      The
STANDARD
     BEARER
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                        b





  Controversy in religion is a hateful thing.
It is hard enough to fight the devil, the world,
and the flesh, without private differences in
our own camp, but there is one thing which
is even worse than controversy, and that is
false doctrine tolerated, allowed, and permit-
ted without protest or molestation.... Three
things there are which men never ought to
trifle with: a little poison, a little false doc-
trine, and a little sin.                                    J.C. Ryle
See "Reformed, Yet Always Reforming"
                                                        -page 402


                                           Volume  LVII, No. 17, June 1, 1981  -


                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                              THE STANDARD  BEARER
                             CONTENTS                                                                                 ISSN  0362-4692
                                                                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July. and August.
Meditation-                                                                                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                   Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
   Christ's Entry Into Heaven Itself . . . . . . . . . . . . .386                  Editor-in-Chief:   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
Editorials-                                                                        Department   Editors:   Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma,  Re! Arie
                                                                                   denHartog, Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev.  Richard
   The GKN on the Nature of the                                                    Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A.  Heys, Mr.
                                                                                   Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
      Authority of Scripture (6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .389             Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                                   Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
   Impressions of Singapore (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 1              Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                    4975  Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
Translated Treasures-                                                                               Grandville, Michigan 49418
   A Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation                                           Church   NewsEditor:   Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
                                                                                                         1313  WilsonAve.  SW.
      of the Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393                            Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
                                                                                   Editorial   Policy: Every editor is solely responsible for the contents  ,of his own
All Around Us-                                                                     articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and  questlons for the
                                                                                   Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will  .be limited to ap-
   A New Presbyterian Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395                  proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or  typewntten, and must be
                                                                                   signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
   ASecondC.R.C.Seminary? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..39 6                   munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
   TheMarkoftheBeast.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .397                Reprint  Policy:   Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                   magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
The Day of Shadows-                                                                reproduced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is  made! c) that a copy of the
                                                                                   periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our  editorial office.
   Distressed But Not Depressed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .397                  Business  Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                    Mr. H.  Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
Signs of the Times-                                                                                 P.O. Box 6064                              PH:  (6161243~2953
                                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
   The Spirit of this Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400        New  ZealandBusiness   Office: The Standard Bearer
Special Article-                                                                                                    c/o OPC Bookshop
                                                                                                                    P.O. Box 2289
   Reformed, Yet Always Reforming (3) . . . . . . . . .402                                                          Christchurch. New Zealand
                                                                                                                                      er year. Unless a definite request
The Lord Gave the Word-                                                            Subscription   Policy:   Subscription price, $9.00 K
                                                                                   for discontinuance is received, it is assumed t at the subscriber wishes the  sub-
   Two Kinds of Churches Active in China Today .404                                scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he  $11 be
                                                                                   billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please notify the  Busmess
Question Box-                                                                      Office as early as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of delayed deli-
                                                                                   very. Include your Zip Code.
   The Two Philips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404       Advertising  Policy: The  Standard  Bearer  does not accept  commercia!  adver!ising of
                                                                                   any kind.  Annoucements of church and school events,  anniversaries,  obituaries,
   Liturgical Changes in Our Churches . . . . . . . . . .405                       and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
                                                                                   the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
   Demands and Obligations in God's Covenant . .406                                announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                   15th or the 1st respectively.
Book Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407    Bound  Volumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                           llled  as soon as possible after
News From Our Churches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408                 copies of the current volume; such orders are P
                                                                                   completion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may be obtained
                                                                                   through the Business Office.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              387


his name.                                                    have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11).
  What is of importance to us is the evidence of his           But history, beloved reader, is not realized fac-
complete       enlightenment of Israel's spiritual           tually only here on the earth, but also in heaven.
economy. Not only did he understand fully the                Heaven, as well as earth, is affected by time and
economy in its typical apparatus, but also in its            history. This is often forgotten in the waves of
anti-typical significance.                                   earthly historical events, when emphasis is placed
  The evidence of this last observation is clearly           on the events as they affect our earthly existence.
portrayed in respect to his conception of the priest-        But not to be forgotten is the fact that in time
office as set forth in this chapter. In the first part of    history also involves heaven. We need only to
the chapter he reviews the matter of the typical             remind you that the fall in the angel world takes
priesthood. He describes the tabernacle with its             place within the brackets of time. Also the salvation
various compartments. And he dwells on the                   of the saints who have lived and died is realized in
various sacrifices and their service. And, beginning         heaven.
with verse eleven, he reflects on the anti-typical             So Christ's ascension affects also the history of
character of it all. Christ, so he declares, is the High     heaven. Forget not that all through the old dispen-
Priest concerning the good things to come. Christ,           sation the accuser of the brethren had access to
so he continues, entered the Holy Place once for all.        heaven. There he denied those who after death
Not the earthly holy place, made with hands, but             entered heaven their right to be there, beginning
the heavenly, and that with a sacrifice that brought         with righteous Abel and continuing with the long
to an end all sacrifices. It is this that we especially      line of saints who followed. But with the ascension
wish to call to your attention as we consider in this        of Christ this all ceases. The accuser of the brethren
ascension meditation: Christ's entry into the                is cast out, never more to return. Christ's ascension
heavenly holy place.                                         signalled the complete justification of all the Old
  What draws our attention, first of all, in the text,       Testament saints.
is the truth that the ascension of Christ into heaven          Moreover, as the text makes abundantly clear,
is considered an historic fact.                              Christ's ascension and His sitting at God's right
  In the Scriptures Christ's birth, His death, and           hand, finishes all His mediatorial work. Christ
resurrection are considered undoubted historic               must enter the tabernacle not made with hands, to
facts. Established historic facts, they are, upon            bring His sacrifice. But He must enter heaven itself
which rests the faith of the Christian church. So            to appear in the very presence of God. Such is the
also Christ's ascension into heaven belongs to the           historic fact.
facts of history, though it is true that this fact never       But notice, in the second place, the manner in
seems to receive the attention and the emphasis              which He enters into heaven.
given to the above-mentioned facts. Surely the                 It is not as an earthly high priest. The writer to
secular world does not know how to commercialize             the Hebrews draws a comparison to the earthly
on this fact as it does with Christ's birth and.resur-       high priest. He tells us that the sons of Aaron en-
rection. But also the church fails miserably to per-         tered the holy place made with hands. The refer-
ceive the importance of the fact of Christ's ascen-          ence is, of course, to the tabernacle constructed
sion. Nevertheless, the ascension, as well as the            with human hands, first at Sinai, and later in the
nativity, death, and resurrection of Christ belongs          temple set by Solomon on Mount Zion. These con-
to history.                                                  structions were composed of three main compart-
  Forty days after He arose from the grave He as-            ments: the outer court, wherein was the great altar
cended into heaven before the eyes of the disciples.         of sacrifice; the holy place, whereinwere the table
Of this they gave testimony. "And He led them                of shewbread, altar of incense, and the candlestick;
forth as far as to Bethany, and as He lifted up His          and the holy of holies,  which was within the veil, in
hands, He blessed them. And it came to pass in His           which was the ark of the covenant with the mercy
blessing them, He was parted from them and was               seat. Into this humanly constructed edifice the sons
carried up into heaven" (Luke  24:50, 51). "And              of Aaron entered often. Daily there they received
when He had spoken these things, while they be-              the sacrifices broughty by the people to offer them,
held, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him              first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the
out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly        people. And in the holy of  holies the high priest
toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men                 alone entered once a year with the blood of bulls
stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye          and goats to sprinkle it upon the mercy seat. But
men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into                  into that man-made structure Christ does not enter.
heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from              He does not need to bring as the earthly priest
you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye          many sacrifices, first for Himself and then for His


388                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



people.                                                     the will of the people. He does not rise to His High-
  As the anti-type He enters heaven itself as the           Priestly office out of the house and loins of Aaron.
perfect high Priest. The long line of the Aaronitic         Rather, He comes out of the volume of the book,
priesthood served only as faint pictures of the             out of the eternal counsel of God to do His will.
reality to come. The shadows, of course, were               Thus He is the Servant of Jehovah; and all that He
made possible by the reality that reflected them.           does is by divine appointment. His birth, His
But the shadows could not be the reality. Therefore         passion and death, His resurrection, but also His
temporal offices were filled by temporary men. But          glorious ascension, is all of God. But all in our be-
Christ is the reality, and in that sense the only High      half. So now, at the end of the ages of the old dis-
Priest. Apart from Him all other priests were of no         pensation, with the perfect sacrifice of Himself in
significance. He is the fulfillment and the perfec-         our behalf, He presents Himself before Jehovah%
tion of the priest's office, His sacrifice alone could      face, in the heavenlies.
take away sin; His sacrifice alone has eternal and             With the sacrifice that brings an end to all sacrifi-
abiding value.                                              ces!
  Moreover, the text stresses the truth concerning             The sin problem of all His people is finished for-
the place Christ entered. Though it was true that           ever!
God dwelt in the shadows of the earthly tabernacle,            Indeed, with our sin and guilt He went to the
He nevertheless dwelt in isolation. No one might            cross, where the God of our salvation poured upon
enter into His presence except the high priest,             Him all the vials of His holy wrath to satisfy His
while the people stood afar off in the outer court.         justice with respect to our sin. There He Who knew
Only the great high priest might enter the holy of          no sin was made sin for us. There He was forsaken
holies once a year, but he could abide there only for       of God that we might be made righteous, and never
a moment, and he must needs go out. But Christ              be forsaken of Him. Because He was faithful unto
enters into the very presence of God. The text says         death, God declared Him to be righteous and we in
literally: before His face. And Christ abides there:        Him; and, therefore, raised Him from the dead.
and, wonder of wonders, we with Him. Here, very             Yea, God raised Him unto the highest heavens, in
really, God and His people in Christ are one. Our           order that He might receive the reward of merit.
High Priest enters heaven itself, into the very pre-        Into heaven itself, that is, the heaven of heavens,
sence of God, and in our behalf.                            the highest pinnacle of glory and honor, at the right
  Now, once for all! Upon the end of the ages! He           hand of God, into His very presence, He ascended.
appeared unto the abrogation of sin through His             There Jehovah-God brings His Son, our Mediator,
sacrifice! Such is the literal translation of the text.     to report as it were on His commissioned work.
  And the meaning is clear. Not often did He                There He presents Himself as the one Who has put
appear, as had the shadow-priests in the humanly            away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
constructed tabernacle, with many sacrifices which            And the implication is that there the Father ac-
could never take away sin. At the long end of the           knowledges the perfect sacrifice as sufficient to put
ages when repeatedly sacrifices were brought                away forever your sins and mine.
which could only remind the worshippers of the                At the end of the ages!
one sacrifice that would bring an end to all sacrifi-
ces, Christ brings the one sacrifice, the all-sufficient      Not the end of the world is it to which the text
sacrifice of Himself, that forever satisfies the justice    refers, but undoubtedly to the end of the ages of the
of God over against our sin, the sin of all His peo-        old dispensation, at the end of the long line of
ple-that efficacious sacrifice Christ brought for us        earthly priests and sacrifices. At that point in time
into the very presence of God.                              Christ appeared with the sacrifice that brought an
                                                            end to all sacrifices, satisfying God's justice and
  The Priest and the offering are all one in Him.           bringing also to an end God's curse over our sin and
His sacrifice is the perfect one because it alone           guilt.
takes away sins. This sin and the consequences of             And therefore unto the end of the ages, that is,
sin are forever abolished for God's people.                 unto the day when Christ comes again on the
  Notice, in the third place, how the text stresses         clouds of heaven to take us also into the very pre-
the purpose of Christ's ascension.                          sence of God, unto then we are accounted
  He enters heaven itself and appears before the            righteous before God. And that is forever.
face of God in our behalf. He enters as the Mediator          Then, as God the Father undoubtedly said to His
of His people. Always, in all that He does, He repre-       Son when He appeared in His ascension, "Come ye
sents them. But His mediatorship was not by our             blessed One into My presence to receive the reward
appointment. He was not democratically chosen by            of your mediatorial work," so shall He also say to


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         389



us at the end of the world: "Come, ye blessed, enter        have highly exalted, because He so deeply humbled
into My blessed fellowship and communion                    Himself for your sins, and the sins of all My
forever; for ye are righteous through Him Whom I            people."

EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



                     The GKN on the Nature of the
                         Authoritv of Scripture (6)
                                               L




  The proof of the pudding is in the eating, it is          worthy, not reliable, it cannot possibly be of divine
said.                                                       authority, be the Word of God Who cannot lie. This
  This maxim may be applied to the subject under            follows with inexorable logic.
consideration, that of the authority of Scripture.            All of this, remember, stands connected with our
And it may be applied especially to the Report/De-          Reformed confession concerning Scripture. It will
cision of the GKN which we have been considering            be beneficial, as we consider these matters, to have
in this series. Applied in this area, it means that we      this confession clearly before us. I refer especially
can test what a person or church believes concern-          to Articles 3, 5, and 7 of our Belgic Confession of
ing the authority of Scripture by examining what            Faith. Article 3 is entitled "Of the written Word of
that person or church believes concerning the trust-        God" and reads as follows:
worthiness, or reliability, of Scripture.                        We confess that this Word of God was not sent, nor
  In this installment of this series we shall follow           delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of God
this method.                                                   spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the
                                                               apostle Peter saith. And that afterwards God, from a
  Let me explain.                                              special care, which He has for us and our salvation,
  We are up to the main chapter, Chapter IV, of                commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles,
the Report/Decision of the GKN. This chapter is en-            to commit His revealed word to writing; and He Him-
titled "The Nature of the Authority of Scripture."             self wrote with His own finger, the two tables of the
After a brief introductory section, this chapter               law. Therefore we call such writings holy and divine
proceeds to the important subject,                  "The       Scriptures.
Foundation of the Authority of  Scriljture."                  The Report/Decision claims only that today they
Following this section, there is a section entitled         would state Article 3 differently. In actual fact,
"The Historical Trustworthiness (reliability) of the        however, as we shall see, the Report/Decision con-
Bible." Now we shall return eventually to a discus-         tradicts Article 3. Too bad that the GKN does not
sion of the section on "The Foundation of the               have the honesty to discard the article!           n
Authority of Scripture." However, the latter is               Article 5 of the Belgic Confession reads as
written in such a way that its erroneous character          follows:
is somewhat covered up. And while it is by no
means above criticism, it is probably better, to es-             We receive all these books, and these only, as holy
tablish first and clearly that the Report/Decision             and canonical, for the regulation, foundation, and
                                                               confirmation of our faith; believing without any
does indeed deny the divine authority and infalli-             doubt, all things contained in them, not so much be-
bility of Scripture and does indeed deny our Re-               cause the Church receives and approves them as such,
formed confession by demonstrating that the                    but more especially because the Holy Ghost  wit-
Report/Decision denies the trustworthiness of                  nesseth in our hearts, that they are from God, whereof
Scripture.                                                     they carry the evidence in themselves. For the very
The connection ought to be plain to everyone. If               blind are able to perceive that the things foretold in
                                                               them are fulfilling.
Scripture is of divine authority, i.e., the very Word
of God, then it is absolutely reliable, or trust-             This fifth Article is obviously also involved in
worthy. For the Word of God, Who cannot lie, is             this discussion. The article is entitled "From
true. By the same token, if Scripture is not  trust-        whence the Holy Scriptures derive their dignity


390                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



and authority." Notice that it asserts unequivocally               for the assertion that the Bible in a historical re-
that the canonical books are received by us because                spect would be more reliable (trustworthy) than
these books "are from God, whereof they carry the                  other sources."
evidence in themselves." This is what the Holy                        There you have it!
Spirit witnesseth in our hearts. This article, there-
fore, goes to the very heart of the  authority-                       Literally the Report/Decision asserts that the
question. And also this article the GKN, in all                    Bible is no more trustworthy than other sources
honesty, ought to discard. In the light of the Report/             when it comes to historical accounts.
Decision it has officially become a museum piece.                     Now remember what this implies. Those other
  Article 7 has as its main subject "The sufficiency               historical accounts are not trustworthy, or reliable.
of the Holy Scriptures, to be the only rule of faith."             The Bible is no more trustworthy than they are.
Yet this article is also pertinent to our discussion               Conclusion: the Bible is not trustworthy.
because the very foundation of that sufficiency is                   And what is the conclusion from this? One of two
the unique authority, and therefore infallibility, of              things follows:
those Scriptures. The article reads as follows:                    1) Either the Bible is of divine authority, and then
                                                                   God is a liar (His historical accounts are not relia-
         We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain
       the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to           ble.)
       believe, unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein.    2) Or the authority of the Bible is human, just like
       For, since the whole manner of worship, which God           those    other historical accounts which are
       requires of us, is written in them at large, it is un-      unreliable.
       lawful for any one, though an apostle, to teach other-      Both ways you lose the Bible!
       wise than we are now taught in the Holy Scriptures:            But the Report/Decision also gives some
       nay, though it were an angel from heaven, as the            shocking examples of what it means in this connec-
       apostle Paul saith. For, since it is forbidden, to add
       unto or take away anything from the word of God, it         tion. Let me cite some.
       doth thereby evidently appear, that the doctrine               1. It refers to the fact that in the ancient Near
       thereof is most perfect and complete in all respects.       East there were historical writings which were con-
       Neither do we consider of equal value any writing of        sciously subjective, if you will: tendentious. An
       men, however holy these men may have been, with             example is the annals of the Assyrian kings, which
       those divine Scriptures, nor ought we to consider cus-      plainly served the greater glory of these rulers.
       tom, or the great multitude, or antiquity, or succes-
       sion of times and persons, or councils, decrees or sta-     Defeats were passed by in silence, or even presen-
       tutes, as of equal value with the truth of God, for the     ted as victories. The numbers of slain enemies were
       truth is above all; for all men are of themselves liars,    greatly exaggerated, and their own losses were
       and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore, we reject      minimized. This was done in those days, according
       with all our hearts, whatsoever doth not agree with         to the Report, just as today in military commu-
       this infallible rule, which the apostles have taught us,    niques in time of war this happens for propaganda
       saying, Try the spirits whether they are of God. Like-      purposes.
       wise, if there come any unto you, and bring not this
       doctrine, receive him not into your house.                     But then the Report goes on to say: "It cannot
                                                                   be maintained that the Old Testament is completely
  Even as I type these articles, it strikes me how                 free from such colored information." And some
completely foreign to them is the language of the                  examples are given: "From extra-biblical sources
Report/Decision. These articles are clear, complete-               we know, for example, that Israel under Ahab or
ly clear, on every question that is raised in the                  Jehu must have suffered severe losses against the
Report. But the Report is in flat contradiction to this            Moabites, but the Bible is silent about this. The so
language of our Confession.                                        highly praised historical writings concerning David
  Now in the very first subdivision of Section II                  and Solomon serve, of course, also the purpose of
(The Historical Reliability of the Bible) the question             legitimizing the Davidic dynasty. And also the Old
is raised: is the Bible "more trustworthy (reliable)               Testament sometimes mentions wonderfully large
than other sources?"                                               numbers of slain enemies."
  What does the Report/Decision answer? Here are                      Understand well what the Report is saying. In
two direct quotations from p. 41:                                  plain English, those exaggerated propaganda
                                                                   reports are LIES! Some of these Dutch theologians
  "One cannot, therefore, understand all accounts                  ought to remember rather vividly that Herman
in the Bible without anything further as reliable                  Goebbels, in the days of the Nazis in World War II,
(trustworthy) historical writings."                                was the past master of this "big lie" technique. The
  "Taking everything into consideration, there is,                 Allies, of course, were also not innocent. But now
however, nevertheless also not sufficient ground                   they are ascribing such lies to God's Word!


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                391



  2. The Report brings up an old, old argument            only in Israel but in the entire ancient Near East
which has been answered many times. The Report            was strongly disapproved. The first daughter bears
claims that "not all literary genres which we meet        a son and calls him Mo-ab, a clear allusion to the
in the Bible have the same kind of importance             fact that according to the Hebrew text he was  me-
when it comes to historical reliability. In a  folk-      ab, `from father' (Gen.  19:36). The son of the
account (or does the Report actually mean what we         second gets the name Ben Ammi, which in fact
call a "folk tale" when it speaks of "een  volksver-      means `son of my blood relative'-he becomes the
haal"?) it is not so important who the hero was who       tribe-father of the Ammonites. The moral of the
killed Goliath, David (I Sam.  17)  or Elhanan (II        story therefore: all Moabites and Ammonites are
Sam. 21:19)."                                             bastards. We plainly have to do here with folk
  3. But notice the mockery which this segment            humor, and we would be taking this account too
makes of Scripture! "Etiology (the science which          seriously if we saw historical writing in it. Nations
explains the origin of customs, HCH) furnishes in         all over the world mock one another in the same
the form of a short tale answer to what men have          way."
called the `child-question': `Why is this place holy?       Do you see what this Report does to the Bible?
Why is it called thus?' etc. Thus, for example, the         Next time we will return to the section on "The
story of the two daughters of Lot, who made their         Foundation of the Authority of Scripture" and try
father drunk in order to conceive by him (Gen.            to see what lies behind all this.
19:30-38). This is about a form of incest which not



                     Impressions of Singapore (4)

  Another memorable impression which I received           ence of some 200, almost all of whom were young
during last July's visit to the GLTS in Singapore was     Orientals. I was suddenly and forcefully reminded:
that of what I would call a practical experience of       you're not at home; you're in Singapore!
the catholicity of the church. The truth that the
church of Jesus Christ is catholic implies that the         And yet how soon that shock passed and was vir-
church is supra-national, that it transcends, in fact,    tually forgotten! In a community such as Singapore,
all natural differences, especially differences of        of course, this is possible partly because there is no
race and nation and tongue and clime. This does           language barrier. English is spoken commonly. I
not mean that these differences are erased; that          can well imagine that foreign missionaries who
would, of course, be impossible. The differences          must face the additional problem of a language-bar-
remain. But they do not enter into the picture as         rier experience this "culture-shock" even more.
any kind of criterion of membership in the body of        But in Singapore the Lord has given us a foreign
Christ; they do not affect the question of one's par-     mission field in which to a large extent the English
ticipation in the communion of saints. They are           language can be used; if this had not been so, the
transcended.                                              problems of ministering on that field would have
                                                          been far greater. (By the way, though, Rev. den
  Now it is indeed a shock for one who is accus-          Hartog sometimes wishes he could speak and
tomed to facing an audience or a congregation of          understand Mandarin Chinese.)
blonde, blue-eyed, Anglo-Saxons to stand at the
lectern and to be confronted by a sea of oriental           Chiefly, however, that shock passed because of
faces. To be sure, in a city like Singapore one ex-       what I would call a practical aspect of the  catholi-
periences constantly, wherever he goes (except, of        city of the church. Brother Ong led us in prayer.
course, at the den Hartogs' apartment) that he is in      We sang some of the familiar Reformation hymns.
an oriental community. But, even so, it is different      We read the Scriptures. After a while I began to
when one lectures or preaches. All my adult life I        lecture and to expound the history and the truths of
have been accustomed to facing but one kind of            the Reformation. I could observe my audience
people when I lecture or preach. It becomes habit.        paying careful attention, showing interest, drinking
One expects that kind of audience. But this habit         in the same truths of the gospel of sovereign grace
was suddenly interrupted, especially on the               that you and I love. More and more the awareness
evening of my first lecture, when I faced an audi-        of the natural differences become submerged in the


392                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



awareness of our transcendent spiritual unity. I felt      there is every indication that the group in Singapore
at home in the communion of saints!                        is ready to be instituted. I am referring not merely to
   Something of the same thing I experienced when          their eagerness and their strong desire. That, too! At
I preached at the Kampong on the Lord's day.               present they have no church and no church life,
Although I had to simplify somewhat, in the main I         and they have not had these for a considerable
preached as I would at home. From a natural point          time. It is not difficult to understand this strong
of view everything (including the fact that I              desire, is it? Put yourself in their shoes, if you can.
preached in my stocking-feet!) reminded me that I            But I am referring to their readiness in an essen-
was not at home. But from a spiritual point of view        tial regard. They are ready, I believe, to manifest the
we were at home in the midst of the saints who             marks of the true church in their community. In the
serve the same Lord, love the same Christ, believe         first place, it ought to be perfectly obvious that they
the same gospel of sovereign grace as we do.               desire and love the pure preaching of the Word, the
  And it is not long before one experiences the            first mark. And I mean: pure! How else do you
same thing in less formal contacts and in personal         account for the fact that they desire the presence of
conversations.                                             our missionary? Besides, I witnessed their response
  The final impression which I wish to mention is          and their enthusiastic love of the Reformed truth.
                                                           In the second place, our own Synod has taken the
the impression that this group of young people in          stand, albeit inconsistently, that they are ready
Singapore was (and is) deeply disappointed by the          with respect to the second mark, the right admini-
decision of our 1980 Synod forbidding them to be           stration of the sacraments. We have, in fact, said
instituted as a congregation until they can                (though I disagree with the decision) that they can
subscribe to the Three Forms of Unity. This was
one of the first things about which some of the men        have half of that second mark, baptism. But do not
                                                           forget that baptism and the Lord's Supper are prin-
of the Executive Committee of the GLTS spoke to            cipally inseparable; and this is even more
me upon our arrival, and it was also one of the last
things about which they sought my counsel. In fact,        emphatically true of the relation of adult baptism
                                                           and the Supper. Yet we continue to deny them the
one of the purposes of our last evening's gathering        Lord's Supper, which they cannot have until they
for a delicious  lo-course  Chinese dinner (no fish        are instituted. In the third place, they strongly
eyes, no bat soup, and no python meat!) was to give
the young men of the Executive Committee oppor-            desire (and understand) the third mark, that of the
                                                           proper exercise of Christian discipline. As I have
tunity to discuss this matter with me and to chart a
course of action. I wish to stress that I made abso-       said before, there is a strong emphasis on a sancti-
lutely no propaganda against the decision, though I        fied walk. Along with this, there is a concern that
shared their disappointment. I counselled them to          the key of Christian discipline is needed. This was,
                                                           in fact, mentioned to me more  thanonce.  Besides,
make the best of the situation and to try to study         there are young, men who, though self-effacing,
the creeds and reach the point at which they could         nevertheless would be capable of serving in the
subscribe to them as soon as possible. But the latter      office of elder and of employing that key of Chris-
has proved impossible, and will be impossible for          tian discipline.
some time to come, too. Bear in mind that they take
this matter of subscription very seriously, and that         This was one impression, therefore, that left me
they will not subscribe lightly. And this is to their      with a feeling of sorrow and sympathy in Singa-
credit!                                                    pore. I sincerely hope this will be remedied. It
                                                           would also solve the completely abnormal situation
  Now it is not my purpose to write at length about        with respect to baptism.
this issue. I trust it will receive a renewed airing at
our coming Synod. I am writing now about impres-           (Footnote: During the summer months our  Singa-
sions. I will stick to this. But I do have some further    porean  seminary student and his wife, Mr.  & Mrs.
impressions in this connection.                            Lau Chin Kwee, hope during a brief vacation to
                                                           visit many of our churches. We commit them to
  A second impression which I received is that             your Christian fellowship and love and Fre.)


       llie Standard Bearer
    ~mahes a thoughtful  gift.
           on any occasion.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  393



TRANSLATEDTREASURES

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


(In this entire section of the pamphlet Kuyper has been talking    sion and cannot even become excited about it. It is
about the causes of deterioration in the church and has dis-       the offensive sin of so many men and women, who
cussed how this deterioration develops in the church as the        at confession of faith, baptism, and the Lord's
church undergoes a change from a condition of spiritual            Supper repeatedly declare their assent to the
strength to one of grave weakness.)                                doctrine of the church, and who are the same ones
40. Concerning Deformation in the Members.                         who never lift a finger to try to find out what the
   All deformation in the members of a certain                     doctrine of the church is.
church which deforms the church itself begins with                   The seemingly opposite form of this is that of ex-
the confession of the members and not, as is                       ternalizing the confession, i.e., the sin which sepa-
usually thought, with their walk of life. It is not as if          rates this confession from the heart. In that case
life is of lesser importance, but rather that one's                they are very busy with the confession, are zealous
walk has ecclesiastical value only as a confession.                for it with a burning zeal; they investigate and ana-
Everything is measured in the church of Christ by                  lyze it; but they consider it a dry abstraction which
the standard of Christ. Only one thing has value for               is to be imprinted on the memory, preserved
the church as church: your faith. Only your faith is               through reasoning, and which requires repetition in
an instrument of salvation, and only your faith                    its most literal form. Actually this sin takes the con-
binds you to the Lord. Virtues of those who do not                 fession out of the confession. You thought you
possess the grace of God may have value for the                    heard a lion roaring and found nothing but an
civil community, and to this extent must tend to                   anatomical skeleton of the king of beasts.
God's honor if these virtues restrain the lawless-
ness of the malicious-yes, indeed, to prepare for                    The third form under which the confession of the
the church a place for the sole of her feet.1 But they             members manifests its sickness is the violation of
d6 not have ecclesiastical value. A church without                 confessional balance. There are in the confession of
any sincere members, consisting only of members                    the church, even as in every organism, distinct
each of whom is adorned with civil virtues, but is                 members or parts and pieces, each of which in the
far away from faith in the Lord Jesus, would not                   harmony of the whole has its own place and
only not form a good church, but would form no                     purpose. These parts are not alike, but each differs
church at all. Such a gathering of people could as                 according to its own nature. One is the eye, the
well be heathen and idolatrous. The attempt to                     other an ear; a third part is the heart, a fourth the
judge the members of the church by placing the                     head. In brief, the whole confession is related har-
-walk of the church on the foreground must be reso-                moniously as a body. The demand of that confes-
lutely rejected. It is still true as it has always been            sion is, therefore, that it sees with its eyes, walks on
through the ages: confessidn and walk, not walk                    its feet, and lifts up its head. But now sin violates
and confession. Confession must remain on the                      that proper balance; transposes the emphasis; takes
foreground because in it lies the mark of a Chris-                 away the importance of what ought to have stress;
tian, and the walk can only first be judged by the                 and lays stress on what cannot bear such emphasis.
glimmer of that light.                                             One wants the eye to hear, wants the ear to see, and
                                                                   wants to give the head the function which only the
   This corruption in regard to confession appears                 heart can perform. Much one-sidedness originates
in the members in more than one form.                              from this-those unnatural monstrosities which
   The most common form (alas!) is that of indiffer-               make the confession of the church sickly and
ence, when many say they assent to the confessions                 which all find their mark in this that they are dis-
but hardly know them and are not even troubled by                  turbances of its balance.
this; they do not recognize opposition to the confes-                The fourth form is that of superstition. The mem-
                                                                   bers of the church seek to mix into the confession
`There is here some evidence of Kuyper's common grace.             what does not belong there. This sin originates


394                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



when the church, having no eye for the actual              members of the church may be known by the
mystery of the kingdom, finds her confession insuf-        marks of Christians, namely, by faith; and when
ficiently mysterious and now has a strong desire to        they have received Jesus Christ the only Savior,
push into her confession all kinds of falsely mysti-       they avoid sin, follow after righteousness, love the
cal elements.                                              true God and their neighbor, neither turn aside to
  The fifth or last form is that of unbelief. Rising       the right or left, and crucify the flesh with the
when the confession is sufficiently out of joint to        works thereof" (Belgic Confession, Art. 29). There
become openly disputed,. the members of the                is indeed much weakness in them, "but they fight
church now have no scruple to set their denials            against them through the Spirit, all the days of their
over against the confession of the church and to do        life, continually taking their refuge in the blood,
this at the top of their voices.                           death, passion and obedience of our Lord Jesus
                                                           Christ"  (idem).  On the other hand, if these marks
  Sin against the confession can go no farther than        gradually fall away so that not only is weakness
this. Having come to that point, the confession            present, but also an unwillingness to fight, and not
crumbles and fades away, and the confession of the         only unwillingness to fight, but also opposition to
sinful principles of the world replaces the confes-        Christ; if the waters of unrighteousness spread,
sion of true and holy principles.                          then the church as church is endangered, even
  Deformation in walk keeps step with these five           though her preaching is still ever so pure, because
forms of the deformation of the confession.                impious people are able to be in the church of
  Indifference, in its first form, results in this that    Christ, provided they are subjected to the saints.
all difference between the walk of the confessors of       But turn this relationship around so that the
Jesus and the decent children of the world falls           impious gain control and suppress that which is
away. The two live alike. The church walks just as         holy, then one has a gathering of ungodly instead of
others walk. As the world rises and falls so the           a gathering of the devout, and the result is a deadly
church rises and falls-in the spiritual sense of the       danger for the life of the church.
word. But nothing of Christ can be found in their          41.    Concerning Deformation Of Office Bearers.
walk. They do nothing for Jesus nor forsake                  Usually the corruption of the members pulls the
anything for His name's sake.                              corruption of the ministers after it. There is a con-
  Externalization on  .the other hand, its second          nection between the two. A godly church is usually
form, breeds Phariseeism. This is an eroding of the        adorned with pious ministers. On the other hand, a
sinful heart under an appearance of detailed               church which has deteriorated sees its own dis-
confession, but the sinful heart is compelled to hide      grace on the pulpit. Yet this rule is not always appli-
itself and thereby carries with it the mold of corrup-     cable. This is true for two reasons. First, it pleases
tion and the smell of death.                               God the Lord, out of pure mercy, often to bestow
                                                           on a declining church preachers of righteousness to
  Violation of balance, the third form, produces in        raise His church up again. But it is also true, on the
one's walk, just as in the confession, a series of one-    other hand, that God sometimes forsakes a good
sided phenomena; riddles of man's heart, a strong          church and deprives it of ministers if that church
passion for sin alongside of rigid self-denial; fiery      endangers itself by giving to those ministers an
but deadly; sober and moderate, but inwardly full          honor which belongs to Him alone, or if the church
of lies; completely merciful, but a slave to the           must be tried and tested by being abandoned.
sensual; two hearts in one breast; worshipping God
and mammon at the same time.                                 This is the reason why the deformation of a
  Superstition, in the fourth place, falsifies life by     church can properly proceed from the ministers.
exaggeration. It is a self-willed worship which            That is to say, the church can be affected by an ap-
denies the pleasures of the flesh; and, turned about       pearance of evil which does not find its origin in the
by inward compulsion, what was once begun in the           common life of the members, but, in a unique way,
spirit, ends in the lust of the flesh.                     finds its origin in the official life of the office
                                                           bearers. Especially the ministers of the Word occu-
  Unbelief, finally, its last form, is manifested in a     py a very influential place in the church of Christ,
determined hatred; it opposes the Christian way of         and are, because of this, susceptible to temptation
living; it is eager to indulge in the service of the       peculiar to the office. This temptation has a four-
world in all its glitter, but to do this under the         fold character. The first form of this process of
shadow of the cross.                                       illness is the minister moves in the sphere of holy
  If now such evil, in the absence of discipline,          things in a lifeless way. He prays with ardor, but
works through unchecked and unpunished, then it            with a cold heart. He sprinkles water and breaks
finally deforms the church as church so that it            bread, but with an apathetic soul. And so, all de-
affects the majority of the members. "The                  pending on his nature, he is wound up in a false ex-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        395



citement or is withered in a mechanical routine. If,         behold, such a minister still takes it for himself.
through this sin, the lie has once crept into his min-       And thus, finally, sickness comes to its end, and
istry, then the process of sickness goes over into its       that spiritual disease is born which is called clerica-
second form and becomes a misuse of authority.               lism. This disease has as its sinful rule, not that the
The minister must speak in the name of the Lord.             shepherd should be for the sheep, but the sheep for
He does not only advise, but he handles the key of           the shepherd. Then it is no longer a giving of his life
the kingdom. He may and can do this as long as he            for the sheep, but a standing up for his own rights.
allows the authority of his King and Lord to be ab-          He occupies a position not for the power of the
solutely dominant over him. If, on the other hand, a         Lord, but for his own honor and consideration. His
perfunctory routine creeps into his ministry, then           office is no longer a mutual  binding by an oath for
he himself slips away from under the authority of            the salvation of the church, but a mutual plotting as
the Lord and proceeds to put his own authority in            bearers of one and the same office. Then tyranny
place of the Lord's Word. There is no preaching any          rises. Then the most intolerable egoism rages. And
more of the Word of the King, but only preaching of          with "Ichabod" on her lips, the  church,complains
his own idea. The third form is taking what does             that her glory is departed.
not belong to him, the so-called minister-idolatry.            `And because this egoism stimulates the members
He is called to arouse love for Jesus only, and,             to mutiny, and as the authority of the Word is un-
behold, he himself becomes the center of the                 dermined from two sides at the same time, this
sphere of his work. This flatters and stimulates             clericalism becomes very really a cause for the
him. He enjoys this. And he does not know that the           church's being filled with turmoil and entering a
arrow of Satan has already pierced his heart. "I will        state of deformation.
give my honor to no other," the Lord says, and,

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren


                        A New Presbyterian Church

   I have read in several religious magazines in past            their governing sessions and others do not; and while
weeks of the formation of another Presbyterian de-               some are frankly charismatic and others are not, all
nomination. At a time when several Presbyterian                  are committed to a central plank in the new church's
denominations are making plans of uniting, it                    government: "constitutional freedom" in all these
appears that at least one new Presbyterian body                  areas.
will be formed-this time out of the United Presby-                 . ..A large part of the time here was spent in small-
terian Church. I quote from the  Presbyterian                   group discussion of three basic docum&ts:  The West-
/ournal, April 8, 1981:                                         minster Confession of Faith in Modem English..., a Pro-
                                                                posed Book of Government; and a Proposed Book of
      America's newest Presbyterian denomination was            Worship.
   born in a two-day convention here (St. Louis, MO.), as
   some 43 ministers and elders, both men and women,               The steering committee chose not to recommend
   representing 15 churches, signed a covenant binding          adoption of the Larger and Shorter Catechisms as part
   themselves to walk together as a church.                     of the doctrinal package.
      An equal, perhaps larger, number of representa-              .  ..Two major issues represent the unspoken con-
   tives and churches stood by as observers, unable or          cerns which led the group to believe a separate de-
   unwilling for a variety of reasons to commit  them           nomination would best meet their needs: the ordina-
   selves in the organizational meeting of what will be         tion of women and liberty in respect to gifts of the
   called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).            Holy Spirit.
      Leaders of the new church indicated that perhaps             While no more than two or three of the congrega-
   as many as 30 or 40 additional congregations have             tions have women elders and/or consider themselves
   shown an interest in what was being done here.               charismatic, the freedom to make local determina-
                                                                 tions in these areas was a major concern.
      Without exception, congregations of the  EPC are
    former United Presbyterian (UPCUSA) churches that              The mood of the organizers would have to be des-
    have lately withdrawn. While some have women on             cribed as more self-consciously evangelical than  Re-


396                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



   formed, although all believe they stand in the main-              Judging from the above report, one would con-
   stream of the historic Reformed tradition.                      clude that there is not much hope of a denomina-
       Evidence of the stronger evangelical orientation ap-        tion unified in the historical Reformed confession
   peared in a number of forms. In the small-group dis-            and faith. Surely "constitutional freedom" in the
   cussions, Chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession,              areas mentioned, can only lead to disaster. How
   "Concerning God's Eternal Decrees," frankly raised a            can transfer of membership take place if one
   number of eyebrows.                                             church maintains the right of women to serve in
       Referring to the discussion in a brief devotional           office, and another does not? What of the charisma-
   moment before the whole group, the Rev. Dean H.                 tic who transfers to a church which does not allow
   Wolf of the Faith Presbyterian Church, Aurora, Colo.,           that in its fellowship? A new denomination which
   said, "The Lord Jesus said little or nothing about the          starts on this basis, can not long maintain even the
   importance of predestination or of infant baptism, but          semblance of a Reformed character.
   He had much to say about the importance of a living
   relationship to Himself."


                            A Second C.R.C. Seminary?

  Reports have been given in the secular and  reli-                   excellent programs for prospective young ministers.
giousLpress  about the possible founding of another                   Each provides its unique perspective and has its indi-
seminary, probably to prepare men for the ministry                    vidual strengths.
in the Christian Reformed Church. The  Calvinist                        The "orthodox" element within the Christian Re-
Contact, April 24,  198 1,  writes:                                   formed denomination need not create yet another
                                                                      seminary to train our young men. There are enough
       A group of Christian Reformed Church members                   options as mentioned above.
   near Orange City, Iowa have purchased the former
   Harmony Youth Homes near that city with the inten-                   The Iowa seminary plans to open up this September
   tion of turning it into a Reformed seminary.                       if my sources are correct. That means that it has four
                                                                      months to find faculty, establish a curriculum and,
       The home was owned by  Bethany  Christian Servi-               not unimportant, find students. It already has a facul-
   ces, headquartered in Grand Rapids, MI and was sold                ty. Presumably those men who instigated this absurd
   to the Christian Reformed group on April  6....                    proposal will volunteer their services for such a ven-
       There seems to be no connection between the pro-               ture: people like John  Piersma,  Henry Vander  Kam,
   posed new seminary and nearby Dordt College in                     Thomas Vanden  Heuvel and others will be instrumen-
   Sioux Center. At present the Christian Reformed                    tal in getting the seminary off the ground. Its grass-
   Church has only one seminary, in Grand Rapids.                     roots support seems shallow but it might attract one or
  The same paper contains a "Viewpoint" about                         two students.
this which was written by Keith Knight:                                 Existing theological seminaries have established li-
       Word is out that a new Reformed seminary is being              brary facilities and a strong faculty. Their curricula
   established in Iowa, designed to provide an alterna-               are strong. It is simply beyond me that a group of  well-
   tive to those who want to enter the ministry within                intentioned individuals would try to create a new
   the Christian Reformed Church.                                     seminary with yet another emphasis.
       Calvin College is the officially supported college of            One would have been more sympathetic to their
   the denomination and Calvin Seminary is the official               cause if they had encouraged prospective students for
   educational institution for the ministry within the de-            the ministry to study at Westminster Seminary, for
   nomination. There has never been any expressed need                example. Their move is unnecessarily divisive and
   to offer more than one seminary to the young men                   may be seen as another little step towards the break-
   who enter the ministry.                                            ing away of a small segment of the denomination.
                                                                      Such would be unfortunate. It would be more noble to
       It seems as though a group of ministers in Iowa rnu-           attempt to  (re)build  from within the denomination
   tually agreed that Calvin Seminary was not doing its               than to forsake her and strike out on your own.
   job. That in itself is not improper. What seems hard
   for me to fathom is that these men have seen the need             The above writer clearly indicates his opinion of
   to create a brand new seminary with a faculty and               this new venture. One can sympathize with the
   facilities to attract students into the ministry.               men who believe there is a crying need for a
       There are other alternatives to Calvin Seminary for         soundly (Christian) Reformed seminary. One will
   those who want to enter the ministry. Westminster,              have to await further developments to see what
   Reformed Theological Seminary, Western, and the                 will happen. All of this does seem to me to be too
   Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary all provide              little too late. We'll keep you posted.


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              397



                                       The Mark of the Beast

       The Seventh-Day Adventist paper,  Liberty,  Jan.                    recorded in a computer network that will maintain a
     1981, presents some interesting comments on the                       running account of everyone's financial activities.
     development of the computer age and what this                         The tax dodger will become a historical curiosity."
     might have to do with the fulfillment of the prophe-                    The technology is available, if mankind chooses to
     cy of Scripture concerning the end of this age.                       use it. An eighty-nine page study prepared by James
     Among other things, they write:                                       Rule was presented in September, 1975, to the Com-
                                                                           mittee on the Right of Privacy, headed by then-vice-
          Evangelical Christians have seen prophetic implica-              President Nelson Rockefeller. It told of both the bene-
        tions in the development of computer technology.                   ficial and detrimental social impact of Electronic
        Their scenarios have ranged from the ridiculous-a                  Funds Transfer (EFT), the system described by Miller,
        "beast"       computer    and laser-beamed numbers                 in which a person would have one computer account
        inscribed in foreheads or hands-to the plausible.                  for all transactions. The study pointed out several sit-
          At the root of their concern is a prophetic passage              uations made possible by such a system: a traffic of-
        from the book of Revelation, which describes last-day              fender delinquent in paying his ticket would not be
        church-state events:                                               able to make any more EFTs. And persons sought by
                                                                           the police could be coerced into surrender by not
          "And he causeth all, both small and great,. rich and
        poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right              allowing them to make any business transactions.
        hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might                   Whatever one's view of Revelation 13, it must be
        buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of             admitted that the evangelical scenario is even now
        the beast, or the number of his name" [Rev.  13:16,                technically feasible. Given zealous church and politi-
        17).                                                               cal leaders determined to utilize economic coercion
          Author Arthur Miller, speculating on the use of the              against nonconformists [not so farfetched, when one
        computer in commercial transactions, sketches a                    considers the stated objectives of the lobbies seeking
        scenario in which Revelation 13 would seem to fit                  to make America a Christian republic), what today
        very well:                                                         seems like science fiction may quickly become pro-
                                                                           phetic fulfillment.
           "Checks, and perhaps cash,         will disappear              It makes one think. What will take place the next
        someday, and all purchases will be made on universal            few years? Indeed, Rev. 13 may be very near its ful-
        credit cards. Each transaction will be electronically           fillment.

     THEDAYOFSHADOWS

                            Distressed But Not Depressed
                                                             Rev. John A. Heys



~      Step by step the divine plan is executed, and the                explaining their dreams, be brought in time before
     events occur as divinely designed in inscrutable                   the king whom he must meet.
     wisdom. Joseph is sold into Egypt by his brothers
     and bought by Potiphar the captain of the guard.                     In Genesis  39:l Potiphar is called the captain of
     He is sold because his brothers do not want his                    the king's guard. We read, further, in Genesis 40:1-
     dreams to be fulfilled; and he is bought by the man                4, that the king put his butler and baker in the pri-
     whom God selected and raised up, just exactly in                   son, and that the captain of the guard charged
     order that Joseph's dreams might be fulfilled. De-                 Joseph with them. We conclude therefore that
     ceitfully he is charged with evil, and, because of it,             Potiphar was the one who consigned these two ser-
     cast into the king's prison, so that he can be                     vants of the king to Joseph. This is understandable.
     brought before the king to explain his dreams. The                 Potiphar did not have a change of mind about the
     king's butler and baker are cast into this same                    crime of which Joseph was unjustly accused, and
     prison, so that Joseph can meet them and, through                  for which he had sent him into prison. He did not


398                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



bring Joseph out of prison,  did- not commute his          Pharaoh. He sought to appeal his case before the
sentence. He considered it wise to keep him there,         Supreme Court of the land. He knew that he must
even though the keeper of the prison had found no          appeal to one above Potiphar who controlled the
fault in Joseph, and had exalted him to the position       prison; and that one was the king who controlled
of full control of all the prisoners. We may be sure       Potiphar.
that Potiphar knew all this and was quite aware of
Joseph's faithfulness there in prison. The man he            Did we not know the outcome and only Joseph's
had trusted with all his goods before this, he still       innocence, we could shed tears for him when he
considered trustworthy in the prison. Here there           cried out, "Think on me when it shall be well with
were no women to tempt him. This besetting sin, as         thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and
Potiphar viewed it, Joseph could.not fall into in the      make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me
prison-certainly not with his wife. And he agreed          out of this house: For indeed I was stolen away out
to this elevation of Joseph as long as he stays in pri-    of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I
son. And, after all, Joseph must still be punished for     done nothing that they should put me into the dun-
his "crime." Yet, behind it is God, Who has His            geon." Step by step, we said, the divine plan is
purpose in having Joseph left in prison and elevated       being executed. Event follows event in the divinely
for what must follow in the divine plan. The little        inscrutable wisdom that has planned Joseph's
chick must remain in the egg-shell till a particular       future. But Joseph himself was human, and he
moment; and Joseph must remain incarcerated in             could not see and know then what we know today.
the king's prison until God's moment has come. He          His cry reveals that he was sinking ever more
is not forgotten of God. But his continued imprison-       deeply, and his soul was being overwhelmed more
ment is due to the fact that God has him in mind,          and more with distress. He had fallen from the po-
and is working all things together for his good.           sition of being a beloved son at home with his
                                                           father to a slave in a strange land, from friendship
  Added now to the prisoners is one who, like              unto bondage. In his servitude he had been exalted;
Joseph, is unjustly accused of an evil which he did        but he had remained a slave who could not return
not perform. Even as Joseph was. cast into the pri-        to his father's home with its joys. Falsely accused
son without a hearing, the butler was cast with the        he was debased further into life imprisonment. And
baker into the prison where Joseph was being held.         though in the dungeon it went relatively well with
Who offended the king was not yet determined, but          him, to the point that he had freedom in the prison,
in his fury the king cast both of them into the dun-       experiencing exaltation amid debasement, having
geon. It would seem that here too was circumstan-          all the prisoners committed to him, he nevertheless
tial evidence that incriminated the butler with the        was in deep distress. Though chief of the prisoners,
baker. And what the two, Joseph and the butler,            he was a prisoner and not a free man. He could not
had in common was that God was using both of               get out of prison to return home. His plea shows
them for the good of His church. Both will be              how badly he wanted to get "out of this house."
brought out of prison because of dreams, although            And the days that passed by since the butler was
God has a rather long period of time between the           given his freedom only added to Joseph's woes. The
two releases. We would say that Joseph who had             human mind is an active organ that causes us un-
been there before the butler deserved to be out be-        told grief because, grappling with the unknown, it
fore he was. But we speak foolishly, for Joseph did        often makes deductions and arrives at conclusions
not deserve to be there at all. He was there because       that distress the soul further. Well could Joseph
of God's mercy, and not because of Joseph's guilt.         have wondered whether the king, having been told
And God's clock and calendar have the right                by the butler what Joseph's plight was, simply
moments for every event in history. His grace and          dismissed the whole matter so that now it had
mercy upon His church-set the day, the hour, as            become a closed case, the Supreme Court having
well as the year.                                          thrown the case out with no recourse left for
  The dreams of the butler and baker have one              Joseph. He did not know that the butler had for-
point of similarity in that both have the figure three     gotten completely. And even we, who know the
in them. This does not have symbolic meaning as            outcome, and know that this ungrateful servant of
referring to the Trinity. The three branches of the        the king did completely fail to think again of
butler's dream, and the three baskets of the baker's       Joseph, are amazed at that fact. How could he have
dream refer only to the three days when the king           forgotten? Could a man forget an imprisonment
will "lift up" the heads of these two men, the one to      that was so recent? Does one forget such an experi-
his former position, and the other to the gallows.         ence, when life hung in the balance for a time, and
                                                           when such a happy ending was the outcome?`Was
  Joseph concluded his interpretation of the dream         there not a new baker in the king's service? And
of the butler with a plea to be remembered before          would not the presence of this new personage


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                          399



remind the butler of his experiences with the other            My Saviour He is known;
baker?                                                         My refuge and my rock of strength
  Here, too, we must remember that the divine                      Are found in God alone."    Psalm 62
plan is being executed. Inscrutable wisdom is here          Would it have been good for Joseph to know the
at work. God's hand is with Joseph. And that hand         details in God's, way? Would his faith have been
completely erased from the butler's mind Joseph's         stronger? Was his plea to the butler a manifestation
plea and request. He, the Divine Protector, Who           of weakening faith? Did it contradict those words,
neither slumbers nor sleeps, has His plan rooted in       "My soul in silence waits for God"? Not at all! To
love and executed in tender mercy. Joseph must            all these questions there must be an emphatic NO!
not go home! Joseph cannot go home! And do you            Had it been good for Joseph, God would have made
not see the love, the mercy, and the inscrutable          him know the details. It would not have served the
wisdom in it that gives this mental block in the          strengthening of his faith. God strengthens faith
mind of the butler? There is work for Joseph in           through His Word; but knowing too much detail of
Egypt, so that the covenant line in Canaan may sur-       His counsel will easily cause one to walk by sight
vive the coming famine-of which neither Joseph,           rather than by faith. And that holds true for us
nor Pharaoh, nor Jacob and his family are aware.          today, when we are curious to know just how the
And that covenant family must survive because             confusion and economic, political, international,
Christ is in its loins. If He is not born, because the    social distresses of the day will serve the coming of
covenant line dies in the famine, no one will ever        the  .Antichrist.  Faith needs to know. It is essential
know God's love, mercy, and grace; and all will be        for faith that we know what God promises, and that
in a fiery dungeon that in comparison makes               it is He Who promises. We need to know the broad
Pharaoh's and Potiphar's house of torture as              lines of the way that sent His Son and had Him
nothing. We would still be in our sins; and the holy      crucified, raised, and exalted in heaven over all
wrath of God would burn upon us without end!              creation. But detailed knowledge of His counsel,
The Christ must come and, being falsely accused,          because we are still in this sinful flesh, would tend
be nailed to a tree so that, before God, there will       to less exercise of faith, and a weakening of faith
never be any accusations against us, and we may           rather than a strengthening of it. Joseph's cry for
eat of the tree of life in the new Jerusalem.             the butler to help him was no weakening of his
                                                          faith. God uses means, and He insists that we use
  But, as we said, Joseph does not know this work         means. When we pray, "Give us this day our daily
which he must do in Egypt. He does not know the           bread" He insists that we work for it. We are not to
details of God's plan. And he cannot see how the          wait for Him to put it on the table, or even in our
things of the moment will work together for his and       mouths! And He insists also that we use our minds.
our good. And note that we said, Joseph does not
know the details of God's plan. He did know the             To wait in silence means to keep our lips from
general lines of that plan; and that is what kept         complaining when God works differently than we
him, in his distress, from being depressed, and gave      had planned. But it means also that we are very
him hope instead of despair. The Supreme Court            vocal in our words of praise to Him for His good-
may have seemed to have thrown out his case, but          ness.
he knew that God would bring him out in His own             The butler forgot because God had not forgotten
time.                                                     either His promise to Joseph in the dreams, or us in
  How did he know this? Those dreams that God             this day and age. Keep before you always the truth
gave him, and which filled his brothers with such         that He keeps His Word, and that His way is the
envy and hatred were for Joseph a source, of              best way, because it is the only way. Then when
comfort. They were God's Word to him. And,                distressed you will not be depressed but hopeful
holding on to God's Word, walking by faith, the           and patient, leaving your future to divine inscruta-
child of God is sustained in the midst of all the dis-    ble wisdom and unchanging love that have never
tress and trials of this life. When God shows the         failed and will never fail.
child of God who holds on to His Word that this is
not His way, that child of God still believes that
there is a way. And he waits for God to reveal the             The Standard Bearer
details of that way in his life. His soul sings,
         "My soul in silence waits for God,                 makes a thoughtful gift
     My Saviour He has proved;
     He only is my rock and tower;                                        for a shut-in.
     I never shall be moved.
     My honour is secure with God,


400                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                                The Spirit of this Age
                                                      Rev. K. Koole



    "...unto them that are defiled and unbelieving             answer the question, "What is the prevailing atti-
    is nothing pure; but even their mind and con-              tude of society in general towards what men intu-
    science are defiled.                                       itively know to be the Creator's standard of
    They profess that they know God; but in works              morality?"
    they deny Him, being abominable, and dis-
    obedient and unto every good work reprobate."                 That there is such an intuitive, increated con-
    Titus 1:15, 16                                             sciousness which indicates to natural man what he
                                                               is called by God to do is very plain from Romans
  Strictly speaking the subject of this article, "The          2:14, 15. "For when the Gentiles which have not
Spirit of this Age," is not a sign of the time, at least       the law, do by nature the things contained in the
not in the sense of having been included tradition-            law, these, having not the law are a law unto them-
ally in the lists of signs of the time. Yet it is not          selves: Which shew the work of the law written in
asserting too much to say that the spirit of this age          their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
is THE sign of the time.                                       and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else
  Every age can be characterized by a certain                  excusing one another." The text speaks of the law
"spirit." The point of this article is that the Spirit of      of the conscience by which man knows that
our  age is unique; it sets our age apart from those           immorality is disobedience to God and that it has
which have gone before. It is also an indicator                His severe disapproval. The question is, how do
which points conclusively to the nearness of                   men treat this inner law which witnesses against
Christ's return. It not only shows that the world is           sinful behavior? Pertinent for our purposes is the
ripe for judgment, but it serves to make  the world            question, what today is different about man's
ripe for judgment. It is the Spirit of this age which          attitude towards the inner, accusing law of that
serves as fertile ground for the full ripening of evil         conscience? The contention of this writer is that
in society, such as lawlessness and lust. The                  there is a difference, a marked difference.
frightening aspect of this "spirit" is that no one is            In simplest terms the Spirit that distinguishes
immune to its influence, not the elect themselves.             this present age from the past is that our society is
To my mind there is nothing so immediately dan-                characterized by an appalling lack of shame. Man is
gerous to the Church of Jesus Christ as the Spirit of          not ill at ease in the performance  of.gross evil, not
this age. It is when one considers the workings of             at all. Rather men glory in their shame; they flaunt
the Spirit of this age that the solemn, sobering truth         it; they revel in it; they publicize their "exploits."
of Christ's prophetic words strike home, "Never-               They do not keep their excesses secret; rather they
theless when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find              write their autobiographies, which explicitly deal
faith on the earth?"                                           with their immoralities. The public devours this
  The question arises, what are we talking about               pornographic pulp, and cries for more. This is one
when we speak of "The Spirit of this Age"? The                 indication that shame is more and more becoming a
phrase, though frequently used, is not so easily de-           thing of the past.
fined. It is not something concrete and specific, as             It must be understood that shame is not to be
are for instance, the Anti-Christ, the Great Tribula-          confused with embarrassment, though they are
tion, or catastrophies in nature. It is more abstract.         cousins, still less with repentance or some form of
But it is, nonetheless, very real, and not imagined.           godly remorse. Rather, shame stems from a fear of
  When one speaks of the Spirit of our age one is              being exposed for having committed some sin. It is
referring to the basic moral-ethical atmosphere of             the desire to cover over some wrong doing from the
this age. The Spirit of this age is the prevailing             eye of God and man. Shame is the evidence of a
attitude which governs and influences society in all           conscience which speaks of one's guilt, a guilt one
of its life-its philosophy and its behavior. To deter-         is ashamed to admit to.
mine what the Spirit of this age is, is to attempt to            The person who experiences shame recognizes


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      401



intuitively that iniquity demeans a man. So it was       hance his reputation in society rather than harm it.
with Adam and Eve. Having eaten of the forbidden         Lamech's very boldness, in which he defied anyone
fruit, and having rebelled, their eyes were opened.      to lay a hand on him, indicates that a different
They knew that they were naked. They were ex-            `Spirit' prevailed in those later days of the pre-delu-
posed to God and to each other in their lust, corrup-    vian world than in the days immediately following
tion, and guilt. They knew that they who had been        the fall. There is no indication that Lamech was
God's prophets, priests, and kings in creation,          forced to become a vagabond in the earth, an out-
standing at the very pinnacle of things earthly, had     law, as Cain was. What Lamech did was acceptable
debased themselves. No longer were they God-like,        to that day's society. And it is exactly this Spirit,
but from the point of view of their passions and         which dominated society, that encouraged and
lustful appetites they had debased themselves to         fostered brazen, shameless behavior such as  La-
the level of brute beasts. And Adam and Eve's            mech's. In time there is progressive degeneration of
posterity gave evidence that they were even more         the conscience, it becomes seared, and this reveals
prey to their carnal appetites than were the brute       itself in the shameless way in which wicked men
beasts. In time they would practice that which even      deport themselves.
the brute beasts themselves have no desire of               Most significantly, in scripture the history of
doing, namely performing that which is contrary to       Lamech's brazen conduct is followed closely by the
nature (Rom. 1:24ff). So they would degrade them-        record of the flood. Genesis  6:5ff states "And God
selves, and delight in it. How demeaning in light of     saw the the wickedness of man was great in the
man's former high estate!                                earth, and that every imagination of his heart was
  Disobedient Adam and Eve realized how they             only evil continually.. . . .And the Lord said, I will
had demeaned themselves, when compared to their          destroy man whom I have created from the face of
past royal perfection, and they were immediately         the earth.;.." Lamech stands as an instance of the
filled with shame. That is part of the reason they       great wickedness of man upon the earth just prior
sought to cover themselves with fig leaves. They         to the flood. Scripture's point is that a society
did not want the other to see how degraded they          which countenances men like. Lamech is ripe for
had become. However, in the development of               judgment. A society which is composed of men to
Adam's posterity there came a point where men did        whom shame is as foreign as it was to Lamech is a
not feel this shame in the committing of gross           society with which God will not bear any longer.
public sins. Boldly they boasted about them              When this society encompasses the whole earth,
without fear of society's disapproval. What disap-       then will come the end. "And  Enoch also, the
proval there was, was weak and inconsequential.          seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
Witness the boastful behavior of Lamech, who,            Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His
having killed a man, strutted before his two wives       saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to con-
singing a song. It is recorded in Genesis  4:23, 24.     vince all that are ungodly among them of all their
"Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto         ungodly deeds which they have ungodly
my speech: for I have slain a young man to my            committed, and all of their hard speeches which
hurt. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly          ungodly sinners have spoken against Him" (Jude
Lamech seventy and sevenfold."                           14, 15).  Surely this arrogant "Lamechian" attitude,
  What is striking is how different after the deed       defiant of all law, untouched by shame, is prevalent
Lamech's attitude was from Cain's. Both were mur-        in our day. Can the judgment be far behind?
derers, yet Cain demonstrated a natural shame. He                               (to be continued)
tried to cover it up. When God forced a "confes-         *In this connection two points should be made. In the first
sion" from him, he expressed great fear as to what       place, that Cain's conscience pricked him, causing him to feel
society (his family) would do to him when they           shame, whereas Lamech's did not, does not imply that Cain
found out. His conscience was touched with               was better than Lamech or less totally depraved. Such a notion
shame. Not so Lamech's. He killed a man in cold          is decisively dispelled by I John 3.
blood and sang about it. He wanted it to be public       In the second place, the existence of a sensitive conscience in
knowledge. That Moses records this song in Holy          an unbelieving man does not enable that man to do works
Scripture centuries later indicates that Lamech's        pleasing to God. The conscience simply declares to a man that
deed and boast did become well known. Openly he          the wrong he does displeases God. Its function is wholly
boasted of his deed. He felt no shame. His con-          negative. It does'not  serve to guide in a way of righteousness.
science was untouched. His attitude was different        God's Holy Word alone can do that.
from Cain's-markedly. *                                                 Take time to study
  It is significant that whereas Cain felt he needed
protection from society's revenge, Lamech                             The Standard Bearer
evidently was confident that this deed would en-


402                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



SPECIAL ARTICLE

           Reformed, Yet Always Reforming (3)
                                                 Prof. H. Hanko



  How is reform brought about?                            abode in that church, and the latter end of that
  In the first place, I cannot emphasize strongly         church is worse than the former. You cannot just
enough that all reform in the church of Jesus Christ      simply put the devils out of the church; you have to
is the work of God, through Christ, by the Spirit of      put God into it.
Christ, in the hearts of God's people. When we con-         All reformation which is satisfied only with the
fess our faith in one holy Catholic church, accord-       negative aspect is not reformation.
ing to Lord's Day XXI, Q.  & A. 54, we confess,              Reformation begins in the heart of the child of
among other things, that it is the Son of God Who         God. That is the way it was with Luther. The Refor-
preserves His church from the beginning to the end        mation did not really begin on October 31, 1517,
of time. God reforms the church. You do not reform        when Luther nailed his theses to the chapel door of
it. I do not reform it. Nor can any consistory or         the church of Wittenburg. That is the date we com-
classis or synod reform the church. God reforms           memorate. But the Reformation began when God
His church because God has promised to preserve           came into Luther's heart and would not give Luther
His church to the very end, and He will. Whatever         one moment of peace. God did that. Luther lived in
happens to the church here in the city of Grand           mortal terror of the judgment, wrath, and fury of
Rapids, or whatever happens to any particular de-         God against his sin. God led Luther to try every
nomination in the future, there is one thing of           prescription which the Roman Catholic Church
which we may be certain: God will preserve His            offered as the solution to this problem. God made
church! If He does not do this through us, He will        Luther go on his knees on the Sancta Scala in Rome.
do it without us. But He will preserve it unto the        God made Luther enter a monastery and obey all
very end. And because the work of reformation is          the rules of a monk. God wanted Luther to under-
God's work, he who is concerned with the reforma-         stand, in the depths of his soul, that all that the
tion of the church is the one who, with all his heart     Roman Catholic Church prescribed as the antidote
and mind and soul and strength, looks to God for          for such fear of wrath was useless and a perversion
reformation!                                              of Scripture. But it had to be thrown out. Only then
  Luther, shortly before he died, looking back over       could Luther see the cross, and the power of the
his life, made the startling remark that from that        blood of Jesus Christ once again, and understand
first moment when he pounded the nails in the             that it was in the cross of Christ, and in that cross
paper which held his theses to the chapel door of         alone, that he had forgiveness and peace with God.
the church at Wittenburg, was carried along by for-       When he learned that, the Reformation was genu-
ces greater than himself and against which he was         inely begun in principle form. Everything that
helpless. He rode the crest of a wave over which he       happened after that in Luther's work, in Calvin's
had no control. All the events of his life were a         work, and in the work of all the Reformers was a
mighty force that carried him along. He in no sense       development of what had already fundamentally
determined the directions in which it went. That          and principally taken place in the soul of Luther.
was his own confession concerning his life and            God tore Luther out of the clutches of Rome and
work as a reformer.                                       placed him firmly at the foot of Calvary. That is
  Reformation always has two sides to it, a               where Reformation began.
negative side and a positive side. To re-form the           The relationship is this. It is impossible to rid the
church one must get out of the church all that is         church of that which is wrong and bring back that
bad, and put into it all that is good. Both are impor-    which is according to the Scriptures until this very
tant. There are those who have tried to reform the        thing takes place in our own hearts. There must be
church only by getting out of it that which is bad.       the crucifixion of the old man and the putting on of
What happens then is that after the room is swept         the new man. In short, there must be conversion,
and garnished, the devil, who was cast out, goes out      which is really reformation, in the hearts of God's
and finds seven more devils, who take up their            people. And this must take place through the cross


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  403


of Jesus Christ.                                            There is only one course of action to pursue. It can
  This is what makes reformation so difficult. As           happen in any. church, even ours. But if we are not
much as we like to see reformation in the church, it        reformed and therefore  always  reforming, it will
is a big price to pay to reform our own wicked life.        come to that, beyond doubt. As difficult as that may
We do not particularly care to do this. Neverthe-           be, the cause of Christ and His Church is more
less, that is where it begins, because that is where        important than anything else.
the work of God begins: in conversion and repen-              The Reformers were accused of the sin of
tance in the hearts of God's people. And it begins          schism, especially by Cardinal Sadolet, when he
by repentance, which ruthlessly, but by the power           addressed the citizens of Geneva where Calvin had
of grace, roots out of our lives those idols before         been, to try to win them back to the Romish fold.
which we have chosen to bow; it means to put                He accused Calvin and the other Reformers of leav-
again into our lives the Word of God, in the position       ing the church and rending the body of Christ, and
where it belongs, as the authority of all our life.         of thus becoming guilty of schism. Calvin's answer,
Until that happens there will never be reformation.         in what was a masterpiece in the defense of the
  That is what it means to be sons and daughters of         Reformation, was in effect this: not those who
the Reformation. It means to understand that  the           leave the church are guilty of schism, but those
fundamental principle of the Reformation is this: to        who depart from the doctrines of Christ, they tear
be Reformed is to be always reforming.                      the church to pieces, because the unity of the
  When the Word of God has been restored to its             church is the unity of her doctrine of Jesus Christ
proper place in our life, then it can be restored to its    her Head. And to destroy and to deny her doctrine
proper place in the life of our families, so that it be-    is to create schism. Not we, Calvin says, but you,
comes, once again, the focal point of the life in our       Cardinals and Bishops and Popes, you have created
households. Then it can also become the Word of             schism in the body of Christ. Our hands are clean of
God which has its proper place in the church, in the        that sin.
life of the church, in the preaching, in the rule of          J.C. Ryle, a nineteenth century theologian, faced
the office bearers, in the distributions of the mer-        the same question in his own England. He wrote,
cies of Christ, and the communion of the saints.            "He who deliberately settles down under any
Then the old fervor, the old excitement is restored         ministry which is positively unsound is a very
in the church. Then the preaching comes alive and           unwise man. I do believe when this false doctrine is
is once again filled with warmth and zeal. And doc-         unmistakably preached in a parish church, a pa-
trine is not cold, abstract doctrine, but the life of       rishioner who loves his soul is quite right in not
the child of God which he experiences in the                going to that parish church. Divisions and separa-
depths of his own soul. It is not the preaching, then,      tions are most objectionable in religion. They
of Jesus Christ Who died for the elect, but it is the       weaken the cause of true Christianity, they give oc-
preaching of Jesus Christ Who died for me!  I am            casion to the enemies of all godliness to blaspheme.
washed in the blood of Christ from all my sins now          But before we blame people for them we must be
and forever. Every truth of the gospel has its echo         careful that we lay the blame where it is deserved.
and its response in the depths of our souls. Then           False doctrine and heresy are even worse than
doctrine becomes real and alive, and the Word of            schism. In such cases separation is a virtue and not
God becomes once again the focal point of all our           a sin. Controversy in religion is a hateful thing. It is
life and of all the life of the church of Jesus Christ.     hard enough to fight the devil, the world, and the
  But all this means, just as it does in our life, that,    flesh, without private differences in our own camp,
in the church, discipline must be exercised, and            but there is one thing which is even worse than
those who will not bow before the Word of God               controversy, and that is false doctrine tolerated,
must be put out. For the sake of the cause of Jesus         allowed, and permitted without protest or molesta-
Christ, for the sake of the truth of the gospel, for        tion. It was controversy that won the battle of the
the sake of reformation, evil, wherever it appears,         Protestant Reformation. Three things there are
must be rooted out. Reformation will not result in a        which men never ought to trifle with: a little
return to the Word of God until evil is taken out of        poison, a little false doctrine, and a little sin."
the midst of the church.                                      It takes courage to say to mother, "You are no
  But if the church has reached the point where it          longer my mother, you have become unfaithful;
is impossible for the faithful remnant to restore the       you no longer feed me, I must leave you." But it is
church, there is only one course of action that is          the courage of grace. It is the courage which begins
left: reformation must come about through seces-            in our own life when before God we cry out for for-
sion. The Reformers did this when the Roman                 giveness for all our sins and plead for grace to root
Catholic Church proved herself beyond reform.               them out that we may serve God in all our life ac-


404                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



cording to the Scriptures. And if that courage of           the life of the church.
faith is there to restore the Word of God to its focal        Are we children of the Reformation? Do we have
point in my life, then the courage will be there to do      the right to call ourselves Reformed? Are we a
what has to be done, even to the point of separa-           people who are always reforming? This is the only
tion, to restore the Word of God to its focal point in      true way to commemorate the Reformation.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD

                              Two Kinds of Churches
                               Active in China Today
                                                 Prof. R.D. Decker



Los Angeles - With all the news about the survival          the Chinese.
of Christianity in Communist China, it is important           The thousands of "house churches" remain
to realize that there are  two  kinds of churches in        strictly separate from the government-controlled
China today, not just one, a noted China watcher            religious movement for spiritual, not political rea-
said here.                                                  sons, Dr. Hong explained. In many, if not most
  The Rev. Silas Hong, executive director of                cases, they are "religious groups organized in secre-
United Evangelism to the Chinese, based here,               cy (or semi-secrecy) among citizens" for their own
warned those trying to make contact with                    safety.
Christians in China that there is an official, govern-        The danger to the prospect for evangelization in
ment-sanctioned church in China which may not               China is that Westerners will assume that the offi-
represent the Gospel for the purest of motives.             cial church truly represents the revival of Chris-
  The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is the Chi-             tianity that visitors to China lately have sensed and
nese Equivalent of the Soviet Protestant Council for        some have witnessed. Actually, to assume that the
Religious Affairs which strictly controls all church        official church is the point of contact with the un-
matters for political reasons, Dr. Hong pointed out.        derground Christian movement could result in both
   "It is common knowledge," Dr. Hong said, "that           embarrassment and danger to that movement, Dr.
this `Chinese Religious Affairs Bureau' is very sur-        Hong suggested.
prised and concerned with the mushrooming of                (This article was taken from the Presbyterian
home churches all over China," churches that                Journal, Dec. 1980)
faithfully represent a revival of spirituality among

QUESTION BOX
Rev. C. Hanko


                                       The Two Philips

  Some time ago I was pleasantly surprised by a                 Philip the Deacon. Now I always thought
question from one of our high school students.                  that they were the same man. I was wonder-
Maybe this will open the way for more. The                      ing what you think about this from a Bibli-
questions reads,                                                cal point of view."
       "In our dictionaries, they distinguish Philip          First of all, let me offer my apologies for not
       the Apostle from Philip the Evangelist, or           answering this before, because of the press of other


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              405



duties. I do appreciate hearing from our readers,        they laid their hands on them," that is, they or-
especially from our young folk. The fact is, that        dained them to serve in the office of deacon in the
Scripture does distinguish between Philip the Apos-      church. It is Philip the Deacon who is mentioned in
tle and Philip the Evangelist, or Deacon. Philip the     Acts 7 as going down to  Samaria  to preach Christ
Apostle is mentioned in John  1:43, 44, where we         unto those of Samaria.  Verse 14 of chapter 7 tells us
read, "The day following Jesus would go forth into       that the apostles heard that  Samaria  had received
Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him,         the gospel, and therefore they sent Peter and John
Follow Me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of      there. It would not be necessary to send Peter and
Andrew and Peter." Later, in Matthew  10:2, 3 this       John to Samaria  if an apostle had already been there
Philip is mentioned among the twelve disciples.          to lay the gift of the Holy Spirit upon them. This
Now in Acts 6:5 we meet the other Philip. How do         same Philip met the Ethiopian eunuch on the way
we know that this is not the same one? First of all,     to Gaza. In Acts  21:8 he is called Philip the Evan-
he is mentioned along with Stephen and five others       gelist, and we are told that Paul stayed at his home
as being chosen by the church in Jerusalem to serve      before going to Jerusalem for the last time. In verse
as deacon. It is conceivable, of course, although not    9 we are informed that this Philip had four daugh-
likely, that an apostle would be chosen as a deacon.     ters at home who prophesied. So it is quite evident
But this is not the case, for in verse 6 we read that    from Scripture that distinction is made between
these seven men were set before the apostles (of         Philip the Apostle and Philip the Evangelist, or
which Philip was one), "and when they had prayed         Philip the Deacon.


            Liturgical Changes in our Churches

  A reader asks,                                         of God must permeate and dominate every worship
   There are many changes made in the liturgy            service. Our thoughts must not be distracted from
   of our Sunday worship services. Why? Is               our fellowship with God, or from hearing Christ
   this a good sign or a bad omen?                       speak to us through His Word in the communion of
                                                         saints.
  It is certainly true that many changes are being
introduced into our Sunday worship services.               In the traditional form of worship as we are ac-
When a visiting minister steps into the consistory       quainted with it, the fathers wanted to emphasize
room on Sunday he must first ask about the form of       that God speaks to His people, and His people re-
worship, for there are hardly two of our churches        spond in humble prayer, thanksgiving, and adora-
that have the same form of worship. Visitors from        tion. Our Sabbath is a weekly commemoration of
other churches do well to check the back of the          the victory of Christ over Satan, sin, death and the
bulletin to acquaint themselves with the form used       grave through His glorious resurrection. Therefore
in that particular church service.                       we also have a foretaste of the eternal Rest in cove-
  Whether these changes are good or bad is well          nant fellowship with God, for we have His eternal
worth considering. It is true that all change is not     promise, "I will be your God, and ye shall be My
necessarily wrong. Change may be, and sometimes          people forever."
is a definite improvement. If a change adds to the         The tendency in the churches of today has been
solemnity of the service, enhances the service as a      to move away from that. In some churches so much
worship service of praise and adoration to our God,      time is taken up by soloists, choirs, and other forms
so that God occupies the central place in our            of entertainment, that very little time remains for
liturgy, then certainly a change can well be recom-      the reading of Scripture and the sermon. In other
mended.                                                  churches     congregational participation is the
  But change for the mere sake of change is              popular thing. Various antics are introduced to
definitely wrong. There is a certain sense of well-      attract the attention of the children and the young
being, of contentment in knowing exactly what            people. Group discussion and movies and similar
takes place from moment to moment, so that one           forms of entertainment are introduced, so that the
can concentrate all his attention on the singing, the    emphasis is diverted from God and His Word to
prayer, the reading of Scripture, and the sermon.        mere man.
Our fathers have always maintained that the Word           Even though these evils have not found their


406                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



way into our churches, we must still be on our           But a clamor for changes can only lead to ever more
guard against them. A clamor for change is not a         drastic changes. Outward stimulants do not cure
healthy sign: When members of the congregation,          the lack of spiritual enthusiasm or cold indiffer-
whether young or old, find the services tedious and      ence.
dry, or complain that they are not being edified and       Above all, I would make a strong plea for unity
do not enjoy going to church, they may well ask          and  hal'mony in the liturgy in our churches.  Con-
themselves, first, whether the reason may lie with       sistories  should strive toward that common goal as
themselves. Changes can never please everybody.          an expression of our unity in faith and godly walk.

                             Demands and Obligations
                                   in God's Covenant

  Another reader asks:                                   or wrinkle in the assembly of the elect in life eter-
         "Why is there always spoken of a                nal.
       demand in the covenant or of an obligation          In other words, they can and may, but also they
       that we have to fulfill or do? How can this       will and must trust in and love the Lord their God
       be explained in harmony with the uncondi-         with their whole being. Paul teaches us in
       tional covenant?!'                                Ephesians 2:  10, "For we are His (God's) workman-
  Let me assure you, first of all, that no demand in     ship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
the covenant, and no obligation can ever depend          which God hath before ordained that we should
upon us, as if in some form or manner we become a        walk in them." And again in Philippians  2:12, 13,
second party in God's covenant who must some-            "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
how reciprocate to God for the blessings received,       obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
or do our part, even as God has done His part for        more in my absence, work out your own salvation
us.                                                      with fear and trembling,  fou [notice that `for') it is
                                                         God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
  Nevertheless, our Baptism Form does speak of           His good pleasure."
OUY  part  in God's covenant. We read, "Thirdly.
Whereas in all covenants, there are contained two          We can also express this in the words of Romans
parts: therefore are we by God through Baptism           6: 14: "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for
admonished of, and obliged unto new obedience,           ye are not under the law, but under grace." That
namely, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son      "shall" is the assurance to the child of God that the
and Holy Ghost; that we trust in Him, and love           power and dominion of sin are broken by the cross.
Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all    We are delivered from the bondage of sin and
our mind, and with all our strength; that we forsake     death, and therefore from the curse of the law, to
the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a         walk in the glorious liberty of the sons of God. We
new and holy life."                                      live by grace, not by works.
  Our  Bapiism Form is speaking of and to those            Therefore, whenever we speak of the demand in
who are indeed members of God's covenant. They           God's covenant or of our obligation in the cove-
are assured through baptism that God has estab-          nant, it must always be stressed that this is the fruit
lished an eternal covenant of grace with them, that      of grace wrought by God in us, so that we can and
Christ washes them in His blood and incorporates         may offer to Him the sacrifice of our lives to His
them into the fellowship of His death and resurrec-      praise and to His glory.
tion, and that the Holy Spirit will dwell in them and      I hope I have answered your question. If not, feel
sanctify them until they are presented without spot      free to write again.


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


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              407



                                                      Book Review


GOSPEL AND LAW, CONTRAST OR CONTI-                                           The real meat of this book, therefore, is a lengthy
NUUM?  The Hermeneutics of Dispensationalism                               exegesis of Galatians  3:12 and Romans  10:5-8. His
and Covenant Theology, by Daniel P. Fuller; Wm.                            position is that all the promises of God are fulfilled
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980; 217 pp.,                             on the basis of satisfying the condition which Scrip-
$10.95 (paper). (Review by Prof. H. Hanko)                                 ture calls the obedience of faith.
   Donald Fuller is professor of Hermeneutics at                             There are certain areas in the book where I
Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Califor-                          would dissent from the writer's position. While his
nia. He has written, in this volume, a rather impor-                       criticism of covenant theology is to the point, the
tant book in which he examines the hermeneutics                            fact is that his criticism is really leveled against
of Dispensationalists and of "Covenant Theolo-                             those covenant theologians who hold to a condi-
gians" on the question of the unity of the Old and                         tional covenant. I wonder what his criticism would
New Testaments. In this examination he finds  that                         be of the covenant theology which was developed
the hermeneutics of both are wrong in important                            by Hoeksema with its unconditional emphasis.
respects. It is as if he says, "A plague on both your                      Secondly, by his emphasis on the obedience of
houses." With regard to covenant theology, he ar-                          faith, it seems to me that Fuller does not himself
gues that it is wrong because it sets grace and law in                     succeed in escaping the criticisms which he levels
antithesis and denies that good works proceed from                         against other covenant theologians. Thirdly, there
faith. In this way covenant theologians make a                             is insufficient attention paid to the real relation
bifurcation of Old Testament law and New Testa-                            between the law in the Old Testament and the,
ment grace.                                                                promise, i.e., that the law also pointed ahead to
   But his biggest guns are aimed at Dispensational                        Christ and was the schoolmaster to bring us to
hermeneutics, which he examines in detail and cri-                         Christ. Only within a proper understanding of this
ticizes at length. He points out very clearly that                         view (and there were many theologians within the
Dispensationalism teaches two ways of salvation:                           Reformed tradition who had such a proper under-
for the Jew, the works of the law; faith for the                           standing), is it possible to come to a correct answer
Gentile. This remains true even though later  Dis-                         to this question. Fuller has not done this.
pensationalism attempts to repudiate this notion.                            Nevertheless, his book is valuable in that it calls
Dispensationalism claims to keep the church free                           attention to a difficult problem, suggests a line of
from legalism and Galatianism, but it only s,eems to                       solution and points out with clarity the basic weak-
do this by putting Israel under the law and making                         nesses of Dispensational hermeneutics. Because
salvation dependent on the law. The result is that,                        the        argument      is    somewhat         involved, we
essentially, covenant theologians and Dispensation-                        recommend this book to those who are willing to
alists make the same mistake: they both teach that                         put forth some mental effort to understand what is
Scripture runs law and grace alongside each other-                         sometimes difficult reading.
alternating between them.



                                                                                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                         The Lord willing, on June 3, 1981, our parents and grandparents,
                                                                           MR. AND MRS. LORENZ BERTSCH will celebrate their 30th wedding
   On June 17, 1981, our parents, MR. AND MRS. GERALD                      anniversary in Loveland, Colorado.
KORHORN will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We are                We, their children and grandchildren thank our Heavenly Father for
thankful to our heavenly Father for keeping them for each other and        all the years of dedication in love and Christian instruction that we
for us, their children and grandchildren.                                  have received. It is our eternal prayer that the Lord will continue to
   "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have          bless and keep them ever in His care.
not love, it profiteth me  nothing...now  abideth faith, hope, love,          "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
these three, and the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians  13:13)    grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
Jerry and  Gayle  Korhorn                                                  righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."  (Heb.
   Gary, Jeannie and great grandchild, Eric                                12:ll).

Ernie Korhorn                                                              Roger and Peggy Kamphuis
   Mark, Kris and Scott                                                       Dale, Doug, Dennis, Paul, Ruthanne, Faith            Tim Bertsch
Jim and Ellen Pastoor                                                      Larry and Darlene Bertsch                               Terri Bertsch
   Randy, Rob, Darlene, Todd and Michelle                                     Rachel, David, Jonathan

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





408                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



                         News From Our Churches

  .The calls of our  Redlands  and Isabel congrega-      of our mission activity, especially Singapore." Back
tions to Rev. Van Baren and Rev. Slopsema respec-        in Doon  a month later Rev. Kamps spoke again, this
tively have been declined.                               time for the Ladies' League, on the topic "Trying
                                                         the Spirits. " "The Free Woman in Christ" was the
  Reaching into my file of unused news items I           topic of a speech given by Miss Agatha Lubbers,
find some order of worship changes among our             teacher in our Covenant Christian High School, as
churches:     Since March       15 our Loveland          she addressed the Grand Rapids area Mr. and Mrs.
congregation has conducted all their congregational      League. At a May 5 Sunday School Teachers' Mass
singing while standing. Also, they have instituted       Meeting in First Church, Mr. Don Doezema, princi-
an offertory, the intent of which is to "place a         pal of our Covenant Christian High School, presen-
proper emphasis on  giving  as a separate act of         ted a slide program on Palestine. Rev. Miersma
worship." Hudsonville has "decided to continue           spoke for the Eastern Men's and Ladies' League on
recitation of the Apostles' Creed in unison as a reg-    the topic, "The Moral Majority Movement-Should
ular part of our church service." From a Faith,          We Support It?" Incidentally, a cassette tape of this
Jenison bulletin we learn that, "Beginning next          speech is available for $2.50 by writing to the Evan-
Sunday, February lst, the doxology sung after the        gelism Committee, c/o First Prot. Ref. Church, 290
evening service will be Psalter 196 instead of `May      East 18th St., Holland, MI 49423. Tapes of the re-
the Grace of Christ Our Savior.' Whereas we have         cent lecture "Salvation: Gospel or Offer?" by Rev.
sung of the grace of God in our doxology for the last    Cammenga are available by writing to Hull Prot.
several years, we now will sing of another aspect of     Ref. Church, 1204 Third St., Hull, Iowa 51239.
His Being, namely, His glory." And a  Doon, Iowa         Finally, at this writing (May 11) we have one future
bulletin announces that, "the consistory has             lecture to report: on May 14 Rev. Steven  Houck,
decided to sing doxology  #8 `May the Grace of           home missionary pastor at Lansing, Michigan will
Christ Our Savior' at the end of our afternoon ser-      speak at the Jenison High School Auditorium on
vice and to the tune of Ps.  #222.  We will sing Ps.     "Return to Historic Calvinism." A recording of this
#197 as our doxology at the end of the morning ser-      lecture can be obtained by sending $3.00 to the
vice. These changes will be implemented next             RFPA, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI 49506.
week, Feb. 1." It appears that on February 1  Doon         At the risk of forfeiting my right to the trust of
picked up where Faith left off as far as the doxology    the below-mentioned pastor (who would prefer to
"May the Grace of Christ Our Savior" is                  remain anonymous) we submit the following bulle-
concerned.                                               tin announcement: "We would express a special
  Like fall, spring is a time during which many          word of thanks to Mr. C. Kalsbeek who so kindly
speeches and lectures are arranged by various or-        returned the pastor's check which was inadvertant-
ganizations of our  ( churches. On April 3 Prof.         ly sent to him. Mr. Kalsbeek neither asked for nor
Hanko spoke at a lecture, sponsored by the South         received a reward. We trust he will be printing
Holland Men's Society, on the topic, "Spiritual Fer-     none of this in his' column in the  Standard
vor-Why Is It Waning?" One week before that,             Beczuer."Though  I was very hesitant to publish that
Prof. Hanko spoke for the Southwest Men's and            announcement, I felt it was necessary because the
Ladies' Societies on, "The Proper Preparation for        incident reveals a serious misunderstanding that
the Sabbath." The Loveland Men's Society                 should be cleared up: When I made a plea for news
arranged a special mission program on March 5            a few columns ago, I did not have items of a
with Rev. Kamps speaking and showing "pictures           personal, financial nature in mind.             CK


