theology
                                                           on the other, Hodge overthrew his own system. For
   From these texts it may not be concluded that           these "truths" were no truths, but became such
apologetics means taking a mere defensive position         when authenticated. Hodge thought he was doing
against the attacks of unbelief. For this may not be       better than those who presupposed Christianity to
charged against the apostles and the believers.            begin with, "who took the `Christian religion' as
Their battle for the faith was not so passive, so          the  given object." He thought that by sanctified
weak. They did not go retreating from one  en-             reason he could arrive at and authenticate Christian
trenchrnent, or one bastion to another. The Church         truth, the biblical position, and in that way "save
has always had mighty apologists, such as Paul,            theology as a  positive  science" (ibid., 318). Hodge
Augustine, and Calvin, and retreat or passivity in         did believe that scripture is the principle of theo-
the conflict of the ages was not their way. Calvin         logy, but he did not consistently stand on this
used not only the defensive shield of faith, but also      principle, or he would not have made it the conclu-
the offensive Sword pf the Spirit, which is the Word       sion.of other grounds, but the ground from which
of God. A good, Reformed apologetic must be in the         all other ground is viewed and interpreted. With
line of Paul, whose classical masterpiece, of  apolo-      this criticism of this apologetic we agree.
getical method appears in his sermon on the
Areopagus (Acts 17); in the line of Augustine,                Kuyper also adheres to the biblical distinction
whose main method was to "think God's thoughts             between two kinds of people in the world, the
after Him"`; and in the line of Calvin, who began,         regenerate and the natural man, the wheat and the
continued, and ended his position on the Being,            tares, or the Wilding (weed) and the Edelreis (noble


9 4                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



plant). The natural man receives not the things of         ly. Therefore one may do-as one .chooses with any
the Spirit of God, as they are foolishness to him,         particular in the universe. Stones are stones, entire-
neither can he know them, for they are spiritually         ly apart from God. Miracle is possible because any-
discerned. He that is spiritual, the regenerated,          thing is possible, anything with the exception
judges all things. But the natural man is incapable        of living by every word that proceedeth out of the
of judging of the legitimacy, reality, or meaning of       `mouth of God. To him, that is absolutely  impos-
any point of the truth. Nor may he be given the
 . .         .  _              _ --  -  _-                 sible. But the Lord does not argue with the devil,
right to judge  ot one or  ot all  ot them. Hence,         nor negotiate with him, nor even give him a hearing
Kuyper concluded from this that there is no use in         (all very dangerous things to do); nor does the Lord
Christian apologetics. Since the natural man in his        deal with the devil on the supposition that His and
understanding is darkness, and the darkness never          the devil's knowledge of God and of the world are
apprehends the light, there is no point, no sufficient     basically identical or on the same level. The devil
reason for reasoning with the natural man what-            tempts him to authenticate the Word of God with a
ever.                                                      miracle. The Lord immediately answers with the
       But with this conclusion, Kuyper himself was        already divinely authenticated Word as sufficient.
.not consistent. He certainly believed in preaching        Bow  to,that! Conform to that! is the implication of
and witnessing to the unbeliever, which cannot be          "It is written" (period). The counterfeit miracles of
done without reasoning. Also the reasoning process         today are performed right and left entirely apart
all along the line presupposes the criterion of the        from the Word, apart from any preaching or any
self-attesting true and triune God and His  self-          instituted church. This is to far outdo the devil, to
authenticating scriptures. This preaching and              super-satanize Satan!
reasoning he also believed- was to be made to all            We see, then, that, a Christian apologetic is
ethnic groups in the heathen  .world. Then in such         Christ-centered, therefore God-centered. It is
activity, as the great Apostle Paul was, we become         Christ Who speaks in the scriptures. Christ teaches
deeply involved in apologetics:So  with our Lord in        us what to believe, what to think and how to live.
His contention with the devil and the temptation in        Therefore what we must have and' hold is what
the wilderness. There `was no attempt to meet the          Christ taught. In our witness to all  .men, which
devil either on his ground or on some neutral              surely includes the natural man, we say, Throw
ground, but the Lord met him head on  .with the            your wisdom and philosophy to the moles and to
assumed Being of God, the doctrine of God and              the bats, or some day you will when wrath shall
with unerring scripture (Matt.  4:4). Also this the        come on you to the uttermost! Bow to the  inscrip-
devil "knows,"' and is said to "believe" it, for he        turated wisdom of God. Kiss the Son, lest He be
has a natural knowledge of spiritual things. In his        angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath
"faith" he has more orthodoxy than the  neo-mod-           is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they who put
ernists of our day, who have no orthodoxy at all.          their -trust in Him! This is our apologetic, our
Just so, the devil knows and believes the whole            argument  for  the gospel. Unbelieving thought has
scheme of doctrine. As Jonathan Edwards said,              no truth, but must empirically reason on to the
Satan is no atheist, no deist, Socinian, Arian,            truth. But then it is impossible there to arrive.
Pelagian, or Antinomian. We add, that he is no               So Christian preaching, controversy, and wit-
Arminian or devotee of  Barthian neology, either.          nessing, along with doing "these sayings of Mine,"
He knows better. Yet he gets men entangled in all          are all inseparably connected with and involved in
these tentacles of heresy. He is the father of the lie,    (Reformed) apologetics. It is inevitable!
but he himself does not believe it. He knows better.
But he can convince any number of fools to                                               (Concluded later, D.V.)
swallow his lies. What he tempted the Lord with
was the idea and lie of an "open universe" in which          1Principles  of  Sacred Theology,  160, Eerdmans,
man moves anarchistically and thinks autonomous-           1954.


                                          Book Review
COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS, Exegetical and                      the beginning of this volume we learn that William
Expository, by William Gouge; Kregel Publications,         Gouge lived from 1575 to 1653, was a graduate
1980; 1148 pp., $24.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H.              from King's  ~College,  Cambridge, served for 45
Hanko)                                                     years as minister of Blackfriars, London, was made
  From the rather lengthy biographical sketch at           a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 9    5



by an act of Parliament,. and was noted and                      I have found the commentary to be excellent
respected for his exceptional godliness and piety.             throughout. For the size and importance of the
  This is a massive work. It not only numbers well             book, the pride is by no means excessive. Although
over one thousand pages, but the book measures                 there is a bit of Latin and Greek (as well as Hebrew)
about 10" x  8", has two columns on every page,                in the text, there is not an overabundance of these
and is printed in small type. It is, therefore, an             foreign words, and the commentary can very well
exhaustive treatment of the epistle to the Hebrews.            be used by anyone who is interested in an extensive
It is written in the Puritan style with the exposition         treatment of Hebrews. I highly recommend it to
of each chapter divided into sections, with many               our ministers and students. It will not only be of
careful analyses of words and thoughts, with objec-            considerable help in understanding what is, at best,
tions and  .questions  raised periodically and                 a difficult book, but it will give a great deal of  in-
answered at length, with lists of important  doc-              sight into Puritan thinking and theology.
trines taught in a given passage, and with much                  The book is a part of Kregel Limited Edition
personal application to the life of the child of God.          Library.


                                                      brings you gift-giving ideas at special savings.
                                                      Buy:       Reformed Dogmatics

                                                                  ,Behold, H"L Cometh!
                                                              at the regular price of $12.95 and get
                                                                           Peaceable Fruit

                                                           God's Co+enaEt Faithfulness
                                                                              FREE
    Send your order now with $14.25 (includes 10% postage fee) to:
    Reformed Free Publishing Association
    P.O. Box 2006
    Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501                               NQ bookclub  discount allowed on this offer.


                        News From Our Churches

  Rev. Engelsma declined the call extended`to him
from our Redlands  congregation.                               Believe.' ' ' . Rev. C. Hanko spoke on October 10 to
  A glance through the bulletins leaves no doubt               the Hope School P.T.A. of Walker, Michigan on the
that this is an especially busy season for our minis-          topic, "Teaching our Children to Pray." "Religious
ters. In addition to the catechism classes and                 Fervor: Why is it Waning?" was the title of Prof.
society meetings that are back in full swing, there            Hanko's address to the Mr. & Mrs. League on Octo-
seem to be numerous special public addresses that              ber 21. Reverends Van  Overloop  and Van  Baren
require their services as speakers. Following is a list        spoke at a Calvinistic Conference sponsored by our
in brief of some of these engagements: On October              mission in Birmingham, Alabama on the evenings
1 Rev.  DeVries spoke to the Men's and Women's                 of October 20 and 21. Both ministers were sched-
League of the Grand Rapids area on the topic, "The             uled to speak at both evening's activities. A
Implications    of our Personal Confession `I                  conference there with a similar format was


  THE STANDARD  BEARER
         P.O. Box 6064                                                            / Gij~~,L". /
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





96                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



 reported some time ago by our former news editor.           A bulletin from our church in New Jersey
At that time he expressed concern for the audience        included the following announcement: "Our pastor
since neither of the speakers at that conference, i.e.    will be going to Rutland, Vermont this week Tues-
Rev. Van  Overloop  and Rev. Engelsma, "are noted         day to meet with a group of approximately seven
for their brevity." We will not speculate as to the       families there who have expressed interest in the
need for a similar concern in this case.                  Reformed Faith as we teach it. They are of a
      At the time of this writing (October 27)            Calvinistic Baptist background, but are not at
numerous speeches in keeping with the Reforma-            present affiliated with any denomination." Did the
tion are planned, possibly prepared, but not yet          word Vermont, jump out at you the way it did me?
delivered. Prof. Hoeksema and his wife have a busy        If it didn't, you were not careful enough in your
weekend in store for them in Houston. On Friday,          reading of the news column of our last  Standard
October  31,  he will lecture on the topic  "Witten-      Bearer. At that time we wrote about some people in
berg, Geneva and Dordt." Their Saturday morning           the Plymouth, Vermont area who were looking for
schedule includes a speech by Mrs. Hoeksema on            Standard Bearer subscribers in their area. A quick
the subject, "The Godly Discipline of Our Child-          check in my Rand McNally Road Atlas places Ply-
ren," and another lecture by Prof. Hoeksema, this         mouth only about 15 miles southeast of Rutland as
one about the history of the Synod of Dordt. Their        a crow would fly over the Green Mountains. Cir-
weekend is to be capped with the professor preach-        cumstantial  .evidence suggests that Rev. R. Hanko
ing for both services at our Trinity Protestant           went to contact none other than those of whom we
Reformed Church. Rev. R. Hanko will speak on              wrote last time. Hopefully we will be able to.
October 31 at the United Methodist Church of              confirm that at a later.date.
Franklin Lakes in New Jersey on the topic "Re-              Although this news column does not usually
membering the Reformation." "Reformed Yet                 concern itself with baptisms, a recent baptism on
Always Reforming" is Prof. Hanko's topic for Octo-        our Lansing mission field is worthy of note, I
ber 30 at Hudsonville Prot. Ref. Church. The              believe. The October 12 bulletin of our Hope
Lansing, Michigan mission  .is sponsoring the             Church in Walker, Michigan explained it this way:
lecture, "The Foolishness of Preaching," on Octo-         "Eric Douglas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Roger  Hoek-
ber 29 by Prof. Decker. Also on October 29, Rev.          sema will receive the administration of baptism at
Kamps is scheduled to speak in Sioux Falls and            the morning service in our Lansing, Mission, D.V.
Rev. Kortering at our Loveland Church. Rev. Van           Elders Knott and Kooienga will be attending their
Overloop  has another double dose: on October 27 at       services. The L. Garvelink family will also attend
Illiana Chr. High School and on October 31 at             there where Mrs. Garvelink will play the organ for
Chicago Chr. High School, he plans to speak on the        their morning service." Though the Hoeksemas
theme, "The Comfort of the Gospel of Grace." Inci-        attend services at our Lansing Mission, they are
dentally, a South Holland bulletin reports that,          c`ommunicant  members of Hope. Clearly there are
after preaching for their Nov. 2 services, Rev. Van       some advantages to having a calling church in close
Overloop will speak and answer questions from the         proximity to its mission field. While on the subject
audience concerning the work in Birmingham.               of the Lansing mission field we should mention that
      Recently the Council of our South Holland           the Hope Congregation has a standing invitation to
Church decided to have their congregation confess         attend the 7:30 Wednesday evening meetings at the
the Apostles' Creed aloud. Reasons given for the          Lansing Mission located at The University Seventh
change were, "that confession with the mouth is           Day Adventist Church,. 149 Highland, East
part of Christian's worship (Rom.  10:9  &  lo), and      Lansing. I'm sure they willnot  object to my extend-
the confession of the Creed properly belongs to all       ing that invitation to all the readers of our S.B.
the saints."                    -  :                                                                            CK


