               The
     STANDARD
               BEARER
          -    A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                       \





       Whereas  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ago
     it would have taken a synod about five min-
     utes  to  point  out  what  was  wrong  with  a
     given  heresy,  `it  now  takes  the  church  four
     years,  three  study  committees,  and  eighty-
     page  reports,  which  no  one  can  understand,
     to  settle  a  matter.  It.  stands  to  reason  that,
     when  that  happens,  .something,  somewhere
     has gone badly wrong.
     See "Reformed, Yet Always Reforming"
                                                             -page 368



+                                                  Volume  LVII, No. 16, May 15, 1981  -


362                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



                              --                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                    CONTENTS                                                                             ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                      SeconCTClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
  Meditation-                                                                         Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       God's Suffering Servant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362           Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                      denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
  Editorials-                                                                         Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A.  Heys. Mr.
                                                                                      Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
       Impressions of Singapore (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .364              Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopsema,
                                                                                      Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
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MEDITATION

                                        God's Suffering Servant
                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko


                   Question: What dost thou understand by the words, "He suffered"?
                   Answer: That He, all the time that He lived on earth, but especially at the ezzd of His life,
               sustaizzed in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sizzs of all mankind: that so by His
               passion, as the only propitiatory sacrifice, He might redeem our body and soul fi+om everlasting
               damnation, and obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness and eternal life. Heid. Catechism,
               Lord's Day 15.


  "He suffered."                                                                        Scripture leads the way in this, for we read of
  When one of God's saints leaves this vale of tears                                    Enoch that he walked with God, of Noah that he
to join the church before the throne we naturally                                       was a  just man and perfect in his generations, of
ask, what uniquely characterized his or her life?                                       Abraham that he was a friend of God. We could


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               363



mention many more, such as the mother of Jesus,            of wrath, even as all others. We are guilty of willful
Mary Magdalene, Dorcas, Lydia, and others. Com-            disobedience and rebellion in Adam. This is enough
pare this to what the Catechism says of the life of        to condemn us before the tribunal of God. More-
Jesus. His whole earthly sojourn and ministry are          over, we are conceived and born in sin, so that the
summed up in the two words, "He suffered." We              depravity of all mankind is our depravity. We in-
speak so highly of the departed saints. We speak so        crease our guilt daily, for we are prone to all evil.
disparagingly, it would seem, about our Savior.            We transgress all God's commandments. There  is
Who of us stands at the coffin of a dear one and           not a single sin committed by the human race that
sums up his whole life in just two words, "He suf-         we do not commit in some form or degree. Some-
fered"?                                                    times we sin with forethought, even while our con-
  Yet, on second thought, how entirely proper is           science warns us that we are offending God. Some-
this description of Him Whom Scripture calls the           times we sin inadvertently. And we are also guilty
"Man of Sorrows," the "Suffering Servant of God."          of a host of character sins, unknown to us,  lbut
This becomes evident when we read the Psalms,              recognized by others and certainly regarded as sin
particularly such Psalms as 22, 42, 69, and 86. This       by God. How abhorrent we must be in God's sight!
becomes still more evident when we read the pro-           How abominable our sins! How great is the debt of
phets, especially the prophecy of Isaiah 53. And           sin that we increase every moment of our lives!
this is sealed by the testimony of all four gospel wri-      Do not think lightly of that. Often when we sing
ters as well as by the epistles. In deepest humility       the well-known words of Psalm 50 we have others
and in holy adoration we confess: "He suffered."           in mind rather than ourselves. Well may we do a bit
  Christ's unique suffering.                               of introspection when we sin:
  Our Catechism lays the confession on our lips,                Thus speaks the Lord to wicked men:
that "all the time that He lived on earth, . ..He sus-           My statutes why do ye declare?
tained in body and soul the wrath of God against                Why take My covenant in your mouth,
the sins of all mankind."                                       Since ye for wisdom do not care?
                                                                For ye My holy words profane
  There are expressions here that we cannot                      And cast them from you in disdain.
ignore:
He sustained the wrath of God.                                  Thus have ye done; I silence kept,
He sustained the wrath of God in body and soul.                  And this has been your secret thought,
He sustained the wrath of God all the time that He              That I was wholly as yourselves,
lived on earth.                                                  To take your evil deeds as nought;
This wrath is against the sin of all mankind.                   I will reprove you and array
                                                                 Your deeds before your eyes this day.
  God's wrath is His Self-vindication. God loves                                                (Psalter no. 138)
Himself as the fulness of all infinite perfections. He
cherishes His Name, which is the revelation of all           We are children of wrath. Christ sustained God's
His virtues. He defends that Name over against all         wrath in our stead. At His incarnation He humbled
the attempts of Satan and his cohorts to belittle and      Himself, taking on the form of a Servant. He took
destroy it. He would not be God if He did not do           upon His mighty shoulders the burden of divine
that. God is righteous, also in maintaining His            wrath against our sins, which grew heavier as He
Name, for His own sake, for Christ's sake, for our         went, until all the horrible billows of divine wrath
sake. God is Truth. He cannot deny Himself. He de-         had swept over His soul during the three hours of
clares, "I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God." He         horrible darkness on the cross. He was indeed the
is jealous of His Name, jealous of His glorious per-       Man of Sorrows, the suffering Servant of God.
fection as God above all, blessed forever. God's             He suffered physically. He had a human nature
Self-vindication is like a powerful electric current.      like ours, ravaged by the results of sin. He was ex-
When God's love flows freely and unhindered                tremely poor; the poorest of the poor. He suffered
through the power line of the Spirit of Christ to His      hunger, thirst, weariness, and all the frailties of a
people it pours forth blessings continually and            human being. He had to die, even as we. And He
abundantly. But when that love of God comes in             did die.
contact with the opposition of the workers of ini-           He experienced intense soul-suffering. Did you
quity it is like a power line that is short-circuited,     ever find yourself thrown unexpectedly in the com-
its current flashes, burns, destroys. Our holy God is      pany of filthy, blasphemous mockers, who offen-
the overflowing Fountain of every good and perfect         ded you with their repulsive talk and music? Then
gift to His people in Christ, but He is a consuming        you know a wee bit of the bitter  offence that our
fire in wrath against the wicked.                          Lord suffered when He as the Sinless One rubbed
  Scripture tells us that we are by nature children        elbows day after day with such as we are. He  ex-


364                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



perienced that in His family, among His disciples,        we speak of a tree, we speak of the entire tree, ex-
but especially among those who hated Him without          cluding the dead branches which are removed and
a cause. He was not understood by those.nearest to        burned. In a field of wheat both the grain and chaff
Him. He was mocked, falsely accused, condemned            grow up together, but at harvest time the wheat is
as a deceiver and a blasphemer, as one who, mind          separated and preserved, while the chaff is
you, was not fit company for such as we are.              destroyed. Christ sustained in body and soul the
   Yet the most intense suffering that He experi-         wrath of God against the sin of that entire organism
enced was the daily bearing of the wrath of God.          of mankind. For God so loved the world, that He
All His life He saw the cross loom up before Him in       gave His only Begotten Son, that those who receive
growing proportions. From us God mercifully hides         the gift of faith, and thus believe in His perfect
the future, so that we do not know what awaits us         sacrifice, can rest assured that they will not perish,
an hour from now. I wonder how many of us                 but have and always will have eternal life. In faith
would have the courage to carry on if we knew the         we may humbly add that that includes such a
trials that lie ahead of us. Our Savior knew. He          wretch as I am.
knew that every step He took brought Him closer             A propitiatory sacrifice.
to the day when He would be delivered into the               Therefore our Book of Instruction speaks of
hands of sinners to be crucified. Willingly He            Christ's suffering as a propitiatory sacrifice, that is,
walked that way, veering neither to the right nor to      a sacrifice that satisfies God's justice and restores
the left, with His face set toward Jerusalem, the city    us to favor with God. God's justice must be
that killed the prophets. He Who knew as we never         satisfied. * That justice demands that the transgres-
can know the intimate fellowship between the Son          sor must die both a physical death and the everlast-
and the Father, also knew the dreadful horror of be-      ing death of hell under God's wrath. 0 how our
ing forsaken of God and being cast into the isolation     proud nature rebels against that divine justice. Yet
of hell.                                                  every mouth must be stopped and every tongue
   Our Catechism states that Christ bore the wrath        confess that God is just in all His ways and works.
of God "against the sin of all mankind." This is          God's justice is a righteous justice. The demands of
often taken to mean that Christ bore the sins of          justice can only be satisfied by atonement; the debt
every individual of the human race, thereby               must be paid and we must be brought back into
making salvation possible for anyone who will ac-         God's favor. That can only be realized by the suf-
cept the free offer of salvation. The next step must      fering of death and the curse, obedient suffering
be a denial of the atoning power of Christ's suf-         that atones for sin and merits righteousness and
fering. For when the debt is paid and the sinner is       eternal life. You and I cannot make that atonement.
restored into the favor of God, that sinner is righ-      We need a substitute. No creature can satisfy for
teous in Christ and has the right to eternal life.        us. The only possible substitute is God's own
Then one of two things is true: either all men finally    beloved Son, Whom God gave as a ransom for our
are saved and there is no hell for the wicked, or         sins.
Christ's death is no atoning death. Both are con-           What an amazing sacrifice He was! In spite of
trary to Scripture. Yet the Word of God does speak        Satan's offer, "Command that these stones be made
of "all men," "the world," and "all mankind."             bread," He hungered. In spite of the challenge of a
Whenever Scripture does this it plainly refers to the     hissing mob, "Come down from the cross," He re-
organism of the human race, including the Jew but         mained until all was accomplished. In humble
also the Gentile from every nation of the earth.          shame and holy adoration we confess with the
After all, the fallen human race is saved, not as so      church of the ages, "He suffered."
many individuals, but as those who are chosen
from eternity and redeemed in Christ Jesus. When          *We are reminded of Lord's Day 5, question 12.

EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoehsema

                        Impressions of Singapore (3)

  When I face the question in this third installment      under the preaching and instruction of our mission-
on this subject what are my impressions of the            ary in Singapore, the group known as the GLTS, a
group of young saints which has been gathered             veritable flood of memories comes back to me; and


                                            THE STANDARD  BEARER                                              365



the impressions crowding my mind vie for expres-           church building, and Reformed literature was
sion. That was the situation last July when we were        made available. After the conclusion of the formal
privileged to have fellowship with the saints there.       meetings-and I lectured each time for a good
And though I had thought that perhaps this would           hour-the evening was informally prolonged in and
change somewhat, so that a few main impressions            near the auditorium to a two or two-and-a-half hour
would stay with me and in a rather orderly fashion,        evening. Visitors had to be approached. There were
this has really not changed. Hence, I will try to pre-     questions to ask. There were informal groups en-
sent a few of these impressions in a more or less          gaged in conversation. Sometimes it seemed  well-
random fashion, rather than in any order of pri-           nigh impossible to bring the evening to a close and
ority.                                                     to go back to the pastor's apartment. That took care
   Certainly, one inescapable impression I received        of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. On
was that of a tremendous dedication, enthusiasm,           one of those evenings Pastor den Hartog could not
and interest on the part of these young converts to        even be present, due to the fact that he was starting
the Christian faith. The faith of the gospel of Jesus      a class for new converts in the Pacific Mansion
Christ has become the most important, the central,         apartment complex. On another evening he still
item in their life. This is evident in many ways. It is    had a pastoral call to make after the lecture.
evident from the seemingly insatiable appetite for           But on Saturday afternoon there had to be
the Word of God and for instruction and discussion         another gathering. Can you imagine Saturday after-
centered on the truth both in their numerous meet-         noon meetings here at home? This time the
ings, on the Lord's day and during the week, and in        occasion was a question hour at the GLTS meeting-
private and personal contacts. It is evident from          place. I should say: a question two hours! For we
their willingness to come from various quarters of         simply had to end the meeting after a couple hours,
the city in spite of distance and inconvenience of         finished or not. And there was a goodly number of
travel and to return home often late at night. It is       young people present, too!
evident from their many efforts in various ways to
labor for the spread of the gospel and to share their        Sunday is simply unspeakably busy, from 8:30 in
new found faith with others. It is evident from their      the morning until late in the evening. My only duty
careful attention to the preaching of the Word and         on the Sunday we spent in Singapore was to substi-
to instruction by means of lectures and in various         tute in the pulpit for Pastor den Hartog. But the
classes. It is evident from their testing of things by     pastor simply seems to go from one class to another
the standard of the Scriptures and from their intelli-     meeting all day long, with hardly time for a bite to
gent questions concerning the truth.                       eat and no time for his family. While there is no
                                                           opportunity for an evening service at the  hampong
  And let me stress the fact that they are not mere-       meetingplace, there is a tape ministry at two loca-
ly interested in the Christian faith in a kind of          tions (one of them the pastor's apartment) which
vague and general sense, but in the Reformed faith         goes on informally -into the advanced evening
as we know and preach and teach it. Before we left         hours. But again I want to stress that there is a vital
Grand Rapids last June, the Rev. den Hartog had            interest in the Reformed faith and a marked recep-
written me in behalf of the GLTS to invite me to           tivity for Reformed-Protestant Reformed-preach-
deliver a series of three lectures on the general sub-     ing of the Word. While I was warned at my lectures
ject, "The Reformation and the Five Points of Cal-         to make things as simple as possible and to explain
vinism." He stressed in his letter the fact that this      theological terms carefully-for the sake of visitors
idea had originated not with him but with the              rather than for the sake of the GLTS-I found on
young people of the GLTS. Frankly, I was rather            Sunday that I could preach the Word to the young
flabbergasted at the choice of subject. But when we        people of the GLTS for the most part just as I would
arrived in Singapore, I learned that the meetings          preach at home. And in the tape ministry on
were to be held on three successive evenings, that         Sunday evenings, too, it is tapes from our home
they had obtained the use of the Life Church for           churches that are used: for example, we heard Pro-
these lectures, and that they had expended much            fessor Decker on Psalm 73:24.
effort in publicizing the meetings. So on the three
successive hot and humid evenings (It's always that          This, I trust, will help to give you somewhat of a
way in Singapore-the kind of weather in which we           picture of the situation there. To me it was thrilling,
would not knowingly schedule special week-night            and a cause of deep gratitude to our God.
meetings.) we had gatherings of approximately                Another impression I received was that there is a
200-with the audience growing each evening                 real striving on the part of these young saints to
rather than declining. The evening programs were           walk in sanctification of life. Admittedly, of course,
well organized and capably chaired by brother Ong          there was not a long time for me to observe this.
Keng Ho. A book stall was set up outside the               But we did have considerable contact and


366                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



conversation with a considerable number of the             worldly environment with, as I said, the added pro-
young people themselves, so that we had no little          blem of the various manifestations of heathendom
opportunity to observe their conduct, to learn             and its idols and superstitions. Especially the latter,
something from them about their lives, and to ob-          you must remember, are very real. And the young
serve their peculiar problems and attitudes. Be-           people themselves have not only been called out of
sides, in our conversations with the den Hartogs we        the darkness of heathendom, but to no little degree
also had much opportunity to hear from them                in their homes and in their daily life are still con-
about these same matters. And what we observed             fronted by outright hostility from heathen families
and heard was gratifying in this regard. Singapore         and acquaintances and daily contacts. But they take
is, of course, a large, highly civilized, and thorough-    their Christian calling seriously, stand up for what
ly worldly city, with all the attendant problems and       they believe, and strive to work out their salvation
temptations of life in any large metropolis. Besides,      with fear and trembling. In this regard they are also
of course, there is the additional complication that       very supportive of one another, both in their indivi-
it is not even in any remotely nominal sense a             dual contacts and relationships and in their weekly
Christian environment in which you live in such a          prayer meetings.
city as Singapore. These young people go to school                             (to be continued)
and work and live, in other words, in a thoroughly


                    The GKN on the Nature of the
                              Authoritv of Scripture
                                                    L





  Thus far in our treatment of this significant Re-          We therefore turn next to the second and third
port/Decision of the Dutch churches, in which, in          chapters of the Report/Decision.
our opinion, the entire doctrine of the authority of
Scripture is sacrificed on the altar of a new/old            Chapters 2 and 3 of the Report are closely related
liberal theology, so that the whole foundation of          and both are more or less historical in nature.
our Reformed confession of faith is undermined             Chapter 2 furnishes an over-view of the history and
and destroyed, we have devoted our attention to            development of higher criticism. But it does not
the crucial introductory chapter. We have seen es-         refer to it as higher criticism, but rather to "Histori-
pecially two things. In the first place, the very ap-      cal-critical Investigation (or: Research) of the
proach, of the Report is dead wrong. It is the             Bible." Without going into detail about the contents
approach of philosophy and rationalism, rather             of this chapter, let me point out that on the whole
than the approach of Scripture and the confessions.        this chapter does present a rather accurate and fac-
It turns to philosophy and current philosophical           tual account of the development of Bible-criticism
thought, considers various conceptions of "truth"          and the various kinds, or schools, of criticism
which have been held, sets forth that today the cur-       which have arisen over the centuries, taking the
rent conception of "truth" is the so-called relational     reader up to the Form-Historical criticism of  Bult-
view, and then applies this to Scripture and to reve-      mann. And while I do not have any criticism of the
lation and inspiration. In the second place, we have       historical accuracy of this chapter, this does not
seen how this so-called relational view of truth is        mean I have no criticism of it whatsoever. About
nothing but a new form of subjectivism and relati-         that later.
vism, and how, when this is applied to the ideas of          The third chapter offers a study of "The Devel-
Scripture, revelation, and inspiration, it results in a    opments of the Views of Scripture in the History of
complete destruction of all that the Reformed faith        the GKN." As might be expected, in the first place,
has ever stood for with respect to the doctrine of         this chapter devotes a great deal of attention to the
Scripture.                                                 views of Dr. Abraham Kuyper and Dr. Herman
  Now we could continue with this first chapter of         Bavinck and to their  `!organic" conception of the
the Report, and detailedly enter into the remainder        inspiration of the Scripture. It does not, however,
of it. But this would really shed no new light and         set forth in any detail this organic view. It does
would probably serve `*at the same time to weary           indeed acknowledge that both Kuyper and Bavinck
and confuse the reader.                                    were opposed both to a so-called "mechanical"


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               367



view of inspiration and to modernistic historical         tentialist views and methods. But read for yourself,
and literary criticism of Scripture. The chapter then     and compare with what I wrote earlier as to the so-
takes us briefly and, to my mind, rather inaccurate-      called relational view of the truth. Here is a signifi-
ly, through the history of the Geelkerken Case and        cant section of description concerning the current
the Synod of Assen, 1926. It points out  t.hat earlier    approach to Scripture on the part of theologians
in this century there was a whole school of exegetes      and exegetes in the GKN (I translate):  "Previous-
who stood in the tradition of Kuyper's and  Ba-           ly...the concern was especially about the coming
vinck's organic conception, mentioning such               into existence  (ontstaan)  of Scripture.... At present
names as G. Ch.  Aalders,  F.W. Grosheide, J.  Rid-       the concern, however, is in the first instance about
derbos, and S. Greijdanus. It even makes mention          the understanding  (verstaan.  There is a play on
of the fact that the "earlier" Berkouwer belonged to      words here in Dutch between  ontstaan  and  ver-
this school of thought with respect to Scripture.         staan;  and in the Dutch version the syllables  ont-
And, by the way, it is true that Dr. Berkouwer at         and ver- are emphasized.) of the Scripture, and the
one time defended the traditional Reformed posi-          question concerning the right explanation is
tion and that he spoke emphatically of the isolation      attacked not so much from the origin of Scripture in
of the Reformed view of Scripture. Then the Report        the past as indeed from the working of Scripture in
makes mention of the fact that in the period after        the present. The interpretation of the Bible is never
1950 the tide turned, and a new school of exegetes        to be loosed from the application of the biblical
arose. It mentions by name in this connection such        message in our own life and world. Only he
men as N. H. Ridderbos, R.  Schippers,  J.L. Koole,       genuinely understands a text who perceives how it
and H. N. Ridderbos. The chapter claims-to my             speaks to him in his own situation. That under-
mind, inaccurately-that these men in all respects         standing does not appear to be simple when one
continued in the tradition of their predecessors.         takes seriously the weight of modern-day
But, so the chapter, at the same time they began to       problems. What has the Bible to say about life and
inquire anew into the significance of the human           death, riches and poverty, conflicts and relations?
mediation through which God gave us His Word,             We only need to mention the words abortion,
and they wanted to profit from certain insights and       euthanasia, atomic weapons, pacifism,  liberation-
results of historical-critical research. There was in-    action, environmental protection, homosexuality,
terest especially in the various literary genres, for     and everyone grasps what is meant.. . ."
which there was little eye at the time of Assen-            I will not enter into a detailed criticism of these
1926. Strangely enough, at this point the chapter         two chapters. We wish to get to a summary and
mentions what I would call only some of the milder        treatment of the main chapter of this Report. I will
representatives of this new school of exegetes. The       only offer a summary criticism, as follows:
chapter goes on to characterize this new school in        1. The Report in these two chapters is tendentious,
the mildest possible manner, in my opinion, never         slanted. It puts the critics of Scripture and the
bringing to the fore some of the more radical views       modern-day exegetes in the best possible light. It
which have been put forth in recent years. In             puts Kuyper and Bavinck and their organic view in
characterizing this new generation of exegetes, the       as unfavorable a light as possible. It makes abun-
chapter claims that they certainly did not want to        dant use of the "dirty" word "fundamentalism."
break with the preceding generation. But in ex-           And while it does not outright call Kuyper and
plaining the Scriptures they less exclusively empha-      Bavinck fundamentalists-in fact, denies it-it
sized their historicity and more explicitly inquired      might just as well have done so. In fact, it does not
into the purpose of a certain text or section. It is      even call the disciples of Kuyper and Bavinck fun-
claimed, too, that they wanted to maintain the            damentalists. It only dares to say that they were not
authority and reliability of Scripture, but no longer     "full-blooded" fundamentalists; in other words,
would plead for infallibility in the sense of inerran-    half-blooded fundies.
CY-                                                       2. At no point in these chapters does the Report
  This brings us down to the present day. And the         offer a word of good, sound, Scriptural, Reformed
theologians and exegetes of today are characterized       criticism of critical approaches to Scripture either
in a most sympathetic and mild fashion. Yet I must        outside or within the GKN. This is not honest and
say that when this characterization is read with a        proper historical reviewing. If a historical review is
little discernment, it becomes very plain that their      to be fruitful, it must furnish evaluations; and these
approach to Scripture and its exposition is plainly       evaluations must be soundly founded. It must ex-
in harmony with the so-called relational view of the      pose false trends, so that the churches may be
truth. And, by the way, to him who knows any-             warned.
thing about modern theological trends, there are            The meat of the Report, however, is in Chapter 4.
plainly here strong overtones of Barthian and exis-       And let me assure you: that will be a shocker!


368                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



                                         Editor's Notes

The Lost Is Found! We are happy to report that the           cannot furnish the whole list here, and at this
1000 unbound copies of Prof. Hanko's Mysteries Of           writing I do not know which will come from the
The Kingdom have been found by our binder. They             press first. Watch for future notices.
did not go through the shredder after all! This                                    *****
means that this book will be available much sooner           Write Me With Ideas. During the first part of June
than anticipated, as' soon as we can prevail on the         we will be holding our annual Standard Bearer Staff
bindery to finish the task.
                        *****                               meeting. As always, ideas and suggestions for the
                                                            improvement of our magazine are welcome. If you
IV!! Publications Pbnned.  At a recent meeting of           have such suggestions, please write me promptly. I
the Publications Committee a large number of                cannot promise that all ideas submitted will be
future publications were approved, some of which            adopted; they will receive consideration, and, if the
we hope to complete this year if at all possible. I         Staff deems them worthy, will be implemented.

SPECIAL ARTICLE


           Reformed, Yet Always Reforming (2)
                                                   Prof. H. Hanko



  It is useless and futile to try to come to some con-      too much, more than it is possible for the congrega-
clusions concerning whether the pulpit or the pew           tion to take. If the minister exceeds his time by
is to blame when decay sets in, in the life of the          even a few minutes, he is long-winded, repetitious,
church. The two go together. The Scriptures tell us,        and imposing upon the good graces of the congrega-
in the letter of our Lord Jesus Christ to the church        tion.
of Ephesus, that spiritual deterioration begins inevi-
tably with the loss of the church's first love. There         But though the congregation may assemble in
is good reason why the first of the letters to the          church on the Lord's Day, this does not mean that
seven churches of Asia Minor is a letter to Ephesus.        the people give faithful and diligent attention to the
The reason is that the Lord means precisely to point        preaching and to what is being said. There are too
out that all decay, no matter where it begins, and          many other things to think about, and it is too
no matter what form it takes is decay which begins          warm in church, and there are too many problems
at that point where the church loses her first love.        in life which occupy our attention to concentrate
When a church loses her first love she loses her            upon what the minister has to say. And if per-
spiritual fervor, her spiritual warmth, her spiritual       chance the minister should be some kind of skilled
love for the truth of the Word of God and for the           orator so that he can compel, as it were, the congre-
cause of Jesus Christ in the midst of the world. That       gation to listen, what they hear, even should they
warmth and fervor and love which characterized              hear doctrines expounded and truth explained,
her in the early days of her existence she loses. That      they hear intellectually, coldly, abstractly, without
is the beginning which soon manifests itself in un-         the passion and warmth and fervor of a hearing,
told evils in the church of Jesus Christ.                   which, as described in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
                                                            is a hearing mixed with faith.
  When a church loses her first love, then, funda-
mental to that .loss of her first love, there is loss of      And that lack of interest in and concern for the
love for the Word of God, and, therefore, loss of           Word of God, that lack of love for the Word of God,
love for God Himself. That loss of love for the             manifests itself in every area of life. It manifests
Word of God is a loss of love for the Word of God as        itself in the decay of devotions in the home, where
that Word is proclaimed in the pulpit by the pas-           the Word of God is no longer central to the life of
tors. One hour and a half in church on Sunday is            the family. All kinds of things have replaced that


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                369



Word of God as the focal point of the life of the            heads about such obscure and minute points of
family. Perhaps the television set has become the            doctrine; we can not be tearing the churches apart
focal point of the family's life. Perhaps it is the pur-     with another split because someone happens to say
suit of fun and pleasure. Perhaps earning money              something just a bit different from the traditional
directs all the home's activities and claims the at-         way of saying things? The result is not only that
tention and energies of the family. The Word of              false doctrine begins to be taught in the church, but
God may still be read, but it is read in a hurry, only       as false doctrine makes headway and becomes
when there is time; it is not read devotionally,             more and more accepted and the people continue to
prayerfully, carefully, worshipfully, because that           lose their courage to fight against it, those who
love for the Word is gone.                                   come under the influence of false doctrine more
  Wherever anyone deals with and concentrates                and more begin to gain positions of power and lead-
upon the exposition of Scripture, interest declines          ership, so that the direction of the church is deter-
and wanes. That marks decay, and that has its                mined by them. In the ecclesiastical assemblies,
effect upon the pulpit. Soon, because of that disin-         whether consistories or classes or synod, the lie is
terest in the Word of God, the pulpit becomes                openly approved. Whereas twenty or twenty-five
weak. Ministers' cater to what the congregation              years ago it would have taken a synod about five
wants; they have one ear cocked to what the con-             minutes to point out what was wrong with a given
gregation is saying about their preaching, and are           heresy, it now takes the church four years, three
not concerned with what God is saying about how              study committees, and eighty-page reports, which
they preach. Ministers have their fingers in the             no one can understand, to settle a matter. It stands
wind to test the congregational breezes that blow,           to reason that, when that happens, something,
to be sure they are sailing along with the prevailing        somewhere has gone badly wrong. And men who
winds. They are more interested in the breezes that          are of the carnal seed have determined the doc-
come from the congregation than they are in the              trinal and moral direction of the church.
winds of the Holy Spirit which rock and shake.                  Are the people of God simply outnumbered, out-
  As the pulpit loses its fervor, its passion, its force,    voted, though they fight fiercely? No, not always.
its doctrinal power, the whole matter begins to feed         Things have come to such a pass in the church
on itself. The congregation becomes yet weaker.              because people of God are spiritually lethargic.
And because something has to take the place of that          They are too spiritually weary to do what they
terrible lack, the congregation gives itself over to         know has to be done. And the very sins which are
the worship, not of God, but of idols: the idols of          prevalent in the church become a part of their own
mammon, of sports, of pleasure, of houses and                lives, so that they too, go along with the crowds,
lands, of automobiles and snowmobiles. In this               and their voice of protest is no longer heard.
way worldliness and carnality creep into the                    That is the history of the church. It has never
church, and the church begins to lose her identity           been any different. It is for that reason that
as the church, so that, when those who are outside           R e f o r m e d   C h u r c h e s   h a v e   s a i d   t h a t   a   t r u l y
look at the church, they say of the church, "What is         Reformed church is the church which is always re-
different about her? We can see no difference be-            forming. And the church that ceases to be a reform-
tween those people who claim to be the church and            ing church ceases to be a Reformed church.
ourselves. There is no difference that is noticeable:
they dress as we do, they speak as we do, their lives           How are reforms brought about?
are precisely like ours in every respect. 0, they go            In the first place, it is extraordinarily important
to church a couple of times on Sunday, but the ex-           to emphasize that reform is not brought about by
tent of their involvement and interest in spiritual          way of mysticism and subjectivism. Someone said
affairs seems to be limited to that couple of times          once that every heresy that rises in the church is
they are in church, and they can barely stifle their         the church paying her unpaid debts. That is true of
yawns of boredom while they are there. What is so            the rise of Pentecostalism too. Pentecostalism has
different?"                                                  the power in the church which it does because of
  It is at that point that the church becomes ripe           the unpaid bills of the Twentieth-Century church.
for heresy. If there should appear in our midst,             Pentecostalism has rushed in to fill a vacuum
which may God graciously forbid, a minister who              which has been created by the declining spiritual
began to preach false doctrine, would you and I              character of the church of Jesus Christ.  Pentecosta-
have the spiritual sensitivity to detect it for what it      lism says, "Look at the church: dead, guilty of
is? Would we  `have the  courage  to see it for the          world-conformity, perfectly capable of knowing
threat that it is in the church of Jesus Christ and to       and explaining her doctrine, but the life is gone; the
combat it? Or would we rather say that we can not            church is a corpse; it looks nice, but there is no
be fighting all the time; we can not be bothering our        life."


370                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  But this is true of all mysticism. It finds the            sacraments,    to exercise Christian discipline
soiution to the problem in an emphasis on godly life         through her ordained  -and called ministry, her
and Christian piety. The inner life must be empha-           elders and deacons. Of that institutional church the
sized. This is, in itself, true. But all mysticism, sub-     mystic becomes suspicious, and he says that the
jectivism, and pietism emphasize this to the exclu-          true inner life cannot be found there; to attain to
sion of doctrine. Those who teach this become sus-           the true inner life you must have small groups of
picious of doctrine. It is doctrine that has harmed          people who come together for devotional purposes,
and killed the church; and, therefore, doctrine              to edify one another, to encourage one another, to
.must go. Let us forget doctrine and emphasize the           strengthen one another to study the Scriptures
inner life, the life of piety, the life of fellowship,       together, to cultivate spiritual life and to come to a
conscious, meditative fellowship with God. In this           true understanding of the Word of God. There was
way the objective revelation of the Scriptures is de-        even that tendency at the time of the Reformation,
emphasized and even denied so that the individual            and there was a segment of the Reformation which
is left to sink in the quicksands of spiritual  subjec-      went in the direction of a distrust of the church
tivism.                                                      institute. This was the Anabaptistic movement. To
  In connection with this, mysticism becomes sus-            this the Reformers objected. They insisted that the
picious not only of doctrine, but of the church itself       church  needs reforming after the pattern of the
as an institute. It thinks very little or nothing at all     Holy Scriptures. The church must return to the
of the organizational aspect of the church as she is         Word of God, but it must remain Church.
in the world to preach the gospel, to administer the                             (to be continued)

THEDAYOFSHADOWS


           .Another Garment, and More Injustice
                                                  Rev. John A. Heys


  Although we find his name in the chapter which             And yet, here is a son, born to these parents, who
lists the giants of faith, Joseph is not listed with         stands up in faithfulness to God in most powerful
these giants in Hebrews 11. He is simply men-                temptations. Let it be remembered that what our
tioned as one whose sons Jacob blessed leaning on            parents are will determine whether we will be
his staff. This, however, in no way minimizes the            taught the truth, and to what degree, and whether
great faith that he had, even though it may come as          we shall be taught His law, and how strongly. But it
somewhat of a surprise to us. We m.ay have expect-           will not determine whether we will believe that
ed to find his name with Abraham, Isaac, and                 truth, and whether we will keep that law. What
Jacob, with Moses and Rahab, Gideon and Barak.               God gives us will determine that. What the Spirit of
Where do we read of Barak doing anything in the              Christ does in us will determine whether and to
way of walking by faith that compares with what is           what degree we will walk in truth and in good
written of Joseph in Genesis 39 when he resisted             works. Not the faithfulness of the parents produces
powerful temptations of Potiphar's wife? How                 faith in the children, but the faithfulness of God to
brightly Joseph's faith shines on the background of          His covenant promise to give to the seed of the
his father's weakness and his brothers' carnality.           woman hatred of the devil and all his works, and a
But let us beware lest we in conceit sin by thinking         love toward God.
that our choice of candidates for the display of               And the most wonderful statement in Genesis
saving faith is superior to that of the Holy Spirit          39:1-3 is that "The Lord was with him." Joseph was
Who gave the list which we have.                             obedient, and he was faithful in most amazingly
  There are several other amazing facts recorded             trying circumstances. Consider that he had no
concerning the life of Joseph. His father, who is            human supervision of his spiritual life at all in Poti-
listed as such a giant of faith, also displayed some         phar's house. Potiphar was an unbeliever who
tremendous spiritual weaknesses; and his mother              demanded of Joseph only faithfulness to his whims
likewise set a very pathetic example for the chil-           and wishes. Joseph was far removed from his
dren. If she had faith in God, nothing recorded in           father's eye. There were no elders or deacons to ob-
Holy Writ underscores it or calls it to our attention.       serve his going in and coming out so far from home.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              371



Children like to leave their parent's home to be free      till the work is finished.
to follow their flesh without rebuke or frown. That          It was that mercy and goodness that was under
was not Joseph. Given his wishes he would be back          and behind Joseph; it was that hand of God that
in his father's presence. All he had was the eye of        was with him, that sustained him in the powerful
God upon him as far as supervision goes. But above         temptation of this bold, sensuous woman. We read
and beyond that he had the love of God in his heart;       that Joseph was a goodly person and well favoured.
and that kept him in the narrow way, even in most          He made a very pleasing appearance, a clean-cut
powerful temptations by a scheming and bold sex-           young man, not at all hard on the eyes, a manly
pot. But the hand of God was with him.                     youth. And then in the next breath we read that
  0, yes, that means that God blessed him and              Potiphar's wife "cast her eyes upon him." He was
prospered him in what he set out to do. But it also        sexually attractive to her, even though he made no
explains why he stood so strongly in a walk of faith       attempt to be such. And after lusting after him for a
and obedience to God and man. With His hand God            time she made bold advances and came with a
works for His people, but also upon and in His             command, "Lie with me!" This did not happen
people. And this hand of the Lord with him, was not        only once or twice; for we read that it happened day
simply with Joseph's hand in his works to prosper          by day. She sought in every way to wear him down.
him in what he did, but with his soul, his mind, his       And Satan was working harder than she was. But
heart. God is first with us, and His hand first takes      behind it God was working all things together for
hold of our hearts and minds before He prospers us         Joseph's good and for the good of His Church. And
in our way. Blessings come only in the way of a            God's hand was with Joseph to prosper him in his
walk of faith. And a walk of faith comes by the gra-       battle .against  his own lust.
cious hand of God that is not against us but with us        You must not forget that! Joseph was not a cold,
so that we walk with Him.                                  abnormal child with no body chemistry like that of
  Let all shut-ins and afflicted children of God take      his brother Reuben who went in unto his father's
note. Joseph was a slave, was in exile, was a lonely       concubine, or his brother Judah who turned in unto
young man completely cut off from those he loved           one who he thought was an harlot. What young
and whose fellowship he desired. But this.was not          man today would have stood as Joseph did? He had
because God's hand was against him. That hand of           gotten in the good graces of Potiphar. Now he could
God was working all things together for Joseph's           do the same with his wife, to be needed by her and
exaltation and restoration to his father, yea to un-       protected by her and sought by her every time that
dreamed of exaltation. Let no child of God in his          Potiphar went on his many trips as officer in
sufferings and miseries think that God has                 Pharaoh's army. Joseph did not resist because of
forgotten or forsaken. Let that child of God wait          fear of being caught. He did not refuse because he
until God's work with. him is finished. In heavenly        had no emotions and had no desires whatsoever for
glory all the saints shall see that God's hand was         what she wanted him to do. Nor did he try to put
with them for good and not against them for evil.          her off with, "Not today, maybe sometime in the
Even in the way of misery and suffering the child of       future." He did not stall for time. He set an exam-
God prospers. His way is always upward and                 ple for our young people. He called it SIN, and let it
forward to unheard of joys and blessings.                  be known that he had no interest in sinning against
  In that light we must see the imprisonment and           God. Try to put the tempter or temptress off in any
debasement of Joseph because of a deceitful siren.         other way, and he or she will come back. Fight with
She is God's tool as well as  Satan's.  And she is         the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,
God's tool first; and Satan as well is His tool. God is    and the enemy will hate you. Put on the whole
behind all this history; and because His hand is           armour of God, and you will be protected from his
with Joseph, Joseph prospers            through his        fiery darts.
sufferings. As David wrote in Psalm 23, "Surely              It is true, this sex-pot did not take No for an
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of         answer. And in spite of Joseph's use of that sword
my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord        of the Spirit, she came back day after day. This was
forever." He shall reach that heavenly joy because         only because she did not know what the word sin
mercy and goodness follow him in this life. And            means. She knew not God. She knew no sin against
that these follow him does not mean that he does           Him. But young people in the church, tempted by
not enjoy them now but will in the future. It means        young people in the church, should by all means
that these are powers of God that are behind him to        fight with that sword of the Spirit of the whole
direct him and impel him toward that glory. They           armour  of God. And they should never date with
pursue him. They follow him, not like a wagon              those who know not God. They should not play
follows the horses, but as a man is behind the             with fire!
wheelbarrow to push it ever onward and forward               In all our trials there is that hand of God with us


372                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



and under us that gives us the courage to say No to        vitude. We read, "But the mercy of the Lord was
sin and Yes to righteousness. No temptation is             with Joseph, and shewed  him mercy, and gave him
greater than His grace. When His goodness and              favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison." God
mercy are behind us, no force can come up against          had not failed him. He had not withdrawn His
us to push us back into sin and unbelief. And              hand. It was His hand that brought Joseph into the
whereas we live in a day and age when sensuous             king's prison. Long before this it was the hand of
men and women abound, and lewd magazines-to                God that brought him into the service of Potiphar
say nothing of lewd, enticing dress, or better un-         who was captain of the guard, a man who could
dress-married and unmarried alike need that                throw his enemies into the king's prison.
whole  armour  of God. Even as Potiphar's wife did
not let up or give in, so the wicked world around us         But lest we conclude that Joseph was having coat
today multiplies its attacks on the church. Satan is       trouble-first the coat of many  colours  that made
out to get us and our youth. Fight him, and the            his brothers envy and hate him; and now the coat
hand of God will be with you.                              Potiphar gave him, which his wife used to get re-
                                                           venge upon him for snubbing her in her carnal cra-
  Crafty this woman was. When Joseph fled and             vings-let us consider that God's people do not
left his garment in her hand, new deviltry arose in        have coat trouble. Fig-leaf aprons that men make
her heart. Him whom she lusted so strongly after in        cannot help us; coats that men may give us, coats
what the world calls love, erotic love, she now           that men may snatch from us and use to condemn
hates vehemently and plots his undoing. And               us to death, cannot hurt us, because we have robes
Joseph was handed over to the keepers of                  provided by God, robes of righteousness washed in
Pharaoh's prison on circumstantial evidence and           the blood of His Son. Joseph's coat was soaked in
without even a word which he might speak in his           animal's blood and brought Jacob great grief.
own behalf.                                               Christ's robe was taken from Him and His blood
  We would be inclined to ask, "Did Potiphar not          was shed that we might have robes that justify us
know what kind of wife he had?" He must have              before God, even though we have sinned against
known her and her ways. She was no foreigner to           Him over and over again. And these robes of the
him. That she was a liar may not have been im-            righteousness of Christ will not testify against us
pressed upon his mind. He might not have found            and cause us to be thrown into the pit, but cover
her lying to him or around him. But he certainly          our sins and bring us to unspeakable exaltation in
knew her sensuous nature, and her aggressiveness          that day when, the hand of God being with us, He
therein. But we must not forget that hand of God          will with His hand send back that Son, Who was
upon Joseph. It was after all His hand with Joseph        also falsely accused and nailed to a tree, but rose on
that handed him over to the keeper of the prison.         accout of our justification. In the days of the Anti-
This could not have happened without His hand             christ the world may strip us naked, and falsely
directing all those who served this purpose. And          accuse us. But we have garments of righteousness
that hand of God went with him into the prison            that make us exceedingly rich.
where soon enough he is once again exalted in ser-

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           War with the Remnant
                                              Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


  The joy found in the hearts of godly parents            terms of bearing children-"an heritage," "a
when covenant seed is brought forth!                      reward," "happy"? He is mindful of the same
                                                          wonderful truth that we are mindful of  today-
  The Psalmist in all his wisdom and as prompted          God's covenant. Every child of God believes that
by the Holy Spirit sang these words: "Lo children         the Son of God gathers, out of the whole human
are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the         race, from the beginning to the end of the world a
womb is his reward. . . .Happy is the man that hath       Church chosen to eternal life (see the Heidelberg
his quiver full of them" (Psalm 127:3-5).                 Catechism, Lord's Day 21). And he believes too that
  Why does the Psalmist speak in such glowing             God does this in the line of generations, that is to


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                             373



say, that God "hath commanded that what He hath            and death. At that time that "great red dragon" was
done be passed in tradition from father to son." All       cast out of heaven and into the earth. No longer
godly parents, therefore, are convinced in their           could he stand before God accusing the brethren;
hearts that the Lord chooses to gather His Church          now he could dwell only on the earth. Being cast
by means of the fruit of their womb. They are of the       out into the earth Satan in all of his fury turned
firm conviction that the promises of the forgiveness       once again on the Church of Christ-the woman,
of sin, the resurrection of the body, and the life         but this time as she became manifest in the New
everlasting are not only for them but for their            Dispensational Church. In the fury we are told that,
children too. That gives to those covenant parents         "he persecuted the woman which brought forth the
joy unspeakable. And in that joy they feel com-            man child." So angry was Satan over his defeat that
pelled in all gladness to propagate that covenant          he turned in all his fury upon the Church of Christ
line. It is not a matter of being forced to do some-       and began to persecute her. In verses  14-16  of
thing they really care not to do. But it is a matter of    Revelation 12 we are told how that the Lord not
their love for God and for His covenant. Because           only gathers but also defends and preserves His
they realize that God gathers His Church in their          Church.
generations, a man and his wife out of all joy feel          Now, however, Satan's fury has cooled some-
the urge to bring forth children. Thus the words of        what. He is still wroth with the Church of Christ,
the Psalmist: "Happy  is the man that hath his             but he realizes that persecution really only serves to
quiver full of them!"                                      strengthen and purify the church. His tactics are
  Perhaps a prime example of this sincere desire to        different now. We are told that "the dragon was
bring forth covenant seed is the action of Tamar,          wroth with the woman, and went to make war with
Judah's daughter-in-law. In the events recorded for        the remnant of her seed which keep the command-
us in Genesis 38 we are at first apt to condemn her        ments of God and have the testimony of Jesus
as a wicked, immoral, and perverted heathen. But           Christ." This war with the remnant is not the same
we must not misconstrue her strong desire for seed         warfare as persecution. Instead it becomes a
by Judah's family. Surely her actions can never be         spiritual warfare, a warfare whereby he uses many
condoned. They were very, very wicked. Yet it was          sly and deceiving ways to destroy the covenant
her sincere desire and longing to bring forth              seed which yet remains in this world.
covenant seed: She used the wrong means to fulfill           If only Satan could annihilate completely the
that longing; nevertheless, the longing itself was         remnant of the seed, then Christ's return to this
righteous. In fact it was because of that desire that      world would be needless. If only Satan could stem
she is specifically mentioned in Matthew  1:3 as a         the continued growth of God's Church, then God's
mother of Christ. But the point in this example is         plan to glorify His name would fail and he, Satan,
that this is exactly the longing which every godly         could rule the world. But how?
man and his wife experiences. They are filled with
joy and gladness before God in their duty of bring-          Ah, yes, destroy the joy and the longing in the
ing forth covenant seed. And we might add, they            child of God's heart to bring forth the covenant
are extremely saddened when they find this impos-          seed! That is how! So Satan sets about his task.
sible (e.g., Sarah, Hannah, and Elizabeth).                  In the first place he works in the hearts of men
  Such a joy and longing on. the part of God's             and women within the church of Christ a desire for
children, however, enrages Satan and his host. He          freedom. They enjoy being able to pick up and go
hates to see the continued gathering of God's              whenever and wherever they please. Then, of
Church. He hates it when godly parents bring forth         course, in connection with this, Satan provides so
covenant seed. How can he destroy Christ's                 many pleasurable places to go-you name your
Church and ruin God's eternal plan if parents in           desire and he will see to it that there will be a place
that Church of Christ continue to supply the ranks         provided to accommodate you. But then there are
with young Christian Soldiers? He must stop this if        the children. How they seem to get in the way!
he is at all to succeed! So he tries too!                  Either one has to drag them along or he has to pay
  In Revelation 12 we find that the great red              through the nose for a baby-sitter. Maybe one or
dragon which, according to verse 9, is "that old           two children do not seem to steal away so much of
serpent called the Devil and Satan," was cast out of       that freedom but any more becomes cumbersome.
heaven and into the earth. Satan had failed to               Then naturally there is the financial burden
destroy the cause of Christ in this world by de-           which they cause. If we take them along with us in
vouring the Christ-child Who was brought forth out         purpleasure escapades then our wallets are empty
of the loins of the Old D.ispepsational..Chu-rch.  That    by the end of the night. But if we were instead to
failure of Satan to destroy Christ took place when         leave them home, then the baby-sitter walks away
on the cross Christ achieved the victory over sin          with a broad smile as she tucks five or ten dollars


374                                            THE  STANDARD BEARER.



into her purse. Then, too, there is the cost of              alarmed and stunned with the murders taking place
covenant education. I make enough money on the               in Atlanta at present. Are we alarmed and awe-
job to send one or possibly two through school but I         struck by the fact that thousands of unborn babies
could never afford a third. Strange, but we never            are murdered each year? Maybe that has become so
think of using the money which we spend on                   common place already that in a generation or two it
pleasure as being a means to send another through            too will be accepted among the people of God. If
school-but then, that is the way Satan works.                Satan has his way it will!
  Of course, the women's liberation movement                   The day and age in which we live is evil. As we
seems so distant from us. It's never a drag to sit           are made aware of these attempts of Satan to
home with the kids every day. We never say to our            destroy the remnant of the seed we resist. We do
husbands, "Why don't you take care of them?                  not give in to the tactics of Satan, as shrewd as they
They're your kids too.1" Or do we? How those chil-           may be. We see in those tactics the swift return of
dren can be a burden and a sorrow!                           Christ. And as we look forward to that return our
  Hello, Tamar? Where are you? Where is your joy             attitude will be one of joy and gladness in bringing
and your longing to bring forth covenant seed?               forth covenant children. We hear Peter's warning
Where is your desire to propagate the cause of               in II Peter  3:17, "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye
Christ in this world by bringing forth recruits? All         know these things before, beware lest ye also,
gone? God forbid!                                            being led astray with the error of the wicked, fall
                                                             from your stedfastness." We hear that warning and
  How easy Satan makes it with all the modern                take heed. And as we obey it we are comforted by
technology of this world at our disposal. All kinds          the fact that the Son of God gathers but also pre-
of contraceptives are available. All we have to do is        serves His Church, and that, from the beginning all
take our pick. And that wicked world makes it                the way to the end of the world. The cause of Christ
sound so noble too-family planning is for the good           will prevail and His Church shall endure unto all
of society, they say. Or how about abortion? We are          eternity.

IN HIS FEAR


                         The Theology of Discussion
                                                 Rev. Wayne Bekkering



  It has been remarked to me that Protestant Re-             His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the
formed ministers do not discuss together very well.          deep things of God (I Cor.  2:lO). All believers are
I believe that this is true of all of us generally.          partakers of the Holy Spirit as a real enlightening
  To be able to discuss things together profitably is        power. The anointing which you have received of
a good gift that God gives His people. It is a gift          God abides in you, and you need not that any man
through which we can learn things from each                  teach you, but the same anointing teaches you of all
other. It is also a good means of fellowship and en-         things, and is truth (I John 2:27).
couragement. It is important that we use this gift             I would like to review some of the Biblical
correctly.                                                   principles that I believe speak to this point.
  Within the life of the church there are many                 First of all we must discuss as brethren. This
opportunities to exercise the gift of discussion. We         sounds very elementary, but it is not so easy to do.
discuss in our homes as families or when we have             We need to make the conscious determination that
visitors. We discuss informally in our various               together we are God's children. Really we are not
societies and study groups. We also discuss more             above one another, but we are all servants of God
formally in our meetings of consistory,  classis,  and       in Christ. "But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or
synod.                                                       why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we
  Discussion is premised on the fact that all truth          shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So
does not reside in one person. God gives the truth           then every one of us shall give account of himself to
to the church, and He reveals that truth unto us by          God" (Rom.  14:lO  & 12). "Who art thou that


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 375



judgest another man's servant? To his own master           offended is harder to be won than a strong city"
he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be  holden up:       (Prov.  18:19). "A soft answer turneth away wrath:
for God is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:4).            but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the
  Secondly we must speak the truth in love (Eph.           wise useth knowledge aright" (Prov. 15: 1 & 2a).
4: 15). Speaking the truth in love means speaking            Other ways to teach in discussion are more
the truth according to the characteristics of love in I    suited for those governed by Christian love.
Corinthians  13:4  & 5. "Charity (love) suffereth          Wisdom will tell us that there are different kinds of
long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity            people. Some are quiet, mild, and reserved. Others
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not            are more bold and open. In our discussions we
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not        ought to be able to have an atmosphere that will
easily provoked, thinketh no evil."                        encourage even the mild to participate.
  With respect to discussion this means that we              If love for the brother motivates us, then we will
will be patient with our brother-even our brother          act brotherly. When someone says something that
who differs with us or who is slow to understand.          we do not understand or agree with, we will not
We will try to understand where he is coming from          overreact. First we will try to find out what the
in his remarks. If a brother approaches a matter           brother means. Too often we respond to a brother
from a different perspective than we do, so often          as if he were an enemy of the truth. Sometime our
we jump to the conclusion that he is wrong. We can         response to a brother is so severe that one might
easily become provoked, with the brother and fail to       think his position was coming straight from hell.
suffer long with him or be kind to him.                      Love for the truth and love for the brother
  We ask the question why this happens so often in         demands a strong answer-no doubt about that.
our discussions. The reason is that we are all beset       But what is strength and what is weakness? Some-
with the sin of pride. Too often we discuss to vaunt       times we think that the stronger we react the
ourselves; or we are puffed up with our own ideas          stronger we are. It is possible, you know, to wound
or ability, and therefore behave ourselves unseem-         or kill a brother with misguided love.
ly, seeking our own.                                         Is not our strength to be standing upon the
  Why do we discuss together in the first place? Do        foundation of God's eternal infallible Word? If
we want to learn something from our discussion?            someone opposes us we do not have to fluster and
Or do we want to share with others some things we          bluster, but we simply stand. If God be for us who
have learned, i.e., to teach? In both cases we ought       can be against us? God sovereignly maintains His
to be clothed with humility.                               cause and truth. We have responsibility in the
                                                           defense of the truth. Jude exhorts the saints that
  We should always be ready to learn something             they should earnestly contend for the faith which
from a discussion. We should be ready to acknow-           was once delivered unto them. There is a differ-
ledge that on any given subject there is something         ence, however, between defending the truth and
that can be learned, no matter how old we are or           being defensive about the truth.
how much education we have, and no matter how                Is it not really our weakness that causes us to
much we have studied the matter. If one will not           overreact in the face of opposition-weakness, i.e.,
acknowledge these things then he ought not                 in that we fail to trust the promises and the power
discuss.                                                   of the Word? If we think that somehow the defense
  When we discuss in order to share something we           of the truth rests with us, then we will overreact
have learned, two considerations ought to be before        when opposed. But as we stand on the unassailable
our minds. The first is the truth of God; the second,      foundation of God's Word we are strong.
the welfare of the brother.                                  We need to convince each other with the Word,
  There is more than one way to teach others. One          because there is a correspondence between the
can make a forceful presentation that brooks no            Word and the Spirit within us. It is a clear testi-
opposition so that by bluster he blows over the            mony of that Word that moves us and convinces us.
brother. Remember we are teaching by discussion.           Man's word by itself is powerless; but when we
After a blustery blast no one may dare raise a word        draw our arguments from the Scripture, then we
of opposition. But does that mean that all are con-        have the aid of the Holy Spirit to bind our words
vinced and that he has brought forward the under-          upon the hearts of the hearers. There is our
standing of God's truth? Is there not an old proverb       strength and power!
that goes something like this, "One who is                   Arguments from precedent, tradition, and his-
convinced against his will, is of the same opinion         tory have their value, but we do not consider any
still"? Even more seriously, a brother may be              writing of men, however holy these men may have
grieved and offended by such a blast. "A brother           been, to be of equal value with the Scripture.


376                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



  We must labor diligently, for the welfare of the                   As churches God has given us many benefits and
church and of one another, to make clear the truth                 strengths, and for these we are thankful; but we
from the Scripture. I believe that oftentimes we                   have not yet arrived at perfection. We have many
assume too much in our discussions. We expect                      things yet to learn from God's Word.
that everyone knows our line of thinking, or ought                   We have. exercised ourselves in precision of
to, so that we omit steps in proving our position out              doctrinal understanding and in clarity of expres-
of the Word. We must be careful in our discussion                  sion. These things are good, but I am afraid that this
to bring out the specific passage or principle of the              has led us to be more defensive than we need to be.
Scripture that underlies our position.                             This is reflected in our discussions among ourselves
  One could object that if we always cited the                     and with those around us.
specifics of our position then we would never have                   Let us now practice ourselves in the fruit of the
time to develop our points. We must be wise in this,               Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
of course, but it is never a waste of time to show                 goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
how our position relates to God's Word. We must                    such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23). In doing this we
be sure that our arguments are built upon the solid                will increase our benefit from the gift of discussion
foundation of Scripture.                                           that God has given us.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Bare.n



                            Berkhof and the Virgin Birth


  The RES News Exchange, April 7, 1981, gives an                      Historical Parts of the Old Testament." Berkhof feels
updated report on one of the doctrinal develop-                       that the distinction introduced by Koole is also useful
ments in the Netherlands. Nothing, of course,                         for the New Testament.
sounds strange from that source any more. Yet we                        Of the four evangelists, only Matthew and Luke
ought to be reminded of the developments-and be                       talk about the life of Jesus prior to the beginning of His
on our guard. The report states:                                      public ministry. Mark and John either did not con-
                                                                      sider that part of Jesus' life important or were not
         Centraal Weekblad, whose Chief Editor is Prof. Dr.           familiar with it. Both Matthew and Luke wrote late
       K. Runia, every month carries a rubric "Views in dis-          and were dependent for their material on oral and
       cussion." Contributors to this rubric are from outside         written tradition.
       the Editorial Committee but hold views that are con-             Berkhof considers it noteworthy that from Chapter
       sidered to be significant for the information of the           3 on, when they could make use of Mark and the so-
       reader. The contributors, themselves, feel that their          called lo&a-source, Matthew and Luke make no more
       views, though disputed, are legitimate within the              mention of the events concerning Jesus' birth, not
       Christian Church.                                              even where one might expect this, as for instance in
         In the issue of 4 March 1981, Prof. Dr. Hendrikus            Matthew  13:46-50 and Luke  8:19-21. In contrast,  it`
       Berkhof, who teaches systematic theology in Leyden             seems important that in their use of Mark  6:3 they
       and whose major work Christian Faith appeared in               have the hearers say: "Is not this the carpenter's
       English last year, writes on the virgin birth. Lately          son?" (Matthew  13:55); "Is not this Joseph's son?"
       Prof. Berkhof has been in the news because of his              (Luke  4:22), without correcting these hearers.
       contention that the virgin birth may not be regarded           Apparently, except for what is found in the synoptic
       as being of the same weight as the resurrection.               gospels, the birth narratives did not gain wide
       Reformatorisch Dagblad  published an article with the          currency (see Rom. 1:3; Gal. 4:4).
       heading ("misleading" in Berkhof's judgment]:                    Berkhof concludes that the birth narratives are an
       "Berkhof Doubts Virgin Birth."                                 incidental  part...in the New Testament. More signifi-
         In the  Centraal Weekblad  article, "The Specific            cant is that they are not found in the earliest brief
       Gravity of the Narratives about Jesus' Virgin Birth,"          confessional summaries of the gospel message. These
       Berkhof carefully yet forthrightly articulates his view.       confessions, also those in the New Testament, are
       The term "specific gravity" he derives from Prof.              centered in Jesus' coming, His death, and His resur-
       Koole's 1965 essay on "The Specific Gravity of the             rection.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                              3 7 7



      Do the narratives of the virgin birth rest on histori-    fallible. Because only Matthew and Luke speak of
    cal fact? Berkhof says that this can neither be proven      this virgin birth of Christ, does that make it less
    nor disproven. In his present judgment, the evidence        trust-worthy? Because they do not elaborate upon
    is, however, against it. If the virgin birth rested on      this in later chapters, does that mean that likely
    historical fact, if, for instance, Mary would have told
    the apostles about it, the New Testament would have         they were not too convinced? Because these writers
    been full of it. Moreover, in antiquity it was quite        may have written many, many years after the
    customary to authenticate the supra-human nature            event, because they may have been "dependent for
    and work of heroes and religious leaders by ascribing       their material on oral and written tradition," is that
    to them a birth in which the deity assumed the place        reason to question the truthfulness of the account?
    of the human father.                                        To answer "yes" is to deny the infallibility and
      Could that have led to the confession: Conceived by       inspiration of Scripture. Shame on a "Reformed"
    the Holy Spirit? Berkhof expresses full agreement           professor for even suggesting this. Shame too to say
    with that confession and calls it a confession with         that one should have "freedom of opinion" when
    which the Christian faith stands or falls. However, in      Scripture states this matter so clearly.
    that case the birth narratives are to be considered as        There was a time, not too long ago, when
    attempts to express this confession in biological terms.
    An additional consideration is that in antiquity it was     "Reformed" men questioned certain historical
    thought that only the male was regarded as having an        events of Scripture-insisting that they firmly
    active part in the begetting of a child; the mother was     believed in the infallible revelation concerning the
    only an instrument and a channel. We know better            work of salvation in Christ (including the accounts
    today.                                                      of His conception and birth). Now, the theories
      The systematic theologians have never quite known         which used to be applied only to the Genesis
    what to do with the virgin birth. For the Roman             account, are being applied also to the gospel
    Catholic theologians it did not offer enough to serve as    accounts. It points out the fact that questioning of
    a basis for the incarnation of the Son of God. For          the infallibility of Scripture inevitably leads to a
    Protestant theologians the exclusion of marriage and        questioning of the wonder of salvation in Christ.
    sexuality in the birth of Jesus was not necessary as a        Berkhof's position too ignores the effect of his
    basis and explanation of the incarnation.                   view on the sinlessness of the nature of Christ.
      Berkhof's final verdict is: allow freedom of opinion.     Does not the Matthew and Luke account exactly
                                                                present the truth which can account for the sinless-
  Such teaching sounds still extremely strange and              ness of Christ in our human nature? Though we
heretical in the ears of Reformed people of God.                may not understand all of this wonder, we know
Yet it is being heard increasingly in Reformed                  that Christ was not tainted by the original sin of
circles.                                                        Adam-and this must also be by virtue of the fact
  What would our objection be to the above pre-                 that He had no human father. But then, Berkhof
sentation? First, what a horrible thing is done to              probably also does not believe in the historical
Scripture! It is treated as neither inspired nor in-            character of Adam either.


                                Also: Report 44 and the
                                    Infallibility Question

  The Christian Reformed Church has been in-                    by many in C.R.C. leadership, must do to those
creasingly troubled by the same insidious views                 weak in faith or of limited spiritual understanding.
which have arisen in the Netherlands. They have                 What happens when a generation arises who have
had their "Verhey" case and others. Nor has the                 been taught and encouraged by leaders who have
difficulty been solved. Report "44" appears to                  forsaken the old and Scriptural paths? And, how
allow what it also condemns. It is two-faced. It has            will this affect our own churches in the future?
not settled the "infallibility" question in the C.R.C.
Rightly, there is deep concern about this by many                 The Banner, April 6, 1981, gives a brief indication
members of the C.R.C. We too, though another                    of the seriousness and spread of the error of
denomination, are likewise concerned. We are                    denying infallibility as historically confessed by the
concerned what this view of infallibility, adopted              church. In a report from the Calvin College and


378                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



Seminary Board of Trustees report, the following is                            clearly on the issue. And everyone knows that some of
briefly presented (without further remarks or clari-                           our professors are at least very sympathetic to his
fication) :                                                                   views.
         Professor John Stek was instructed by the board,                           But now I want to become more concrete yet. In the
       "in his teaching office, to correlate the findings of his              last (Aug. `80) issue of the RES  Theological  FO~ZUYZ  dealt
       research and the event character of Genesis l-l 1, with                with the problem of creation vs. evolution. Dr. Egbert
       a view to doing full justice to the church's confession-               Schuurman of the Netherlands presented the main
       al view of these chapters as elucidated in point E of                  paper, and a number of participants responded. One
       the Acts of Synod 1972, p. 69: Synod warns against the                 of these respondents was Dr. Sierd Woudstra of
       use of any method of biblical interpretation...which                   Calvin College. He makes clear in his response that he
       calls into question.. . the event character..  .of biblical            holds to a radical, unReformed view of Scripture. He
       history, thus compromising the full authority of                       says among other things that "many Christian scien-
       Scripture as the Word of God."                                         tists" now agree that "many species of animals had
                                                                              become extinct long before anything like a human
   Some of the same concern is expressed by that                              being appeared on earth, and that the human race is
prolific letter-writer, Rev. J. Tuininga, from                                far older than even the most flexible reading  of. the
Lethbridge, Alberta C.R.C. In a letter to the editor,                         Bible would seem to allow for." Well, that's still
he writes in the Outlooh about this same problem:                             somewhat debatable, I would guess. But what does
                                                                              one make of this: "I venture to say that one who holds
         . ..There is more to be said, however. One problem                   that the universe is a few billion years old and that
       is the "frustration" that you mention. One senses and                  also the human race is of fairly high antiquity (30,000
       knows that there is something wrong, but how do we                     years? 50,000 years?) must in principle concede the
       get to the bottom of it, and how do we go about cor-                   hermeneutical validity of the view of those who
       recting it? The fact that Calvin College and Seminary                  honestly question whether today one can still main-
       are so far removed from a,large  part of the church is a               tain an actual Garden of Eden, etc. etc. That in turn
       complicating factor. Who really knows what is going                    has immediate consequences for the approach to the
       on in Grand Rapids? Some of the things that should be                  whole of Scripture." (That last statement deserves an
       known by the whole church are never reported on in                     Amen!, J.T.) He then goes on to say that the "bridge of
       the church papers. Executive committees and boards                     the traditional conservative reading of the biblical
       try to insure that nothing "wrong" gets out. At the                    passages on creation, notably Genesis 1  & 2, is
       very present an issue is being dealt with "secretly,"                  perilously creaking under the combined weight of
       more or less. And this is often done with an appeal to                 what Christian scientists believe their studies tell
       Matthew 18. But such an appeal misses the point.                       them about the origin of the world and the human
       Matthew 18 deals with private sins; but matters which                  race."
       are taught in the college and seminary are anything
       but private-that's for "public consumption." What a                          Well, that's language difficult to misunderstand.
       professor says in class he should be able and willing to               And that is precisely the issue under discussion at
       defend publicly before the church. These professors                    present in the seminary. Was there a garden of Eden?
       are, after all, appointed by and are responsible to, the               Were Adam and Eve really "our first parents" as the
       church. So let's quit appealing to Matthew 18 when it                  Catechism says?
       doesn't apply.                                                        Tuininga hits the "nail on the head" when he
         As to what  is  wrong, the whole church ought to                 treats this sore point. One would hope and pray
       know about Verhey. And that matter has never really                that the C.R.C. might return wholeheartedly to its
       been definitively dealt with by the church. It's still             old stand-but the prospects do not appear bright in
       somewhat of an "open case." Synod never spoke                      that regard.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


            John-The Gospel of the Son of God (1)
                                                               Rev. J. Kortering



  As we approach this fourth Gospel, we notice                            from the synoptic authors (Matthew, Mark, and
immediately that it is not just another account of                        Luke). Some of these differences we must consider
the ministry of Jesus. It is unique in many respects                      in this article.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  379



       THE AUTHOR                                             might believe" (19:35). There are particular details
       Apart from recent attempts to claim that the           that the author could not have known had he not
Gospel of John was written by a group of scholars             been there, e.g., the hour at which Jesus sat by the
that lived at Ephesus, almost all Christian tradition         well  (4:6); the size of the pots that contained the
holds that John, the beloved disciple, wrote this             water which was changed to wine (2:6); the weight
Gospel.                                                       and value of the ointment that Mary used in anoint-
                                                              ing Jesus (12:3,  5); and the detail in the trial of Jesus
       Quite naturally, we turn first of all to the Gospel    (chapters 18 and 19).
account itself to see if there is any evidence as to
who the author might be. In chapter  21:24, 25 we               This all leads us to conclude without doubt that
read, "This is the disciple which testifieth of these         the disciple of John wrote this Gospel.
things, and wrote these things: and we know that                What then do we know of John?
his testimony is true. And there are also many other            From the Gospel accounts, we learn that John
things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be          was a son of Zebedee. His brother James is usually
written every one, I suppose that even the world              mentioned first, since he was older. Zebedee was in
itself could not contain the books that should be             the fishing business and employed his two sons
written. Amen." In the immediately preceding con-             along with other hired servants. Perhaps among
text, the disciple is further identified. There Jesus         whom were Andrew and Peter (Matt.  4:21, 22 and
said that Peter would be carried where he didn't              Mark  1:20, John  1:40). This would indicate that he
want to go, indicating that Peter would die a                 was a man of sizable wealth. This may also explain
martyr's death. Thereupon Peter turned to John                why John was acquainted with the high priest in
and we read, "Then Peter turning about seeth the              Jerusalem. He may have represented his father's
disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also               business interest there (John  18:15, 18). John was a
leaned on His breast at supper and said, Lord which           disciple of John the Baptist prior to being called by
is he that betrayeth Thee? Peter seeing Him saith to          Jesus (John  1:39).  This first call to leave John the
Jesus, Lord and what shall this man do?" The                  Baptist was followed by a more permanent call to
answer is that this other disciple will live to an old        become fishers of men (Mark  1:16, 17). John's
age. The designation, "disciple that Jesus loved," is         mother, the wife of Zebedee, was Salome. She too
a personal reference to the author, who is John, and          gives evidence of wealth in that she is mentioned
who was reclining close to Jesus during the last              among the women who ministered to Jesus of their
Passover.                                                     substance (Matt.  27:55, 56). It is quite well estab-
       Other evidence that can be gathered from the           lished that she was the sister of Mary, Jesus'
Gospel writing itself is as follows. The author was a         mother (John  19:25), which would make Jesus and
Jew, familiar with the Jewish expectation of the              John cousins. This explains from a natural point of
coming Messiah  (1:19-28), and with the Jewish                view why Jesus commended the care of His mother
insistence that the only proper place for worship             to John (John 19:26,27).
was Jerusalem,  (4:20).  The author was acquainted              Being disciples of Jesus, he and his brother James
with Jerusalem. He identified the Pool of Siloam  at          developed close fellowship with Peter, and the
which the blind man had to wash his eyes to                   three of them became an inner group with Jesus. In
remove the clay  (9:ll). He also points out that              all honesty, John referred to himself as the
Bethany was about 15 furlongs from Jerusalem                  "disciple whom Jesus loved." He was the closest to
(11:18). He freely identified Bethsaida and  Cana as          Jesus at the last  passover (John  13:23). All three of
cities of Galilee  (1:44;  2:l). Further, the author          them assumed a prominent role in Jesus' ministry.
shows knowledge of Jewish tradition: "Then                    Examples of their being along with Jesus at special
cometh He to a city of  Samaria  which is called              moments include the transfiguration (Matt.  17:1-8)
Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave          and the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37).
to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there" (4:5,            John and his brother James were called by Jesus,
6).                                                           Boanerges, or sons of thunder (Mark  3:17). One
       There are references made to the fact that the         asks, why? There are certain incidents which give
author was an eyewitness to the things that took              us a clue as to the meaning. When Jesus travelled
place. We read, "And the Word was made flesh and              through  Samaria  and the people refused ordinary
dwelt among us (and we beheZd His glory, the glory            hospitality, James and John asked Jesus if they
as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace          should call fire down from heaven to consume
and truth" (1: 14). Referring to the blood and water          them (Luke  9:14ff.).  Their mother Salome, request-
that came from the pierced side of Jesus, he wrote,           ed for her two sons that they might sit in the
"And he that saw it bare record, and his record is            kingdom, one on the right side of Jesus and the
true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye              other of the left (Mark  10:35ff.). Also, when John


380                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



saw one cast out demons who was not a follower of         he had in writing, "And many other signs truly did
Jesus, he forbade him; but Jesus corrected him for        Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
this conduct (Luke 9:49ff.).  From this we learn that     written in this book; But these are written, that ye
sons of thunder describe their fiery nature, their        might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
unsanctified zeal for Jesus, that had to be controlled    God; and that believing ye might have life through
and submitted to the will of God.                         His name" (John 20:30, 31). The Holy Spirit calls us
  After Jesus' death and resurrection, John is seen       to believe that Jesus is the Son ofGod!
often in the company of Peter. They must have               In developing this theme, John is not interested
stayed together during the time when Jesus' body          in the details of Christ's ministry. Other Gospel
was in the tomb and they were among the first to          accounts have already done that. Rather, John
come to the open grave and "see and believe" (John        writes on the main subjects that Jesus taught, and
20:8). He was with Peter when the lame man was            he considers only the events that show that He is
healed by the temple (Acts 3: 1). John and Peter are      indeed the Son of God. It is interesting to observe
both mentioned in Acts 8:14 as having been sent to        that, apart from the passion week events, there are
Samaria  after they heard that some had received          only two events recorded in John's Gospel which
the gospel. According to Galatians  2:9ff and Acts        are also mentioned in the other Gospel accounts:
15:6 Peter and John, along with James the brother         the feeding of the 5000 and Christ's walking on the
of' Jesus, are mentioned as being in Jerusalem            water. More than one third of the Gospel concerns
during the great synod that decided whether the           itself with one 24 hour period, that prior to and
gentile converts should be circumcised. We might          including the crucifixion (chapters 13-19). Of the
note here that by this time his brother James had         1000 days of Christ's ministry on earth, John
been killed by Herod  (Acts 12:2).                        touches on only twenty.'
  The church fathers, Irenaeus, Theophilus,                 The Gospel of John reflects maturity. This is in
Ignatious, etc. agree that John left Jerusalem, prob-     two ways.
ably around 66 A.D., the beginning of the Jewish            First, it shows that maturity in the subject matter
War, and resided in Ephesus for many years.               chosen. From the opening words this is evident,
During this stay in Ephesus he preached and               "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
taught, thus influencing the early New Testament          with God and the Word was God, the same was in
church. Later he was banished to the Isle of Patmos       the beginning with God" (John  l:l, 2). Christ Jesus
(Revelation  1:9) during the reign of the Roman           is the WORD! Long before He was born of the
monarch Domitian (81-96 A.D.), was allowed to             Virgin Mary, He existed with the Father, He parti-
return to Ephesus during Nerva's reign, and died          cipated in the creation, and now is the true light
sometime during the reign of Trajan. By this it is        that shineth in the world. The miracles He per-
evident that the words of Jesus proved true, that he      formed, the instruction He gave, the suffering and
outlived Peter and lived to be an old man (John           death He endured, all point in one direction to
21:18-23).                                                show that Jesus is the Son of God, and that as such
                                                          He is indeed Savior.
DATE AND MESSAGE                                            Secondly, this Gospel reflects maturity in the
  The Gospel of John was written by the Apostle           manner in which John handles the material. He
John toward the end of the first century, the later       sets forth the truth as objective reality. He is a faith-
90's A.D. It was written during the latter part of        ful chronicler of events that have indeed taken
John's residence in Ephesus. The significance of          place. He sets forth the facts of Jesus' ministry as
this can be appreciated if we remind ourselves that       real history. In addition to that, John does it in such
the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were          a way that he leads his readers in joining him as he
all written sometime during the 60's A.D. John was        grows in understanding these great truths. From
written some 40 years later. By now John was an           the beginning he inserts, over and over, the honest
old man. He was eyewitness to the events of Jesus'        observation that they saw His glory but did not
ministry, he led the early church at Jerusalem, he        understand many of these things at the time (see
outlived his brother James, Peter and even Paul.          John  2:22 and 12:16). This is a meaningful teaching
The church was going through great trials,  t,he          aid to assist the reader in order that he may believe
threat of heresies from within, the blood-bath of         that Christ is indeed the Son of God. When we first
Rome from without. The Holy Spirit moved the old          read of this, it seems impossible. We can identify
veteran to take up his pen and write yet`another          with John in this lack of understanding. But, we
Gospel.                                                   must not stay there, the Gospel leads us ultimately
  This leads us to consider the unique character of       to the resurrection and the Living Lord Who
John's Gospel. It stands in contrast to the other         instructed Peter and all the disciples to "Feed my
three. Let us hear from the pen of John the purpose       sheep" (John 21:17).


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                381



TRANSLATED TREASURES


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



(In the last paragraph Kuyper has explained that the deforma-      zeal already lacks the necessary energy and is too
tion of the church is due to three causes: the destructive work    weak to banish the evil. People still judge sin, but
of Satan, the sins of individual members, and the sins of the      no longer dare to condemn it openly. The moral
fellowship of the church as a whole. He continues this discus-     working of the faculty of faith for punishment with
sion in the following paragraph.)                                  discipline is absent. This then makes sin and the
38. How Such Deformation Commonly Breaks Out                       service of the world yet bolder. The roles are quick-
In the Church Of God.                                              ly turned around. Instead of being able to rise with
                                                                   moral might against the slaves of this world, the
   All deformation in the church of God is likely to               children of God themselves come under the pres-
begin with this, that faith loses its animation. The               sure of the world. They are almost ashamed them-
church depends on Christ. Branches, half cut off                   selves to keep up the old way of life. They begin to
from the vine, begin to languish and wither. In its                excuse themselves instead of condemning the
inception, as the fruit of fearful struggle and op-                world. No longer does discipline proceed from
pression, Christ clearly lives in the church, the                  godly people to the sinner, but sinners proceed to
throb of His life is felt, the warmth of His divine                exercise discipline over the godly by intimidation
love shines through her, there is enjoyment of His                 and mockery. Thus the standard of spiritual life
salvation and manifestation of His power. The Holy                 gradually fades and finally disappears. And the end
Spirit works thus through the children of God to                   is that the Lord, in His righteous judgment, punish-
make them receptive, to adorn them with spiritual                  ing such faithlessness, gives His church over into
adornment, and to make the purchased of the Lord                   the power of her adulterers so that she shall again
live near to and tenderly with their God. But then                 learn to recognize guilt and shall again find the way
an unnoticed laxity comes (one scarcely knows by                   of prayer.
what cause) a leaving of the first love. The church
becomes less receptive, less intimate, less spiritual,               In this development of sin the turning of the tide
and presently others see that the inner fellowship                 comes sooner or later. It is like a balance. The scale
of the Holy Spirit, and by this the inner life of love             of holiness first rests firm and solid on the founda-
with the Bridegroom, begins to fade from the heart                 tion of the Word, and high in the air hangs the al-
of the bride. Then really the  .deformation  of the                most empty scale of ecclesiastical unrighteousness.
church has already happened, even though it is not                 But that is now changed. Everything is taken from
yet manifest. But this condition does not last long.               the scale of glorious things and everything put on
Indeed, "If thou  do&t well, shalt thou not be ac-                 the scale of unrighteousnesses. Thus the one side
cepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the               rises and the other falls. Finally, the original
door." And so it is also here that the work of the                 balance is turned about and the power of unrigh-
Holy Spirit is scarcely stopped and the door scarce-               teousness robs the balance of all that is holy and
ly opened, and sin creeps in, and the ungodly heart,               firm. Then the church is disturbed and evil pro-
released from its holy connection to Christ, begins                ceeds to take on greater proportions, even finding
to howl in its own devilish lust. It begins with the               its way into the shepherds. In the church of Christ
smallest and most insignificant-trifles which                      one is always able to recognize the turning point. If
could indeed be tolerated. So sin breaks out more                  the church in her official capacity knows, in spite
strongly. And finally one finds in the church of God               of the evil which creeps in, to hold high her holy
different cliques for whom the mask of piety be-                   character, there are always shepherds who are
comes burdensome, and they openly commit                           examples to the flock and who, with priestly con-
adultery with the world. In this stage by no means                 cern, supplicate for the rescue of the flock and ad-
all the church is poisoned. On the contrary, in her                monish conversion with the trumpet sound of peni-
greater majority, she is still zealous against evil. But           tence. But if that sound ceases and the circle of the


382                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



shepherds itself becomes sick, and worldliness also        church government. This happened, to mention
creeps in among the shepherds, who, as witnesses           only two examples, in Germany after Luther's
of God ought to fight for the sheep, then also the         work of reformation, and in England after the
hour of spiritual decay has struck irrevocably for         breakthrough of the Reformed religion under
the church, and corruption begins to affect her            Edward VI. In those days men respected spiritual
organization and begins to change her public mani-         essentials but judged that externals could do little
festation as church into something unholy.                 evil even though they remained in the church in a
  Then lies creep out of the ailing congregation into      corrupted form. The result was that the purity of
the shepherds; and now, as a third stage, these lies       the worship services was not carried out, that the
creep out of the ailing shepherds into the doctrine        shepherds did not stay closely connected to the
and worship of the church so that the church aban-         sheep, and that the confession moved into the back-
dons her confession and brings into the Lord's             ground. In all such conditions tension and strife
house a self-determined worship. Heresy rises and          arose between those impure forms of the church
in all kinds of ways begins to bring about a new           and the pure Word. In that strife most shepherds
devastation. Doubt comes in the place of faith.            chose the part of the corrupted form of the church
Things once firm are loosened. And everything              against the people of God who rose up in defense of
pressures and prompts the church to combine her            the Word. And  t the deformation of the church
confession with the confession of the world.               which originated in this way, having causes in other
                                                           reasons, worked as a sickness which, rising not
  Thus the worship services, no longer satisfied           from the lower body (laity), but in the brains (the
with their simple, spiritual character, seek their         leaders), soon stupified the consciousness and cre-
refuge in sensuous means which appeal to the eye           ated a hopeless situation in the church. The second
and the ear, thus grieving the Holy Spirit.                exception to which we referred exists in the impure
  Thus tension and opposition arise; the limitations       formation of the church as it concerns her
of church government, now too narrow, are no               members. Not by any means rarely have our chur-
longer to be borne. And so, finally, the corruption        ches originated from gradual gatherings of
which has crept in destroys church government,             believers. Far and away the most were first under
and this corruption does not rest until regulations        the Romish hierarchy and had  come  out from
are so deformed that everything which rejects              under it at the time of the Reformation. The result
Christ is accepted and everything which attaches to        was that people in a number of places took along
Christ is ensnared in a maze of regulations.               large crowds into a purified church, but crowds in
  Thus corruption runs its course. It begins with          whose confession and walk there was much that
                                                           was defective. Then, when later these churches re-
the forsaking of the first love. It proceeds to world      ceived civil privileges, this condition deteriorated
conformity. This world conformity creeps out of            further because many came into these churches
the flock into the shepherds. Through those shep-          with their eye on offices and positions of honor.
herds it finds its way into the doctrine; from doc-        And this evil became greater when the idea of a
trine into the worship services, in order finally, to      people's church began to muddle the spirits, and
seize the whole system of the church's government,         men, making national concern a line of action for
and to alter the church so that she becomes an in-         ecclesiastical conduct, opened wide the floodgate
strument of Satan which attacks the people of God,         for all the waters which wanted to stream in. As a
and, in the people, attacks God Himself.                   matter of fact, therefore, the condition in these
39. Three Deviations Which Ought To Be Noticed             churches has never been pure and men have main-
       In Connection With This Rule.                       tained alongside of the actual confessing part of the
  The general rule described above does not                church a non-confessing part, an irresponsible and
always apply. This rule is that the corruption of the      worldly segment in the church, which from the be-
church begins with the cooling of love; then in the        ginning has reacted against the health of the life
form of world conformity appears in the members;           power of the church.
and creeps from the members into the shepherds,
and thus through the office in turn it affects the           An exception of which again distinction can be
confession, the worship service, and the ordinances        made, is the third or last exception which we must
of the church. But there are three kinds of excep-         mention and which arises where corruption exists
tions which ought here to be considered.                   not in the church itself but slips in from outside.
                                                           This happens in all kinds of ways. In one instance
  The first exception is that in many cases in the         the evil crept in from a neighboring or related
spiritually happy times of ecclesiastical life, but out    church, as happened in the German reformed
of a wrongly-conceived spirituality, insufficient          church, and, in another occasion, in the Lutheran
attention is paid to the great importance of a pure        church. At another time this corruption came from


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     383



the schools, as was the case in this country with the                        different influences which work upon her.
Leiden seminary in the days of Arminius, and in                                  We emphasize this truth very strongly because
the churches of the Huguenots by means of a harm-                            most of the sicknesses of our churches are not sus-
ful influence of the school of Saumur. Then again                            ceptible to such a simple diagnosis, but they pre-
this corruption sprouts from general literature as in                        sent what medicine calls a very complicated ail-
the days of the English Diests. Then again this cor-                         ment, that is to say, a kind of process of sickness in
ruption has its origin in the magistrates outside the                        which two, three, or more causes work through
church, who intentionally seek to break the unique                           and on each other. The result is that it is always
spirit of the church. Or finally, this seed of corrup-                       difficult to measure separately in how far these
tion is sown with lavish hands in the acre of the                            harmful influences are the causes of the ailment.
church by revolutionary and mystical fanatics who                                He who is led by the Spirit finally ceases, in his
wrest loose the fixed ordinances in the conscience                           moments of deepest concern, from all analysis, and
and, by doing this, undermine the character of the                           confesses that the only cause of the misery of his
church.                                                                      church is the unfaithfulness of the children of the
   Already these three exceptions warn us never to                           Lord, which unfaithfulness is connected to and re-
measure, in connection with the deformation of the                           flected in the ungodliness of his own heart. But
church, all the circumstances according to a                                 when  ,one is called to judge these things by means
definite standard as if the matter is decided already                        of analysis let him guard against all superficiality;
by mentioning some of the marks of the church.                               let him beware of all generalities; and let him say
But it must induce us always to judge every church                           nothing at all until all the varied symptoms of the
by itself, reckoning with her historical past and the                        sickness are clearly understood by him.



                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                         tation from Grand Rapids or lodging in Holland should contact Mr. Erv
                                                                             Kortering, 253 E. 19th St., Holland, Michigan 49423. (Phone  616.
    On May 9, 1981, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND MRS.               3 9 6 - 4 9 6 6 ) .
JOHN TOLSMA celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.                                                                              Erv Kortering, Clerk
   We, their children and grandchildren thank our heavenly Father for
the years of love and Christian instruction they have given us. It is our
prayer that our Covenant Father will continue to bless them in His                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
care.
                                                                                 On May 4, 1981, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS. FRANK
                             Their children,                                 DYKSTRA, SR. celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.
                                Sid and Emma Top                                 We thank our Heavenly Father for the many years of Christian love
                                   Michelle, Melanie, Rachel, Stephen,       and instruction they have provided us. It is our prayer that God may
                                   Julia,  Theasea, David                    continue to bless them through their walk in life together.
                                Jerry and Henrietta Kaptein                      "If thy children will keep MY covenant and My testimony that I
                                   Debra, Ron, James                         shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for-
                                Harold and Winnie Tolsma                     ever." (Psalm 132: 12).
                                   John, Edward, Esther                                             Their children and grandchildren,
                                Dick and Olga Vander Kooy                                                              Frank and Dawn Dykstra
                                   Jason, Jonathan, Eric, Jennifer,                                                       Michael and Matthew
                                   Matthew
                                                                                                                       Hilbert and Beverly Kuiper
                                Frank and  Sheryl  Tolsma                                                                 Rosanna and Hilbert
                                   James, Rebecca

                                John and Carolyn Tolsma
                                   Michael, Mark                                                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                Lvnden, Wash.
                                                                                 On May 16, 1981, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.
                                                                             KENNETH BYLSMA will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

                                                                                 We, their children, would like to express to them in this small way
                             NOTICE!!!                                       the gratitude we feel in our hearts for the many years of love and
                                                                             sacrifices in providing us with a Christian home and Christian instruc-
   According to the decision of the Synod of 1980, the Consistory of         tion. It is our prayer that the Lord may continue to bless them to-
the First Protestant Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan, was               gether in the Years to come as He has so richly done in the past.
appointed the calling church for the 1981 Synod. The Consistory of
Holland hereby notifies our churches that the 1981 Synod of the                  "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth
Protestant Reformed Churches in America will convene, the Lord               endureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5).
willing, on Wednesday, June 3, 1981 at 9:00 A.M. in the First                                                              Ken Bylsma, Jr.
Protestant Reformed Church of Holland, 290 E. 18th St., Holland.                                                           Rich and Kathy Feenstra
The pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday evening, June 2,                                                              Steven
1981 at 8:00 P.M. Rev. John A. Heys, President of the 1980 Synod
will preach the sermon.  Synodical  delegates are requested to meet                                                        Kevin Bylsma
with the Consistory before the service. Delegates in need of  transpor-                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan


  THE STANDARD BEARER
       P.O. Box 6064                                                                      SECOND CLASS
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                             POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                      GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.





384                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




                         News From Our Churches

  From a trio of Reverends Bekkering, Bruinsma,           tion;    birthdays and anniversaries (as this
and Van  Baren, the latest Redlands' call has been        information reaches the committee); church
extended to Rev. Van  Baren; and Isabel, South            activities and special interest items."
Dakota has called Rev. Slopsema from a trio includ-         It's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to do
ing also Reverends Koole and Bekkering.                   justice in this column to the recent program com-
  As you know-some from firsthand  experience-            memorating two thousand Reformed Witness Hour
the building committees of many of our churches           broadcasts. If you listened to the May 10 Reformed
have been kept busy with various expansion pro-           Witness Hour broadcast, you know a little bit of
jects. Some of the latest information of this kind        what happened that night; and if you were able to
that I have received include the following: 1. The        obtain a copy of the commemorative booklet that
plans for Redlands' new church building are ready         was handed out at the program, you have a good
for approval by the City of Redlands, and they are        idea of what transpired; but nothing could possibly
now looking for a "qualified man" to oversee a            serve as a substitute for actual attendance. If I had
crew of "mostly volunteer help." 2. Southwest of          to select a part of the program that would most
Grand Rapids is in the process of building a new          merit a few lines in the S.B., I would choose the
parsonage on the north side of "seminary hill."           "Time Capsule." For many of the older generation
Those of our readers who know the lay of the land         in attendance it triggered fond memories, and for
in that area will know what I mean; everyone else         the others the glimpses `into the early history of the
will have to come and "take a look see." 3. Whe-          Reformed Witness Hour were refreshing. These
ther or not these Loveland items qualify as "expan-       "glimpses" included an excerpt from the first
sion projects" must might be debatable, but I'll          broadcast, with Rev. H. Hoeksema speaking on the
throw them in anyway. On a Loveland bulletin we           Topic, "God is God." Following that, numerous
read, "The consistory expresses thanks to Mr.             other excerpts of radio sermons, from Rev. Ophoff,
George Joostens for the new collection plates that        Rev. Heys, and Rev.  Schipper in English to Rev.
he made and to Mr. Ray Ezinga for the new com-            Vos in Dutch, were played over the public address
munion trays that he made." If in the future you          system. Incidentally, if you want to hear more of
visit Loveland, don't forget to pay special attention     what you missed, copies of these tapes are available
to these works of art. It might be best, however, to      at a cost of $4.00 per tape by sending to: The
delay your inspection until after the service, rather     Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand
than while collection is being taken.                     Rapids, MI 49501.
  We recently received something new from our               Though we would never want it said that this is a
First Church in Grand Rapids, namely a bimonthly          gossip column, some wedding congratulations are
newsletter to the congregation. As stated on the          in order, I think. Within the last few years many of
first page, "The purpose of the newsletter will be to     our readers have had opportunity to meet and fel-
stimulate the common bond we possess as the body          lowship with Johnson See of Singapore and John
of Christ and also as a congregation. The committee       Steele of Australia during their.visits to the United
will look forward to receiving bits of information        States. From what I hear, they. must have sent
from societies and individuals that will be of an         nearly as many wedding invitations to the United
interest to us all." Also, "The format will include       States as they have sent to prospective guests in
missionary information (letters, reports, etc.); sche-    their native countries.
dules of ushers, nursery attendants, and transporta-                                                        CK
                                                                                                     _


