       77x3
STANDARD
/ BEARER
          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE



. ..It is impossible, but it would be interesting
if  it  were  possible,  to  determine  how  mucl
of our energy and how many of our desire:
during the course of one day, are directed tc
wards the things of God and His Word-eve]
when  we are in Church on Sunday  or whe:
we are busy with prayer and Scripture reac
ing.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  whole  days  go  b-
when  not  one  desire  is  found  in  us  for  any
thing  other  than  the  things  of  this  presen
world.
 See "My Sheep Hear My Voice" -page 271


                                              Volume LVII, No. 12, March 15,1981


266                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                                ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
  Meditation-                                                                                         Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                      Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Wholly Carefree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .266       Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                      denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev.  Richard
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269    Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko,  Prof. Herman Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
                                                                                      Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
  Editorial-                                                                          Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                                      Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,  Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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          Authority of Scripture (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .269                            Grandville, Michigan49418
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MEDITATION


                                                      Wholly Carefree
                                                                          Rev. H. Veldmczn


                                  "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth  for you." I Peter 5:7.


  God's elect strangers (I Pet, 1:1-Z) are exhorted in                                   are exhorted, positively, to cast all our care or cares
this Scripture to cast all their care upon the Lord. It                                  upon the Lord, inasmuch as He cares for us.
is obvious that verses 6 and 7 are inseparably con-
nected. Fact is, they really constitute one  admoni-                                         Prayer Day  - shall we pray? However, on the
tion. In verse 6 we are admonished, negatively, to                                       one hand, does not almost everyone  pray? Is not
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,                                          prayer, especially in our land, very common? And,
never to rebel against Him. And in this Scripture we                                     on the other hand, we certainly have many cares,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              267


do we not? How many are our needs, nationally             the farmer must indeed sow his seed and cultivate
and internationally, economically, etc. Indeed, we        his soil, and, spiritually, we must use the means of
need not ask: shall we pray? More difficult is the        grace at our disposal, must surely be active in our
question: what shall we pray? Shall we merely pray        use of them.
for the satisfying of our carnal and material desires?      What are these cares in this Scripture? It must be
But, we need not the Spirit to pray such prayers.         obvious that Peter does not refer to spiritual cares,
And the disciples, in Luke 11: 1, ask the Lord to         anxieties in connection with our personal salvation.
teach them to pray. This means that our prayers,          Indeed, these anxieties may and do occur. The
also on Prayer Day, and throughout all our days,          apostle, however, does not refer to them. The word
must be Spirit-led, spiritual. What shall we pray?        "care" here must be understood in connection with
How fitting is the request of the disciples: Lord,        earthly things and circumstances. The word itself
teach us to pray. 0, let us pray that the Lord may        has that  .meaning.  It is thus used in Matthew 6
give us His grace to cast all our cares upon Him.         where the Lord admonishes us to take no thought
                    * * * * * * * * * *                   for the morrow. And it is also used in this sense in
  Cares - what are they?                                  Philippians 4:6-7 where we read that we must be
                                                          careful for nothing.
  Cares must never be confused with that which
occasions them. There are things, or circumstances,         The cares of this Scripture refer to those anxieties
of course, which occasion our cares, our worries.         which rise up in our soul in connection with that
These circumstances, however, are never the cause         over which we have no control, which things lie
of our cares or worries. Circumstances may and do         exclusively in the hands of our God. God alone
occasion them. But they never cause them. After           works all things. But we can and often do become
all, the child of God never really has a reason to be     anxious. We would, as it were, lift ourselves up
anxious or afraid. Do not all things work together        above the clouds and behold with our own eyes the
for His good? Is not the child of God always perfect-     work of God which is His work alone. 0, as long as
ly and completely safe and secure in the midst of         it is smooth sailing we have no worries. If only we
the world? If God be for us, can anything be against      have our bread every morning and evening. If only
us? If the Lord be my light, whom shall I fear and of     we have a job and are not bothered by unions. If
whom shall I be afraid?                                   only the farmer sows his seed and the rains descend
                                                          in due time. If only we can "see our way through it
  Cares, anxieties, fears are always caused by            all." But things can become different. Sorrow may
ourselves. They are the products of our own soul.         become our lot. The laborer may lose his job and be
Cares, then, are fearful and anxious questions            unable to find work. The farmer may experience
which rise up out of our own soul in connection           drought and see his crops burn up before his eyes.
with circumstances in which we are personally in-         We so often would tear away the veil which hides
volved. They rise up within us in connection with         the future and we would understand what only
problems which we cannot solve.                           God knows. The way, then, becomes dark and
  The question, however, is important: which              there is nothing we can do about it. Cares and anxi-
cares must and may we cast upon the Lord? First,          eties multiply; we become very fearful. How often
we should not confuse these cares of this text with       we experience these cares!
purely earthly anxieties which arise out of a car-                                * * * * * * * * * *
nally-minded soul. These anxieties occur. The
standard, then, of our "good" is worldly prosperity.        Indeed, we must cast our cares upon God.
We are anxious because we lack the things for               Negatively, this means that we must not pray
which we care and which we desire. We may have            that God remove the circumstances which may oc-
incurred great debts in acquiring these carnal luxu-      casion our cares and anxieties. 0, this does not
ries and now we cannot pay for them. And now we           mean that we may assume an attitude of indiffer-
are filled with fear and anxiety. We must not cast        ence over against them. How could this be
these cares upon the Lord. He is surely not interes-      possible? We must not be stoics. However, this is
ted in them. We must rid ourselves of these anxi-         not taught in this text. We read that we must cast
eties before we ever have the impudent boldness to        our cares upon the Lord. Besides, this is not com-
take them to God. And, secondly, to cast our cares        forting to the Christian and never constitutes the
upon the Lord does not mean that we become care-          essence of prayer. Presuppose that these circum-
less, that we cast upon the Lord that which we            stances are not removed. Besides, prayer must
must do. We must surely be careful. We must in-           always be the effort of my soul to learn to know and
deed do what our hands find to do. Carelessness           to do God's will. Does not Christ Himself teach us
and indifference are not characteristics of a Chris-      this in the Lord's Prayer? Indeed, we do not cast
tian. The laboring man must surely look for work;         "these things" upon God. It is not so that our will


268                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



must become His, but His will must become ours.           He careth for you. We have here the figure of a
Yes, we must cast our cares upon Him. Presuppose          child who approaches his father with all his trou-
that these adverse circumstances continue, become         bles. And this he does because he knows that his
worse. Yet, we must cast our cares upon God. Let          father takes a fatherly interest in him. How true
us watch and be sober, look for His coming and            this is in the spiritual sense of the word!
prepare ourselves for it.                                   What a wonderful care we have here! Literally
  This implies, of course, first of all, that in our      we read: He careth over you. He is ever covering
consciousness God must be One Who can and will            you with His almighty and protective wings. Be-
bear our cares. On the one hand, He is my Father.         sides, we read: He careth over you. Indeed, in a cer-
To Him I may turn with all my anxieties, with all         tain sense the Lord provides for all. Of Him are the
my troubles and sorrows. To Him I can direct my           sunshine and the rain, and the ungodly as well as
plaintive cry, make known to him all my earthly           the godly partake of them. He feeds the unrigh-
needs. To Him I may also direct all my fears. Be-         teous as well as the righteous, bestows a harvest
sides, on the other hand, He is my Father Who can         upon the evil as well as the good. Yet, we read here:
bear all my anxieties. He is everlasting and un-          He careth for you. This care here is the divine care
changeable love, in Himself, and in His relation to       of love. Of this care only the people of God are the
His own. His love is always first. Moreover, He is        objects. Besides, we read literally here: He careth
the Almighty  - not the mightiest but the only            for you all alone. Thus it was upon the cross of Cal-
Mighty One. He is surely able to care for me. And,        vary. Alone He cared for us. Alone He suffered and
He is also the Omniscient and All-Wise One, Who           died for us. Rejected of all, also of His own, He
uses the best means unto the best end, causes all         loved them even unto and into death, the fearful
things to work together for my good. As this God of       death of the cross and of hell. And the same is true
my salvation He has revealed Himself in His infal-        also now. Alone He cares for us and over us. In-
lible Word and testimony.                                 tensely interested in our everlasting welfare is He.
  Upon Him, now, we must cast all our cares. If           And,even  this is not all. We read: He careth for you;
and when our fears multiply, sorrows and grief are        that is, He is caring for you. We do not read that He
our lot, and our position as in the field of labor be-    will care for you, sometime in the future. But He is
comes acute; if the church's future becomes dark          caring for you, even now! Even now, at this very
and it seems as though the cause of the Son of God        moment, He is caring for you, now when all things
and of His truth cannot possibly survive; if we           appear hopeless, when there is seemingly no way
become anxious and fearful and can see no way             of escape. He is also now caring for you, causing
out, let God then bear our load, let Him give us the      also this affliction, this impossible situation to work
answer to all our anxious questions and fears. This       for your salvation. Indeed, what a wonderful care!
means that we must seek to learn God's will and do          So, what shall we say? Cast all your cares upon
it. Let the light of God's truth fall upon our path       God, the God of your salvation in Jesus Christ our
and may we believe in His word: My grace is suffi-        Lord. Why should we care, be anxious and afraid?
cient for thee. May we then treasure His fellow-          Why should we carry these burdens, try to find a
ship, taste His grace, walk in His way and experi-        way out? Why should we attempt to effect our es-
ence the blessed assurance that it alone is the safe      cape? Cast all your cares upon Him. Let the God of
way, the way which surely leads to everlasting life       your salvation carry your load. If He be our light
and glory.                                                and our salvation, whom shall we fear and of
  Only, to do this, we must walk in His way. We           whom shall we be afraid?
must not tempt the Lord our God, choose the way             He can carry it.
of evil and then implore His grace and favour. We, I        He will carry it.
repeat, must walk in His way. Walk as children of
the Most High. Take .a11 your questions to Him, but         He is carrying it, for He is caring for you.
be satisfied with His answer. Trust in the Lord, for
only then can you cast your cares upon Him. I must
know that He is my Father, but then I must walk as            The Standard Bearer
His child. And we must trust in Him alone. He will
indeed relieve us, but surely in His own good time.
And in the meantime He will cause all these things          makes a thoughtful gift
to work together for our good. He is my God, now
and forever.                                                           for a shut-in.
                    **********.
  This admonition is well grounded. We read:  fou


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  269



                                        Editor's Notes

Singaporean Guest Article                                     Publication Note
In this issue you will find a very interesting account        Some weeks ago we promised that all our RFPA
of the history of the G.L.T.S. by a member of the             publications would soon be back in print. To our
Executive Committee of that organization, Francis             dismay, however, we recently learned that 1,000
Quek. (His full name is Francis Quek Kok How. By              unbound copies of Prof. H. Hanko's  Mysteries   Of
the way, the Francis is a Christian name, such as             The Kingdom were inadvertently destroyed by our
many of the young people add to their Chinese                 bindery. There will be a considerable delay, there-
names. But do not be misled by the "Kok". That                fore, before this book will again be available. When
has no connection with the Dutch name  Koh.)  The             we reprint, we want to make some necessary cor-
article was originally intended for our Mission               rections and also add a textual index. Sorry for the
Issue. Lack of space and the length of the article            delay! And please, especially those of you who have
prevented its publication in that issue; and we did           already ordered the book, have patience. The delay
not want to spoil it by publishing it in two install-         will be several months.
ments. Hence, read and enjoy it in this issue.

EDITQRIAL


                    The GKN on the Nature of the
                       Authority of Scripture (2)
                                                  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



  Before turning to a discussion of the Report                notice, if necessary by telegram, promising to stop
itself, I must relate a significant exchange of letters       distribution of the Report immediately.
between the official Information Service of the                 Talk about hierarchy! And this is not even hierar-
GKN and Waavheid en Eenheid, the paper which, as              chy by a synod and synodical decision, but by mere
I reported earlier, published the entire Report on            deputies of the synod!
the Nature of the Authority of Scripture. This ex-
change of letters was published on the front page of           But  Waarheid en Eenheid  was not about to be
the January 30 issue of  W  &  E.  It must be remem-          bullied. They sent a very sharp letter of reproof to
bered that originally this same Information Service           Information Service in which they pointed out the
had sent the report to broadcasters and press with            corruption and hypocrisy of the latter's position.
only the restriction that it not be published before          The letter is too long to quote here, but I do want to
the end of October. Later, after the Synod of the             say to Waarheid en Eqzheid, "congratulations! Don't
GKN adopted the report, it mandated its deputies              back down."
(Information Service and Church and Theology) to                Meanwhile, the fact that the publishing of the
prepare a reworked edition of the report "which               original report/decision so riles the powers that be
can function in the local churches." Evidently  W&            in the GKN makes one wonder if there is some kind
E's publishing of the report infuriated the deputies          of synodical skulduggery afoot with the edited ver-
of Information Service. They accused  Waarheid  &             sion to be distributed in the churches. By a report
Eenheid  of violating the state's laws concerning             "which can function in the local churches" do they
authors' rights, accused them of having hindered              perhaps mean a report that is more palatable and
the leadership of the churches, and accused them              less overtly Scripture-denying? Time will tell.
of causing still-to-be-estimated damage. But the
deputies declared themselves willing to consider
the incident closed if  W  &  E  would give written              Turning now to the Report/Decision itself, let me


     270                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
I


     first furnish a general outline. The Report begins         to explain it immediately. But I want the reader to
     with a brief introduction which traces the history of      understand where Chapter 1 is going to take us.
     the Committee and its work and which also                  Eventually this Report is going to say that the Bible
     informs us that the various chapters of the Report         is no more trustworthy historically than are other
     were written by individual members of the com-             sources. Eventually it will teach that when the
     mittee, on the basis of discussions within the com-        Bible reports a great victory and a great slaughter of
     mission. It adds that while there is difference of         the enemy, that might, in fact, have been a defeat.
     views concerning the sub-sections, there is no dif-        Eventually it will say that the report of the incest of
     ference of opinion among the deputies concerning           Lot's daughters (with the resultant birth of Ammon
     the main lines.                                            and Moab) is not factual at all, but merely a piece of
       Chapter 1 is entitled "Changes in the Concept            folk-humor according to which they meant to say
     Truth" and includes pages 3-12. Its author, I              that all Ammonites and. Moabites are bastards. All
     learned from another source, is Dr. C. A. van              of this is possible because of the position taken in
     Peursen, a philosopher from the University of  Lei-        Chapter 1, that truth is "relational."
     den. Chapter 2 is entitled "Historical-Critical Inves-       However, before we enter into the  contimts   of
     tigation of the Bible" and includes pages 13-19.           this first chapter of the Report, let us take a look at
     Chapter 3 covers-pages 24-32 and deals with "The           its methods and approach.
     Developments of Views of Scripture in the History            In Reformed circles we have become quite ac-
     of the Gereformeerde Kerken." All of these                 customed to approaching any question posed in the
     chapters are really preparatory. In Chapter 4 the          churches and any study commissioned by a synod
     main subject is finally reached: "The Nature of the        from the point of view of Scripture and the Confes-
     Authority of Scripture." This is by far the longest        sions. This is especially true of any  major  study.
     chapter, as might be expected, and runs from page          Who among us would dream of conducting a study
     33 to 75. A concluding chapter, which is not less          of the subject of the nature of the authority of Scrip-
     important for its being practical, is entitled             ture without taking his starting point in Scripture
     "Together Farther" and includes pages 76 to 84.            and the Confessions? There we begin. There we
       Some of the material in these chapters is very ab-       find our basis. From these we derive our funda-
     struse and difficult to follow. This is particularly       mental givens. And if it is necessary to shed light on
     true, as might be expected, of the first chapter. But      some new error that may have arisen or on some
     I will do my best to furnish the gist of each chapter      contemporary problem or question or method
     and to furnish criticism. It stands to reason that the     which is not, let us say, directly touched upon in
     meat of the report is in Chapter 4. When we reach          the confessions and on which the churches find it
     chapter 4, there will be little difficulty in making       necessary to express themselves, we proceed on the
     plain how the Report makes a complete shambles             basis of those fundamental givens of Scripture and
     of the authority of Scripture and departs complete-        the Confessions. This is the tried and true method
     ly from the Reformed position. But it is also impor-       which has been followed for centuries in Reformed
     tant to understand how the Report reaches that po-         churches.
     sition. So the ready will have to exercise a little pa-      The GKN in this Report have completely aban-
     tience, as well as occasionally put on this thinking-      doned that method.
     cap, especially when the Report becomes some-                This is the first thing that strikes one who reads
     what abstruse, as in Chapter 1.                            Chapter 1. The Report, so to speak, approaches the
       To the task, then!                                       subject "from left field." Why begin a report on the
       The burden of Chapter 1 is that truth is what is         important subject of the Authority of Scripture by
     called "relational." We must not have an objective         discussing "changes in the conception of truth"?
     conception of truth, nor a subjective conception;          And if this were only meant to be introductory! But
     but we must conceive of truth as relational. To my         the thrust of this chapter and of the Report is that a
     mind, this is nothing but a refined brand of pure          changed conception of truth, i.e., the relational
     subjectivism; but about that later. First we shall         view, is correct, is to be accepted, and is to be deter-
     have to try to understand these terms. For this            minative with respect to one's understanding of the
     chapter really determines the whole position of the        nature of Scripture-authority. The chapter does not
     GKN concerning the nature of the authority of              merely furnish some background information con-
     Scripture. This relational conception of the truth is      cerning today's thinking, information concerning
     also applied to Holy Scripture and its explanation         the background of thought against which we must
     and understanding, with devastating results. In the        view the matter of the authority of Scripture and
     main, the result is that anyone can make Scripture         must maintain a Scriptural-confessional position
     say whatever he wants it to say. I cannot refrain          concerning that authority. No, it purposes that a
     from pointing ahead to this, though I do not intend        changed conception of what truth is also changes


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                271



our understanding of the inspiration and authority         and confessional oriented answer to the question:
of Scripture.                                              how must  we  conceive of  truth?  But the Report
  This is bad enough in itself.                            spurns this approach. In fact, it really makes no
                                                           attempt to prove that this contemporary, "relation-
  But then the Report proceeds to follow a com-            al" conception is correct. It simply assumes its cor-
pletely philosophical approach and method in               rectness, and then proceeds on that assumption. In
developing this entire subject of this changed con-        other words, granting for a moment that the basic
ception of truth and in evaluating it and its implica-     approach of the Report (that is, from the viewpoint
tions with respect to the subject of Scripture and its     of the truth-concept) is correct, the Report then also
authority. This is very striking. Even before I had        begs the question. It assumes what it ought to
read the information in one of the Dutch papers, I         prove.
had come to the conclusion that the chief author of
this part of the report had to be a philosopher, not a       And this implies from the outset that the whole
theologian; and, knowing that Dr. van Peursen was          Report really comes crashing down of its own
a philosopher, I had made an educated guess that           weight. For it is this unproved relational conception
he must be the author. And later information con-          of truth that forms the basis of the entire Report.
firmed the correctness of my guess. That will give           Nevertheless, we shall have to consider this  so-
the reader some indication of how thoroughly               called relational conception of truth in order to un-
philosophical this section of the Report is. It is pos-    derstand the rest of the Report. But this will have to
sible, of course, to arrive at a Scripturally grounded     wait until next time.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

                                   Letter to TimothvL

                                      March 15, 1981
Dear Timothy,                                                In fact, this struggle is especially to be found in
  The emotions of man have always been hard to             wicked men because their desires always far ex-
understand. This is not because we are not familiar        ceed their actual possessions. They "want" many
with them for we experience our own emotions               more things than they actually have. In fact, as a
every moment of our life. But (and this is true of all     general rule, they always want more than they
those things which are most familiar to us),               have no matter how much they possess. Though
although we know them so well from personal ex-            they become extremely wealthy, rarely are they
perience, when we try to describe what they are            content with their accumulated wealth; they still
and understand them somewhat, then we run into             want more. And if they have every thing which
all kinds of trouble.                                      money can buy, then their desires turn to lust, or
  We tried to understand some of these emotions            power, or pleasure, or fame. The point is that it is
last time and discussed, among other things, our           not usually to be found in the world that a man de-
desires. I want to say a bit more about these desires      sires nothing. It is exactly this that creates the strug-
because they constitute such an important part of          gle. The simple fact of the matter is that he has got
our life.                                                  to control his desires in some measure; or, not con-
                                                           trolling his desires but letting them run wild, he has
  From a purely formal point of view, all our de-          got to control himself so that he does not, outside
sires must and can be controlled by our wills. This        the law, seek to gain for himself what he does not
is not only true of the child of God; it is true of        possess.
every man. And it is precisely this need for a man
to control his desires by an act of his will which           It is not, of course, wrong merely to desire. But
creates in man a conflict and a struggle. This must        those desires can be and are wrong when one or
not be confused with the struggle which `Scripture         more of three things are true. They are wrong, first
describes between the "old man of sin" and the             of all, when they are directed towards things which
"new man in Christ." This is a struggle which              God has forbidden in His law. When a man desires
every man experiences.                                     something which belongs to his neighbor, he sins.


272                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



When a man desires gluttony or drunkenness, he             grace and the work of regeneration he is no
sins. When a man desires to desecrate the Sabbath          different from the ungodly person. But the work of
he sins. The object of his desire is wrong. In the         regeneration and salvation by grace does make him
second place, desire is wrong when certain things          different. It makes him different in this respect: he
are desired in the wrong order or in the wrong             has been given a new heart and the power of sanc-
measure. It is not wrong to desire our daily bread.        tification so that also all his desires are put under
But we desire our daily bread wrongly and in the           the influence and direction of grace. Yet the diffi-
wrong measure when we want butter on our bread             culty is that this is true of him only in principle so
too. We desire things in the wrong measure when            that he still carries about with him a nature which
we desire more than God has been pleased to give           is wicked in its desires.
us. And we desire things wrongly when we desire              Centrally and basically his one desire is God.
them in the wrong order. This is very common. We           This is the fruit of regeneration. His heart pants for
are not wrong in desiring the forgiveness of sin; and      God like a hart panting for water brooks. His soul
we are not wrong in desiring the shelter and               longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. He de-
clothing we need for our pilgrimage for the next           sires God's honor and glory above all else. He de-
day. But when we put these things in the wrong             sires God's will to be done on earth as it is done in
order, then our desires become wrong. When our             heaven. He desires God's kingdom and the final
desire for our daily bread is greater than our desire      victory of Jesus Christ. And he desires all this for
for the forgiveness of sins, then we do wrong. And         God's sake. His desire is directed so completely
finally, our desires are wrong when we desire to ob-       towards God that what happens to him is second-
tain something in a way God has forbidden. The             ary. He submerges himself in his desires for God
desire itself is not so much wrong; but our desire is      and the glory of His name. All his personal desires
so strong that we attempt to acquire what we desire        are subordinate and secondary to these. Whatever
in a way God disapproves of.                               he desires for himself is ultimately also for God's
   Now the desires of the wicked are always wrong          sake. He desires his soul's salvation; but he desires
because one or more of the three things above char-        this even because in the way of salvation God is
acterizes their desires always. But the Christian          glorified. He desires his daily bread; but this too he
faces also this same struggle. A wicked man curbs          wants because it is by means of receiving his daily
his desires and holds them in check oftentimes. If         bread that he can continue his pilgrimage in the
he badly wants his neighbor's car, he is not likely to     world so that God's purpose in his life is realized to
walk over to his neighbor's house and drive it             God's glory.
away. Every time he comes home from work he
may see his neighbor's car in the driveway' and              But you readily understand that this is true only
sense a mighty longing to have that automobile. He         in very small principle. He also has a very wicked
may even gnash his teeth in frustration that he            flesh which he still carries with him wherever he
cannot have it and that it is not his. But he will pro-    goes and in whatever he does. And that nature is as
bably not go over and take it. He will curb his de-        wicked as that of anybody in the world. Thus his
sire by an act of his will and refrain from satisfying     struggle is much deeper and more profound than
his desire. It doesn't take grace to do that-not even      the struggle of the wicked. The wicked struggles on
common grace. All it takes is a certain fear that he       a natural level and his struggle is always within the
will be discovered-and not only wind up in jail for        context of sin. Although it is better that he does not
all his troubles, but lose the car besides. There is no    steal his neighbor's car (if he does, he will have a
grace involved. So it is in the life of the wicked man     deeper place in hell), ultimately whether he does
in everything which he does. He has countless              steal it or does not steal it affects in no way his sal-
desires of one sort or another. Basically and funda-       vation or his standing with God. In both respects he
mentally every single one of them is wrong because         sins. But the believer has a deep struggle. His de-
he does not desire God and he divorces every one           sires must be directed by his will too; but his de-
of his desires from God. But these desires are also        sires must be under the control of a will which is, in
wrong for the reasons mentioned above. Yet he              turn, under the control of grace. And for that to
restrains himself oftentimes  - most of the time  -        happen he must wage relentless warfare against all
because he knows that the consequences would               the wicked desires of his flesh. It may be that he too
often be worse than doing without what he desires.         covets his neighbor's automobile. But should he re-
But if he sees any hope at all, in one way or another,     strain himself from going over there to steal it, he
to gain the object of his desire, he `will, of course,     has not, by that restraint, started on the path of
                                                           sanctification. The wicked do those too, and he can
do it.                                                     take no satisfaction from resisting that urge. Much,
  Now the believer faces a deeper struggle than            much more is required of him. It is required of him
this. He too is a creature, with desires. Apart from       that he get down on his knees and confess his sin of


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               273     I


covetousness. It is required of him that he get his           It is important that we learn these things. Many
priorities in line with Scripture. For he would not         of our troubles which we have in life arise out of
covet his neighbor's car if he did not set earthly          our inability to keep our priorities straight. Espe-
things above the spiritual treasures of heaven. His         cially in this day of great affluence and huge ma-
treasures are on earth because the Lord says,               terial possessions, our lives are centered in and di-
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be           rected towards the things of this world. Our desires
also." And his heart is upon earthly things. He will        are focused upon these things. It is impossible, but
have to learn the meaning of contentment-a great            it would be interesting, if it were possible, to deter-
lesson concerning which even the great apostle              mine how much of'our energy and how many of
Paul writes that he had to Iearn to be content. And         our desires, during the course of one day, are direc-
he finally learned it in a cold, damp, dank, dark           ted towards the things of God and of His  Word-
prison cell in Rome where he stood in imminent              even when we are in Church on Sunday or when
peril of having his head chopped off (Phil. 4: 11).         we are busy with prayer and Scripture reading. It is
And then, having learned all this, he will have to          safe to say that whole days go by when not one de-
learn to desire God. He will have to learn to desire        sire is found in us for anything other than the
what is holy and right and good. And he will have           things of this present world.
to learn also (and this may be the hardest lesson of          If we are the people of God this is bound to lead
all) that he cannot do all this of himself, but that he     to great trouble. For God will not let us alone. And
must learn to rely on Christ, receive all things out        the conflict becomes very bitter and fierce within
of Christ, and walk in the strength which Christ            our own flesh. Out of this arise many of our
alone can provide. But this will take all his life long,    troubles. The healing comes through the power of
and indeed, when he stands at the end of the                the cross and grace.
journey and waits only for the door of his home to
open that he may enter there, he will still say: "I                         Fraternally in Christ,
have but a small beginning of the new obedience."                                   H. Hanko

SIGNS OF THE TIMES .


                                       Current Events
                                               Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma



  For centuries the Church of Christ has heeded             magazines of the day. Of course not! The writers
the admonition of the apostle Peter in I Peter  4:7:        and publishers of these are ungodly men of this
"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore      world! They do not understand nor do they watch
sober, and watch unto prayer." No doubt many an             for the signs of Christ's coming!
Old Year's sermon has been preached on this pas-              It is for this reason then that it would be most in-
sage. We today also hear its warning and prepare            teresting to see some of the current events orga-
ourselves for the return of our Lord. We consider           nized in their proper way. This we will now do.
the events which take place in the world about us
and quickly arrange them in their proper perspec-             "The beginnings of sorrows (birthpangs WB)" are
tive. We perceive with our Spirit-enlightened               those signs that have occurred even before the first
minds just exactly how these actually wovh toward           advent of Christ. It is fitting therefore that we begin
Christ's return. All of them are ordered by His hand        with them. Jesus tells us of them in Mark 138, "For
in order to bring about His return. Certainly, as we        nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom
interpret the current events which take place in the        against kingdom and there shall be earthquakes in
world about us we are able to organize them ac-             divers places, and there shall be famines and
cording to the perspective of Scripture. They agree         troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows."
with the Scriptural givens which delineate the signs          "There shall be earthquakes in divers places, and
of Christ's return.                                         there shall be famines and troubles. . . ."
  Such an organization of current events, however,            The eruption of Mt. St. Helens on May 18, 1980,
is never pursued by the newspapers and news                 left more than 60 dead or missing. "I think it's


274                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



reasonable to expect that any of the large volcanoes       forced to leave war-torn Vietnam, Laos, and Cam-
in the Cascade Mountains have the potential for            bodia. But they had nowhere to go. Many must
this kind of eruption, " was the remark of Robert L.       wait to be resettled in some country which is will-
Christiansen, a volcanologist.                             ing to take them. They wait in crowded, unsanitary
   On October 10, 1980 an earthquake struck the            camps.
Algerian city of Al Ansam  leaving 400,000 homeless          With a few days left in his administration Presi-
and killing about 10,000 people. On November 23,           dent Carter warned of the growing Soviet "war
1980 another earthquake unleashed its forces on            machine." President Reagan takes a firm stand
southern Italy. It left about 3,000 dead and another       over against Russia. The Soviets "don't subscribe to
1,574 people missing.                                      our idea of morality. They don't believe in an after-
   Last summer the United States was plagued with          life. They don't believe in a god or a religion, and
drought. Crops withered and died in more than .a           the only morality they recognize therefore is what
dozen states succumbing to the sun's blistering            will advance the world of socialism." Because
heat. Crop and livestock damage was estimated at           President Reagan is openly hostile toward the
12 billion dollars.                                        Soviet Union they turn on the U.S.; Moscow
                                                           accuses the U.S. not only of preparing for limited
   In late November of 1980 Southern California            nuclear warfare but also of broadcasting secret
was struck with a week of raging brush fires. These        instructions to the Poles who are striking against
fires destroyed 423 houses and 140 square miles of         communist authorities in Warsaw.
timber. This natural catastrophe was preceded
earlier in the year by torrential rains and gale-force       The horses of Rev. 6:1-8 definitely are running
winds which ripped through Southern California             their courses through this world. The red horse
and central Arizona claiming the lives of 26 people.       stirs up strife between the nations. The hatred of
   It was early 1981 when the worst flood to hit the       God and fellow man is awakened in the hearts of
southern Philippines in two decades killed 71              men. The covetous passions of power and wealth
people and sent 300,000 fleeing to higher ground.          take hold of the leaders of the nations and the result
                                                           is that nation rises against nation and kingdom
   "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of           against kingdom. The black horse causes social and
wars be ye not troubled; for such things must needs        economic upheaval. The pale green horse works
be. . .  "                                                 death wherever he rides. Besides regular death he
   Saudi Arabia will soon sign an 800 million dollar       destroys by means of all these natural catastro-
pact to help Pakistan make an atomic bomb.                 phes-storms, floods, and fires, as well as by wars.
   Thousands of teenagers have taken up rifles and           Jesus speaks also of other signs which we, who
joined the civil war that has claimed over 8,500           now stand in the last minute of the eleventh hour,
lives in El Salvador. They have joined the guerrilla       witness in the world about us. In Matthew 24: 12 he
bands which rebel against the military-civilian            states, "And because iniquity shall abound, the
government.                                                love of many shall wax cold." Paul reiterates this
   In January, Irish republican guerrillas bombed          same idea in the words he wrote to Timothy in his
their way into the castle of Protestant leader Sir         second epistle chapter 3. We find in verses l-5 this:
Norman Stronge and shot him and his son to death.          "This know also, that in the last days perilous times
Police blamed the outlawed Irish Republican                shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own
army for the attack, but other sources say it looked       selves. . . without natural affection, . . . lovers of
like a "tit-for-tat assassination" by the Marxist Irish    pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form
National Liberation Army.                                  of godliness, but denying the power thereof: From
                                                           such turn away." (For more details open your own
   When the King of Spain, King Juan Carlos, visi-         Bibles and read this passage in its entirety.),
ted the Basque Parliament he was greeted with fist
fights between Basque separatists and police. The            "Iniquity shall abound. . . ."
Basques are demanding more autonomy for their                Several Atlanta City Council members joined the
region than had been granted in a recent home-rule         relatives and friends of Chuck Geter for his funeral.
decree.                                                    The 14 year-old youth who was strangled to death
   Makeshift firebombs were found inside two U.S.          was the 15th victim to be found in the string of slain
Army observation helicopters in West Germany               black children. Two youths remain missing.
last month. There was no indication as to who                In England the Yorkshire Ripper has finally been
planted them.                                              arraigned. Thirteen young women had fallen prey
   There yet remain today 200,000 Asian War refu-          to his murders., He is being charged with twelve
gees in Asian hold camps. These refugees were              murders and seven attempted murders.


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                               275


  A controversial school where "students seek car-       and amalgamation is sought.
nal consciousness and doctorates in sensuality" has        "Having a form of godliness but denying the
moved to the inner city of Oakland, California. Al-      power thereof...."
though the school is authorized by the state to grant
undergraduate degrees and a Ph. D. in sensuality, it       The Feminists who seek to break down the differ-
seems that it was being too restricted in the sub-       ences between male and female have been at work
urbs. Because of the move three of its courses will      publishing a new Bible. In it they attempt to "neu-
be dropped from the curriculum; "Mutual Pleasur-         terize" God. They also elide all passages which
able Stimulation," "teasing," and "Fundamentals          even hint of male superiority. All in the name of
of Sensuality.' '                                        Christianity!
  "Without natural affection. . . ."                       Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and in
                                                         America have begun to accept into their confines
  Although President Reagan is now in office,            practicing homosexuals. Some maintain that
countless unborn babies continue to be murdered          Scripture gives normative guidelines on homosexu-
through legalized abortion.                              ality. Others claim Scripture demands that we must
  Alan Madden was beaten for about four hours, at        love them and must take them in, in order to influ-
times with fists, at times with a wooden club            ence them in a godly way.
wrapped with gauze. "Police found his frail body           Because of the iniquity in the world about us the
on the living room floor, his blond hair red with        love of a godly life has waxed cold in many. We do
blood, his hands bruised from trying to deflect the      not have to look far for this. Worldly amusements
blows." He was five years old.                           are becoming more and more an accepted thing.
  National statistics show that 25 out of every 100      Dancing, drunkenness, movie attendance, godless
youngsters are sexually abused. Eighty-five percent      music, all are accepted things even amongst those
of all such cases are incestuous. Incidentally, child    who frequent the house of God.
abuse is the number 1 killer of children in the U.S.       "Even now are there many antichrists whereby
today.                                                   we know that it is the last time. . . ."
  "For this cause God gave them up unto vile               Last month the evangelist Billy Graham dropped
affection. .  ." (Rom.  1:26).                           by the Vatican and had a private talk with the pope.
  Jon Hinson, state representative from Mississippi      In welcoming the world-renowned evangelist the
was arrested on attempted sodomy charges and has         pope was heard to say, "We are brothers." An offi-
decided to resign from office. He was caught in the      cial release later said the subject of their discussion
act in the restroom of a congressional office.           was "inter-church relations, the emergence of
Hinson was re-elected to office despite his acknow-      evangelicalism,       evangelization,    and Christian
ledgement of visiting two homosexual hangouts.           responsibility towards moral issues, in light of
  The "beautiful" city of San Francisco is said to       values of the gospel."
be made up of over 50 percent openly-practicing            It seems they might just as well discuss their
homosexuals.                                             ideas with Jerry Falwell, who is the leader of the
  In 1968 the Universal Fellowship of Metropoli-         Moral Majority organization. This 72,000 member
tan Community Churches was organized. Today it           organization was founded by fundamentalists who
has 150 congregations in eight countries with about      push for a return to traditional values. Members of
29,000 members. The denomination was formed              the organization consider themselves "a growing,
for practicing homosexuals. Fifteen congregations        potent political force."
were added in the past two years.                          These are but  -`a few of the events currently
  One last sign cannot be overlooked. That is the        taking place around us which clearly reveal that
rising apostasy in the Church-world. Paul tells us in    Christ is coming quickly. If you and I are watching
II Thessalonians  2:3, "Let no man deceive you by        and not sleeping we will be waiting for Him. The
any means: for that day shall not come except there      premillennialists  speak of the unexpected return of
come a falling away first, and that man of sin be re-    Christ; not even the child of God will be aware of
vealed, the son of perdition." Those who fall away       His rapture. We repudiate that! I Thessalonians 5:2-
from the truth are not those who leave the es-           5 states, "For you yourselves know perfectly that
tablished church. They remain in the church and          the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief inthe night.
continue to practice an outward form of godliness        For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then
while in their hearts they deny the power thereof.       sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail
This general falling away from the truth affects not     upon a woman with child; and they shall not es-
just individuals but entire denominations. The           cape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that
result is that doctrinal differences are disregarded     that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all


276                                                    THE  STANDARD BEARER



children of the light. , .  ." We hear the warning                  the sleep from our eyes, and with eager anticipation
shout, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh." We shake                     wait! The King is coming!

THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH


                                          Response and Reply
                                                         Rev. Rodney Miersma


  In this particular article I will reply to two                        chooses the way of sin or by God's grace he chooses
separate letters that the undersigned received with                     the way of life." In fact man acts only when activated
respect to two articles that I wrote last fall in the                   by God, so that we cannot turn to what is right unless
November 1 and December 15 issues of the                                God turns us (Lam. 5:21). "Turn thou us unto thee, 0
Standard Bearer entitled "Choosing At The Becom-                        Lord, and we shall be turned." A man's heart indeed
ing Of Age" and "The Choice Of Faith." In order                         does devise his way, but never independently of
that the reader may see the complete picture and                        God's control. For his thoughts and words come by
                                                                        the sovereign operation of God upon his heart (Prov.
benefit from this exchange I will quote these letters                   16:1&  20:24).
insofar as they pertain to the subject.                                   Man is totally depraved, deprived of all spiritual
  The first letter reads as follows:                                    ability (Eph. 2:1-3). He is wise to do evil, but to do no
         In your article in Nov. 1 Standard Bearer you speak            good when it is his nature only and continually to do
       of the choice of Moses "for or against God." Also you            evil (Jer.  13:23). Man goes according to his nature
       direct this to us readers as well, suggesting that "God          which is totally corrupt, for "the heart is deceitful
       certainly chooses His people...; but man also                    above all things..." [Jer. 17:9, 10).
       chooses."                                                          But we believe through grace alone [Acts  18:27 &
         It is very true that we must make decisions in this            Eph.  2:18) our believing is from God. Faith is a gift
       life. However, to say that I must choose between God             from God. We are confident of this very thing [not of
       or against God is not in harmony with God's com-                 our doing) that He who has begun a good work in us
       mand to serve Him only! If God commands us to serve              will perform and perfect it unto the day of Jesus
       Him, then we never have a choice. It is purely of God            Christ. For we trust, not in our strength (for we have
       who works in me to will and to do of His good                    none) but in His power to keep us from falling, so that
   pleasure; and I may never say that God places a                      we are faultless before Him.
       choice before me. Could you please explain this more               There are more answers in the Canons of Dordrecht
       fully in a future S.B. article?                                  and Catechism. It all points out very clear that man
         Also, you quote from Joshua who said to Israel                 wills  only evil. So man cannot and will not  choose
       "Choose you this day whom ye shall serve." Joshua                God's kingdom. If a child does not confess publicly, it
       says "We shall serve the Lord." That is all Joshua and           does not mean that he has "spiritual weakness" [your
   his house can do because that is what God commands                   words). It means the Lord has not bestowed grace
   them. Israel had forsaken God and Joshua tells them                  upon that child as of yet. But we know that grace may
   to choose between the gods on the other side of the                  abound in the heart of the regenerate man through the
   flood or the gods of the Amorites (Joshua  24:15).                   working of the Holy Spirit. From that will he confess
   Oftentimes this text gets quoted to suggest that Joshua              before God and His people. "God is Faithful and
   gives Israel a choice between God and the Devil. This                Gracious."
   is not the true meaning of this text:                               In reply to these letters I want to express my
         One more question. Is there a difference between           appreciation, first of all, for the concern shown for
   choices made in our every day life and decisions as to         `* the truth of God's Word, and secondly, for the
   spiritual things?                                                Christian way in which the letters were written. I
  The second letter is similar and reads as follows:                will attempt to clarify the articles in question and
                                                                    thus try to remove any misunderstanding that there
         We are writing in connection with your articles in         may be regarding this truth.
   the Standard Bearer, "Choosing At The Becoming Of
   Age" and "The Choice Of Faith." We are in disagree-                 The basic problem, which has always been diffi-
   ment with these two articles because they are con-               cult to understand, is how to harmonize the
   trary to Scripture.                                              sovereignty of God with the responsibility of man.
         Your first article, first two paragraphs, we strongly      Scripture teaches both. The question then is, "If
   oppose. I quote `I...but man also chooses. He either             God is sovereign, wherein does the responsibility of


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         3 7 7



man lie? And if man is a responsible creature, how                    Him and obey Him from the motive of purest love.
is God still sovereign?"                                                And Israel must learn this. Therefore Joshua casts
  To answer this question we must see that Scrip-                     the ball their way. Choose ye this day!....
ture does speak of choosing. In fact, God exhorts us                Concerning this same passage the late Rev. G.M.
to choose. Let us first look at Deuteronomy  30:19,               Ophoff wrote in S.B. Vol. 9, p. 192:
"I call heaven and earth to record this day against                     That He is the author of our good choice, that we
you, that I have set before you life and death, bles-                 choose as His instruments, does not remove the
sing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both                    necessity of our choosing, nor render our choosing
thou and thy seed may live." Then Joshua  24:15,                      superfluous. Man's life is a perpetual choosing
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord,                      between good and evil, though it be true that the
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether                       natural man can do nothing but will to choose the
the gods which your fathers served that were on                       wrong, will to choose the gods of this world. Choosing
the other side of the flood, or the gods of the                       is an action of the rational, moral creature and sets
Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me                       man off from his fellow creatures as a responsible
and my house, we will serve the Lord." Also con-                      being.
sider I Kings  18:21, "And Elijah came unto all the                     God wills to be served only as a being chosen by His
people, and said, How long halt ye between two                        worshippers, chosen in distinction from darkness,
opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if                      from the lie, from gods that are no gods, from gods
Baal, then follow him. And the people answered                        that constitute the dark and horrible reserve from His
him not a word." Now let us go to the Psalms,                         own blessed self. Therefore He not only places His
                                                                      blessed self within the range of our vision, but also
chapter  119:30, "I have chosen the way of truth:                     confronts His people with the dark reverse of His
Thy judgments have I laid before me." Now just                        adorable self, namely, the devils at whose shrine the
one more, Luke  10:42, "But one thing is needful;                     world worships, and He bids us to compare, to
and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall                      appraise, to choose, to decide whether it is evil to
not be taken away from her."                                          serve Him. And in choosing Him we declare that we
  These are just a few examples from the Holy                         loathe darkness, hate sin, and love Him, as a being
Scriptures which, in each instance, literally mean                    blessed forever.
"to pick out, to select." Now, how do we under-                         That we are always under the necessity of choosing
stand this without becoming Arminian?                                 between God and Mammon, truth and the lie, light
                                                                      and darkness, Christ and Belial, heaven and  hell,-
  To show that the position of my two articles is in                  means that life is an unbroken test trial. But in this
harmony with our Reformed heritage let us turn to                     trial we are kept by His power through faith.
several of our church fathers who wrote on this                     Let us look at one more, the late Rev. H. Hoekse-
same question some years ago. The late Rev. G.                    ma as he explains Deuteronomy  30:19 in S.B. Vol.
Vos, in explaining Joshua  24:15, had this to say in              9! p. 26:
S.B. Vol. 13, p. 394:                                                   For, strange though it may seem, impossible though
      Does it not seem very poor leadership to leave the              it may at first appear, man always does and always
   people as it were to the inclination of their own                  must make the choice, either of life or of death!
   hearts? Would it not sound much wiser to say to them:                . ..Choose you must and choose you do, constantly,
   Don't you dare serve other gods! Don't let me see the              every day and every night, with every breath you
    semblance of idolatry in your midst! Would it not                 take, with every move you make, with every word
   work much better to whip them into shape, like a                   you speak, with every wink of your eye, with every
   dictator?                                                          inclination of your will, with every desire of your
      Ah, but Joshua is not the leader of a political party           soul, with every thought of your mind. Always you
   which must be kept intact by hook or by crook. He is               choose between righteousness and unrighteousness,
   not a dictator who will stand or fall all according to the         between light and darkness; you prove them, you
   size of the following he has. Joshua is the type of Jesus          evaluate them, you distinguish between them, you
   Christ our Lord!                                                   clearly manifest that you know them, you express
                                                                      preferment of either of them you approve of righ-
      And the theme of his discourse is  religion, the service        teousness and loathe unrighteousness, or you love the
    of the God of heaven and  of the earth! That makes a              darkness and hate the light.
    tremendous difference.                                              . ..Behold. I set before you life and death, blessing
      Religion, the service of God, is entirely a matter of           and cursing! What will ye?
    freedom, of liberty, of spontaneous endeavor. There is
    not an inkling of compulsion in religion. On the day of             And constantly, persistently, with his heart and
    the Lord of hosts, He will have a people that are very            mind as well as in all the directions of his walk the
    willing and very eager to do His sovereign will.                  natural man replies: I will death!
    Religion is that we submerge our will entirely in the               Choose therefore, life!
    will of God. And that will is that we love Him, know                Only by grace will the admonition be heeded!


278                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



   After having read the various Scriptural passages                    when they come to years of discretion they will
and after having read what some of our church                           publicly confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and
fathers have written concerning two of these                            Savior. And, yes, some of these young sheep are
passages, it becomes very evident whether or not                        weak and they need to be strengthened. How does
man chooses. Yes, man chooses! God did not create                       God do that? By His Word and Spirit. What is this
a stock and a block or a robot, but God created a                       Word? Choose you this day whom ye will serve!
rational, moral creature capable of judging and                            Not to confess the Lord's name when one has
choosing. By nature he chooses the evil and by grace                    "come to years" is halting between two opinions.
he chooses the good. But he chooses! This is pre-                       We may not serve God and mammon. The demand
cisely what I wrote. I quote, "He either chooses the                    is love Me, serve Me with your whole heart, mind,
way of sin or by God's grace (emphasis added, RM)                       soul, and strength! Our young people who are weak
he chooses the way of life." The title of the first                     will hear the admonition and exhortation of the
article stated the truth that man must choose, while                    Shepherd. By grace! By the grace that God gives by
the title of the second article stated that this choice                 the means of that very exhortation, His Word.
is of  faith,  referring,  .or course, to Moses and to
every child of God. The articles in question were                          If there is still any difficulty with the articles
designed to instruct, and again, by God's grace,                        and/or this reply please write again. Through such
strengthen the faith of the young people so that                        discussions the truth is made plain.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS


                                  God's Covenant With Man
                                                         (Westminster Confession)

                                                            Rev. R. Van Overloop


   We continue our examination of the seventh                                 a, Hebrews  9:15-17;   7:22; Luke  22~20;  I Corinthi-
chapter which deals with God's covenant with                                        ans 11:25.
man, In sections one and, two the relationship of                           5. This covenant was differently administered in the
God with man before the fall is treated. That we                            time of the law, and in the time of the gospel;a  under
have already considered in previous articles. The                           the law it was administered by promises, prophecies,
remaining four sections of this chapter examine the                         sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other
Biblical data on the gracious condescension of God                          types and ordinances delivered to the eople of the
to form a positive relationship with man before the                         Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come,& which were
fall.                                                                       for that time sufficient and efficacious, through the
                                                                            operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the
       3. Man by his fall having made himself incapable of                  elect in faith in the promised  Messiah,c by Whom
       life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a                they had full remission of sins, ;nd eternal salvation;
       second,a commonly called the Covenant of Grace:                      and is called the Old Testament.
       whereby He freely offereth unto sinners life and sal-                  a. II Corinthians 3:6-9
       vation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him,                b. Hebrews  8,9,10;  Romans  4:ll; Colossians  2:11,
       that they may be saved;b and promising to give unto                          12; I Corinthians 5:7.
       all those that are ordained unto life His Holy Spirit, to              c. I Corinthians lO:l-4;  Hebrews  11:13; John 8:56.
       make them willing and able to  believe.c                               d. Galatians  3:7-9,14.
         a. Galatians  3:21; Romans  8:3;  3:20,21;  Genesis                6. Under the gospel, when Christ the  substancea is
            3:15; Isaiah 42:6.                                              exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is
         b. Mark  16:15,16;  John  3:16; Romans  10:6,9;  Gala-             dispensed are the preaching of the word, and the ad-
            tians 3:ll.                                                     ministration of the sacraments of Baptism and the
         c. Ezekiel  36:26,27;  John 6:44,45.                               Lord's Supper,b which, though fewer in number, and
       4. This covenant of grace is frequently set forth in the             administered with more simplicity and less outward
       Scripture by the name of a Testament, in reference to                glory, yet in them it is held forth in more fulness, evi-
       the death of Jesus Christ the testator, and to the ever-             dence, and spi,$tual  efficacy,c  to all nations, both Jews
       lasting inheritance, with all things belonging to it,                and Gentiles;         and is called the New  Testament.e
       therein bequeathed.a                                                 There are not therefore two covenants of grace differ-


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                            279



   ing in substance, but one and the same under various             Canons of Dordt in the Third and Fourth Head
   dispensations.f                                                  article nine, viz. "to present." We are sorry that
          a. Colossians 2: 17.                                      even the notable A. A. Hodge in his commentary on
          b. Matthew 28:19,20;  I Corinthians 11:23-25.             the Confession does not see this idea of presenta-
          c. Hebrews  12:22-27; Jeremiah  31:33,34.                 tion, but rather uses the term in the same way
          d. Matthew 28:19;  Ephesians 2:15-19.
          e. Luke  22:20.                                           Arminians do.
          f. Galatians  3:14,16;  Acts  15:ll;  Romans  3:21-23,      Thirdly, the Confession confirms our conviction
             30; Psalm 32:l;  With Romans 4:3,6,16,17,23,24;        ye the use of the word "offereth" when it shows
             Hebrews 13:8.                                          that faith, both as a power and activity, is wrought
  Section three describes just what God's covenant                  by the Holy Spirit, and that work is only in the
with fallen man was like. It makes clear that God                   elect. There are no conditions for man to fulfill. Sal-
institutes this relationship without any consultation               vation is not probable but actual, for it is the work
with man. This relationship does not come about                     of God alone. He bestows the ability, the attitude,
by mutual agreement between God and man. Sec-                       and the action in man necessary for the receiving of
tion one made clear that if God and man were to                     that salvation.
have any positive relationship it was because of the                  Terminology which troubles us in this section is
condescending goodness of God. This section re-                     the following. As we pointed out in an earlier
iterates this and adds that the state of fallen man                 article, we prefer to speak of one kind of positive
makes the source of the covenant to be only of                      relationship which God had with man, being in
grace.                                                              essence the same with Adam before the fall as after
  Some might raise their eyebrows in suspicion at                   the fall. Therefore, we would not care to speak of a
some of the terminology in this section. We would                   first and a second covenant. Also, the idea that man
agree that some of the terminology is not happy.                    made himself incapable of life "by that covenant"
However, we also believe that the Confession is not                 seems to imply that the covenant was not an end in
suspect here.                                                       itself, but the means to the end of life. We do not
                                                                    prefer this language.
  The Arminians hold that Adam incurred the
penalty of death because he did not perfectly obey                     Section four describes the possibility and nature
the command of the Lord. They would say that God                    of the covenant of grace. An analogy exists between
responded to man's failure by sending Christ and                    a testament or will and the covenant. The will is
thus introduced a new covenant, offering the eter-                  executed only upon the death of the testator
nal life Adam lost to all men upon condition of                     (Hebrews 9:16,17).  The death of Christ is necessary
faith. This virtually makes the relationship of God                 for the establishment of the covenant of grace, for
with fallen man also a covenant of works, with                      His death wrought the glorious and everlasting in-
faith a work of man.                                                heritance of heavenly life and all the blessings of
                                                                    that life.
  This is certainly not the presentation of the West-                  The Confession emphasizes the essential unity of
minster.                                                            the work of God in the Old and New Dispensations.
  Notice first the beneficiaries of this covenant.                  It does this over against the error of dispensationa-
Listen to the Larger Catechism.                                     lism, which teaches that God uses different ways of
   Q. 30. Doth God leave all mankind to perish in the               saving man in different periods of history. Each one
    estate of sin and misery?                                       of these different periods is called a dispensation.
   A. God doth not leave all men to perish in the estate            Although there is disagreement among themselves,
    of sin and misery, into which they fell by the breach           most dispensationalists divide history into seven
    of the first covenant, commonly called the Covenant             dispensations. In each dispensation the way God
    of Works; but of His mere love and mercy delivereth             gives salvation is essentially different. The Confes-
   His elect out of it, and bringeth them into an estate of         sion maintains that the Covenant of Grace has re-
    salvation by the second covenant, commonly called               mained the same in essence from the beginning.
    the Covenant of Grace. (emphasis mine -RVO)                     The Confession does recognize two dispensations,
   Q. 3 1. With whom was the covenant of grace made?                but differs radically from the dispensationalist in its
    A. The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the            definition of a dispensation. The Confession holds
    second Adam, and in Him with all the elect as His               that the two dispensations are but two administra-
    seed.                                                           tions of the same covenant. There is an absolute
  Secondly, we regret that present day usage of the                 unity of' the one and only Covenant of Grace,
word "offer" (in theological circles, especially) has               though there is variation in the manner of admini-
so changed this word that it cannot be used today                   stration of that covenant. "There are not therefore
without confusion. I believe that the Westminster                   two Covenants of Grace differing in substance, but
uses this word in the same manner as does the                       one and the same under various dispensations."


280                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  The two recognized different ways in which the         had was much larger than that possessed by Abra-
Covenant of Grace has been administered are              ham, for example.) This increased revelation is not
"under the law" and "under the gospel." The dis-         only in the volume of the written Word of God, but
pensation under the law is called the Old Testa-         especially in the incarnation of Christ (John  1:14)
ment and the dispensation under the gospel is            and the presence of the Spirit of truth (John 16: 13).
called the New Testament. A reading of II Corinthi-        We wait for the eternal dispensation when all
ans 3:6 and 14 will show that this is Biblical termi-    will be made plain. Even now in the new dispensa-
nology. In this passage "old testament" and "new         tion "we see through a glass, darkly; but then face
testament" do not mean the major divisions of the        to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know
Bible, but they refer to dispensations.                  even as also I am known" (I Corinthians 13:12).
  In the old dispensation the Covenant of Grace            Our anticipation of a betterdispensation does not
was administered by types and shadows which              change the present reality of the glorious salvation
pointed ahead to Jesus Christ as the only means of       we have. Nor does the increased fulness and evi-
salvation. In the new dispensation this covenant is      dence which we have of this salvation change the
administered by the gospel, i.e., the good. news of      reality of its existence in the old dispensation. They
the reality; Jesus Christ has come and earned the        too had "full remission of sins, and eternal salva-
salvation which is dispensed primarily through the       tion." Christ was the only Savior in the old dispen-
preaching of the Word of God.                            sation too, for He is the Lamb slain from the foun-
  The new dispensation is superior to the old in         dations of the world.
"fulness, evidence and spiritual efficacy." The            What a marvellous grace that works the cove-
more revelation given resulted in the truth being        nant. What a wonderful God Who works all things
more clearly understood. (This was already true          that to Him may be all the glory.
within the old dispensation. The revelation Isaiah

GUESTARTICLE


                G.L.T.S.-The Evidence of God's
                                  Sovereign Leading
                                           Mr. Francis Quek Kok How



  The story you are about to read is a story of the      School. In around the year 1962 a teacher in that
sovereign leading by God of a people which were          school began witnessing among the students and
once not a people but are now the people of God,         meeting with converts every day during class
which had not obtained mercy but now have ob-            breaks and before and after school. Mr. G.S.F.,
tained mercy. We invite you to walk with  .us            then barely nineteen, had a tremendous zeal for
through our pathway, one with many narrow corri-         God and gathered many students around him.
dors of strife and purging, to the present, and          Among these students was our brother Lau Chin
experience with us the grace of God to His Church.       Kwee, the only remnant from those early years.
Many there were who walked in our band and left;            As the group grew she was  ,brought under the
many there were who had sharp disagreements              wing of the Youth For Christ (YFC) organization
with the path taken; and many were the misunder-         and became known as the "Monk's Hill YFC." The
standings. But it was God Who led. For the purpose       group had by then picked up momentum. The
of Christian charity and prudence, only names of         short daily meetings in the school soon proved in-
persons who are at present leaders of the group will     sufficient, so it began longer meetings in a
be mentioned. All others will be reduced to initials     Methodist Church. The group flourished under the
which may or may not be the true ones.                   diligent labors of Mr. G.S.F., who spared nothing in
  The G.L.T.S. has not always been known by her          time or wealth to help the young people (he con-
present name. She had her beginnings as a Bible          ducted extra tuition classes for weaker students on
class in a public school, the Monk's Hill Secondary      his own time and often purchased meals for the


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 281


group on his meagre salary). About 1967, Mr.             of the place in Life Church and the friendly counsel
G.S.F. began to bring some of the older members of       of Rev. T.T.
the group to  Gilstead Life Bible Presbyterian             With Mr. G.S.F. more involved with the JSM,
Church where he himself was attending. During            and the aftereffects of losing most of the older
that period, a certain Rev. H.C. of a local baptist      members to Rev. H.C., the group floundered and
church, HBC, had very close ties with Rev. T.T. of       the numbers diminished from the once proud sixty
the Life Church and was often invited to preach at       to seventy to barely twenty. It was at this time that
this church. The leaders of the Monk's Hill YFC          God raised up one of our present leaders, brother
attending Life Church soon became very close to          Johnson See who led the group with a few brothers
Rev. H.C. He was invited on many occasions to            and sisters.
preach for Saturday meetings of the Monk's Hill
YFC. Rev. H.C. gradually influenced the young              In September of 1972, Mr. G.S.F. left Singapore
leaders in Baptist teachings which differed from the     for ministerial training in the U.S. With none else to
Life Church. Relations between Rev. T.T. and Rev.        finance him, the G.L.T.D. pooled all her resources
H.C. soured amidst accusations of sheep stealing.        to come up with $800 (a sum accumulated through
Rev. H.C. took nearly all of the young leaders to the    the meagre five and ten cent daily pledges of the
HBC. In later years many of these young men              members). With some remuneration also from the
declared before the entire congregation that they        JSM, he set out with the intention of enrolling in
had never been saved. By the grace of God, brother       Bob Jones University. He finally enrolled in a
Lau Chin Kwee and sister Shi  Soi Fah and only a         Baptist College that was willing to take him and
few others were spared a similar bitter end, for they    finance him.
remained.                                                  Meanwhile the G.L.T.D. attendance dwindled to
  Mr. G.S.F. continued to teach the group the            eleven persons under the leadership of brother
honor for the Word of God and godly separation           Johnson See. The work had to be supported finan-
from the present world. The group began to see the       cially by some of the older members in their late
errors of the YFC, which encouraged worldliness          teens. Brother Johnson labored on undaunted and
and supported such neo-evangelicals as Billy             slowly the membership grew. The turning point
Graham. Thus led by the Lord, the group broke            came when the first Annual Bible Camp was held in
from the YFC. But the result was that the Metho-         December, 1972. After the camp, students from
dists expelled the group from their meeting place.       other schools than Monk's Hill were added to the
By the grace of God, we found favor in the eyes of       Saturday Club meetings where Johnson spoke
Rev. T.T. and were given a room at the Life              every week. The group grew to thirty. At the
Church. At this time too, through the S.M.C.C.C., a      second Bible camp, where brother Lau Chin Kwee
subsidiary of the I.C.C.C. (a council of Churches        was the speaker, two more of the present leaders
supposedly set up to oppose liberalism in the            joined, brothers Tan Kok Leong and Francis Quek.
W.C.C. by enforcing the "Fundamentalistic"               Two more of the present leaders, brothers Tan
position), Rev. T.T. developed close relations with a    Boon Kwang and Teo Hwee Meng, who were
Rev. N. of a local group, the JSM. Mr. G.S.F. too        Monk's Hill students, also joined. By 1975 the
was close to Rev. N. and soon became very in-            group had grown to seventy;
volved in the work of the JSM. The labors of the           In 1975 some of the leaders realized that the
group were left mostly in the hands of the young         G.L.T.D. could not remain perpetually a Christian
leaders. A severe disagreement arose between the         organization. The idea of moving toward the forma-
Life Church and JSM. Mr. G.S.F., caught between          tion of a church led to sharp dissension in the
the fighting ministers, refused to take the group        group. There were those who wanted to merge with
with him though he continued as a domestic mis-          the Bible Presbyterians. The conflict among the
sionary of the JSM.                                      leaders led to the leaving of some of the leaders.
  While this was happening, the Monk's Hill Bible          In the same year, the Lord saw fit to introduce us
Club was slowly evolving. There had been a               to the Reformed Faith we hold today. Prof.  Hoek-
"Gospel Letters and Tracts Department" within            sema and Rev. C. Hanko of the Protestant Re-
the Bible Club. The group adopted this name, with        formed Churches of America were passing by Sing-
the letters, G.L.T.D., with intentions to merge with     apore. Brother Ong Keng Ho, the present chairman
the Life Church Sunday School, but this did not          of the G.L.T.S., who had received the truth through
materialize. Rev. T.T. wanted very much to have          the O.P.C. of Christchurch New Zealand, was
the G.L.T.D. as part of Life Church, but the session     trying to arrange for the Life Church to organize a
opposed this, saying they had had their lot with the     series of lectures by the P.R.C. ministers. He was
mud-slinging Rev. N. The G.L.T.D. was left to fend       turned down. Finally he sought the G.L.T.D. to
for herself, with no ties to any church save the use     host the lectures. In the process brother Lau Chin


282                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



Kwee came to know brother Ong.                           his grievances. The brother left the group. There
  In March of 1976 the G.L.T.D. acquired a unit of       were forums held on the mode of baptism, where
its present premises at River Valley Road for the        brother Lau Chin Kwee battled with Rev. G.S.F.
purpose of setting up an outreach, River Valley          before the entire congregation. It was surely by the
Outreach, RVO (a name used even until today). At         grace of God that brother Lau, being untrained,
first only the Sunday Fellowship, which was set up       managed to hold his ground against the  "Greek-
earlier to cater to the many who had left school and     quoting" Rev. G.S.F. As the conflict continued,
could no longer attend the Saturday meetings, used       Rev. G.S.F., sensing perhaps his inability to change
the place. For a time, many of us attended the Life      the whole gorup, started another group elsewhere.
Church worship services and went to the                  This led to the final confrontation between him and
fellowship at RVO in the afternoons. We met in a         the leaders. While he was questioned by the then
small hall ten feet by twenty. There the seed of the     chairman of G.L.T.D., brother Johnson See, at a
Sunday worship services was sown. It was decided         congregational meeting, about the way he wanted
that, in line with the desire to set up an autono-       to control all of the G.L.T.D. activities while he de-
mous church, the GLTD should have her own ser-           voted more time to  .his other work, Rev. G.S.F.
vices at the completely unfurnished RVO. The wall        simply walked out and left us. This took place in
separating one of the adjacent rooms was torn            mid-1977.
down to make room for increased numbers. Since             All this time the Reformed truth was brewing in
then more walls have been broken down and more           the hearts of some of the members, but even after
units acquired and we have graduated from floor          the departure of Rev. G.S.F. they faced much oppo-
sitting to chairs,                                       sition. Among the dissenters against the Reformed
  The spark of truth which was kindled in the            Faith, the strongest was brother Johnson See; but,
breast of brother Lau Chin Kwee in 1975 was soon         by God's grace, he was led away for further studies.
a raging fire as he studied the Reformed Truth on        In Scotland, brother Johnson, away from his heavy
his own, and he could not help but pour it forth to      responsibility  tolead  the brethren in what he be-
the rest of the group. About the middle of 1976          lieved, came also to embrace and cherish the Re-
brother Lau began to teach the Heidelberg Cate-          formed Truth. In Singapore brother Lau Chin
chism at the Saturday meetings. This incurred the        Kwee, knowing the allegiance of the group to the
opposition of the rest of the leadership, but like a     Word of God, continued with those who loved the
living shoot striving incessantly against huge rocks     same truth to show them that the Reformed Faith
in its quest to rise above the ground, the truth then    and scriptural Christianity are one and the same. It
firmly in the heart of our brother was not shaken.       was a hard time for these brethren, but they
At times he felt that none stood with him, and it        labored on amidst much opposition and discourage-
was not until the end of that year that some of the      ment from'other factions of the group.
brethren began to hold the same truth he loved.            In January, 1978 brother Lau Chin Kwee left his
These brethren, among whom were brothers                 job as a school teacher for the full-time ministry.
Francis Quek and Hwee Meng, however, could not           This made him the second person to do this, joining
be of much help, not being then leaders and having       brother Tan Boon Kwang, who had felt called in
little influence.                                        1976 and was already studying in a local Bible
  In the twelfth month of the same year, Mr.             college of the Bible Presbyterians.
G.S.F. returned from the U.S. and began immedi-            March 1978 saw the coming of Rev. J. Slopsema
ately to work in the G.L.T.D. He became our "mis-        and Elder Dewey Engelsma to investigate the group
sionary pastor" and, being Ana-Baptistic by persua-      as emissaries of the P.R.C. Being the first Reformed
sion, he tried to bring his teachings into the group.    delegation to Singapore, they bore the brunt of the
The respect of the group being much with him, he         attack of the faith. Those holding to the Arminian
taught us the Congregational form of church              position sought to assail them at the public discus-
government with a one-pastor (elder) rule, opposed       sions held. Neither did those holding the Reformed
the doctrine of the universal catholic church, and       Faith support them at these meetings, for they saw
tried to propagate his teachings on the mode of          in the emissaries an invaluable avenue to answer
baptism. The members of the G.L.T.D., having by          the many questions heaped on them. It must have
then learned the honor of the Word of God,               appeared to the emissaries that the entire G.L.T.D.
searched the scriptures, and many were thrown            was rank Arminian.
into perplexity. One of the leaders holding the Pres-      After his departure; Rev. Slopsema conducted a
byterian form of government sent letters to all of       tape program with the G.L.T.D., and a commission
the members against the teachings of Rev. G.S.F.         of ten members was appointed to study the
Although most of the other leaders agreed with           P.R.C. beliefs. God worked in the hearts of the
him, they had to censure him for the way he aired        members of the G.L.T.D. and soon there was a


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                              283


     clear dividing line between the truth and the lie of        in our midst.
     Arminianism. Many members left during this                    May, 1980 saw the third visit of Elder Engelsma,
     period of extreme contradiction in which God                and immediately the old ties, developed in past
     purged us to be a bearer of His Truth. The pain of          years, bound the hearts of the members of the
     seeing many bosom friends leave was somewhat                G.L.T.S. to the heart of the man, very much their
     alleviated as God added others to the group, but the        senior, and his wife. Their short stay in the republic
     period was frought with discouragements. The                did much to encourage the saints. They gave much
     work of the first emissaries was not without fruit.         wise counsel and brotherly kindness.
       By the time the second pair of emissaries came,              In August the same year, brother Lau Chin
     Rev. M. Kamps and Elder Engelsma, much of the               Kwee, on whose shoulders had fallen the awesome
     wrangling concerning the issues of limited  atone-          responsibility of leading the saints in the G.L.T.S.
I    ment and irresistible grace was dispelled. The emis-        through many difficult years, bade a tearful
     saries who were in Singapore in early 1979 did              farewell to the church and went with his wife to
     much for the spiritual development of the group,            further his ministerial training in the U.S.
     and it was through their hands that the group, then
     called the Gospel Literature and Tract Society,                When one views the history of the G.L.T.S. one
     G.L.T.S., requested a missionary from the P.R.C.            cannot but confess that it is all of Sovereign Grace.
     The name of the group was changed to G.L.T.S.               From the beginning God had planted the seed
     when it was registered with the authorities of              which initially appeared as an ugly shoot. Trials
     Singapore.                                                  and toil, hope and joy.were the portion of the young
                                                                 band as they trod the pilgrim way together. As the
       After the departure of the emissaries the leaders         tree began to take shape, God introduced the Re-
     of the group discussed at length the advice of the          formed Faith, at first in a trickle and then in its
     P.R.C. men to stop-the administration of the Lord's         soul-overwhelming torrents. God had prepared a
     Supper until the church was organized. After much           vessel of unworthy clay to bear the treasures of His
     study of the Word, the sacrament, which had been            Truth. Today there is in the G.L.T.S. a greater cohe-
     administered by a Bible Presbyterian minister; was          sion among the members and the leadership than
     discontinued.                                               has ever been experienced in her history. The truth
       In February of 1980, the missionary from the              that binds our hearts to God also binds our hearts to
     P.R.C., Rev. Arie den Hartog, arrived in Singapore          one another. We are still a young group, and many
     with his family. Finding him to be a man of great           are still the difficulties ahead; but none can remove
     zeal and compassion, the group quickly grew to              our hope. Our God, Who was our help in ages past,
     love and respect him. Within a matter of months,            is still our Guide for years to come. We know that
     the American of Dutch origin became accepted in a           our God has a mission for us to bear His Truth in
     very real sense as our missionary pastor. He is, up         the darkness around. In all this, God is our Help.
     till today, serving as a faithful minister of the gospel

     BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


             Luke-The Gospel of the Son of Man (1)
                                                       Rev. J. Kortering



        The Gospel of Luke spells out in greater detail          THE AUTHOR
     the life and ministry of Jesus Christ than any of the
     other Gospels. The author, Luke, the beloved phy-              For determining who the author is we must
     sician, also wrote the book of Acts. Hence his in-           begin with the gospel account. There is no direct
     terest in a historically accurate account of the mini-       mention within the gospel itself that Luke is the
     stry of Jesus extended also to an account of the es-         author. Nevertheless, the first four verses of
     tablishment of the New Testament church. In a real           chapter one give us insight as to who the author is.
     sense he is the inspired historian of the early              The truth of the matter is that these verses form a
     church.                                                      classical example of the truth of organic inspiration.


284                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



By this, we distinguish the inspiration of the Bible                 uses 180 Greek words which appear in his gospel
from a mechanical process, as if the Holy Spirit                     alone and not in any of the others. This is compared
used the authors as robots or typewriters. The Holy                  to Mark who uses 44, Matthew 70, and John 50.
Spirit inspired these men as real living tools. He                   Luke's grammar is more involved and sentence
used their minds, wills, natural abilities, and                      structure more complex. He became the personal
personalities so that the end product reflected it. He               physician of the apostle. Some evidence of his
did this in such a marvelous way that sin never                      medical background shows in the gospel, e.g.,
entered into the process, the words written were                     mention of the woman with an issue of blood
without error, the truth of the Word of God alone.                   having spent her livelihood on physicians, Luke
  Concerning this organic inspiration we include                     8:46, and observing the fact that Jesus sweat drops
several elements.                                                    as of blood, Luke 22:44.
  First, God prepared the authors to write their                       All this indicates that God prepared Luke to
particular message. Let's examine how this applies                   write this particular Gospel. He was educated, had
to Luke. We learn first of all that Luke was a travel-               a specific aptitude for accuracy, was personally ac-
ing companion with Paul on some of his missionary                    quainted with Paul, labored as pastor and mission-
journeys. This is established by identifying Luke as                 ary. All these qualifications become evident in the
the author of Acts. Without getting into the techni-                 gospel itself.
cal aspects of language, we can simply turn to the                     Secondly, organic inspiration includes God's
first part of the book of Luke  (1:3)  and Acts  (1:l)               revelation of the truth which they had to write
and see that both are addressed to the same person,                  down. There were times when this truth was re-
Theophilus. Besides, Acts 1 refers to a previous                     vealed directly to the author, as for example by a
treatise written to Theophilus which contained the                   vision or by the voice of God. Other times, how-
things that Jesus did and said (an obvious reference                 ever, the Holy Spirit over-ruled the use of refer-
to the gospel he wrote). Since Luke wrote Acts, use                  ences and oral tradition. Luke explains that he had
of the pronoun "we" identified Luke as being pre-                    at his disposal, "a declaration of those things,
sent with Paul. This begins in Acts  16:lO. When                     which are most surely believed (fulfilled) among
Paul traveled from Troas to Philippi, Luke                           us" (vs. 1). Some of these were written by others,
mentions "we." Then after  Philippi there is no                      some by the apostles, noble Jews, even relatives
reference to "we" until Paul returned to Macedo-                     and friends of Jesus. They were reliable because
nia, as recorded in Acts  20:6. From this we                         Luke states, "they delivered them unto us which
conclude that Luke stayed in  Philippi as a pastor                   from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
until Paul came back on his third missionary jour-                   ministers of the word" (vs. 2). Luke had access to
ney. They continued together on this journey and                     them because he lived during that period. He
Luke accompanied          h i m   t o   J e r u s a l e m   a n d    could, for example, talk to the apostles. He met
eventually to Rome and was with him while Paul                       Peter, Mark, and Barnabas at Antioch, James at
was in prison (II Tim. 4: 11).                                       Jerusalem, and Philip at Caesarea. This led him to
  How do we know that the "we" referred to Paul                      say, "having had perfect understanding of all
and Luke and not someone else? This is determined                    things from the very first" (vs. 3). He felt qualified
by the process of elimination. Luke was with Paul                    to write. The Holy Spirit so worked in Luke that he
in Rome. This is established by the so-called prison                 was able to discern what was historically accurate
epistles. These letters mention the following as                     and what was not. In the finished account we have
being present with Paul: Epaphras, Epaphroditus,                     the truth of Christ's ministry.
Timothy, Tychicus, Aristarchus; Mark, Jesus                            Thirdly, God by His Holy Spirit gave the author
Justus, Demas, and Luke. Epaphras and Epaphrodi-                     the desire to write. This is expressly stated in verse
tus did not arrive in Rome with Paul, hence they                     3: "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect
could not describe the sea voyage of Acts.  Tychi-                   understanding of all things from the very first, to
cus, Timothy, and Mark are mentioned in Acts in                      write unto thee in order most excellent  Theophi-
the third person "he." Demas departed from the                       1~s." The Spirit did not force Luke to write or com-
apostle; Jesus Justus  is not mentioned anywhere as                  pel him to do a work that he detested. On the con-
being on the journey with Paul; hence only Luke is                   trary, He so influenced him that he considered him-
left. Both in Philemon 24 and Colossians 4:14 Luke                   self qualified for the task and desired very much to
is identified as being in Rome with Paul.                            do it. The occasion was his friend Theophilus. We
  Luke is also referred to as the "beloved physi-                    do not know much about him, only that his name
cian" (Col.  4:14). He was probably converted in                     means either "lover of God" or "loved by God."
Antioch (hence he writes in great detail of the                      He probably was brought to faith through the
church at Antioch, Acts 11,13,15,  and 22). He was-a                 preaching of Luke and therefore became a close
gentile, well-educated, as his writing indicates. He                 friend, and Luke desired to see him grow in the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              285


faith. The designation, "most excellent" was used             As to the purpose of writing it, we can point out
in connection with official dignitaries. It could be       as we did before that Luke had Theophilus in mind.
that he had some position in government and there-          He in turn represented the Greek world. Matthew
fore was in a key position to influence the spread of      was directed to the Jews, Mark to the Roman Chris-
the gospel. At any rate, Luke's love and concern for       tians, and now Luke to the Greek converts. A few
the spiritual welfare of this man prompted him to          things serve to illustrate this. If a person were  ac-
take his pen in hand and write a careful account of        quainted with the geography of Palestine, he might
the ministry of Jesus.                                     not need such additional information as to how far
  Fourth, at the time of writing, the Holy Spirit          Mt. Olivet was from Jerusalem, or descriptions of
guided the hand of the author so that he wrote             the towns such as Capernaum or Nazareth. Greeks
accurately what He wanted him to write. This was           might not know those things. Besides, Luke  direc-
the conviction of his soul. He would write  "in            ted the attention of his readers to the ancestry of
order" (vs.  3), that is, accurately and precisely, be-    Christ, going back to Adam, not Abraham. It would
cause he had perfect understanding. Not only was           impress the Greek mind that Caesar's decree had a
this his personal idea, it was a fact, because the         direct effect upon the history of Jesus.
Holy Spirit was working in him to accomplish this.            We suggest that Luke also had a specific theme in
The writers were conscious of the fact that they           mind, such as Jesus the Son of Man. We must  re-
were writing more than a personal letter to a friend.      mind ourselves that all the Gospels had one central
They were writing for the ages, and they knew the          theme, namely, the good news of salvation through
Spirit was present.                                        Jesus Christ. The whole Bible extols the God of our
  Finally, the Holy Spirit guided the church to            salvation. The point is that each of the gospels em-
include the inspired books in the completed canon          phasize a certain aspect of this work of the Savior.
of the Scripture. The presence of this gospel of           Matthew presents Him as the Messiah, the  fulfill-
Luke is testimony of this truth. Not only did Luke         ment of prophecy. Mark sets forth Jesus as the Ser-
consider this gospel worthy of such consideration,         vant of Jehovah, qualified and faithful in the work
but the early church fathers soon looked upon it as        of salvation. Now, Luke also sets forth a specific
an inspired gospel. Irenaeus says, "Luke, the physi-       emphasis, that is that Jesus as Savior is the Son of
cian, whom Paul had associated with himself as             Man. This becomes obvious when we thumb
one zealous for righteousness, to be his companion         through some of the details of the gospel. Even
who had not seen the Lord in the flesh, but having         before He was born, Mary struggled with the
carried his inquiries as far back as possible began        mystery of divine conception-how He could be a
his history with the birth of John." Justin Martyr         man without a human father. In Luke's gospel, de-
does likewise. It is found in all the ancient  manu-       tails of His humanity come forth: His birth,
scripts and translations. The Holy Spirit guided the       infancy, early boyhood, and thus we see a true Son
church so that this gospel was included in the Bible.      of Man. He had to grow in wisdom and stature. The
                                                           geneology places him within the line of mankind,
DATE AND PURPOSE                                           going back to the very beginning. Luke gives us the
  As in the case of Matthew and Mark, we  en-              greatest detail of His humanity.
counter difficulty in trying to pinpoint a date for          All this is given in order that we may know that
writing. There are a few things that we can consi-         the salvation brought by Jesus is for us. As the Son
der. We know it was written before Acts, and the
earliest date for the writing of Acts would have           of Man, He took our place. Well might the virgin
                                                           mother sing, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and
been A.D. 63, during the second year of Paul's im-
prisonment in Rome. Here, too, the question of             the malefactor be at home in paradise.
Luke's having used Mark enters into the picture.             The Son of Man is in truth, our Savior.
We can't be far off if we date it around the middle
of the 60's.


     The STANDARD BEARER
     makes a thoughtful gift
     for a shut-in.


286                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                                         Book Reviews


COMMENTARY ON ROMANS, Chapters 1-8,                          THE THEOLOGY OF CALVIN,  Wilhelm Niesel
William Hendriksen; Baker Book House, Grand                  (Translated by Harold Knight); Baker Book House,
Rapids, Michigan; 303 pp., $14.95 (cloth). (Re-              Grand Rapids, Michigan; 258 pp., $6.95 (paper).
viewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema.)                              ANALYSIS OF THE INSTITUTES OF THE
  This is one of Dr. Hendriksen's series of New              CHRISTIAN RELIGION OF JOHN CALVIN,
Testament Commentaries. Like others of the series,           Ford Lewis Battles (assisted by John Walchenbach);
it is, generally speaking, a conservative,, reliable,        Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 421
and helpful commentary. It is also written for the           pp., $10.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.C. ,Hoek-
general public, that is, in such a way that refer-           sema.)
ences to the Greek do not interfere with its use by            Obviously both of these books have to do with
those who do not know the Greek language.                    the theology of John Calvin. But in a way, they are
  Like all commentaries, however, it must be used            opposites.
with discretion and not simply swallowed, "hook,               The Niesel book is a commentary on Calvin's
line, and sinker."                                           theological system. In my opinion, however, this is
  In checking a few passages, I was disappointed to          one of those many works on John Calvin's theology
find that Dr. Hendriksen's "common grace" bias               which, while it presents Calvin's theology in a
affected his commentary in more than one place.              sense and to a degree, nevertheless does so in such
For example: 1) The gospel, "the power of God                a way that the final result is what I would call a
unto salvation" (Rom. 1:  16), "has achieved and             "de-Calvinizing" of Calvin. That is, it so waters
offers  something far better...." (p. 59, italics added).    down Calvin's theology that the essence of that
2) The author is, to say the least, very weak in his         theology is denied and destroyed in the process.
interpretation of "God gave them over" in Romans             Here is a sample, p. 166: "Calvin could not express
1:18-32. This was a passage which was cited in               more plainly from a formal point of view that the
1924 for the idea of the restraint of sin. (p. 75) 3)        doctrine of election has no intrinsic significance for
With respect to Romans  2:4, the author para-                theology in the sense that other doctrines might
phrases the text and speaks of the idea that "God's          stem from it. It must be considered at the appropri-
kindness seeks to bring you to conversion," and              ate point within the total structure of a theological
"that the purpose of God's  hindness...is...to bring         system; but no more than other questions." I
him to  conversion." The text speaks of a fact, not of       contend that statements like these do not faithfully
a purpose. Hendriksen's interpretation would have            present Calvin's theology..
to lead to Berkhof's conclusion: that in the case of           The Battles book could serve as an excellent
the unbelieving Jews the result did not answer to            study aid. It is intended as a guide in the study of
the divine purpose.  (p. 90) 4) The doctrine of total        the Instifufes,  and furnishes a detailed outline of the
depravity is watered down in the name of "avoid-             text of the  Insfifutes.   As far as I have checked it, I
ing extremes." (p. 100) Jesus taught "that there is a        believe it faithfully outlines that great work of
sense in which even the unconverted `do good'."              Calvin. This is a useful book if it is employed
  I was happy to note that Dr. Hendriksen explains           correctly. It should not be used as a substitute for
Romans  7:14, ff. as referring to the regenerated            study of the Institutes itself, but rather as an aid, or
Christian.                                                   guide. There is no substitute for the study of the
                                                             Institutes.  Recommended.
  But again, I was disappointed by Hendriksen's
explanation of the "golden chain of salvation,"
Romans  8:29, 30. (pp. 281, ff.) I do not believe his        THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF
explanation of vs. 30 can be maintained when it              FAITH,  Douglas Kelly, Hugh McClure, and Philip
makes division between links of the chain in time            B. Rollinson, Eds.; Attic Press, Greenwood, S.C.;
as distinct from the link of predestination in               102 pp., $5.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.C.
eternity. Dr. Hendriksen changes the "glorified" of          Hoeksema.)
the text, for example, into something future.                  This is a modern-English, updated version of the
  These are just a few items to show that this com-          Westminster Confession of Faith. I can best.
mentary, which in many respects is a good one,               describe it by quoting from the Introduction:
must nevertheless be used with discretion.                     "...we are offering here a modern version of the


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               287



Westminster Confession, which attempts to be                              tory Statement' interpreting the original Chapters 3
absolutely true to the full content of the original                       and 10,          and both churches independently
theology and at the same time to be clear and com-                        developed new versions of the original Chapter 24
prehensible to the ordinary church member of this                         on marriage. Our modern version is of the basic
generation. Our version of the Westminster text is,                       pre-1900 American text, which with a few excep-
of course, merely a private translation and makes                         tions is the same as the original British version of
no claim to be the authorized work of any church.                         1647. We have also included the two new Chapters
We simply offer it and the ancillary matter on the                        34 and 35 (9 and 10 in PCUS), the `Declaratory
changes in the text and proof text as tools for                           Statement,' and the two new versions of Chapter 24
studying and understanding what many believe to                           for comparison...."
be the greatest single statement of reformed Chris-                          "In addition to these comparative textual
tian doctrine. We hope that laymen, churchmen,                            inclusions, Appendix I discusses and systematically
and scholars will find use for this work. Laymen                          lists all the changes from the original text of 1647.
not only need to be aware of the changes which                            Appendix II does the same thing for the proof texts,
have taken place in the text and in the proof texts.                      which have also undergone independent major
Churchmen and scholars will also find this version                        revision by both PCUSA and PCUS. Using
of interest in so far as any translation is inevitably                    Appendix II the reader will readily be able to
interpretive and hence a kind of commentary.                              identify all the proof texts which are now or have
    "The changes which have been made to the                              been used to support a particular statement or
original 1647 edition and which are reflected in the                      section and to recognize the status of each citation,
current American editions are significant but not                         whether added, retained, or deleted, and by which
too extensive. Both the Presbyterian Church in the                        Church body."
United States of America (PCUSA, now UPCUSA                                  To this reviewer, the value of this little book does
after the merger in 1958 with the United Presby-                          not lie so much in its new translation as in the fact
terian Church of North America) and the Presby-                           that it serves as a good reference work with respect
terian Church in the United States (PCUS), the two                        to the confessional literature of the two largest
largest American Presbyterian denominations,                              Presbyterian bodies in this country. Frankly, I did
added to the original thirty-three two new chapters,                      not know of all the changes and revisions and
`Of the Holy Spirit' and `Of the Gospel of the Love                       additions made to the original Westminster. Some
of God and Missions' (PCUSA-simply entitled `Of                           of these changes are very significant. It is worth
the Gospel' in the identical PCUS version) in the                         inquiring also as to which version of the West-
twentieth century. PCUSA also added a  `Declara-                          minster some of the smaller Presbyterian denom-
                                                                          inations have.
                         ATTENTION!!!                                        For any of our readers who may be interested,
                                                                          we will make this book available through our
                        PRIMARY TEACHERS                                  Protestant Reformed Seminary Bookstore.
    The Protestant Reformed Christian School of South Holland, IL,
will need a primary teacher for the coming school year. Interested
oersons should call the school  - phone 312-333-9197 or write to                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
the school. The address is 1651 1 South Park Ave., South Holland, IL         The Ladies' Society of the Randolph Protestant Reformed Church
6 0 4 7 3 .                                                               expresses its heartfelt sympathy to its faithful member, Mrs. Martha
                                           The Education Committee        Huizenga, and her family at the death of their husband, father, and
                                                                          grandfather, MR. THEODORE HUIZENGA.
                            NOTICE!!!                                        "There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the
    The Spring meeting of the Eastern Mens and Ladies Society will be     heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The Eternal God
held on April 7, 1981 at 8 PM in the Holland Protestant Reformed          is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." (Deuterono-
Church. Rev. Rodney Miersma will speak on the subject  - "The             my  33:26   &  27)
Moral Majority Movement  - Should We Support It?".                                                                Rev. K. Koole, Pres.
                                                  Elsie Kuiper, Sec'y.                                            Mrs. Jake Soodsma, Secy.



                               News From Our Churches
    While our Pella and our Hope, Michigan                                currently serves in our church of Randolph,
churches rejoice in the recent installations of their'                    Wisconsin.
new pastors, Reverends Lanting and Flikkema  re-                             Our "retired" ministers continue to supply the
spectively,        o u r   Redlands  c o n g r e g a t i o n   h a s      Redlands pulpit as they continue to wait upon the
extended another call, this one to Rev. Koole, who                        Lord for an undershepherd. Rev. H. Veldman, who

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





288                                          THE STANDARD  BEARk


has been preaching catechism sermons for our                 Four consecutive Kalamazoo bulletins make
Hope, Michigan congregation during their year and          reference to the recent occupation of their new
a half vacancy, plans, the Lord willing, to preach         church'edifice. In the February 8 bulletin we read:
for  Redlands  following Rev. Heys' "tour of duty"         "Today with thankfulness to God we begin our ser-
there. Whether or not these plans are carried out,         vices in our new building. It is the answer to many
however, may hinge on Rev. Koole's answer to the           prayers and efforts; and we can only pray that God
Redlands call.                                             will bless us as we worship here together and give
  Prior to his work in  Redlands Rev. Heys                 glory to His Name." A dedication service is planned
preached at the Bradenton Christian School in Bra-         for the `evening of March 6 with Prof. H.C.  Hoek-
denton,  Florida on four consecutive Sundays. A            sema scheduled to speak.
report of that work from the consistory of our First         In our February 15 news we wrote concerning
Church in Grand Rapids informs us of a consider-           the emissaries sent to Jamaica by First Church.
able amount of interest there "in distinctively Re-        More recent information reveals that the emis-
formed preaching and dissatisfaction with what is          saries, "attended the Classis  meeting of our Jamai-
presented in other churches in the area. . . ."            can Churches, worshiped with each of the seven
  Still in the realm of our "retired" ministers, we        congregations, met with the ministers and  office-
find that Rev. and Mrs. Lubbers have again been            bearers, and dealt with the many needs they found
sent to Skowhegan, Maine under the auspices of             among the people. The emissaries bring greetings
our Pella consistory. You may recall that Rev.             from our brethren and sisters in Jamaica to our
Lubbers spent a few months in Skowhegan last fall.         congregation and churches." I count it a special pri-
If you would like to correspond with them-which            vilege to pass these Jamaican greetings on to our
I'm sure they would greatly appreciate-send your           churches.
letters to: 47 Main Street, Skowhegan, Maine                 More greetings I am privileged to  extend.to our
04976.                                                     churches: these from Barnsley, England. A little
  How carefully do you read the Standard Bearer?           background in this case might be helpful. It begins
Do you remember reading an article of Rev. Heys            with Prof. H. Hanko who has for some time corre-
in which he alluded to the desirability of having the      sponded with a certain Pastor  Rawson of the
S.B. and other worthwhile materials available on           Measbro Dyke Evangelical Church. When Prof.
cassette tape for the benefit of those who because         Hanko heard that Mr. and Mrs. C. Kregel and Mr.
of the infirmities of the flesh have difficulty read-      and Mrs. J. Swart, members of First Church,
ing? Well, it now appears that that desire may             planned to go to England, he suggested they visit
become a reality. Our Southeast Church in Grand            Barnsley. Well, they did visit Barnsley, thoroughly
Rapids is experimenting with and checking into the         enjoyed their stay there, and have since had contact
feasibility of an S.B. -taping project. At this writing    with Pastor  Rawson via letters and tapes. One of
the February 15 issue has already been taped, and          those tapes to the Kregels contained a recording of
is nearly ready for distribution. The committee in         their New Year's Day service. In the course of the
charge of this project is eager to get these tapes in      service the pastor reminded his congregation of the
the hands-or should I say cassette recorders-of            Lord's blessing in giving them opportunity to visit
those who would find them helpful. They ask all            with the Kregels and Swarts a few months earlier.
who would like to receive these tapes for them-            He went on to say, "Will you join me this morning
selves or another to contact immediately Mr.               in sending greetings to the Protestant Reformed
Michael Engelsma, 272.0 Madison Blvd. S.E:, Grand          Churches of the United States of America."
Rapids, Michigan 49507. Those who receive the                I wonder if I would be overstepping my bounds
tapes might like to know that the voice they hear is.      were I to send our greetings to Jamaica and Barns-
that of Mr. Gary  VanDerSchaaf,  member of                 ley in return? Certainly these last few news items
Southeast Church and teacher at Adams St. Protes-          remind us of our confession: "I believe an holy
tant Reformed Christian School.                            catholic church."                        CK


