 STANDARDS
     BEARH?
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





  We ,become rich, rich in Christ Jesus, as a
reward of His  ,poverty..-.. We who deserve
everlasting hell in torments of wrath against
our sins, become sons of God with the right
to eternal life. Wondrous. mercy! Boundless
grace! For we are by nature uglier and more
abominable than the cow  barn, in which He
was born, yet  `,He makes-  bur'  .hearts His
                                                              `.
dwelling place.
      See "Grace Abounding"-page'122



                                   Volume  LVII, No. 6, December 15, 1980 -


122                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                                      THE  STANDARD   BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                                      ISSN0362-4692
                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July. and August.
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       Grace Abounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122             Editor-in-Chi<fi   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                           Deparfment  Ed&s:   Rev. Wayne  Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
  E d i t o r i a l s   -                                                                  denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                           Flikkema,  Reti. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando. Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
       E.P  .C. of Australia-Revisited (2) . . . . . . . . . . . 125                       Calvin Kalsbeek,  Rev..Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                           Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
       Kuyper's Prayer for the "Free" . . . . . . . . . . . . 126                          Rev.  GiseJ. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
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MEDITATIOi'V


                                                     Grace Abounding
                                                                               Rev. C. Hanko


                  "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
              he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. "                                                              II Corinthians  8:9



  Awe-inspiring word! .                                                                           He is Christ, the eternally anointed One, Who is
  Stand in awe as you consider that name: Our                                                   ordained of God and qualified by the Holy Spirit to
Lord Jesus Christ!                                                                              be Jesus; the Savior of His people.
  He is Jesus, the Savior, the only Name under                                                    He is Lord,as He stands eternally before the face
heaven whereby we can be saved.                                                                 of God. See Him as He describes Himself to us in


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            123



Proverbs 8:30, "Then I was by him, as one brought         aspect, which we have already anticipated, was
up with him: and I  was'daily his delight, rejoicing      that He came unto His own and His own received
always before him." See Him as the disciples did          Him not. Israel's spiritual life was at a very  low
when they beheld H,is mighty works and cried out,         ebb. The priesthood was corrupted; the temple
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Or      worship was for the most part a dead formality.
as Thomas saw and worshipped the resurrected              The teachings of the scribes served only-to deceive
Lord, saying, "My Lord and my God!" But above             the unwary. Even the awakening caused by the
all see Him with an eye of faith as exalted Lord to       preaching of John the Baptist had left most of the
Whom is entrusted all power in heaven and on              people coldly indifferent. The glad tidings which
earth as Lord of lords and King of kings.                 the masses were looking for was the announcement
  Then confess as you bow before Him in deepest           of a mighty hero who would crush the power of
humility and fear: "Our Lord Jesus Christ."               Caesar and restore the earthly kingdom, of David.
                                                          Therefore Jesus was hated before He ever saw the
  He became poor.                                         light of day. His parents had to flee for His life
  At this time of the year we celebrate our annual        before He could care for Himself. Was it ever any
Christ Feast (how much better that sounds than            different? He remained a stranger to His brethren
Christmas), commemorating the birth of the Savior.        and an alien in His mother's house. His own
  Let us go to Bethlehem in our imagination to visit      disciples failed to understand. Him and were' often
the lowly home of Mary, the  :young woman who             offended by Him. He was despised,. rejected of
was engaged to be married to Joseph. One would            men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
hardly recognize in this maiden the royal blood of        Every one hid his face from Him and gave Him
David that flows in her veins. The very. fact that she    over to His loneliness-. He was taken prisoner,
lives in an insignificant city of despised Galilee is     condemned as fhe'worst of criminals, beaten, spit
sufficient evidence that, along with the dying            upon, crucified. Do not fail to note,that  we did that
remnant of the royal house of David, the remem-           toHim.
brance of David's throne lies buried in the dust.           The divine reason for all this was that He came
One would certainly not look for the most blessed         into the flesh to surrender Himself as. friend-ser-
among women so far removed from  Judea, so far            vant of God to the divine wrath of God against sin.
from the royal city- and the temple. Indeed, the          Christ became like us in all the weakness of sinful
glory was departed from Israel. The hope of Israel's      flesh; only the element of sin was excluded. We
deliverance had all but faded away.                       confess with trembling, that He became sin,. the
  By the amazing providence of God a decree went          very embodiment of the sin of His people. All their
forth from Caesar Augustus, to which Mary, with           sins were charged to His account. All His life the
Joseph, responded  by' going to Bethlehem  to. be         curse of God rested on Him, the Righteous One in
registered for taxation under the Roman law. There        God's sight! None of us can imagine what that
in the city of David Mary found no ready welcome,         meant for our Savior, that all His life long and every
no reception of any kind, not even as much as a           step of the way He knew that the wrath of God
shelter in the hour of her great need. There was no       would come upon Him in an ever-increasing
hospital, no layette prepared for the Child, no royal     measure until He entered into torments of hell on
bed, no robe. Jesus was born in abject poverty as         the cross. Every moment He deliberately and
the poorest of the poor. The shepherds found Him          obediently walked the way that led to that final
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in-a manger in        hour when, in the three hours of darkness, all the
a cow barn. This was a plain indication of what His       waves and billows  of. God's wrath would  ,over-
life would be. He never owned a parcel of ground          whelm His soul in anguish of isolation and separa-
or a roof over His head. His food and clothing and        tion from God's favor.
sandals were donated. He could say in all honesty,          Whisper the confession: For our sakes! Shame
"The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have       floods our souls as our sins arise before our
nests; but the Son of man hath not ,where  to lay his     consciousness to testify against us. OUR sins, OUR
head." He experienced the day when these donated          guilt was laid upon Him. Our curse He bore. Our
garments were roughly torn from Him and `His              wrath swept `over Him until He had  .borne it all
naked body hung exposed on the cross. He watched          away. The judgment that rested upon me and still
while greedy soldiers gambled for His cloak. His          stings in my conscience He took upon Himself to
last resting place was a borrowed grave. Consider         deliver me from it. What a marvel of love, of mercy
our many possessions and even luxuries, for even          and compassion, that He suffered for our sins even
the poorest among us has so much more than our            while~we  were still enemies. All eternity will not be
Lord ever could claim as His own.                         too long to give praise to our God .for that great
  That is one aspect of His poverty. Another              sacrifice: He became poor for our sakes!


124                                             THE STANDARD  BEARER-



       Our amazement only increases as our text               bosom of the Father eternallv. We know the Son as
     reminds us, that  "though  4~ was rich,  yet for your    the revelation of the Godhead, as He tabernacled
     sakes he became poor." This does not mean, as is         among us in the flesh and as He reveals the Father
     sometimes taught, that Jesus had been rich and laid      to us in the Holy Scriptures. In eager anticipation
     off all those riches to become poor. Scripture does      we look forward to the day when we shall see Him
     not say that. Nor is it true. "Though he was rich,"      face to face as the full and complete revelation of
     means that, even while He retained His riches, He        God. Through Him we shall see the Father and
     became poor. He was rich, yet He was poor. That is       have eternal fellowship with Him. That is sufficient
     the paradox. That is also the wonder of our salva-       to fill our hearts with eager longing.
     tion. Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy          We know His grace as God's favorable attitude
Trinity, eternally and inseparably  one. with the             toward us in love. God laid His Son upon the altar
     Father and the Holy Spirit. Who can describe those       of the cross and plunged the knife of His wrath into
     incomparable riches that Jesus possessed even            His heart. The Son, likewise, willingly surrendered
     when He was poor? Can we by searching find out           Himself to that divine wrath until He had borne it
     God? Shall we venture to stammer a bit about those       all away. He gave His life for those given to Him of
     riches? The Son of God is Good. He is Light and          the Father.  Wqnder of wonders, we are numbered
     Truth. Holy and Righteous. Love and Mercy, full of       among those for whom He bore His poverty even
     compassion and long-suffering. He is almighty,           unto the isolation of hell! We stand at the cross with
     eternal, omnipresent, unchangeably perfect. He           shame and contrition.
     was all that even while He tabernacled in the flesh,
     ever dwelling in the bosom of the Father, in the           We know the gifts of His grace. We have a risen
     intimate fellowship of eternal covenant life. Here is    Savior, to Whom is entrusted all the affairs of
     where the mystery of our salvation reaches its full      history and of our daily lives, to direct all things to
     dimension. Jesus never ceased at any time. to be         the coming of His kingdom and our salvation. We
     God. The Son of God formed His owe nature, body          have an Intercessor with the Father, through
     and soul, in the womb of virgin Mary. God lay in         Whom the Father bestows every-blessing of salva-
     swaddling clothes, drank at His mother's breast,         tion upon us. We,become  rich, rich in Christ Jesus,
     grew up as `a child among His brothers and sisters,      as a reward of His poverty. For it is  through  His
     and increased in wisdom and stature, obedient to         poverty that we become rich. We who deserve
     His parents. God walked among us, talked with us,        everlasting  :hell in torments of wrath against our
bore our weaknesses, and finally died our death               sins, become sons of God with the right to eternal
     and was among the dead of all ages in His grave. He      life. Wondrous mercy! Boundless grace! For we are
preached and performed miracles. He allowed                   by nature uglier and more abominable than the
Himself to be hated and cast out. He surrendered              cow barn in which He was born, yet He makes our
Himself to His enemies, allowed Himself to be                 hearts His dwelling place. He renews .us as temples
bound, led away like a criminal, tried with cruel             of the Holy Spirit, saints in Christ,.preparing us for
     injustice, condemned and crucified as one not            our own place in His glory.
worthy to live among the inhabitants of this world.             Thanks be to God for His unspeakable .Gift! May
Imagine that, with all its implications! He stretched         our Christ Feast  be,an expression of that thanks in
     out His arms to be nailed to the cross, He bore the      love to God. We can best  do, that by extending a
reproach of His mockers, He committed Himself to              word of comfort to the weary, a hand of mercy to
torments of hell. He did all this for our sakes, for          the distressed, a token of love to the lonely and
your transgressions and mine, that He might                   aged. Our love to God expressed in love to His
reconcile us to God and merit for us eternal fellow-          children finds a response of love in their hearts,
ship with Him in glory!                                       whereby God is praised and glorified.
       "Ye know....`!                                           Grace abounding!
       Yes. we know our Lord Jesus Christ, and we also
know  .His grace. We know Him intellectually,
because it has been' our  .privilege   to- be instructed
from His holy Word at home, at school, and in the              The.Standard Bearer
church from our earliest infancy. We know our-
Savior also experientially, for we know Him by a                makes a  thoughtfid  gift
living faith which unites us in living fellowship
with Him, whereby we confess: "Our Lord, Jesus,
the Christ."                                                           on  aQy occasion. .
       We know our Lord's' grace, His adorable splen-
     dor as the eternal Son of God, Who dwells in the
.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER  '                                            125


EDITORIALS
Prof. H.6. Hoehsenia



                `@.P.C. of Australia-Revisited (2)

  We concluded our previous editorial on this              the fact that the churches of the  R:P.C. sing the
subject by stating that a large part of our contacts in    Psalms exclusively in their church services. The
Tasmania were in Launceston. About this we shall           Psalms are from the Scottish Psalter, and thus a bit
tell you a little now.                                     different from our version; in fact, their  versifica-
  Launceston is a rather pleasant city, built on hilly     tions are much more literal than ours. Again,.
terrain; and  .with its population of approximately        holding to "purity of worship," the E.P.C. have no
65,000, it is the second largest city in Tasmania          organ or piano accompaniment. But especially in
(Hobart, to the south, is the largest). But even in        the larger congregations and where the  precentor
this moderately sized city, the little congregation of     (voorzinger)  gives good leadership (and doesn't start
the E.P.C. hardly amounts  to.a handful of people.         the congregation off on the wrong tune!) this un-
Fortunately, however, the church of Jesus Christ is        accompanied singing can be enjoyable and beauti-
not to be evaluated by the pound. The rather               ful. I must confess, however, that I worked in
closely knit congregation, has its  own. neat  .and        advance with the  precentors to pick tunes which
useful church building, adequate and comfortable           would be familiar to me and my family.
for their purposes, but undoubtedly not as lavish                 Purposely I chose passages for preaching which
and not up to the standard of most of our buildings.       would afford me ample opportunity to stress
The pastor of the Launceston flock is the Rev.             Reformed specifics. At Launceston I preached from
Charles,Rodman,  respected and loved and looked            Isaiah  8:18 and from Deuteronomy 7:6-8. I had
up to as a leader throughout the churches. At the          very attentive and receptive audiences at both the
time of our visit, Mr. Rodman was up north. He is          morning and the evening services; and, judging
moderator of presbytery (classis) this year; and one       from remarks made by various people, they love
of his duties is to visit all the congregations and        Reformed and expository preaching.
preaching stations. It so happened that he had                    A special treat for us at Launceston was the
planned his tour of the churches before he knew of         Sunday afternoon gathering, followed by a fellow-
our plans to visit Launceston; and since his plans         ship tea (supper) in the church basement. At this
could not very well be changed, we missed meeting          meeting I had been asked to speak (from our
him in Launceston.                                         Protestant. Reformed vantage point) on some of the
  Pastor Rodman's absence from Launceston made             doctrinal and practical implications of the erron-
my presence all the more welcome, however, since           eous doctrine of common grace. I spoke rather'
it solved the "problem of pulpit supply  for. one          informally on this subject, using a good many
Sunday. By the -way, the Evangelical Presbyterian          concrete examples familiar to us here in the U.S. It
Churches in general know what it means to have a           should be kept in mind, of course, that, due to their
preacher-shortage; it is not unusual for them to be        peculiar history and development, the people of the
without their pastor on a Lord's Day, due to the fact      E.P.C. are much more familiar with the subject of
that he is supplying another congregation or               common grace in relation to the error of the "free
preaching station. But, to resume my story, I was          offer" than with the subject of common grace in the
invited to occupy the pulpit twice on our Sunday in        Kuyperian sense of the word. It was about the
Launceston. We felt. much at home worshipping              latter, and that in connection with the Three Points,
there. The order of worship is a bit different. For        that I spoke. My talk was followed by an extensive
example, the elements of the votum, the salutation,        and very interesting question period. This was
and the benediction are absent; neither do they            followed by the potluck supper in the basement, at
have the reading of the Law and the recitation of          which we had much opportunity to renew acquain-
the Apostles' Creed, as in our services. Besides,          tances with people whom we had met so briefly
they are accustomed to having two Scripture                five years ago.
readings in each service-one from the Old Testa-                  All in all, that Sunday in Launceston was a
ment and one from the New. But we found our-               blessed and profitable day. We shall not soon forget
selves very much at home from the point of view of         it.


126                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  If you would ask me whether there were any               Committee for their help and guidance. An inter-
noteworthy changes during the five years between           esting aspect of this project is that it is in the nature
visits, I  would,answer  affirmatively. We noticed a       of a pilot project for the rest of the denomination, so
very definite growth and development in what I             that it is being followed with great interest in other
would call "covenant consciousness." And the               churches.
concrete manifestation of this development is the            We were  .also. pleased to learn that our RFPA
determination to' establish their own- Christian           publications have been well received there and
school. This is not a mere undefined determination,        have been found helpful. More than once mention
but the Launceston people are hard at work to              was made, for example, of the fact that Believers
achieve the goal of having their own school. There         And Their Seed was helpful toward an understand-
are teachers in the congregation, and these are            ing of the truth of the covenant.
naturally deeply involved in this work. There are
committees at work on various phases of the                  You will understand, then, that when it came
project. During our stay we were asked to meet             time to leave Launceston and continue our trip to
with the Curriculum Committee, and we spent an             other parts of Australia, it was not only with antici-
entire evening with them, discussing various               pation with respect to what was still coming, but
aspects and problems connected with covenantal             also with no little regret that the time to take our'
education. After we returned home last summer,             leave had come so soon.
we sent a considerable amount of our Protestant                                                  (to be continued)
Reformed educational materials to this'Curriculum



                  Kuyper's' Prayer for the "Free"

  The Dutch paper  Waarheid  & Eenheid  (Oct. 31,          the Bible come under historical criticism just as any
1980) contains  .an article by J.P. Wijsman in             other human writings, thus the theological faculty
connection with this year's one hundredth anniver-         of the Free teaches. In the course of the same article
sary of the Free University of Amsterdam. In this          he calls attention to the fact that the dogmatics
article  W&man quotes at length from an article in         taught by Kuyper and Bavinck in former years is
the Dutch Christian newspaper,  Koeus, from the            now replaced by instruction that is often radically
pen of Dr. M.J. Arntzen. Dr. Arntzen was at one            liberal. He would advise young men who wish to
time one of the "concerned" in the Gereformeerde           study theology not to go to the Free, lest they lose
Kerken and also a co-editor of Waarheid & Eenheid.         their faith. They could better go to the state univer-
Later he could no longer tolerate the situation in the.    sities of Utrecht or Leiden, or still better to Apel-.
GKN, and he left that denomination. For a time he          doorn (of the Dutch Christian Reformed Churches)
was minister in the so-called Liberated Churches           or Kampen-Broederweg (of the Liberated). He flatly
(buiten  verband),  a group which leads a separate         states that the Free University, as a university faith-
existence from the original Liberated Churches.            ful to Scripture, which purposes to practice science
Still later Dr. Arntzen moved over to the Liberated        from the viewpoint of the Reformed confession, is a
Churches, sometimes referred to as the Free                thing of' the past. Kuyper and Rutgers would un-
Reformed Churches of the Netherlands. In connec-           doubtedly be astonished at the fabulous growth of
tion with the above-mentioned anniversary of the           the Free and would marvel at the fact that the Free
Free, the significant thing to remember about -Dr.         can stand on even footing with other Dutch univer-
Arntzen is that he is an alumnus of the Free, and          sities. But Kuyper would indeed' be upset if he
therefore speaks from firsthand knowledge.                 could observe modern developments at the Free,
  He reminds his -readers of the fact that in the          which has forsaken Kuyper's "holy principle."
years when he studied at then Free, and even as long         Dr. Arntzen then reminds his readers of the last
as 15 or 20 years ago, God's Word was held in full         words of Abraham Kuyper's concluding prayer
reverence. This' was also true in the area of              when the Free was opened: "And Thou Who
exegesis, which was not for that reason less scienti-      provest the reins.. .break down the very walls of
fic. But now things have changed. All emphasis is          this Institution and blot it out of Thy sight, if ever it
laid on the human aspect of the Bible. The books of        should purpose and desire anything else than to


                                         / THE STANDARD BEARER                                               127



glory in  that'sovereign,  free grace which is in the        If the Lord heard that prayer in the literal sense
cross of the Son of Thy tenderest love! Lord, Lord         of the word, the walls of the Free, would today be
God, let all our help be in Thy Name, in Thy Name          broken down. It has long since forsaken Kuyper's
alone! ' '                                                 " h o l y   p r i n c i p l e . "

FROM HOLY WRIT

                                          /
               The So-called Postmillennial
                        Proof-texts in Holy Writ                                                `.
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers



   It was the will and desire of the Editorial Staff of    Scripture, the denial of double predestination and
the  Standard `Bearer  that the writer of the rubric       limited atonement, and when there is much that
"From Holy Writ" devote a bit of study and energy          parades as being Reformed and in the Reformed
to the exegesis which is offered by current writers,       tradition, which certainly must be branded as being
who are the leading proponents of the Postmillen-          heretical. We have in this connection but to think
nial position in the doctrine of the "last things." It     of the ecumenicity that would supplant the true
was with some reluctance and fear that we took             catholicity of the church. In view of these trouble-
this assignment upon us, whereas we did not feel           some times, .when we see a resurgence of a teaching
very competent in this field of endeavor. We have          concerning the "universalism of the church on
now given the issues involved a rather careful and         earth" which is not in accord with the Scriptural
prayerful study and feel that we can make a small          teaching, the Staff of the Standard Bearer elected me
contribution in this field of Scripture-study.             to attempt to write some constructive articles in
Although we shall be critical of the Postmillennial        which God's people will hear the Scriptures speak.
position, we shall not be negative in these articles,         Now this is really some rather bold pretense it
analyzing and criticizing ad infinitum the position of     would seem; truly anyone who takes the -pen in
certain writers, but we shall, with God's help and         hand to teach others must be sure that he is himself
the petitioned guidance of His Spirit, try to teach in     teaching the truth, and that he will not be a
a constructive and thetical way what the Scriptures        workman who will be put to shame before the face
teach concerning the aspect of eschatology which           of the Lord. We shall, therefore, need to study
touches upon the differences between the Amillen-          Scripture painstakingly, comparing Scripture with
nial and the Postmillennial position. In this way we       Scripture, interpreting the less clear passages in the
can in one stroke deal critically in the healthy sense     light of the more clear Passages! Thus we need not
with both positions. We will, therefore, remain true       start with a wrong prejudgment, positing a mere
as much as possible to the format of this rubric           position, and then attempt, rightly or wrongly, by
known as "From Holy Writ." And thus we now                 many quotations to establish the mere plausibility
begin to write, looking to the LORD for guidance of        of our position. A plausible explanation of the text
the Spirit and the light of His perspicuous Word.          often seems at first sight and first hearing to be
   The reason why the Editorial Staff suggested that       correct and the proper meaning. It often looks fair,
I write on this subject and carefully study the            reasonable, and even valuable., But a second look
"proof-texts" of the current Postmillennial propon-        and closer study often shows that a plausible ex-
ents is that our readers of the Standard Bearer may        planation is untenable in light of the rest of the
become a bit more enlightened as to the positive           clear teaching of.Scripture!
teaching of Scripture on Eschatology in general,
and concerning the .question  whether the. Amillen-                                 OUR TASK
nial position which `we maintain is the correct and           Our task is to examine -the position of the Post-
Biblical one-the one which we must keep as  -our           millennial teaching in the light of Holy Writ. That is
confession at all costs, in days when there blow           our task from the very nature of this rubric which
upon God's heritage winds of error, such as the            we have been editing these many years. We will
higher critical school concerning the infallibility of     not try to show what  the. Confessions teach in this


128                                         THE `STANDARD BEARER  _



regard, for these latter say very little of this           there bv different roads, to wit, the one by the
question..The  Confessions, we are sure, stand four-       innate goodness of man and the other by the power
square on the Amillennial position. Thus the               of the Gospel in the betterment of a society, which
Heidelberg Catechism in Question 52 speaks of              is constituted of Christians.
Christ's return to judge the "quick and the dead."           Clearly our task is an  exegetical one. We will need
But it says nothing of the position of Postmillennial-     to weigh the exegesis and Scripture-quoting of the
ism. Question 54 speaks of  ,the gathering of the          Postmillennialists  of the past and present and see
Holy catholic church, but it has merely a reference        whether their teaching, which they elicit from
to the gathering of the Church by the Son of God           these texts, is really in accord with the teaching of
out  of the whole human race, a'church chosen to           Holy Writ. Should this be found to be the case, then
everlasting life. This is clearly the position of Amil-    the Amillennial teaching concerning the coming of
lennialism. Leading and representative writers of          God's Kingdom in, the world will not be in  actor-
the Postmillennial position speak rather of the            dance with the teaching of the Bible. Both cannot
saving of the "human race" it$eZf here on earth,, so       very well be true, it would seem. The Bible will
that at the end of time prior to Christ's return the       have our every thought subject to Christ (II Cor.
entire world will be Christianized, and after this         10:4). The weapons of our warfare, also in this
Christ shall return in His final glory to judge the        regard, are not to be carnal human reasonings, but
living and the dead.                                       mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-
  We do best to let the spokesmen of Postmillen-           holds, and "bringing into captivity every thought to
nialism themselves tell us what they understand by         the obedience of Christ." This means,  .first of all,
Postmillennial teaching of the Bible.                      that our own minds must be in subjection to the
  We quote first of all from  Dr; Loraine Boettner's       Scriptures. We must by no means try to foist our
The  MiZZennium,  page 4, where we read, "Postmil-         own opinion upon the Scriptures, either by direct
lennialism is that view of the last things which           teaching or by implication. We `must, therefore,
holds the Kingdom of God is now being extended in          pursue the study of the Scriptures by sound
the world through the preaching of the Gospel and          exegesis. This means that we do more than merely
the saving work of the Holy Spirit, that  the world        quote a great number of Scripture passages. We
wiZZ  eventuaZZy  be Christianized, and that the return    must give exegesis; clearly and concisely and
of Christ will occur at the close of a long period of      relevantly.
righteousness  and: peace commonly called the
MiZZennium" (we underscore, G.L.).                               THE PATTEeN OF SOUND DOCTRINE
  Dr. .Boettner believes and avows that the Post-            To speak of a "pattern of sound doctrine" is not
millennialism which he espouses must be carefully          of our own invention. The Bible speaks of such a
distinguished from what he calls "pseudo Postmil-          "`form" or "pattern" of sound doctrine. The Bible
lennialism." The latter he calls "that optimistic but      has many books, both in the Old and New Testa-
false view of human betterment and progress, held          ments. When we look for the central pattern and
by the Modernists and Liberals, which teaches that         message of the first five books of the Bible, called
.the Kingdom of God on earth will be achieved              the  Pentateuch, we are-sure that we must see that
through a  natural  process by which -mankind is           the subject is none other than. Jesus Christ, the
improved and social institutions will be reformed          crucified one. Thus Jesus instructs the recalcitrant
and brought to a higher level -of culture and              Jews of His dtiy, when He says, "Do not think that I
efficiency."                                               will accuse you to the Father: there is one that
  We will not stop here to criticize this distinction      accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For
of Dr. Boettner, but we believe that he is sincerely       had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me:
presenting what he believes to be the difference,          for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings,
the rather radical difference between the Post-            how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5:45-47).  It is
millennialism which he teaches and that which is           quite clear from the Greek that Jesus is the subject.
the teaching concerning the coming of the Kingdom          When the Greeks wrote a book, or a treatise, it was
of God as held by Modernists and Liberals. Our             "concerning" something that they wrote. That was
task is thus made easier for us, for now we can con-       expressed by the preposition  peri,  i.e., concerning.
centrate on the question  ,whether the Postmillen-         And so, blazoned above the first five books of the
nialism, which view such men as Dr. Boettner, Dr.          Bible as well as all the other Old Testament Scrip-
Kik, and others teach, is in accordance with the           tures, is "Concerning Jesus Christ, God's Son."
teaching of Scripture itself. Perhaps we shall then        Such is the pattern of the sound words of God in
be in a position to see whether what Dr. Boettner          the' Old Testament Scriptures. We, therefore, do
calls the true view is principally different from the      not invent a certain "form" of sound teaching and
position of the liberals, even though they arrive          of rules of interpretation. Scripture does this itself.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              129



  It is a remarkable thing that Paul speaks of such a      the gospel was one of total commitment and that
"form" of sound teaching. We find the form of              this commitment is not one of their option but is
sound doctrine in the Bible. We find such a form on        that to which they are subjected. This again under-
many doctrinal points too. Paul speaks of such a           lines the  objectivify  (we underscore) of the pattern
"form" in connection with the teaching of justifica-       as well as our passivity in being committed to it, an
tion and sanctification in Romans  6:17. In very           objectivity and' passivity which in no way militate
beautiful language'he refers to the teaching of the        against the wholehearted voluntariness of the
Christian's sanctification as a teaching which the         result, namely, the commitment of obedience from
Romans from "the heart have obeyed as a form of            the heart" (The Epistle To The Romans, 232, Vol. I).
doctrine delivered you." Fact is, that in the original       Thus we believe we must look for such a Scrip-
Greek the verb says that the believers "were deliv-        tural pattern also in the matter of explaining the
ered"' (pduedotheete)  to a form of doctrine. This is      texts which are quoted by the proponents of the
very strong and beautiful. Concerning this phrase          Postmillennial position. We must not follow the
Dr. John Murray writes, "we might have expected            slanted bias, which we believe to observe in the
the apostle to say that this form of teaching had          writings of current enthusiasts for the Postmillen-
been delivered, but, instead, he says that they were       nial position. We must seek to stand on solid
delivered to it-they were handed over to the               ground in our interpretation of Scripture and find
gospel pattern. This indicates that their devotion to      the Scriptural, Biblico-Hermeneutical pattern.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                            The Objects of Missions
                                              Prof. Robert D. Decker


  In the previous article we took issue with Dr.           Reformed Churches refers to this work by the
J.H. Bavinck's opinion that there is no special            former name. Mission work among the wandering
urgency to do mission work among the Jews. The             covenant members is work carried on among those
fact is that Romans  11  in its context (cf. especially    who either themselves or in their past generations
chapters 9 and 10) teaches that the natural branch-        once belonged to the church but have wandered
es (the Jews) once cut off may be graffed in again         into the ways of sin and disobedience. The Protes-
into the olive tree (the Church). This is the unique       tant Reformed Churches, for the most part, call this
position and special privilege of the Jews. The wild       "Church Extension" or "Church Reformation"
branches (Gentiles) once cut off remain cut off.           work. Dr. Bavinck and a host of others designate
There is no possibility of their ever being graffed in     this work, "Evangelism." This latter is the prefer-
again. From this point ,of view the Jews do enjoy a        able term. It is that mainly because it is literally
certain priority. They are proper objects of mission       taken from the Bible. Not only so but one does not
work and, in fact, mission work among the Jews             really extend the Church. Scripture teaches us that
ought not be ignored by the church.                        the Son of God from the beginning to the end of
  The proper objects of mission work (those to             time  gathers  His Church out of the entire human
whom the church must direct its mission preach-            race. The chosen church is gathered but not
ing) are the Jews, the apostates or covenant wand-         extended (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day
erers, and the heathen. The necessary distinctions         21).
among these must be made. Mission work among                 As far as mission work among the heathen is
the Jews is just that, and it is called by that name       concerned there ought to be no difference of opin-
universally within the church world. Mission work          ion. In fact, there really can be no difference of
among the heathen is work that is done among               opinion at this point. No one, as far as I know,
those who in their generations have stood outside          questions the legitimacy of the  ,church engaging in
of the sphere of the covenant of God. This is called       this work. The church has always, even from its
"mission work among the heathen" or probably               earliest New Testament history, conceived of this
more commonly, "Foreign Missions." The Form for            as part of its mission task. The Book of Acts reveals
the Ordination  ofMissionaries   used by the Protestant    how the church began the realization of the "Great


                                       -.
130                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



Commission" at  Terusalem, then to  Samaria,  and                       same office and the same authority, yet, not with-
from there ,to the &termost partsof  the world. Our                     standing this, it is necessary that some labor in the
Protestant Reformed Churches, although for nearly                       congregations already established, while others are
fifty years involved almost exclusively in Church                      -called and sent to preach the Gospel to those without,
Extension work, have always regarded mission                            in order to bring them to Christ. And let each man
work among the heathen as part of the church's                         abide in that calling wherein he was called by the
                                                                       Church of God and consequently by God Himself and
task. The Form Of The Ordination Of Missionaries in                    whereunto each has received gifts,.until it pleases the
its  ". ..short declaration touching the office of                     Lord to lead him along a lawful way to a different field
missionary ministers of the Word" reflects this                         of labor.
same position:                                                                         UNTO THE HEATHEN
         Since our God, according to His infinite mercy, has              That unto the heathen also these glad tidings must
       chosen a Church unto everlasting life, and gathers it           be brought appears plainly from Matt.  28:19,  "Go ye
       by His blessed gospel, out of every nation, and of all           therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
       tribes and peoples and tongues, unto the fellowship of           name of the Father, and of  the-Son, and of the Holy
       His Son, in unity of the true faith, therefore our risen         Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
       Savior has ordained an office and has called men, to            I have commanded you."
       carry the message of salvation to all-peoples, com-
       manding His apostles, and in them all lawful minis-               `That same was revealed to Peter by showing him as
       ters of the Word: "Go ye into all the world, and                it were a great sheet let down by four corners upon
       preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. For           the earth, wherein were all manner of beasts, and
       He that ascended far above all the heavens, that He             thereupon commanding him to go down to the Gentile
       might fulfill all things, gave some to be apostles; and         Cornelius, saying: "Arise, and get thee down, and go
       some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pas-              with them, nothing doubting; for I have sent them,"
       tors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto       Acts  10:20. Likewise he spoke to Paul in a vision in
       the work of ministering, unto the building up of the            the temple: "Depart: for I will send thee forth far
       body of Christ. And the Apostles, responding to this,           hence unto the Gentiles." Acts 22:21.
       went forth into the world declaring the whole counsel              This divine charge was also carried out by the
       of God, particularly repentance, and remission of sins,         church of Antioch, when they, after fasting and
       through faith in Jesus Christ, testifying: "for God so          prayer, laid their hands upon Barnabas and Saul and
       loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,            sent them away to preach the gospel also unto the
       that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,              Gentiles, Acts 13. And when they on their first mis-
       but have eternal life." John 3:16. "But all things are of       sionary journey had arrived at Antioch in Pisidia they
       God Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,                testified to the contradicting Jews: "Lo, we turn to the
       and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation: to-wit,        Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying:
       that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto               I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles; that thou
       Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses;              shouldest be for salvation unto the uttermost part of
       and hath committed unto us the word of reconcilia-              the earth."
       tion. We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of                  And besides all this it is evident that the work of
       Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we be-             missions is the task of the Church since the Lord Jesus
       seech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to              Himself calls His Church the salt of the earth, and
       God." II Cor. 5.                                                says: "Ye are the light of the world. A city on a hill
         Without this word of reconciliation, faith in Christ          cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it
       and consequently salvation, is and remains forever              under a bushel, but on the stand." Matthew 5.
       impossible, for Holy Scripture says, Acts  4:12: "And
       in none other is there salvation: for neither is there         It is perfectly obvious from the above Form that
       any other name under heaven, that is given among             our Reformed fathers certainly understood that
       men, wherein we must be saved"; and elsewhere:               Scripture calls for mission work among the heath-
       Rom. 10:14, 15, 17: "How shall they believe in Him of        en. The heathen are those who in their generations
       Whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear            stand outside of the church, the line of the cove-
       without a preacher? and how shall they preach except         nant. These are the "all nations" in distinction
       they be sent? So then, faith  cometh by hearing, and'        from Israel in the Old Dispensation and in distinc-
       hearing by the Word of God."                                 tion from the true Israel of God in all ages.
         Although all ministers of the Word have in com-              These must be the object of the missionary
       mon, that to them is committed the preaching of the          preaching of the church because, according to the
       Gospel, the administration of the Sacraments, the            Form, Christ commanded it. Christ said, "Go ye
       government of the Church, and the maintenance of             therefore, and teach all nations..." (Matt.  28:19).
       Christian discipline, yea, all that,' according to the
       Word of God belongs to the office of pastor and teach-       Christ commanded that to the Apostles who stood
       er: and although from the difference of field of labor       as the representatives of the entire New Testament
       no difference is resulting, concerning office, authori-      Church. The Church, also today, has the mandate
       ty, dignity, since all possess the same mission, the         of Christ to teach and baptize all nations. The


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                131


Church has the assurance that Christ will be with          the Church at Antioch ordaining Paul and Barnabas
her even unto the end to enable her to perform that        to go to the nations preaching the gospel (Acts
great task, to encourage her, to protect and pre-          13:lff.).
serve her. Not only that but Christ will also make            The fact is, therefore, the people of God (the
that teaching and baptizing effective unto the salva-      elect) are scattered in -every nation under heaven.
tion of the elect and the condemnation of the repro-       These must be gathered into the  sheepfold of
bate. Christ, "adds daily to the church, such as           Christ. These are the "other sheep" which Christ
should be saved" (Acts 247).                               must bring (John 17). These will be gathered only
  The Form also cites as proof for this the vision         by the preaching of the gospel by the institute of the
God gave to Peter of the clean and unclean animals         Church. This must be done simply because Jesus
and God's command, "rise, Peter, kill and eat;"            told the Church to do so. When the task is complete
With this vision the Lord made plain to Peter that         the end of the world will come. Then the Church of
he must go to Cornelius, the  .Gentile. As a result,       all ages, from Adam to the very last elect, will be
Cornelius and his house believed, were baptized            perfected in union with the exalted Christ. God's
and added to the Church (Acts 10). When the                glory will be reflected in His Church everlastingly.
church saw this she confessed, "Then hath God                 That is the glorious goal of the mission work of
also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life"         the church. May God's Church be faithful in that
(Acts  11:18).  Finally the Form cites the incident of     holy task until we see Jesus on the clouds of glory.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


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


  Having considered an outline of the gospel of            was a fulfillment of the words spoken by the
Matthew, we have yet to make some summary                  prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene," a refer-
observations that deal with this gospel's distinctive       ence to the contempt and hatred placed upon Him,
emphasis.                                                   Psalm 22:6, Isaiah 49:7, 53:3, Daniel 9:26.
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES                                          Matthew refers to the fact that Isaiah  (4O:l)
  1. Since Matthew is the bridge between the Old            spoke of the ministry of John the Baptist as the fore-
and New Testaments, we should take note of the              runner of Christ  (3:3). He even mentions in
many references which are made to the fulfillment           Matthew  4:"14, 15 that Isaiah gave such. minute
of prophecy. This is more true of Matthew than of           details as the place of John's labor (Isaiah  9:2).
the other gospel writers.                                  Jesus, the Messiah, was prophesied as the Great
  Let's examine some of them. Already in chapter            Physician Who would take our infirmities and bear
1:22, 23 we read, "Now all this was done that it            our sicknesses, a reference in Matthew  8:17 to
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by          Isaiah  53:4. Isaiah the prophet even knew that
the prophet saying, "Behold a virgin shall  be.with        Jesus would be as a bruised reed and a smoking flax
child and shall bring forth a son." This is a refer-        (Isa.  42:1), and Matthew saw significance in that
ence to the prophet Isaiah, who writes of this in           (Matt.  1214-21).  Jesus, the Messiah, spoke in
chapter 7: 14. Likewise, the Messiah's birth-place         parables, and Matthew observes in chapter 13:33-
was predicted in Micah  5:2, and referred to in             35 that even this was known in the Old Testament
Matthew  2:5, 6. Matthew makes the point in  2:15           (Ps.  78:2). The great entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
that Christ was taken to Egypt in fulfillment of           and the spiritual impact that it had upon His work
prophecy,  Hosea  11,:l. Just a little further on he       as Messiah was predicted in Isaiah 62: 11 and
reminds his readers that the slaughter of the child-       Zechariah  9:9, and Matthew took note of it in
ren of Bethlehem (2:17, 18) was also prophesied by          chapter  21:1-5.  Finally, Matthew included in his
Jeremiah in chapter  31:15. The same applied to            gospel account, in 26:55,56,  the words of Jesus that
their sojourn and residence in Nazareth  (2:23); it        He was being taken by the soldiers and bound for


132                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



trial according to the Scriptures of the prophets, a       (2:16),  the dream of Pilate's wife (27:19), the suicide
reference to many passages that foretold that Jesus        of Judas  (27:3-lo),  the resurrection of  the saints at
would suffer and die, e.g. Isaiah 53.                      the time of Jesus' crucifixion  (27:52), the payment
  As we examine these references we must draw a            of the guards so that they could circulate the lie
few conclusions. First, it lived in the mind of Jesus      concerning the disciples' having stolen the body of
as well as Matthew that the events in the life of          Jesus  (28:12-15), the great commission to preach
Jesus were not determined by situations of that day        and baptize (28: 19,20).
only, but that His Father in heaven was bringing             Besides these events, Matthew makes reference
them to pass. This applied to a staggering amount of       to certain parables that are unique to his gospel:
detail and to such an extent that prophecy and             tares  (13:24-30), hidden treasure  (13:44), the pearl
fulfillment testify of God's sovereign control. We         of great price.( 13:45,46),  the dragnet (13:47), the un-
conclude that this was a comfort to Jesus, and that        forgiving servant  (18:23-25), the laborers in the
it must confirm our faith in the historical reality of     vineyard  (20:1-16), the two sons  (21:28-32), the
Jesus' ministry. He was not a victim, He was               marriage of the king's son (22:1-13), the ten virgins
appointed to die in exactly the manner in which it         (25:1-13), and the talents (25:14-30).
took place. This is important for our place in the           Only three miracles are mentioned in Matthew
kingdom of which' Jesus is Messiah. Secondly,              which are not mentioned in the other gospel ac-
Matthew made such repeated reference to the ful-           counts: restoration of sight to the two blind men
fillment of prophecy, not only`for the benefit of the      (9:27-31), healing of the dumb demoniac  (9:32,33),
Jews of His day, but also for the church today, that       and the provision of the coin in the mouth of the
we may  know  that this fulfillment took place and         fish to pay taxes (17:24-27).
that we may rejoice in its comfort and truth. Jesus
is in truth the promised Messiah! The Scriptures             It is rather difficult to answer the question as to
testify of this glorious fact.                             why these things are included in Matthew and not
                                                           in the other accounts, except that we may see in
  2. We should also take note of the fact that             many instances that their inclusion supports the
Matthew, more than the other gospel writers,.              main theme that Matthew is presenting, namely,
includes in his gospel account sermons and mes-            that Christ is in truth the promised Messiah. His
sages that were declared unto the people.  Pou can         identity is heavenly, His power is "other worldly,"
observe this if you have a New Testament Bible             His goal is not earthly,. but heavenly, and all His
with the words of Jesus printed in red. Compare            ministry confirms that, as the King, He has done
Matthew with the other synoptic writers and                and continues to do all things necessary to realize
observe that there are more and longer passages of         that kingdom.
Jesus speaking to the people. We list some of the
longer ones: the sermon on the mount  (5:1-7:29),            In conclusion, then, we may observe that the
specific instruction to His disciples to go out and,       Holy Spirit led Matthew to set forth Christ in His
preach (10:  l-42), parables (13:  l-52), importance of    kingly glory. One cannot read this gospel account
confessing faults and being forgiven  (18:1-35), con-      without concluding that Jesus, as the Anointed of
demnation of the Pharisees and the promise of His          God, is God's King! He has a royal genealogy, He
future glory  (23:1-25:46), all of which ends in the       came into Jerusalem, not to establish an earthly
great commission  (28:18-20). The special signifi-         kingdom, but a heavenly one. He came in humility,
cance of this is that the Holy Spirit moved Matthew        lowly, riding upon a foal, the colt of an ass, declar-
to record these in order that the world may believe        ing to all that stood by that the way into His king-
that the promised Messiah is in truth the Lord from        dom was that of His suffering and death. He had to
heaven, Whose dominion includes not only the               establish righteousness as the foundation  of' His
subjugation of the wicked, but also the rule over          true heavenly kingdom. This he further confirmed
His people by His Word and Spirit. He is king, to be       with His discourse regarding the future glory of His
sure, but He is also prophet and priest; and they go       kingdom and the promise of His coming again to sit
together in order that He might be the Mediator of         on the throne of His glory (27:31). In truth, He is as
His people.                                                the cross declared, Jesus of Nazareth; the King of
                                                           the Jews.
  3. We should mention briefly certain things that
are recorded only in Matthew and not in the other          QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
accounts. This includes certain events in the life of        1. Why did God want four gospel accounts writ-
Jesus, such as the vision to Joseph by the angel,          ten when it might seem to us that one would be suf-
assuring him that it was all right to take Mary to be      ficient?
his wife,  (1:20-24), the flight of Joseph, Mary, and        2. Explain why the different gospel accounts of
Jesus into Egypt  (l:l-12),  the visit of the  wisemen     the same event were written and that their differen-
(2:13-15), the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem       ces do not conflict with the truth of the inerrency of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               133



Scripture. Illustrate.                                     central message of Christ as the promised Messiah
  3. What do we know of Matthew, the author?               is developed in the gospel.
  4. Why is Matthew the first book in the canon of           7. What information concerning the kingdom of
the New Testament?                                         Christ do we learn from this book? Refer to select
  5. Explain what the central message of the               passages.
gospel of Matthew is. What does Messiah mean?                8. How should a child of God respond to the
How is Christ the Messiah?                                 reading of this gospel?
  6. Give a brief outline that will indicate how the

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           A Story of Two Families
                                                Rev. R. Flikkema


  Allow me to tell you a story. This story is about        him warm. And when  that~ little child was way-
two families. What the names of these two families         ward, they chastised him. Not in anger did they do
are is not important. But what is important is that        that, but in love, with the very same love with
each of these two families had  a.little child. Let us     which God chastised them when they themselves
just say that these two little children were approxi-      were wayward.
mately six years of age. Oh, yes, there is one other
fact that we ought to be aware of before we begin            But the ungodly family did nothing of the sort.
this story, and that is that the one family in this        The ungodly family who also had a six-year-old
story is an ungodly one, while the other is a  God-        child did the exact opposite. Instead of praying to
fearing, covenant family. With that in mind let us         God to give them a child, they had refused to pray.
begin.                                                     From the moment they were married, they had de-
                                                           cided that they would have no children. They both
  Ever since the time that God had seen fit to give        had  ,their professions. They both had good paying
this godly family their little six-year-old child, this    jobs, and they were going to make the most of those
family had been filled with joy. For some time the         good paying jobs. With the money that they re-
parents of that little child had prayed for that little    ceived from their jobs, they were going to buy all
child. With all their hearts they had longed for a         the earthly comforts that their money could buy.
covenant child to fill their home with gladness; a         But then all of a sudden it happened. A little child
covenant child whom they could love; and a                 was born to them, and all their vain plans were
covenant child whom they could instruct in the             dashed. It was a mistake, was their word to them-
fear of their covenant God's name. Those prayers           selves. The  birth,of their little child was all a mis-
and that longing God had answered. He gave to              take. Angry they became when their little child was
them their little child. With great love and kind          born, and angry they remained all through the past
compassion in their hearts they cared for their little     six years. In their anger they refused to instruct him
child that God had given unto them. With respect           in the fear of God's name. There was no Bible
to his spiritual needs that is true. Each day anew         instruction for their little child. There was no
they brought him to the Bible. They, as Jesus had          Sunday School or Catechism instruction for him.
said to them, brought their little child unto Him by       That, they in anger considered to be a waste of
instructing him in God's Word. They sent him to            time. And in their anger they refused not only to
Sunday School, and now that their little child was         instruct their little child in the fear of God's name,
six years old, they sent him to Catechism. They            but also to care for him even with respect to his
taught their little child the Sunday School lesson         physical needs. And that is the very sad part of this
and the Catechism lesson, and rejoiced in doing so         story.
for they knew and understood well that it was but
their obligation before the face of their covenant           They in their anger did not even care for their
God. And, too, these covenant parents also cared           little child with respect to his physical needs! It all
for their child with respect to his physical needs.        started when the mother of this little child had to
They  .fed and clothed their little child. They pro-       quit work when the child was born. As a result of
vided him with nourishing food and clothes to keep         that, money became somewhat scarce. And it all


134                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



got worse when the father was laid off from his job.               And now that I have come to the end of my story,
6h yes, he tried to find another job, but no job was             I suppose I should tell you just exactly why I have
to be found. The father became even  more.,angry                 written this story. But before I do that I must make
about that. How was his family going to live? What               a confession. You see, the contents of my story are
was his family going to do? Food had to be provided              not all that original. By that I mean this. The story
and bills had to be paid, but where was the money                that I have just told has been told before. With
going to come from? Those questions and many                     respect to that part of my story.dealing with those
more plagued the mind of this father. But instead of             ungodly parents who so horribly treated their little
reminding himself that God would provide; instead                six-year-old, that part of my story was based on a
of being content and happy with his lot in life;                 book condensation found in the November issue of
instead of thanking God for giving to him his wife               the Reader's Diiest entitled, "The Murder of Robbie
and his little six-year-old child, this ungodly father           Wayne." Read that story if you have the opportu-
became even more angry. In anger he thought to                   nity. And with respect to that part of my story
himself, "It is all that little child's fault. If that little    dealing with those covenant parents and their little
child had not come along, none of this would have                child, that part of my story was based on many,
ever happened." And so, with those thoughts in his               many stories that are found, not in the  Reader's
mind, in anger he dealt with his little child. He                Digest, but in the most marvelous book imaginable,
began to starve his little child. He began to lock him           the  Bible.  Stories such as that of Abraham  and-
up in a closet for two or three days at a time with no           Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and many, many more.
food or water. And when he was allowed to eat, all               Stories which are real and true stories. That too
that his father would feed him was some cold oat-                ought to be said. Both stories are real and true. That
meal and not much more. He began to beat his                     story in the  Reader's Digest  is real and true, and
child whenever the child did anything that dis-                  those stories in the Bible arereal and true.
pleased his father in any way. First the father used               And those real and true stories go on. They go on
a switch on that little six-year-old. But then the               even today. Today too there are many, many un-
switch was replaced by a board two feet long, four               godly parents who in anger consider their children
inches wide, and a half inch thick. These beatings               to be nothing more than a mistake, a burden, an
occured five or six times a day, and so hard did this            unwanted burden. Today, too, there are many,
father beat that little six-year-old, that that child            many parents who in anger treat their children as
soon developed bruises and scars that became per-                badly or even worse than did those ungodly parents
manent. They did not go away. As time went on,                   in my story or in the story found in the  Reader's
that father in his anger devised new ways in which               Digest.  But thanks be to God that today too there
to punish his child. He saw his wife drying clothes              are many, many parents who are covenant
in the dryer and he thought to himself: "I will fix              parents-parents who pray for covenant children;
that little brat who was a mistake anyway! I will                parents who love their covenant children; parents
throw, that little mistake into the dryer! I will let the        who care for the needs of their children, both spiri-
drum spin a few times! Maybe that will knock some                tual and physical. I say that with great sincerity in
sense into him!" But even that was not enough. Oh                my heart. Thanks be to God for that! That is, after
no! The father `sought more ways with which to                   all, all of God. God gives us covenant children. God
punish his child. He took him outside and made                   sets up covenant homes in the midst of His Church.
that little six-year-old hold out his hands while the            God says to covenant parents: do not abuse or mis-
father poured battery acid all over his hands! Yes,              use My covenant children, but care for My cove-
you read correctly, battery acid! So burned were the             nant children. Care for their spiritual needs. Care
hands of that little child that he had to be placed in           for their physical needs. And God gives us as cove-
a hospital for quite some time. But did things                   nant parents the grace to do what He says in obe-
change when that little child returned home? By no               dience to our covenant God.
means. The starvings continued and the beatings                    And that is why I wrote this story. I wrote it in
proceeded until finally that little six-year-old died!           the first place to remind us of the horrible things
                                                                 that go on in the homes of ungodly parents in these
  And with that we come to the end of my story.                  last days. We must take note of what goes on in the
Oh, I suppose I should tell you what happened to                 midst of ungodly homes in these last days. And
that other six-year-old child, that child of those               with all the strength that we can gather, we must
covenant parents. He grew up to be a covenant                    condemn what goes on. But in the second place I
child indeed. He too became a parent. And the                    wrote this story to cause us, covenant parents, to
God-fearing love and care that he received from his              pause and to give thanks. Thanks to God for our
parents, he manifested to his children that God was              covenant children, thanks to God for giving us the
pleased to grant unto him. That is what happened                 grace to care for and provide for all the needs of our
to him.                                                          covenant children.


       _                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                1 3.5



  Do you as covenant parents give God thanks? If  '       this article in  The Standard  Bearer  is concerned.
this story of mine causes you to do that, then this       And yet, it is only the beginning, the beginning of
story will not have been in vain. And with that my        thanksgiving in our hearts and in our homes as
story has really come to an end-an end as far as          covenant parents.



                            Report From Singapore
                                              Rev. Arie den Hartog



Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ:                         berg Catechism. As I have told you before, each
  We greet you again in the precious name of our          Saturday there are two groups of members of the
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, We give thanks unto         G.L.T.S. receiving instruction in the Heidelberg
God for His continued abundant blessings upon the         Catechism. I teach the older members of the
ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ which He has       G.L.T.S. at the Adult Fellowship. Brother Francis
given to us. Our Heidelberg Catechism teaches us          Quek teaches the younger members. at the Youth
in one of its most beautiful Lord's Days: "The Son        Fellowship. So the majority of the members of
of God from the beginning to the end of the world,        G.L.T.S. are receiving instruction in the Heidelberg
gathers, defends and preserves to Himself by His          Catechism.. In the Adult Fellowship we are now
Spirit and Word, out of the whole human race a            almost half way through the Catechism. Expecta-
church chosen to everlasting life..." (Lord's Day         tions are that the commission will take about nine
21). It is indeed a particularly great joy to witness     or ten months to study the creeds, after which time,
this on the foreign mission field. What a glorious        the Lord willing, we shall be ready to organize the
thing it is that the Lord calls His elect from heathen    church. This will probably take place some time in
nations out of darkness into His marvellous light         May or June of next year.
and so gathers His one universal catholic church             I cannot tell you what is happening at all of the
unto everlasting salvation and glory. Let me tell you     different meetings which we have in the G.L.T.S.
again some of the most significant new develop-           Let me just highlight some of the more significant
ments here in Singapore.                                  ones. Our worship services are always well attend-
  The focus and center of our work continues to be        ed. There is faithful attendance by the members
matters relating to the organization and establish-       and there are almost always visitors brought by
ment of the church here. We together with the             various members.
members of the G.L.T.S. continue to look forward             Every Lord's Day afternoon we have the pre-bap-
with eager anticipation to the day when a Reformed        tism class in our apartment. This class is attended
Church will be established with us in Singapore.          very faithfully by eleven members ranging in age
We are thankful that things are progressing               from 18 to 25 years. Nine of the members of this
smoothly and in a settled routine way toward this         class are preparing for baptism. Two members have
goal. The G.L.T.S. has now elected a commission of        been baptized before (prior to our coming to Singa-
elders and deacons which has as its primary pur-          pore) and desire to be better instructed in the faith.
pose the study of our Three Forms of Unity. The           We have about twelve weeks of instruction left for
outcome of the elections was a commission of four         this class, after which we will have met for a total
elders and two deacons. These brethren will, the          of about twenty weeks. The Lord willing we shall
Lord willing, be ordained as the office bearers of        then again have the blessed experience of a special
the church at the time of our organization. Every         baptism service for these young people.
Tuesday evening this commission receives from                On the evening of each Lord's Day we gather
your missionary instruction from the Reformed             together for what are called "tape hours." At these
Creeds. We are thankful that these weekly classes         tape hours we sing and pray and listen to tape re-
are not only attended'by the members of the com-          corded sermons. Presently there are four such tape
mission but also by a goodly number of other in-          hours meeting simultaneously in various localities
terested brothers of the G.L.T.S. We decided to           of Singapore. We are listening to many of our Pro-
begin our study with the Belgic Confession. We will       testant Reformed ministers as well as some from
not need to spend a lot of time studying the Heidel-      other denominations. Work is going on finally to es-


13'6                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



tablish a second worship service on the Lord's Day.       This isin part still a fruit of the lectures given here
This is the ideal goal to strive for. However, there      by Prof. Hoeksema. I have been asked to deal spe-
are several problems associated with the holding of       cifically with each of the five points, explaining
a second worship service. One of them is that the         their meaning and proving them from scripture.
place where we presently worship is a Kampong,               In the middle of the month we are going to have
which means that, there are many residents living         another week-long retreat. The G.L.T.S. regularly
on the other side of the thin walls of the- place of      has two such retreats every year. These retreats co-
worship. It is feared that instituting a second           incide with the school vacations of the members.
worship service on the Lord's Day will aggravate          This varies for the different members. We as Pro-
the residents of the Kampong into making com-             testant Reformed people are probably surprised
plaints against us to the authorities. To appreciate      that there are two such retreats every year. Again
fully this situation one almost has to see the circum-    we must remember that the members of the
stances of our place of worship. Anyway, as long as       G.L.T.S. do not have all the blessings of Christian
no one makes complaints against us we are permit-         fellowship that we have in our homes and other
ted to use a Kampong for our worship services.            places. They yearn after Christian fellowship with
However, should there be several complaints it            one another and count these retreats as an especial-
would be possible that the Singapore government           ly great blessing. The theme of next month's retreat
would forbid us to use our present place and that         is "Take Time to Be Holy." I have been asked to
would we would be left entirely without a place to        give-a series of five messages on this topic.
hold our worship services. A second problem is that
many of the members of the G.L.T.S. must travel              This past Monday was a national holiday in
for an hour or longer by bus to get to our worship        Singapore. On this day the G.L.T.S. organized a
services. There are strong parental objections for        mass tracting session. A group of the members dis-
some of the young people to their being away from         tributed tracts and invitations to the worship ser-
home all day Sunday. If these members would               vices and Sunday school classes, to the homes in
come to two worship services they would have to           the neighborhood. This is in keeping with the tradi-
spend four or more hours just traveling. The four         tion of the Gospel Literature and Tract Society.
tape hours are nearer to the residences of the            This is difficult work and involves many  .of the
members and this makes it possible for more of the        members. It. affords opportunity occasionally for
members to attend. How this will develop in the           members to get into homes to share the gospel of
future remains to be seen. The situation of course        the Lord Jesus Christ.
would change somewhat if we by God's grace                   I was just interrupted in my writing of this report
could acquire our own place of worship. There has         by a phone call. One of the members of the
been some talk about circuit preaching, in which I        G.L.T.S. called to tell me about the persecution he
would go to one of these tape hours each Lord's           is presently facing in his home. It seems that he just
Day to preach. Presently we rejoice at the blessed        told them now that he had been baptized two years
fellowship we enjoy from week to week at these            ago in the G.L.T.S. His parents became very angry
"house churches." We are thankful that we can             with him. He is the only Christian in the family and
hear the preaching of the Word-of God through this        his whole family is against him. He is presently a
means. One of the tape hours is regularly at our          university student and his parents are threatening
apartment.                                                to remove him from the university. They see Chris-
                                                          tianity as a Western religion and they believe that it
  Every Thursday evening there are various "cell          often comes with Western teachings in the univer-
groups" throughout Singapore. These cell groups           sities.
are groups of members and visitors that meet for
Bible study and prayer. We also have one of these            Another young man has been trying to bring his
cell groups in our home. This group was started es-       sister to our worship services. They both have been
pecially for the residents of our apartment building.     experiencing a lot of persecution in their homes.
Presently there are a few residents of Pacific Man-       Their parents are threatening to cast them out of
sion who regularly attend our cell group as well as       the home if they continue to attend Christian
several members of the G.L.T.S. We are studying           worship services. Pray for the many hardships
the book of James.                                        which the young Christians of the G.L.T.S. must
                                                          face. I could tell you of many more such situations.
  Next month (November) will be a busy and excit-         I urge again upon our Protestant Reformed Young
ing month for us. During the first week of the            people to appreciate the Christian homes which
month I have been asked to give a series of three         you have. Be thankful for them. Use the Christian
speeches on the Five Points of Calvinism to a group       training you have the privilege of receiving from
of Singapore University Students. Some of these are       your youth up. To whom much is given, much is
members of the G.L.T.S. and some of them are not.         required.


                                             TtiE STANDARD. BEARER                                              .137-



  While most of you in the U.S. are presently in the            We cannot end our report to you without expres-
midst of winter and are experiencing cold weather            singto all those who have written to us in the past
we here in Singapore continue to have very hot and          _, weeks our hearty appreciation. Since -the time of
humid weather (always in the high 80s). It seems so          Prof. Hoeksema's encouragement in this paper we
strange to us that there are really no seasons at all        have received floods of mail. Your letters are a
here. The temperature remains very much the                  great source of joy and encouragement to us. We
same all year round. Also the rainfall is very much          thank God for them.
the same although we are told that there is some
increase in rain during the months of December                                Your Missionary in His Service
through February.                                                                     Rev. Arie den Hartog

GU&STARTICLE
                                                                                                                         ~.

                                             " B y               F&h':`,
                                                 Mr. M. A. Straayer              '

                                     -

(Note: This is the third and last guest article by           to listen for the call from Macedonia and to enlarge
brother Straayer, a member  ,of our Edmonton,                the tent in expectation; but .are we not often trying
Alberta, Protestant Reformed Church. HCH)                    to find excuses? First of all, we are afraid of the
  In the preceding articles we wrote about the call          task; we don't believe it can be done, and we there-
and the expectation, even in our situation today.            fore. must find excuses why we should not be
Both articles ended with the words "By Faith," and           active. One very good excuse that is heard much
therefore we will  now.spend some thought in this            among us is that we live in the end of times, and
last article on BY FAITH.                                    that therefore the `church must become smaller till
                                                             .there are no more saints left; that there can be no
  When writing these articles, like you,  I, asked           more reformation, that all signs point to the end of
myself whether it is not unrealistic to expect               time, and in pious righteousness we can,then  sit in
growth, to expect reformation, to expect great               a corner-as. our Dutch fathers said, "met een
things.  Is'it not better to hope and to long for the        boekje in een hoekje"-and let the world go by.
end of all things, to say, "Maranatha, Jesus comes;          BUT THERE IS HOPE, THERE IS EXPECTATION
yes, Lord Jesus, yes, come quickly?!'                        EVEN  TODAY.
  Do we still plan expansion? Do we still look for-             By faith Noah, being warned by God of things not
ward to growth? Or have we.become so tired of it             seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the
all that it is becoming too much of a bother to go out       saving  of his house, by which he  condemned  the
to evangelize, to witness; to promote church expan-          world and became. heir of the righteousness which
sion? Fifty years of Protestant Reformed church               is by faith.
existence, and not much: to show for it. And even if
we were to grow, there would again be the  apos-`               When we read the examples of Hebrews  11, one
tate, the turning away from the.truth; it is all a re-       thing that strikes us is the hopelessness of all these
peating process. So  why, growth? Why not stay               situations. By faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by
small and faithful (as if the one includes the other)?       faith Sarah, by faith Isaac, by faith Jacob and
                                                             Joseph and Moses-all situations of which you and
  It is a general attitude today, a general mood that        I say, "Impossible." For us today it is necessary to
one finds all around us, that every human being              remember, to be reminded of, the faith of these
seems to be tired of it all. We have seen it all before,     saints of former days, because if we don't have that
repeat and repeat. And therefore society in general          faith, we will read the previous two articles and
comes to the conclusion, "Why try?" "Let us eat              will question the conclusions; we will reason that
and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."                the writer is an optimist, a dreamer, a fantacist, and
Something of that mood (geistesgestahlte) may also           that he has more hope to be proven wrong than
be seeping into us: the general feeling of the hope-         right;  Time'might  `show him up with "egg on his
lessness of it all.                                          face." And yet I dare write, because even if I am
  As God's children we know His commandment                  found wrong (I am not), I have done nothing more


138.                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



than repeat the Lord's calling to us all.                 Abraham asked God,  to= spare  ,fhe world? Do you
  Let us look a moment at the situation of Noah:          think he never asked people to join him and
He becomes the laughingstock of his time. He must         believe? Noah preached by building; we must still
have been the dorpsgek. I can almost hear the jokes       preach by building, by enlarging the tent.
-being cracked about Noah and that idiot monstro-           There is another lesson of comfort that comes to
sity he is building. And listen to what he is telling,    us in this story. It shows how the Lord provides for
that the thing he is making is an ark (what is that?),    a help against our infirmities. Look at the ark: no
and that God (God is dead!) will open the gates of        window in the sides,  `only one that looks up to
heaven, and it will rain (what is that?)-never heard      heaven. What a blessing that Noah could not see
of anything so crazy! If Noah lived today, we would       the dying of all his neighbours and acquaintances,
put him in a mental institution and take away his         that he could only look to heaven, where is the
axe, so that he could do no further damage to the         finisher of his faith and our faith. What a blessing
environment or disturb the balance of nature; just        that the Lord closed the ark. Noah, would have
figure how many acres of timber he needed to build        never done it. But the Lord separates, and the Lord
the ark!                                                  closes the ark; otherwise Noah would still have
  Things not seen before: an ark floating on the          perished with the world. And if he could have, he
water! Noah, how can you believe such a thing?            would probably have opened it again to let others
`How can you build such a thing?. Do you really           i n .
think it can float? Where did you dream that up? If         Now there is still an ark, Jesus Christ. And the
it wasn't so funny, it would be a nightmare. Noah,        world still exists; it is still the excellent  (weluange-
come on, give up. Just imagine the logistics of food      name) time to preach of that coming of judgment,
for all the animals and for Noah and his family, and      to witness as- ambassadors for Christ, as though
the preservation of the foodstuff. Think of the           God did bes,eech you by us: we pray you in Christ's
hygiene after the Lord closed the ark; think of the       stead, be ye reconciled to God.
ventilation. 0, the world today remembers the
story of Noah. We here in Canada have the Irish             Brothers, what a perspective we have. What a
Rovers who sing of it. And the story becomes actual       cloud of witnesses. The Lord still allows us to walk
about the unicorn; Noah becomes God's helper in           in the footsteps of those who are now the Church
building a floating zoo -with cats and rats and ele-      triumphant. If we look at ourselves, we doubt. We
phants, camels, chimpanzees and long neck geese;          have all the standard excuses: too old, too young,
.and, said-God, "As sure as you're born, Noah, don't      can't speak, can't walk, etc. But if we look at Christ
forget my unicorn." And when in the song the ark          Jesus, the finisher of our faith, then we go out; then
starts floating with the tide, the unicorns don't         we reach out; .then we preach in season and out of
come in, but keep playing silly games; and there-         season; then we witness in word and deed, expect-
fore to this day you have never seen a unicorn any        ing great, things. And even if there are no results in
more. And the actual message of the outpouring of         numerical growth, it becomes a wonder that He
God's wrath over a sinful world and God's particu-        will use us; it becomesa  wonder that He did not by-
lar grace to Noah and his family is completely for-       pass-us; it becomes a wonder that He actively wills          -
gotten. So the world makes the Word of God of no          that "no result," actually as our Dutch fathers
avail.                                                    expressed it, not in proper grammar, but beautiful-
                                                          ly, lovingly, and intimately with the words of the
  But Noah kept working over a hundred years.             Lord's "heilig nieten."
And he was dead serious; he was moved with fear,
that is, also with speed.and consciously accepting          "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then
the Word of God to be true, so that he might save         cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up
himself and his household from the wrath of God           your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white
being poured out on the then existing world. Noah         already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
kept working, expecting a new world.                      wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that
   One hundred years he preached, and no results.         both he that soweth and he that reapeth may re-
When he finally gets into the ark, it is only with his    joice together. And herein is that saying true, one
direct family-no brothers, no sisters, no father, no      soweth and another reapeth. I send you to reap that
mother, no uncles, aunts, cousins, or neighbors.          whereon ye bestowed no  labour; other men
Noah probably had help with building of the ark; or       laboured, and ye are entered into their labours."
he might have employed labourers; and they                  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harve,st  that by
became fellow witnesses. But they-did not enter the       grace we may be reapers. Let us then move with
ark; out of ourselves we will never enter the ark         fear to become heirs of righteousness, so that
(Jesus Christ). Noah by fear moved in faith. Do you       following generations will call us blessed, and that
think he never doubted? Do you think he never like        by faith.


                                                      THE. STANDARD BEARER                                                        139



A L L A R O U N D   US  `.
Rev. G. Van Buren



                          "Down W&I.. .All Gambling"

      The above title heads an article appearing in The                . ..Professor E.L. Hebden Taylor wrote in theJune  9,
Chvistiun   News, Oct. 20,  198q. It was written with                1980  Christian  News in an article titled, "Extent of
a view to combating the growing desire to gamble.                    Gambling-CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON GAMB-
Several states, evidently, in November voted                         LING' ' :
whether or not to sanction bingo and other forms of                     "No Christian can engage in any form of gambling
gambling. Of course, Michigan did not have to vote                   for he is a steward of all the time, talent, and treasure
this time. For some time already not only has bingo                  entrusted to him by God. Can he honestly use his gifts
been legal, but the state itself conducts a well-ad-                 in gambling when his winnings are gained at the ex-
vertised lottery. In most grocery stores, when one                   pense of another's losing? and where the "house" is
pays the grocery bill, the clerk inevitably asks,                    ultimately the only winner? Can he expect to get
                                                                     something for nothing?
"Any lottery tickets today?" One can not help but
notice, not infrequently, an individual pay for most                    "It is claimed that the stock market, farming,
of the groceries with government-provided food                       raising a family, even (according to some theologians)
stamps while paying cash for several lottery tickets.                faith is all a gamble. Therefore, why is the wagering of
                                                                     money in a game of chance any less moral than the in-
Even the ignorant must recognize that something is                   vestment of time, money and effort in the chance
radically wrong.                                                     game of life?
      But, to return to the above-mentioned article. In                 "Life does have its normal risks which we must
it, the writer states:                                               accept with faith and courage. But these normal risks
         . ..Bingo is the third largest gambling enterprise in       are in no sense morally equivalent to the risks taken in
       the United States. Casino gambling is first,  horse-          a game of chance. Gambling offers artificial risks in
       racing second.                                                the hope of excessive gain, gain far beyond what the
                                                                     investment of time, money or skill justifies. And the
         On any given day close to a million Bingo players,          chance taken is unrelated to creative effort such as
       mostly women, and mostly elderly will spend at least          that called for from the farmer or the stockbroker who
       $lO-$12 for a few hours play. Annually this comes to a        invests his mental and physical resources. At the
       $4.5 billion cash business. That's as much as Ameri-          gambling table money changes hands according to the
       cans spend on movies and records, ten times as much           luck of the players involved.
       as they spend on baseball, football, basketball and
       h o c k e y .                                                    "The Christian knows that ultimately life is not a
                                                                     gamble, a risk, a game of chance. .Rather,  life is lived
         Gambling has become big business throughout the             in the providential care and keeping of God whose
       world. Wayne Pearson of the Nevada Gambling Con-              self-giving love has been revealed in the Lord Jesus
       trol Board has said that "Statistically, gambling is the      Christ.  Viewing, human life as  .God-directed and  ^
       normal thing. It's the non-gambler who is abnormal in         supported takes the odds out of life and transforms it
       American society."                                            into a response to'God's counsel and plan for the be-
         According to a U.S. Commission on Law Enforce-              liever  .
       ment, "Law officials agree almost unanimously that               "Gambling elevates money and material gain to a
       gambling is THE GREATEST SOURCE OF REVENUE                    place of priority in human life; it encourages depen-
       for organized crime." Every week four million Ameri-          dence on chance rather than on the providence of
       cans make illegal bets with bookmakers. On an aver-           God. The gambler uses the individual ,as a tool for his
       age fall weekend, when football games are played              own profit...."
       across the U.S., between $50 and $60 MILLION are
       bet illegally. The gambling fever never lets up.                 In a resume on "What is Wrong- with Gambling"
                                                                     the paper says in part:
         Two years ago a Reuters story from London noted
       that "Gambling, perhaps the world's oldest obsession,            "That it violates the commandments mentioned
       is flourishing today as never before." It said that "The      above by `stealing, taking neighbor's money or goods';
       figures involved are astronomical. In the United              he is not willingly giving it, but hopes to be lucky
       States alone, the turnover in legal gambling is believed      enough to take your money or goods; by coveting, by
       to amount to some $19 billion."                               trusting to luck rather than in God and at times by
 .


140                                                     THE STANDARD  .BEARER                             1


       invoking God in situations or risk or sin, and `robbery         Much more was written. But let this suffice.
       by mutual consent.'                                           Gambling is sin-a sin of a most vicious sort. One
                                                                                                                   .
         "That it abuses the 4th petition and discourages            wonders about the critical financial position in
       trust in the providence of God, trusting, instead to          which the state of Michigan finds itself. This has
       chance. While we ask for God to give us our daily             been blamed upon the recession; concentration of
       bread on the one hand, we at the same time squander           industry in one area (automobiles); foreign imports
       that `bread' and look to goddess chance or lady luck          of cars; etc. Doubtlessly, the greed.and sinfulness
       for blessing.                                                 of man has a large part in all of this. God surely can
         "That it is trying to get something for nothing, the        not  look with favor upon those who openly and
       easy way, desire for gain without labor or production.        legally gamble. In addition to many other sins,
        "That it is pleasure obtained at another's expense           there is this one in which the state encourages its
       and generally against his will.                               citizens to gamble; Inevitably, the poorest and least
         "That it feeds fleshly desire for mammon arid en-           financially able ones do. One wonders whether the
       courages covetousness, which is idolatry.                     Christian ought not to promote a drive to place on
         "That it is addictive as much as alcohol or drugs. It      the ballot a proposal to rescind all laws permitting
       is estimated there are 6 million compulsive gamblers          gambling or allowing the state to conduct this. The
       in the United States, all of whom are sick.                   sin is having its inevitable consequences in the citi-
                                                                     zens who participate.
         "Caters to unwholesome competitive spirit and dis-
       regards neighbor's possessions.                                 And the child of God ought to be warned never
         "That it may lead to corruption, cheating, crime,           to participate. There is the temptation to try  it-
       bribery,    embezzlement,    moral deterioration of           everyone does. Rather, oppose this evil and con-
       victims, suicide, ruin careers, break up families...."        demn it for what it is.

                                          The Crvstal Cathedral
                                                            L


  The RES News Exchange reports on Dr. Schuller's                        can get it elsewhere." He has also been much criti-
Crystal Cathedral:                                                       cized for erecting this lavish Crystal Cathedral....
         On September 14, 1980 the Garden Grove                        Much might be said about the size of this "con-
       Community Church in California, a member of the               gregation" and about the amount of money
       Reformed Church of America [RCA), dedicated its               invested in its building. One might indeed wonder
       Crystal Cathedral. The steel' and glass structure             whether this is done, after all, to the glory of God or
       features more than 10,000 window panes and accom-
       modates 2890 people in opera-style seats. At the open-        for the enhancement of man. But what is most dis-
       ing of the church, pastor-founder of the congregation,        turbing of all is the remark of Schuller, which was
       Dr. Robert  &huller,  was able to announce that the           reported also in the Grand Rapids' Press, !`I believe
       total cost for the construction, 18 million dollars, had      in the Bible, but if people want Bible preaching
       been received in cash, gifts, or pledges. The church,         they can get it elsewhere." That sounds exactly
       an architectural masterpiece, was designed, by archi-         contrary to the statement of that great preacher in
       tect-Philip Johnson.                                          Scripture, Paul, who said, "For I determined to
         Recently Dr. Schuller, a graduate of  I-iope  College      know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and
  . and Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan, briefly              him crucified" I `Cor.  2:2.  It appears, then, (if
       returned to Western Michigan  wh"ere  he was well            Schuller was correctly quoted) that he not. only
       received by his colleagues in the RCA. Dr. Schuller           does not have Bible preaching, but by that very fact
       has often been under fire in his denomination for his        shows that he does not believe the-Bible either-at
       type of preaching. Schuller, who clearly favors his ties     least not the whole of it. Otherwise, he would
       with the Reformed Church, openly admits: "I believe          preach what Paul did.
       in the Bible, but if people want Bible preaching they


             Readmittance of the Excomtiunicated,

  The Presbyterian Journal, Nov. 5, 198Cj;  quotes:                     demned as a heretic by the Roman Inquisition for
         The -Vatican will review the case of Galileo, the              teaching that the earth revolved around the sun, a
       17th-century Italian scientist and astronomer  con-              Vatican official announced here.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 1 4 1


     Bishop Paul Poupard, an auxiliary bishop in the                 the pope told a distinguished gathering of scientists
  Paris archdiocese who is acting president of the                   and cardinals at the Vatican that Galileo had been
   Vatican Secretariat for Non-Believers, said a commis-             "wrongly" condemned by the church and, as a con-
   sion had been set up to look into Galileo's case in               sequence, had "suffered greatly."
   connection with a study of science and atheism.                  Well-so much for the infallibility of the Romish
     The French prelate, who is also rector of the                Church. One wonders whether that body will soon
   Catholic Institute in Paris, said he would be directing        get around to removing the ban on Martin Luther
   the research on "the historical level," and that the           and expressing sincere sorrow for the persecution
   commission would deal with the Galileo case "with              of many of God's people at the time of the reforma-
   complete objectivity."                                         tion. But that, I suppose, would be far too much to
     The announcement came just short of a year after             expect.

THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH


                                     The Choice of Faith
                                                      Rev. Rodney Miersma       -.


  The last time that we met together in  The Strength             As the son of Pharaoh's daughter he had every right
Of  Youth we  discussed the fact that every young                 to manifest himself as such, as a prince of the land.
person when he is become of age must make a                       His instruction in the palace  had.prepared him for
choice. The emphasis was placed upon the fact that                such a life which the people of the land would
the child of God,' a rational, moral creature, created            readily acknowledge. On the other hand, he did not
in the image of God,  must choose, and that,  too;at              have to choose this name; he could instead have
the stage of spiritual development called "the years              refused it in order'to be,declared  the son of Amram
of discretion." This whole discussion was viewed                  and Jochabed, thus manifesting himself  `as an
from the viewpoint of God's Holy Word as record-                  Israelite rather than an Egyptian.
ed in Hebrews 11:2$26 which we repeat here: "By
faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to                  What was Moses to choose? Once this question is
be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing                 answered by Moses he will have no trouble with
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God,               other questions that arise before him. If he chose to
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;                  be an Israelite, then he also chose to share in their
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches                   ill treatment, reproach, and oppression. If he
than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto              decided to be an Egyptian, then he would have the
the recompence  of the reward."                                   treasures of Egypt and the pleasures of sin.
  At this time we will look at.what we must choose                  This same question, young people, you now face
and  why.  Again, we will consider this from the                  as you "come to years." As you come into contact
viewpoint of the choice that Moses made as a                      with the world you must decide whether or not you
young man, a child of the covenant, as he was                     want to be called a child of the world. There will be
surrounded by the pleasures of sin in Egypt. As we                no difficulty on the part of the world in receiving
look at the passage quoted above we see that the                  you; in fact, they are glad to see you deny- your
object of Moses' choice is described from a three-                connection with the church and your connection
fold point of view.                                               with the covenant. Denying your people and your
                                                                  God you will enjoy the pleasures of sin and the
  The first thing that Moses considered was his                   treasures of the world. On the other hand, you can
very identity. Was he to be known as the son of                   cast your lot with the people of God. Then you also
Pharaoh's daughter or as the son of  Amram  and                   accept and expect to bear the reproach of Christ.
Jochabed? He was born a covenant child, and thus
belonged to the people of God. But as a small child                 Moses chose the latter. This choice was funda-
-he was taken out of the humble home of covenant                  mental to the other-two aspects of his choice. These
parents and placed in the richness of the palace of               two aspects really are explanations `of the same
Pharaoh, king of -Egypt. Now he was "come to                      thing, for it all depended upon which name Moses
years" and had to choose what he was to be called.                would choose for himself.


142                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  If he had chosen to be called the son of Pharaoh's      the head of the body, His sufferings are theirs, so
daughter he would certainly have chosen and               that through His sufferings He atones for their sins.
enjoyed the  pleasuresof  sin, the second aspect of       But their sufferings are also His, so that when they
his choice. Sin gives birth to and yields pleasure.       are ill treated, He also suffers reproach. Moses,.
This does not mean that we have to do with all            placed before this choice, was really confronting
kinds of gross and vile sins. But rather, whenever        the choice between the false glory of the world and
we choose against the kingdom of our God, against         the reproach of Christ.
Christ,  and.against  His people, and for the world         There you have it, `young people, one or the
and Satan, we sin. For a season we have pleasure in       other, for the two are mutually exclusive. Moses
sin and pleasure in them.that sin. It may simply be       could not be called by both names just as we cannot
for a little money, maybe the honor of a higher           serve both God and Mammon. Moses made the
position, or for any other selfish reason. Whatever       right choice; he refused to be called the son of
it is, we deny God, thus enjoying for a while our         Pharaoh's .daughter and chose instead the reproach
money, our honor, and escape the ill treatment of         of Christ.
God's people. In these circumstances it is the
pleasures of sin that we enjoy.                             Why? What motivated him to choose the way
                                                          that he did? From a natural point of view anyone
  This can also be said about Moses' choice. There        with any sense in his head would call Moses a fool.
is no reason to believe that if he would not. have        Moses could have had the world bowing at his feet,
chosen for the cause of God's, people, then he            a life of ease and splendor, all the treasures of
would have led a life of vile sin and dissipation.        Egypt. Instead he decided to be called an Israelite,
Certainly, he would have become a prince of a very        hated, oppressed, despised, ill treated, and re-
great nation, enjoying all the honor and might and        proached. The natural man looks over the circum-
prestige of having the people bow before him.             stances and, shaking his head, judges that Moses is
Moses, in enjoying these pleasures, would have            not quite all there. Simply put, Moses is a fool.
sinned. Riches and honor and might are not in
themselves sinful, but they are  sin?ul when they           One then may try to excuse Moses by saying that
are accompanied by a d,enial of the covenant God.         his decision was of the moment, hastily made,
  On the other hand, the alternative choice for           without giving thought to the dire consequences.
Moses was ill  .treatment and reproach with the           But Moses did no such thing, for the  w.ord trans-
people of God. You have long been familiar with           lated "esteeming" indicates that he gave the matter
the deplorable conditions under which Israel lived        much thought and consideration before deciding.
and labored while in Egyp.t because you have been         He compared both sides, weighed them in  the
taught this in the home, in the school, and in cate-      balances,, and consciously and deliberately chose to
chism. They were slaves, poor and despised, hated         cast- his lot with the people of God. And again we  .,
with a bitter hatred, oppressed to a terrible degree.     ask the question, "Why?" And-the answer is given
To choose for them meant to choose for their condi-       in the words of our text: by faith.
tion and to share in their shame and reproach. Thus         Faith is the evidence of things unseen, and the
the two alternatives: prince or slave, honor or           substance of things hoped for. As such, faith is a
revilement, freedom' or oppression. All this was          power that also influences the mind and the reason,
implied already in the choice of his name, that of        so that in the light of faith we see things which the
the son of Pharaoh's daughter or that of the son of       natural mind cannot perceive. Therefore faith
Amram  and Jochabed.                                      naturally influences a person's choice. It changes
  The third aspect of Moses' choice was the choice        his judgment of things. He puts together an alto-
between the treasures of Egypt and the reproach of        gether different valuation on things that are placed
Christ. These treasures of Egypt are really nothing       before him, a valuation which one that does not
more than another name for the pleasures of sin.          possess the faith cannot possibly understand.
They look at the same thing from two points of            Therefore it causes him to draw a different conclu-
view: one from the viewpoint of enjoyment and the         sion than the conclusion of the world. He makes a
other from the viewpoint of its riches. Moses could       differentchoice.
have had access to all the treasures of Egypt, mater-       Thus it was for Moses. As he looked at the two
ial and spiritual, if he had wanted to. But if he did     sides and considered their worth he could see
not want to, the only alternative was the reproach        something that the Egyptians could not see; he
of Christ. This is not only a beautiful idea, but com-    could see the recompence  of the reward. He was a
forting as well. The ill treatment of the people of       covenant child in whose heart God had implanted
God and the reproach of Christ are presented as           this faith which came to consciousness as he grew
being identical. In other words, Christ and His           up. And as it came to consciousness he embraced
people are one. And because they are one, He being        the promises of the covenant that had been given to


                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      143


the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel was       choice you must make repeatedly, yea, all your life
the people of God, the people that would inherit         here on earth.
these blessed promises. Now they were slaves, but         ,According  .to the flesh the advantages are with
were to become a great people. Yes, Jehovah was          the side of Satan and the world while the disadvan-
their God.                                               tages are on the side of Christ. On the one hand,
  What Moses saw in these blessings of the coven-        pleasures and greatness of the world; on the other,
ant, given to the people of God, was a recompence        reproach and ill treatment. Today, you, as well as
of reward so great and so glorious that all the trea-    was Moses in his day, are called to self-denial and
sures and pleasures of Egypt could not weigh up          cross-bearing after your Savior. But also today the
against it. The choice no longer was difficult. By       recompence of the reward is there, which can be
faith he made a good choice, the right choice.           seen only by faith, as an evidence of things unseen.
  All of this is for our instruction, especially you,    The world passes away and the lust thereof; but he
young people, as you arrive at the years of discre-      that does the will of the Father shall abide forever.
tion. You must make this same choice. `It is             Everlasting life and glory is the recompence of the
between Satan and Christ; the world and the king-        reward.
dom of heaven, the pleasures of sin and our coven-        . Therefore, choose, consciously and deliberately!
ant God. That choice you must make once. That            Choosing by faith the result is clear and~glorious.



                                 B o o k   R e v i e w   : .

THE PHILOSOPHY OF REVELATION,  by                        his vast learning. Nevertheless, the book is a disap-
Herman Bavinck; Baker Book House, 1979; 349              pointment. It is a philosophical, rather than a Scrip-
pp., $7.95 [paper). (Reviewed.by Prof. H.. Hanko)        tural, approach to the doctrine of revelation, and
  This book contains the Stone Lectures which            one of Bavinck's fundamental assumptions in the
Bavinck delivered  .at Princeton Theological             book is the theory of common grace. This is disap-
Seminary in the school year of 1908 and 1909.            pointing because it is so different from Bavinck's
Some of the lectures were delivered at various           D o g m a t i c s .
other places in this country and all were published        The book includes chapters on The Idea of a
in Dutch and German along with their publication         Philosophy of Revelation, Revelation and Philoso-
in English.                                              phy, Revelation and Nature, Revelation and
  Bavinck's tremendous erudition and -wide               History, Revelation and Religion, Revelation and
knowledge of philosophy and history-of dogma are         Christianity, Revelation and Religious  .Experience,
evident in this book. One always stands amazed at        Revelation and Culture, Revelation and the Future.




                        News From Our Churches
       .



  New evidence for the fact that our "retired"           December.              :
ministers continue to be active in `the ministry of        Hope Church in Walker, Michigan recently
the Word can be seen from bulletin  announce-            formed a trio of Reverends Bekkering, Flikkema,
ments which confirm that Rev.  Schipper  .will be        and Joostens.                          I
preaching, D.V., in  Redlands through January 4,           Speaking of Hope, on October  3l! they hosted a
1981; and Rev. Heys is slated to lead services in        program and open house  commembrating  Profes-
Bradenton, Florida, beginning  .the first Sunday in      sor  .Herman Hanko's twenty-five: years in the

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





I
                                                   _----            -~-_-         ~
                                      ~--





      144'                                      THE  STANDARD'BEARER


      ministry. In addition to numerous special numbers                    Wal, may be-of interest to our readers: The first one
      there were some remarks made by Rev. C. Hanko,                       comes from  a' Reformed Presbyterian Church
      Prof. Hanko's father, and Mr.. Dewey Engelsma,                       pastor who also serves as Librarian of the Reformed
      whose comments concerned the seven years of                          Presbyterian Theological Hall in Belfast, Northern
      Prof. Hanko's pastorate at Hope. Mr.. Engelsma                       Ireland. This pastor came into contact- with the
      related that- back in 1955 he and Mr.  Newhouse                      Standard Bearer  while a student  :at Westminster
      delivered Hope's call letter in person to the then                   Theological Seminary and now requests current
      Candidate Hanko. Upon going to his home they                         and back copies of the S.B. The second letter
      were directed to where he was working, and there                     accompanied a notification of a change of address
      he received Hope's call, "with paint and brush, .in                  fro.m a pastor in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Although
      painter's garb;" Also mentioned was an early shock                   the heading of this column does  nbt  read "Letters
      that Prof. Hanko experienced at the first consistory                 From Our Readers," this pastor's remarks merit
      meeting that he attended, when Mr. Newhouse, a                       additional circulation, I think. He writes: "Since
      charter member of Hope and a member of Hope's                        becoming a reader I have very much enjoyed this
      consistory at the time, intimated that the, minutes                  periodical. Not  .an avid Calvinist, by any stretch of
      were written in Friese. (Those who know Mr. New-                     the imagination, I was at first wary; and even skep-
      house will not be surprised to hear this of him.) The                tical, of many of your contributor's (positions. How-
      evening reminded us of our God's covenant faith-                     ever, over the past year, finding myself carefully
      fulness in providing faithful preachers of the                       scrutinizing the scriptural assertions which find
      Gospel. We concur with what Rev. C. Hanko said                       their way into your contributor's `articles, I have
      at the close of his- remarks, "May the Lord use his                  diligently searched. God's Word, and researched
      (Prof. Hanko's) ministry to the glory of His name                    Calvinistic works on theology which has. afforded
     .._and the salvation of His Church." Incidentally-as                  me with a much broader base of comprehension,
      reported two issues back-a few days before this                      pertaining to a strategic grasp of our Lord's single
      celebration Prof. Hanko spoke for the Mr.  & Mrs.                    Sovereignty and Glorious Grace in His work of sal-
      League on the topic "Religious Ferver, Why is it                     vation. Thank you for so fine a publication., It.keeps
      Waning?" We mention this again to inform our                         us thinking, searching, and praying.?'
      readers that a cassette tape of that timely speech                         In recent months Rev. R. Hanko of our Covenant
      can be obtained by contacting' Mr. Gary Bylsma,                      Protestant Reformed Church in New Jersey has had
      7507 Astronaut, Jenison, Mi. 49428:'                                 opportunity to preach in the People's Park Re-
        From a Kalamazoo -bulletin we gleaned the                          formed `Church of Paterson. Along these same
      following item of interest: "This year for the elec-                 lines, Pastor Bekkering,, of our Trinity Protestant
     tion of officebearers we will be following the first                  Reformed Church of Houston, Texas reports that
      method given in Art. 22 of the Church Order.                         Professor Hoeksema accepted a request to preach
      Accordingly we request that nominations for one                      at the evening service of the Covenant Presbyterian
      elder and one deacon be submitted by the members                     Church during his already action-picked Reforma-
     of the congregation to the clerk of  the consistory;                  tion Day week end in Houston.          :
     Mr. H. Kuiper, in writing. From this nomination a                           Sometimes a bulletin announcement activates
      selection will be presented to the annual congrega-                  one's curiosity, such  as. the one from our South
     tional meeting for approval."                                         Holland Church which  announceb  a "Clue Car
        An organ dedication ceremony and Martha's                          Chase" sponsored'by their Mr.  & Mrs. Society. At
     Ladies Aid Commemoration were recently-held by                        the risk of .appearing nosy, and/or experiencing the
     our Hull congregation.                                                fate of the curious cat, I wonder if. Someone might
        Some tidbits of information from two letters re-                   be willing to clue us in on this one? /
      ceived from our business manager, Mr.  Vander-                                                             .!         C.K.


