           T h e
      STANDAR
P         BEARER
            A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                  .



       God's people become illiterates as far as
                                                                     .
     reading and understanding the abstract, splr-
     itual truths of Scripture are concerned..
     Good., spiritual books are written but all they
     do is decorate our book-shelves. They are
     not read. Reading and studying the Bible be-
     comes too difficult and far too time--consum-
     ing; and to spend  .time reading other reli-
     gious books and periodicals just takes too
     much time out of our busy lives.
     See "Spiritual Illiteracy and the Rise of
                                    Antichrist' `-page 2 11


                                          Volume LVII, No. 9, February 1, 1981-


194                                                               TH'E STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                 S-+-monthly,  except monthly during June, July, and August.
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                                                                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Jesus Christ Our Lord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194          Departmenl  Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197    denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma. Rev. Richard
                                                                                       Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Mr.
  The Lord Gave the Word-                                                              Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                       Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
       Reformed Evangelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197             Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION

                                           Jesus Christ Our Lord .                                                                                                     I
                                                                           Rev. C. Hanko

               Ques. 34. Wherefore callest thou him our Lord?'
              Ans. Because he hath redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins, not with gold or
               silver, but with his precious blood, and hath delivered us from all the power of the devil, and
               thus made us his own property. Heid. Catechism, Loid's rjay 13.


"Our Lord."                                                                                   Noah blessed the God of Shem because his hope
                                                                                          of salvation was centered in the generations of
  Every child that was born in the line of the cove-                                      Shem.
nant aroused new hopes in the hearts of our first                                            Abraham longed to see Christ's day. Jacob spoke
parents, Adam and Eve. They .were looking for the                                        of the coming of Shiloh, and breathed the cry of
promised Seed as they rejoiced in the birth of Seth,                                     longing, "I have waited for Thy salvation, 0 Lord"
Enos, Cainan,  Mahalaleel, Jared, and Enoch.                                              (Gen. 49:18).


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               195



  It was David who was privileged to hear with a             Our Catechism teaches us in the section quoted
prophetic ear, "The Lord (Jehovah, the covenant            above that there are three specific benefits that we
God of His people) said to my Lord (Adonai, the            derive from that confession, namely, He redeems,
Mighty One), Sit Thou at My right hand, until I            He delivers us, and He makes us His property.
make Thine enemies Thy footstool" (Psalm  11O:l).            Our Lord Redeemer..
The king who fought the battles of the Lord saw the          Our Lord has "redeemed us, both soul and body,
promised Christ risen from the dead, exalted at the        from all our sins, not with gold or silver, but with
right hand of the Father, with all power entrusted         His precious blood."
to Him in heaven and on earth, until the mighty
Jehovah gives Him the glorious victory over all His          The first thing that comes to our minds as we
enemies in the creation.                                   read this is that we come into this world as children
                                                           of Satan, slaves of sin, and in the bondage of death.
  Daniel declares, "I saw in the night visions, and,       When Adam and Eve fell in paradise, God's just  -
behold, one like the Son of man came with the              punishment upon them and us was, "The soul that
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days,         sins must die." The death that we died in paradise
and they (the angel host) brought Him before Him.          includes nothing less than the heavy burden of
And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and           God's wrath upon us. That wrath includes that God
a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,        gave us over to Satan, the prince of darkness, so         r
should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting           that he has power over us to rule.over us. We even
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His king-         bear his deceitful nature as his children. We are
dom that which- shall not be destroyed." What a            evil, sold under sin and bound in the shackles of I  '
wonderful preview that was of the mighty Con-              physical and eternal death. We would not be
queror coming forth out of the torments of hell, out       honest with ourselves if we should try to deny this.
of death and the grave, marching triumphantly into         Yet what fools we are. We imagine that our free-
the highest heavens to receive of the Father a Name        dom lies in sinning, that we can transgress God's
which is above all names, "King of kings and Lord          law and escape His condemnation. We call that
of lords"!                                                 fun, real living, even while we can hardly fail to
  When Jesus began His public ministry His disci-          realize that the reward of sin is death. We are
ples first were impressed by the fact that He spoke.       taking a heady, exciting ride down a steep slope
with authority, and not as the scribes, so that they       that opens into the chasm of hell. Yet we love it.
made bold to call Him Rabbi, Master. But when              We refuse to give it up. The shackles of sin and the
they beheld His power over devils, sickness, and           power of death are too strong for us to break.
death, and saw that even the winds and the seas
obeyed Him, they began to call Him Lord. Many                But we have a Redeemer in the-heavens, Who is
others who were healed from their physical infirmi-        none other than GOD. God has eternally appointed
ties and who were quickened to a living faith in           His Son, the Christ, to be our representative Head,
Him fell down in worship before Him and con-               our substitute, to break the power of sin, and to set
fessed Him as their Lord. After the resurrection           us free in the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
Thomas cries out, "My Lord and my God."                    The price of redemption had to be paid-not to
                                                           Satan, but to God, for God's justice had to be satis-
  Today we sing of our exalted Lord in heavenly            fied. Not all the gold and silver in this world, no
glory when we confess with the church of the               matter what its value may be per ounce on the com-
shadows, "Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye        mon market, can redeem one soul from even the
lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory       smallest sin. No  ,angel in heaven, not all the blood
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord         of sheep and rams in the Old Testament sacrifices,
strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle"              no Moses and no Paul could deliver us. But God's
(Psalm  24:7,8). For we now  ,"see  Jesus, Who was         Son, Jesus Christ, stands eternally before the triune
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering      God, His Father, declaring, "I come to do Thy will,
of death, crowned with glory and honor" (Heb.              0 God!" God came in the flesh in the person of the
2:9). He is the Lamb that was slain, and Who lives         Son; took on the form of a Servant, and humbled
and reigns in heaven, that we may live and. reign          Himself to the bitter, shameful, accursed death of
with Him in His glorious kingdom, "Our Lord Jesus          the cross. He did this to pay the ransom price of His
Christ."                                                   own precious blood, God's blood, as an atonement
  This is a `very personal confession, for as indi-        for the sins of all His people. Were there millions
vidual believers we may say,  "My  Lord." Yet we           more, this sacrifice would have been sufficient
never want to isolate ourselves from the assembly          even then. But God gave His Son as a ransom for
of the saints, of which we are such an integral part,      His chosen peopie. Christ laid down His life for His
so that we count it a privilege to declare with all be-    sheep. The fact that you and I may be privileged to
lievers that He is "Our Lord."                             count ourselves among this people, these sheep,


196                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     I



fills us with humble worship. In deepest gratitude         only an armor bearer with him, into the camp of
we may confess: "I know that my Redeemer                   Saul and his three thousand soldiers, we also can
liveth! ' '                                                meet the enemy in the confidence that no one can
   We are redeemed in body and soul, for time and          harm the Lord's anointed. Even as a small army of
eternity; redeemed to the adoption of sons,                Judah could go out and gain the victory over a
members of the family of God; redeemed to live             mighty enemy host, often without shooting an
and reign with Christ in the new creation forever          arrow, so we also always have the victory in our
and ever!                                                  Lord Jesus Christ. When God is for us no one can
                                                           be against us. We are more than conquerors
   Our Lord Deliverer.                                     through our Lord, Who loved us unto death and
   I belong to the spiritually armed forces of the liv-    loves us still.
ing God, not as an enlistee, nor as a volunteer for          Our Lord Possessor.
Jesus, but as a draftee who has been drawn by the
impulsion of the Holy Spirit through the means of             Our Lord is ours, and we are His sole possession.
the Word of God. According to God's sovereign              He has a very special claim on us as His peculiar
election, and on the merit of Christ's atoning death,      property. We are as closely knit to Him as members
I underwent a second birth. I was separated from           of the body are united with the head. We are one
the world, which became my enemy, and I became             with Him as sheep of one Shepherd. He intercedes
a new creature in Christ, a soldier of the cross. I am     for us in heaven, and from heaven blesses us with
a friend of those who love God, and an enemy of all        every spiritual blessing. He is the Bridegroom Who
those who oppose Him. Therefore I find myself out          is preparing the Home for His Bride, and preparing
on the battlefield, called to ward off my many per-        His Bride for His Home to live and reign'with Him
sonal enemies and to guard the City of my God day          in His glorious Kingdom forever.
and night. We live in an evil day, for the devil is           Our Lord's rule is totalitarian. Peoples may rage,
taking his last stand and making his final attack          but He directs their lives that, in spite of them-
upon God's Name and God's Cause. I cannot begin            selves, they serve His purpose. Nations, like
to tell how many cunning onslaughts are made               Russia, may devise schemes and plans for power,
against God Himself, to wipe His Name from off             but God's Christ reigns as our Lord in the heavens.
the earth, against His Christ, His infallible Word,        Antichrist may lift his vile head, but his doom is
His Church, both as institute and as it manifests          sealed by the victory of the cross twenty centuries
itself in its various members. The devil has suc-          ago.
ceeded in creating a spirit of complacency, a cold           There is nothing, not a thumb breadth of all that
indifference in the hearts of members of the               we claim as our own, that does not belong to Christ.
church, who cry, "Peace, peace," even when here-           Our time, our very life, our strength, our gifts and
sies arise and the very foundations are being under-       talents, our families and homes, and everything
mined. Even as our Lord forewarned us, the ten vir-        else must be used in His service. We are servants in
gins rest, some in slumber, some in deep sleep. I          His house and vineyard who will be called to
find myself a victim of satanic attacks every              account when He returns.
moment of the day and night. This would be of no
concern to me, if it were not for the fact that I am         To Him we owe our whole allegiance. The more
prone by nature to succumb, because of my innate           so, because the Lord is our Shepherd, Who leads us
selfish pride, and my evil inclination to hate God         in green pastures and beside still waters, ever
and my closest neighbor; I know, as our Canons             leading us onward to the sheepfold of glory. In that
teach, that if it were not for Christ, the Captain of      confidence  :we confess: "And I shall dwell in the
my salvation, Who preserves me by the power of             House of the Lord forever." You see, we belong to
His grace and Spirit, I not only might perish, but I       Jesus.
certainly  would.  Therefore I need the complete
armor of God, wearing on my head the helmet of
salvation, on my chest the breastplate of righteous-
ness, about my waist the girdle of truth, on my feet               The Stand&d Bearer
the shoes of the preparedness of the gospel of
peace, gripping firmly in my left hand the shield of         makes a thoughtftil gift
faith to ward off all the fiery darts of the evil one,
and in my right hand the sword of the Spirit, which
is, along with all the rest, the Word ofGod. Shoulder                         for a shut-in.
to shoulder I stand with all those who belong to the
armed forces of the living God in an evil world. Our
confidence is that, even as David could go alone,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              197



                                        Editor's Notes

With this issue we present a new department edi-           for the month of March. We would appreciate hear-
tor, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, who will be responsible         ing from our readers about this. Do you like the
for Signs of the Times for the next six issues. We wel-    special issues? Would you rather not have them?
come him to the ranks of our associate editors.            Do you have suggestions for others? Drop your Edi-
Thanks, Rev. Flikkema, for your quota of six arti-         tor a note.
cles so faithfully submitted!                                                    * *  *  * *
                      * *  * * *                           The Editorial Department will be omitted in this is-
Our readers will have noticed that this year from          sue, in order to make room for some long overdue
time to time we have- presented special issues of          book reviews. We must keep peace with the pub-
the  Stundard  Beaver, devoted in their entirety to        lishers, or they will stop sending us books for
one subject. We have one more such special issue           review.
planned-on the subject of Missions. It is planned

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                                 Reformed Evangelism
                                              Prof. Robert D. Decker




  In previous articles we `have distinguished              bases his distinction between mission work among
among the various aspects of the church's mission-         the heathen and that done among the "covenant
ary task. There is mission work which must be              wanderers" on a threefold parallel: 1) The
done among the heathen. Missionary efforts must            prophets of the Old Testament were sent to apos-
be directed toward the Jews who are the natural            tate Israel. 2) Jesus' compassion for and His send-
branches of the olive tree of God's church (cf.            ing of the disciples to "lost sheep of the house of
Romans 11). There is also mission work to be done          Israel." These were as sheep without a shepherd.
among what we termed, "covenant wanderers."                Jesus was deeply concerned for them. He both per-
`This latter work we prefer to call evangelism, or Re-     sonally and through His disciples ministered to
formed evangelism. At this point the question is: is       them (cf. Matthew 9, 10,  et  al.) 3) There is finally
this a legitimate aspect of the missionary task of the     the example of the apostles who "beginning at Jeru-
church? Should the church do mission work exclu-           salem went through Samaria  to the uttermost parts
sively among the Jews and heathen or does the              of the world" (Luke 24:47) and then, too, always to
church have a calling to preach the gospel (evange-        "the Jew first and also the Gentile." In this connec-
lize) to those who have apostatized?                       tion Bavinck makes a point well taken when he
  Dr. J. H. Bavinck answers the question affirma-          writes that the distinction between "covenant wan-
tively. He defines this work as the church's "efforts      derers" and heathen is not to be overstressed be-
to bring back into the church covenant members             cause the two are coming together. The gap be-
who have wandered or strayed away..." (pp.  74ff.,         tween the two is narrowing. This is due primarily
An Introduction To The Science Of Missions). Bavinck       to two reasons: the growing secularism of our times
points out that there is a real difference between         and the woeful ignorance of the wanderers.
work carried on among the "churched" and                      We essentially agree with Bavinck's position.
among those who have never heard the gospel.               The church definitely has a calling to labor among
Among the latter obviously one can assume no               covenant wanderers. This belongs to Church Refor-
prior knowledge of the gospel. The missionary              mation, and Church Reformation is always the call-
must come to them-with the milk of the Word, for           ing of the church; it belongs to the genius of the
these are not able to receive the meat. Bavinck            Reformed Faith. The Church must be Reformata et


1 9 8                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



semper Refovmanda,  Reformed and always Reform-                       means those who are apostatizing. These are what
ing.                                                                  Bavinck calls "covenant wanderers." Missionary
   This is also the position of the Form For The Ordi-                work  .-among these the Protestant Reformed
nation Of Missionaries used by the Protestant Re-                     Churches call "Church Extension" and/or "Church
formed Churches. We noted in the previous article                     Reformation." The preamble to the  Constitution .of
that the Form distinguishes between the "Heathen"                     the Mission Committee  of these Churches reads:
and the "Dispersed." The Heathen are those who                         "The Protestant Reformed Churches believe that,
in their generations are outside of the covenant:                     in obedience to the command of Christ, the King of
"all nations" in distinction from Israel. The                         the Church, to preach the blessed Gospel to all
grounds which the  Form  cites are: Matthew  28:19                    creatures, baptizing, and teaching them to observe
where Jesus instructs the disciples to baptize and                    all things which Christ has commanded, it is the ex-
instruct "all nations',`; Peter's vision and his preach-              plicit duty and sacred privilege of said churches to
ing to Cornelius (Acts 10); and the church at  Anti-                  carry out this calling according to the measure of
och ordaining Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13). This is                    our God-given ability.
valid, this is missions. The church, as long as his-                     "We believe that this missionary activity
tory continues, must go and preach the gospel to all                  includes the work of church extension,  *and church
nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune                     reformation, as well as the task of carrying out the
God.                                                                  Gospel to the unchurched and heathen. However,
   Concerning the dispersed the  Form  has this to                    we are convinced that our present duty lies primar-
say:                                                                  ily in the field of church extension and church
                                                                      reformation." (Quoted from the revised constitu-
           That unto the  Dispersed  also these glad tidings must
         be brought is plainly inferred from what God says in         tion, Acts ofSynod 1977, p. 32)
         Ezekiel  34:11-16: "For thus saith the Lord God:               The `grounds cited by the  Form  for working
         Behold I Myself, even I, will search for My sheep, and       among the dispersed are fourfold: 1) Ezekiel 34:11-
         will seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his            16. This passage speaks of God's promise to gather
         flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are         and feed His scattered sheep. These were scattered
         scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I         by unfaithful shepherds (cf. vss 4-6) and belong to
         will deliver them out of all places whither they have        the house of Israel. 2) Jesus was sent to "the lost
         been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will        sheep of the house of Israel" (cf. Matthew  15:24;
         bring them out from the peoples, and gather them
         from the countries, and will bring them into their own       John  4122).  3) Jesus sent the disciples to the lost
         land; and I will feed them upon the mountains of Isra-       sheep of the house of Israel upon whom He had
         el, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places     compassion because they were as sheep without a
         of the country. I will feed them with good pasture,          shepherd (cf. Matthew 9, 10). 4) There is the exam-
         and upon the mountains of the height of Israel shall         ple of the Apostle Paul who in all his labors always
         their fold be: there shall they lie down, saith the Lord     went to "the Jew first and also the Greek or Gen-
         God. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring         tile. Our Lord in His ministry followed this formu-
         again that which was driven away, and will bind up           la. He Himself went and He sent His disciples to
         that which was broken, and will strengthen that              "the lost sheep of the House of Israel." The Apos-
         which was sick. I will feed them in judgment."               tles did likewise. They went from Jerusalem to
           That the Lord does this by means of His servants, is       Samaria  and thence to the uttermost parts of the
         clearly shown by the way wherein God, in the same            earth. And even St. Paul, the great missionary to
         chapter, rebukes the unfaithful shepherds: "Neither          the Gentiles, went and preached in the synagogues
         have ye brought again that which was driven away,"           first, and he carried with him to his grave a tremen-
         and expresses His holy indignation because: "My              dous, heartfelt concern for his brethren, "his kins-
         sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon
         every high hill: yea, My sheep were scattered upon all       men according to the flesh" (cf. Romans 9:lff.). But
         the face of the earth; and there was none that did           the question persists: does this mean, as our  Form
         search or seek after them." Ezek. 34:4, 6.                   infers, that our first calling and mission responsibil-
                                                                      ity is always Church Extension and Church Refor-
           The same follows from the fact that Jesus, Who
         Himself was sent to the "lost sheep of the House of Is-      mation and then we go to the heathen? This is expli-
         rael," calls the Church the salt of the earth, while         citly stated in the Preamble to the Mission Consti-
         besides all this, the example of the Apostle Paul teach-     tution. Should this be revised, or is it correct?
         es us plainly that it is our high calling to bring the         We believe the emphasis is correct. While it is
         bread of life to our dispersed brethren after the flesh      certainly true that the Jews enjoy' a unique priority
         everywhere, and therefore certainly first of all in our      (cf. Romans 9  .-  ll),  the analogy referred to in the
         own country, to gather them, if possible, as congrega-       Form  (the Jew. first-then the Gentile) holds. The
         tions of our Lord.                                           church must first go to the "covenant wanderers"
   By the "dispersed" it is evident that the  Form                    and then the heathen. We must first labor among


                                            THE STANDARD  BEARE'R                                                     199



our "brethren after the flesh." We,quite agree with          Ideally, therefore, the Church will have a  two-
the Preamble to the Mission constitution that our          pronged mission program. The church will direct
first reponsibility is to those who are closest to us.     its efforts to the dispersed and to the heathen. The
In all of this we must follow the Spirit's direction       church will do this under the direction of the Holy
and seek the doors which He opens to us. We must           Spirit of Christ and by His grace. -Neither aspect of
labor according to the opportunities presented by          this two-pronged mission will be to the detriment
the Holy Spirit and by the grace which He supplies.        of the other. Neither will be to the exclusion of the
We must be very conscious of this calling. It              other. Beginning at "Jerusalem," at home in its
belongs to the very essence of the missionary task         own locale, the Church of Jesus Christ, in obedi-
of the Church of Jesus Christ. We must zealously           ence to its Lord, will preach the Gospel, seeking to
seize every opportunity and "labor while it is day,        effect continual reformation and seeking to reach
ere the night  cometh in which no man can labor."          the untold numbers of elect in every nation under
We must never forget that now is the accepted              heaven until finally the multitude which no man
time, now is the Day of the Lord. We must remem-           can number is complete and Jesus comes again in
ber that right now the fields are white with harvest       all His power and great glory.
and the laborers are few.

TRANSLATED TREASURES



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



(In the last part of the last article Dr. Kuyper began     cal congregation into the area. At Doetinchem there
a discussion of the deformation of the churches. He        is the Dutch Reformed Church (State Church) with
defined what he meant by deformation, i.e., the de-        its own consistory and ministers, preachers, elders
terioration of a church which had once held a cor-         and deacons. But alongside of this church, in the
rect form according to the Scriptures and was now          same Doetinchem, exists yet another church on a
in need of church reformation. This idea of the de-        par with it, with its own government  and its own
formed church Kuyper continues to discuss in the           institution,  which calls itself a mission  congrega-
following paragraphs.)                                     tion.1  No matter with what good intentions these
36. Concerning Imperfect Church Formation.                 rules might be brought into existence, yet they are
                                                           to be very sternly condemned on the ground of the
  Churches which, without suffering deformation,           principles of our Reformed church polity. Nothing
nevertheless do not manifest the true form of the          like this must happen. No, mission churches can
church, -not even in an in-itself attainable form,         only originate where there is yet no church, and,
exist in a state of imperfection. Completeness there-      therefore, either in lands inhabited by Jews,
fore requires that we treat also this imperfect            heathen, or Mohammedans, or in areas of our own
church, at least in so far as it concerns many             land where faith in Jesus Christ is destroyed; but
churches in our day.                                       only in those places.
  Incomplete churches can be of four kinds,
namely,  .mission churches, occasional churches,             Such mission churches can arise in two different
churchesunder the cross, and protesting churches.          ways, namely, either because an existing church
We must treat each of these churches individually.         sends delegates there from elsewhere to establish a
Mission churches are not what men now call them,           church, or because particular believers are a means
                                                           in God's hand to make confessors of unbelievers
e.g., in Doetinchem and on the Vluchtheuvel.
There men have, in opposition to all good princi-          11 have omitted here a paragraph from the translation which
ples of church polity, in places where a church            has reference to local circumstances which are no longer
already exists, imposed a second kind of ecclesiasti-      known to us. The interested reader can consult the original.


200                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



and because these confessors unite into a church.         sea for a long time. Or an occasional church forms
  A mission church of the first kind begins in an         itself in a resort where a few Christians stay togeth-
extremely imperfect way and for the time being            er for. awhile. Earlier many such churches were
consists only of the family of the minister of the        formed in embassies because Christian ambassa-
Word sent to that place. It is then a daughter            dors with their Christian families and helpers
church of the church which has sent him. It stands        movedamong Mohammedans and heathen. Or also
under its consistory, under that confession, and, as      Reformed ambassadors were in Roman and Luther-
a plant not yet on its own but bound to the mother        an courts. With the exception of a few embassy
plant. If God grants to a few of the inhabitants of       churches these occasional churches never received
that place conversion, then these are baptized, not       a definite form. Often all ecclesiastical institutions,
by virtue of the office of the minister, but by virtue    even all use of the sacraments were missing, and a
of a power extended to the minister by the sending        minister of the Word, in case such an office bearer
consistory. If that circle spreads out, then holy         were even present, stood entirely by himself with-
communion is also granted under similar condi-            out a consistory and therefore without government.
tions. And at first in a gradual way one would begin      For the merchantmen this presented less difficulty
to place an individual elder and deacon alongside of      where these men were considered to belong under
the minister of the Word so that in this way the          the consistories of the port of clearance. But even
organization of this church is gradually brought to       this connection was lacking for the army in the
completion and the day brought about when it, as a        field and for the navy at sea. Mostly the minister of
severed cutting from the mother church, can begin         the Word was not even chosen by the church but
its own independent existence. One has, in this           by the military administration. And so we have
mission church, an image of a yet imperfect church        here examples of scarcely recognizable churches
which is for a period of time without the right use       which lack nearly every mark and yet in their tem-
of the sacraments and without the exercise of disci-      poral and imperfect form are not entirely devoid of
pline. But the character of a church cannot be de-        an ecclesiastical character. The justification for this
nied to this church while it is coming into existence.    very imperfect form of the church lies in the impos-
                                                          sibility `of doing anything else. And, therefore, as
  Somewhat different is the process where a mis-          soon as the possibility was present, these men
sion church originates by individual initiative. To       immediately abandoned such imperfect church for-
take an extreme case, it is even conceivable that a       mations. So efforts always were condemned to es-
few castaways, landed on an unknown island,               tablish separate little churches in high schools, in
bring the inhabitants of this island to conversion        royal palaces, in the courts of nobles, in places of
and to Christ, and yet, through lack of communica-        pleasure, in  ,religious  institutions, and such like,
tion, are unable to come into contact with an exis-       places. Indeed, separate preaching and separate
ting church. In such a case these confessors ought        sacraments administered in these places are per-
not to live without a church connection but would         mitted by way of forming parishes, because (and to
be obligated to establish a church, to choose over-       this principle one must hold with tooth and nail)
seers and deacons, to permit to be installed by these     such parishes are under the consistory of that place
office bearers a minister of the Word, and through        and are subject to the exercise of discipline so that
him to introduce a ministry of the Word, the use of       both the administration of the key of preaching and
the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline. This      the administration of the holy sacraments take
situation would only very rarely occur but it does        place not on the authority of the one who seeks
place the process of becoming a church in the             help or of the minister but on the authority of the
clearest light. Mostly such a circle of believers can     mandate of the consistory. What happened at Loo,
make contact with existing churches; and then the         when the king appointed court preachers who, out-
proper procedure is to ask help from an existing          side of union with the consistory of Apeldoorn,
church so that a delegated minister of the Word           preached and administered the sacraments, is
may come to that place with an elder to proceed to        opposed to the requirements of Reformed Church
choose overseers, to recommend a ministry of the          polity. Such ministers must either be commis-
Word from elsewhere, and to seal the confession of        sioned by the consistory of  s'Gravenhage or sanc-
the converted by holy baptism. Occasional                 tioned by the consistory of Apeldoorn.
churches are those imperfect churches which origi-
nate temporarily, never receive definite and com-           Churches under the cross, the third kind of oc-
plete manifestation, and disappear again with the         casional churches, are either imperfect or curtailed
disappearance of the reason which brought them            churches. Their peculiar character is that they are
into existence. Thus, an occasional church forms it-      brought into their stunted condition not by inner
self in times of war in an army in the field. Or an       corruption but, on the contrary, because of a great
occasional church forms itself on a fleet which is at     demonstration on' their part of the power of faith. A


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                              201



church under the cross is in fact alwavs a                           If this were the case then one would have to aban-
                                                  L        nerse-
cuted church. If the magistrate of a land or  c'ity or               don it and go over to a new church formation. But
village becomes hostile and misuses his power as                     the church, as much as it may yet be the good
magistrate to shut down the worship of the church,                   church of Christ, fails to show itself as church and
then the cross of persecution comes upon such a                      fails to show its life because of the unfaithfulness or
church. Such a cross can be very light, heavy, or                    declared enmity of church rulers who have falsely
moderate, and according as the cross is, the incom-                  crept in. Such church rulers who have penetrated
pleteness of such a church is small or great. Put                    the church are maintained in their positions by
such a cross of persecution on the churches of God                   various powers. Sometimes that power can lie in
before they can completely organize themselves,                      the church itself if many hypocrites enter who out-
the cross does not in that case cut off an existing                  vote the believers and who with the majority of
organization but rather prevents the realization of                  votes maintain an unbelieving and opposing church
it. Thus it was in the days of the Reformation when                  government. That power can also lie in correspon-
newly formed churches fell into the fire of persecu-                 dence, with other churches, i.e., in the denomina-
tion; and so it was, although in a different way,                    tion, if this denomination holds its hand over the
with the new church formation of 1834, which,                        head of unfaithful overseers and prevents their
when just risen, was more or less stunted in its free                expulsion in a believing congregation where there
development. If such a cross of persecution is very                  are only a few hypocrites. Or, finally, that power
heavy as it was under the persecution of the Roman                   can be found outside the church if the magistrate
Caesars and under the Romish pope, then such a                       continues such unfaithful overseers in office
church of the cross can become entirely incom-                       through direct or indirect influences. Also two or
plete, lose all organization, be robbed of its minis-                even three of these causes can work together if
ters and overseers, lose the ministry of the Word                    there are churches which suffer under being  out-
and sacraments, and finally exist only in the small                  v.oted by hypocrites, are bound in an obstructing
circle of believers, and yet without the essence of                  church connection, and, e.g., are hindered in the
the church falling away. With a less heavy cross,                    performance of what is right by the influence of
such a church of the cross can lose only its meeting                 state salaries.-Yet under whatever form this vexa-
place and the regular use of her minister so that it                 tion of the church of Christ appears, this vexation is
meets in secret, must gather in different places and                 never the cross of persecution, but rather the vexa-
must help itself with the edification of edifiers.2                  tion of being oppressed under an intruding
Such a church is often cut off from all contact with                 unfaithful church government which one would
neighboring churches. With a very light cross, on                    surely like to throw out but is unable for the time
the other hand, no other tribulations usually come                   being. In all such cases such a church, as long as it
over such a church of the cross than that she is                     does its duty, becomes an aggrieved church, i.e., a
punished with fines, that she is deprived of certain                 church which complains to God that her vexation
privileges and that she cannot maintain her just,                    may be taken away. She still has the consciousness
public character. Appearing in many diverse grada-                   that she shall renew herself no matter how deathly
tions, these churches under the cross demonstrate,                   sick she is. And she, finally, is not misled by any
therefore, to us an entire series from the almost                    dead theories, but reveals the rightness of her com-
complete to the almost unrecognizable, always,                       plaint exactly in this that she directs herself, be it
however, distinguished by this from  -all other                      but imperfectly, to the Word of God. A church
incomplete churches, that they not only want to be                   which complains without raising herself is a com-
complete but also would be if the cross of persecu-                  plaining but not a grieving church. Indeed a church
tion would only cease.                                               which would have a right to grieve before God and
  Aggrieved churches, the last kind of occasional                    man is such a gathering of believers which separ-
churches, are a kind of imperfect church which                       ates herself from those who oppress the church,
also desires to be complete and would be, but it is                  appoints faithful overseers according to the Word
hindered in this, not by the cross. of persecution                   of God, and, giving over the consequences to God
which the magistrate places upon it, but exclusive-                  Almighty, she proceeds as soon as possible to a
ly by the pressure which a church body forces                        good institution of the ministry of the Word and
upon it and falsely exercises over it. Also in this                  sacraments. In the meantime, these attempts lead
connection one must think of various grades and                      immediately to very imperfect results. It can be
cases, agreeing however in this that the church                      that men can find only very few overseers inclined
itself is not yet to be considered false nor unformed.               to accept this office. It can be that men can have
                                                                     the ministry of the Word in no other way than very
2Edifiers  are men chosen from the congregation to lead the con-     irregularly. Perhaps the ministry of the sacraments
gregation in worship even though they are not official minis-        is only once per year. This does not harm the
ters of the Word.                                                    character of the grieving church. It remains church.


  202                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  It has the essence of the church. It seeks the  well-      under the imperfect churches also the very small
  being of the church.                                       and, as a rule, vacant churches. But where this
    For the sake of completeness one could count             phenomenon is not abnormal, it is outside our
                                                             discussion.

  MYSHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                      Letter to Timothy


                              February  1,198l               love the Lord his God with all his heart and mind
  Dear Timothy,                                              and soul and strength. This was pleasing to Adam
                                                             and in this he found his delight. Nevertheless, we
    In  my-last  letter I mentioned, toward the end,         must remember that Adam was created as a part of
  that the best way to understand the emotions and           the whole earthly creation. He was related to every
  their effect upon us is to discuss the various kinds       single creature which God had formed. And as
  of emotions. Perhaps if we have some understand-           related to every creature, he was a part of all that
  ing of this matter we will have a deeper apprecia-         happened in this earthly creation. These relation-
  tion also of the role that emotions play in our life.      ships were infinitely varied and of every conceiv-
   Before we discuss the different kinds of emotions         able source. To all these relationships and in all
  however, we must bear in mind that there is basi-          these experiences Adam reacted, also emotionally.
  cally only one kind of emotion or feeling in us-al-        There were, so far as we can tell, no reactions of
  though that one emotion of feeling has two sides to        dislike in God's world. How could that be in a
  it. Our entire emotional life can be reduced to            perfect world? All the creation and all Adam's
  feelings of like or dislike, attraction or revulsion.      experience in it were sources of pleasure and
  Our'emotions are basically a matter of liking or dis-      delight. Whatever Adam saw and whatever Adam
  liking whatever comes to our attention and what-           ate; whatever he heard and whatever he touched;
  ever is part of experience. Whatever happens to us,        whatever happened in the garden and whatever
  whatever is part of our life is either liked by us or      happened to him, all was pure delight and happi-
  disliked by us, and that fact is basically what            ness. There was nothing to be disliked, nothing to
  emotions are all about.                                    repulse Adam, nothing to be displeasing to him.
    God made us that, way. Man was originally                There was nothing which could bring a frown to his
  created that way in Paradise. It is clear that this is     brow and a look of horror or revulsion to his face.
  unique to the life of man, for animals and lower           There was nothing from which he shrank back in
  creatures do not have this at all, or, if they do, they    disgust and nothing loathsome to him. There was
  have this in a very low and unintelligible way.            nothing which made him weep and nothing which
  There is, among some animals, obviously  a.feeling         filled him with anger.
  of like or dislike also. An animal likes to be fed, has      Nothing? Well, there was one thing. That was
  certain preferences in food, dislikes being beaten,        sin. Adam did not know experientially what sin
  etc. But these are part of the instinctual life of the     was, but God explained to him what disobedience
  animal and are present in the animal only because          was. There was the tree of life, but there was also
  the animal was created by God in the image of              the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And,
  man.                                                       while even with respect to this tree it was a delight
    But God made man to have these definite feel-            to Adam to obey his God by refusing to eat of that
  ings ,of like or dislike. When Adam was in a state of      tree, nevertheless a certain horror must have been
  perfection in Paradise, these. feelings of like and        at least part of Adam's emotional life when he saw
  dislike were all morally and ethically related to          the possibility of disobedience to his God.
  Adam's calling to serve God. That is, what he liked          Nevertheless, for the most part, feeling and
  was what was pleasing to God and what he disliked          emotions of dislike have come after the fall of
  was that which was contrary to God's command-
- _ _                                                        Adam and the human race into sin. We too stand in
  ments. His whole life revolved around his calling to       the middle of God'sworld related to all the  differ-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             203


ent parts of the creation and to our fellow men in an      them desires. It is particularly characteristic of them
infinite variety of relationships. We are created in       that they are things we  want.  They involve a
such a way that we respond emotionally to all              specific activity of the will because they are what
about us. We are always filled with like or dislike in     we  wilZ  to have, what we  want  to have, what we
relation to everything. We can never be neutral in         desire.  They are of different kinds depending on
these things. We sometimes think that we are               their strength. Perhaps the weakest of all is what
neutral. But it is really not the case. We certainly       we may call inclinations. Now it is characteristic of
have stronger feelings about some things than              inclinations that they are vague and indefinite,
about others. One who cares not a whit for sports          somewhat ill-defined and without very clear-cut
has no strong feelings about whether the New York          objects. They are both innate and acquired. There
Yankees or the Baltimore Orioles win the world             are certain such inclinations with which babies are
series. But such a man may be a rather skilled             born.  Babies'come  into the world with an inclina-
musician and he may react very strongly to the             tion to be fed. They need nourishment and, without
playing of a piano that is badly out of tune. Never-       being taught, suck on the nipple of a bottle as a way
theless, we are never completely emotionally               to quiet the need for food. We are told, and there is
neutral about anything which comes within the              no reason to doubt that, that babies are also born
scope of our experience. We react with feelings of         with a need for love. They have this from the
like or dislike.                                           moment of birth, and if they are denied this, even
  Because sin has come into the world, there is a          their growth will be stunted and retarded. They
great deal in this world to which we react with            have not acquired this nor have they been taught
dislike. It cannot be any different. Into this world       this. They are created by God as creatures who
has come a tidal wave of sin, and with this sin has        have need of these things, and the need is there
come trouble and suffering, sickness and death,            from the moment of birth. It expresses itself in the
war and hatred, distress of every kind. All of these       inclination to have the need satisfied. These incli-
things are of such a kind that we react to them with       nations change as the person himself develops.
strong dislike. It cannot be any different, for these      There are new inclinations added. They change as a
things are not "normal." They are not the way God          person goes from infancy to childhood and adult-
created all things, and they are not as things ought       hood. But they always remain vague and  ill-
to be. But we are sinful too; and the result is that       defined. They are very closely related to habits and,
our entire emotional life is influenced also by sin.       indeed, habits may very well be a part of these
We like the things we ought not to be liking and our       inclinations. If we are in the habit of driving a car
whole depraved nature is so corrupted and polluted         with a stick shift, we are very uncomfortable in a
by sin that every inclination is to have feelings of       car with an automatic transmission, and the incli-
like for what is contrary to the law of God. And all       nation is always there to reach for the shift lever. If
that belongs to God, to things spiritual, to that          we are used to eating breakfast at  8:00, if 8:00
which is heavenly and eternal, these are the things        comes and goes without breakfast being served, we
we dislike and to these we react with disfavor. This       have vague feelings of discomfort and sometimes
remains the case as long as we are in this present         more powerful inclinations to eat than if we had
evil world. Even though we are regenerated by the          eaten at the usual time.
Spirit of Christ, the fact is that our natural reaction
to sin is and remains one of like and our natural            Somewhat stronger than these inclinations are
reaction to holiness is one of dislike. We do not          what we may call wants. They are closely related to
really like to go to Church on the Lord's Day. We          inclinations and differ not too much from them.
do not really like to read Scripture and to pray. We       But they are somewhat different because they are
do these things because we know they are our               stronger and more clearly defined. They are more
calling before God, and when we do them God                clearly defined because they involve more specifi-
blesses us in a great mercy so that we enjoy all           cally activity of our minds. They are more clearly
these things. But our natural and first reaction to        defined also because the object of them is more
things spiritual is always one of dislike.                 exactly defined. If the usual time for our meals
                                                           comes and goes, we first of all have vague and  ill-
  So these are the basic reactions of an emotional         defined feelings of discomfort, but these change to
type. And all the different kinds of emotions which        definite wants when we begin to realize that the
there are belong to these basic ones.                      reason we are uncomfortable is that we are hungry, -
  What are these emotions then?                            it is time to eat, there is no food on the table, and
                                                           we get up from our chair to go to the kitchen to find
  To start with the very lowest, there are certain         out what is happening that is delaying our meal.
lower forms of the activity of the will which are the      The Bible often uses the word  desire  in the bad
lowest forms of emotions. We could probably call           sense, and that becomes particularly apparent


204                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



when we consider the moral implications of this.            change through life. That inclination becomes a
But before we do that, we must consider one more            `want when it becomes clearly defined in our con-
kind of desire. This kind of desire we could call           sciousness. But it becomes a longing when we are,
Zonging.  It is not essentially different from an incli-    because of the circumstances of our life, denied
nation or a want, but it is characterized especially        that love. A child can have a longing for love when
by its great strength. We have inclinations towards         that child has no love in his home because his
certain things; we also have certain wants; but             parents are too self-centered, too preoccupied with
these wants can become longings. They become                acquiring material things, too "busy" with a social
longings when there is difficulty in obtaining that         life to give to the child the love which it needs.
which we want. An inclination turns to a want                  These are the more basic emotions. We must
when we realize that it is time to eat and there is         discuss yet their ethical and moral implications and
nothing ready as yet. But that want turns to a long-        we must say a few things about their importance in
ing when it is not only time to eat and nothing is          our life. But we shall have to wait with this till our
ready for mealtime, but when, in fact, there is not         next letter.
food in the house at all and no means to obtain it.
The difficulty of obtaining the object of our inclina-                                  Fraternally in Christ,
tion and want makes that inclination and want a                                         H. Hanko'
longing. Everyone needs to be loved. That does not

TAKING HEED TO DOCTRINE


        Evangelism and the Reformed Faith (2)
                                                Rev. David Engelsmu


Editor's Notes. 1. Rev. Engelsma called my atten-           decree, He predestinated unto perdition. This is the
tion to a typographical error in his article in the Jan.    gracious source and foundation of all salvation.
1 issue, p. 155, first column, last paragraph. The             God gave His only begotten Son to die for all
sentence concerned should read: "His reference              those, and those only, whom He had given to Christ
was not, primarily, to the heathen, but to the multi-       as His people, effectually to redeem them, by
tudes of fainting, scattered Israelites, the Old Testa-     atoning for their sins. This is the gracious ground of
ment people of God, under the care of the priests           -all our salvation.
and scribes." 2. These articles of Rev. Engelsma
are a transcript of a lecture on this subject. The             God now efficaciously calls, by the gospel and
reader will notice there is duplication between this        the Holy Spirit, into saving fellowship with Jesus,
department and Prof. Decker's. The latter had               all those, but only those, whom He chose and
begun his series, however, before Rev. Engelsma's           redeemed. This is the gracious accomplishment of
material was submitted; and Prof. Decker will con-          salvation. This work continues, as preservation,
tinue on this subject in his Missions department.           until all the elect, redeemed, and renewed people
                                                            of God are perfected in glory.
           What the Reformed Faith Is
  Why then is it charged upon the Reformed Faith,             With these doctrines, the Reformed Faith holds
and sometimes feared, that it is incompatible with          that all men alike are, by the-fall of Adam, dead in
evangelism? This is because of what the Reformed            sin and slaves to Satan, having wills that are not
                                                            free, so as to be able to choose Christ and salvation,
Faith is. It is the teaching that salvation is the free
gift and sovereign work of God in Jesus Christ,             but bound, so as to be incapable of doing ought
                                                            else,  safe to reject the Christ presented in the
wholly without the slightest merit or work of man.
The message of the Reformed Faith is, "Salvation            gospel.  !
by Grace Alone."                    :                         `The Reformed Faith preaches an almighty,
                                                            gracious God and a powerless, totally depraved
  This message consists of several outstanding              mankind.
truths. God has eternally loved and predestinated
unto eternal love some persons out of the human               Such a faith, men charge, cannot evangelize.
race, in distinction from'others whom, in the same          Indeed, such a faith must be unevangelistic in its


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                205


very spirit. It cannot be motivated to be zealous in        How foolish of men, whether within Reformed
evangelism. Even if it were so motivated, it would          churches or without, to deny the gospel, in order
have no message to bring.                                   that they may better evangelize, i.e., proclaim the
   Note well, however, that his charge, or fear, as         gospel. Men are really saying that God's gospel is
the case may be, arises from certain preconceived           unpreachable, or that it is not serviceable for saving
notions about evangelism-notions that are  un-              sinners and gathering the Church.
Biblical. There is the notion that the motivation of          Let us see that the Reformed Faith can engage in
evangelism is God's love for all men and desire to          evangelism, and how it-does so. We will examine,
save all men. There is the notion that the message          in turn, its message, its method, and its motivation.
of evangelism is a universal love of God, a universal            The Message -of Reformed Evangelism
atonement, and a universal grace in the preaching,
all dependent upon the free will of sinners, who, it          The message of the Reformed Faith in evange-
is thought, are able to choose for Christ. There is         lism will be the whole counsel of God, as was the
the notion that the efficacy of evangelism is the per-      message of Paul, according to Acts  20:27. The
suasiveness of the evangelist and the decision of the       Reformed preacher knows the entire Scripture and
sinner's wooed will.                                        knows it as the inspired Word of God. He comes
                                                            with Scripture, not with a little list of spiritual laws
   Having these notions of evangelism, men                  or some gospel on a thumbnail. Essentially, the
proceed to corrupt the Reformed Faith in the inter-         message is always the same; but the preacher
ests of evangelism. Double predestination hinders           applies it differently to different audiences. Christ's
missions; and, therefore, reprobation is denied, and        evangelism of the rich young ruler [Mark 10:17-22)
men proclaim a universal saving love of God-the             differed from His evangelism of the Samaritan
evangelist preaches to all and sundry, "God loves.          woman at the well (John 4: l-42). Paul's approach to
you." Limited atonement hampers missions; and,              the Jews of the synagogue differed from his ap-
therefore, men preach a universal atonement-the             proach to the Greek philosophers of Mars' Hill (cp.
evangelist assures all and sundry, "Christ died for         Acts 17:1-3 with Acts 17:16-34). That thorough doc-
you." An efficacious call of the gospel to some only        trinal instruction is required in evangelism, the
restricts mission work; and, therefore, men teach           Great Commission of Matthew  28:18-20  plainly
that God is gracious to all men in the  preaching-          shows, for it calls the Church to baptize the con-
the evangelist announces to all his hearers, "God           verts in the Name of the Triune God, implying that
desires your salvation and is now sincerely offering        the missionary has taught the converts the doctrine
salvation to you." Total depravity does not square          of the Trinity. In order to do this, the preacher must
with such evangelism (for what good is all this love,       himself have thorough knowledge of the Word of
atonement, and grace, if the sinner cannot avail            God and must possess the wisdom to address the
himself of it?); and, therefore., it is suggested to the    Word to every audience. He must be called and
sinner that he has the ability to open up his heart to-     qualified by Christ through the Holy Spirit. We
let Jesus in, or he is told outright thatthe  new birth     must not have uncalled and unqualified "evange-
depends upon his believing.                                 lists," no matter how well-intentioned.
   With this kind of evangelism, the Reformed                 Although our message is the whole counsel of
Faith is incompatible; of such an evangelism, it is         God, there are certain crucial elements in the
the sworn foe. A Reformed preacher would not                message of evangelism. What they are, our Lord
dare to engage in evangelism of this kind. He would         pointed out in His mandate to the apostles, and to
not, because he fears to stand in the Judgment,             the Church, in Luke  24:47. Immediately upon His
having preached a message that robbed God of His            resurrection from the dead, Christ opened the
glory in the salvation. of sinners and that taught          understanding of the disciples "that they might
sinners to trust for salvation in their own ability         understand the scriptures; And said unto them,
and activity. The worst evolutionist, a veritable           Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to
Charles Darwin, will not be so culpable of despoil-         suffer, and-to rise from the dead the third day" (vss.
ing the wonderful works of God as such an evange-           45, 46). Then, He commissioned them (and in them
list.                                                       the Church down through the ages): "that repen-
   But this is not Biblical evangelism.  .With Biblical     tance and remission of sins should be preached in
evangelism, the Reformed Faith is perfectly com-            His name among all nations, beginning at Jeru-
patible. It is false, it is absurd to suppose that the      salem." Similar was the later commission of the
Reformed Faith cannot do evangelism, because of             apostle born out of due time, Paul, in Acts  26:18:
the doctrines of grace that it espouses. These truths;      "To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark-
assailed as detrimental to evangelism, are truths'          ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto
that set forth salvation as God's gracious gift. They       God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and
constitute the gospeZ, the "evange2," the good news.        inheritance among them which are sanctified by


206                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



faith that is in me." This commission, Paul carried         vation that is to be preached in evangelism. This
out by showing to all men "that they should repent          was the great, glorious concern of the Reformation:
and turn to God, and do works meet for repen-               justification by faith only. Where is this even to be
tance" (Acts 26:20).                                        found in much modern evangelism?. The great
  Evangelism must preach the sin of the people,             concern is that the sinner go to heaven and be
the sin of the people as guilt-liability  to the punish-    happy, or that he be happy and successful here on
ment of the offended God. Therefore, it is to               earth. Not long ago, I heard a "convert" give a testi-
proclaim the holy and righteous God, Whom the               mony on behalf of the famous evangelist who saved
sinner has offended. This implies the preaching of          him, that accepting Jesus made him a better  pass-
God's Law, which the sinner has transgressed and            catching end for his southern university football
.which he cannot keep. The Reformed Faith does              team.
this sharply, pointedly, concretely! In contrast,             If remission of sins is preached, the cross is
much present-day evangelism says little or nothing          preached; and the cross is preached as substitution-
about a holy God, His righteous Law, sin, guilt, and        ary atonement, as satisfaction made to the righ-
punishment. If sin comes up at all, it is only the          teous God, as effectual redemption of all for whom
aspect of sin that consists of the sinner's temporal        Jesus died, so that those who trust in the cross
troubles because of his wickedness. How different           enjoy its real benefit. But the cross is not preached
was the evangelism of Christ and of His apostles!           apart from the Crucified. Jesus Christ Himself is
Think of Jesus' deliberate exposure of the adultery         preached as the' message of evangelism; He is
of the Samaritan woman at the well. Think of                preached as the eternal Son of God come in the
Peter's searing condemnation of the Jews in Acts            flesh, so that His blood was precious blood, blotting
3:14: "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just,             out sins.
and desired a murderer to be granted unto you."               If this is Who Jesus is and if this is what His cross
  Evangelism proclaims the remission, or forgive-           is, the love of God is preached when remission of
ness, of sins for every sinner who repents. This is         sins is preached. For it was God Who gave His Son
the removal of the sinner's guilt and the imputation        on behalf of sinners-not  aZZ  sinners, but sinners,
to him of the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith        just the same. "For God so loved the world, that he
alone. The forgiveness of sins is the blessing of sal-      gave his only begotten Son.. ." (John 3: 16).
                                                                       `.
FROM HOLY WRIT


                        The So-called Postmillennial
                                                                       r'
                            Proof-texts in Holy Writ
                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers


                        Chapter 3                           Kingdom Of Heaven?"`1 am asking a very pertinent
         Twofold Kingdom Of Heaven?                         question concerning the teachings of leading  Post-
                                                            millennialists. For the fact is that they stress this
  It is of the utmost significance that we correctly        point very much in their writings on the meaning of
understand at the outset the pivotal points of teach-       the Kingdom of God. Such is the distinction which
ing of postmillennialism, lest when we come to our          J. Marcellus Kik makes in his book entitled,  An
criticism we simply criticize a caricature of this          EschatoZogy  Of  Victory,  to which none other than
teaching, which is a mere fabrication of our own.           Rousas John Rushdoony writes an Introduction.
Needless to say, this would be both unfair and
unwise. It would also be very unjust to  misrepre-            We will allow the writer, Marcellus Kik, to speak
sent the teachings of others; it would be sinning           for himself.
against the eighth commandment of the Lord.  Be-                     . . ..Revelation is concerned almost entirely with the
sides, it would be a deceiving of my readers. In               Messianic kingdom which begins in time and ends in
short, my words would then not be seasoned with                time. For instance, the "thousand-year" period of
salt, giving grace to the hearers. God is not mocked.          Revelation 20 cannot refer to the consummate king-
                                                                dom because it commences in time with the binding
  When I write above this Chapter, "Twofold                     of Satan and ends in time with the short period of the


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      207


   release of Satan. It deals with time before the last judg-         coming-of the Lord. There are, of course, differences
   ment. Also the Messianic kingdom, as such, ceases to               of opinion concerning details among the  posts  as
   exist, as is clearly indicated in I Cor. 1524-28,  where           among other schools of thought.
   it is stated: "Then  cometh the end, when He shall                For this  postmil  position Kik appeals to such
   have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the                 worthies as Charles Hodge, A.A. Hodge, Warfield,
   Father....And when all things shall be subdued unto
   Him then shall the Son also himself be subdued unto            Alexander in opposition to Dr. Geerhardus Vos,
   Him that put all things under Him, that God may be             who also was of the Princeton School.
   all in all." The eschatology of the Old Testament is             Now it ought to be obviqus that the appeal of Kik
   chiefly concerned with the Messianic kingdom, and              to I Corinthians 15:24-28 is rather challenging, even
   its types speak of the Messianic kingdom. The predic-          as it is a bold appeal to this very beautiful passage
   tive didactic elements of the New Testament prophecy           from the inspired pen of Paul. Perhaps we may say
   deal with the Messianic Kingdom. The consummate
   kingdom is not the great object of Old Testament               that this text is a.key text which deals with the very
   prophecy or New Testament prophecy.                            crux of the question whether we must say that
                                                                  Christ reigns only in the "Messianic kingdom" and
     So when we speak of the kingdom of God, the                  that He no longer will reign after His Parousia in
   millennial kingdom, and even the kingdom (Christ's)            the "consummate kingdom." It seems to me that if
   of glory, we refer to the kingdom that God has given
   exclusively to the God-man for a definite period of time [I    this is really the teaching of Paul in this text, -the
   underscore, G.L.). The millennium, in other words, is          infallible Word of God sustains the position of Post-
   the period of the gospel dispensation, the Messianic           millennialism.
   kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, the                  We will need to give careful exposition and
   regeneration, etc. The millennium commenced either             exegesis of this passage as well as other passages in
   with the ascension of Christ or with the day of Pente-         Scripture which cast light upon this reign of Christ
   cost and will remain until the second coming of
   Christ. There was a period when Jesus received the             in His kingdom.
   kingdom and there will be a period of time when He               The question is whether the Scriptures teach that
   will surrender it to the Father. (pages 16, 17)                Christ shall reign forever-also in the ages to come
  It is quite evident from this excerpt from the                  after His Parousia and the consummation of the
writings of Kik that he insists that in proper                    ages. Is the import of such passages as Daniel 7:14
eschatology we must distinguish very rigidly                      and Luke  1:32, 33 that Christ shall reign with His
between the "Messianic kingdom" where Christ is                   saints forever, in a kingdom which shall never end?
King of glory, and the "consummate kingdom"                       Is the view of Kik and other Postmillennialists cor-
where Christ will no longer reign in glory as the                 roborated by such a clear passage as Hebrews  1:8,
"God-man." The Bible is really not interested in                  where the writer quotes Psalm 45:6a?
the consummate kingdom, but only in what Kik                        What do we read in these above-mentioned
calls the Messianic kingdom.                                      Scriptures?
  Obviously Postmillennialists need this distinc-                   In Daniel 7: 14 we read, "And there shall be given
tion for the very quintessence of their teaching                  dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
concerning the "golden age" of the Gospel triumph                 people, nations, and languages should serve Him:
shortly before the return of Christ. Writes Kik,                  His dominion is an everlasting dominion,  which
"The  PostmiZ  looks for the fulfillment of the Old               shall not  `pass  a.way  (I underscore, G.L.) and His
Testament prophecies of a glorious age of the                     kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Again,
church upon earth through the preaching of the                    in verse 18 of this same chapter, we read, "But the
gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. A few                  saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and
enlightened  amib  (Amillennialists) will grant that              possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever"
some of the millennial blessings may be enjoyed                   (I underscore). And, furthermore,  `in verse 27 we
upon earth in the gospel dispensation, but do not                 read, "And the kingdom and dominion, and the
look for a golden age upon earth."                                greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,
                                                                  shall be given to the saints of the Most High, whose
  The eschatology of victory is given in the follow-              kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all domin-
ing paragraph by Marcellus Kik.                                   ions shall serve and obey Him" (I underscore).
     The postmil  looks for the fulfillment of the Old Test-        Do these passages allow for a separation of the
   ament prophecies of a golden age of the church upon
   earth. through the preaching of the gospel under the           Messianic kingdom into two parts, making the
   power of the Holy Spirit. He looks forward to all              Messianic kingdom in this time before the end, and
 `- nations becoming Christian and living in peace one            the consummate kingdom in eternity? That is the
   with another. He relates all prophecies to history and         question. It is a question of exegesis pure and
   time  (I underscore, G.L.). After the triumph of Chris-        simple.  HoZy Writ  will attempt to investigate this
   tianity throughout the earth he looks for the second           basically.


208                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



      And what must we say of such a passage as Luke         meaning of these Scriptures. Such exegesis remains
1:32 and 33? There we read, "He shall be great, and          our burden from the Lord.
shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord           At this point we are not yet interested in going
God will give unto Him the throne of His father              into any detailed exegesis of these Scriptures. In
David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob            this Chapter we merely desire to set forth the teach-
forever;  and of His kingdom there shd be no end. "          ing of the Postmillennial view, and at the same time
Can we take the statement "of His kingdom there              call attention to the calling which we have to make
shall be no end" to refer to the Messianic kingdom           a critical analysis of this view, and to see which
both in this time and in the age to come? Or does            Scriptures come to the foreground calling for care-
the "shall have no end" refer to the fact that the           ful exegesis.
kingdom shall have no end till the time of the
ushering in of the "consummate kingdom"?                       We must do more than merely assume that a
                                                             given Scripture passage teaches a certain truth, and
      And what must we say of such a passage as              then find other passages which we simply quote at
Hebrews  18 (Psalm  45:6a) where we read, "But               random to bolster that position. Such is the method
unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is forever         of many of the Postmillennial writers. I shall have
and ever: the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre        opportunity to point that out when we come to
of Thy kingdom.. . "? Here we read that the throne of        consider some of the texts which these writers
the "Son" is forever and ever. Is this "forever and          quote.
ever" relative only to the raising up of the kingdom
in time, up till the time of Christ's coming with              We end this Chapter stating briefly the view of
clouds to take the elect with Him in eternal glory?          the leading Postmillennialists.  It is as follows:
Is that the perspective, the prophetical perspective,          1. We must distinguish between the Messianic
of Hebrews 1:8, which is a quotation of Psalm 45:6,          kingdom of Christ and the consummate kingdom in
7?                                                           eternity.
      Surely the Scriptures do not contradict them-            2. In the Messianic Kingdom Christ reigns as
selves on so important a matter, it would seem.              King, but not forever. This is a kingship which
However, if the Holy Spirit teaches in I Corinthians         begins in time and ends in time.
1528 that the reign of Christ in His "Messianic"               3. The Kingdom in the consummate kingdom is
kingdom ends "when He shall have delivered up                under the dominion of God alone, even the Father.
the kingdom" to God even the Father, then we will            Here the Son no longer reigns on David's throne.
need to explain the passages which we quote above
accordingly. For the Scriptures do not contradict              4. And at.the end of the dominion of Christ, His
each other!                                                  reign here on earth, we shall have the golden age,
                                                             when all things shall be under the influence of the
      This does not mean that we will not need to            Gospel-preaching, through the Holy Spirit, and the
exegete the passages given in Daniel 7 and Luke 1            world shall be Christianized. That will be the king-
in the light of the immediate context and in the light       dom perfected, which is prepared for Christ. Christ
of all of the Scriptures where light is. shed on the         will come after  (post)  the kingdom is perfected.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS


                 The CPsudS Return After the Rain
                                                  Rev. John A. Heys
                                            ,I

      "It makes a difference whose children' have the        But if your children have the measles, they will be
measles."                                                    sent to school in the early stages of the disease, so
 This little adage we frequently hear, and there is          as not to miss too much school, and their friends
a measure of truth in it. If the neighbour's children        are not kept out of the house, or their parents told
have the measles, your children are kept far  .from          that there is this childhood disease within the walls
them so as not to contract the  .childhood  disease.         of the-home.


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              209


                                                            :.
  Of this we are reminded when in the  closink            obey;: And ne'er like their fathers to turn from His
verses of Genesis 35 we read, "And it came to pass        way" (Psalm 78).
when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went            And the statement, "And Israel heard it," also
and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine: and           makes one's heart bleed for this fellow saint whose
Israel heard it." When Shechem had defiled                name has been changed from Jacob to Israel. And
Dinah, Simeon and Levi, her brothers, murdered            pity wells up, not simply because he received
all the Shechemites. And when they were mildly            another blow in his family, and by one of his
rebuked by their father, they answered, "Should he        children-and indeed you could almost wish, after
deal with our sister as with an harlot?" Now when         reading of all Jacob's troubles, that he was kept un-
their full brother, Reuben, defiles their father's        aware of this horrible thing in his family-but be-
concubine, they are silent and look the other way.        cause we read nothing more than that he heard of
This was their father's concubine, even though it         it. We read of no rebuke which he gave to Reuben.
was not their mother nor her maid, who also was a         Simeon and Levi he rebuked, and that mildly, by
concubine of their father. They do not now ask,           pointing out, not the sin against God, but the fact
"Should he deal with our father's concubine as            that he had been made to stink among the Canaan-
with an harlot?"                                          ites by their murder. Sin against God is not the es-
  And this was not because they took to heart that        sence of his rebuke, but it is the embarrassment
mild rebuke that their father gave them after killing     and trouble that this deed caused him.
the Shechemites. It was not that they learned not to        Much later, on his death bed, Jacob did say
seek revenge. It was simply a case of measles that        something about this sin of Reuben. He told
could be tolerated since they were in the family.         Reuben that he was unstable as water, and that he
And here Scripture gives us another picture of the        had defiled his father's bed. Evidence there is then
troubled life of Jacob. Not only does Jacob's oldest      that he "heard it," that is, that Reuben had gone in
son behave very immorally, but note how divided           unto his concubine. He knew it all these years from
this family is. Two wives, two concubines, four sets      the day it happened until he died. And his words on
of children,  .and one father and husband in the          his death bed reveal that he was grieved because of
middle of the bickering,  clanishness, and rivalry.       it. It hurt! But was this another case of measles in
There was polarization in that family! Six sons were      the family, which also hurt and make quite sick?
drawn to one mother (as well as to each other and         Although Reuben was a son of Leah, for whom he
their sister), and two were drawn to her maid. One        had no love when she was forced on him by her
son, Joseph, clings to another mother, and two to         conniving father, he was also Jacob's firstborn.
her maid. And Jacob is in the middle of it all. Had       Listen to what Jacob says about him in Genesis
this been done by Dan or Naphtali from the other          49:3, "Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might,
faction in the family, to Zilpah, the maid of their       and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of
mother, sparks would have flown and a clash               dignity, and the excellency of power." He was
would have resulted. Now there is no concern that         proud of this son. Is this why he hears of the sin but
their brother did this to a concubine on the other        says nothing to that son? Was it also because Bilhah
side of the family feud. If Reuben has measles, let       was only a tool of Rachel for getting more sons for
Joseph, Dan and Naphtali protest, if they want to         Jacob, and was therefore .a woman for whom he
do so, but the other eight brothers will look the         had no love, a woman used only for the sake of his
other way and behave as though no measles are in          flesh and Rachel's ambition? He cared that his bed
that family. It is of no concern to them, even            was defiled, but did he care for Bilhah's shame and
though all twelve children, eleven sons and one           debasement?
daughter, are united in the one father whose concu-
bine, (and bed) has been defiled. Benjamin is still         It may even be questioned as to whether Bilhah
too young to understand.                                  did not invite, if not even engineer this sin. A
                                                          woman very much older than Reuben, a woman
  Having read all this we cannot help but say,            whose physical, earthly beauty-if she had it in her
"Poor Jacob;  .will his troubles never come to an         youth-had long faded, and her attractiveness had
end?" After all, he is our brother, and our father. He    slipped away, could cast her eyes on this handsome
belongs to the same body of Christ to which we be-        young son of Jacob and make advances to him.
long. He is a citizen of the same kingdom of heaven       Jacob left her severely alone, and indeed he had
wherein our names are from eternity enrolled as           others to whom he could turn. One fact becomes
fellow citizens. It is not pleasant to write about        plain, namely, that she was not raped. She was not
Jacob and his troubles. But it must be done for our       forced into this sin. And Jacob did not hear of it
learning, and, indeed, "Let children thus learn           from Bilhah as a complaint against his oldest son.
from history's light, To hope in our God and walk         There had been communication between her and
in Hissight; The God of their Fathers' to fear and        Reuben before this sin. We read, "He went and lay


                                           I



210                                        j THE STANDARD BEARER



with her.`" Now not onlv is this exnression used so        ciples in the ship with Him, "Peace, be still," and
 often in Scripture of what  happenLed  legally in the     the amazing result, "And the wind ceased and there
marriage bond, but it speaks of no resislance  at. all     was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). And again, in Psalm
on the part of Bilhah. She may therefore have en-          135:7, "He causeth the vapours to ascend from the
ticed him in one way or another. She certainly did         ends of the earth; He maketh the lightnings for the
not fight any advances on Reuben's part. And the           rain; He bringeth the wind out of His chambers."
statement of Jacob on his death bed that Reuben is         Likewise in Psalm  148:8, "Fire, and hail, snow and
unstable as water, always going the line/of  least re-     vapour; stormy wind fulfilling His word."
sistance, does suggest that Bilhah used Reuben, and          What is more, we have that comforting truth in
that he was not able to resist. What is more,  Jacob's     I Corinthians 10: 13, "There hath no temptation
words in Genesis 49:4 indicate that it al4 took place      taken you but such as is common to man: but God
in Jacob's tent. We read, "unstable as water, thou         is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted
shalt not excel; because thou wentest  / up to thy         above that ye are able; but will with the'temptation
father's bed; then defilest thou it: he went up to my      also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to
couch." Taking that bed and couch literally would          bear it."
mean that it took place where Bilhah had access to
and was in Jacob's very tent. All this would not ex-          Let all covenant families take hold of this truth.
cuse Reuben; and on his death bed  Jacob did not           Let every child of God keep it before his conscious-
minimize its evil. Nor would all this excuse Jacob         ness when troubles arise and the rain is followed by
after hearing of it to be so silent about  lit. He was     more intense rain. Through all the ordeals in Ja-
obliged to rebuke and counsel his son.     ;               cob's life, no matter how many times he was cast
                                                           down, and though it looked repeatedly as though
   And yet with all his weaknesses Jacob was a             the floods would sweep. him away, Jacob the sup-
child of God. Therefore, although it tooki him a long      planter did become Israel, the prince of God. All
time to get to Hebron and his father's tent-as God         worked together for  .good to this one who was
had commanded him more than ten years before               called according to God's purpose of sovereign,
this incident-he did  .finally  arrive in "Hebron          eternal, unconditional election from before the
where Abraham and Isaac sojourned:' (Genesis               foundation of the world. Nothing separated him
36:27). Although from Deborah, his mother's maid,          from God's love. His enemies did not. Satan, who
he learned long before arriving in Hebron that his         tried in all these griefs to do so, failed. Jacob's sins
mother had died, there was for Jacob a feeling of          did not. And all because, as Paul writes in that sec-
grief to be in these familiar regions and not to ex-       tion of Romans 8:28-39, that love of God is in Christ
perience the nearness and fellowship of his mother.        Jesus.  Because He paid for our sins in full by His
She saw to it that for his safety he was sent away;        precious blood, there is nothing that has the right or
and they never met again in this life.                     ability to separate us from God's love.
   And soon another blow strikes Jacob. Isaac his
father dies. And this is but another painful experi-         This becomes plain in Genesis 36. After we read
ence that is a prelude to more to come. It would           of Esau and Jacob being united in that deed of bury-
seem as though Solomon had Jacob in mind when              ing their father, we are told in Genesis  36:6 that
he wrote that "the clouds return after the rain" (Ec-      "Esau took his wives. . . ..and went into the country
clesiastes 12:2). It had rained a great deal in Jacob's    from the face of his brother Jacob." God will spare
life; and we are at the point when we would expect         Jacob of any more fear or confrontations with Esau
the skies to clear and give Jacob some sunny, happy        for the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage. You
days in the promised land. But no, Joseph is going         could expect a clash, and Satan certainly wanted to
to be sold into Egypt, and Jacob is going to be led to     realize one. Isaac, who was the link and wall be-
believe that he is dead. All his love focuses now on       tween the two rival brothers, is out of the way, and
Benjamin, the only son left of his beloved wife,           there is now no man to restrain Esau from assault-
who had also been taken from him by death. Sime-           ing his brother, as he once vowed to do. But there is
-on is in prison in Egypt. And Benjamin must also          a God Who loves His people in Christ Jesus. And
now be taken from him to go to Egypt just when he          from that love His erring and weak children cannot,
was becoming a promising young man. Not only               be separated, because God loves them for the sake
have the clouds returned, they have brought tor-           of Christ, The Seed of Abraham, Whom God loves
rents of rain after the rain that already flooded .his     with an unchangeable and infinitely profound love.
soul.                                                        In this life the clouds will return after the rain.
   Yet we must remember that clouds always come            But see the rainbow of God's grace that is caused
from the hand of the  Go.d Who in the beginning            by the sunny skies of the new creation, wherein all
created. them. And we may also remember the                the saints, with body and soul, are gathered in that
words of Jesus in the storm that threatened the dis-       of which Canaan was only a picture.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             211



SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                         Spiritual Illiteracy tind the
                                   Rise of Antichrist
                                             Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


  Many and varied are the ways which Satan devi-          means of intermarriage Satan had caused the
ses to destroy the Church of Christ in this world         ignorant, unbelieving heathen to enter into the very
and at the same time to establish his antichristian       homes of Israel. The result is evident. The know-
kingdom. Although many of these ways become               ledge of God and His commandments that had
boldly evident to us as we watch for Christ's             passed from generation to generation by word of
second coming there are others which are much             mouth now ceased. Therefore, "there arose another
more subtle and for that reason can sneak by unde-        generation which knew not the Lord, nor yet the
tected. Every way conceivable Satan is out to             works which He had done for Israel" (Judges 2: 10).
destroy the Church and the cause of Jesus Christ in         Today the avenues through which God instructs
this world. And he sets out to do so with the             His people are more than those used in the early,
savagery of a roaring lion. He stalks us unrelenting-     old dispensational church. No doubt covenant in-
ly. If we are caught sleeping but for a moment we         struction in the home remains basic to all instruc-
become the prime target of his attack. For that rea-      tion in the Word of God and His commandments.
son we must be on our guard every moment of our           Now, however, there are more means. We re-
lives, carefully watching every aspect of our lives       ceive instruction in God's Word by means of the
as the people of God.                                     preaching of the gospel, by means of the Christian
  One such attack upon the Church of Christ               school, and also by means of the printed page. Be-
through which Satan attempts to destroy her is a          cause of all these different ways by which we are
lack of knowledge of God and His works and ways.          instructed in God's Word, Satan's attacks upon the
This attempt of Satan to render the people of God         church become more varied. In order for him to
ignorant of God's Word has been evident through-.         make us ignorant of God and His mighty works he
out all of the history of His Church.                     must in some way approach each of these avenues
  Soon after the nation of Israel had inherited the       of instruction and rend them apart. That he does.
land of Canaan for a possession, Satan set to work          In this article we focus our attention on Satan's
to sway the hearts of the people. Because Israel had      attack upon our knowledge of God by means of
already possessed the land and become quite pow-          the printed page. To be sure, Satan still works in
erful she felt no need to drive out and to destroy the    the home, he still works in the schools, and he still
heathen nations that had previously dwelt there.          works within the church. Now, however, he must
Instead of obeying God's command Israel allowed           also contend with the fact that there is readily
the heathen to dwell among, them. Already Satan           available to the child of God good, sound, spiritual
was at work fulfilling his scheme to destroy the          literature. In fact, this means of instruction in
church by causing her to -forget God and His              God's Word can be found within all three of the
mighty works. Now that Israel dwelt among the             spheres mentioned above. We can be sure that
heathen nations of Canaan the next step was sim-          Satan emits a painful roar every time a book or a
ple. In Judges  3:6 and 7 we find, "And they took         periodical which instructs in the Word of God
their daughters to be their wives and gave their          comes from the printing press.
daughters to their sons, and served their gods. ,And        With the Reformation God raised up godly men
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the       who translated the Bible into the everyday
Lord, and forgot the Lord their God and served Baal-      language of the people: These same men began
im and the groves." Satan's tactics were. simple          writing concerning the truth of God's Word. By
enough. At that time all the great works of  G.od         means of the printing press the Bible was not only
which He had done for His people were passed              given to the laity but a need for good literature was
from generation to generation only by word of             filled with the writings of godly men. Through the
mouth. The knowledge of God and His precepts              years their writings were preserved and many more
was passed in tradition from father to son. By            books of a sound, exegetical character were added.


212                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       ~


Today you and I have at our fingertips the best             with activity and fun. Being with the family is no
spiritual literature available.                             longer sitting with one another in the family room.
  But Satan never gives up. He has his ways,                It is going out with the family and having fun. Or, if
shrewd, cunning, and oh so devastating. He real-            it is sitting with the family, it is in front of what
izes that at this time he is unable to destroy all of       worldly authorities peg as the idiot box. There the
those books that have been written concerning the           family can sit for hours, not required to use their in-
mighty works of God. But it really does not matter.         tellect but being spoon-fed the trash of this world.
He has other ways. He is able, for example, in some         Such is to be found within the schools and homes of
parts of the world where the child of God is sup-           the world. No wonder "Johnny can't read."
pressed by the government, to check the flow of                But what has already become true of the world
spiritual literature. Or, if this cannot be accom-          now begins to filter into the church. The result is
plished, Satan will cause that spiritual literature to      the same. God's people become illiterates as far as
be watered down. Instead of books based upon                reading and understanding the abstract, spiritual
Scripture and an explanation of Scriptural truths           truths of Scripture are concerned. Good, spiritual
the market will be flooded with the trash of Chris-         books are written but all they do is decorate our
tian experience and personal testimony. Books               book-shelves. They are not read. Reading and
such as Calvin's Instifutes will become scarce, while       studying the Bible becomes too difficult and far too
others such as How I Accepted Christ Into My Life,          time-consuming; and to spend time reading other
will fill the walls of the bookstores.                      religious books and periodicals just takes too much
  But Satan does not stop there either. He works            time out of our busy lives.
within the hearts of God's people. He attempts-to              This spiritual illiteracy which begins to infiltrate
destroy ,within them any desire to read these spiri-        the Church of Christ is a contributing factor in the
tual works. He attempts to make the child of God a          rise, of antichrist. Because of the failure to read and
spiritual illiterate, that is, one who is unable to read    understand the terminology of Scripture the church
or understand the truths written between the cov-           becomes characterized by a lack of knowledge.
ers of those books. The child of God will have no           Even as Israel of old we begin to lose sight of the
trouble picking up an easy-reading, novel and read-         wonderful works of God for us and in us. The pre-
ing it through from cover to cover, but give to him a       cious doctrines of Scripture become vague, abstract
book filled with abstract ideas and after  .ten or          concepts which we fail to understand. Not under-
twenty pages he has had enough.                             standing the truth of God's Word paves the way for
  Satan works that tendency within us in several            heresy. Once heresy has entered the confines of the
different ways.                                             church it spreads until the church crumbles and
                                                            falls.
  He does so first of all by means of a doctrinal
error. Somehow people begin to believe that they               Then begins the amalgamation found within the
can have a strong, vibrant faith without possessing         church world today. Because there is no more
knowledge-the most essential element of faith. It           knowledge of doctrine, because there is only igno-
is true, of course, that this knowledge is a certain,       rance of God's work of salvation, there are no long-
heartfelt, spiritual knowledge, yet it does necessari-      er any barriers to separate churches. The only dif-
ly imply an intellectual knowledge. It is felt, how-        ference between them is their names. No one un-
ever, that one can be a strong child of God and yet         derstands the clear truth of Scripture any more.
not have a knowledge of Scripture. All the abstract         Those books which teach the Word,of God are dis-
truths of Scripture are too difficult for the common        -carded. The idea soon arises, let us join hands and
member of the church to grasp, but it really does           all march happily to heaven. That is the rise of the
not matter. His faith is not dependent on that any-         great antichristian kingdom of Satan. Satan uses
way. Therefore those books which speak concern-             every means possible to build that kingdom of anti-
ing these truths of Scripture also become too diffi-        christ-including spiritual illiteracy.
cult to read. But again it really does not matter. It is       How do we fight him? We must first of all recog-
of no consequence to being a strong child of God.           nize this tendency for what it really is, an attempt
                                                            of Satan to build his antichristian kingdom. As we
  Secondly, Satan works a kind ofgspiritual  illitera-      see more and more the spiritual inability of people
cy within us by means of the world's influence. In          within the church-world to read and understand
the schools of the world, "Johnny can't read," so           Scriptural truths; as we see the inability of the same
teach him skills instead of reading,  wr/iting,  and        to pick up a soundly spiritual book and read it from
arithmetic. Find textbooks which show  y him pic-           cover to cover, we must watch for the rise of the
tures ,instead of forcing him to read and understand        antichrist. Then too we must heed the Word of God
concepts. In the homes of the world, children are           to us in I Timothy 4: 13-16, "Till I come, give atten-
no longer forced to sit and read. Life  i! too filled       dance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. . .


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                            213


Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to       self;. and -them that hear thee." Only in this way
them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take         will we resist this particular attack of Satan upon
heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue       the Church. And when we resist he will flee from
in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thy-     us.




                                      Book Reviews

THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS,  An Exposition                 will deny that Arminianism (though of a different
of the Canons of Dordrecht, by Homer Hoeksema;           brand) is still rampant in the church-even more so
R.F.P.A. Publishing Co., 1980; 861 pp., $18.95.          than in the days of Dordt? The Canons are the
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                            answer of the Reformed Churches to Arminianism
  I want to take this opportunity to congratulate        and the development of what has become known as
my close friend and colleague in the ministry on the     the Five Points of Calvinism. With the renewed
publication of this beautiful and important work.        interest in Calvinism throughout the world today,
There is not, as the author comments in the intro-       this book will find a broad acceptance.
duction, any such commentary in the English lan-           The first section of the book is very valuable. It
guage on the Canons. This book fills a great lack        contains a history of the Arminian conflict in the
and we hope and pray that it has the widest possi-       Netherlands, a history of the Synod of Dordrecht,
ble circulation.                                         an important discussion of the confessional status
  An exposition of the Canons of Dordt is welcome        of the Canons, the author's translations of the his-
for a number of reasons. For one thing, the Canons       torical forward to the Acts of the Synod of Dordt
are still the Confessional basis of a large number of    and the opinions of the Arminians concerning the
Reformed Churches both in this land and abroad.          five articles. This historical section alone is worth
An exposition in English ought to be welcome to all      half the price of the book.
who hold this confession dear. Secondly, although         I Every article in both the positive section of the
the Canons were adopted finally by the Reformed          heads of doctrine and in the negative section (the
Churches in         the    Netherlands,    Reformed      rejection of errors) is treated. concisely, yet thor-
theologians from throughout Europe participated in       oughly and in an interesting way. A separate
the work and finally signed these Canons, so that        chapter is devoted to the Conclusion of the Can-
the Confession is of much wider interest than            ons-an important chapter, for it is the conclusion
Dutch Reformed Churches. The Canons were truly           which has been usedby many enemies of sovereign
a document produced by all the Protestant and            predestination who try to make the Canons teach
Reformed Churches about a century after the              something they in fact do not teach. At the end of
Reformation. Thirdly, while it is sad but true that      the book is found an index of Scriptural passages
many within the Reformed Churches are departing          cited.
from the heritage of the faith, those who want to               Because our Canons are such an important and
maintain this heritage will have to know their           beautiful Confession, all those interested in the
Canons thoroughly. This book will be of assistance       truth of Scripture ought to purchase their own copy
to them. E.g., in the case of the recent "Boer Grava-    of this book. The price may seem steep to some, but
men" which was rejected by the Synod of the              in comparison with prices of books nowadays (I
Christian Reformed Church in 1980, the Synod             recently read a paperback book of less than 200 pp.
rejected the gravamen (against reprobation in the        which sold for  $5.95), it is cheap. And we often
Canons) largely on the basis of a committee report       forget that we quickly spend more than $20 to eat
which corrupted the doctrine of predestination and       out at night, while for less, than $20 one can
gave to the Canons a "new interpretation which           purchase a book which will give to  t,he reader
neither our fathers at Dordt nor the Reformed            countless feasts for the soul.     ~
Churches ever gave to them. To defend the Church
against this requires that one know our Canons
thoroughly. In the fourth place, the Canons were         PHILIPPIANS,  The New Century Bible Commen-
written against the heresy of Arminianism. Who           tary, by Ralph P. Martin; Eerdmans Publishing Co.,


21.4                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



1980; 176 pp., $5.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.                        Schrenk (TDNT ii, p. 746, n. 32) is critical of this expe-
H a n k o . )                                                              dient.

   From a letter which came with the book we learn                      AN EXPOSITION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE TO
that, "the new paperback edition of this standard                       THE CORINTHIANS  and  AN EXPOSITION OF
commentary on the Revised Standard Version of                           THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORIN-
the Bible makes its scholarship available to a broad                    THIANS,  Charles Hodge; Baker Book House,
range of people at a modest price. The editors have                     Grand Rapids,  Mich.; $7.95 each (paper). (Re-
revised and replaced some volumes in the series                         viewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)
and have drawn on the leading contemporary bibli-
cal scholars in an attempt to provide a commentary                        Both of these volumes are reprints of works
that is balanced and up-to-date in terms of both its                    which date back to 1857 and 1860. Many of our
scholarship and its reflections on the contemporary                     older ministers probably have commentaries by
relevance'of the biblical text."                                        Charles Hodge in their libraries. But for a long time
                                                                        students and younger ministers could only obtain
   The commentary is not really a very successful                       secondhand copies. Charles Hodge for many years
one. In the first place, it is very brief-almost too                    was professor of theology and New Testament at
brief to be of help. Secondly, it is fairly technical                   Princeton Seminary in its better days. While one
and makes many references to many different                             may not always agree with his exegesis, the fact
scholarly works. While this gives the volume some                       remains that Hodge was a careful workman; and
value for students in theology, it is not of much                       his commentaries are generally in the Reformed
help for the people of God. Thirdly, it must be read                    line and are helpful.
with caution, for it is not always as Scriptural and
Reformed as one would like in a commentary. One                           One of the helpful features of these volumes is
quotation from the commentary will demonstrate                          the fact that in most instances the Greek is put in
this and give, at the same time, some flavor from                       parentheses, so that its presence will not prove to
the commentary. The quote is the exegesis on the                        be a stumbling block to the reader who does not
well-known passage in  2:13.                                            know the Biblical languages.
                                                                          Baker Book House has done well in making these
          They are not, however, left to themselves in this en-         volumes available again. Recommended.
        terprise (of working out their own salvation). At first
        glance it seems to remove all responsibility from the
        Philippians, except perhaps the passive consent to let          PRINCIPLES OF SACRED THEOLOGY,  Abra-
        God work in their midst. This is why G. Bornkamm                ham Kuyper (Translated by J. Hendrik De Vries);
        (`Der Lohngedanke im Neuen Testament', Studien  zu              Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,  Mich.;  683 pp.,
   Antike und  Urchistum,   Munich, 1959, p. 91) can call               $12.95 (paper) (Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)
        the verse `an oddly paradoxical sentence', raising all            This is a reprint. For some time now the original
        manner of dogmatic issuesto  do with justification sola
  gratia  and synergism. But such matters seem remote                   edition, published by Eerdmans, has been out of
        from this Pauline situation, even if later generations of       print. I do not know whether it is still -possible to
        Christian thinkers have to wrestle with the mutual re-          obtain the three volumes of the original Dutch
        lations of human accountability and divine initiative           edition; but perhaps most readers would prefer
        and grace (see Barth,  ,pp. 71-5). In the context Paul          anyway to read this English abridged edition..Nev-
   probably introduces the promise of divine help to re-                ertheless, the fact that this work is newly available,
        assure his friends that, since he cannot be with them           especially for theological students, is beneficial.
        (`in my absence'), they should not despair but remem-           Every student should have a work like this among
        ber that God's gracious assistance [his `active good            his reference works.
   will', Gr.  eudokia;  .the Heb. equivalent is  rason,
   meaning God's declared purpose of good in electing                     The original work of Kuyper in the Dutch
   and blessing His people; cf. Lk.  ,2:14 and E. Vogt's                language was a work of three large volumes. I have
   discussion ad rem in The Scrolls and the New Testament,              already indicated that the English edition is an
   ed. K. Stendahl, ET London, 1958, pp. 114-17) is avail-              abridgement. It includes  the. first fifty-three pages
        able both to will (i.e., promote the desire) and to work        of Volume 1 and all of Volume 2. A bonus in this
        (Gr.  evergein,  effectual action in bringing  I human          English edition is an interesting portrait of "Abra-
        aspiration to good effect is implied]. The Greek phrase         ham De Geweldige" and an introduction by
        rendered  for His good pleasure  is a little unusual.  Hyper    Benjamin Warfield.  :
        tes eudokias is `in the interests of, for the sake of,' His
   good pleasure', and this wording suggests to BDF (Sec.                 R e c o m m e n d e d .
   231.2) that it should be detached from verse 13, and
        made the opening of the next verse: `for the sake of
        (human) goodwill (as in  1:15;  cf. Rom.  1O:l;  2 Th.          PETER, STEPHEN, JAMES.& JOHN,  Studies in
        1:ll) do everything without complaining, etc.' But G.           Non-Pauline Christianity, by F.F. Bruce; Wm. B.


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       215



Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980; 159 pp., $7.95.                             teachers especially, although all can read it with
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                                              profit.
   Few contemporary New Testament scholars
have the wideness and depth of learning which Dr.                          A quoted view on modern
Bruce has. While recently retired from the Univer-
sity of Manchester (England) he continues to add                           English versions (of the Bible)
books to the large number he has already written.
Generally speaking, his books are worth                                        The most modern English versions (of the Bible)
purchasing and reading.                                                    are none of them convincing on the level of
   In this book the author attempts to collect all the                     language; I find this morally and intellectually con-
data from Scripture and secular sources on the four                        fusing, since I find it means I am incapable of
men mentioned in the title because the author is                           taking seriously anything that they say. Since I
convinced that knowing all we can about these men                          cannot think that I  .am unique in this experience, I
will help us to understand better the apostolic                            am forced to regard the new versions as ill-judged,
Christian community and the tensions, debates,                             and their imposition as an act of folly. I am clear
troubles, and problems which existed within it.                            that the principles of English style are a moral
                                                                           matter, not just a question of taste. Reticence,
   The book is interesting and helpful, although it                        clarity and sobriety, strength and simplicity, logical
must be read with care. There is too much room left                        coherence and a decent habit of speech have their
in the book for literary and historical criticism. To                      foundations in moral sensibility. The modern
cite but one example: the author is of the opinion                         English Bibles are written in the language, or the
that the position which Stephen took in Jerusalem                          non-language, of a class, and of a class that has no
was more radical than that of any of the aspostles                         authority in spoken English.
with respect to the Old Testament economy.                                                                 -Peter Levi, 1974. Quoted from,
   We recommend the book to our ministers and                                                             "The Bible in its Literary Milieu."


                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   We wish to express our sincere sympathy to two of our members:               On February 12, 1981, our parents, MR. and MRS. JOE  BRUM-
to Jake De Vries in the passing of his brother, Wiebe, and to Ben          MEL, will, the Lord willing, celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
VanderMolen  in the loss of his brother, Cecil, Jr.                             We, their children and grandchildren, thank the Lord that He has
   "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea,       preserved them all these years in His grace. We are grateful for the
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works    sacrifices they made to provide us with a Christian education and
do follow them" (Rev. 14: 13).                                             home. We pray that the Lord may be near and bless them in the
                                   Adult Bible Study Class                 future.
                                     Protestant Reformed Church                 "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His truth  en-
                                     Pella, Iowa                           dureth to all generations" (Psalm  100:5).
                                     David Abma, Vice-President            Rich and Sylvia Van  Baren                Allen and Sharon Brummel
                                                                                Dave and Nancy Van  Baren                Allen, Nathan, Jodi,
                             NOTICE!!!                                          Brian, Nancy, Marcia,                    Shari, Tiffany
                                                                                Ricky,  Kathy, Kevin
  Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in                                                      Dale and Delma Post
Loveland, Colorado on Wednesday, March 4, 1981, at  B:30 A.M.,             Andrew and Judy Brummel                       Chris,  Tricia, Matthew
the Lord willing. Material for the agenda must be in my hands thirty            Steven and Andrea                    Glen and Twyla Griess
days before  Classis convenes. Delegates who fly into Denver and           Ade and Gertrude Lenting                      Jessica, Sara, Luke
delegates in need of lodging should make arrangements with the                  Jeff, Andrea, Bradley,               Joe and Mary Brummel
Clerk of Loveland's  Con&tory.                                                  Patrick, Philip                          Marijo, Joel, Teddy

                                     Rev. David Engelsma,                                                            Glenyce
                                     Stated Clerk of  Classis West
                                                                                                    iVEDDlNG ANNIVERSARY
                         IN MEMORIAM                                           On January 6, 1981, our parents, MR. and MRS. HOWARD E.
                                                                           PASTOOR, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. We, their
   The consistory and congregation of the Kalamazoo Protestant             children, are thankful to God for His preservation of our loved ones,
Reformed Church express their sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas             both physically  a:nd spiritually. We are thankful too for their many
Bishop and family  in'the  death of their infant daughter,  GINELLE        years of  sacrificejto give us Christian instruction in home, school and
JANE, who went to be with her Lord November 3, 1980.                       church. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to bless and guide
   "But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Suffer the-little            them.
children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the          Their children,  /I
k i n g d o m o f   God"(Luke   18:16).                                    M a r y   P a s t o o r   1              Ken Pastoor
                                     Rev. Bernard Woudenberg               Howa.rd and Eileen Pastoor               Don and Linda Van Dyke
                                     and the Consistory of the                 Heidi and  Rachael                     Brenda and Bryan
                                     Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed         Ron and Kathy Kooienga                   Kevin Pastoor
                                     Church                                    Chad and Joel                        David Pastoor


  THE STANDARD BEARER
         P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan  495OL





                                                                                                                    d'        ;

                                                                                                               Y
                                                                                                       A.a,         ,+t
                                            -_-- ~---
                          -__-                                                                   *
216                                        THE STANDARD BEARER'
                                 .

                          News From Our Churches
   "Where's  my  Standard Bearer?' was a familiar        blessed our churches with capable men of God
refrain in the ears of `our business manager when        who, though weak in their own sinful flesh, never-
answering the telephone in early January. These          theless by His grace and Spirit labor faithfully in
calls were a result of the fact that the January 1       these offices. In this `connection it's interesting to
issue wasn't its usual punctual self. Although most      note that due to personnel changes in consistories
of us would have soon tired of listening to these        and diaconates, many of our church bulletin covers
complaints, it was music to Mr. VanderWal's ears,        also undergo changes. For some this means a few
for each call was another positive (or would we call     Sundays with the old covers or a blank side to their
that negative?) evidence that S.B. is read, apprecia-    bulletins; but for our Wyckoff, New Jersey congre-
ted, and even anticipated.                               gation it serves as a good time to get rid of their mis-
   On December 28 Rev. Miersma preached. his             printed covers. Unless the one I received was an ex-
farewell sermon in Pella. A week and one half later,     ception, all those who attended their services on
January 7, he was installed as pastonof our Holland      December 28 went home after church and read the
congregation. However, Pella's vacant pulpit was         bulletin cover information from its reflection in the
to be short-lived, as Rev. Lanting has accepted their    bathroom mirror.
call.                                                      Since we're on the subject of Wyckoff's  Decem-
   Our Hope, Michigan congregation's wait for an         ber.28 bulletin anyway, we might just as well say
answer to their call to Rev. Flikkema has been in        something about the announcements on the side
keeping with the length of their extended                which could be read without the aid of a mirror:
parsonage vacancy (1% years). The reason  ~for this      There we find that Prof. H. Hanko was kept quite
is that Rev. Flikkema has received another call          busy during his visit there during the Christmas
from a Hope Protestant Reformed Church, this one         holidays by preaching at their evening services and
of Redlands, California. As a result Rev. Flikkema       the morning services of the People's Park Reformed
has asked for a three-week extension of the call         Church.
from Hope, Michigan. As of this writing, therefore,
Rev. Flikkema is considering calls from  three             Finally from Wyckoff we learn that the congre-
Hopes: Hope, Michigan, Hope, Redlands; and the           gation has approved the proposal to add the
congregation he is presently serving, the Hope Prot-     doxology, "Praise God from Whom all Blessings
estant Reformed Church of Isabel.                        Flow" at the beginning of the morning worship ser-
                                                         vices; and at the end of the morning service their
   Rev. C. Hanko and his daughter Alice left Grand       new doxology is Psalter No. 196.
Rapids in late  .December for a two-month stay in
Bradenton, Florida. He is replacing Rev. Heys who          The following selected quote was gleaned from a
spent the month of December preaching there              Hudsonville bulletin: "In the centuries since
under the auspices of our First Church in Grand          Adam, men have fallen for the  .lie rather than be-
Rapids.                                                  lieved the truth because they have given more heed
   The bulletins of recent months abound with in-        to the world's viewpoint than to God's. The world
formation concerning nominations, elections,             in general has filled men with the notions of the
installations, and appreciations of new and retiring     Devil. If men will not study the Bible, they cannot
office bearers. A glance at sermon themes shows          know God's truth. Tragically, men drink from the
that many of our ministers use these occasions for       Devil's fountains of pleasure and blame God for
expositions on the offices of elder and  deaco$It        their stomach aches."
seems clear from it all that the Lord has abundantly                                                                  C.K.


