           _'





 .NewYear!                  '
          A,:time for the w o'rld of the .wicked to ring
 their bells  and.,shoot off their guns, signaling
 .their. rash desire ,for b.etter things to come. A
                                                                              .
time when-they  wilLfrivously cast about their
 well-wishes of happiness to their fellowmen,
 opining-that, the, new ..span of time .will bring
 forth something  new' under the sun, not
 .considering that they are still in an ,old,world..
                 .
          A new. year, but `an old world! ,That is the
 truth  .that' confronts  ,every man on the first
                       `
 day of a'new year .l . We still reside in an old
                                                 .
 world'. of which Solomon attests: `Vanity of
 vanities ., . ."
: See "A Prayer,for:Jehovah's  Meicy",-pag&$6
 `.                    .                                   I
  1 `.                              .

                                                      `
                                                      .           i
                                 Volume  LVII, No. 7, January 1, 1981    -


146                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                     '



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MEDITATION.  I
                                                                                                                                            .  .


                                                                                                                      I





                             A Prayer For Jehovah's Mercy .- ~
                                                                              Rev. M. Schipper
                                                                                                                                                                        .

                           "Let Thy mercy, 0 Lord, be-upon us, according as we hope in Thee. " Psalm 33:22


  A prayer of the righteous!                                                                     a new year, as they gather in the camp of the righ-
  A prayer which may be uttered by them as indi-                                                 teous,  before  God's face. For when this Meditation
viduals, but also as is the case here, collectively, in'                                         is read, our old calendars will have been changed
the company of those who are like-minded with                                                    for a new one, revealing that we have been brought
them. A prayer which may be offered at any time,                                                 in the providence of God into a new era of time.
but most opportunistically in their respective                                                         New Year!
houses of worship on'the morning of the first day of                                                   A time for the world of the wicked to ring their


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                   147



bells and shoot off their guns, signaling their rash              Rather, they cast themselves with all their anxieties
desire for better things to-come. A timerwhen they                i n t o   H i s   h a n d s ;   I
will frivolously cast- about their well-wishes of                    Indeed, they know and they express it, that apart,
happiness to their fellowmen, opining that the new                from Him they are nothing and can do nothing.
span of time will bring forth something new under                 They are dependent on God Who is truly God. On
the sun, not considering that they are still in an old            God, Who by His Word created the heavens and all y
world,. the same world in which they abode in the                 the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Who
year that is passed.                                              laid the foundations of the earth, and divided the
  A new year, but an old world! That is the truth                 seas from the dry land. Who gathers the waters of
that confronts every man on the first day of a new                the seas together as an heap, and layeth up the
year. Not yet have we seen the fulfillment of the                 depth in storehouses. Who bringeth the counsel of
prophecy. of the seer of Patmos, who in vision be-                the heathen to nought, and Who maketh the devi-
held a new heaven and a new earth. Not yet have                   ces of the people of none effect.  Who-loveth  righ-
we seen the firmament rolled up as a scroll, and the              teousness and judgment, and `Whose goodness
elements burning with fervent heat:We still reside                filleth the earth. Who, because He is Jehovah, will
in an old world of which Solomon attests: "Vanity                 be. their faithful, unfailing Guide. His, eye is upon
of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all          them that fear Him, upon  ,them who  ,hope in His
is vanity." All is still vanity and vexation of spirit. "         mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep
  Indeed, we are still in an old world! Where the                 them alive in famine. Yes, truly, their soul waiteth
sun and moon continue iu their orbits. Where there                for Him, for He istheir help and their shield. This is
is still war and rumors of war. Where there is sick-              what they believe and experience who utter `the
ness and death. Where the travailing mother still                `prayer: Let Thy mercy be'upon us, 0 Jehovah!
cries out in her pains. Where the rich still gloats                  A prayer also expressing child-like trust!
over his wealth, and the poor continues to beg for                   0, indeed, we will  also confess` that our trust in
the crumbs that fall from his table. Where kings                 Jehovah is often lacking and weak. How often is
and presidents still come to their seats of authority             our trust placed upon an arm of flesh; whether that
and power. Where evil continues to' develop.                      trust be in our own powers or  in,the help of man!
Where the church of Christ is still tried and tested,             How often, when all things appear to be against us,
and where the panoply of God must still be put on,               that we fail to believe that all things work together
and the battle'of faith still endured. Where the pale             for good to them that love God! How often that we
horse of Revelation still rides victoriously, and                 do not experience the peace that surpasseth under-
where many tears shall still fill our eyes. Such is the           standing! Whose heart is it that does not tremble at
reality in the world also in the year which now lies              the sight. of adversity? Who has not remembered
aheadof us.                                                      when his voice was raised in rebellion because of
  What then shall we say as we stand in the house                the oppression of the enemy? Who of the righteous
of our God on the morning of a new year? Shall we                refuses to admit before the,face  of Jehovah that his
boast of our resolutions we know shall not be kept?              rebellion and distrust still rise `up out of the old
Shall we foolishly imagine and then prate about the              nature in which he still dwells in the world, and
peace and material prosperity and the betterment                 that -that old  nature still often appears to have
of .our economy we carnally aspire to achieve?                   [dominion over him?
                                                                     Nevertheless, 0 wonder of grace! we believe that
  Nay rather, the righteous will take upon their                  if Jehovah's mercy is upon us we lack nothing!
lips and utter from their hearts the prayer of- the
psalmist: Let Thy mercy, 0 Jehovah, be upon us,                    In Jehovah's mercy He loves us! Accordingly He
according as we hope in Thee.                                     has predestinated us and given us unto His Son to
                                                                  be redeemed by Him. `In that mercy He has  pur-
A prayer expressing humble dependence!                            posed.to  deliver us from our deepest misery, and to
  They who,utter  this prayer realize that they, are              make us participants in the highest good. And it lies
helpless in themselves. All their carnal self-confi-              in the very nature of that mercy that it transcends
dence has begun to dissipate. Moreover, because                   above,our  deepest woes and brings us at last into
they are ignorant of the way in which they must                   eternal bliss. This is what we have learned of Him
walk, and the difficulties that may befall them as                in His saving Word. And nothing shall fail of all
they traverse that way, they sense the need of a                  that He has purposed; for His Name is Jehovah, the
Guide upon Whom they can .depend.  And because                    everlasting and immutable God. If then it is His
in principle they have lost their natural pride,                  mercy that determines to deliver us from our awful
having been humbled into the dust, they have also                 woe and toX bring us into the highest glory, would it
learned through the hard way of experience not to                 not then be utter folly not to put our complete trust
inform their Guide as to where He must lead them.                 in Him?


148                                                     THE STANDARD  BEAR`&            I



M.orebver,  in His-mercy-we may be assured that                        doubt, because I am not'certain that I shall perform
He will also determine our `way' in this new span of                   what you are inquiring about. There is so much.
time. And if irrthat time to come He will require of                   that could happen that would make it impossible
us that we suffer, so that our. eyes are filled with                   for me to perform: But the Word oft God never uses
many tears, will He not also then show unto us His                     the term in this manner. Always it signifies assur-
Xmercy? To  beTsure, that is normal in the ways of                     ance, expectation. The reason for this-is the fact
Jehovah - through the way of suffering He leads to                     that hope is a grace of God. It is that !work  of God in
eternal glory. On that way we may be sure that His                     us that causes us to rely upon Him, and to look to
mercies fail. not, yea,, that they are there  every-                   and for Him Who is the absolutely sure One, Who
morning. And so -we pr.ay: Let Thy mercy be upon                       will fulfill all our. expectations.. Hope, here, is the
us, for we trust in Thee: .'                 ,:                        unwavering, expectation that the prayer for
  A prayer expressing calm assurance!                                  Jehovah's mercy will surely be heard, and positive-
                                                                       ly realized.
  For does not the psalmist add: According as we,
hope -in Thee? Actually, according to the Hebrew                         Comforting, -calming assurance, that, no matter
text, the expression is: According as we hope to or                    what may betide, all is well!              _
for Thee. And that means that our prayer, "Let Thy                       This  .hope the world never has. Indeed, the
mercy be upon us," is a prayer of hope that looks in                   wicked are without God and without. hope in the
eager expectation to Jehovah for its fulfillment. our,                 world..Though the wicked may appear, also at this
hope looks for and waits for Him. to fulfill our                       change of the year, to live in high expectations, and
prayer for His mercy.            :,                       `,           though they may extend to others their well-wishes
  We must be careful here not to conclude that our                     for prosperous times ahead, their expectations are
hope is the ground or condition which we fulfill                       vain and their well-wishes as fickle as-those who
before He will show us His mercy. Jehovah's mercy                      express them. The Scriptures describe the wicked
is not dependent on our hope; nor  does.Jehovah                        as being like the troubled sea,, whose waters cast up
wait to show us His mercy until we hope for Him.                       mire and dirt. Verily, there is no peace and rest for
                                                                       the -wicked. As we already remarked, Solomon
  The truth is, that our hope is already the fruit of                  writes  cover all the expectations of  the- -wicked:
His mercy which is. upon us. All the benefits of                       Vanity of vanities. All is vain, idle!          "         -
salvation flow to us in the mercy of God; and hope
is not to be excluded from those mercies. This is                       But. he whose hope is fixed on' and waits for
precisely also what .the psalmist says. Accordjng.as                   Jehovah has already found in principle the mercy
we set our hope for Thee, and all our expectation                      for which he prays. Without fear and  with- calm
looks to or for Thee, so let us see that our prayer for                assurance. he walks with uplifted head, confident
Thy mercy is already in  fulfiliment. It `shall be                     that the favor of his God is upon him. Assured also
answered to its fullest extent,  .because we already                   is he that the good work which Jehovah his God has
taste the first. principles of it in the hope that vi-                 already-performed upon him He will continue and
brates in our hearts, that looks in holy.expectation                   finish it even unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ;
for Jehovah.                                                             -And -so, as he looks for Jehovah as He shall
                                                                       appear in the  ,face, of our wonderful Saviour, he
  So there is calm assurance. Hope, throughout the                     continues to  pray:. Let Thy mercy continue to be
Word of God, and as it is expressed'in the text, is                    upon me until I shall be swallowed up of Thy
neverdoubt, but always calm assurance; When we                         mercy in everlasting bliss.
use the term, there is  in.it always the element of
doubt. When you, for example, ask me whether I                          - And all the righteous pray it.with  him, and say:
will do -this or that, and I .answer: I hope so; then                    Amen!
there'is in my answer a certain hesitancy and even-
                                                                ` ,
                                                          ,'                                                                _
                                             Editor's Notes
                                        .
Bach Bound Volumes.  Our Business Manager                              fortunate enough  .to get them secondhand from a
informed me recently that `he has available a good                     private source. But here is the list of volumes avail-
many copies of back bound `volumes. Sorry to say,                      able from our Business Office: Volumes 7, 13, 14,
it is no longer possible to obtain some of the early                   15, 16, 17, 18, 19,  20,-U, 22; 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30,
volumes, nor even some later ones-unless you are                       3l+, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 4.3, 44, 47, 49,
                                                   .


                                            THE..STANDARD  BEARER                                            149



50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55. All of these are in black bind-     for some reason you have not received your copy,
ing only, and the price is $10.00 each. The new             please contact Mr.  yander Wal. Distribution of
bound volume (No. 56) is also available; price,            1 Rev. Engelsma's  Hyper-Calvinism And The Call  Qf
$12.00.              * *  * * *                             The Gospel  to Book Club members is planned for
                                         .  -'              after  th,e Christmas rush at the post office. One
PubZicution  News. Our Business Manager also                more note:  all,our RFPA books are back in print
informs me that he `has completed distribution to           now, some of them at new prices. There will be a
Book Club members of The Voice Of Our Fathers. If           new catalogue available soon.

EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
                                              .'

    The  E.P.C. of  Austr&a-Revisited (3)

                                                                          .:

  After reluctant farewells at the Launceston air-          with sight-seeing to the Blue Mountains, west of
port, we began to make our way  .northward  to              Sydney, and to downtown Sydney and its beautiful
mainland Australia, and eventually to Brisbane, in          harbor. Evenings were spent visiting. We had the
the southern part of the large state of Queensland.         unusual experience of visiting a Protestant
There were two attractions to the north: the one            Reformed family, Mr.- and Mrs. Bruce Jabaay (Faith
was the warmer weather (sounds strange to us of             Church), thousands of miles from home. And we
the northern hemisphere, doesn't it, that warmer            spent an evening-at the home of Rev. and Mrs. Staf-
weather is to the north), and the other was renewal         .ford; regrettably Mr. Stafford was sick that
of acquaintances with the Evangelical Presbyterian          evening, so we did not have much chance to chat
Church of Brisbane -and their young pastor, -Rev.           with him. But it was good to meet again with these 1
Chris Coleborn. Pastor  Coleborn had warmly                 folk of the (independent) Reformed. Presbyterian
welcomed us to Brisbane long before we left Grand           Church in that area.
Rapids, and had promised to show us the sights in
the Brisbane area and to take us to the Australian             But on Thursday it was on to Brisbane, another
"midwest."                                                  500 miles north.
  Before we reached Brisbane, however, there                   There we were met at the airport by Pastor Cole-
were two other scheduled visits. The first was an           born in his little Subaru-just big enough for three
extremely brief one in Melbourne. We had a  five-           passengers  ,and their luggage, if you put one large
minute running visit with Rev. and Mrs. Ian Mor-            bag up on top. Our first stop was at the manse,
gan, whom we had also met five years ago. Mr.               where we met the pastor's wife, Christine, and
Morgan had a piece of literature pertinent to the           their toddler son, Peter, and had afternoon coffee
history of the E.P.C., and he was gracious enough           and evening tea (dinner), and began the long pro-
to come the long distance.from his home' to the -Mel-        cess of catching up on events of mutual interest and
bourne airport to deliver it. A change in flight sche-      of `our seemingly endless theological discussions.
dules shortened our stopover in Melbourne,                     But I must back track a bit  .in order to explain.
however, with the result that we had about enough            Five years ago Rev.  Hapko  and I paid only a very
time to exchange warm greetings and then to say             brief visit to Brisbane, arriving late. one afternoon
good-by again.- From Melbourne we went some 500             and leaving early the next morning. We- spent a
miles north to Sydney. Miss Marjorie Martin,                long evening with the congregation at that time,
whom many of our people know through her' ex-               delivered a lecture, conducted a question hour, and
tended visit in the U.S., met us at the Sydney air-         enjoyed an informal social hour afterwards. At that
port, took us to our motel, and -later in the evening       `time Rev. Hanko became rather well acquainted
entertained us for dinner at her little apartment not       with'(then) Student Coleborn. In fact, they chatted
far from downtown Sydney. .That evening we also             so much that Rev. Hanko  .was almost late for our
met Mr. John Steel, whom some of you know                   plane in the morning. But Mrs. Hoeksema and I did
through his visit to the States, and his fiancee, Miss      not really have much opportunity to become
Robin Taylor, and Rev. and Mrs. John Stafford. Our          acquainted; that came later by correspondence. In
stay in Sydney was for a couple days, mostly.filled         the interim, Student Coleborn became Pastor Cole-
                                                                                                     .'


150                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



born, shepherd of the Brisbane E.P.C. He also mar-          name has nothing to do with the Bread of Life. On
ried; and the pastor and his wife have one young            our Sunday in Brisbane, I was privileged to lead
son and another child soon to be born, the Lord             their Adult Bible Class and to preach on Isaiah
willing. So when  we. arrived at the manse, there           59:21 in the morning service, and on Philippians
was much getting acquainted to be done, as well as          3:20 in the evening service. Again, I preached as I
many subjects of conversation on which to catch             would at home; and I found a very attentive and re-
UP.                                                         ceptive congregation. We enjoyed meeting the
   Pastor Coleborn is, I would say, ail pastor. He is a     people `of the congregation and visiting  .with several
sincere and godly young man with ,a deep interest           of them during the day, both at the pastor's home
in the things of God's Word and of the Reformed             and at the home of our gracious hostess, Mrs. Ann
faith. Invariably when we were together, our con-           Walker; with whom we had stayed also five years
versation turned to things theological. He claimed          ago.
to have saved up innumerable questions and sub-               Again, my general impression of the  congrega;
jects for discussion during the five, years between         tion at Brisbane is that they are genuinely'
visits; and when we parted at the airport, he               .interested in the Reformed faith. They have also
claimed that the list of questions had not yet been         grown in their understanding and appreciation of
exhausted. When he took us sight-seeing in the              the truth of God's covenant. And'in  Brisbane, as in
Brisbane area, we would be busily engaged in a dis-         Launceston, there is a lively interest developing in
cussion of some topic, and he would say, "I'll have         Christian education.
to put a comma there for a moment, and call the               On Monday morning we left the,Brisbane  airport
ladies' attention to- this or that point of interest."      for five days of relaxing at an ocean resort  .a few
Thereupon we would resume the conversation.                 hundred miles north, at  Hayman Island in the
   Brisbane is a large, modern, busy metropolis. It is      Great  ,Barrier Reef area. But Pastor  Rodman  - I
situated on the coast, has a large harbor; .and in the      wrote earlier that as moderator he was visiting the
immediate Brisbane area is a busy resort area called        various churches -at this time  - was scheduled to
the Gold Coast, which reminds one much of such              arrive at Brisbane shortly before our departure. We
American resort areas as are found, for example,            were eagerly looking for one another, therefore, in
along the Florida coast.                                    th,e Brisbane airport. What a joyful reunion we had
  The small Brisbane congregation is rather widely          in the airport! And how we talked for twenty
spread throughout the Brisbane metropolitan area.           minutes!
They do not have their own church property, but               We were scheduled to return to Brisbane on
meet in a rather centrally located building near            Friday afternoon and to travel to a place called
downtown Brisbane. Appropriately enough, the                Chinchilla over Sunday. But about that next time.
building is called the "House of BreTd," though the
                                       I


                            Thanks, Mr.  Tre"asurer!

   Being a treasurer of an organization is, I suppose,
usually considered to be a rather staid and.prosaic
job, rather routine and  dull.`After  all, it involves,
for the most part, keeping accurate records of a lot
of dull figures.
  But there is great benefit for any`organization in
having a good treasurer. And this is ,especially  true,.
I think, when it comes to our denominational, or
synodical, treasurer.
   Our  .churches have lost such a  g.ood treasurer
with' the retirement of brother Charles Pastoor  -
known to many of us simply as "Charlie."  ,,He
became our synodical treasurer by the appointment
of the Synod of 1957, and he retired at the end of
fiscal  1980.,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   151



  What are the attributes of a good treasurer?             and its finance committee each year when it istime
  There are several.  .He must keep accurate               to establish the synodical budget and to determine
records. He must, of course, be trustworthy. He            the assessments for the year.
must be prompt. All these are attributes of a good           All these attributes brother Pastoor has manifest-
treasurer of any organization.                             ed in the twenty-two years of his tenure as treasur-
  But there are also attributes, I think, which            er. And along with this, let it be said, there has
should especially characterize a man who fills the         always been the bonus of his droll humor.
position of synodical treasurer. For one thing, he           This means; too, that our brother has been a
must be devoted to the cause of our Protestant Re-         singular gift of God to our churches.
formed Churches. For another,  .he must have an              As he retires from his position of treasurer, we
understanding of the situation and the needs of the        express our sincere thanks to him; and above all,
individual congregations with which he has to              we express thanks to our faithful covenant God
work so much. Further, he needs a sympathetic              Who supplies His church with such servants. And
understanding of the various denominational                may the Lord continue to bless brother Pastoor and
labors of our churches. And he must have a good            his family in the midst of our churches.
overview of the assets and the needs of various
synodical funds, so that he will be in a position to         Welcome, too, to our new synodical treasurer,
inform  and,advise  the various committees whose           Mr. Richard H. Teitsma!
funds he handles and so that he can advise synod


              At Year's .End-Two More Retirees

  As I  ,write this, the  end- of the year 1980 is         when he retires, of course. And these retirees are
approaching. I am reminded of the fact that with           no exception. We are glad about this. It not only
the retirement of two more of our older ministers,         eases the shock of retirement for them, but also for
our churches have in a sense reached the end of an         our churches. May the Lord continue to bless them
era.                                                       in their remaining years, and cause them. to be a
  I refer, of course, to the fact that during this past    blessing to our churches in the labors which they
year the Rev. Robert C. Harbach and the Rev. John          may still accomplish.
A. Heys attained the status of minister emeritus in          Permit me the observation, however, that what
our churches.                                              might be termed a "changing of  .the guard" has
  It is not my intention to repeat the various bio-        been accomplished in our churches. Due to various
graphical details which were included in this year's       circumstances, there is a considerable gap between
synodical Yearbook. These are available to all our         the older and the younger generation in our minis-
families in that little booklet.                           try. Perhaps I myself belong between the two
                                                           generations, since I am now the only pre-1953
  With the retirement of these two brethren, our           active minister. For the rest, all our ministers are
churches have und,ergone  a considerable transition;       post-1953 and most of them are post-1960. In fact,
and all of the older generation of our ministers are       if the Lord keeps all our men in good health, it
now retired, though, fortunately, not inactive. Rev.       should be several years before there are any new
Harbach, who was older when he came to us,                 retirees.
became a minister in the post-1953 era and was a
minister in our denomination for 25 years.' Rev.             There has been a transition, therefore. Our min-
Heys, a son of First Church, is the last of what           istry is now preponderantly young.
might be termed the early generation of our Protes-          From this point of view, I think we may be
tant Reformed ministers; he labored in the ministry        thankful, first of ,all, that our retirees are still active.
of our churches since 1941. By the way, Rev. Heys          It eases,  the. transition, and it helps to steady the
has the distinction of being the musician among our        ship.
ministers.. He was organist in First Church before           Secondly, however, we may all be reminded also
he entered the ministry; and he also has the               that the burden of the labor and the `urgency of the
distinction of making a contribution to our Psalter.       calling to be faithful to our heritage falls with
  None of our retired ministers stops working              heavier impact upon our younger men. The


1     5     2                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



"changing of the guard" must not mean a change in                        We have an example to emulate, a tradition to pre-
our ecclesiastical course, and it must not mean de-                      serve, and a heritage to cherish!
creased emphasis upon our Reformed distinctives.
GUESTARTICLE"                                                      ."

            The Necessity of Reformed Apologetics
                                                                                                           :
                                                       Rev. Robt. C. HaYbach                       ..--



II. Apologetics Considered as in Practical Use                           non-Christian accepting this attestation will then  _
     A candidate for the ministry in our churches,                       accept the scripture as genuine to.go from there be-
among other subjects, is examined in Controversy                         lieving it. Scripture is already inherently authentic.
(C.O., Art. 4). This is done in order that he may                        For the benefit of the unbeliever, he need not and
demonstrate something of his ability to defend the                       must not first attempt to establish -the truth of
truth over against the attacks of false doctrines and                    Christianity over against his objections or  wrong
heresies. After his ordination he signs the "Formula                     views. The truth is already established in the infal-
of Subscription," by which he delcares and promi-                        libly inspired `scriptures, in the Presbyterian and
ses diligently to teach and faithfully to defend the                     Reformed Confessions and in the pure preaching of
doctrine contained in the Three Forms of Unity, to                       the Word of God. The latter comes with the author-
refute and contradict the errors rejected by the                         ity of Christ. Hearing and receiving that preaching
Synod of Dort, to exert himself in keeping the                           is to bow to Christ and to acknowledge His absolute.
church free from such errors. This is to promise to                      Lordship as God of truth. The point here is that the
be ever alert and active in a Reformed apologetic.                       Christian witness must not propose to set out to
The biblical injunction to this end is found in Jude                     reason with the unbeliever according to the princi-
3,  "I...exhort you that ye should earnestly contend                     ples of human logic, thence together to reason on-
for the faith which was once (for all) delivered unto                    into salvation. The thinking of the natural man
the saints." This is what apologetics is, defense of                     cannot lead to God. Also a sound apologetical ap-
the faith.                                                               proach, in the interest of defending scripture
     But it is also witness. Witnessing ko others of the                 against some of its greatest difficulties, .must not de-
truth of the gospel by life and word is to be done                       scribe (or think of) these as "apparent paradoxes."
any place and -any time, in season -and out of sea-                      The term  parudox   is philosophic, rationalistic, and
son. The reason for the activity of witnessing, as                       irrationalistic. The Christian would do better in
expressed in the great commission of Matthew                             adopting a new term which allows for only "hyper-
28:18-20,  is the discipling of the nations. We are to                   doxes" in scripture. We have  .!,zyperdox  (hyper =
witness to Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth  and                       over, beyond  + doxa = an opinion or notion)
t h e   L i f e .                                                        wherever truth transcends human understanding,
                                                                         as in the instances of the doctrine of the Trinity, the
     Y-et as to this defense and witness, the Christian                  union of the two natures of Christ, and the relation
is not to take.a neutral stance .anywhere  in order to                   and harmony between God's absolute sovereignty
secure a point of "contact" or a "common ground"                    and man's responsibility. Our defense and witness
between faith and unbelief. The Christian  (apolo-                  presuppose the entire Bible and Christian faith as
gete) must avoid all appearance of neutrality, must                 true. We do not try to prove this to the unregener-
be perfectly honest (neutrality is dishonest), must                      ate; we assume this at the outset; it is the ground of
make no secret of the fact that he accepts Reformed                 all our life, thought, discussion,. and declaration.
Theology as the theology. Therefore let him make it                 From that ground we challenge'the natural man to
known that  .he cannot stand indifferently to his                   see that on his position there is no place to stand
own personal faith.2 This means that the believer                        other than on sinking sand; there is no way to tell
in his witness to unbelievers, and in amicable argu-                truth from falsehood, and there is nothing in the
ment of the Christian  ppsition,, must not begin by                 world that can be accounted for.            .
attempting to authenticate the scripture, so that the                      The Church, from the very beginning, has been
                                                                         engaged in apologetical defense and witness. In the
2Principles  ofsacred  Theology, A. Kuyper, X1,51.                       Apostolic Church there was controversy with Juda-


                                                      T H E   STANDARD  B E A R E R                                            153



ism, Heathenism, and Gnosticism. Then within the                       gently  seek.Him:  Our whole approach in our  wit-
Trinitarian  Co-ntroversies there were mainly. the                      ness-bearing presupposes all the truth of scripture
Arian and the Sabellian controversies. Within the                       and of our confessions. Especially must our thought
Christological Controversies there were the  Apolli-                    and attack be based on the doctrine of God, the
narian, Nestorian, Eutychian, and Monophysite                           .doctrine  of creation, the doctrine of man and his
controversies. Within the Anthropological  Contro-                      .fall and the doctrine of scripture. For above and
versies, there was the Pelagian controversy. In the                     back of all reality is God. He is our environment,
Medieval period there~ were. controversies over the                     not pantheistically, but "in Him we live and are
Spirit proceeding from the Son as well as from the                      moved and have our being." Humanistic thought
Father; over the doctrine of the two wills in Christ,                   puts God out of His own world, out of business
over Predestination and over various theories of the                    and out -of existence.. Thought and converse
Lord's Supper. In the-time of the Reformation, the                      without Him at any point is to lift up His name and
great controversy was with Romanism. Calvin was ..                      all things into `nothingness. Nor is there knowledge
the Reformed apologist of thisperiod, and his abili-                    or intelligible statement of anything in "the real
ty in controversy was superior. He-fought Libertin- j                  world" apart  ,from the Creator-creature  relation-
ism, Free-willism, Unitarianism, and Astrology: In.                     ship. But man- makes himself creator and makes a
our own day, the Church. has had  -to combat                            god in his own image. He thinks of himself as
Modernism (originating from  ,Germany)  and the                         "creator of the universe.".Man,  the creature, is po-
cults. In our own denominational history there was                      tential God, or God enough for the freefthinker.  He
the "common"  grac`e controversy and the  condi:                        is th.e greatest. creator we know on earth. Man is not
tional theology controversy.,                                           under the law; he makes the law. Man is the creator
   Since there is always controversy, there is always                 ' of himself and of  society.4  Man worships the
some form  .of apologetics. What is needed is Re-                       creature, rather than the Creator. Christians in
formed Apologetics. We need this to keep  hour,                        ,thought?  word, and behavior serve and worship the
thinking in line with God's thoughts, our preaching                     Creator. Christians believe there  ,are two kinds of
in the power of His Spirit and, Word, our witness:                      being: original, eternal, and divine being, and deriv-
unwaveringly. to Christ and the triune God,  our                       ative, temporal, and human being. Man's deriva-
conduct self-consciously and determinedly based                         tion from God is not pantheistical or  emanationis-
on the holy principles of the Reformed Faith. Our                      tic. The triune Creator, remaining in His aseity (in-
apologetics are then not only defensive but offen-                      dependence) and, immutability, created man a crea-
sive. More importantly,  .with the Sword of the                        turely reflection of Himself with creaturely
Spirit, the Word of God, they pierce through the de-                    personality, heart, soul, mind, will, and strength.
ceits and hypocrisies of men to expose their refuges                   -Then without scripture, the only written revela-
of lies, their untenable positions.  Cur  ap.ologetic                   tion of God to man, there is no rule or standard to
method must function in a never-to-be denied;                           determine truth from error. There is no way to dis-
never compromised faith which presupposes the                           tinguish the -Narrow Way from the Slough of  De-,
whole system of the gospel.                                : .          spond.  Withoutthe'Bible,  it is impossible to know
   Every form of reasoning, argument, preaching,                        the meaning of life. Without its we would not know
and witness is on some foundation. There. are fun-                      what sin is, nor `where forgiveness is to- be found
damentally only two foundations, the false and  the.                    (Ps.  130:4), nor `have any hope of heaven. Men do
true (Matt. 7:24-29), the foundation of men and the                     not share a common knowledge which finds confir-
foundation of God.                                                      mation in the Bible. True- knowledge is objectively
   On the one foundation,  manmakes himself the ,                       found written on the pages. of the scriptures..
first and final point of reference. His mind is, the                    Reality must be seen through the lens of the  scrip-
only frame of reference. "Man is the measure of all                     tures. "In Thy lightdo we see light." In these facts u
things."3 Sosaid Protagoras ages ago and the athe-                      of scripture: God, Creation,. Fall, -Redemption, and
istical mind today still agrees. But on the other                       that body of truth found in  our. Confessions, we
foundation, God, speaking through Christ. by. His                      have the thesis, position, stand; and orientation of a
Spirit in the infallible scriptures, is our first and                   Reformed apologetics.                   `.        I
ultimate orientation point. If we consistently stand                       To the extent that we give diligence earnestly to
on.this only safe ground, then we do not attempt to                    contend for the Faith,  to.that extent we-all use Re-
prove to men the existence .of God. Rather, on this _                   formed apologetics, in defense, in attack on the
foundation we challenge men to believe that God                         enemy, and in witness, whether conscious of it or
is, and that He is the Rewarder. of them that  dili-                    not. But how much better, in the sense of the term
                                                                        herein explained to  .* be apologetically  self-
  3Student's  History ofPhilosophy,    Rogers, Macmillan, 1928, p.      conscious!
87. See also The Doctrine of God, Bavinck, p. 36,atid Introduction                          1
to Objectivist Epistemology,  Rand,  Mento:, 1979, p. 10.               4The'Philosophy  ofRevelation,  Bavinck, p. 46,323.


1 `5 4                                         THE STANDARD  BEARER



TAKING HEED  l+O  THEDOCTRiNE   y                                                     -.
                                      r'  /

          E&ngelism'and the Reformed Faith (1)
                                                 Rev. `David  Engelsma                         ."
                                                                                      1 . .
                                                                .'





  It is strange that it should be supposed that the            reporting, `how, many hundreds, or thousands, "got
relationship between the Reformed Faith and evan-              saved," or "came forward."
gelism is uneasy and uncomfortable. It is stranger               This is evangelism in  the.popular  mind. To do
still that men should charge that the Reformed                 evangelism is to do something like this; and to
Faith and evangelism are incompatible. Yet this is            ~oppose  this is to run the risk of being criticized as
the case. Many outside. of the Reformed Churches               unevangelistic, not mission-minded.
contend,that the Reformed Faith makes evangelism
(or "soul-winning," as they like to call it) impossi-            This -whole great `structure, fondly regarded as
ble. Many who profess to be Reformed are now                   evangelism, imposing and impressive as it appears,
echoing this charge. What is worse, they are busy              needs to be tested by Scripture.- Take, for example,
radically revising the Reformed Faith in the inter-            the element so important to- modern evangelism,
ests (they say) of evangelism. Read the studies that           and so prominent, the invitation, or altar call. The
set forth the foundations, the messages, and the               altar call is thoroughly un-Biblical, apart now from
methods of missions: universal love; universal                 the perverse theology which  .underlies it-the
atonement; salvation dependent upon the free,                  theology of the goodness and freedom of the will of
sovereign choice of the sinner. Listen to the evange-          the sinner and the sovereignty of his will in salva-
lists: "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for             tion, what Paul repudiates in Romans  9:16 as the
your life' ' ; "Christ died for you";  I'You can have          teaching that. salvation is of him that willeth. It is
this wonderful salvation and be born again, if only            un-Biblical to demand, in Christ's Name, that
you will accept Jesus,."                                       someone express the spiritual activity of  repen-
                                                               ,tance and faith by walking to the altar. It is un-Bib-
  Then, there is the danger that those who love the            lical to equate coming to the front with these ~
Reformed Faith as God's own truth become sus-                 spiritual activities and, thus, with salvation. It is  1
picious of evangelism; openly or secretly grant the.           un-Biblical, grievously so, to obtain this result by
validity of the charge that the Reformed Faith and             the psychological, emotional pressures that are
evangelism are incompatible; and decline to engage             exerted. The Christian Church never knew of such
in the work of evangelism.                                     a.`thing before the early  1800's, when Charles
  It is the duty of those to-whom God has given the            Finney introduced it.  i
inheritance. and responsibility of the Reformed  j               For the answer to our question, "What is  .Evan-
Faith to show the perfect harmony of this Faith and            gelism?, `J we do not look to popular notions, but to,
evangelism. To do this,. "we must. ourselves see               Holy Scripture.
clearly that they are compatible.                                In reality,. evangelism is the preaching of the
                What Evangelism Ii                             gospel. This is the meaning of the tiord;evangeZism
  Over the years, in our  country! at any rate, a              -a Biblical word in the Greek of the New  Testa- ~
certain, definite idea of evangelism lhas developed.           ment. The usage `of the word shows this to be the
It is necessary, first of all, to subject this idea to the     meaning. In Luke  2:10, the angel says to the shep-
test of Scripture. Speak of evangelism, and one                herds, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good
probably thinks of  -an elaborate, expensive  cani-            tidings of great joy...."' "I bring you good tidings"
paign to gather many people to a meeting that- will            is, in the Greek, "I evangelize you." When- the
be conducted by a specialist, the "evangelist." One            apostle tells Timothy to "do the work of an evan-
thinks of a specific kind of religious meeting-one             gelist," in II Timothy 45, he is telling him to preach
in which the music, the message, and the other ele-            the- Word of God; as the preceding verses prove.
ments are carefully geared to get men to make a de-            Evangelism is the activity of publishing, or
cision for Christ. One thinks of an activity that cul-         announcing, the "evahgeZ," the gospel, i.e., the glad
minates in "the invitation," or "altar call." And one          tidings of Jesus the Christ, crucified and risen.
thinks of a religious work which concludes by                    This answers the question, whether a Reformed  ~


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           155


Church believes in evangelism and whether  .Re-.           apostasy, and simple lack of the Word of God, these
formed saints .are to be zealous for evangelism. The       people were spiritually sore distressed and, there-
gospel must be preached! This must be. done within         fore, proper objects of evangelism.
the established church, among the saints already             Paul's ministry shows that the work of evan-.
called out of the world; for their ongoing comfort         gelism is not exclusively with professed unbeliev-
and edification, they are continually to hear the          ers. He brought the Word to the Jews first; and
good news. This is why we come to church every             when confessing Christians strayed, as they did in
Lord's Day.                                                Galatia, the apostle urgently evangelized them..
  But the gospel must also be preached outside of            John Murray, the Presbyterian theologian, con-
the church already established  in. the truth; this is     tended that evangelism must not be limited to work
necessary for the saving of the as yet unconverted         among the unsaved.
and the straying. This is what we mean when we                The word "evangelism" has generally been under-
speak of evangelism: the activity of proclaiming the         stood to apply to the propagation of  the.gospel among
good news to those outside the congregation. Evan-            the unsaved. In dealing, however, with the obligation
gelism, then, is the same as missions.                        that rests upon the church of Christ to witness to the
  We may take our definition from the "Form of                gospel,it does not appear that the various activities of
Ordination of Missionaries" of the Reformed                   the church that may properly be embraced in  ,the
Churches. It distinguishes between ministers who"             work of evangelism have exclusive reference to those
                                                              who are reckoned, in the judgment of the church, as
labor in the congregations already established and            without God and without hope in the world. Particu-
those called and sent to preach the gospel to those           larly is this true when it is remembered that many
without, in order to -bring them to Christ:  "...it is        believers in Christ have so inadequate a knowledge of
necessary' that some labor in the congregations               the gospel, and so impoverished a conception of the
already established, while others are called and             " Christian life, that a considerable part of the work of
sent to preach the Gospel to those without, in order          the church, properly regarded as evangelism, must
to bring them to Christ" (The  Psalter,  pp:74, 75).          needs have as its aim the instruction and edification of
Evangelism, therefore, is the-activity of preaching           such believers. The evangelism that the true church of
the gospel to those outside the congregation already          Christ undertakes must therefore contemplate the
established in the truth, in order to bring them to           bringing of the gospel in its full import and demands
Christ.                              L                       to those who, though believers, are nevertheless the
                                                              victims of ignorance, unfaithfulness and compromis-
  Evangelism is not limited to' work  done with               ing associations: ("The Message of Evangelism," in
heathen, with those who make no profession of                 .Collected Writings ofJohn  Murray, Vol. 1, p. 124, pub-
faith in Jesus the Savior. On the contrary, it in-            lished by The Banner of Truth Trust).
cludes the work of the Church with those who -pro-           This is why the Reformation was-an evangelistic
fess Christianity and belong to a church, but who          enterprise, a missionary  activity;`Some  have dared
are either ignorant of the truth of the gospel or have     to criticize the Reformers' for a lack of interest in
departed from it. To bring the gospel to such is not       missions. Defenders of the Reformers, seemingly
t'sheep-stealing," but sheep-gathering; it is not          stung  *by the charge, have responded that the
"fishing in troubled waters," but fishing for men.         Reformers were too busy for missions, but that
                                                           Calvin once sent several missionaries to Brazil. The
  When Jesus in Matthew  9:37, 38 instructed His           truth of the matter is' that the Reformation itself
disciples that the harvest is plenteous, but the           was missions-a gigantic, energetic, world-wide
laborers few, and that they, therefore, must pray          mission work, with abundant and enduring fruits.
the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into        The gospel was proclaimed to multitudes in many
His harvest, His reference was not, primarily, to          nations who were fainting and scattered abroad, as
the heathen,  .but to the multitudes of God, under         sheep having no shepherd, perishing in the ignor-
the care of the priests and scribes. By false doctrine,    ance and lie of Roman Catholicism.
  `,                                                                                                         -.

                S u b s c r i b e   ,Now


                                                                                                -------
156                                               THE `S T A N D A R D   BEAREd



S I G N S   O F   THE
                                    _.  -1 'TIMliS
                           .  `.           _-  ~*'
                     I       A~Shining City on g Ijill
                                                 `i     `. Rev. R. Flikkema

                                                                                    i


                                                                                                           ,.

  It is always fitting at the time when a new year                    streets to overflowing. The lust of the flesh and`the
comes upon us to reflect on all that has happened,in                  lust of the eyes and the pride  of. life are the pass-
the past, and, having -done so, to look ,with the eye                words for entrance into that city, and the motto by
of faith to the future. With respect to the past, all of             which that city lives.-: And,. too, inseparably con-
us can see what has happened in all its details. Not                  nected with that is this, that in that city th.e citizens
so,:however, with respect to the future.. None of us                  of the city live for the honor and glory of .man.. They
can see what the future holds in store for us in all                 ~worship, man!  .They  fall down, before man! They
its-detail. But, nevertheless, that does not mean that               praise almighty man! Man in that city sets himself
we cannot see at. least some' of the details which the               up to be somebody. Man's word is: I am strong. .I
future holds in store. We can see some of the details                am powerful. I am the author and finisher of my
in so far as God has revealed those details to us in                 destiny; By me kings reign.or. do not reign. By me
His Word. And to those details which God  .has                       nations areconquered or are.not conquered. It is all
revealed in His Word we must look `with the eye of                   because of, me `and my strength and my might and
faith-with the clear eye of faith,  : with the anti-                 for my honor and,glory.
thetically clear eye of faith. It is the purpose of this              But what about that other city? As I said above,
article to look .at-one  of the details of the future as              that city is so very different..This city in distinction.
God hasrevealed it to us in His Word-with the anti-                   from the other,one is in all its`reality a shining city
thetically clear eye of faith. And that one detail has                on ,a hill. It does shine! It is all-glorious. It does
to do with two cities.              ,.            I                  radiate forth with awesome brilliance. And because
  I suppose that it would be best if we had a                        it does,  ,it  ,does indeed-provide the citizens of that
description of those two cities before our eyes. It is                city with a ray of hope, not only, but with hope
really not all that difficult to describe them. And it                itself. And, it does exactly because of the fact that
is not because  .those two `cities are; so very much                  God, the almighty God of heaven and earth, is in
different from each other. So different  ares they                   the `midst of her. The  :glorious.  God of infinite
from each other that there really, except for one                    virtues. and perfections is in the midst of her. God's
detail, is nothing-similar about them,at all. But even               glory as it radiates forth from Him.fills the city, all
with respect to that one detail we must with the eye                  the highways and byways of that city, all the homes
of faith see that the similarity  isi really a false                  of that city, and all the citizens of thatcity. On  th.e
similarity, a very deceptive,similarity.  What is that               throne of. that city sits that.  all:glorious  God with
false, deceptive similarity?. It is this. Both cities                 Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, to Whom all
appear to be very shining cities `built on their own                 .glory, might, and honor  ~has been bestowed. And
hill. Both cities constructed on their hills seem to                 the citizens, of that city? They, with the hope of the
shine forth with a great radiance. Both cities appear                 glory of God within them, do not serve sin. They do
very glorious and- brilliant .to behold. And because                  not live for the pleasures of sin for a season.~  Their
they do, both cities seem to provide a ray `of hope                   motto is  -not the lust. of the flesh, the lust of the
for the citizens of those cities. But the simple fact of             -eyes, -and the pride of life. But on the contrary they
the matter is that the. shining, radiating, glorious                  live for and their motto is the  ,glory of  God1 For
brilliance of the one city is not shining, radiating,                 God's glory  ,they `live. For God's praise they live.
glorious brilliance! And, therefore, the ray of hope                 For the worship and. service of their all-glorious
which  ,that city seems to provide its citizens is no                 God they live-and move and have their being. That
ray of hope at all! But on the contrary it is a ray of               is a description of those two cities.
despair. It is a~ ray of sorrow-. It is a ray of certain                Now the,n, if we with the eye of faith look back at
and sure destruction.  1.                   :                        all that has happened in the history  .of the world,
 And why is it that? It is that because thatone  city                we can see those two shining cities on a hill. That
which only appears to be a shining city on a hill is                  one so-called  shining'city  on a hill came to mani-
filled with corruption. Corruption `and sin fill its                  festation already at the time `of the Tower of Babel.


                                              THE STANDPRD BEARER                                                 i 5 7


 Once again it came to manifestation at the time of           vision?, Is it a city.that  only appears to be shining,
 the great King Nebuchadnezzar with his vast                  but is not? Is it a city that lives for man's honor and
 empire. Again it came to manifestation in the                glory rather than God's honor and glory? Is it a city
 Persian, Greek, and Roman kingdoms. Especially                which is motivated in all that it does for the  ad-
 did it come to manifestation in the Roman  king-             vancement of man's sinful lusts and pleasures
 dom! Rome to all the civilized world of its day was a         rather than the worship and praise of almighty
.I shining city on a hill. Rome appeared all-glorious,  "      God? Which shining city on a hill is he talking
 -brilliant, and wonderful to behold; providing a ray          about? When I asked myself that `question, the
 of hope for all the citizens of its city and kingdom.         answer to that question became obvious. Obvious-
` But Rome was not shining.  Rome.was not brilliant            ly, the answer had to be one city or the other. And
 and wonderful to behold, because Rome was                     obviously my answer was, not the real and true              ~
 corrupt. It lived for itself, its own glory and its own       shining city on a hill, but the false and `deceptive
 lusts.                                                        shining city on a hill!
    But there is the past. Now let  `us look to the              This vision of a false and deceptive shining city
 future. We know from the testimony of Scripture               on a hill is in reality the very same vision of that
 that the so-called shining city on a hill will come to        false and deceptive shining-city on a hill that the
 manifestation again. And when it does, it will,              Apostle John had. If you read the Book of  Revela-
appear more shining and more brilliant and more               tion you will discover that John, under the inspira-
 all-glorious than ever before. `But, once again, the          tion of the Spirit, describes that city.  <And further-
 clear testimony of Scripture is that when it does             more, he gives to it a name, the. name ~"Babylon"!
 come to manifestation, as it most surely  .will, its          And that is exactly the name which we as we.look
 Vshining, as was the case in the past, will be no             to the  .futur,e  with the antithetically clear eye of
 shining! Its brilliance will be no brilliance! Its glory      faith must also give it.
 will be no glory! And it will not be because, as was            But that, you understand, is not the' only vision
 the case in the past so will it be the case in the            of a shining city on a hill that John saw, and that we
 future, it lives for man, for-man's honor and glory,          with. him see. For we also see that real and true
 and for the sinful lusts and-pleasures of man.                shining- city on a hill where God sits enthroned and
    Do you see that so-called shining- city on a hill? I       where we as the people of God dwell: We see, to
 do! And when I say that I do, I do-not mean that I            use John's words in Revelation 21:2, "the holy city,
 see it in the future. But I mean that I see it right          new Jerusalem, coming down  from, God out of
 now! "Well," you say, "That is absurd. To be sure             heaven, prepared as a bride adorned  .for- her
 Scripture says that, it will `come to ,manifestation  in      husband." We see, to use John's words in that very
 the future, but the time of its manifestation is not          same chapter, verses 10  & 11, "that great  -city, the
 yet." My response to that, is that ,I am not being            holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
 absurd when I say that I see that so-called shining          -God, having the glory of God: and her light was like
 city on ti hill right now. Let me explain,. `On January       unto a stone most precious." Indeed we see,. to use
 the twentieth-a new .president  will be installed into      John's words but once more in verses 23  & 24 of
 office as President of the United States. Maybe               that chapter, "And the city had .no need of the sun,
 some of youwho  are reading this article voted for            neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of
 him. It really does not matter. But if you did, you           God did lighten. it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
 must have been struck by `a slogan which that man             And the nations of them which are saved shall walk
 used repeatedly during, his campaign for office:.           . in the light of it. An'd the kings of the earth do bring
 That slogan. was this: "I -have a vision- of a shining        their glory and honor into it."
 city on a hill". When I heard that, those words                 That shining city on a hill is-what we see. We see
 embedded themselves in my memory.  ,I started                 it with the antithetically clear eye of faith. And in
 thinking about those words. I asked myself: Of                seeing it we are exceedingly glad!
 what kind of a shining city on a hill does he have a


      The STANDARD  BEAF$ER
   makes  a   t h o u g h t f u l - g i f t
      for a shut-in:.


15%                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE                                                                                           ., .

                                    :
                                   Letter to Timothy                                             .,

                                         January  i, 1981
D e a r   T i m o t h y ,                                     emotions always involve change. One day we are
   In my last letter to you we began a discussion of          filled with love towards God and our lives are filled
the emotions in the psychical life of man. You                with the consciousness of God's goodness to us.
recall that we discussed two  ,possible dangers               But soon that love grows colder and God is far from
which must be avoided in considering the                      our thoughts. There is nothing quite so changeable
emotions. The one is the danger of making the                `in us as our emotional life. Because emotions
emotions such an important part of man's life that            alwaysinvolve change in us we cannot see how
they become a power in man's life, independent                God has emotions without also changing from one
from his mind and will. When this happens, the                moment to the next. And so we, to preserve God's
foundations of morality are undermined and a man              unchangeableness, fail to reckon at all with the fact
no longer is responsible for what he does. And, one           that God is indeed a God of emotions and feelings.
lets his life be governed by mere "feeling" so that             This is a very ,difficult  problem; and there are no
he allows his conduct to be determined by "what               easy solutions to it. But we must remember that our
pleases him." The other danger is that we `deny the           emotional life (as well as the life of our minds and
emotions altogether, act as if they do not exist, and        wills) is but a dim and creaturely reflection of what
try, to regulate our lives in such. a way that our           is perfect.in  God. Although it is true that God is un-
emotions never reveal themselves. This is, of                changeable, it is  also true that God is emotional.
course, really impossible; but the danger is that we         And whether we can ultimately understand this or
try to live in such a'way that our emotions are sur-         not, the fact remains true.
pressed. Both these dangers must be avoided.                    There. are countless texts in the Bible which
   The Scriptures speak often of emotions and. we             speak of these emotions, and we must be careful to
ought, even though briefly, take a look at what the          . be faithful to .the Scriptures also in this respect. To
Scriptures have to say about this matter.                     fail to do~this  has serious consequences in our own
   If we look at the Scriptures, it is rather startling       lives. To give but one example: our failure to
to discover that God is often described as having             reckon with the fact that God is angry with us
emotions. We are aware of this, of course; but the            when we sin leads us oftentimes to take sin less
fact remains that we do not often live in- this con-         than. seriously. Anger is a powerful emotion. In
sciousness. We usually think of God as if He had no          God it is much more so than in us. When God is
, emotions at all. In our own thinking we often con-          angry with us, we know it, for we lose' the' con-
sider God as being cold, unmoved,  .without  any             sciousness of  Ris favor and love upon us.  .But
feeling, not reacting in an emotional  :way to what          failing to take this into account, we continue often-
happens on this earth and what happens in our                times in our ways of sin and act as if God's anger is
own lives. If we think about his, I think that the           really nothing at all. Convincing ourselves that God
reason why we have this idea of God is that we               has no real emotions, we think very little of His
have a great deal of difficulty in imagining what            ,anger,  when His anger ought to deter us from a
emotions are like in God. The Scriptures teach that          sinful course of conduct.
God is, in His own being and essence, the absolute-
ly unchangeable One. He is from eternity to eter-               Let us look at just a few passages of Scripture
nity the same. And, even as He is unchangeable in            which speak so emphatically of God's emotions.
His own essence, so also He is unchangeable in all              Already in the days prior to the flood, when the'
His works and in all His attitudes towards men. He           wickedness of men was great in  the- earth, "It
eternally and unchangeably loves His people and              repented the Lord that He had made man on the
He eternally and unchangeably hates the wicked.              earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Genesis 6:6).
The problem is that when we think of emotions, we            Although no emotion is specifically mentioned, it is
think in  *terms  of our own emotions; and, in us,           not difficult to see the emotional impact upon God


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                       159



of the suffering of Israel in Egypti "And God heard,            them happy and blessed. When they sin against
their groaning, and God remembered His covenant                 Him, He is angry with them, hides His face,  chast-
with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And                   izes them  as,.a father  chastizes his son; but this is
God looked upon the children of Israel, and God                 also in love that He may correct them and teach
had respect unto them" (Exodus 2:24, 25). Nor is it             them His ways. All these expressions show us the
.difficult to sense the Lord's anger with Moses when            deep emotions which move the heart of God.
we read: "And it came to pass by the way in the                    In the same way Scripture not only speaks often
inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him"             of the emotional life of men, and particularly of the
(Exodus 4:24). Or: "And the anger of the Lord was               people of God, but even describes the calling of
kindled against Moses, and He said, Is not Aaron                God's people in emotional terms. The very heart of
the Levite thy brother?" .( Exodus 4: 14). When Israel          the law is to love the Lord our God with all our
made the molten calf, God said to Moses: "Now                   hearts and minds and souls and strength. And love
therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot               `is profoundly emotional. The fear of the Lord is the
against them, and that I may consume them"                      beginning of wisdom, but fear is, after all, a deep
(Exodus  32:lO). Who can fail to see the profound               concern that we do not make our God angry by
love of God which is everywhere mentioned in                    breaking His commandments and by doing that
Scripture, but which is so sharply emphasized in                which displeases Him. Formal sacrifices are an
Deuteronomy  23:5:- "Nevertheless the Lord thy                  abomination to the Lord because the Lord has plea-
God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the Lord                 sure in a broken spirit and a contrite heart. He who
thy God turned the curse into a blessing untothee,              has not cried in anguish for his sins does not know.
because the Lord thy God loved thee."                           what it means to be sorry for them. James, almost
                                                                angrily, tells us: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and
   Especially in the Psalms one finds expressions               weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and
which, if they were not in the Scriptures, we would             your joy to heaviness. " At the same time, Scripture
not dare to use. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall          admonishes, us to rejoice in the Lord, in fact, to
laugh: `the Lord shall have them in derision. Then              rejoice always. We too must show compassion
shall He speak unto them in His wrath,, and vex                 towards those in need just as our Father in heaven
them in His sore displeasure': (Psalm  2:4, 5). "The-           shows compassion to us.
Lord shall abhor the bloody. and deceitful man"
(Psalm 5:6). .While surely one of the main themes, if              The Scriptures make it very clear that, while we
not the main theme, of the Psalms is God's hatred               share with all the wicked the emotions which God
of the wicked and His love for His people, this is              has created in us, here also there is the sharpest
expressed by many different emotions which the                  antithesis between the life of the wicked and the
Psalmists ascribe to God. The Lord is repeatedly                life of the'people of God. Anger is certainly proper
called upon to arise in order to punish wicked and               in the life of the people of God, but it must be anger
deliver His people. God is described as forgetting              against the right things and anger for God's sake;
His servant ( 13: l), * as showing marvellous loving-           not the uncontrollable rage of the ungodly. The
kindness to those who'put their trust in Him (17:7),            people of God weep too-just as the world; but
as  forsaking the Psalmist and being far away from              when-God takes a loved one from them they weep
him (22:  l), as rebuking David in His wrath and                not as those who have no hope. There is happiness
chastening him in His hot displeasure (38:1),  as hur-          in the life of the saints, but not the ribald mirth, the
rying to help David in his troubles (38:22),  as awak-          silly joking, the inane banter which characterizes a
ing from sleep and rising from bed to come to the               wicked generation which  tries~  to hide its great
assistance of His people  (44:23),  as, on the -one             sorrow with an outward and external cloak of
hand, hiding His face, and, on the other hand, lift-             "fun." Every emotion in the life of the child of God
ing up the light of His countenance upon His saints              must be brought under the control of grace and
 (51:9).  And so we could go on. God's attributes,              must be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.
 e.g., are often described in such a way in Scripture            Here too, from a spiritual point of view, we share
that they reveal to us deep emotions on.the part of             nothing with the world.
 God towards His saints. He loves His people so                     What is important to attain this high calling is to
 greatly that He did not even spare His own Son to               understand that emotions are `not a separate
 die the terrible death of the cross for their sins. His         "power" of the soul-alongside of the mind and the
 lovingkindness is so great that His heart is moved to           will. The emotions `also are part of the functioning
 save them from all their troubles. His longsuffering            of the mind and the will. The emotional life of man,
 is towards them so that He can scarcely bear to see            when it is as it ought to be; is a certain phase of the
 them suffer in this world, but He comes to save                 activity of our minds and wills. I am not sure that
 them as quickly as possible. In His mercy He ispro-             "phase" is the right word here; perhaps it would be
 foundly affected by their misery and longs to make            better to speak of "characteristic." However that


160                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER'



may be, we will probably be able to understand this                        waittill another letter.
a bit better if we give some closer attention to the                                                  Fraternally in  CL-`
                                                                                                                         41111SL, -L
different kinds of emotions. But this; shall have to                                                  u 
                                                                                                      J.A..  U3nLn
                                                                                                             LIUIII~"

ALLAROUND  US  1
Rev. G. Van Baren                        . ,

                         Dogmatic Religions Finished?
                                                     .





Christian  News, Sept. 1; 1980 presents a report of                              Waterlow maintained that a heaven on earth was
the."First Global Conference on the Future." This                             possible and said she agreed with Jesus that religion
conference, meeting at Toronto, dealt iwith the sub-                          should be judged by its fruits.
ject also of religion It presented a religion which                              She said she sees a religious awakening happening
can only be characterized as antichristian.  It.ought                         now and stated that "today it's embarrassing to talk
to serve as warning concerning things'to come, and                            about God, not sex."
make one aware of  ,the trends evident today. The                                "We should try to make man as he should be-in
article reports:                                          8                   the image of God," Water-low concluded.
         According to Hinduistic mystic Charlotte  Water-                        . . . "Toleration achieved in the course of centuries of
       low, "Dogmatic religions are finished."                                dedication and sacrifice is jeopardized by the rebirth
         According to former Roman Catholic Howard                            of such movements of religious fanaticism. The
       Didsbury, following Alfred North Whitehead, "we're                     fanatic regards tolerance not as a positive good but as
       moving toward" a less divisive "God as process."                       a necessary evil. The Righteous, were he in power,
                                                                              would espouse`intolerance. In former times, behind
         And Evangelical Christian theologian  ,Ted Peters                    the unctuous utterances of concern for the wayward,
       agrees with Didsbury that  division'is deplorable.                     the Righteous had the dungeon, the rack and the block
       The three were on the panel for "Religion in a                         to ensure compliance!"
   Technological- World," a session at the. First Global                         Didsbury also stated that "interfaith dialogue may
       Conference on the Future.                                              be the future of the ecumenical movement,"' adding
         Introduced as "exciting" by Peters;  ' Waterlow,                     that this  "would'probably shock..." the audience.
   director of the New England Branch of World Federa-
   lists, said that  she~was an evolutionist. She said that a                Increasingly one hears of "interfaith dialogue."
   return to religion was necessary.                                       The thrust-is that all religions have "truth". None
                                                                           can exclude others. None ought to condemn others
         However, she did contend that, be they Christian-               ' Surely this is all of that old lie of the devil who
   ity, Judaism or Islam,           "Dogmatic religions are                would persuade men to determine for themselves
 f i n i s h e d . " She explained, "Divisive dogmas can't
   survive in a world that respects human rights."                         the good and the evil.


                                                               : Rock `IN Roll                          -

                                                                                      ,
  Another report in Christian News, Sept. 8, 1980,                             said about themselves in magazines such as Rolling
tells of a group of young people who destroyed                                 Stone, Circus, Billboard and People,  adc.ording  to Don
thousands of dollars of rock and roll records when                            Witzel, Calvary's minister of youths. He also exam-'
they  cam-e to realize what a sinful investment they                          ined the words to various hit songs.
had made. The action came after hearing a speech                                 "It's not the type of music, nor the beat" that's
from.  `{Tony Dyer, minister. of youths at the First                          most disconcerting about rock music, Mr. Witzel
Baptist Church of Winter Park, Florida." The                                  summarized. "It's the musicians themselves and their
                                                                              lifestyles and the actual lyrics of their music, . ..lyrics
report of his speech was:                                                     which are often pornographic in nature."
        `Mr. Dyer talked about what rock musicians have                          Mr.  Dye.r's approach was "not sensational at all,"
                                                _


                                                   TlyiE STANDARD BEARER                                                             161



   Mr. Witzel continued. "He just asked them to listen,                     "I don't know of any rock group that doesn't use
   to form their own  opinions..He just gave the informa-               drugs," Mr. Dyer said. "In what rock musicians say
   tion and the sources from which it came."'                           and do, you've got the greatest argument" against
     Mr. Witzel said he' didn't learn that the youths               t h e i r   m u s i c .
   wanted to destroy their records until they asked him                     Today's growing decadence, Mr. Dyer said, was
   about it Sunday morning..                                            "born 15 years ago" in heightened drug and sex
     In a telephone interview, Mr. Dyer said his message                oriented music. "And if you look back through his-
   was prepared- this summer from more. than a hundred                  tory, when a country gets caught in perversion, sex
   hours of reading, plus reflections on the four years he              and drugs, they've gone down the tubes.eventually,"
   spent in a rock  ,band. before, his 1969 conversion to               he said.
   Christianity.                                                     The message comes through loudly  and. clearly.
     He recounted a number of examples of wayward               Young people can often plead `that there `is some
   rock  "n rollers from his-reading: Kiss, and Earth, Wind       music, produced by the above "musicians" which
   and Fire engage in Satan worship. Several members of           appeals to them. Yet if this music and the
   the Beach Boys have  .dabbled in the occult, as has            musicians are what the above speaker claims, there
   Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, who has also ventured              is absolutely no place for this in our lives. Light and
   into, ESP. And for a hobby, Mr. Gibb  .does porno-             darkness,may never mix. It is a terrible thing if, in
   graphic drawings.... Linda Ronstadt was quoted as
   saying, "I sing better after shooting smack (heroin) in       the church, there are those infected by the same
   both arms." Among those killed due to drug abuse               evil passions as revealed in this rapidly degenerat-
   have been Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Keith             i n g   w o r l d .
   Moon of the Who,  Jimi Hendrix and  Janis Joplin.




                                                               Line" on Hell..


  One final article is of interest in Christian News,                   around, and work from the presupposition that all
Sept. 22, 1980. It gives a review of the book, Uncon-                   persons are elect in Christ except those expressly
ditional Good `News: Toward an Understanding of                         declared by the Bible to be-lost. This, he believes, does
Bfblical   Universalism,  written by Rev. Neal Punt,                    far more justice to the positive, world-embracing, uni-
pastor of Evergreen Park Christian Reformed                             versal dimensions of the gospel."
Church in Illinois. Punt appears to minimize the                            Unlike what he calls the "absolute universalists,"
terrible reality of hell. The title of the book already                 Punt does not believe that all people will eventually
suggests something amiss. C.N. reports:                                 go to heaven. He says it is unscriptural to say that no
                                                                        one will experience God's eternal wrath. Punt's
     Reformed theologian Alexander De Jong comments                     novelty seems to be his contention that  everyone.is'
   on Punt's book in the Forward: "Punt writes with                     saved  unle&.he consciously rejects Christ; therefore,
   restraint. He patiently probes the position  ,of those               to warn people about the danger of eternal damnation
   with'whom he disagrees, and gently nudges forward                    is wrong.
   those whom he considers too narrow of vision to see                      On p. 134 Punt says, "To say that our first purpose
   the broad sweep of biblical universalism. In this book               in bringing the Word is to make the hearers tremble
   the reader finds no strident language or impatient                   before the wrath of God is sub-Christian. God's grace
   argumentation. The author does not imply that the                    is the loud accent of the message of Scripture, and
   Reformed community needs to be verbally chastised                    God's wrath is threatened so men  may. accept His
   for its narrow predestinarian vision."                               overture of grace."
      . . . "Unconditional Good News" is not easy for the                   Also on  p. 130, "Biblical universalism necessarily
   layman to understand. Its thesis is perhaps best sum-                implies that we may never propagate or cultivate the
   marized on the back cover:                                           point of separation between belief and unbelief (the
      `:In this stimulating scriptural study, Neal Punt                 antithesis) simply to make that division become
   suggests that these texts [in the Bible which refer sal-             apparent to everyone. God's Word is not intended to
   vation to `all men') create a problem because most                   engender opposition or to arouse hostility."
   Christians try to fit them into a theology which pre-                     The  Christian  News then comments:
   supposes that all persons are outside of Christ except
   those the Bible declares to be saved. Salvation then is                  The Punt book seems to be part of a theological
   the exception, not the rule. Punt wants to turn this                 trend suggesting that all are bound for glory on a train


162                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



       to heaven. In the April  U.S. Catholic,  author Robert           It would appear, from the review, that another
       Short boldly declared. that "hell is not real" and            step is taken from that Scriptural truth of predestin-
       demanded that the Christian Church teach that  G.od is        ation. Where reprobation is denied, soon all must
       letting every-human being who has ever lived (includ-         be "elect." Then too one must question the
       ing Charles  Manson and Adolf Hitler) into His ever-          existence of hell and insist at least that it be not
       lasting paradise.. . .                                        mentioned too prominently in the preaching of the
          . ..Some Christians have been wondering why few            Word.. The writer of C.N. has good reason for his
       professional theologians and writers have been trying
       to combat universalistic trends and standing up for           concern.
       what Christ taught about hell....

THEDAY OFSHADOWS


                                 ' The Promise Reaffirmed
                                                          Rev. John A. Heys


  Belatedly Jacob ordered his family to put away                     to Bethel; and it is with a view to this fact that Jacob
their idols. He knew all along that the members of                   orders the putting away-not the destroying-of the
his family had them and were worshipping them.                       idols. For Bethel was the  @lace  where God had
And we may assume that if his sons had not made it                   appeared to Jacob during his flight from Esau and
necessary for him to move away from Shechem                          unto his uncle  Laban.  Here was God's face. Here
because of their murder, and had God not ordered                     Jacob saw God. In fact, he said, "Surely the Lord is
him to return to Bethel, he would not have com-                      in this place" (Genesis  28:16). That being the case,
manded this putting away of the idols and of wor-                    Jacob realized that these idols had. to go. And are we
shipping the gods represented by them.                               not that way, so that there are times when we think
                                                                     that we can let down the bars, times `when it does
  Jacob certainly reveals himself here as a spiritu-                 not make too much difference what we do, and
ally weak covenant father; and it was only the grace                 again times when we have to be very careful of our
of God that realized in his family a God-fearing                     walk of life? Are there times and places in our lives
people in later years. It is an inviolable rule that                 when we behave as though idolatry is in order?
what one sows one reaps. He who plants the seed                      There are times when we are sure that we ought
of wheat is of that seed going to get wheat and not                  not curse and swear, and speak filthy language; but
thistles. And he who sows thistles must not expect                   there are also times in our sinful judgment that
to get wheat but thistles for his crop. Rachel sowed                 these can come from our lips. How silly we can get!
idolatry in the family and reaped a family of idol                   Before and with the world we will take God's name
worshippers. Jacob sowed the seeds of unconcern                      in vain, but let an elder, a minister of the Word, or
about this idolatry and reaped children who                          our parents be within hearing distance and we stop.
adopted idolatry as their way of life. Instead of a                  I have often told my congregation that I am not
strong sermon against this idolatry of `which he was                 God, and if they dare to take God's name in vain
aware, Jacob now merely hides the idols. And                         when I am not around, God is there, `and they must
instead of smashing the idols to pieces, he makes it                 give account to Him, not to me. When you live in
possible for his family and others to dig them up                    Shechem you must walk as uprightly as in Bethel;
and use them again in the future.  jThe earrings                     and in the shop or office as well as in the church
which they also gave up had some connection with                     building, before and after the services  as, well as
use of these idols, and had symbolism for the                        during them. And it means that at work as well as
idolatry, so that separation from them also must be                  in church we must sing that which glorifies God. If
made. And these very earrings again are proof that                   we are not afraid to do these things while God is
Jacob knew of the idolatry. It  .was before his eyes                 watching from out of heaven, we are foolish to be
whenever he saw his family.                                          afraid of men.  ,It was Jesus Who said,. "Fear not
  What is to be seen of Jacob here, we must see in                   them which kill the body but are not able to kill the
ourselves. It was written and preserved so that we                   soul; but rather fear Him Which is able to destroy
might learn from this part of history's,light. And we                both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).
take note of the-fact that God called him to return                    One truth that ought to grip us as we trace the


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                             163



     life of Jacob is the unchangeable grace and unfail-          must have left Isaac's home to live with Jacob. This
     ing mercy of -God. That grace and mercy not only             happened most likely while Jacob spent those ten
     moved Jacob to build an altar and thereby display            years in and around Shechem. As Rebekah's nurse
     before his idolatrous family -his own trust in God,          whose life with Rebekah was also closely
     but these also explain the fact that God repeats and         interwoven with Jacob's-for she cared for both
     reinforces the same promise that He gave to Jacob            Esau and Jacob all through their childhood-she
     at Bethel some thirty years before this moment. All          was strongly attracted to Jacob. Rebekah's love for
     the evii Jacob committed, all his, failings and un-          Jacob spilled over onto her and into her soul, for
     faithfulness before God cannot change God and                she also loved Rebekah dearly. It was however
     make Him unfaithful. We are saved by grace and in            Jacob's faith that endeared him to her above Esau,
     mercy. Let us see that clearly and never deny it. Let        who had also been her care and concern in those
     us also see that it is because God sees His people in        childhood days. And this was so because Jacob dis-
     Christ, and imputes to them Christ's works of righ-          played faith in God, while Esau did not. Jacob
     teousness, that our. sins and shortcomings do not            committed many sins and had his evil nature. But
     keep us `from the promises of the gospel. And all            little sparks of faith did manifest themselves, while
     these failings and weaknesses on Jacob's part are            in Esau there were never any such manifestations.
     recorded here to show us this great faithfulness of          And hearing-most likely through Esau after he
     God. It is not written simply, or in, the first place, to    had returned from meeting Jacob-that Jacob was
     show us Jacob's sins but God's covenant faithful-            again in the land, she must have made the weari-
     n e s s .                                                    some journey to spend the last few years of her life
I      -God does not withdraw the smallest  .part of the          with the beloved son of her beloved mistress.
     promise that He gave Jacob thirty years ago.                    We may believe that it was a blow to Jacob when
     Returning now to Bethel God does not say to Jacob,           she died. The name that he gave to the place of her
      "Well, Jacob, it took you so long to get here, and          burial, namely, Allon-bachuth, which means,. "Oak
     you have in so many ways and at so many times                of Weeping,"' reveals this. And God brought Jacob
     turned away from Me, and brought up an  idol-                on that sorrowful background that -reaffirmation of
     worshipping family, I will have to amend My                  t h e   p r o m i s e .
     promise. I will have to qualify matters." Instead
      God gave him the same promise and now more                     We ought not, however, quickly brush aside this
     richly.                                                      little note of Deborah's death.  Ai a child of God,
                                                                  and as a faithful nurse, she has not only her name
        God reconfirmed the change of his name from               recorded in Holy Writ, but also a note of her death.
     Jacob to Israel. Every bit of the land promised to           From Genesis  35:27 we learn that Jacob at last
      Abraham and Isaac He now again promises to                  came to his father Isaac in Hebron. But not one
     Jacob, not expecting any part of it. He promised             word is mentioned about Rebekah, his mother. Not
      faithfulness and through it the -bringing .forth of !`a     because her death is not worthy of being recorded,
      nation and a company of nations" and that "kings            or that she had not the strong faith of Deborah, but
      shall come out of thy loins." And Jacob responded           because she was not living anymore and had died
      with the setting up of a pillar and with, calling the       while Jacob was in  Padan-Aram.  And as a faithful
      place Bethel, that is, "House of God."                      servant of Rebekah, Deborah sought, after
        In this Chapter; Genesis-35, two other incidents          Rebekah's death, to be of service yet in the
      are recorded, and both of these events brought              covenant line, in the church of God. Isaac did not
      deep sorrow in Jacob's soul. Deborah, his mother's          need her. Esau had married heathen wives and dis-
      nurse, died, and Rachel his most beloved wife also          played no interest in God's kingdom. But in Jacob's
      died. One of these deaths is mentioned before God           family there were children being brought up in the
      appeared with the confirmation of the-promise. The          fear of God's name. And as a nurse, as one who had
     other is recorded after this word- of comfort from           spent her life caring for children,, she is eager to
      God. The sweet is between the two bitter exper-             spend her last few years doing what she can for the
      iences. The gospel  ,is given on a background of            children of God.
      death and sorrow. The good news is set forth                   Such faithfulness is worthy of note and presents
      between the two incidents of sad news and deep              an example for us today. Our churches may be
      misery.                                                     thankful that our ministers are granted emeritation
        Now Deborah's death comes somewhat as a sur-              and not retirement, and that God still arranges
      prise, but not because her death was unexpected or          work for them to do in our churches. What an
      unusual. She was a. very aged woman, having                 example Deborah sets for us in these days of early
      served Rebekah faithfully for many years. The               forced retirement while we are yet able to do so
      unusual element is  ,that she died at, Bethel where         much with the minds and bodies which God gave
      Jacob was now living. Sometime in the past she              us wherewith to serve Him. Surely there  areamany


164                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



kingdom causes wherein the refired; who are still          mailing out and receiving back, keeping record of
strong of limb and in relatively  goqd health, can         where they go, and of who has heard this or that
serve those' who are not given' such strength of           tape, or even to deliver them personally. If it is too
body and clarity of mind. Instead of idleness and          much to serve the other members of the body of
empty sports, does God not call us toivisit the aged       Christ here below, `are we ready and willing to go
and feeble in their moments of loneliness  ,in the         into the new Jerusalem where this will be our
nursing homes? Does not the.Word of God say that           j o y f u l   w o r k ?
herein is true religion and undefiled before God              Remember  ,Lot's wife as a warning, but
that one visits the fatherless and widows in their         remember Deborah as an example. My Bible says,
affliction (James 1:27)? We who still have good eye-       "Six days shalt thou  labour" not, "you may work
sight, are we not given this to  read,for  those who       six days, if you want to do so." Does there not come
can no longer read and who want  to'be edified by          with life a calling to be busy with the things of
good Christian literature?                                 God's kingdom here below? With the gift of life, is
  The world takes care of its blind and senior             there not always the calling to use it before God's
citizens with failing eyesight. Should the church be       face? Must we read Matthew 6:33 to say, "Seek ye
behind, or lead the way? The blind and those with          in the first part of your life the kingdom of God and
failing eyesight can get cassette recordings of many       its righteousness'? Or is that seeking the kingdom
of the magazines the world produces. Should not            first a calling to make seeking the kingdom a
the able bodied among the retired who have good,           priority until the last breath of earthly life? With
clear voices read our Standard Bearer, j3eacon  Lights,    the gift of life to the child of God comes the calling
TheoIogicaZ   /ournaZi   and other worthwhile material     to  Zoo/z for opportunities to serve the rest of  the.
on cassette tape, remembering that inasmuch as we          body of Christ.
do this to the least of our brethren; we do it to             Serve one another, live for one another now, and
Christ ,Himself? And those not so gifted-and we do         you will have the assurance of the promise to live
have men and women who are retired who can do              together in the heavenly Canaan, with all the plea-
this reading and recording-can certainly help in           sure of being members of the body of Christ, and
the preparing of and recording of the cassettes, the       that yours is a pure religion and undefiled.       e

F      A          I    T      H            OFOUR  FATHERS


                       Of God% Ckenant'Wjth Man
                                              Rev. Ron Van OverZoop

  Our readers will recall that we have been treat-           We contended that the conception which the
ing the first two sections of Chapter VII of the           Westminster Confession presents of the covenant
Westminster Confession, which chapter bears the            of works is to  .be found in men who lived  ,at the
title "Of God's Covenant with Man," These first            time of and even sat "upon the Westminster Con-
two sections deal with the subject of God's relation-      fession, such as Thomas Goodwin (1600 - 1680) and
ship with Adam before the fall. This relationship is       Thomas Brooks (1608.-  1680).
identified in section two as "the covenant of works,         Also we have already seen from. Goodwin's
wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to           writings that the relationship God had with Adam
his posterity, upon condition of perfect and person-       came about not after Adam was created, but by
al obedience."                                             virtue of Adam's creation. Thus. the covenant of
  We concluded in the last issue that the doctrine         works as conceived by Goodwin (and therefore also
of the covenant of works as `it is generally accepted      by the Westminster Confession, we believe) was
today is different from the doctrine of the covenant       essential and not incidental.
of works presented in the Westminster Confession.            We ask for your patience as we continue this
The generally accepted doctrine of the covenant of         study for we must quote extensively from these
works is presented in the writings of Charles              men. We believe that we must do so to substantiate
Hodge, A.A. Hodge, James Thornwell, Louis                  further our claim that the present day generally
Berkhof, and many others. In the last'issue we pre-        accepted doctrine of the covenant of works (justly
sented serious objections to this conception.              criticized by Rev. H. Hoeksema in his  Reformed


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                                                   :


Dogmatics)  is different from the  concep'tion  of the                                     And'then  %od gave him a soul, able `to-search into,
covenant  bof works -in the 1600s. Also we believe                                   and so  to.know the natures of all creatures..., and so to
that from Goodwin and*Brooks  we can ,learn -what                                    see God, clearly in each of them; whom then,. looking
is the conceptionof  the Westminster Confession on                                 .-into his heart, he found by the covenant  of.works (as
the covenant of works.                  `.        . ,                                ,before  he had tasted his favour in all the creatures) to
                                                                                     be his God; from whence issued an unmixed peace
  Thomas Goodwin held that the relationship God                                      and joy, such  asfully satisfied his hear-tin fellowship
had with Adam before the fall was not an alternate                                   with him, as thus known to be his chiefest good,                                                I
possibility of God's, but was merely the first step of                              joined with a promise of having this God to be for ever
God's plan to bring His people to eternal salvation                                  his, whilst he should thus continue to obey-him (op.
in Christ; The "covenant of works" is  :inferior:  to                                cit., P. 42.)
and used of God to lead to the-covenant of `grace,                                  Thus. we' see a conception  oft the covenant  .of
The former is not equal to, but is subservient to the                            works taking form which is different from that of
latter. The "covenant of works" was not consid-                                  the "rather generally accepted doctrine of the
ered another possible way to eternal life..                                      covenant of works" of the last century.
     Our most holy,. wise, and gracious God had, in His                             What is meant by the promise, of life mentioned
   everlasting purposes,  (as.by the event appears] fore-                --      as an element of the covenant of works in section
   ordained several estates and dispensations (whereof                           two of this chapter of the  We&riinster? As the
   some~are  inferior and subordinate one unto the other;                        following quote shows, it refers not to eternal life,
 and whereof  one. is utterly contrary and perfectly                             but only to a continued earthly existence.
 I opposite to that happiness He intended) which He
   would lead His elect of men through, as so  many.                                       1..  The. covenant he stood under was but  foedus
   several degrees they take; yea, and oppositions and                               naturae,  the covenant of nature; and such as, for the
   hazards they are to pass through,  ere the last and most                          conditions of it, was due unto such a creature, and
   royal crown of glory be set upon their heads.  `And this                          such as it became the Creator to make with him, if He
   He chose to do, to the-end to magnify and set forth the                           at all made him. And therefore the foundation of that
   glory of His own grace at last,  `as also to carry'and lead                       covenant was but the title of creation, and the  primi;
   us still on with wonderfrom one unto the other, and                               tive integrity in which God first made man, and there
   to prepare us to entertain that consummate happiness                              was nothing at all supernatural in it.
   at last with unalterable  (Qu. "unutterable"?  i ED.] as-                               3. Answerably, the reward, the promised life and
   tonishment and adoration. God hath not dealt thus                                 happiness that he should have had for doing and
   with the elect angels, who have had  no,changesi  but                           ' obeying, was but the continuance of the same happy
   `us, the sons of men, he shifteth from vessel to vessel,                          lifewhich he enjoyed in paradise, together with God's
  and shifteth us first from one condition  themanother,                             favour towards him. Which continuance in happiness
till He hath brought us  to.  that'utmost  refinement                    *           was natural to him; even as our divines say that
   which-may render us in the highest manner meet and                               mortality'(Qu. "immortality"?  - ED.) was, namely, in
   capable of Himself immediately. To this end He at                                 this sense, that it was a natural due unto him whilst he
   first created us in a pure and natural condition in                               should keep from sin, for God to preserve him in that
   Adam, and he the first of mankind; to let us see our                              state wherein at first he stood; and this preservation of
   imum  or bottom, what by the law of creation it was .                             him in that state, and in the favour of God, was the life
   that was our  due,,and how remote we were by that                                 promised; when God said, "Do this, and thou shalt
                                                                                     _.
   due from that glory He supernaturally in Christ, the                              live; ' ' and not the translating him, in the end, unto
   second Adam, had intended; that since grace freely                                that spiritual life in heaven,  ,which the angels have,
   had designed us as higher, the disproportion might ap-                            and which the -saints shall have. And for this my'
   pear that. so what was  the.gift of grace might rise up to                        r e a s o n s   a r e -
   its full  glory..ThenHe  lets us fall into sin and wrath,                               1. Because Christ, in I Cor. xv. 47, 48, is called "the
   which utterly spoiled and defaced that first native                               heavenly man," and the "Lord from heaven;" and
   beauty we had by creation, and plunged us into a                                  that in opposition to Adam, when at the best, whom
   contrary depth of misery. But then,. after that again,                            the apostle calls but an earthly man. And this differ-
   He gives forth the gospel, which discovers Christ as a                            ence in their condition he there evidently mentions, to
   redeemer  from'sin and wrath, who withal brings a-life ~  '                       shew that Christ was  the~first and only author of that
   and immortality to light, which by faith apprehended                              heavenly life which the saints in heaven do enjoy, and
   by us, puts-us into the state of grace, and a participa-                          He himself coming from heaven He carries us thither.
   tion of Christ,  such.as is suitable to the relation of the                       But on the contrary, Adam, as he was of earth, so he
   gospel in this life, far excelling Adam's state. (The                             w a s   b u t   a n   e a r t h l y   m a n ,   ( s o   v e r .   47),  a n d   h i s
   Works.of Thomas Goodwin  D.D.  vol. VII, Bdinburgh:                               happiness should have reached no higher. _v
   James I$choll 1863,  p.p. 34, 35)                                                       2. That paradise that Adam enjoyed was but the
                                                         !                           type of the paradise above, and his Sabbath a- type of
  Conaider  the following quote wherein we have                                      heaven, as himself was of Christ. And therefore he
the relationship of God with man defined as fellow-                                  was not to have entered into the heavenly paradise,
ship and `that this is given as the identification of                                except by this second Adam; Christ, whose paradise
the covenant of works.                                  `.                           alone it was.
          . .                                                       :


166                                                      THE  STANDARD BEARER                  -,
                                                              :


         3:  `1 observe, that the moral law (which was the law                    first covenant, God promised unto man life and
       of nature) makes mention of no such promise as of                          happiness, lordship over all the creatures, liberty to
       going to heaven. It speaks no such language; but only,                     use them, and all other blessings which his heart
       "Do this, and thou- shalt live;" that is, live as thou                     could desire, to keep him in that happy estate wherein
       dost, in God's favour, but yet still as on earth enjoyed.                  he was created.  (Thomas Brooks  vol. V, Banner of
         4. This accords with the like law of nature towards                      Truth Trust reprint, Edinburgh and Charlisle, Penn.
       all the creatures besides, who, by observing their                         1980, pp. 292 and 295)
   `laws, obtain not a higher station than they were cre-                        It is noteworthy, in distinction from the gener-
       ated in, only thereby they keep their own. The moon,                    ally accepted doctrine of the covenant of works
       by all the constancy of her motion, attains not to the                  held today, that the Westminster, Goodwin, and
       glory of the sun. Nor should man, by the moral law                      Brooks. make no mention of a probationary period.
       (which was to him but the law of nature), have at-                      In our opinion this is very telling.
  -  tamed the condition  of, the angels, had he fully
       complied with it,.  .~                                                    What is our conclusion?
         Yea,  5thly, I think that Adam's covenant, and the                   Although it might be difficult for us to know
       obedience unto it, was not able to do so much as                        exactly and  .conclusively what, the Westminster's
   `confirm him, and secure him in that'condition he was                       conception'of  the covenant of works is, this much
       created in, so far was it from being able to have trans-        "      we can  sa.y, It is not the rather generally accepted,
       planted him into heaven. For,  .'  a,;      i                          by present day Presbyterians or Reformed, doctrine
                                                  +'
         (1) I know no promise for it, that after such a time,                 of the covenant of works.
       and so long obedience performed; he should stand                          Briefly, it `would seem that, according to the
       perpetually. And without such a promise, we have no
       warrant so to think or judge of it.                                    Westminster Assembly,               the     17th century
                                                                              Presbyterian conception of the covenant of works
         and (2) Surely a creature being defectible, the                      was that created man owed God perfect obedience,
       covenant of nature with  " that creature, which                        that God voluntarily condescended in the creative
       proceedeth according to its due, and the obedience of
       that creature, could never have procured  indefectibil-                act so Adam might rightly know and love Him, that
       ity, for that must be of grace; and He was  ,more than a               Adam could lose. this wonderful estate by disobey-
       creature that did that for elect angels and men, even                  ing and' eating of the forbidden tree, and that
       Christ, God-man. (op.  tit:, pp. 49-51)     1                          Adam's wonderful condition in Paradise would
  Thomas Brooks gives the same presentation that                              have continued as long as he obeyed.
the promise of life was not eternal life but the con-                            We would ask any who  ,have more  and. better
tinuance of Adam's earthly, but very wonderful                                information on the 17th century concept of the
existencein Paradise.                                                        covenant of works to contact the author. I confess
                                                                              that.my studies and available research are limited.
         The end of this covenant was the upholding of the
       creation and of all the creatures in their pure natural              i Any help,' therefore, would be welcomed.
       estate, for the comfort of man continually,... "In this

Question Box  I

          Prbservatiofi :and the-Call to Repentance
                                                                    Rev.`C.   H a n k o



  The question box has received the question:                                 cause it to be understood entirely differently than
  Is it proper for a minister in addressing the con-                          was intended by the minister.
gregation to use the words of our Lord as in Luke                                We do agree with heart and soul'that the elect
13:3, 5, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise                             can never perish. There is no falling away of saints.
perish," or something similar to that, when the                               When the minister addresses the congregation as,
Bible says that the eZect can never perish?                                   "Beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ,"
  It is, of course, extremely difficult to take a single                      he is deeply aware of the fact that he is not ad-
statement that a minister. might make in his sermon                           dressing unconverted people, but he is speaking to
and judge that statement apart from its context. To                           "saints in Christ Jesus,`! even though he is also
lift a statement out of its context. could possibly                           aware of the fact that there may be, and likely is, a
change the entire meaning `of the statement, or                               carnal element present. No believer of Reformed


                                                                   \ THE STANDARD BEARER                          .                             167
                                                                                                                                      .


persuasion, whether minister on the pulpit or                                    falling of the wall of  Siloam.  This happened to.
 listener in the pew, will want to ignore or say any-                            people from the area of Jerusalem and not to  DDE-
 thing contrary to the doctrine of the preservation of                           spised Galileans. And again Jesus warns these self-
 the saints, "which God hath most abundantly                                     righteous Jews, who feel no need of repentance,
 revealed in His Word, for the glory of His Name,                                that they must repent before a greater evil befalls
 and the consolation of pious souls, and which he                                them. From the parable that follows it becomes
 impresses upon the hearts of the. faithful." "The                               evident that these wicked leaders were guilty of
 spouse of Christ hath always most tenderly loved                                rejecting the Christ, and that they would seal their
 and constantly defended it, as an inestimable                                   hatred. against Him by nailing Him to the cross.
 treasure; and God, against whom  neith,er counsel                               Their judgment and condemnation would, there-
 nor strength  can.prevail,  will dispose her to con-                            fore, be the greater.
 tinue this conduct to the end" Canons V, ,article  15.                             It is conceivable that a minister is plainly preach-
  Looking more directly at the text `in Luke 1313, 5,                            ing a sermon  that condemns all those who are  *
 we see at once that Jesus is  addiessing the Jewish                             guilty of spiritual indifference, or cold compla-
 leaders in particular, with also others present. Jesus                          cency, or even opposition to the Word of God.
 is answering those Jews w,ho made it a point to tell                            These may feel no need for repentance, taking the
 Him about the Galileans whose blood  ,Pilate had                                attitude, "The people of the Lord are we." To those
 mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. These                               the minister might issue the warning, in order to
 Galileans had come to the temple for the `purpose of                            stress the need of a hearty repentance, "Except ye
 sacrificing. Pilate, for some unknown reason, sent
                                                            _T       -     .*    repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
 his soldiers into the temple, contrary to the Jewlsh                               Never, under any circumstances, should such a
 law, and had; possibly in cold blood, killed these                              statement be made to deprive a sincere believer of
 Galileans. The blood of these victims was mingled                               the assurance of his faith. Never should such a
 with the blood of the sacrifice, and t-herefore  made                           statement undermine the truth, of the believer's
 the sacrifice impure and unacceptable before  God;                              eternal security. The Word certainly has a twofold
 The conclusion of the Jewish leaders seems to be                                purpose and a twofold effect; it must always serve
 that these Galileans were such wicked people that                               to condemn and admonish the wicked in their evil
 God had struck them down and rejected ltheir sacri-                             ways,..but positively it must always strengthen the
 fice. Reading the minds -of these self-righteous                                saints in their faith and hope in Jesus Christ.
 Jews, Jesus warns them that if they do not repent of
 their sins, they also will likewise perish under the                               It is my sincere hope that this may serve as a bit
 judgment of the living God. Our Lord even adds the                              of help to the one who sent the question. Our
 incident that involved eighteen men of  Judea who                               Question Box is always open to those who search
 were killed, not by the violence of Pilate, but by a                            the Scriptures and have questions pertaining to the
 direct act of providence, for they were killed by the                           Scriptures-and our faith in the Word.
 -

                    W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y   :
      On, December 6, 1980, our parents, MR.  AND' MRS.  UILKE
 TOLSMA celebrated together their-30th wedding anniversary. We,                                              - NOTICE!!!
 their children, are thankful to our heavenly Father for giving us  God-            On January 7, 1981, the Lord willing, the First Protestant Re-
 fearing parents and we pray that our God will continue to.keep and              formed Church of Holland, Michigan, will install their new, pastor,
 bless them in the years.  to, come to the glory of His  ,great and holy         Rev. R.G. Miersma. Rev. G. Van  Baren,  pastor  pf the Hudsonville
 name.                                                                           Protestant Reformed Church, will deliver the installation sermon and
      "The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in  Him; and     Rev. J.A.  Heys,"  Holland's former pastor, will read the Form for
 all the upright in heart shall glory." (Psalm  64:lO).                          Installation. This service will be held at 8 P.M.
 Arthur and Helen Tolsma         Richard and Sharon Tolsma                          All are invited. So plan now to attend this happy event and bring
      Tracy, Philip, Ryan            Kimberly                                    your family and your friends.          .     "
 Fred and Netty Tolsma           Brian Tolsma
                                 I r w i n   T o l s m a
                                                   Edmonton, Alberta, Canada


                                    News From Our Churches                                                                            -
                                                                   "
      There has been a considerable amount of activity                           Rev. Flikkema, who is presently the pastor of our
 in our calling congregations since our last news  "                             Isabel, South Dakota Church; and Rev. Miersma of
 column. Our Hope, Michigan congregation called                                  Pella accepted the call of our Holland congregation.


            . .

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


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       168           `
                     ...         :.                              y  -17-i.E ST ANDARD   I~EAFCR
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                                                                                                  :
       Two immediate results of that `decision are: Pella's                             mailed to Edmonton's clerk who inturn distributes
       formation of a trio consisting of Reverends Koole,                               them to the members of. the congregation at the
       Laming,   ,and  Slopsema,;   a n d   ithe  p l a n n e d                         earliest opportunity.
       installation of Rev. Miersma in Holland on January                                  That a considerable amount of church extension
       7, 1981; with Rev.  ,Van  BaTen delivering the                                   work is done by  our,congregations.is  evident from
       message and Rev. Heys reading the form for instal-                               the number of bulletin announcements and news-
       lation.                               /                                          letters we receive concerning this work. Following
          From our Birmingham Mission Station we learn                                  are some excerpts from responses to the church
       from  Rev.. Van  Overloop  that from 10 to 11  A.M.~                           extension work of' our South Holland and Hope,
       each Sunday morning one of his taped sermons is                                Michigan congregations: From Teiper, Taiwan':
       proclaimed on a `100,000 watt FM religious radio                               . "Thank you for sending me tapes of the Word of
       station in the Birmingham area. Rev. Yan Overloop                                God. I am serving Pastor in a small congregation in
       reports that although it is difficult to. evaluate the                           Taiwan...."
       effectiveness of this outreach, he does not doubt                                   From  Lancaster, Pa.:
       that the sermons. are being  heard: In addition. to                                                          "We were members of the
                                                                                        Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Pa. but we had,to
       some contacts that have been  made'as a result of                                leave as our minister was not of the old school, ,etc.
       the broadcasts, an interesting incident involving a                              We have been visiting, other churches.. We loan
       member of our South Holland  f congregation.                                     your tapes to others also who have left with us. I
       supports Rev.  Van. Overloop's belief. As I under-                               can't tell. you  what~  a blessing we receive from
       stand it, this member- received some watermelons                                 them. Could you continue to send them so we can
       that were. trucked in from the,South:  When it was                               hear a real sermon where we can receive a real
       learned that the melons came from Alabama,                                       b l e s s i n g . "
       mention was made  `of the mission work of our
       churches in the Birmingham area. Further discus-                                   From  Dundee, Scotland: "Having recently ob-
       sion brought to light the fact that the truck driver                             tained and read the,booklet `Saved By Grace' by the
       had even heard the name of our missionary pastor                                 Reverend R. Decker, I am most  impressed.,by  the
       from somewhere. More careful contemplation                                       truly Biblical and Reformed nature  of',the  booklet
       revealed that he must have heard by means of our                               * and desire to read more. Would you be so kind as to
       Birminghamradio broadcast.                           '                           send me the following? `Pentecostalism,in  the Light _.
         Back in, September an Edmonton bulletin                                        of the Word';- `God Is Our. Refuge and Strength';
       announced,  IThe  Sfanduvd Bearers are in the back                               `The Church Today.. . .A Comparison'; `Shall There
                                                                                      Be Reformation No More'; `The Christian's Social
       of Church."' Being so used to finding my own copy.                               Calling and the Second Coming of Christ'; plus
       in the mailbox each time, this announcement took.                               others if you have them. I notice that- the Rev. D.
       me a little by surprise. A recent conversation with                             Engelsma is the pastor of your church. Would you
       our business manager cleared everything up, how-.                               also send me a tape cassette of a sermon. of his? I
  ever. He told me that when the  S.B.`s were mailed                                   appreciate  -that  as a stranger and a foreigner' my
       by bulk rate it took from six to eight weeks for the                            requests seem like begging, but I would dearly like
       subscribers  to, receive their copies. (Consider, if                            to have them."
       you.will, how old the S.B. news is even  -for those
       who live in the Grand Rapids area'; then try to                                    From Lakeside,  Calif.: "I have found your
       imagine how stale it would be six or more weeks                                 pamphlet on `Good News For the Afflicted' a great
       later.) Determined to keep our Edmonton people                                  comfort to those who have had much to suffer.
1 current, Mr. Vander Wal sought out other mailing                                     Please send m.e 24 copies for use in pastoral work.
       methods, with the result that they now receive the                              If~there  is any expense, please bill me. Thank you.
       Standard Bearer in about one week. Though it costs                              Sincerely in the Lord."
       slightly  ,more, twenty-two  .copies of' the  S.B.- are                                                                            CK


