           The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
e           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          .

       Both of the malefactors were in the same
     condemnation with Christ.. . . But it soon be-
     comes apparent that there was a marked dif-
     ference between them.. . .
       How can you explain the difference?...
     remember, there was no preaching here, no
     altar call, and Christ had not addressed one
     word to this malefactor. He did not beg him
     to repent. He did not offer him a place in His
     kingdom if he would only believe.. . .
       There is but one answer.
       Sovereign, elective grace!
              (y-y--: .- ~.~.;
     See "`Reckoned.Among  the Transgressors"
                                                          -page  314
                                                Volume  LVII, No. 14, April  15, 1981 -


314                                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                        CONiENTS                                                                                         ISSN 0362-4692
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MEDITATION

                    Reckoned Among the Transgressors
                                                                                           Rev. 111. Schipper


                       "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him,
                  and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the  left."
                                                                                                                                                           Luke 23:33


  That Jesus was to be numbered among the trans-                                                        bered with the transgres!&?s,  and He bore the sin of
gressors had been clearly predicted of Him.                                                             many, and made intercession for the transgressors"
  The prophet Isaiah, in describing His suffering,                                                       (Isa.  53:lZ). Not only would He make His grave
death, and burial, declared, "Therefore will I                                                          with the wicked and with the rich in His death, but
divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall                                                       on the cross He would be numbered with the trans-
divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath                                                       gressors.
poured out His soul unto death: and He was num-                                                             And Jesus Himself made the prediction. He, Who


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               315



in His passion and death followed the prophetic              That flesh that loves darkness is moved to hatred
Word to the letter, declared to His disciples, "For I        that could never be quenched. Always the rejection
say unto you, that this that is written must yet be          of Christ must end in seeking to destroy Him.
accomplished in Me, `And He was reckoned among                 And, mind you, sinful flesh always seeks at the
the transgressors,' for the things concerning Me             same time to justify itself-at least in the eyes of
have an end" (Luke 22:37). The last part of this ut-         men. The very day after they crucify Christ they
terance clearly indicated that the first part, namely,       will be still pious and religious. See them in the
that He must be reckoned among the transgressors,            temple, performing religious rites connected to the
was to be fulfilled in Him.                                  Passover. They try to make it appear as if it is in the
  This prediction is now literally fulfilled at Cal-         name of man's goodness and religiousness that
vary. Not only was Jesus formally tried and con-             Christ must be killed. They will not admit that they
demned as a criminal, first by the Sanhedrin and             kill Him because they are evil and He is good. On
then before Pontius Pilate, the Roman judge, but             the contrary, He must be the transgressor. Such is
also the form of death imposed upon Him, stressed            the deep hypocrisy of the flesh.
the fact-He was reckoned an evil-doer. John says               So men, all men by nature, reckoned Him among
(19:18), "Jesus in the midst," i.e., Jesus in the cen-       the transgressors-because He is light, and they are
ter of the malefactors, while our text puts it this          darkness; because He is the revelation of the living
way: "malefactors, one on the right, the other on            God, and they are the enemies of God.
the left" of Jesus. All this accentuated the fact that
Christ was reckoned the lowest of criminals, and               But an utter mistake it would be to conclude that
was numbered among them.                                     man's rejection is the final word of the cross.
                                                             Though it be true that the utter rejection by the
  When we consider Christ reckoned among the                 world plays a great part in the drama of redemp-
transgressors, it is well to note first of all the extre-    tion; and though it be true also that the coming of
mity of His rejection.                                       the Son of God in the flesh is intended to evoke this
  And we observe, first of all, His utter rejection by       universal antipathy, yet, behind all this rejection,
man.                                                         and using it with sovereign determination, is God.
  Always He is contradicted of sinners (Hebrews                God also reckons Him among the transgressors!
12:3).  When He came to His own, He was not re-              Not, you understand, because of any evil within
ceived (John  1:ll). Always He is hated without              Him or done by Him. For He is the holy Child
cause (John 15:25). And this becomes evident to us           Jesus, holy and without blame. He is the Servant of
now when we look at Him on the cross as He hangs             Jehovah, par excellence, Who always did the will of
there between the malefactors.                               the Father perfectly, Who could say to God as He
  It must become evident that when God becomes               did to man, "Who convicteth Me of sin?"
manifest in the flesh, all the hatred of sinful man            But it was because He must be the representative
will be railed against Him. There is no hatred that is       sinner, Who will save His people from their sin.
deeper and more radical than the hatred of the flesh         Accordingly He must not only be condemned by
against Christ. For Christ is the revelation of the          men, but also by God. God reckoned Him among
living God, Who is light, and there is no darkness in        the transgressors. This is one of the awful antino-
Him. He represents the righteousness of God over             mies of the cross. He Who knew no sin, is made sin;
against a world that lies in darkness. In that world         and He Who was superbly righteous, is made the
He uncompromisingly condemns its evils,                      sinner.
demanding repentance-not in part, but complete-                Thus, while the world utterly rejects Him, God
ly; not outwardly, but from the heart; not of certain        fulfills His good pleasure. God had ordained Him to
sins, but of sin itself. He is radical! He exposes the       be the Head of the church, which by nature and in
very intents of the heart. He opens the white-               time belongs to the race of transgressors. In order to
washed sepulchers, and exposes the dead-men's                redeem them whom the Father had given to Him,
bones within. He saves, but from sin. He promises            He must take their place in judgment, the righteous
life and glory, but only in the way of the righteous-        judgment of God. All their iniquities He must bear.
ness of God. He offers no hope to the sinner who             In God's own judgment He must be numbered
does not repent. He has no program of salvation for          among the transgressors, and treated as the chief of
a world that loves darkness rather than light. He            them all. Such is the good pleasure of God. Thus He
condemns the very goodness and religiousness of              is forsaken of God. This is the extremity of rejec-
man. He was the most radical, uncompromising,                tion!
intolerant Preacher that ever spoke to man.                     Observe however that, while Jesus is numbered
  That Christ of God evokes the wrath of man,                among the transgressors, He also clearly makes
who censors Him to the realm of transgressors.               division between them.


316                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  Always throughout His earthly ministry Christ           member, there was no preaching here, no altar call,
appears as the divider. And no more emphatically          and Christ had not addressed one word to this
is this revealed than when He hangs on the cross.         malefactor. He did not beg him to repent. He did
He is hanged between the malefactors, with one on         not offer him a place in His kingdom if he would
His right hand, and the other on the left. When the       only believe. All that the malefactor saw and heard
apostle John in his gospel reflects on this fact (John    was the crucified Christ and the mocking of those
19:18), he says: "Where they crucified Him and            who milled about the cross.
two others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus          There is but one answer.
in the midst." These last words, "And Jesus in the
midst," were evidently not intended only to accen-          Sovereign, elective grace!
tuate the fact that on either side of Jesus was a           Indeed, Christ is the divider, and evidently here
malefactor, but that Jesus made division between          it is between election and reprobation. In the midst
them. When the Holy Spirit moved him to write             of the transgressors He is making separation be-
these words, the Spirit points to the fact that,          tween them. And He is giving grace to the one in
according to God's intention, Christ is the divider.      distinction from the other, according to the eternal
  When we survey the cross according to the Scrip-        purpose of God.
tures and ask the question, "Who was responsible            Consider what this means. The dying thief had a
for the arrangement of the crosses and for the parti-     vision of the kingdom of Christ in a moment when
cular setting of the cross of Christ between those of     the cause of His kingdom to all appearances was
the malefactors?" it becomes quite apparent that          lost. It means that he had light, which even the
the immediate cause for this arrangement rested           apostles to this point in time apparently did not
with the soldiers who crucified them, and with            have. And what is more, he connected the kingdom
Pilate who gave the order, and with the leaders of        of Christ to His cross.
the Jews who cried for Christ's death. And their in-
tention evidently was to demonstrate how they               0, yes, God also reckoned Christ among the
conceived of Christ as numbered with the trans-           transgressors, only to make division between
gressors. Christ then, as we have seen, was, in the       them-only to bring out in the death of the Saviour
intention of men, a common criminal, and He was           the hope of salvation.
reckoned as chief among them. But if this were all          A hope was expressed by the dying thief: "When
that could be said,,we would fail to see all the Word     Thou comest into Thy kingdom." He had assurance
of God in the particular arrangement. The truth is        that Christ had a kingdom-while all the mockers
that God arranges the crosses, and in such a way          scoffed at the whole idea of it; while Pilate mocks
that Christ evokes the division between the  male-        with His kingship in setting the motto above His
factors.                                                  head, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." The
  Both of the malefactors were in the same con-           thief is assured in his heart that the Lord has a king-
demnation with Christ, and as one of them also de-        dom. Also he was assured that Christ would enter
clared, "we indeed justly." But it soon becomes ap-       His kingdom. Amazing hope of the penitent thief!
parent that there was a marked difference between         And amazing also is his longing to enter it with
them. Luke tells us of this difference (Luke 23:39-       Christ.
43). One of them mocked and railed on Christ,               "Remember me, Lord!" Not, remember how I
saying, "If thou be Christ, save Thyself and us." It      defended Thee this day when all reproached Thee,
was a prayer of unbelief. He would be saved, but          but remember me, a dying sinner, who is in need of
not from his sin and guilt. The other assumes an          salvation. Thou art my Lord, and I am Thy unwor-
entirely different attitude with respect to Christ.       thy servant. And all this with the assurance that his
Not only does he rebuke his fellow in crime, but he       Lord would comply.
declares Christ's innocence and his own guilt. And          The basis of that hope?
he prays that Christ will remember him when He
comes into His kingdom.                                     The revelation of the Spirit. Was Pilate's epithet
                                                          perhaps his Bible? Whatever was revealed to him
  How can you explain this difference? You cannot         was made known by the Spirit of Christ to him.
explain it from the viewpoint of the malefactors.         Christ, he saw, was entering through death into His
Would you say that while both had the same oppor-         kingdom, and he would enter with Him.
tunity, the one by an act of his free will accepted
Christ, and the other rejected Him? But how could           It was all of the grace of God Who will be merci-
this be, in the light of all the circumstances? Also      ful to whom He will be merciful. It is the grace of
the penitent thief had everything against him. Even       election subjectively perceived in hope. Through
the Christ Whom he addresses as Lord, if He were a        the way of atonement, he had a place in Christ's
King, was in the power of His enemies. And re-            kingdom.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          317



  Certified by the Word of God in the dying                   And so Christ sees His seed. Isaiah made sure to
Saviour!                                                    include also this in his prophecy: "Yet it pleased
  Indeed, the cross and the kingdom belong togeth-          the Lord to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief,
er. The Lord intimates that the thief had seen cor-         when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
rectly. Christ's crown is attained only through the         He shall see His seed." So, while He is rejected by
way of His suffering and death.                             all, He is comforted in beholding the first fruits of a
                                                            veritable harvest. The Lord of God's everlasting
  "Today thou shalt be with Me in Paradise!"                kingdom marches triumphantly to His glorious
  Blessed answer to the hoping penitent! Not                throne. And His seed follows in His train.
realized in some future time, but this very day.

EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


                    The GKN on the Nature of the
                          Authority of Scripture (4)

  Thus far we have seen, first, that the very               conception again of revelation and inspiration.
method and approach of the Report/Decision of the             Now this in itself would be sufficient, in my
GKN concerning the nature of the authority of               opinion, to condemn the Report/Decision out of
Scripture is radically wrong. This method and               hand and to be done with it. For it guarantees from
approach are philosophical. The Report apparently           the outset that the position taken by the Report will
assumes that as philosophy's conception of "truth"          be wrong.
changes, the church's understanding of the inspira-           Nevertheless, let us see where this wrong
tion and authority of Scripture also changes. At any        approach takes us with regard to the crucial truth
rate, in the first section of the Report, after noting a    concerning Holy Scripture; and let us see how the
shift in the conception of truth from the objective to      GKN have completely abandoned the historic Re-
the subjective to the so-called relational view, the        formed position with respect to the inspiration and
Report proceeds to develop an alleged "relational"          authority of Scripture. The first step in this
view of revelation and inspiration. However, this           abandonment takes place already in Chapter I
very philosophical approach is incorrect; the               when the "relational" conception is applied to the
Report should have proceeded from Scripture and             truths of revelation and inspiration.
the Confessions. Secondly, however, the Report
simply assumes that the "relational" conception of            The Report approaches the subject of revelation
the truth is also correct, and that therefore one's         as follows (translation mine) :
understanding of revelation and inspiration must                  The Christian confesses that the truth is from God.
also shift. This will have the result, of course, that          In Scripture he comes into contact with this truth. In
one's view of the  aufhovity   of Scripture will also           Scripture he hears the speech of God; the Bible is
necessarily change. There seems to be implicit in               inspired, that is: breathed through by the Spirit of
this chapter of the Report, therefore, the twofold              God.
assumption: 1) That the so-called "relational" view           Right here we must stop already and call atten-
of the truth is correct and must be chosen over             tion to a very serious error. At first glance, perhaps,
either the objective or the subjective conception. 2)       the sentences just quoted may appear to be very
That as philosophy's conception of the truth                innocent; possibly some might consider them
changes,`there  must also be a shift in the church's        soundly Reformed. But they are not. There is a
conception of the truth, and thus in the church's           reference here, of course, to the language of II
conception of various truths, and in particular the         Timothy 3: 16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration
conception of the truth of revelation and inspira-          of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
tion. I suppose that if twenty-five years from now          for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
philosophy would decide upon a different concep-            The expression "given by inspiration of God" in
tion of the truth-let us call it "non-relational"-          our English version is literally "theopneust" or
then the church would have to adopt a different             "God-breathed." The meaning is that all Scripture


318                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



is the product of the breath of God. God breathed,                   hearts of men, and the revelation of truth is not there
and Scripture came into being. The Report, how-                      if one of these aspects is lacking. The shift in the truth-
ever, speaks of Scripture being "breathed through                    concept toward a more relational view (the objective
by the Spirit of God." The difference should be                      is present in the subjective, and vice versa) can
obvious: the Report does not say that Scripture is                   furnish a richer view of the truth of Scripture precise-
the product  of. the breath of God, but that the                     ly here. The divine power, which is mentioned as
                                                                     Holy Spirit, is a happening, not a tangible matter; the
breath of the Spirit of God is in Scripture, as it were              Spirit is as the blowing of the wind. The Holy Spirit is
blows through Scripture. For those who understand                    the manifestation of a strange Superior Power, to-
the Dutch, the difference is between the verbs                       gether with the recognition, the naming thereof by
geademd  and  doorademd.  The Report says:  "...de                   man. `Receiving the Holy Spirit' is not a passive event
bijbel is geinspireerd, dat is: doorademd door de                    (happening), but the active inclusion of men in the
Geest van God." It should say: "...de bijbel is gein-                revelation-history of God. The attitude of humility, of
spireerd, dat is: geademd door God (theopneust)."                    receiving, of putting one's hand on his mouth is in the
                                                                     deepest degree the active discovery of grace, the all
  This is a key error. If at this point the Report had               moving confession that it is God who speaks. And
taken the correct position, the entire relational                    such a confession takes place precisely by men. What
position with regard to revelation and inspiration                   we call `inspiration of Scripture' is really an entire
would have been impossible. The Report would                         history of coming to revelation, to truth, of this
have been shut up to the position that the Bible is                  `servant form.'
objectively and in its entirety and without any                        Distant events, words of patriarchs and prophets,
admixture the Word of God-period. And this is                        tradition, manifold sources, recording, fixing of what
without any question the testimony of Scripture                      does and what does not belong to the Canon, work of
itself, not only in an isolated passage such as II                   scribes, editors, church groups, all of that continuing
Timothy 3: 16 but also in many other passages.                       and proceeding through the constantly renewed con-
  But the Report continues in the same paragraph:                    fessions and expositions (exegesis) of the Christian
                                                                     churches even until today. The working of the Holy
       Does this not concern an entirely objective revelation-       Spirit is that happening in which human histories and
       truth outside of man? Must not man be passive here,           words and inscripturation at the same time point
       opening himself to receive the truth from without?            above and beyond themselves. In the measure that
       No, not in the manner of a revelation-truth which             men speak more, they must testify more powerfully:
       slams into the world of men like a meteorite. Other-          `this does not simply come from us.' Precisely by
       wise than with the Koran, Scripture is not directly           attending to this `subjective' history does the `objec-
       dictated from heaven.                                         tive' come more convincingly to light. This truth of
                                                                     God does not exist without the devotion of men. This
  Notice how, after first eliminating the possibility                devotion of men is without meaning if it does not
of "an entirely objective revelation-truth," as we                   point above and beyond itself and recognize its own
have seen above, the Report now raises the possi-                    devotion, highest activity, as divine grace, deepest
bility of such an objective view, only in order to                   dependence. It is constantly: both together.
reject it. Notice, too, how it is tacitly assumed in                Now any Reformed man who reads the above
these lines that the only way in which Scripture can              should have no difficulty in recognizing the fact
be an entirely objective Word of God is by being                  that there we have something far different from the
dictated from heaven, like the Koran. This is a                   Reformed doctrine of Holy Scripture. Even the very
favorite ploy of those who want to deny the inspira-              vagueness of this language testifies against it and
tion and authority of Scripture. Dr. Kuitert used the             should make us suspicious of its orthodoxy. Com-
same tactics, I recall, when he spoke in Grand                    pare the language above with the clear language,
Rapids during the 1960s. These men refuse to                      for example, of Articles 3 and 5 of our Netherlands
recognize the validity of the truth of organic                    Confession of Faith or with Chapter I of the West-
inspiration. This Report also criticizes this truth in a          minster Confession of Faith. There is simply no
later chapter, parting ways with both Kuyper and                  comparison!
Bavinck on this score. But while we will deal with
this subject later, I want to emphasize already here                In the second place, there is confusion in these
that it is not at all necessary to hold to mechanical             lines. About what is the Report speaking here? Is it
inspiration or to a dictation-theory in order to main-            speaking about revelation and inspiration? Or is it
tain that the Bible is objectively and in its entirety            speaking about how God's people come to believe
the Word of God written.                                          that the Bible is the Word of God? The reference to
                                                                  classic Reformed theology's speaking of an objec-
  Now let us turn again to the Report:                            tive and subjective aspect together would lead one
       Even old, classic Reformed theology spoke of an ob-        to think that the latter is the meaning. Indeed,
       jective and subjective aspect together: the Holy Spirit    Reformed theology from Calvin forward has taught
       works as well in the inspiration of Scripture as in the    that Scripture is self-authenticating (objective


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               319



aspect) and at the same time that faith that the           Holy Spirit? Or is the Holy Spirit some vague,
Scriptures are the Word of God is produced by the          impersonal power which is merely denominated
testimony of the Spirit in our hearts (subjective          the Holy Spirit by men?
aspect). But the Report is supposed to be speaking           In the fourth place, it ought to be abundantly
about  reveZation  and  inspimtion.  One wonders           plain that as surely as the subjective element
whether this confusion is deliberate or whether the        (human element) in the "both together" of this
Report purposes to teach that revelation takes place       segment of the Report is indispensable, so that
only at the moment when anyone believes the                there is no revelation without it, so surely the
Bible. Without going into detail on this point, let me     Report's view of revelation and inspiration is
suggest that there are strong overtones in this sec-       purely subjectivistic. The Report can call it "rela-
tion of existentialist and Barthian views.                 tional." It can counter the charge of subjectivism
  In the third place, the language of the Report           with the claim that also the objective element is
here creates grave doubts-to put it very mildly-as         necessary and that it is a matter of "both together."
to the orthodoxy of the Report's doctrine of the           The fact remains that without this subjective
Holy Spirit. Do the authors of the Report believe          element there is no Word of God, no truth.
the doctrine of the personality and the deity of the


                     Impressions of Singapore (1)

  With this article we resume our account of some          home and with whom we had correspondence, and
of our experiences of last summer. And although            our dear friend Cecilia (now Mrs. Ong Keng Ho),
there has been considerable-and most  welcome-             whom we had met in New Zealand five years
information coming to us from our missionary and           earlier. The others, though we had met some of
others in Singapore, we will add a bit to this infor-      them very briefly five years ago, were friendly but
mation, but from the viewpoint of an interested            unfamiliar to us. It was not long, however, before
visitor.                                                   we began to attach personalities and names (even
  We had left Chinchilla, in  midwest Queensland,          though unfamiliar Chinese names) to the faces of
by car early in the morning of July 21. At that time       these youthful brothers and sisters in Christ. And,
it was chilly, in fact, frosty. Departing Brisbane air-    by the way, the catholicity of the church is experi-
port around 1:00 P.M. (Australian time), we had a          enced in a very real way in a situation such as
rather long and boring trip via British Airways to         Singapore; very soon and quite spontaneously one
Singapore, where we arrived around nine o'clock in         begins to think of the saints in terms of spiritual
the evening (Singapore time, which involves a 2%           unity rather than in terms of racial differences.
hour difference from Australia). That day's trip also        Our eight-day stay at Singapore was in the nature
involved a considerable change in climate-from             of a working vacation. I had agreed before our
frost in the morning to a hot, muggy evening of            departure to do a bit of preaching and speaking for
around 80 o and rain showers.                              Pastor den Hartog in return for a bit of hospitality.
  But the welcome was even warmer than the                 To our delight, we were invited to stay with the den
weather. In spite of the fact that the airline had con-    Hartogs while in Singapore; and while we hesitated
fused things by giving the incorrect arrival time,         somewhat because we did not want to impose on
there was a large contingent of GLTS members, led          their busy household and on Missionary den
by Rev. den Hartog, to welcome us at the Singapore         Hartog's extremely busy life, we nevertheless
airport, where we paused not only for greetings but        accepted their invitation without too much urging
also for Scripture reading and prayer before the           on their part. It was a very good opportunity to
long ride from the airport to the city center. The         become acquainted with the people and the labors
thrill of being greeted by friendly faces and by           in Singapore, because the Rev. den Hartog's apart-
brothers and sisters in the Lord at a far away airport     ment is in a very real sense the nerve-center of our
is something that never grows old. I mentioned             mission there. As things turned out, we did not
"friendly" faces, not familiar faces. For in the           spend as much time together as we would have
entire group who met us at the airport there were          liked. For one thing, the pastor's work went on in
only three faces that we knew: Rev. den Hartog,            spite of our presence. And if you have not already
Johnson See Choon Hock, whom we had met at                 gained that impression from his reports, let me


320                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



assure you that he is extremely busy-too busy; in        several willing and helpful GLTS guides. Mean-
my opinion. About this later. For another, several       while, before the busyness of the day started and
plans were made to see to it that my vacation there      after it ended late at night we had ample opportun-
was indeed a  working  vacation. Before our depar-       ity for many conversations with the den Hartogs.
ture from Grand Rapids the GLTS had asked me to            All in all, we had a delightful stay and a most
deliver a series of three evening lectures on the        educational one, too. And while I would certainly
general subject, "The Reformation and the Five           not classify myself as an expert on the Singapore
Points of Calvinism." Then there was a Saturday          mission field, I gained some very definite impres-
afternoon Question Hour, which was closer to two         sions which I would like to share with you. These
hours; there was preaching on Sunday; there were         impressions, of course, will not be those of one
several less formal meetings and countless personal      deeply involved in the work; but they will be those
conversations. Mingled in these activities were also     of an "outsider" looking in. Perhaps there is an
various sight-seeing ventures in which we had            advantage in that kind of viewpoint, too.

MY SHEEP  HEAR MY VOICE


                                  Letter to Timothy

                                      April 15, 1981
Dear Timothy,                                            all that it contains, we also stand in contact with
  Perhaps at this point a brief review is in order       God Himself Who makes Himself known through
concerning what we have discussed so far about           the creation.
the emotions. You will recall that we defined all
emotions in terms of feelings of like and dislike. We      Now, as this creation impinges upon us and
also said that all the emotions could be roughly         enters, via our senses and nervous system, into our
divided into two main classes: desires and emotions      souls, we are affected by all these things. When we
proper. In our last letter we finished our discussion    are affected by them, it is also because we have an
of desires, and the time has come to turn to emo-        impression of like or dislike, because, as we said a
tions-what they are and how they work within us.         moment ago, feelings of like and dislike are at the
                                                         bottom of all our emotions.
  While desires are the lower activities of the will,
emotions are of a higher sort. They are a higher sort      Some of these feelings are rather general, vague,
because, while they include in them and presup-          and indefinite. We cannot give a clear account of
pose the presence of desires, they go beyond             them. They are there, and we vaguely sense that
desires also. They are more than mere desires. We        they are there; but they are too indefinite really to
can, I think, divide them into three classes: feel-      explain them fully or describe them clearly. There
ings, emotions proper, and passions. The distinc-        are several examples of this which we can mention
tion is not absolute, and the one class tends some-      and which will, perhaps, help to clarify the matter.
what to run over into other classes; but the distinc-    There are times when we get out of bed in the
tion will serve, it seems to me, to help us under-       morning and already we do not feel very happy or
stand what they are about.                               contented. We talk about getting out of bed on "the
                                                         wrong side." We feel out of sorts and dissatisfied,
  The first question then is: what are feelings?         but if anyone would ask us what the trouble is, we
  In general, feelings are reactions to particular       would be hard pressed to explain. We do not know
sensations which we have. We are, as we have had         exactly how we feel and we cannot give account for
occasion to notice in other connections, created by      our feelings. All is too indefinite. The same thing
God in such a way that we stand in contact with the      can happen during the course of the day. We have
world about us by means of our senses. Every             feelings of unease, of tension, of discontent; we
single part of the creation is available to us by        have feelings that something not very pleasing is
means of our senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch,     going to happen, that trouble is lurking around the
and smell. And, through the creation about us with       corner, that things are not going to go well. Uneasy


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               321



and even somewhat frightened and disturbed, we              morning feeling rather out of sorts and not too
cannot lay our fingers on precisely what is the             happy with things-for reasons which are not very
problem.                                                    clear. If I come to the breakfast table feeling this
  It also happens, although less often, that we have        way, it is not very long and the whole family,
a deep sense of ease, of happiness, of well-being           gathered about the table, is also feeling out of sorts.
and contentment so that we face life relaxed and            The children are quarrelling and bickering with
confident, happy and composed, and we are satis-            each other, and every one is soon unhappy. But the
fied with a deep satisfaction that all is well. But if      opposite can also be true. If I make up my mind
we were asked to explain how this came about and            that, regardless of how I feel, I will be happy at the
why it is that we feel as we do, we would find it           table, this happiness soon pervades everyone. In all
very difficult to explain why we feel as we do.             our life it is this way; we are affected greatly by
  Now the reason why all this is true is that we are        those with whom we have contact and fellowship.
much more affected by the creation about us than            And the closer that fellowship, the more we are
we often recognize. When God created man, He                affected by these people.
created man as an organic part of the creation, one           Yet, while all this is rather vague and general,
with the whole creation, a part of it, dependent            there are more definite feelings also which we
upon it, related to it, united together with it in in-      have. When we are unconsciously affected by our
escapable bonds. And so, as a part of the creation,         surroundings, the feelings which are the result are
we are affected by it. We are affected by almost            ill-defined. But when the sensations which enter
everything in it. We are affected by colors, sounds,        our soul are definite, conscious, clearly defined and
weather, temperature, seasons, changes in the sea-          easily identified, then too the resulting feelings are
sons, changes in the weather, wind, rain, sunshine,         much more definite.
cloudy days, the singing of the birds, the honking of         These well-defined feelings we can also divide
the geese, the barking of dogs, etc. Most of the time,      into two classes: the sensuous and the spiritual. The
we are almost totally unaware of all these things           sensuous feelings are feelings of hunger, thirst,
which affect us; but the fact of the matter is that         cold, warmth, comfort, and such like things. They
they do. Doctors tell us (and we have no reason to          are feelings which are predominantly the result of
doubt the truth of this) that little babies are affected    sensations of the body. They are brought about by
by the colors of the walls in their bedrooms, by the        physical well-being or discomfort primarily. But
sounds of the home, whether they be sounds of               there are also the spiritual feelings. Among these
happiness or quarrelling, by the music which is             (and there are literally dozens of them) we can
being played, whether it be sweet and soft or               count the feelings of shame, aversion, revulsion,
raucous and discordant. We all know how cloudy              abhorence, hatred, fright, and such like things on
days can make us blue, how changes in the weather           the one hand; and thankfulness, honor, awe, love,
can make us restless, how the change of seasons is          pity, joy, and such like things on the other hand.
the time when a lot of people who have problems             They too are brought about by sensations; but we
see their problems multiply and their mental and            can easily define them. We know why we feel the
spiritual equilibrium go out of balance. We have            way we do. We can give an account of these
only a small conception of how we are, every                feelings and explain their origin. We can clearly
moment, affected by all these things.                       connect them with experiences which we have had
  In addition to all this, we are affected by those         and with the objects which come to our attention.
people with whom we come into contact during the              Secondly, there are also emotions. The basic dif-
course of the day. We are sensitive to moods and            ference between feelings and emotions is that
feelings of other people. We not only hear what             emotions are much stronger than feelings. They
they are saying, but we detect behind their words,          are, generally speaking, stronger because, on the
feelings and emotions, attitudes and  dispositions-         one hand, they violently shake the soul, and, on the
all of which affect us and to which we react. The           other hand, they are of such a kind that they affect
more intimate the relationships of life, the more           the body. They are the feelings which make us
this is true. If, once again, I may use but one illus-      blush, which make our hearts beat faster, which
tration to make this clear: it has struck me forcibly       make our fists clench, which make a tightness
that God gives to parents a great responsibility to         come to our throats, which make our stomachs
set (if I may use the expression) the general mood          begin to churn inside us. It is not difficult to see
and atmosphere in the home. And perhaps it is               that they are also basically rooted in the fundamen-
even true that the father, since he is the head of the      tal feelings of like and dislike; but our liking and
house, is more responsible for this even than the           disliking are so much stronger and so much more
mother. There are times, and I speak of myself              powerful that the effect of certain things on us
because I know myself best, when I get up in the            moves us so deeply that we are visibly and notice-


322                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



ably shaken and moved by what has happened.                 emotions rule in our lives and simply be led in all
  And, finally, there are passions. Passions too are        that we do by them. But this is not only very
feelings. But they are even stronger feelings than          wicked, but also leads to all kinds of trouble. It is
emotions. They are, in fact, so strong that they            worth our note in passing that, nevertheless, such
make of a man a slave who is blind to reason and            is the life of many also within the Church.
understanding and who reacts without any control              In the second place, if the emotions are to be
at all over what he is doing. He acts in a blind rage,      under the control of the mind and will, it follows
so we say. He acts with thoughtless passion so that         that passions, as we defined them, are always
he is so overcome by his emotions that he cannot            wrong. There are indeed people who are more in-
control what he is doing. He is simply a slave to the       clined to let their passions get the best of them than
emotions which he is experiencing, and he acts              others. There are those who easily "lose their
without thought or reason behind what he does.              tempers." But, no matter what may be the case, it is
We all know what this is like. We speak of it some-         always very sinful to be so overcome with emotion,
times, rather mildly, as "losing one's temper,"             whether it be anger or lust, that we act unthinking-
when it is anger that lies behind it.                       ly and without knowing what we are doing.
  So these then are the emotions.                             In the third place, because all emotions are
  We ought briefly to comment on them, although             basically like and dislike, we must so learn to live in
much of what has to be said we have said already in         our emotional life that our likes and dislikes are
earlier articles. But there are especially three points     ruled and directed by the Word of God. This is the
which we ought to make.                                     person who, also in his emotional life, lives accord-
  In the first place, because God has created us as         ing to the will of His God. And great blessing comes
rational and moral creatures, our emotions ought            upon him.
always to be under the control of our minds and                                           Fraternally in Christ,
wills. This is contrary to all prevailing theory                                          H. Hanko
because current thinking is that we must let our

THEDAYOFSHADOWS


                      All This in a Covenant Home
                                                 Rev. John A. Heys



  In the last part of Genesis 37 we have depicted           ever had before, is not told us. What could they say
the deep and unnecessary sorrow of Jacob due to             in such circumstances? All they had to do was
his belief that Joseph had been devoured by lions,          confess that they were lying, and that Joseph was
and due to the treachery and deception of his sons.         alive somewhere in Egypt. Physically it was such a
So deep was his grief that he refused to be comfort-        little thing that had to be done to get their father out
ed, and he expected to carry his sorrow into his            of this deep grief. But spiritually this was an insur-
grave.                                                      mountable task. They undoubtedly were moved by
  His sons, together with his daughters, did seek to        their father's tears which flowed so freely and had
comfort him. But what miserable comforters those            their effect on his physical well-being. But they
sons were! The one word Jacob needed, and they              were moved more deeply by their own pride and
could supply to stop his tears, they in their wicked-       desire to defend themselves in their lie, and to
ness would not speak to him. Whatever they did              make sure that Joseph's dreams would not be
say to try to comfort him was the lie, because it was       realized so that they would have to be his servants.
withholding from him the truth. And the lie can             And so they could not comfort him, not because
never comfort. We can only guess what they did              there was no word that could dry those tears, but
say to try to make him forget his sorrows. What             because there was no love for God operating in
wicked words their evil hearts presented, to try to         their souls to speak the truth, and to bow before His
get his mind off that which troubled him as nothing         word which Joseph gave them in his dreams. Hypo-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              323


critical they were, therefore, in their words which           covenant. Instead he always, in all that he does,
they did speak to their grieving father. In their             shows not only no interest in that kingdom and
attempt to comfort they added to their sins. But              covenant, until God brings Him in by a rebirth and
God has a way of bringing His people to repen-                the power of the Spirit of Christ, but also no power
tance; and subsequent history recorded in this book           to live as a covenant child. It is grace and grace
of Genesis will reveal that their lie is exposed, and         alone that explains that there is a covenant estab-
that Jacob's grief is removed by God Himself.                 lished by God and with man. Claim that there is
   However, after reading in the last part of Genesis         one work of man that gives him even the right to
37 of Jacob's grief, four chapters come and go with-          remain in that covenant, and you manifest that you
out one word of mention about Jacob. We do not                are not living the life of that covenant. The life of
read of him again until in chapter 41, where we               the covenant sings,
find him sending his sons to Egypt for food. Yet it                 All that I am I owe to Thee,
must be borne in mind that we are still dealing with                Thy wisdom Lord hath fashioned me:
Jacob's family. Chapter 38 deals with the evils of                  I give my Maker thankful praise,
Judah who was the fourth son to be born to Jacob                    Whose wondrous works my soul amaze.
through his wife Leah. It is Jacob's family, his seed,              Psalm 139: 14
that commits these shameful deeds of sin. It is one
who came out of Jacob's loins and is carrying                   A question arises, however, in this connection.
Jacob's name into the coming generation. It is, in            Why does God reveal this chapter in the life of
fact, that branch of Jacob's family from which the            Jacob and his family? Why did the account of
Christ will be born of which we read such debasing            Joseph have to be interrupted to have this squalid
deeds and wicked works. Judah, the son of Jacob,              story related?
took to himself a Canaanite for a wife; and he gets a           One answer, to be sure, is that here is established
wife for the son of this Canaanite from among the             the covenant line of the fathers that runs from
Canaanites. This son is slain by God because of his           Adam, through Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac,
wickedness. The second son is also slain by God               Jacob, Judah, Pharez, David, and Christ. There is
because he will not raise up seed for his dead                one unbroken line; and God reveals it also to His
brother. In pure selfishness, as well as lack of              Church in the Scripture. There is also one perfect
covenant concern,  Onan satisfies his flesh but will          unity between Old and New Testaments. When
not satisfy God's covenant obligations. Judah, after          you write fiction, you had better be general; and if
this Canaanitish wife dies, turns unto one whom he            you try to be specific, you will be contradicted and
considers to be an harlot, for the satisfaction of his        accused of falsifying. God speaks the truth. Those
flesh. And Judah, this son of Jacob, becomes an               whom He used to write the Scriptures speak the
illegitimate father. For, after all, there are no illegit-    truth, and, not being silent about immoral conduct
imate children, but only illegitimate parents. The            in the forebears of David and Christ, they are very
children born out of wedlock do not commit an                 specific as to deeds and also to names.
illegitimate deed. It is the parents who break God's            But chiefly this chapter is placed here in the
law.                                                          midst of the narrative that deals with Joseph and
  But the point we want to make here is that all              his experiences to warn us, and point out to us,
this sad history reveals the truth that, "God works           what we can expect when we fail to take our
in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." For              covenant calling in regard to our children seriously.
it is in the line of this branch of Jacob's family, and       We have pointed out how weak Jacob was in this
through this series of wicked deeds, that God                 respect. And the tragedy with us is that the result of
ultimately brings forth the Christ out of David's             our laxity comes when there is no time or possibil-
seed, which is Judah's seed, which is Jacob's seed.           ity of reversing the damage CAUSED by our  be-
God brings an outsider inside the covenant sphere.            haviour. Our children are out of our houses and
This outsider brought forth a son who also received           letting their children follow the flesh in ways that
an outsider as his wife. She walks outside God's              make us shudder, carrying sin to new heights in
law and plays the part of an harlot and begets a son          our families and generations. The family tree no
whose descendants bring forth David and, in the               longer brings forth the wholesome, bright, and
fulness of time, the Christ Himself; and through              luscious fruit; but we become ashamed and find the
Him we are all brought into the blessings of that             desire to apologize for what our grand-children do.
covenant of grace. Indeed, here is evidence that it is          We should be concerned about whom our chil-
all a covenant of grace. Our works, beginning with            dren get for a husband or wife. We cannot go and
Adam's, deny us any place in that kingdom and                 get one for them, as Abraham did, and as Isaac and
covenant. Man has not performed one single deed               Rebekah sent Jacob to get. But we certainly may
that deserves and merits for him a right in God's             not do as Judah did here when he went and got a


324                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



Canaanite for his son. And Judah was only walking         envied him; but his father observed the saying."
in the way his father allowed him to walk. Judah          Here is where Jacob should have spoken to his
took a Canaanite for himself; but there is not one        children and at least warned them that this could
word here of objection on Jacob's part. He had            be the word of God against which they should not
looked the other way so often about the idolatry of       fight. Two dreams so similar, with the same basic
his children, and of his beloved wife, Rachel. He         truth in them, made Jacob stop and think. Even
had displayed so much weakness of faith all along         though his flesh spoke and caused him to rebuke
the line before his family that it does not resemble      Joseph and ask, "Shall I and thy mother and thy
very closely Abraham's family and Abraham's and           brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
Sarah's faith.                                            thee to the earth?" Jacob began to realize that this
  No, we cannot go out and get wives and hus-             was no ordinary, nor childish dream. Even the
bands for our children. But are we helping them           envy of these brothers of Joseph speaks here. They,
find mates for life that are spiritually compatible?      too, had a fear that this might very well be the case.
Do we place so much emphasis on physical and              They did not ridicule him. They envied him. And it
psychical compatibility that spiritual compatibility      was not simply because his father showed such
comes only as an afterthought, when we see that           favoritism towards him, as was evident in that coat
things are not going well spiritually in their married    of many colors. Deep inside they sensed that such
lives? And then do we blame that unspiritual              an exaltation of Joseph could take place. That was
partner for what our own children do? Have we             also behind their plot to kill him, and then later on
warned? Have we shown them concern for their              to sell him into Egypt. They wanted to make it
spiritual well-being? Or have we left them drift;         impossible for him to become their ruler. These un-
and have we shown them silent approval of their           spiritual brothers sensed that there could be some-
ways? Have we protected them, or have we                  thing to Joseph's dreams. And Jacob should have
exposed them to the world? Have we introduced             made known to them his own awareness of the
them by the boob tube to the love of Hollywood, of        possibility of it being a dream from God. He had
Sodom and Gomorrah, of the cheap paperback                experienced such a dream himself, so that dreams
novel, that really is no love because it does not have    with meaning were not something foreign to him.
in it the love of God?                                      And, after all, Jacob treated this firstborn of
  Let it be understood, I do not at all believe that      Rachel as though he were the firstborn in the
believing parents can give faith to their children, or    family. That princely coat-rather than "coat of
that to get the son or daughter of a believer for a       many colors"-proves this. Why should such a
marriage partner is going to guarantee spiritual          dream of Joseph then be only a dream? After his
compatibility. But I am aware of the fact, and            outburst which moved him to rebuke Joseph, he
emphatically declare it, that God does gather His         came to his spiritual senses because of all these
children out of our children, because He has estab-       things; and it behoved him to speak in the wisdom
lished His covenant with us and with our seed after       of Gamaliel, "If this counsel or this work be of
us, gathering His elect children in the line of con-      men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye
tinued generations. And therefore we ought to             cannot overthrow it" (Acts 5:38, 39).
encourage our children to seek their mates for life         But Jacob said nothing to his sons. And when we
in the sphere of the church, in the realm where           are silent before our children concerning the evils
there are believing parents. And we ought to warn         in the world, or, worse, if we give them the im-
constantly against dating out of the world, even for      pression that there is good in the world, we must
one night. That is playing with spiritual dynamite!       not be surprised to see our grandchildren living in
  The chapter also clearly indicates the need for a       the world and seeking the things of the world with
firm hand while the children are under our roofs.         the unbelievers. The church is becoming too much
Jacob was loose in his handling of the children; and      like the world; and the churches are becoming
he failed to speak up when he should have done so.        more and more alike. Let us take note and train our
In that measure he failed as a covenant father, and       children in the way in which they should go, and
saw failure in the lives of his children. One             not in the way our flesh likes to go-lest all this be
example of this is in Genesis 37:  11.  After Joseph      in our covenant families.
told his second dream we read that, "His brothers

                          Know the standard and follow it.
                           Read The Standard Bearer.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             325


SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                    The Rise of Cults: A Cause for
                Government Control of Religion?
                                               Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma



  It has been over two years ago since the time of          certain. Yet we watch for certain developments in
the mass murder/suicide claimed the lives of 913            the realm of religion which perhaps finally could
people. In 1978 the world was stunned when the              lead to such a control of religion. That is why we
cult leader, Jim Jones, of the People's Temple per-         raise the question: Could the rise of cults in any
suaded his faithful followers to drink the poisoned         way lead to the government's eventual control and
grape Kool-Aid which caused their deaths. Over              regulation of what we believe?
250 children were found among the corpses of their            The answer: perhaps. Here is how.
parents and relatives. Men, women, and children
were led to their doom because they worshipped                Because of the continued "special revelations"
and trusted in this man-devil, their cult leader.           which the leaders of the various cults claim to have,
                                                            they are able to act contrary to the law of God as
  Despite such an incident, cults still rapidly in-         well as the law of the land without so much as a
crease in membership. Thousands of people flock             question raised in the minds of their followers. The
to the cults every year. For the wicked who "are            cults, therefore, promote lawlessness. That this is
like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose           true is well substantiated. This is evident from the
waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isaiah 57:20 and 21),        mass suicide/murder of the members of the
the cults seem to offer some kind of false stability in     People's Temple of which Jim Jones was the leader.
their confused and miserable lives. For the                 Certainly, here was an act of lawlessness in the
confused and dissatisfied church-goer who has lost          grossest proportion! Just recently I clipped an
sight of the objective standard of Scripture, the           article from the newspaper which spoke of this
cults seem to fill a lack in life. For these reasons the    same kind of lawlessness. It was reported that a
cults are attracting thousands yearly. And that is          woman watched as members of a  devil-
true not only of the major cults but also of many           worshipping cult killed a woman and her two chil-
smaller, perhaps more sinister cults.                       dren in their home. The killings were acts of ven-
  In connection with this rise of the cults the child       geance by the cult members who were angry with
of God, who in all things looks for the return of           this woman's husband for his attitude toward the
Christ, asks himself this question: Is this perhaps         cultist's drug use. Perhaps it is argued that this is
one of the causes of eventual government control of         true only of exceptional and particularly malicious
religion? As we learn from Revelation 13, the Anti-         cults. But we note in the first place that these are
christ will possess not only a supreme political            czdts nonetheless. We note in the second place, that
power for a time but also an extraordinary power of         this disregard for the laws of the land can also be
persuasion in the realm of religion. In verses 13 and       found in the established and more popular cults. In
14 of that chapter in Revelation we read, "And he           1968 a  cultic movement began in Grand Rapids,
doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come            Michigan under the leadership of a Donald De
down from heaven on t& earth in the sight of men,           Graff. This particular cult has attracted several
and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by               hundred followers as it is constantly on the move
means of. those miracles which he had power to do           "from Florida to New Mexico." Although not as yet
in the sight of the beast." From this it becomes            charged with any criminal  offence,  DeGraaf  is
evident that the power and rule of Antichrist will          under investigation for using religion to collect
not be limited strictly to the realm of the political.      thousands of tax-free dollars that he spent himself.
He will also control religion-a1Z  religion. When he        Similarly, the Church of the Latter Day Saints is on
has gained such control then God's children will            government record as a cult guilty of fraudulent
become the objects of persecution, for his "reli-           monetary acts, as well as counterfeiting. Add to this
gion" will be anti-Christ. All the means which he           the fact that Mormons advocate polygamy and it
uses to attain this end we certainly are unable to as-      cannot be denied that the cults are guilty of  viola-


326                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



ting the laws of the civil government (not to             faith? Oh, at present it may seem to go pretty well
mention the law of God).                                  for us, maybe even to our advantage. But then
  How does this lead to government control of             again, maybe not! Antichrist is developing right
religion? The cults use their "religion" as a palisade    now, at this very moment! Imagine if the govern-
behind which they can hide and feel safe from             ment were sitting in the driver's seat as far as what
punishment for the wrongs they commit. They               you and I may or may not believe. Do you think
openly defy the laws of the government because            that they would allow us to maintain our "strict"
the "special revelation" of their corrupted leaders       views on such things as divorce and remarriage,
say they must. Notice from the Mormon's Doctrine          abortion, union membership, or women in office?
and Covenants, "Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy         Not likely!
God, and will answer thee as touching this matter.          Then again, look into the near future. With the
Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey          population explosion the government may attempt
the instructions which I am about to give unto you:       to regulate the size of a family. Do you think they
for all those who have this law revealed unto them        would accept us as a legitimate religion if we, ac-
must obey the same. . . . Abraham received concu-         cording to God's Word, continued having children
bines, and they bore him children; and it was ac-         beyond their limitations? Even now the mystery of
counted unto him for righteousness, . . . David also      iniquity is working in this way. And then comes the
received many wives and concubines and also Solo-         final development of Antichrist. Paul explains in II
mon and Moses my servants, . . . and in nothing           Thessalonians 2:8-10, "And then shall that Wicked
did they sin save in those things which they              One be revealed,. . . even him whose coming is
received not of me." I repeat, members of the cults       after the working of Satan with all power and signs
are required to defy the good laws of government          and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
which are, in fact, in harmony with God's law.            unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
  This frustrates the government; and in these in-        received not the love of the truth, that they might
stances rightfully so. The government has given           be saved." This "Wicked One," the Antichrist, will
laws which allow for the freedom of religion and          persuade all religions to unite in order to worship
the cults abuse them. There is little that can be done    the image of the beast. He will cause all men to re-
by police officers and government officials as long       ceive the mark of the beast in their right hand or on
as the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.       their forehead. That will be law! Will we bow down
Their hands are tied. In the words of an FBI agent        to the image or take the mark of the beast in our
who was investigating the  DeGraaf cult, "Only in         foreheads? Not at all. Then the government will not
America could something like this happen-good or          only take away our right as churches but he will
bad-but that is the way it is."                           persecute us for not standing in harmony with the
  The only recourse that government has in situa-         laws he has made.
tions such as these is to amend the first amendment         The cults are not harmless. They not only de-
of the Constitution which grants freedom of               ceive many but in a very real way they prepare the
religion, and to make it say, "freedom of religion-       way for Antichrist. Be aware of them and their de-
as long as the government has determined that             velopment. The signs of Christ's return surround
one's religion stands in harmony with the laws of         us on every side. As we watch them we prepare
the land." This, of course, would mean government         ourselves for His swift return. And we stand as-
control and regulation of religion. The government        sured-if God is for us then nothing can be against
could outlaw any religion with which it has any           us, for aZZ things work toward our salvation.
basic disagreement. The result:  according to the
government's determination all religion must stand in
harmony with its laws with very little, if any varia-
tion.
  At this point this solution to the government's             The Standard Becirer
problem with the cults appears to be a good one.
Even we are tempted to say that if this is the only
way to stop such abuses of religion then so let it be.      makes a thoughtful gift
That way we who right now stand in harmony with
the law of the land will be protected from those
who seek to pervert the truth in such a terrible way!                    for a shut-in.
Surely the  motive  of the government in regulating
religion is pure! That is true. But have you thought
for a moment concerning the implications now that
government has in its hands the control of our


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              327


BIBLE  STUDY  GUIDE


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



  Luke, the beloved physician, wrote this gospel            and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the
for Theophilus, a Greek, who had come to the                tetrarch of Abilene,  Annas  and Caiaphas being the
Christian faith. While doing this, he was led by the        high priests, the Word of God came unto John the
Holy Spirit to write a Gospel in some ways distinct         son of Zacharias in the wilderness."
from the others.                                               Luke also gives us biographical detail of the life
THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF LUKE'S                          of Christ. The Gospel was not written for this pur-
GOSPEL                                                      pose, but, of a11 the Gospel accounts, Luke's has the
  1. Luke was a historian and God used him to               most detail. We get some insight into his family, his
give us an accurate historical account of the minis-        ancestors, parents, and brethren. We learn
try of Jesus (recorded in the Gospel of Luke) and of        something of Jesus' infancy, boyhood, and growing
the establishment of the early Christian church             up. If we look in the other direction of His life, its
(recorded in the book of Acts). Included in his             end, we observe the same thing. Luke gives us in-
Gospel is the reference to the decree of Caesar             teresting detail about the trial, the charges made
Augustus that all the world should be taxed and,            against Him (23:2),  Pilate's attempt to avoid having
"this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was               to sentence Jesus, even by sending Him to  Herod
governor of Syria" (2:2). The Jewish historian  Jose-       (23:7ff.).
phus in his  Antiquities  seems to contradict this by          2. This historical emphasis, however, does not
mentioning that this taxing was done in A.D. 6, too         discredit the theology of salvation which underlies
late to coincide with the birth of Jesus which was          the ministry of Jesus. Luke traveled with Paul and
approximately 3 B.C. Upon further investigation,            learned to love the gospel of justification by faith
however, this seeming contradiction can be re-              without the works of the law. In the gospel narra-
solved when we consider the fact that in those days         tive Luke sets forth the Gospel truth: "The Son of
taxation was a long drawn-out process. First the            Man came to seek and to save that which was lost"
people had to register their persons and posses-            (19: 10). Jesus said of the publican, "I tell you, this
sions; and this registration was followed at a later        man went down to his house justified rather than
date by the actual assessment and payment of the            the other; for everyone that exalteth himself shall
tax. In all likelihood, Cyrenius (Quirinius) super-         be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
vised the registration around 3 B.C. while the              exalted" (18: 14).
actual payment was made later, around A.D. 6.                  In addition to this, we should note the emphasis
Two sources confirm that Quirinius was a legate of          upon the Holy Spirit and His role in salvation.
Syria during the time Jesus was born; there was an          Again, remember that Luke had already researched
inscription found in Rome by the Tiber, and                 his material for the Book of Acts, even before he
another in Antioch of Pisidia that referred to Quiri-       wrote the Gospel of Luke. This made him  Spirit-
nius as being ruler of Syria at this time.                  conscious. He points out in the Gospel that the
  Being interested in history, Luke connected the           Holy Spirit was in John  (1:15),  Elizabeth  (1:41),
events of the New Testament with the political              Zacharias  (1:67),  Simeon  (2:25, 26); that He was
situation of his day. For example, Zacharias was            instrumental in the conception of Christ  (1:35) and
priest when  Herod was King of  Judea  (1:5), Mary          present at His baptism (3:22);  that He strengthened
and Joseph came to Bethlehem upon the decree of             Jesus for the temptation  (4:1, 14) and blessed Him
Caesar Augustus (2: 1), and we read in chapter three        in His ministry  (4:18,  10:21). The same Spirit filled
verses 1 and 2, "Now in the fifteenth year of the           His disciples (24:49).
reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being                 3. As the Son of Man, Jesus came to apply salva-
governor of  Judea, and  Herod being tetrarch of            tion to all classes of people. Luke, a physician,
Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea         could well appreciate the power of the miracles.


328                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



Among them he records the following: raising the             5. Later  Judean ministry: He is rejected by Sa-
widow's son at Nain (7: l l-18), healing the man who      maritans  (9:51-56), He deals with the three  would-
had dropsy  (14:1-6)  and the ten lepers  (17:11-19),     be disciples  (9:57-62), sends out the seventy  (lO:l-
restoring the ear of Malchus (29:50, 51). Luke refers     24), tells the parable of good Samaritan  (10:25-37),
to women often (43 times, compared to Matthew             visits with Mary and Martha (10:38-42), teaches His
and Mark who refer to them 49 times between the            disciples to pray (ll:l-13),  is accused of casting out
two accounts). He gives us a good picture of Mary          devils in the name of Beelzebub (11:  14-29),  gives
His mother by referring to her throughout the             the sign of Jonas and pronounces woes on the
Gospel, He writes about Elizabeth  (1:5, 6, 39-54,         Scribes and Pharisees  (11:30-54), tells more
57), Anna the prophetess (2:36-38),  the women who        parables  (12:1-13:10), heals a man on the Sabbath
followed Jesus  (8:2,3), the weeping women who             (13:11-17), tells the parable of the mustard seed
walked behind the cross as Jesus carried it  (23:27,       (13:18-21).
28), the women at the cross and tomb  (23:55, 56,            6. Perean ministry: while journeying through
24:1-11). Luke also refers to children. The infancy        Perea He speaks about the straight gate and narrow
of Jesus covers some three chapters; and he refers        way and deals with the threat from  Herod (13:22-
to miracles upon an only child in three different          35), heals the man with dropsy (14:  l-6), relates a
places  (7:12,  8:42,  9:38). Of His many parables,        series of parables which includes the seating of
Luke refers to Jesus' care for the poor and               guests at the wedding feast, the great supper, the
oppressed. Those not recorded in any other gospel         lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the unjust
include ones mentioned in  7:41, 43;  11:5-8; 12:13-       steward, the rich man and Lazarus, and the
21;  15:8-10,  16:1-13,  16:19-31,  18:1-8.                offenses and forgiveness  (14:7-17:lO); He heals 10
BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE GOSPEL                               lepers (17:11-18), speaks of the coming of the king-
                                                           dom of heaven  (17:20-37), tells the parable of the
   1. The preparation for Jesus' ministry: the births     widow who persisted and of the pharisee and pub-
of John the Baptist and Jesus are announced, John          lican  (18:1-14); He deals with children and the rich
is born  (1:5-80),  Jesus is born, circumcised,           young ruler (18:15-30), heads for Jerusalem and on
presented in the temple, visited Jerusalem, grew in       the way heals a blind man  (18:31-43), visits with
wisdom and stature (2: l-52).                              Zacchaeus, and tells the parable of the pounds
  2. Inauguration into His ministry: ministry of           (19:1-27).
John, baptism of Jesus (3:  l-22), Jesus' geneology
(3:23-38),  the temptation (4:1-13).                         7. The passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus:
                                                          the royal entrance into Jerusalem  (19:28-40),
  3. His Galilean ministry: He returns to Galilee         weeping over Jerusalem (19:41-44), cleansing of the
(4:14,  15); at Nazareth He declares His purpose and      temple  (19:45-48), answering the confrontation
is rejected  (4:16-30);  He performs many miracles,       over His authority by telling the parable of the
such as the healing of the demoniac and other sick,       wicked          husbandmen  (20:1-18), instruction
the draught of fishes, the cleansing of the leper, the    regarding the payment of tribute to Caesar,
healing of the man sick of palsy (4:30-5:26); He ate      answering the problem of the resurrection and mar-
with publicans and sinners  (5:27-39); He confronts       riage after death, showing how He can be both
the Pharisees over the Sabbath, His disciples pluck       David's Son and Lord (20:20-47), the parable of the
corn, He heals the man with a withered hand (6:1-         widow's mite  (21:1-4),  instruction concerning the
11); He chose His twelve disciples  (6:12-16),             end of all things (21:5-28),  announcement of the de-
preached the sermon on the mount (6:  17-49),             struction of Jerusalem  (21:29-38), Judas agrees to
healed the Centurion's servant  (7:1-lo), raised the      betray Jesus (22:  16), the last  passover and institu-
son of the widow of Nain  (7:l  l-17), answered           tion of Lord's Supper  (22:7-38), prayer in the Gar-
John's inquiry  (7:18-35);  the woman anoints Jesus'      den of Gethsemane, Jesus is taken prisoner (22:39-
feet  (7:36-50); Jesus tells the parable of the sower     53), Peter's denial and Jesus' trial before the Sanhe-
(8:1-18),  answers His mother and brothers who            drin  (22:54-71), Jesus' trial before Pilate and Herod
desire Him to show His power (8: 19-21),  performs         (23:1-26), Jesus led to Golgotha and the women
miracles, such as the stilling of the storm, the          weep  (23:27-31), He is crucified  (23:32-49), buried
casting out of devils out of Legion, the healing of        (23:50-56), He arose from the dead and appeared to
the daughter of Jairus and of the woman with the          many (24: l-43), instructs His disciples to preach in
issue of blood  (8:22-56);  He sends forth the twelve     the power of the Holy Spirit Who will be given to
and feeds the five thousand (9: 1-17).                    them after He ascends into heaven (24:44-53).
  4. The retirement ministry: announcement of
His suffering and death to His disciples  (9:18-27),      QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
the transfiguration  (9:28-36), the healing of the           1. Who was Luke and what do we know about
demoniac son  (9:37-45),  the use of a child as an        him?
example of humility (9:46-50).                               2. What five things can you mention that are


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              329



included in the idea of "organic inspiration."           his day and that he saw it as having a bearing
  3. How can we be sure that Luke was the author         upon the work of Christ.
of this Gospel?                                            7. Why do we not have a biography of Jesus in
  4. Who was Theophilus and how does the fact            any of the Gospels?
that he was a Greek influence the writing of this          8. How can we explain the emphasis on Mary
gospel?                                                  (see  1:28  and  42), over against the "Mariolotry" of
  5. What was Luke's purpose in writing this             the Roman Catholic?
gospel and why is it important that Christ be set          9. How do we explain Luke 9:60?
forth as the Son of Man?                                  10.  Review the outline of events recorded of
  6. Illustrate from the Gospel itself that Luke was     Luke's Gospel and compare it with that of Matthew
informed of the political situation of the world of      and Mark in order to note differences.

GUESTARTICLE


                                                  Alms
                                            Rev. James Slopsema


  "Alms" is a word seldom used in our everyday           shall drink, and wherewithal we shall be clothed
vocabulary. Perhaps some reading these pages do          we are in distress. It is a terrible thing to be poor,
not know what alms are. This only goes to show           not knowing how we will pay the rent and tuition
that alms do not have much of a place in our life.       and countless other bills. Agur in Proverbs  30:8
This ought not to be. Alms are to be the concern of      prays to God that he may never become poor. But
every one of us.                                         God's people do become poor. Christ assured His
  "Alms" is a Scriptural term to denote gifts to the     disciples shortly before His death that the church
poor. The basic meaning of the word is mercy.            would always have poor. Christ's mercy extends
Mercy is the pity or compassion that we feel for         also to them in their need. Christ is filled with com-
those in need so that we seek to help them. From         passion, is deeply touched by the poverty of His
this basic idea of mercy the word "alms" came to         own. And in His abounding mercy He will provide
mean mercy and compassion specifically for the           for them.
poor. Finally this word came to mean gifts of mercy        Christ will help the poor in such a way that they
to help the poor in their need.                          taste and experience  His  mercy and care. Hence,
  Understanding alms as gifts of mercy, we see           He has commanded the church to provide for the
that all true alms have their source in Jesus Christ.    poor. Certainly the poor do not taste the mercies of
As the Mediator of God's people, Christ is very          Christ through the benevolence of the world. The
merciful. We read repeatedly of the compassion           world stands opposed to Christ. The world is the
that Jesus had for the multitudes that followed Him      enemy of Christ. The world is essentially antichris-
during His earthly ministry. They were as sheep          tian. Receive the help of the world and all you ex-
without a shepherd; and Christ had compassion on         perience is the mercy of Christ's enemies. To taste
them. Moved by this compassion Christ offered            the mercies of Christ the poor must receive help.
Himself a sacrifice on the cross to obtain for His       from those who stand with Christ, who represent
people all the blessings of God's salvation. This        Christ, who can bring the comforting Word of
alone is sufficient to supply the true needs of God's    Christ. Hence, Christ has charged the church to
people. And even now Christ sits at the right hand       provide for her own poor. She is to do this through
of God, bestowing upon us the blessings of His           her deacons who collect alms from the congrega-
cross. we are assured in the Scriptures that Christ      tion and distribute them to the poor. In this way the
knows all our needs, is deeply touched by our            poor taste the mercies of their fellow-saints and the
needs, and in His mercy richly supplies all our          mercies of Christ.
needs.                                                     Obviously we all have a duty with respect to
  This mercy of Christ also extends to His people        alms. That duty is first to give alms for the relief of
in poverty. To be poor is to be in distress. When we     the poor. Has God prospered you? Do you have
no longer know what we shall eat, and what we            more than is necessary to provide for your daily


330                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



needs? Then the calling of Christ is, "Sell what ye         to sacrifice for the sake of the poor, one who can
have, and give alms" (Luke 12:33).                          not bring himself to give alms is one who has never
  This command of Christ has often been ignored.            tasted the riches of Christ's mercy!
Repeatedly the poor in the church have found that             How do we take care of the poor? Do we provide
there were no alms to be had from the  church,`or           for them? Or do we through our neglect force them
that the alms of the church were beggarly. Nor has          to turn to the world for help? Here we meet a true
the reason for this sad situation always been that          test of our spirituality.
the church herself was too poor to provide. Fre-              Those whom God has prospered are not the only
quently the reason has been the carnal-mindedness           ones who have a responsibility with respect to
of the church and her members. Often the situation          alms. The poor also have a duty toward alms. Their
prevails in the church that there are those who can         duty is to receive the alms of the church in humili-
provide for the poor but who will, not. For the             ty. If there is a hesitancy in the church today to give
church to provide sufficiently for the poor, sacrifice      alms liberally, there is equally a hesitancy to
and self-denial are often required on the part of           receive alms. It seems as though the poor in the
those whom God has prospered. Some must lower               church are more inclined to go to the world for help
their standard of living that others may have a             in the form of government welfare than to the dea-
living. And the saints of God are not always willing        cons of the church.
to do this. This is carnal-mindedness!
  It is exactly this carnal-mindedness against                There are several reasons for this. One reason is
which Christ warns in Luke 12 where we are                  that the world will provide more liberally than the
charged to give alms. We are not to seek what we            church as far as financial assistance is concerned. It
shall eat or what we shall drink. Nor are we to be          is simply a known fact that the government's
like the rich fool who asked his soul what he would         "poverty line" is much higher than the  church's.
do with all his goods and finally decided to hoard          Financially the poor do much better with the world
them in new and bigger barns. Rather we are to              than with the church. But let's understand what the
seek first the kingdom of God. And in that spirit we        poor do when they go to the world for help for this
are to sell what we have and give alms to the poor.         reason. First, they shun the mercies of Christ. For it
                                                            is through the alms of the church that Christ shows
  We are to be guided and motivated especially by           His mercy to the poor. And what is the motivation
two principles in our almsgiving. The first principle       for turning away from the mercies of Christ? What
is that we are no more than stewards over God's             motivates the poor in this situation is a few more
goods. The material abundance we possess is not             dollars and cents, a little more of this earth's riches.
our own. It is God's. He has merely entrusted these         This is nothing but carnal-mindedness. The poor
things to us as stewards. Consequently we are not           have no excuse when they do this.
at liberty to use our riches according to our own
whim or for our own personal gain. As with all                Another reason why the poor sometimes turn to
things our earthly riches must be used strictly in          the world rather than to the church is that the
the service of God and the kingdom. And that                world is not too concerned about stewardship.
means that we must use our abundance to support             Sometimes the poor are poor because of their own
the poor whom Christ will assist in His mercy. To           poor stewardship. Mismanagement, living beyond
refuse to support the poor when we have been                one's means, being a spendthrift frequently
prospered by the hand of the Lord is to be unfaith-         explain the poverty of the poor. And the state does
ful servants!                                               not concern itself overly much about these kinds of
  The second principle that must motivate us in             things. The deacons of the church, however, do.
almsgiving is that we ourselves have received the           What a temptation to go to the world and maintain
mercies of Christ. In His great mercy Christ has            one's high standard of living rather than go to the
sacrificed Himself on the cross to earn for us the          deacons and be admonished concerning steward-
salvation of God. In that same mercy He showers             ship. Here we see that the mercies of the world are
us with blessings too numerous to count. He pro-            cruel. When the world helps us it is usually to our
vides us with all things in great abundance. This           own spiritual harm. This is a case in point. By
then places us before an obligation-to show mercy           paying little attention to the stewardship of those
unto others even as Christ has shown mercy to us.           who receive its benevolence the world not only
One very important way we are to do this is to take         condones      poor     stewardship      but actually
pity on the poor and give alms liberally for their          encourages it. We can be poor stewards and still re-
support. This is an obligation. It is more than an          ceive the help of the world. The more we mis-
obligation. It is the inevitable fruit of the mercies of    manage, the more we receive. But let us not forget:
Christ. One who is not moved with compassion at             we will one day be judged according to how we
the sight of the poor in the church, one who refuses        conducted ourselves as stewards over God's goods.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             331



Let not the poor avoid the deacons in the time of         poor even as we have received mercy. Let us show
need, for fear of being admonished for poor  stew-        that mercy by giving alms liberally. And if we are
ardship. Perhaps that form of Christ's mercy is           poor, let us seek the alms Christ has provided for us
their greatest need.                                      in His mercy. Doing this we will all be rich, rich in
  Let us all make alms an important part of our life.     the salvation of God.
If God has prospered us, let us show mercy to the

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                           Missionary Methods (2)
                                             Prof. Robert D. Decker


  We have repeatedly made the point that the chief        that Peter comes with no gimmicks, no sophistica-
task of the church in its mission work is the preach-     ted sales pitch, and no slick Madison Avenue pre-
ing of the gospel. In other words, mission work con-      packaged gospel appeal. There is a good deal of wri-
sists mainly in the preaching of the Word of God.         ting and talk in Missiology these days about the
This is what the missionary must do both publicly         proper approach on the mission field. How ought
and from house to house (cf. Acts  20:20). In our         the missionary to approach people? How can he
study of missionary methods we wish to examine            best approach them and present the gospel in order
the preaching of the apostles especially, and other       to win them for Christ? The whole assumption is
aspects of their work as that is recorded in the Epis-    that with the proper approach one will be success-
tles, but especially the Book of Acts. There are          ful in winning souls, and with an improper
several sermons recorded in Acts which we                 approach he will not. Let us learn from this
propose to study. These sermons are recorded for a        example of Peter. What did he do? He was faced
reason, not merely for historical interest. We can        with a tremendous opportunity. He stood before a
and, indeed, we must learn from them. If we wish          multitude of people who numbered in excess of
to know what the church must preach and how the           three thousand. And they wanted to know what
church must preach on the mission fields we can do        was going on. How was it possible for these un-
no better than to pay attention to apostolic preach-      learned men to speak in all these languages? What
ing.                                                      did Peter do? He did what every missionary and
  Since the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pente-      minister of the Gospel must do. He simply expoun-
cost marks the beginning of the work of the exalted       ded the Scriptures! Peter told them that what they
Christ in gathering His church out of the nations         witnessed was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Then
we begin with that event. When the day of Pente-          the Apostle quoted Joel 2:28-32,  where the prophet
cost was fully come the Spirit was poured out upon        speaks of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all
the one hundred and twenty. The signs of the              flesh. Then Peter showed them from Psalm 16:8-11
Spirit's presence were the sound of a rushing             that David spoke of the resurrection of Christ. And
mighty wind, the cloven tongues like as of fire, and      from verse ten of that Psalm the Apostle showed
the speaking in tongues. A large multitude                that David spoke of the ascension of Christ to the
gathered, to which the disciples preached. This           right hand of God. Peter expounded the Word of
multitude which was from every nation under               God. He simply preached Christ crucified and
heaven (Acts 2:5) was amazed to hear the disciples        raised and exalted at the right hand of God from the
speak in their various tongues the wonderful works        Holy Scriptures.
of God (vs. 11). Some doubted as to the meaning of          This was the content of that sermon: Christ cru-
it all, while others mocked saying the disciples          cified. Jesus of Nazareth, Whom they knew from
were drunk. At this point Peter rises and preaches        the miracles, being delivered by the determinate
his sermon. To this sermon, recorded in Acts 2:14-        counsel and foreknowledge of God, was crucified
40, we direct our attention. From it we can learn         by their wicked hands. This Christ was raised up
much about proper preaching in the mission con-           and He has shed forth the Holy Spirit, "this which
text.                                                     ye see and hear" (vs. 33). The conclusion is this:
  If the reader will consult his Bible he will notice     "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assured-


332                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



     ly, that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye          did not offer salvation in Christ to that multitude.
     have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (vs. 36). Note     He did not tell them they had the will to choose
     well that in preaching Christ crucified the Apostle      Christ nor did the Apostle urge them to do so with
     preached sin. In fact, in rather blunt language Peter    some kind of "altar call." Some among the multi-
     told them that they had taken the Lord's Christ          tude were pricked in their hearts as a result of
     with their wicked hands and crucified Him. That          Peter's sermon (vs. 37) and they said,  "...Men and
     simply meant that, apart from the Christ whom            brethren, what shall we do?" Peter's response was,
     they wickedly crucified, they stood condemned. If,       "repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the
     therefore, the church will be faithful in its            name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
preaching to the nations, it must preach the great            ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (vs. 38).
theme of sin and grace. It must mince no words.               The Apostle did not beg or cajole or offer. He com-
     The church must declare to all who hear that they        manded them to repent and be baptized for the
     are depraved, wicked sinners. The church must            remission of sins. Those verbs are in the impera-
preach that their only hope is in Christ crucified.           tive! Peter continued by giving the ground for this
The church must not be afraid to do this. Peter was           double command: "For the promise is unto you,
not. We must follow his example in our mission                and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
preaching.                                                    even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (vs.
       Because the sermon is Christocentric it is  Theo-      39). The Apostle preached the command of the
     centric. Peter preached God in all His sovereignty       gospel and the particular promise of the gospel.
and glory. God did the miracles and wonders and               That promise is unconditional and particular. It is
     signs by Jesus so that Jesus was approved of God         to you and your children and to all that are afar off,
     among the Jews. Christ was delivered by the deter-       even as many as the Lord our God shall call. For
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Note                 that reason they must repent and be baptized. In
that! The Apostle did not hesitate to preach the              addition we are told that Peter testified and
counsel of God. That is profound and deep                     exhorted with many other words saying, "Save
doctrine! God raised up Jesus from the dead. God              yourselves from this untoward generation" (vs. 40).
did not suffer His Holy One to see corruption but             In the hearing of that vast multitude the Apostle
He raised Him up and exalted Him at His own right             preached the particular Gospel of Scripture to-
hand. Christ received the promise of the Holy Spirit          gether with its particular promise. He simply com-
from God the Father. In sum, God made Jesus both              manded those who had been pricked by the Holy
Lord and Christ through the terrible way of the               Spirit in their hearts through the sermon to repent
crucifixion. That was the message the Apostle                 and be baptized. In the light of this evidence the
preached that day. The very heart of it was God in            charge that the Reformed churches which preach a
all His sovereignty and great glory as revealed in            particular gospel and promise have no gospel to
the crucified, raised, exalted Lord Christ. It was, as        preach, especially on the mission fields, is sheer
Herman Hoeksema was fond of saying, no "gospel                nonsense. Peter preached the only gospel and
on a thumbnail," it was no simple Sunday School               promise that Scripture knows. He preached the
lesson. Peter did not come with some easy steps to            gospel of sovereign grace in Christ, in Whom alone
finding happiness in Jesus. That sermon of the                the multitude then, and we now, find remission of
Apostle was full of sound doctrine and based on an            sins.
exegesis of the Old Testament Scriptures. It is pre-          By anyone's standards the Apostle was "success-
cisely that kind of preaching which is needed on              ful." Approximately three thousand souls gladly re-
the mission fields in our day. Altogether too much            ceived the Word and were baptized. These con-
mission preaching is far too superficial and, worse           tinued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and
than that, a corruption of the gospel. Certainly it is        fellowship (vss. 41,42). That was the fruit of Peter's
true that the truth must be explained carefully and           preaching that first Pentecost. Let the missionaries
in language that people who have had no contact               of God's Church go forth into the nations of the
with the gospel can grasp. It is also true that the           world, preaching and teaching that same precious
whole counsel of God must be preached. That is                Gospel of sovereign grace in Christ which gives the
what Peter did and, as we hope to see, that is what           glory to God. That preaching will bear rich fruits.
Paul did. That, therefore, is what we must do.                Perhaps there will be no multitudes of three thou-
                                                              sand. There will, however, be fruit. The elect will
       Exactly because, in faithfulness to the infallible     be pricked in their hearts and they will gladly
Scriptures, Peter preached God in Christ, there was           receive the Word and be baptized. Unbelievers will
no well-meant offer in the Apostle's sermon. Peter            scoff and oppose and even persecute. They shall
I                                                        I    perish. In both we triumph in Christ, and in both
1  Study  the  Standard   Bearer   1                          we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God (II Corin-
                                                              thians 2:14-17).


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        333


                                          Book Review

PHILOSOPHY AND SCRIPTURE,  a study in                       and those who emphasized man and his role in
Old Princeton and Westminster theology, by John             Scripture. Or, to put it another way, the tension
C. Vander Stelt;  Mack Publishing Company, 1978;            was between those who emphasized that Scripture
354 pp., $12.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.              was God's work with the result that Scripture was
Hanko)                                                      infallibly inspired, and those who emphasized the
  This book was written by a professor in Dordt             human factor in Scripture. The former stressed the
College as his doctoral dissertation. Without any           objective character of revelation and put the stress
direct reference to the A.A.C.S., it has as its main        on infallible inspiration.
purpose a defense of the teachings of the A.A.C.S.,           The issues were, in Vander Stelt's judgment,
especially as these teachings apply to the doctrine         more complicated than that and involved the
of Scripture. It is indicative of the fact that A.A.C.S.    relation between Scripture and the Word of God in
views are being held in Dordt College and taught            creation, faith and reason, science and theology,
openly. I write this because this has sometimes             etc.; but this is the central issue as it is developed in
been denied; this book is proof of the truth of this        the book.
assertion.                                                    We are not of a mind to enter into the detailed
  The approach which Vander Stelt takes is a                and involved argumentation of the book in this
lengthy discussion of the views of Scripture as             review. That would serve no good purpose. We
maintained by leading Princeton and Westminster             may comment, however, that Vander Stelt's charge
theologians as these views were taught in Princeton         that the Princeton theologians were sometimes ra-
College, Princeton Theological Seminary, and                tionalistic in their theology, in the sense that they
Westminster Theological Seminary. An analysis of            appealed to natural reason in support of certain
these views makes up the major part of the book. It         truths, is a correct one. However, Vander Stelt's
is from an analysis of these views that Vander Stelt        assertion that their rationalism was a dominating
proceeds to a critique of these views and, by this          motif in their theology is wrong. Furthermore, the
critique, paves the way for a discussion of the             Princeton theologians also taught, as Vander Stelt
views of the A.A.C.S. on the doctrine of Scripture.         maintains, that truth is reasonable. Vander Stelt
  This book was not sent to the Editorial Office of         faults them for this as evidence of rationalism. I
the Standard Bearer for review; it was sent to me by        suppose that one can argue concerning the meaning
an individual who asked me to write a review with           of the "reasonable," but the fact is that the truth of
a view to the threat which the teachings of this            God's  .revelation is indeed reasonable, for if it is
book constitute in the teachings of Dordt College           not, true knowledge would be impossible.
and in the propagation of A.A.C.S. doctrine in                In how far Common Sense Philosophy indeed in-
general. I agree that the point is sufficiently worth-      fluenced Princeton I leave an open question. There
while to discuss the matter in our paper.                   is some evidence that Vander Stelt is correct in this,
  In his analysis of the views of Scripture as held         and others have pointed out the same thing. But
by the Princeton theologians (John Witherspoon,             into this we do not intend to go. We are, for
Samuel Smith, Ashbel Green, James  McCosh,                  purposes of this review, interested in the whole
Archibald Alexander, Samuel Miller, Charles                 question as it relates to the inspiration of the
Hodge, Archibald Alexander Hodge, Benjamin B.               Scriptures.
Warfield, Francis Patton, Caspar Wistar Hodge, Jr.,           That the Princeton theologians believed firmly in
J. Gresham  Machen, and Cornelius Van Til),                 the infallible interpretation of Scripture is known to
Vander Stelt's chief criticism is that they were in-        all. That a convincing case can be made for the
fluenced in their thinking by Scottish Common               assertion that this view of the Princeton theologians
Sense Philosophy. Their commitment to Common                derived from their basic commitment to Common
Sense Philosophy made them basically dualistic on           Sense'Philosophy is not so clear. Vander Stelt never
their views of the relation between the natural and         says as much, but the implication is clear that any
the supernatural, body and soul. All the Princeton          one  who, holds to such a view of Scripture is also
theologians adopted the presuppositions of this             guilty of rationalism and philosophical formulation
philosophy to a greater or lesser degree. Tension           of this doctrine.
over this issue brought about disagreement                       We have seen in the previous chapters how it was
between those who emphasized God's transcen-                   indigenous to the.genius of the Old Princeton theolo-
dence and its corollary, God's revelation to man,              gy to he a historical embodiment and manifestation of


334                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



   the culturally highly formative movement known as                 knowing that the God of the Scriptures is also the God
   Scoto-American CSP [Common Sense Philosophy]. As                  of creation and  that,. therefore, there must somehow
   an inherently dualistic philosophy, this movement                 be a confluence of scriptural truth with the truth of
   was predicated on the ontological distinction between             creational revelation. p. 317.
   an unmoved First Cause and (a number of) moved sec-             The emphasis on the creational Word in A.A.C.S.
   ondary causes, and on the anthropological dualism of          thinking comes out clearly in his teaching that the
   a physical and a psychical world.                             creational Word is also normative:
       In the measure that its confessional intentions and
   stance were scriptural, Presbyterian theology could                 Without proper recognition of the existence and
   not wholly accept this dualistic way of thinking. It              normativity  (our emphasis) of the creation Word, reali-
   faced, therefore, the formidable task of having to har-           ty is deprived of a necessary ordering principle.
   monize two fundamentally contrasting ways of think-               p. 317.
   ing. In connection with this attempt, it must be said           The point of this distinction is that the creation
   that inasmuch as Presbyterianism was not fully scrip-         Word has a certain normativity apart from the
   tural, particularly in its philosophical understanding        Scriptures and becomes, as such, the basis for the
   of reality and man, it jeopardized its own otherwise          development of Christian thought in other spheres
   confessionally orthodox aims and position, and it             of life than the Church. Into this area Vander Stelt
   thereby created a number of misleading and deeply             does not enter, and we shall not touch upon this
   troublesome theoretical problems. p. 272.                     aspect of A.A.C.S. thinking in this review. It is his
  What is Vander Stelt's position on these matters?              view as it affects his doctrine of Scripture that is of
It is clear from this book that his basic presupposi-            interest. On the basis of this distinction Vander
tions are the views of the Word of God as                        Stelt rejects the historical doctrine of inspiration
developed by the Amsterdam philosophers                          and its corollaries, Scripture's infallibility and  in-
(Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven) and carried over                    errancy.
into this country by the A.A.C.S. His views come
out in several passages in the conclusion of the                       The real problem that lies at the source of this way
book, all of which we cannot quote. But a few refer-                 of thinking about inspiration and the original writings
                                                                     of Scripture is the element of supernaturalism that is
ences will be of help. In criticism of Princeton he                  basic to the philosophy of theism.
writes:                                                                This emphasis on the supranatural origin of Scrip-
       In the Princeton conception of God's revelation,             ture presupposes an erroneous way of thinking about
   revelation came increasingly to be thought of as the             the relationship between God and man's activities. It
   Scriptures. This narrowing of focus to the Bible jeop-           tends to minimize what is human or natural. p. 326.
   ardized the full scriptural meaning of all revelation,          What is Vander Stelt's own view on Scripture?
   including creational revelation. What was lost sight of
   in this way of thinking about revelation was not only         This is not clearly set forth in the book, but he
   the integral unity of reality . . . and the radical one-      suggests in various places that the Scriptures are.
   ness of man . . . but also the true unity of all revela-      man's response to the Word of God. He writes:
   tion.                                                               In this Mediator lies man's security. To point out
       The reason for such a growing preoccupation with a           this Mediator to the sinner is Scripture's unique and
   reduced meaning of revelation is that the Word of God            indispensable function. Knowing this clear and suffi-
   was thought of almost exclusively in terms of its in-             cient message of redemption, the believer is chal-
   carnation and inscripturation. However, the Word of              lenged to confess the infallibility or trustworthiness of
   God as the One through whom God created the world                what God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ and
   was either relegated to the wings or thought of in               through His Spirit. The inspiration of Scripture has
   terms of a mild form of Logos speculation.                       been determined by the content of this unique revela-
                                                                    tion, and that content calls for man's confession of
       This reductionistic understanding of the Word of              (not speculation about) that to which  theopneustic
   God resulted in the growing tendency of Princeton                Scripture refers.
   theologians to find the truth character, that is, the cer-
   tainty, of all reality in a Bible conceived of primarily            This confession character of Scripture (emphasis is
   as a system of truth. p. 309.                                    ours) and of man's response to it in no way limits (in
                                                                    any neo-Kantian sense) the nature, content, and
  Vander Stelt's distinctions between various                       knowability of Scripture.
aspects of the Word are evident from the following                     The theopneustic nature of Scripture indicates that
quotes:                                                             God has taken man into His service, worked in and
       Scripture itself is not to be equated with this Word.        through him, maintained his full creatureliness or hu-
   This Word is in a sense presupposed in the Scriptures.           manity, and has thus authorized him to make known
   p. 316.                                                          in a human-apostolic way His love.
       From the recognition of the distinction (not a dis-         There are various other elements included in
   junction or a separation) between the written Word            Vander Stelt's attack on Scripture, but these come
   and the mediating Word proceeds the possibility of            to the heart of the matter.


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                 335



   Nor can we include in this review a detailed                            the eyeglasses through which alone we are able to
analysis of these views. Much has been written                             see  ,,the, Word of,. God in creation. Vander Stelt
on them already and it would not be worth our                              wants none of this.; *
while to reproduce what has already been said. The                          z'-  (~
                                                                              In the third  place;~ and in connection with this,
following remarks will have to suffice.                                    the A.A.C.S. refusesto  reckon with the seriousness
   In the first place, the view of the A.A.C.S. and of                     of sin. Not only did the entrance of sin in the world
Vander Stelt on the Word of God is erroneous. It is                        bring about the curse upon this creation so that the
ironic to say the least that Vander Stelt accuses the                      Word of God there cannot be heard any more be-
Princeton theologians of rationalism, while his                            cause it is drowned in the word of the curse, but
basic position, his view of the Word of God, is thor-                      man himself became so depraved that he is blind to
oughly philosophical and rationalistic. And let it be                      that Word of God. The Scriptures are indispensa-
clearly stated and understood that one's conception                        ble.
of the Word of God must come from Scripture (Cf.                              In the fourth place, in his interest in preserving
e.g., Proverbs 8, John l:l-14, Hebrews  l:l-3, Col.                        the human element in Scripture, Vander Stelt loses
1:15-19, etc.) and not from the philosophizing of the                      the Scriptures altogether. He may inveigh ever so
A.A.C.S. If only those philosophers will receive the                       strongly against the Princeton theologians and
teaching of Scripture, they will find the true and                         against the historical view of Scripture's infallibili-
proper distinctions and unity between the various                          ty, but he will never succeed in destroying the fun-
aspects of the Word of God.                                                damental truth that Scripture is  God's  Word and
   In the second place, Vander Stelt gives to the                          God's Word alone. It is given by God by divine
Word of God in creation a normativity alongside of                         inspiration so that "holy men of God spake as they
and equal to (superior to?) that of Scripture. He                          were moved by the Holy Spirit"; it is God's infalli-
writes, e.g.:                                                              ble and  inerrant record of His own revelation in
       Although Scripture is the only (written) Norm for                   Jesus Christ His Son; it is the Scripture before
     the redemption of reality, it is not the only source of               which we must bow in total and humble submis-
     all forms of truth. The reduction of God's Word to                    sion with the prayer of Samuel upon our lips:
     Scripture has fostered the theory that only in Scrip-                 "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." It is the
     ture, not in creation, the source of truth is to be found.            abiding hope and comfort of the child of God in all
     With the creational foundation for scientific truth re-               this life. If Vander Stelt, c.s., would understand and
     moved, however, all ultimately reliable truth is                      believe that Scripture is part of the wonder of grace,
     thought of biblicistically, as having its empirical an-               the miracle of salvation in Christ, then he would
     chor in the Bible. p. 320                                             not trouble the Church with all these erroneous
Again, we cannot go into detail on this question,                          ideas.
but it is a rejection of Calvin's correct description of                      Finally, if Dordt College has committed itself to
the relation between the Word of God in Scripture                          this position it has lost the Scriptures and the foun-
and in creation. Calvin describes the Scriptures as                        dation for a truly Christian college.


                                                                                             NOTICE OF LECTURE!!!
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                     On Wednesday, April 22, 1981, at 8 P.M., Rev. Ronald  Cam-
   On April 25, 1981, the Lord willing, our parents and grandparents,      menga, Pastor of the Hull Protestant Reformed Church will speak on
MR. AND MRS. RAYMOND  BRUINSMA will celebrate their 35th                   the subject: "SALVATION: GOSPEL OR OFFER?"
wedding anniversary.                                                         This meeting will be held in the Hull Protestant Reformed Church,
   We, their children and grandchildren thank our Heavenly Father for      1204 Third St., Hull, Iowa.
the years of love and Christian education they have given us. It is our      We invite all residents in this area to attend this meeting.
prayer that our Covenant God will continue to bless them and keep
them in His care.
   "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon                            ANNOUNCEMENT
them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children:          The Seminary Faculty has licensed Seminarian Jon Smith to speak
To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His com-          a "word of edification" in our churches under faculty supervision.
mandments to do them." (Psalm  103:17, 18).                                                                             H.C. Hoeksema, Rector
                              James and Kathy Bruinsma
                                  Kristen, Ryan
                              James and Lois Rau                                                          NOTICE!!!
                                  Carol, Cheryl, Kimberly, Rodney             Classis East will meet in regular session on May 13, 1981 at the
                              Jerrold and Martha Bruinsma                  Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be treated in this
                                                                           session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk three weeks prior to
                              Karen Bruinsma                               the convening of the meeting.

                                                                                                                                    Jon Huisken
                                                                                                                                    Stated Clerk

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


                                                    --__-.-__                 ----_ --. -~ - -.-



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                    336                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                    Report of Classis West

                                                           March 13, 1981          contact the churches in  Classis  East for the same
                                                                                   purpose."
                       Classis West of the Protestant Reformed
                    Churches met in Loveland, Colorado on March 4.                     A protest of a brother against the decision of
                    After devotions centering around a brief exposition            Synod 1980 to' adopt the 1976 study committee
                    of I Timothy 4:13, "Till I come, give attendance to            report on baptism on the mission field was sent to
                    reading, to exhortation, to doctrine," Rev. M.                 Synod without recommendation by the Classis.
                    Kamps presided over the  Classis.  Elders B. Haak,                 In executive session,  Classis  responded to a spe-
                    M. Straayer, and C.  VanDonselaar were delegated               cific request of a Consistory for help for the proper
                    to Classis  for the first time and signed the Formula          government of their Church in connection with the
                    of Subscription.. Classis  bade farewell to Rev.               Questions of Article 41 of the Church Order.
                    Flikkema and Rev. Miersma, who had accepted                        Classis  conducted the necessary voting, with
                    calls to churches in Classis  East.                            these results:
                       Classis  received reports from several commit-                  - Stated Clerk: Rev. Engelsma
                    tees. The report of the Board of Trustees informed                 - Assistant Stated Clerk: Rev. Bekkering
                    Classis  that  Classis  had received an "Accounting"               - Classical Committee: Rev. Kamps
                    of the estate willed to Classis  some time ago. Copies             - Delegates ad examina: Primi - Rev. Lanting (3
                    of this "Accounting" were sent to all of the Consis-                 year term) and Rev. Slopsema (1 year term);
                    tories of Classis.                                                   Secundi  - Rev. Cammenga (3 year term) and
                       Classis  adopted the following schedule of                        Rev. Bekkering (1 year term)
                    classical appointments.                                            - Church Visitors: Rev. Kortering and Rev.
                                                                                         Lanting.
                      RedZands:   May 24, 31, June 7  - Cammenga; June                 - Delegates to Synod:
                    14, 21, 28  - Bekkering; July 12, 19, 26  - Kuiper;                                     Ministers
                    August 9, 16,23 - Koole.                                       Primi                        Secundi
                      IsabeZ:   March 22, 29  - Lanting; April 5, 12  -            Engelsma                     Bekkering
                    Moore; April 26, May 3 - Kamps; May 17,24 - Kor-               Kamps                        Lanting
                    tering.                                                        Kortering                    Moore
                                                                                   Kuiper                       Slopsema
                      This schedule is conditioned by the churches                                           Elders
                    getting supply from retired ministers or from the              Primi                        Secundi
                    S e m i n a r y .                                              A, De Jong (So. Holland) E. Bruinsma (Loveland)
                      Requests for subsidy from Edgerton, Edmonton,                G. Griess (Loveland)         P. Brummel (Edgerton)
                    Houston, Isabel, and Pella in the amount of $54,400            E. Gritters (Redlands)       B. Haak (So. Holland)
                    were approved and sent on to Synod.                            M. Straayer (Edmonton) C. Van Meeteren
                      Classis  granted `the request of Redlands for per-                                                     (Redlands)
                    mission to "contact the churches in Classis West to                The Fall meeting of  Classis West will be held in
                    schedule collections for our new church building               Hull, Iowa on September 2, 1981, the Lord willing.
                    program and to forward to` Synod our request to                                  Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk


