              The
     STANDARD
BEARE
r                              f?  .`.,
              A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE


                                                              ._
                                           :;r,-.           .-,
                                           r'               ._


                                                      .-
       It is useless to talk of salvation being for
     "whosoever will" in a world of universal
     "won't." Here is the real point of difficulty:
     how, where, can we obtain fhe will? Let oth-
     ers rejoice in a "whosoever will' ' gospel: for
     the sinner who knows himself to be a sinner,
     and knows what it is to be a sinner, only a
        .<
     "God will" gospel will suffice.
                                                                     B.B.  Warfield
     See "Evangelism and the Reformed Faith"
                                                                        -page 306


                                                            Volume  LVII, No. 13, April 1, 1981  -


290                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER




                                 i h                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER
                                 CONTiiTS                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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                                                                                       Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Born of the Virgin Mary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .290             Depnrtment   Editors:   Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
  Editorials-                                                                          denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                       Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
       The GKN on the Nature of the Authority                                          Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay  Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                       Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                                       Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
          of Scripture (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293    EditorialOffice:   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION

                                         Born of the Virgin Mary
                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko

                   Ques. 35. What is the meaning of these words-He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
                of the Virgin Mary?
                   Ans. That God's eternal Son, who is, and continueth true and eternal God, took upon him
                the vey nature of man, ,of the flesh and blood of the Virgin May, by the operation of the Holy
                Ghost; that he might also be the true seed of David, like unto his brethren in all things, sin
                excepted.
                   Ques. 36. What profit dost thou receive by Christ's holy conception and nativity?
                   Ans. That he is our Mediator; and with His innocence and perfect holiness, covers in the
               sight of God, my sins, wherein I was conceived and brought forth. Heid. Catechism, Lord's Day
                14.

  I believe in Jesus, Who was conceived by the                                                This belongs to the historical events of this  pre-
Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary.                                                      sent time. On a certain day, almost two thousand


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                           291



years ago, the angel Gabriel came to the lowly              the wife, because of her motherly instincts, desires
home  07 Mary,  wLo  was a virgin, in the city  if          this very strongly. The husband knows very well
Nazareth. He spoke to her of the birth of the Savior,       that he cannot produce a son without his wife. The
Who had been promised throughout the entire old             wife  kriows that it is her unique privilege as a
dispensation, and was the one hope of all the               woman to bring forth children, yet never without
sincere believers. Gabriel explained to Mary who            her husband. When the child is born, relatives and
this Child would be, and how His marvelous birth            friends try to decide whom the child takes after.
would take place. Upon the suggestion of the angel,         Actually the newborn child bears resemblances to
Mary went to her cousin Elisabeth and stayed with           both parents. The child himself had nothing to say
her for three months. Likely it was the inspired            about all this. It did not choose its parents, nor the
greeting of Elisabeth that made Mary aware that             time and place of its birth. It had nothing to say
the holy conception had already taken place. Upon           about its sex, the color of its hair or eyes, or any-
her return to Nazareth, Joseph, her husband to be,          thing else. God determines all that, without so
was instructed by the angel in a dream that the pro-        much as consulting anyone.
phecy of Isaiah, in chapter seven, the fourteenth
verse, was fulfilled in his fiancee, and that he              How different is the birth of Christ! The Triune
should take her under his care and protection.              God is His Father. No wonder that the virgin Mary
Under the providence  of God the command of                 asked in wonder, "How shall these things be?"
Caesar Augustus brought this engaged couple to              That makes the divine answer through the mouth
Bethlehem, the city of David, where Jesus was born          of Gabriel the more significant. The Holy Ghost
in a cattle stall. This is all a part of history, an im-    shall come upon thee, bringing about thy pregnan-
portant part, the unfolding of the counsel of God, a        cy. The power of the Most High God will oversha-
happening that our eyes could see, our ears could           dow thee during the nine months of thy pregnancy.
hear, and actually so ordinary, that a small child de-      God in the Son and through the power of the Holy
lights to hear the story over and over again.               Spirit brought about His own conception. Not a
                                                            part of God, say, a third, came into the flesh. GOD
  And yet how marvelous, how wonderful, how                 in all His fulness formed His own body and His
defying of all human comprehension is that fact of          own soul. He made  Himself a human nature that
which our Catechism speaks, and which we con-               looked like Mary. He protected that human nature
fess every Sunday in the words, "I believe in Jesus,        from the depravity of His mother. He brought Him-
. ..conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin         self to birth as Mary's Child. He is fully God and at
Mary." Already in the fourth century after Christ           the same time fully man, Immanuel, God dwelling
the church, after a bitter struggle against the forces      among us in our flesh! We see it, we shall fathom it
of darkness that introduced all kinds of heresy in          never. We believe!
regard to the virgin birth, was guided by the Holy
Spirit to declare, "We, then, following the holy              The more we think about this holy conception
fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess          and birth with the Holy Scriptures before us, the
one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the            more we marvel at the mystery of Bethlehem.
same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in man-            Scripture says, "Therefore also that holy thing
hood; truly God and truly man . . . in all things like      which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
us, without sin; . . . begotten for us and for our sal-     of God." Our Catechism responds to that by saying,
vation, born of the Virgin, the Mother of God,              "God's eternal Son, Who is and continueth true
according to the Manhood; . . . to be acknowledged          and eternal God, took upon Him the very nature of
in two natures, without confusion, without change,          man, of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary."
without division, without separation.. .  ."                God came down to us in the person of the Son and
  How wondrous are the ways of God, unfath-                 became Man. He is the Son of God with a divine
omed and unknown!                                           and a human nature. He remains the Son of God, as
                                                            is evident from His preaching, for He spoke with a
  "God's eternal Son took upon Him the very                 knowledge and authority that the scribes did not
nature of man." That is the language of our Book of         have. This is evident also from His many mighty
Instruction. It immediately reminds us of the visit         works, for no man could perform such great works
of the angel Gabriel to Mary, which is a wonderful          as He did. Peter cried out in amazement, "Lord,
commentary on the holy conception and birth of              depart from me, for I am a sinful man." As spokes-
our Savior.                                                 man for the other disciples he learned to confess,
  Ordinarily a believing young man and a believ-            "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
ing young woman enter into the state of marriage            Christ did not lay off any part of His divine nature.
with the very desire and purpose to raise children,         Yet at the same time, He is-1 say, is, because He
even the covenant seed that God may give them.              still is-fully and completely man, both as to body
They look forward to that and pray for it. Especially       and soul. Particularly in the Gospel according to


      292                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
I


      John there is a repeated reference to the fact that        over all, using the wicked devices of evil men to
      Jesus addresses God, the Triune God, as His                carry out His purpose. Our Savior was born accord-
      Father. He was born, cried, nestled in His mother's        ing to the promise.
      arms, needed care and protection, needed to be fed           What is the advantage of all this for us?
      and clothed, grew up and developed as any other
      child. He hungered, thirsted, grew weary, felt pain,         Our fathers speak of Christ as our Mediator. As
      also the pain of being reproached of men and not           Mediator He stands before God in our stead. For
      being understood by His disciples. He was like us          our sakes He surrendered Himself to the consum-
      in all things. There was only one important excep-         ing wrath of hell until the fires had completely
      tion to that; He had no sin. Sin was foreign to Him.       burned out. God exalted Him to the highest
                                                                 heavens, where He now serves as our eternal Pro-
         Christ was so much one of us that He could prop-        phet, our merciful Highpriest, and our glorious
       erly call Himself "The Son of Man." He had a spe-         King.
       cial preference for that name, so that He often re-
       ferred to Himself by it. This name, Son of Man, so          He covers with His innocence and perfect obedi-
       perfectly expressed the fact that He was son of           ence in the sight of God all my sins, wherein I was
       Adam, of our bone and of our flesh. Our blood             conceived and brought forth. My sins! Surely you
       flowed through His veins. Yet this name bore a            take that same confession on your lips with me.
       special significance for Him, since the prophets had      Our sins! The guilt of Adam's sin is our guilt which
       foretold that THE Son of Man would be crowned             was passed along to us through the generations
       with glory and honor in the heavens (Psalm  8:4,5;        from father to son. Adam's depravity, as the result
       Dan. 7: 13,14). He was the Seed of the woman, Who         of his fall, is my depravity. I must acknowledge,
       was promised to Abraham as his spiritual Seed,            even as David did, "Behold, I was shapen in iniqui-
       according to the promise of Genesis  17:7, "And I         ty; and in sin did my mother conceive me." For, as
       will establish my covenant between me and thee            by one man sin entered into the world, and death
       and thy Seed after thee in their generations for an       by sin: and so death passed upon all men,  for that
       everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to       (because) aZZ have sinned (Rom. 5: 12). Added to that,
       thy seed after thee." He is also of the royal line of     I increase the measure of my guilt every day, so
       David, as Gabriel told Mary and as the genealogy of       that my sin-debt with God is become such a huge
       Matthew 1 points out. He was, therefore, fully            sum, that I cannot even reckon how large it is.
       qualified to be our Mediator, for He is one of us,          He brought the perfect sacrifice for our sins in
       like us in all things, only sin excepted.                 His own body on the cross, so completely as if you
         At the very thought we hide our faces in shame.         and I had personally atoned for every one of our
      Jesus Christ is the Holy One that is brought forth,        sins, large and small. He merited for us eternal life,
       by the wonder of God, from a depraved, corrupt            as if we ourselves had proved ourselves worthy of
       human stock. That is intimated in the first chapter       all the riches of salvation. Now in heaven Christ
       of Matthew, when it mentions the names of only            intercedes for us as our Highpriest in the sanctuary.
       four women: Tamar, Rahab, the wife of Uriah, and          As our King He rules over all the affairs of men to
       Ruth of Moab. The wonder becomes even more                carry out the counsel of God for our sakes, and
     . amazing when we consider that Christ was born as          rules over our lives in love to turn everything to our
       the Living One out of dead generations. Death had         salvation. As our Prophet He sends forth His Spirit
       come upon us already at the fall. Both Abraham            into our hearts, Who applies to us the riches of
       and Sarah were too old to have children when Isaac        grace revealed in the holy Scriptures. He assures us
      was born. The throne of David lay buried in the            that, though our sins are as scarlet, He cleanses us
       dust, and the generations of David were like a dead       and makes us as white as snow. As God sees us, we
       stump, in a dry soil. The Son of God entered into our     stand without condemnation, clothed in the perfect
       world as Life from the dead. Consider now also            righteousness of Christ, worthy to be the heirs of
       how the devil worked to prevent the birth of our          life with Him in His glory.
       Savior. He killed Abel; he worked havoc in the              Christ can do just that, for He is God.
       family of Jacob; he instigated the death of Israel's        He has the right to do that for  .us, since He is
       male children in Egypt. We could mention the              eternally our representative Head and Mediator
       crime of bloody Athaliah and the bitter revenge           before the Father.
       sought by  Haman as but a few more examples of
       Satan's determination to wipe out the generations           He does just that, for He made Himself like unto
       that brought forth the Christ. Finally, there was the     us, in order to make us like unto Himself in His
       desperate attempt of king Herod  to kill the Babe at      glory.
       His birth by killing all the infants of Bethlehem. But      I believe in Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy
       God always proves Himself to be sovereign Lord            Ghost, born of the virgin Mary!


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                293



  EDITORIALS
~ Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


                       The GKN on the Nature of the
                             Authority of Scripture (3)

     Before we continue our discussion of Chapter I           of "truth" which may be called the  objective  con-
   of the Report/Decision, a bit of news about further        ception. According to it, truth is the agreement be-
   developments in the Dutch churches in connection           tween the human presentation of things and the
   with this Report. You will recall that  Waarheid en        things themselves. "True" is to state things as they
   Eenheid  was accused of violating the law when it          actually,    objectively,    are.    This    conception
   published the entire report, even though the report        proceeds, on the one hand, from the objective situa-
   was public and had been dealt with in open session         tion of things, and, on the other hand, from the
   by the General Synod of the GKN and had, in fact,          human consciousness which is able to reflect these
   been distributed to the press. The official Informa-       things. According to this view, man is passively re-
   tion Service of the GKN even demanded an imme-             ceptive. This objective view, it is said, has been
   diate promise from  Waarheid en Eenheid  to cease          found in widely varying circles: with the Greek
   and desist in its distribution of the report. The sus-     philosophers, with Thomas Aquinas, with the clas-
   picion was expressed-and I entertained this suspi-         sical Reformed theologians, with the logical thinker
   cion myself-that perhaps the intention was to edit         Bertrand Russell, with the Marxist Lenin. The ad-
   and revise the report in order to make it more pala-       vantage of this conception is said to be that one
   table to the general membership of the churches. A         realizes that in order to speak truth one must
   recent issue of  Waarheid en Eenheid  carried the          acknowledge an external norm. The disadvantage
   news that the Report/Decision has now been offi-           is said to be that it makes man so passive and fails
   cially published and distributed in the GKN. The           to recognize that speaking and knowing truth in-
   Report as such was apparently not changed; it was          volves exertion, investigation, wrestling. It negates
   only preceded by an introduction of several pages.         the activity of man.
   Whether the originalintent was to publish a revised
   version or not, we shall never know, I suppose. It is        On the other hand, there is the  subjective  con-
   possible, of course, that  Waarheid en  Eenheid's          ception of the truth. According to it, man must him-
   publishing of the Report foiled the plan of Informa-       self bring forth and produce truth. Truth comes
   tion Service to publish a revised edition. if so, so       into existence through difficult labor. Animals may
   much the better!                                           perhaps reflect the world round about them, but
                                                              with animals there is no question of truth or un-
     And now we return to our discussion.                     truth, truth or lie. Man is higher than the animals
     Last time we called attention especially to the          and is called to subdue and investigate the world.
   philosophical method and approach of Chapter I.            Only man knows such things as reasoning, speech,
     This time we call your attention to the contents         symbols, culture; and all this has to do with truth.
   and argumentation of Chapter I.                            And so there is this subjective conception of truth,
                                                              according to which the root of truth does not lie in
     This chapter begins by calling attention to the          the state of affairs, objects, but in the activity of the
   fact that there are certain basic words, root terms,       subject (man). This involves an active rather than a
   which form the undertone of our thinking and of            passive knowledge of the truth. This view is found
   the manner in which we experience things. These            in the circle of philosophical idealism, of existen-
   basic terms are not unchangeable, but especially in        tialism, and of much of modern theology. The
   a time of development and change they also fre-            advantage of this conception is said to be that the
   quently receive another content. Their meaning             truth is not an object which simply lies there for the
   does not become totally different, but there is de-        taking, but is something which must be brought to
   velopment. One such word is "truth." And it is the         light with difficulty. It involves the devotion of a
   intention of this section of the Report to point to the    man, the total devotion of his being-not merely his
   positive insights involved in the present day              sensuous perception and his understanding, but the
   changes in the conception of truth.                        whole man. The disadvantage is said to be that one
     First of all, there is the most common conception        soon thinks that the truth is produced by man.


294                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



Truth threatens  Jo  becorns  subj!jectivistic: man          merely to be found outside the human subject, like
determines and projects the truth, and anything              a stone which one can pick up. Nor is it to be found
normative outside of man is lacking.                         purely within that man, like a suddenly arising
  Parenthetically we may remark that according to            feeling. Truth is more: it is the relation between
the second view truth does not merely  threaten  to          subject and object, better yet an interaction of both.
become subjectivistic; it  is  subjectivistic. The             At this point an example is given. A traffic sign
trouble is that the third view which the author is           (for example, a symbol indicating one-way traffic)
about to propound, the view adopted by the                   is really of no meaning whatsoever conceived of
Report, is also ultimately pure subjectivism: man            apart from the people who can comprehend it and
becomes the standard of the truth. This probably             who have conceived of it (an animal will not obey
accounts for the mildness which appears already at           it). In that sense it is human, "subjective." And that
this point with respect to subjectivism.                     holds for all human symbols, in religion, art, and
  According to the Report, there is change coming            daily life. But it is much more than only  human-
about with respect to the basic concept "truth" in           subjective. It indeed indicates something objective:
all of modern existence. Neither the objective con-          a traffic rule, a norm, a measure which must
ception nor the subjective conception is satisfac-           protect the life of the fellow man. That normative
tory.                                                        comes to manifestation, becomes visible, exactly in
                                                             that traffic sign. And again that holds for the entire
  What is that current conception of "truth" that is         human culture with its many symbols (numerals,
supposed to be a positive development in the                 letters, traffic signs, scientific formulas, religious
understanding of what is truth?                              symbols such as the tree of life).
  The Report states that it would be easiest to say            The preceding paragraphs set forth briefly the so-
that this newer conception is a combination of the           called "relational" conception of the truth. This
objective and the subjective conceptions. Then the           forms the background of the view of Scripture and
truth would consist of two parts: the objective out-         of how Scripture came into being and of how the
side of man plus the subjective in man. But it goes          truth is present in Scripture which is maintained by
on to say that this is too simplistic and does not           the Report. Our explanation of these latter aspects
escape the old dilemma-truth either objective or             will have to wait until the next issue: But it is not
subjective. Truth is not simply something outside            difficult to see that this so-called "relational" con-
of man, nor only an exertion of man, nor the sum of          ception will radically affect one's view of Scripture,
the two. It concerns not merely the finish-line in           and that, too, in the direction of contradicting the
the  contest,`but  also the contesting on the way to         truth that the ground of the authority of the Word
that finish-line. It is the hid treasure in the field and    of God lies in that Word itself. There is no longer
the digging and the finding of that treasure together        any such thing as the objective truth of the objec-
(ineen). Stated complexly: precisely in and with the         tive Word of God. But further explanation will have
subjective aspect, the objective comes to clearer            to wait until next time.
light. At the same time, precisely in and with the
objective aspect the subjective better attains its             But, in conclusion, notice how the Report not
rightful `place. What is involved is not a truth             only proceeds philosophically but also ussumes that
(objective) which must subsequently be appropri-             which, even from its own point of view, ought to be
ated (subjective), but both  together  (ineen). [Note:       proved. It sets forth the various conceptions of
This word "together" I have twice italicized                 "truth," assumes that both the objective view and
because it seems to be a key term in this concept.]          the subjective view are incorrect, and then pro-
                                                             ceeds on the  assumption  that this so-called "rela-
  The Report then goes on to state that this newer           tional" view is the correct one and that somehow
conception sheds light but also presents some diffi-         this conception has to be applied to the doctrine of
culties, and it seeks to explain further. This newer         Holy Scripture and its authority. This would never
conception is called "relational." This means                have happened if the Report had proceeded from
simply, according to the Report, that the truth is           Scripture and the Confessions instead of from
delineated always within a relation, within the              philosophy.
involvedness of man in something else. Truth is not

                               A Worthwhile Project

  Elsewhere in this issue you will find an                   tee" that is interested in publishing a complete
announcement concerning an "informal  commit-                index to all fifty-six volumes of the  Standard Bearer.


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                295



The purpose of this brief editorial is to `add           only to a limited number of people, i.e., those who
emphasis to that announcement.                           have a partial or complete set of bound volumes or
  As some of our readers will know, up to this time      those who have saved their loose issues over the
there has been but one usable index published; that      years. But while this number is limited, to them
is an index to the first ten volumes published many      such an index will indeed be valuable.
years ago. There was another index to the second            This makes it all the more imperative that, if you
ten volumes published, but that one was virtually        are interested, you write to this committee immedi-
useless. Starting with Volume 21 there has been an       ately. The publication of this index will not be
annual index, which is helpful to a degree but does      undertaken if there is not sufficient response. So do
not fill the bill for those who are doing research on    not leave the task of responding to your neighbor.
a subject. Hence, some of our seminary students          Do it yourself, and without delay! The committee
conceived the ambitious project of a complete and        means what is says: "No response, no index!"
accurate index to all the volumes.                          I urge all those who keep the bound volumes in
  We realize that such an index will be valuable         their libraries to respond promptly!

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                           Missionary Methods (1)
                                            Prof. Robert D. Decker


  With the last article we concluded our study of        For the next forty years he was busy writing on
the principles of missions. With this article we         missionary principles and methods.            Insights
purpose to begin a series on the proper method or        gleaned from three of his books; The Ministry of the
methods of performing missionary work among the          Spirit,  Missiona y Methods: St. Paul's or Ours, The
nations of the world. In other words our purpose         Spontaneous  Expcmsion of the Church,  (All repub-
shall be to examine the question of how the              lished in paperback by Eerdman's) have proved
principles of missions must be implemented by the        very valuable for the writing of these articles.
church in the actual practice of mission work.
Quite frankly, the undersigned embarks on this              It is our firm conviction that just as Scripture
venture with a great deal of reticence and even          teaches the principles of missions so we must dis-
some uneasiness. There was no course in missions         cover the proper methods of missions from the
offered in the seminary while he was a student. He       Word of God. Scripture tells us not only what
has never  pastored  a calling church for a mission-     missions is but also how the church must go about
ary, nor has he ever served on either of the mission     doing the work. This does not mean, obviously,
committees of our churches. His only involvement         that the Bible or some parts of it make up some
has come in the form of serving as a delegate and as     kind of "missionary manual." Not at all. The Bible,
a professor-advisor to our synods. In the actual         as we all know, is not that kind of book. Neverthe-
work of missions his experience is very scant. He        less, what the church does through its missionaries
organized preaching services and worked for the          must be and can be based on the Bible.
month of May, 1973 among the group in Prospect              When all the talking is over and the last article
Park, New Jersey which became the nucleus of our         and book on missions has been written, the fact
Covenant Protestant Reformed Church, and in the          will still remain that in its missionary work the
winter of 1980 he preached for the services spon-        New Testament church preached, baptized, and
sored by First, Grand Rapids in Bradenton, Florida.      prayed! This work, carried on by the Apostles,
He has had no experience in foreign missions. But        Evangelists, and Pastors, was complemented by the
he shall try. The reader is cordially invited to         witness of the godly living of the believers. This is
respond with either questions or comments on this        missionary work according to Scripture. Therefore,
whole subject.                                           if the church is determined to be faithful to Scrip-
  At the outset we wish to acknowledge our               ture in its missionary work it will follow the pattern
indebtedness to the late Roland Allen. Allen was an      of the Apostolic church set forth in the New Testa-
Anglican missionary in China from 1895 to 1903.          ment, especially in the book of Acts.


296                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  Before getting into our study it is necessary to          power over the devil and "the angels who left their
face and answer a common objection to our thesis.           first estate" (the demons, Jude 6).
There are those who say the church cannot follow              The second characteristic of Roman life was the
the pattern or use the methods of the Apostolic             immorality which prevailed. This was most
church because the social and moral condition of            apparent in the various religions of that day. Some
the world of that day was such that it aided the            have argued that the mingling of the intellectual
spread of the gospel. The world of our time is much         and religious elements of Hellenism and Oriental-
different, so much so that methods used by the              ism helped to prepare the way for the Gospel.
Apostles will not work for contemporary mission             Nothing could be farther from the truth. These
work. It is true of course that God prepared the            ancient religions were from every point of view
world for Christ and for the gathering of the elect         decidedly inimical to the Christian faith. The teach-
out of the nations. That world, however, was not            ings of these religions were a contradiction of the
essentially different from the world today. The             Gospel. The rites and ritual of the temples were not
"success" of the Apostles was not due to the condi-         only indecent, they were just plain wicked. Lewd
tion of the world of his day but strictly to the            dancing and prostitution were just two of the
sovereign grace of God in Christ. The same is true          concomitants of worship. The temples in Ephesus
today.                                                      and Corinth, two of the more prominent cities of
  The converts in the early New Testament                   the New Testament, no more prepared the way for
Church were part of the Roman Empire with its               the Gospel than do the temples in Singapore. Can
Graeco-Roman civilization. When we think of this            there be any doubt but that this is what the Apostle
civilization we are inclined to'think of the Roman          Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Ephesians,
system of law, government, and justice. We think            "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that
in terms of Greek culture, its philosophy and               ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in
language, its literature and art, all of which per-         the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding
severed in the Roman world. This, however, is not           darkened, being alienated from the life of God
the whole story. There were at least four evils             through the ignorance that is in them, because of
which characterized the Roman world and made up             the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling
the environment in which the Apostles preached.             have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to
They were these: superstition, the immorality of            work all uncleanness with greediness" (Ephesians
the various heathen religions and life in general,          4:17-19). From this point of view as well, the
the amphitheater, and slavery.                              Apostles enjoyed no advantage in their mission
                                                            work.
  There was widespread belief in demons among                 There is no need to go into detail concerning the
pe-ople  of all classes and stations of life. Not merely    brutal, horrifying shows which were presented in
idolatry, but every phase of life was thought to be         the amphitheater. Gladiators fought each other or
ruled by devils. Devils sat on thrones, hovered over        wild beasts to the death before thousands of
cradles, and lurked in every corner. Along with this        screaming, bloodthirsty spectators ("fans"?). The
was the belief in magic and witchcraft. Human               attitude of the "cultured" elite toward these shows
sacrifice was not unknown. Use was made of                  is almost shocking. People like Pliny and Cicero,
incantations. The devouring of raw flesh, mangling          we are told, considered them as "affording
of bodies, fastings and beatings of the breast,             splendid training for the eye, though perhaps not
obscene cries at the altars, ragings and ravings were       for the ear, in the endurance of pain and as in-
all used to appease and keep away the devils. These         spiring disdain of death and love of honourable
superstitions no doubt were the content of the              wounds." Even Marcus Aurelius was simply bored
books which many of the new believers in Ephesus            by them and complained that they were "always
who used "curious arts" burned (Acts  19:19).               the same." (Quotations from Allen,  Missionary
These books were worth fifty thousand pieces of             Methods: St. Paul's or Ours, pp. 30, 31). Symmachus
silver.                                                     complained bitterly when some of the Saxons com-
  Everyone of God's children who was brought to             mitted suicide in their cells rather than kill each
faith by the preaching of Paul was born and lived in        other in public at the show he had prepared in
this atmosphere of superstition. In this kind of            honor of his son's praetorship. No one could view
environment the Apostles preached and out of this           these spectacles without being affected. The stage
darkness many were saved. While in different                which had to compete with this powerful entertain-
forms perhaps, and while more "developed"                   ment was given over to rough jokes and sensuous
perhaps, the same situation obtains for the mission-        byplay. Nothing was too gross, too indecent to be
ary and the church today. The same gospel of                displayed in the theater. Nudity, fornication,
sovereign grace in Jesus Christ must be preached.           blasphemy of virtually everything sacred were
Only Christ crucified and raised and exalted has            common on the Roman stage.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              297



  Finally there was the evil of slavery about which       precisely in this context that the Apostles preached
the New Testament has something to say. Slaves            Christ crucified. To these kinds of men, women,
were completely subject to the will of their masters.     and children went the Gospel command to repent
They were at the mercy of his every whim and              and believe. The situation is no different today. The
fancy. Slaves had no rights and no protection             world has not changed, not essentially. The gross
against their masters. They were often well               forms of ignorance, superstition, immorality; the
educated and even served as teachers and tutors of        entertainment of the theater, the stadium, movie
the children of the wealthy. Even at that, most if        house, and television are with us today. They
not all of them bore the scars of the masters' lash.      existed in less sophisticated form also when the
This was the accepted way of life. Even Scripture         New Testament was written. This means, once
did not urge the abolishing of slavery. Scripture         more, the Apostles enjoyed no special advantage
exhorts masters to clemency and slaves to faithful-       over the missionary of today. In that world they
ness.                                                     preached sovereign grace to the glory of God. God
  Finally, we are told that the moral atmosphere of       gave them abundant fruit: "adding to the church
Asia Minor was even worse than in Greece or               daily such as should be saved" (Acts  2:47). The
Rome. Here people wanted nothing to do with               church today must do precisely the same. The
marriage, which they viewed as an outrage on the          church needs no gimmicks with which to try to
free, unfettered life of nature.                          "win souls." The church must simply preach
                                                          wherever God opens the door. This is proper mis-
  While this is by no means an exhaustive study of        sionary method. Upon this and only this faithful
the religious, social, and moral character of the         preaching of the Word will God's blessing rest. By
world of Graeco-Roman civilization, it does               this means God's church will be gathered, His
indicate the condition of the world in which the          Kingdom will come in Christ, and His glory will be
early New Testament Church was gathered out of            revealed.
the nations of the Mediterranean world. It was

THE DAY OF SHADOWS


           The Master of Dreams Sold for Silver
                                               Rev. John A. Heys


  There was a short period of peaceful life at home       some day to give it all to their seed. But we read
for Joseph. For his brethren, who could not speak         that Joseph's brothers went to feed their father's
peaceably to him, and hated him for his coat of           sheep in Shechem (Genesis  37:12). Now Shechem
many  colours,  and for his dreams which predicted        was over fifty miles from Hebron to the northwest
that they would all bow down before him some              as the crow flies. And in between these two places
day, had gone to Shechem to feed their father's           were some very rough pieces of land, terrain that
sheep. Jacob was home with the two sons of his            made transporting sheep very difficult and certain
beloved and now deceased wife. There was tran-            to result in the loss of some sheep. It may be for
quility, at least among father and sons, a tranquility    that reason that Jacob left a goodly part of his flock
that was such a blessed change.                           there in Shechem. At any rate, Joseph is spared the
  It appears that when Jacob left Shechem to come         sneers and jibes of his brothers for a brief period of
to Hebron as God had commanded him, he left part          time.
of his herd of sheep there in Shechem. He was a big         Jacob did not fully realize the bitterness of his
operator, a man of great wealth as far as sheep and       other sons of Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah, toward
cattle are concerned, but utterly poor as far as the      Joseph. He did not realize that they had murder in
possession of land is concerned. All the land             their hearts. He refused to consider that envy is the
around Hebron was firmly in the hands of Canaan-          cause of murder in so many instances, and that it is
ites, so that neither he nor his father nor his grand-    actually murder in the heart. Therefore he sends
father Abraham owned a piece of land for a farm.          Joseph to see whether it is well with them and with
They grazed their cattle on other men's land with         the flock. They had been gone now for quite some
the protection of Covenant God Who promised               time, and being Jacob's sons as surely as Joseph and


298                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



Benjamin were, Jacob missed them and was con-             asked for forgiveness, and spoken words of peace
cerned with their well-being. The journey,                to him. Love would never sell a brother, not even
however, -was farther than either Jacob or Joseph         for a million pieces of silver.
had anticipated. The brothers had gone to Dothan,           And although Satan was behind the plot to kill
which was another ten to twenty miles further             and to sell, God is behind Satan, and the text we
north, to find suitable land for grazing for their        quoted a moment ago must be brought back in
sheep.                                                    sharp focus with emphasis upon the first word
   Now so fierce was the hatred of these brothers         thus, "HE sent a man before them, even Jospeh."
that in the most literal sense of the word they could     The context demands that. The Psalm begins with,
not stand the sight of him. We read that "when            "0 give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name:
they saw him afar off, even before he came near           make known His deeds among the people." He is
unto them, they conspired against him to slay             that He Who sent Joseph before them. God is at
him." They recognized him by that coat that their         work in all things. And remember Psalm  76:lO.
father had given him to distinguish him from them.        "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the re-
And they talked the matter over. "They conspired"         mainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain." Men in
means that they discussed his murder and came to          their hatred against God's people can go just so far.
the conclusion that it should take place. Joseph had      As far as God decreed that they shall go in uncon-
not yet spoken one word to them that day. It was all      scious, unwilling service of His sovereign and eter-
that happened in the past that moved them to agree        nal counsel. Their purposes are not God's
on murder.                                                purposes. And their guilt is very real. But God
   When Joseph arrived they maltreated him,               always does His own good pleasure (Isaiah 46:lO).
bruised him greatly before hurling him into a pit.        And, "Our God is in the heavens: He hath done
The brothers themselves, much later, when in              whatsoever He hath pleased" (Psalm  115:3). And
Egypt they stood right before the exalted Joseph,         therefore it is that all things work together for good
and did not know that he could understand their           to those that love God. God works them all to-
language, said, "We are verily guilty concerning          gether. All occurs according to a Master Plan that
our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul,      has the good of God's people in mind, and realizes
when he besought us, and we would not hear him"           their salvation and joy.
(Genesis  42:21). And Psalm 105 is very graphic in          All this explains that Reuben, who had per-
describing the cruel treatment they heaped upon           suaded the brothers to put Joseph in the pit in order
their own brother. We read in verses 17 and 18,           that he might deliver him to his father, upon re-
"He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was          turning to the group-we are not told where he
sold for a servant; whose feet they hurt with fetters:    went, but most likely to tend some more remote
he was laid in iron." Now this certainly refers also,     section of the herd-finds that Joseph is not there.
and in the first place, to what happened in Egypt.        Reuben must be away from the scene momentarily.
Yet bear in mind that these brothers sold him to          God's counsel arranged that and demanded that,
such a cruelty, and in fact had worse things in their     because God was going `to send Joseph ahead to
hearts. They wanted to kill him with violence; and        save much people of Israel alive during the severe
only because Reuben interceded did they settle for        famine. It was the hand of God that brought the
death by starvation in the pit. And with him in the       Ishmaelites there that day and at that moment.
pit to starve to death they can sit down "to eat          Satan may have moved these envious, hating broth-
bread' ' !                                                ers to see profit in selling their brother's body and
   Reuben, the firstborn son, with a sense of re-         soul into Egypt as a slave, with the incorrect as-
sponsibility as that firstborn, sought to deliver him     sumption that then he would never be over them,
back to his father. It was not that Reuben did not        and so that they would not need to bow down
hate Joseph, did not envy him, or did want to see         before him. But the fact remains that God uses
those dreams fulfilled. We do not read that he            Satan as well as He uses men. Satan never uses
sought to deliver Joseph and save his life. He            God, but God uses Satan. Never forget that. Satan
sought to deliver him back to his father. It was love     has never done anything that God had not eternally
for his father that prevented him from letting his        decreed that he would do. He is no little god under
anger and hatred against Joseph join in with the          God with his own time and power and resources.
other nine brothers plan, of bloody murder. And           He is ALWAYS God's tool. And nothing reveals this
Judah somewhat later suggests that they seek profit       more clearly than the cross which Satan engi-
out of Joseph by selling him as a slave, voicing the      neered, but which was from eternity designed by
awareness that, after all, this is their brother. This    God. In the very beginning, four thousand years
likewise-was no love for Joseph. Love would have          before it took place, God told Satan of the enmity
lifted him out of the pit, confessed sin before him,      that would produce that cross. Satan would bruise


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              299



the heel of the Seed of the woman, Christ. And God          chief priests had delivered Him for envy." And His
saw to it that Satan got into Judas Iscariot to realize     deliverance and sale for thirty pieces.of silver give
this bruising which established our salvation. And          His people a sigh of relief, relief from the load of
because all the havoc and all the suffering the             sin; relief from the awful wrath of God; relief in the
Church shall experience in the day when the Seed            truth of the gospel that we may have the bZessing  of
of the Serpent, the Antichrist, torments and perse-         bowing down before Him as our Lord and King,
cutes the Church, comes out of God's counsel, and           Who rules us in righteousness.
Satan is His tool, we have nothing to fear. "His              But Jacob! Here is another severe blow. He is led
saints shall not fail; but over the earth their strength    to believe that his beloved son of his beloved wife is
shall prevail" (Psalter versification  of Psalm 149).       dead! His grief is immeasurable, and he could not
  With a sigh of relief the brothers-with the ex-           be comforted. Rather he told his sons, "For I will go
ception of Reuben-see Joseph carted off to Egypt.           down into the grave unto my son in mourning."
They are now, they think, rid of him and his                And there is added, "Thus his father wept for him"
dreams, failing to realize that these dreams were           (Genesis 37:35).
the Word of God, and that they are not rid of God.            He who deceived his own father, now as father is
They will meet Him in this very servant, Joseph,            deceived by his children. And we must not say,
again, because of that sovereign, eternal, and un-          "History repeats itself." That is true. The names
changeable counsel, or plan, of Him Who does not            and places change, but the same sins are committed
simply claim to be God, but IS God in all that this         over and over through the history of this world.
means. The Master Dreamer, as they called Joseph,           Children learn from parents. In fact in the sins
or Master of Dreams-which could mean one who                wherein the fathers walk the children will run; and
dreams that he will be master-they think they               their children will find even swifter ways of pursu-
have put where his word will not and cannot be              ing evil. But that must not be all that which we say.
realized. They fail to realize that his word was            Here, too, God is speaking, and speaking to His
God's Word, and, as we read in Isaiah  46:10, "My           Church, to Jacob whom He loved, to Jacob with
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure."        whom His covenant is established. And it is then,
Not their pleasure-which was a wicked  pleasure-            as painful and heart-rending as it may be, a word of
but God's is being done. Not their plans will deter-        grace. Jacob who deceived his father must, for the
mine the future of Joseph or of themselves, but             enjoyment of his own forgiveness and rich under-
God's counsel determined it. And that counsel de-           standing of God's love and grace know what an
termines all of our future, the glorious future we          awful sin he committed. Jacob, who said he was
shall have in the new Jerusalem.                            Esau, must know the wrath of God that falls on all
  The sigh of relief of the brothers was premature          the Esaus, and understand how rich God's love is
and ill-founded. It seemed to be to their advantage         upon the Jacobs not only, but that salvation is by
to have him out of the way, and now even with               grace and not by works. Jacob, and we, cannot
profit to them financially. Each of the ten brothers        enter the pearly gates with the notion that we have
could go home with two pieces of silver in his poc-         done one work that deserves the smallest part of its
ket. There was inflation in later years, and the price      glory. We must and will enter in with the con-
of a slave reached thirty pieces of silver when Judas       sciousness that we forfeited every right, and that we
bargained with the chief priests and elders. But            sold His Son to the cross; and that this Son per-
both were sold for the price of a servant. And both         formed all the work that gives us a place, and a
Christ and Joseph were sold out of envy. For we             right to a place in the kingdom of glory.
read in Mark  15:lO that, "For He knew that the

FROM HOLY WRIT

       The So-called Postmillennial Proof-texts
                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers

                      Chapter 4                             twofold kingdom of heaven. We are told that the
  THE KINGDOM DELIVERED UP TO GOD,                          Bible and the prophecies are not really speaking of
                   THE FATHER                               the eschatological-consummated kingdom when it
  As we have pointed out, the proponents of the             speaks of Christ's kingship, but rather of a kingdom
Postmillennial view hold that the Bible teaches a           which is limited to time, which begins in this


300                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



present history and ends in its close. Christ's reign            here teaching that Christ's "kingship" ends here,
is not really eternal. The Bible is interested in and            because the work in the perfecting of the kingdom
teaches that the kingdom of heaven will be mani-                 is here completed by Him, as the Mediator, Jesus,
fested here on earth as a glorious kingdom; all                  God in the flesh. It ill behooves us to make this
nations shall be "Christianized" by the power of the             demand of these advocates, and not give careful
Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel,                 exegesis ourselves. Scripture must be interpreted in
and, therefore, the world is getting better and bet-             the light of Scripture.
ter. The end of the ages here is then characterized                Let us now look at the text and context carefully.
as the "golden age" of the church. To be sure, this
does not mean that such who are "Christianized"                    I do have a confessional and doctrinal bias. I hold
are then reborn children of God, who can see the                 that the Scriptures teach that Christ is an eternal
kingdom of heaven; nevertheless they are a much                  King, that is, His kingship continues in the "age" to
better world of unbelievers because they are thus                come! We believe that I Corinthians  15:24-29 does
come under the influence of the gospel.                          not teach that Christ will not be King in glory in the
                                                                 ages to come; that "God will be all in all" does not
  In Chapter VII, page 38 of his The Millenium, Dr.              become manifest in this glory apart from the glori-
B.oettner writes under the caption "The World Is                 fied Christ. We could quote many passages here to
Growing Better." I will quote the first paragraph:               substantiate this position, but we will come to these
         The redemption of the world is a long, slow process,    in subsequent Chapters of this study.
       extending through the centuries, yet surely approach-       Let us then notice the following facets in the text:
       ing an appointed goal. We live in a day of advancing
       victory, although there are many apparent set-backs.        1. That what Christ will do in delivering up the
    As seen from the human viewpoint it often looks as           Kingdom to the Father will be in the time of the end
       though the forces of evil are about to gain the upper     of the world, called the harvest (Matt.  13:39). That
       hand. Periods of spiritual advance and prosperity al-     this will be the consummation of the ages; that this
       ternate with periods of spiritual decline and depres-     is simply called the "end, " that is, it is the intended
       sion. But as one age succeeds another there is pro-       end, the  teZos.  History here on earth ends when
       gress. Looking back across nearly two thousand years      Christ as the firstfruits of them that sleep in Jesus
    that have passed since the coming of Christ we can see       shall then bring in the full harvest in the resurrec-
    that there has indeed been marvelous progress. This
    process ultimately will be completed, and before             tion of all who are saved in the "one man" Jesus
       Christ comes again we shall see a Christianized world.    Christ. Each is manifested in his own rank and
    This does not mean that all sin will be eradicated.          order: first the Savior, then they who are of Him,
   There will always be some tares in the wheat until the        and then the end (I Cor.  15:23). It is noteworthy
   time of harvest-and the harvest, the Lord tells us, is        that through this chapter Paul speaks of Jesus as
   the end of the world. Even the righteous fall, some-          being "Christ," that is, the Anointed One of God,
   times grievously, into temptation and sin. But it does        Who is appointed and qualified to be the chief pro-
   mean that Christian principles of life and conduct are        phet, the only high priest, and the eferrzaZ  king. For
   to become the accepted standards in public and pri-           the name "Christ" as  oficiaZ  titZe see  verse, 3, 12,
   vate life.                                                    13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24. Now, will
  Rather boastfully some Postmillennialists speak                the eternal Son in the flesh lose His "office" in the
of this view as being an "Eschatology Of Victory,"               ages to come, where "God shall be all in all," so
that is, of the victory of the Gospel, so that literally         that He will not be the King of glory? Does He abdi-
nations are saved, and not merely the "elect out of              cate His throne in "the ages to come"? (For these
every nation, tongue, tribe and people" (Rev.  7:9)              "ages" see Ephesians  2:7 and Hebrews 2:5-8.) Will
who "have come out of the great tribulation," of                 He cease there to be crowned with glory and honor
the battle of the ages, and who have washed their                for the sake of His sufferings, by which He brings
clothes "in the blood of the Lamb." It is alleged by             many sons to glory? These are, indeed, pressing
some Postmillennialists that the Amillennialists are             questions. They call for an answer.
guilty of neglecting many passages of Scripture.                   2. We should now try to establish from the text
  The Postmillennialists make a plausible case out               what is the meaning and the implication of the verb
of I Corinthians 1524, where we read, "Then (shall               "to deliver up." The text says that Christ shall in
be) the end when He (Christ) shall have delivered                His-parousia "deliver up the kingdom to God, even
the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He                     the Father." To begin we should notice that the
shall have abolished all principalities, all authori-            term denotes, in Scripture, an official, legal transac-
ties and power."                                                 tion. See Romans  3:32 where the `verb refers to
  Now what the Postmillennialist must do is not                  God's official and judicial "delivering up" of His
merely quote this passage without proper and care-               Son to the death of the Cross, making Him a curse.
ful exegesis, and simply "conclude" that Paul is                 He made Him sin for us (Gal. 3:13, 14; II Cor. 5:20,


                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  301



21). It is also used of the judicial procedure of the                              the Church since our Passover has been slain at
wicked Jews and of Pilate in delivering up the apos-                               Calvary, and now that Christ has become our
tles to the counsels to have them executed and per-                                peace, binding the saints in the Old Testament dis-
secuted (Matt.  10:17, 19, 21). Keeping this in mind                               pensation, with the saints "out of all nations."
we see in this verb here the official act of the risen                                Without quoting more instances we believe that
and glorified Christ, where He presents the                                        we have established that the verb here in I Corin-
finished work in history, the triumph of the seed of                               thians  15:24b can very well be translated
the Woman over the seed of the Serpent, even over                                  "abolished" and not "put down." Should we have
death and hell. This is the great moment of the tri-                               suggested the proper translation, then, we are in a
umph of Christ in delivering the perfect, completed                                position to understand also what Paul is referring
kingdom in which the perfected and resurrected                                     to, when he speaks of  "aZZ  authority and power"
saints shall be eternally citizens, to the Father. He                              and  "aZZ principalities." Is he here referring to
has here finished the work which He was to do in                                   "all" Christ's enemies and nothing more? We
the dispensation of the fulness of times. All things                               believe not. We must bear in mind that in this
are here indeed gathered under one Head, Christ,                                   present dispensation Christ has instituted offices,
both in heaven and on earth, even in Him (Eph.                                     means of grace, sacraments, discipline for the per-
1: 10). What a triumphant moment of the LORD of                                    fecting of the saints till we all arrive, come to,
lords and the KING of kings (Phil.  2:10, 11; Rev.                                 attain to the "unity of the faith and of the
19: 11-16). To "deliver up" is a far cry from an abdi-                             knowledge of the Son of God, unto the perfect
cation of the throne. In later chapters we shall take                              (adult) man, unto the measure of the stature of the
a closer look at the Kingdom of which Daniel and                                   fulness  of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). When the end comes,
the Gospels say it shall "have no end.:' All other                                 that objective has been attained in the church by
priests were but priests for a time, and the priest-                               Christ. Indeed then we shall be the "fulness of Him
hood of Aaron too was put away for the better                                      (Christ) that filleth all in all." When that point in
priesthood in Christ, Who by God's word of oath is                                 history is attained and aZZ the elect shall have been
a   K i n g - P r i e s t   f o r e v e r   a f t e r   t h e   o r d e r   o f    brought to repentance, then the preaching, the
Melchizedek, whereas He is the Son of God (He-                                     offices will no longer be needed. They shall have
brews 7:3).                                                                        served God's purpose. They were the means of
   3. In close connection with the foregoing "deliv-                               grace to the end that the entire church would be
ering up of the kingdom to the Father," we should                                  saved; they were the key power of the Kingdom of
notice the implication of the next clause, "when He                                h e a v e n   w h i c h   e x c l u d e d   t h e   w i c k e d   a n d
shall have abolished all principalities, all authority                             unbelievers, and which opened the Kingdom of
and power." The KJV translates the verb  "hatar-                                   God to the faithful and the penitent.
geese?' by the verb "put down." There is exegetical                                   The term "all principalities" should not be over-
bias in that translation. It presupposes that Paul is                              looked. Nor should we fail to, observe the adjective
speaking here excZu.siveZy of the "enemies" of Christ                              "all" with "authority and dominion." All that was
and His church, as these have been successfully                                    necessary both in civil authority (Rom.  13:1-7)  and
and entirely conquered, and as these lay prostrate                                 the authority and dominion of men in the church
at Jesus' feet, under His majestic sceptre. It may                                 on earth shall be forever abrogated in Christ's
seriously be doubted, however, that this translation                               Parousia. These were all means to subject all things
is the proper one. We prefer the translation which                                 under Christ's feet. Thus God put all things under
reads "abolished." The verb here in question is                                    Christ's feet, as David speaks of the "LORD"
translated in other parts of Scripture by the KJV as                               saying to "my Lord" sit on my right hand till I shall
"abolish" (II Cor.  3:13; Eph.  2:15; II Tim.  1:lO).                              have subdued all thy enemies under thy feet. But
When God abolished the glory of the Old                                            when this objective has been reached then  aZZ  the
Testament as this was reflected on the face of                                     principalities,  all  the authority and dominion can
Moses this was a ZegaZ act at Calvary. He brought in                               be abrogated by Christ. Once by His death the Old
the greater glory of Christ, wherein we are trans-                                 Testament ordinances were abolished, and now by
formed by the Spirit from glory unto glory (II Cor.                                His second return with the clouds of heaven to
3: 18). This was setting aside certain Old Testament                               make all things new, the New Testament
ordinances.   These God abrogated, that is, He                                     ordinances are abolished, so that God in Christ may
annulled them by His legal authority, by the later                                 reign over all things in a more direct and glorious
enactment in Christ Jesus. We have the same legal                                  way. It will be the perfection of the Theocracy of
act of God's abrogation taught us in Ephesians 2: 15                               God in His Kingdom. Such is the "Eschatology Of
which speaks of the "law in ordinances" which                                      Victory." Then we will have a new situation. John
were abolished at the Cross. These Old Testament                                   says, "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord
ordinances are no more binding in the church. The                                  God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple (naos)
Old Testament Passover is no longer to be kept in                                  of it" (Rev. 21:22).


302                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren

                                 Women in office-Despite
                                           Scriptural teachings

  The  OutZooh,  March 1981, presented an interest-                      the simple believer starts wondering what is going on,
ing quotation of an editorial and later response                         because, after all, the plain text still says that women
which appeared in KERUX, the paper published by                          should not speak up in church. What exegesis can
the students of Calvin Seminary. The editorial does                      possibly get around that? If we are basing our position
not necessarily reflect the thoughts of anyone but                       on the Bible, why is the question of women in office
the writer-but does show an honesty in the                               even an issue among us?
"women in office" debate that is seldom otherwise                          My concern, to put it in other words, is the com-
seen. The writer, a student in Calvin Seminary,                          municative process. It seems to me that tempers flare
attempted to clarify an earlier editorial by writing:                    in this issue primarily because we are not being
                                                                         honest in the communicative process.
         I took the slavery issue as analogous (to women in                I can give an example of what I mean by "honesty
       office-GVB) for the following reason: The Bible says,             in the communicative process" as follows: Suppose a
       "women should keep silence in the churches." I see                person A says he is against women in office and
       no exegetical way to get around that. I just don't see            quotes I Cor. 14:34-"The  women should keep silence
       how we can have women in office and not be contra-                in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak,
       dicting the above Bible statement. (In fact, I think we           but should be subordinate, as even the law says."
       still have to justify having female Sunday School                 Person B then responds (usually, in my experience,
       teachers.) This does not mean, however, that the                  without admitting that he is in favor of women in
       Church would be entirely anti-Biblical in ordaining               office) by saying something like this: "Many scholars
       women. The Church can appeal to texts like that in                agree that this verse was quite likely not written by
       Joel: "Your sons and daughters shall prophesy."                   Paul. The language of "as even the law says" is very
       Nevertheless, even if it does appeal to texts like that, it       non-Pauline...etc."  Now Person B, in my opinion, is
       would still seem to be that the Bible is, in some sense,          being very, very unfair in the communicative process
       being contradicted. The plain language of Scripture,              [regardless of whether he is right or wrong, which I
       so far as I can see, simply does not allow for women in           frankly don't know). Person B is coming at Person A
       office.                                                           with a whole set of assumptions and indeed, with a
         Having elaborated on my analogy, I would now like               different view of Scripture concerning which he is not
       to clarify the question why I wrote the things I did.             being honest, up-front, clear. Therefore tempers flare.
       My one, sole purpose was to engender honesty. I                   Person A rightly suspects that something fishy is going
       made it clear, first of all, that I was in favor of wqmen         on, and if he is anything like me he resents it.
       in office. (As an aside, I would like to say here that the          With this example I do not mean to imply that
       unity of the church is, however, for me, much more                everyone who uses Biblical arguments in favor of
       important than whether someone with a dress on ever               women in office is therefore being deceitful. Perhaps
       makes it to the pulpit and that I fully submit to Synod.          everybody is quite sincere in this [some would point
       We should always move as unanimously as possible.)                to the Appendix of Olthuis' book on Troth as an
       Secondly, still for the sake of honesty, I admitted that          example of a sincere attempt to find a Biblical basis for
       I feel hypocritical when I start basing my  pro-                  women in office). I am only saying that I, myself,  I
       "women in office" ideas on the Bible. When I do that              feel hypocritical when doing so; I think the Bible is
       I feel like I am "pretending" to be exegetical. Thirdly,          against women in office.
       I indicated that I appreciate the honesty of Paul
       Ingeneri.                                                           Let me conclude by saying that I believe that the
                                                                         Bible is totally authoritative and completely reliable
         I can elaborate on this third point. I respect people           for the salvation of humanity. I am sorry for leaving
       who are against women in office and who base their                my editorial so open-ended and I apologize for my
       position on the Bible. I also respect people who are in           dogmatic manner. I am not sure how authoritative the
       favor of women in office who do  not  base their                  Bible is on various cultural issues, but I wish always
       position on the Bible. But I am beginning (and only               to submit to the Church's judgment on such matters,
       beginning) to lose my respect for people who, while               also in its interpretation of the Biblical data.
       favoring women in office, only seem to be basing their                                                       Nick Overduin
       position on the Bible, people who actually have
       ulterior motives and who foist a whole lot of compli-            It might be pointed out, first, that Rev. John
       cated exegesis on to the simple believer till eventually       Piersma,  who commented on the article in the Out-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          303


Zooh, emphasized that the young man spake honest-                on salvation, as the article implies, is not authorita-
ly-but was dead wrong. He appreciated the fact                   tive and reliable on salvation either. What confi-
that this writer, while in favor of "women in                    dence could any have in a Bible which is not
office," admitted that such a position could not be              correct on many points?
supported by Scripture. In fact, the writer admitted               But the seminarian is not truly honest in stating
that Scripture clearly supports the position against             that "I fully submit to Synod" in this regard. The
"women in office."                                               Synod of the Christian Reformed Church is on
  It has been this point which is repeatedly                     record as opposing women in the office of elder and
emphasized. Those who support "women in                          minister. Where is the submission of this young
office" distort Scripture when they attempt to                   man, and others, who constantly write against and
quote it to maintain their viewpoint. It is less                 agitate against that decision?
confusing and more honest to admit that one does                   Finally, though one can sympathize with those
not believe Scripture to be authoritative when it                who seem to be fighting a losing battle "for the
speaks on such questions. But, of course, then the               Bible," one might ask, "How much of this sort of
infallibility of Scripture is denied. A Bible which              undermining of Scripture can go on, before some-
speaks authoritatively and completely reliably only              thing drastic is done?"


                                      Christ's Virgin Birth

       CZarion, Feb. 13, 198 1, reports briefly:                 virgin birth of Christ is. The Bible plainly teaches
      According to the Leiden professor Dr. H. Berkhof,          Christ's virgin birth. If one can now deny that,
    there is nothing in the Bible from which we can con-         what's next?
    clude that the birth of Christ was a virgin birth. Prof.       One hardly wonders when this same Dr. H.
    Berkhof is of the opinion that Joseph could have been        Berkhof, as quoted in the  R.E.S. News Exchange,
    the father of Christ. Why is a woman involved and            says, "Seldom have I read an ecclesiastical docu-
   why not a man? "Does then, the man alone bring                ment with as much excitement as I have this one."
    sinfulness and not the woman?"                               He was expressing his feelings toward the new
  The argument takes matters just a step beyond                  report on the nature of Biblical authority that was
the "women in office" debate. It appears as though               adopted last year by the Reformed Churches in the
the Bible is not only not reliable about that                    Netherlands (GKN), which report our own editor
"women in office" issue, but also is not always.                 recently has been critidizing.
reliable on matters pertaining to salvation-as the


                       And: Attacks on Christ's Deity

  What's next is revealed in  Christian News,                        the way of salvation provided and appointed by God
January 26, 1981. It quotes from  Christian Century                  Himself.
in an article written by Dr. John Hick, professor of
theology at Birmingham (England) University and                        If this claim is to have real substance and effect, it
Danforth professor of religion at Claremont                          follows that the salvation thus made possible within
(California) :                                                       Christianity cannot also be possible outside it. This
                                                                     conclusion was drawn with impeccable logic in the
      The older theological tradition of Christianity does           Roman dogma  Extra ecclesiam  nulla  salus  ["Outside
    not readily permit religious pluralism. For at its center        the church, no salvation"), and in its 19th century
    is the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was God-the             Protestant missionary equivalent, "Outside Chris-
    Second Person of a Divine Trinity living a human life.           tianity, no salvation." But in the light of our accumu-
    It follows from this that Christianity, and Christianity         lated knowledge of the other great world faiths, this
    alone, was founded by God in person on the only                  conclusion with our concept of God, which we have
    occasion on which He has ever become incarnate in                received from Jesus, as the loving heavenly Father of
    this world, so that Christianity has a unique status as          all humankind; could such a Being have restricted the


304                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



       possibility of salvation to those who happen to have                  (or in technical language, mythological) idea.
       been born in certain countries in certain periods of                    . ..This kind of reinterpretation of the idea of divine
       history?                                                              incarnation, is, in different forms, fairly widespread
         . ..I believe it is necessary to look again at the tradi-           today (more so, I think, in the United States than in
       tional interpretation of Jesus as God incarnate. Such a               Britain) and provides, so it seems to me, a basis for a
       reconsideration.is in any case required today by the                  form of Christianity which can be part of the reli-
       realization that the historical Jesus almost certainly                giously plural world of today and tomorrow.
       did not in fact teach that He was in any sense God;
       and also by the fact that Christian thought has not yet,            Let none dare say that one step does not lead to
       despite centuries' of learned attempts, been able to              another. The same sort of reasoning lies behind
       give any intelligible content to the idea that a finite           each of the articles quoted-the difference is a
       human being, genuinely a part of our human race,                  matter only of degree of development. A journey of
       was also the infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient            1000 miles, it is said, begins with the first step. So
       Creator of everything other than Himself.                         denial of the infallibility of the Bible always also
         The proper conclusion to draw, as it seems to me, is            begins with the first step-but the destination is
       that the idea of divine incarnation is a metaphorical             inevitable.

IN HIS FEAR


                   Evangelism and Practical Godliness
                                                             Rev. Arie Den Hartog



  In our last article on the subject of evangelism we                    actions are evil and corrupt. Our lives must be a
promised to discuss the subject of the relationship                      very demonstration of the truth that we believe and
between the life of the Christian and the work of                        confess. All this is of utmost importance for the
evangelism. We emphasized in our last article that                       work of evangelism. Evil and corrupt lives will ruin
we all in the office of all believers have a calling in                  all possibility of doing evangelism. Holy and godly
the glorious and wonderful work of evangelism.                           lives support and further the work of evangelism.
We wrote especially about our calling to give a testi-                   Our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 23 lists
mony of the truth of the Word of God and of His                          among the reasons why the Christian must do good
wonderful works. It is necessary for us to give a                        works this reason: "that by our godly conversation
testimony with our mouths. Without speaking of                           others may be gained to Christ."
the truth of the Word of God it is impossible to do
the work of evangelism. Our testimony must be                              We have entitled this article, "Evangelism and
personal, living, and zealous. We must be able to                        Practical Godliness." By godliness we mean
give a testimony of the truth of God as  we have                         centrally and first of all a zealous and fervent love
come to love and know the Word of God and His                            for God and an earnest desire and striving to live
wonderful salvation. However, the testimony of                           according to the Word of God for His glory. We
our mouth cannot stand alone. It must be support-                        mean by godliness a walking in all the good works
ed by our life of godliness. The Bible tells us this                     which God has before ordained for us. Godliness
very  ofte-n. We are told in Matthew 5:16 "Let your                      involves the showing forth of the fruits of the Spirit
light so shine before men, that they might see your                      of God such as goodness, righteousness, truth,
good works, and glorify your Father which is in                          hope, joy, and love. By practical godliness we refer
heaven." Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4: 1 to "walk                      to that godliness that comes to manifestation in the
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."                         practice of our daily lives. It is such godliness as
Again in Philippians  1:27 he exhorts, "Only let                         causes our lives to differ from the world, to differ
your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of                        radically and evidently. We distinguish practical
Christ." There must always be harmony between                            godliness from that form of godliness which is
our confession of faith and our life of godliness. If                    nothing more than an abstract defending of
this is not so, then our lives will make a lie out of                    doctrines. It is of course of utmost importance that
the confession of our mouth and we will `bring                           we defend the doctrines and truths of the Word of
blasphemy to the name of our God. No man will                            God. Without knowledge and doctrines the people
believe what we confess with our mouth if our                            of God will perish. There can be no evangelism


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               305


without truth and doctrines. But this doctrine must       church to do evangelism if many of her own mem-
also be lived, it must come to manifestation in our       bers do not care to come to the worship services
daily practice. Otherwise it is of no significance and    and meetings during the week. Where the
value whatsoever. It is nothing more than sounding        members of the church themselves do not care to
brass and tinkling cymbal.                                come, no outsider can be encouraged to come. That
  Our godliness must be such that it causes people        is obvious.
around us to marvel at the greatness of our God and         We as Reformed Christians love the truth of the
our Savior Jesus Christ Whom we confess and               Sovereignty of God. For us this is the central truth
serve. Our godliness must be the one outstanding          of the whole of the Word of God. We often stress
thing in our life. Our godliness must be such that it     the great truth of "to God alone be the glory." But
causes men to ask the reason for it. Our godliness        what does this mean in terms of our practical godli-
must be such that it causes men to covet our faith,       ness? What does this mean concerning our regard
our joy, our hope, and our peace. Though men may          for the law of God? Surely it must mean that we
hate the righteousness of God and despise His truth       with godly fear strictly adhere to the command-
they must always be put to silence by the godliness       ments of the Lord. We do this not out of a cold
of our life. We must be blameless and without             legalism but as those who are constrained by the
reproach in the midst of the wicked world in which        love of God. It is for the godly man an urgent
we live. Above all we as Christians who would do          matter to keep the law of God all the days of his life
the work of evangelism must be known as men               and in all and every sphere of his life. Though the
who love and fear God. The result of practical            godly man carries about with him his old man of
godliness will be that, as our catechism says, others     sin, he does not use this as an occasion and excuse
will be gained to Christ. The ungodly who hate God        for his transgression of the law of God. Practically
and persecute His saints will be condemned.               in his daily life it can be seen that he strives to keep
  We could not possibly of course go into all that        the commandments of his God.
belongs to practical godliness, neither is this             What does the truth of the sovereignty of God
necessary to establish the point. Let us consider just    mean for our trust in God and for the attitude that
a few examples. Surely godliness is a fervent love        we take toward our life and the hardships of our
for God and therefore also for His Word. This             life? Surely the man who constantly goes around
fervent love must be heard in our conversation and        complaining because of the hardships and difficul-
seen in all our actions. It must be our heart's desire    ties of his life does not reveal a faith in the
to know more and more about our wonderful God             sovereign goodness of God. Though we may
and Savior Jesus Christ. It must be the greatest          confess with our mouth the sovereignty of God in
desire of all our life to live in a way that is truly     our work of evangelism, no man will believe this if
pleasing and glorifying unto our God. Men must be         we are in our practical life an unbelieving and
able to say from our words and our actions, "Oh           murmuring people. On the other hand, our
how they fear and love God." The reason why we            testimony of the sovereignty of God is beautifully
do certain things and do not do others, the manner        and powerfully supported if we are known as a
in which we do all things, must evidently be our          people who manifest the grace of contentment,
love for God.                                             always giving God the honor and glory and thank-
  The truly godly man is one who frequents the            ing Him for His wonderful goodness. Surely some
house of the Lord, not only on the Lord's Day but         of the greatest testimony comes from those who
also for many other Christian meetings. We love to        know how to rejoice and give thanks in the midst of
go to the house of the Lord because we love God,          adversity. Such a testimony will cause men to
and in the house of the Lord we find the fellowship       marvel at our God and covet our peace and
and blessing of the Lord. Practical godliness must        assurance.
then be such that it is evident that we love to go to       For the Christian who lives in practical godliness
the house of the Lord because of the blessing that        sin  is-a grievous thing. When he does fall into sin
we find there. We do not go to the house of the           then there is with such a man a very evident and
Lord out of mere custom or tradition but out of a         deep sorrow for that sin. His greatest desire is, in
fervent love for God. We surely could not, for            the way of repentance and confession, to return to
example, expect to be able in the work of evange-         the favor and love of His God. He does not continue
lism to encourage others to come with us to the           in sin. He says before God and man, "I have sinned
house of the Lord if we do not ourselves love to be       grievously; oh, that I might be forgiven and recon-
there. So great and so evident must our love be for       ciled to God and man." The godly man does not
the house of the Lord that men begin to ask what it       seek by all kinds of ways to justify his own actions
is that we are finding there that we so intensely         and excuse his own sin; he simply in deep humility
seek after and love so dearly. It is impossible for a     acknowledges and confesses his sin. When that sin


306                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



is against his fellow man, practical godliness means      are jealous of the love that we have for one another.
that he is such a man that seeks immediately to           It happens that the jealousy for this love may cause
confess his sin unto his neighbor and seeks his for-      someone from the outside of the church to come to
giveness. The man who walks in practical godliness        church under the preaching of the Word. Such love
will not allow the sun to go down on his wrath.           is a most powerful factor in the work of evange-
How terrible it is when a man who goes by the             lism. In a world where there is nothing but wrath
name Christian and is known to belong to our              and hatred, the church in the work of evangelism
church forever holds a grudge against his neighbor.       must afford a sphere where the true love of Christ
He does evil and does not repent of that evil. He is      Jesus reigns, and is experienced and felt.
known as a hard and merciless man who will never            The Bible tells us that we must do good unto all
forgive. What a poor testimony that is to the for-        men. That surely belongs to practical godliness.
giving mercy of our God and our Savior Jesus              That means that if we see our neighbors in great
Christ. Can we expect our neighbors to have any           distress and need we are the first as godly men to
desire at all to come into the fellowship of the          come to their aid. Living in practical godliness
church where men never repent of evil against             means that we can be counted on when there is
their neighbors and, when evil is done to them,           great need and distress to help to the best of our
they never forgive? How wonderful it is and what a        abilities. We are filled with what the Bible calls
strong support for the work of evangelism if we           bowels of compassion and tender mercy for the
confess our sin to our neighbor, seek quickly to be       distressed and the needy. How necessary this is for
reconciled, and, when sinned against, we in mercy         the work of evangelism. How our Lord is our
and love immediately forgive. Such practical              example in this.
godliness will make men desire our faith and our
goodness.                                                   We could yet go into the whole area of our
                                                          business dealings with our neighbors. Are we
     Practical godliness certainly must be revealed in    known as a people who are always honest and just
the love that we  have for our neighbor. This love        in our dealings with our neighbors? Is there truly a
must first of all be revealed in the church. Accord-      difference in the way we conduct our business or
ing to the words of our Lord the disciples of Christ      are we apt to lie and cheat as much as or more than
must be known by the love that they have for one          our ungodly neighbor? Are we ever only seeking
another. Sometimes our churches are filled with           our own advantage? Are we manifest as a material-
petty bickering and fighting. How strong are the          istic and money-loving people? What a terrible
warnings of Scripture against those who war and           testimony to the gospel of Christ Jesus such things
fight in the church, those who bite and devour one        bring.
another with their tongues. There is little that does
as great damage to the cause of Christ Jesus as evil        We could go on and on, of course, in this dis-
spirits and evil actions among the members. Surely        cussion. Let us all relate this matter of evangelism
no one would want to belong to a church where             and practical godliness to our own lives. We as
there is constant bickering and fighting. The cause       Protestant Reformed Churches have a reputation of
of evangelism is virtually destroyed by such things       being strong in the doctrines of the Reformed Faith.
in the church. On the other hand the cause of             We can thank the Lord for this. But are we also out-
evangelism is greatly aided when men around us            standing because of the practical godly walk of our
                                                          members?

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


          Evangelism and the Reformed Faith (3)
                                                 David Engelsma



     Yet another crucial element of the message of        him, Paul showed all men "that they should  re-
evangelism is repentance: heartfelt, godly sorrow         pent." Then he called them to "do works meet for
over one's sins. In Luke  24:47, Jesus charges that       repentance" (Acts  26:20). Repentance is the way,
"repentance and remission of sins should be               the only way, in which sinners receive and enjoy
nreached." In obedience to the Lord's mandate to          forgiveness. This is exactlv Tesus' meaning in Luke
L                                                                                    1      _I


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                             307


24:47: the apostles are to preach repentance as the             live in separation from the world and its works; and
way to have forgiveness.                                        to keep all `the commandments of King Jesus. Re-
   Here, someone will say, the Reformed Faith is                formed evangelism will do this. Much of non-Re-
unable to do what is necessary for evangelism. Ob-              formed evangelism leaves this completely out of
viously Jesus intends that the disciples call men to            sight. For this reason, it is also essential in the work
repent. and that they proclaim the promise that                 of evangelism that those brought to the saving
everyone who does repent will haire remission and,              knowledge of the truth be directed to join a true
thus, salvation. But the Reformed Faith cannot give             church, a soundly Reformed church. No Reformed
the call of the gospel; nor can it promiscuously pro-           missionary could say to a convert, "Now join the
claim the promise. So says the critic of the                    church of your choice."
Reformed Faith. At the critical point, the Reformed               These are essentials of Biblical evangelism. The
Faith proves to be impotent.                                    Reformed Faith, so far from being embarrassed by
   The charge, or fear as the case may be, is ground-           any of them, proclaims all of them as no other faith
less. There is not a shred of truth to it. It is true that      can.
the Reformed Faith cannot and will not extend a                   But what of the distinctive truths of the
well-meant offer to all hearers, i.e., an offer of sal-         Reformed Faith, the "doctrines of Calvinism," on
vation supposedly made by God to all hearers in                 account of which men charge that the Reformed
love for them, with a sincere desire to save them,              Faith is unable to evangelize? Granted that the Re-
and on the acceptance of which by the sinner salva-             formed Faith can preach repentance unto remis-
tion depends. For the well-meant offer is nothing               sion, does it leave the great doctrines of grace in the
but a variation of the Pelagian-Arminian "whoso-                pulpit of the established church?
ever will gospel." Long ago, the stalwart Presbyte-               God forbid!
rian theologian, B.B. Warfield, devastated this pre-
tender-gospel:                                                    The Reformed Faith preaches the misery of men
                                                                to be sin; and it preaches the extent of that misery
      It is useless to talk of salvation being for "whoso-      to be total depravity. It passes upon every sinner
    ever will" in a world of universal "won't." Here is the     the judgment of the gospel, that he is dead in sin
    real point of difficulty: how, where, can we obtain the     (Ephesians 2:1), incapable of any good (Romans 3:9-
    will?  Let others rejoice in a "whosoever will" gospel:
    for the sinner who knows himself to be a sinner, and        18), and guilty before God (Romans  3:19). Speci-
    knows what it is to be a sinner, only a "God will"          fically, it judges the sinner to be unable to repent,
    gospel will suffice. If the gospel is to be committed to    believe, and come to Christ, as the gospel com-
    the dead wills of sinful men, and there is nothing          mands him to do. The Reformed Faith preaches this
    above and beyond, who then can be saved? (Tlze  Plan        in evangelism.  To the man who objects to this as
    ofSalvation,  Eerdmans, 1966, p. 49)                        poor evangelism, it responds by pointing out to him
  But the Reformed Faith can and does call, with                that this was the evangelistic message of the Chief
authority and urgency, in the Name of Jesus the                 Evangelist Himself. In John  6:44, Jesus cries out to
Christ, all who hear, to repent and believe; and it             His audience, "No man cun come to me, except the
can and does proclaim that everyone who does                    Father which hath sent me draw him." Thus, the
repent and believe shall be forgiven and saved eter-            sinner is made to know his great need and utter
nally. It preaches repentance.                                  helplessness.
  The repentance which it preaches includes a life                The Reformed Faith preaches that the coming to
of godliness. Repentance, in the Reformed view, is              Christ required in the gospel-call, as the only way
a radical change of mind about sin and, therefore, a            of salvation, is God's drawing of a man. We come,
radical change of life-a spiritual turning, a conver-           but our coming is the work of God in us to draw us
sion. Reformed preaching outside the congregation               efficaciously. Repentance and faith are Divine gifts,
does not hide from the hearers that the gospel-call             not human works. The grace of God is irresistible
is a call to discipleship, to cross-bearing, to  self-          by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Reformed
denial, to Jesus as Lord as well as Savior. It is some-         Faith proclaims this in evangeksm. To the man who
times overlooked that in the Great Commission of                objects to this as poor evangelism, it responds by
Matthew 28:18-20,  Jesus told the apostles to disciple          pointing out to him that this was the evangelistic
the nations and that conversion and baptism are                 message of the Chief Evangelist Himself. In John
followed by instruction "to observe all things what-            6:44, Jesus declared, "No man can come to me,
soever I have commanded you." Evangelism does                   except the Father which hath sent me draw him."
not end with "getting someone saved," but                         In addition, the Reformed Faith preaches, in
                                                                                      __  _
continues in their being --taught  .-to -he--- -                        ism, that all such coming is grounded in the
truth in the true church; to love one another; to                        gracious election of God. That one comes
honor marriage; to submit to civil government; to               to Christ is-Fe to God's gracious election of him in
                                                                                 \


308                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



eternity. Election is preached on the mission field,                        live? As over against all teaching that would tempt
election involving and accompanied by reproba-                              man to trust in himself for any, even the smallest part,
tion-the only election that Scripture knows. Sin-                           of his salvation, Christianity casts him utterly on God.
ners being drawn to Christ are not left in doubt                            It is God and God alone who saves, and that in every
whence all this springs. Penitent and believing                             element of the saving process.
hearts must be assured of the eternal purpose of                      Our objection to the free-will preachers is not so
God's love for them and must glorify God with the                   much that they offer salvation, as it is that they
confession that salvation,  their  salvation, is of the             have no salvation to offer. All who believe their
Lord. This was the evangelistic preaching of Jesus.                 message are themselves proper objects of genuine
As He preached Himself to the Jewish multitudes                     evangelism. We call them to turn from the dead
and called them to come to Him, He exclaimed,                       idols of their own works and will, and to trust in the
"Al that the F&her giveth me shall come to me; and                  living God.
him that  cometh to me I will in no wise cast out"                    We have a message, the like of which there is not
(John 6:37).                                                        in all the world: not a new requirement for man to
  The Reformed Faith can do evangelism, because                     do something for his salvation, but the announce-
it has the gospel to preach. A message of possibility               ment of God's gift of salvation. True, we call men to
of salvation is no gospel. A message of a Jesus Who                 repent and believe; but this repentance and faith
likes to save, but cannot save, is no gospel. A mes-                are not works of man that accomplish salvation,
sage of salvation dependent on man's running or                     but the way of receiving salvation. They are not hu-
willing is no gospel. As Warfield wrote, in The PZan                man effort, but the renunciation of all human
ofSalvation, this is merely another form of "autoso-                effort. They are not man's contribution to
terism"-the gloomy news that man must save                          salvation, but the gift of God to men. True, we call
himself.                                                            repentant sinners to a life of good works, a life on a
                                                                    "narrow way .
                                                                                        ", but this life, the life of holiness, is
         It is only in almighty grace that a sinner can hope;
       for it is only almighty grace that can raise the dead.       itself part of God's deliverance of us from sin, His
       What boots it to send the trumpeter crying amid the          work of sanctification. Besides, our holy life is not
       serried ranks of the dead: "The gates of heaven stand        meritorious, but thankfulness.
       open: whosoever will may enter in"? The real ques-             The message of the Reformed Faith is the
   tion which presses is, Who will make these dry bones             message of grace. It is good news, the "evangel."

GUESTARTICLE


                                    Of Singing and Playing
                                                          Rev. R. Cammenga



         On Sunday evening, November 2, 1980, our con-              called to live. But it was also a reformation and re-
   gregation in Hull held a dedication program for our              newal of the worship and liturgy of the church. Not
   new organ. For those who might be familiar with or-              least of all was the influence for good of the Refor-
   gans, the congregation has purchased an AOB (Asso-               mation on the worship of song in the church servi-
   ciated Organ Builders) 523 organ. The program con-               ces.
   sisted of several special numbers on the organ, two
   numbers by our grade school choir, audience singing,               What was this good influence that the Reforma-
   and a demonstration of the organ. In addition, I gave            tion exercised upon this aspect of the life of the
   the following address.                                           church? It is not an exaggeration to say that the Re-
  It is coincidentally significant that this week we                formers redeemed the church's worship of song.
commemorated the great Reformation of the 16th                      They did that, first of all, by purging the liturgy,
century, and tonight also dedicate the new organ                    and especially the songs, of the leaven of
which the Lord has given us. The Reformation was                    Romanism. By the time of the Reformation the
a complete renewal of the church of Jesus Christ. It                church's worship of song reflected all the grievous
was a reformation of the doctrine and teaching of                   errors that characterized the Roman Catholic
the church. It was a reformation and renewal of the                 Church of the Middle Ages. The songs which were
sanctified life that God's people in the world are                  sung in the worship services intoned the doctrine of


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    309



the meritorious value of good works, reflected the              songs, Calvin made provision for the publicatiorrof
idolatrous veneration of saints, and also served to             a Psalter for use in the Reformed churches.
proclaim the worship of the Virgin Mary. As part of               In many ways, therefore, the Reformers renewed
their reformatory work, the Reformers expunged                  and reformed the church's worship of song. I be-
these bad doctrines from the church's worship of                lieve, however, that the greatest contribution
song. But, secondly, the influence of the Reforma-              which the Reformers made toward the restoration
tion upon this aspect of the worship of the church              of that worship of song, was the re-establishment in
was not only negative. There was also a very defi-              the worship services of congregational singing.
nitely positive influence exerted by the Reformers.             Exactly because the Reformation was a return to
Especially was that true of Luther and Calvin.                  the Scriptures, it was a return to the practice of con-
  Luther, of course, was a great lover of music,                gregational singing. The Reformers saw that the
himself being an accomplished musician, and even                Scriptures teach that a part of the worship of the
a composer of sorts. On one occasion Luther de-                 church on the Lord's Day ought to be congrega-
clared:                                                         tional singing. That had all but disappeared in the
    Next to the Word of God, only music deserves being          Romish Church. In the Roman Church the choir or
    exalted as the mistress and governess of human feel-        the soloist sang, or the priest chanted, and the
    ings . Through the medium of music the Holy Spirit          people only listened. The Reformers changed all
   placed His gifts in the hands of the Prophets; again         this. They saw singing as the calling of the entire
    through music the devil was driven away, as was the         congregation, the obligation of every member of
   case with Saul, the king of Israel.... The Fathers and       the congregation, as part of their worship of God.
   Prophets desired . . . that nothing be more intimately       Luther brought about this important reformation in
   linked up with the Word of God than music. [Quoted           the worship services by reinstating congregational
   in  Patterns  of  Protestant Church Music,  by Robert M.     singing in addition to the singing of choirs and
   Stevenson.)                                                  soloists. Calvin went further and exalted congrega-
In his zeal for maintaining and developing good                 tional singing to the position of the exclusive form
music in the church's worship, Luther made music                of singing to be used in the worship services.
study a mandatory part of the curriculum in all the               It is right here that the precise place of the organ
schools which he organized. Besides, he made an                 in the worship service is delineated. The organ is to
understanding of music a prerequisite to ordination             be the instrument by which the congregation is
into the ministry. And, finally, Luther himself con-            better enabled to carry out its calling. The organ is
tributed directly to the music of the church. Under             to aid the congregational singing. That implies a
his auspices several good hymn books were com-                  couple of things. That implies, first of all, that the
piled and published for use in the worship services.            organ and the beautiful sound of the organ are not
He himself wrote some thirty-seven hymns, the                   ends in themselves. The end is the congregation
best known and probably the most Luther-like                    singing songs of praise to her God. If the congrega-
being, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." This song,               tion ceases to sing those praises, ceases to sing them
which has been sung in Protestant churches ever                 sincerely and from the heart, the organ is prevented
since the Reformation, is based upon Psalm 46. It is            from carrying out its proper function. If the congre-
an enduring testimony to the strong and uncon-                  gation sings songs, beautiful though they may
querable faith of the Reformer.                                 sound, which do not glorify God by ascribing all of
  Also Calvin gave his attention to the church's                our salvation to Him, then we abuse the good gift
worship of song. His high estimation of the benefit             that God has given to us. Let us determine tonight
of singing by the church is seen in the following               to have our organ aid us in singing songs that glorify
quotation from his  Institutes.                                 our Maker and our Redeemer. And then, too, let us
    And certainly if singing is tempered to a gravity befit-    determine to sing in such a way that the words
    ting the presence of God and angels, it both gives dig-     which we sing are the expression of what lives in
    nity and grace to sacred actions, and has a very            our hearts. And let us determine to sing God-cen-
    powerful tendency to stir up the mind to true zeal and      tered and God-glorifying songs, such as are in the
    ardour in prayer. (Vol. 2, p. 181.)                         Psalters from which we sing. Then we dedicate the
Calvin emphasized a threefold function of singing               organ to God. Then by our use of the organ we
in the worship services. Singing was, above all,                worship God. We do well to take to heart the warn-
according to Calvin, a means to glorify and praise              ing of Calvin:
God. But, secondly, it was also a means of teaching                We must, however, carefully beware, lest our ears be
and instruction for the people of God. And, singing                more intent upon the music than our minds on the
served the purpose of comforting and encouraging                   spiritual meaning of the words.  (Institues,  vol. 2, p.
God's people. Because he was concerned that the                    182.)
church sing God-glorifying as well as edifying                    Finally, this implies that the organ is a servant. It


310                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



serves the congregational singing. The congregation        the use of the organ in the worship services
does not serve the organ, but the organ serves the         altogether.
congregation. It is not the organ that tonight is dedi-      But there is a good and right, and therefore, too,
cating the congregation. But the congregation is           important, function of the organ in our worship ser-
dedicating the organ. That means that the organ            vices. That function is assisting in our congrega-
must not begin to occupy a place in the worship            tional singing, assisting in our worship of the God
service which is not its rightful place. The organ         of our salvation. Let us heed the exhortation of the
must not in some way or other take charge of the           Apostle Paul in Col.  3;16,  17:  "Let the word of
worship services. It must not exchange its role of         Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching
servant for a more honorable position. It must not         and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
draw attention to itself by its exceeding volume or        and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
by its fast pace. The organists must conform their         hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word
playing to this one principle: the organ is to be the      or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
servant to the congregational singing. So fearful          thanks to God and the Father by Him." To that
were some of the Reformers, especially Calvin and          purpose, the giving of thanks to God and the Father
Zwingli, that the organ would become the focus of          through Christ Jesus, do we dedicate the organ
attention in the worship services, that they opposed       which God has given to us.
                                         Book Review
I  & II CORINTHIANS  (The New Century Bible                claims that there were probably four separate
Commentary), by F. F. Bruce; Wm.  B. Eerdmans              letters which Paul wrote to the Corinthians and two
Publishing Company, 1981;  262 pp., $6.95.                 or three separate visits after the stay in Corinth
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                              during which the congregation was organized. Per-
  This is another volume in the New Century Bible          haps the greatest weakness of this commentary (as
Commentary series of which Ronald E. Clements              well as most of the commentaries in this series) is
and Matthew Black are General Editors.                     its brevity. One can easily imagine that a treatment
                                                           of two rather lengthy epistles in 250 pages (includ-
  Because F. F. Bruce is a noted and gifted Biblical       ing fairly lengthy introductions to each epistle)
scholar, this commentary is also one of the better         must, in the nature of the case, be almost too brief
ones in the series. It is written, generally speaking,     to be helpful. Its greatest use will be in preparation
from a theologically conservative viewpoint and is         for society study if one wants a quick and brief,
sound in its exposition. It has some good introduc-        over-all view of a section or chapter. But it would
tory material in it through which Bruce introduces         be well to study the text with another commentary
the two epistles treated to the readers. With all this     besides this one.
introductory material we cannot agree. Bruce, e.g.,

                                   STANDARD BEARER  INDEX!
          This notice is from an informal committee interested in publishing an
          index to all the Standard Bearer volumes. Our intent is to make a com-
          plete textual, title, and subject index which would probably be pub-
          lished in syllabus form (like our Seminary notes). It is our belief that
          an index of this kind would make the S.B. far more valuable for study
          and reference. Some qualified individuals have already agreed to do
          the necessary work.
          Are you interested?
          The publication of this index depends upon your written response. In
          other words, no response, no index!
          Please answer quickly: Kenneth Hanko
                                           4665 Juleon Dr., S.W.
                                           Grand Rapids, MI 49504


                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 311




                COVENANT  PROTESTANT  REFORMED  CHURCH
                                 OF WYCKOFF,  N&j$&@;;;[.
                                                             i/ % .-.,<L*.' . . .-
        Offers once again the remainder of its original se,r$!s?of bonds to  fi-
       nance the continuing construction of a place of worship. These bonds
       are available in denominations of $500.00 or $l,OOO.OO and have a
       maturity of 20 years. For a complete prospectus, write or call:

       Mr. Richard Hoogmoed                          Rev. Ronald Hanko
        106 Grand Avenue                     or      283 Squawbrook Road
       Hawthorne, NJ 07506                           Wyckoff, NJ 0748 1
       Ph. (201) 427-5483                            Ph. (201) 891-0902


                 ATTENTION!!!                                                         NOTICE!!!
FUTURE PROTESTANT REFORMED TEACHERS AND MINISTERS     The Spring meeting of the Eastern League of Mens and Ladies

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



                                                                                                                                              . ::
.                                                                                                                                              3:.
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4. . .                                                                                                                                     `$ .;;;
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       ii              312                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                  News From Our Churches
                            2,000  + 52 = 38.461538. At least that's what my     spectively: 1. "In harmony with the mandate of
                       calculator reads. Which means that when May 10            Article 21 of the Church Order, the Consistory has
                       arrives, a total of 2,000 Reformed Witness Hour           set this Wednesday, February 18 as an evening
                       broadcasts-38.461538 year's worth-will have               aside for all concerned individuals to come together
                       passed over the airwaves. A milestone worth cele-         and discuss the feasibility and desirability of estab-
                       brating, don't you think? Well, the Radio Commit-         lishing a school society so that Reformed education
                       tee thinks so too, so they are planning an evening of     may be furthered for our covenant youth." 2.
                       commemoration on April 23 at First Church in              "There will be a meeting on Friday evening at the
                       Grand Rapids. The program will include two choirs         church, for the purpose of establishing a Protestant
                       and a live Reformed Witness Hour broadcast (at            Reformed School Society. Let us come together in
                       least recorded live, to be played on Sunday, May          faith that our God will provide us what we need,
                       10) with Prof. R. Decker as speaker. Following the        also with a view to the instruction of the covenant
                       program other activities are planned, including a         seed."
                       tour of the Radio Room and refreshments. It looks           But people in the Protestant Reformed churches
                       to be a once in 38.461538 years occasion. You             are not the only ones interested in Christian Educa-
                       might want to circle the date on your calendar and        tion. This is clearly evident from some of the cor-
                       look for more information in your church bulletin.        respondence which Miss Agatha Lubbers, editor of
                            From a Wyckoff, New Jersey bulletin we learn:        Pevspec tives in    Covenant Education,  receives.
                       "The latest news from Singapore is that the den           Though the circulation of the periodical is relative-
                       Hartogs have moved to another apartment. The              ly small, correspondence reveals that there are in-
                       chief reason for. the move was increased rent, even       terested readers in Mississippi, Massachusetts,
                       though the apartment they are now in is in the            England, South Africa, and Northern Ireland, to
                       same building as the first. Rev. den Hartog writes        name just a few. One correspondent from Northern
                       that the new apartment is nicer than the old,             Ireland even sent a copy of the constitution of "The
                       though higher up. Their new address is: 22N Block         Association for Christian Education in Ireland." It
                       D, Pacific Mansion, River Valley Close, Singapore         would be interesting to know a little about the his-
                       0923."                                                    tory and development of this organization. (If some-
                            While on a Church Visitation Tour of Houston,        one in that organization takes this hint seriously,
                       Randolph, and Loveland, Rev. Engelsma lectured            maybe some of the information can be passed on to
                       in Houston on the topic: "Church and State in the         our S.B. readers.) By the way,  Standard Bearer
                       Coming Antichrist."                                       readers who would like to know more about this
                            Our Birmingham mission field recently featured       educational journal should send their inquiries to:
                       Rev. Woudenberg at their "March Conference" on            Perspectives,    Protestant Reformed       Teachers'
                       the  15th,  16th, and 17th of March. In two worship       Institute, c/o Covenant Christian High School, 1401
                       services and two lectures Rev. Woudenberg dis-            Ferndale Avenue, S.W., Grand Rapids, Michigan
                       cussed the general theme, "The Call of the                49504.
                       Gospel."                                                    News anyone? Please check to see if you are re-
                            At the risk of displaying a bias toward education    membering to send it; then check to see if you're
                       I would like to dispose of-or maybe we should say         sending it to the right place: 1313 Wilson Ave.,
                       expose-a number of school-related items that are          S.W. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504. I'm con-
                       building up in my file.                                   vinced a news editor has little use for the saying:
                            The following announcements of interest were         "No news is good news."
                       taken from Randolph and Edmonton bulletins, re-                                                            C.K.


