      The
STANDARD
r BEARER
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                              b





. ..What is astonishing is that not only do men
defy all authority as they break the law, but
society asserts that this new lawlessness is
law. . . ..That  has never occurred before.
Never before has society made an effort to
establish that immorality is moral, or de-
clared lawlessness lawful (e.g., legalized
abortion and labor strikes).....What is this
world coming to? It is clear: the End.
       See "The Spirit of This Age" page 424



                                           Volume  I-VII,  No. 18,  July 1,  198  I  J


410                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
  Meditation-                                                                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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       Moses' Decisive Choice . . . . . . . . . . . .                .  .      410                     Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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       Synod of the Protestant Reformed                                                denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                       Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius  Hanko,  Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
          Churches 1981. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                         413     Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                       Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev. Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema.
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MEDITATION


                                           Moses' Decisive Choice
                                                                             Rev. H. Veldman


                   "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
               daughter...."                                                                                                       Hebrews  11:24-26


  That we must choose is Scriptural. We read of it                                       with the word of Joshua to all Israel: "Choose you
in this text. Then, too, we are all more or less                                         this day whom ye will serve: but as for me and my
familiar with the blessings and  cursings of Deuter-                                     house, we will serve the Lord."
onomy 28, and the subsequent word of Moses to
Israel in `Deuteronomy  30:19: "Therefore choose                                             Indeed, to choose is for us inevitable. Choose we
life, that both thou and thy seed may live." And we                                      must and choose we shall, whether it be good or
are all very familiar with the history of Ruth, and                                      bad. Man is a moral-rational creature. His responsi-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              411



bility is his ability to respond to God's revelation of    we determine the how and when of our confession
Himself, although the natural man can give only            of faith. Yet, we must also be deliberate, know
one answer: I hate Thee. And our choice is surely          exactly what we are doing.
inevitable. Moses, when he was come to years,                 What was this choice, essentially and fundamen-
when he was grown (Ex. 2:11), made his choice. He
chose the people of God. We, too, must and will            tally?
make our choice. Only, to choose the people of God            Moses' choice, fundamentally, was between
and reject the treasures of Egypt is possible only by      being called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and
faith, as seeing the recompense of reward.                 being with the people of God. On the one hand, he
                                                           could be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, be
                     THE CHOICE                            viewed and treated as a royal prince in the house of
  We read, "When he was come to years." In                 Pharaoh. Imagine all the treasures and riches
Exodus  2:11, referring to the same time, we read,         which would be at his disposal. On the other hand,
"When Moses was grown." And in the light of                he could cast his lot with the Israelites. He could
history, we know that this choice occurred when            say, I am not Pharaoh's grandson and I refuse to be
Moses was approximately forty years of age.                called such. He could insist on being an Israelite, be
  Why did he make this choice at this time, and            known as such, and be treated as such, sharing
how must we interpret this? Was this not rather late       their affliction.
for him to make a choice? After all, Moses was               Understand, Moses could make this choice. Of
already forty years old. Is the age of forty to be         course, not every Israelite could make this choice.
recommended as the time, for example, when we              Only Moses could. On the one hand, he was born
should make confession of faith? Of course, this           an Israelite. He, therefore, could say, I am an
would involve us in difficulties. If we make confes-       Israelite, and this is exactly what I want to be. On
sion of faith at the age of forty, when, then, would       the other hand, he was now a member of Pharaoh's
the baptism of our infants occur? Besides, would it        house. He could be called the son of Pharaoh's
be wise to instruct our young people that they may         daughter. This was indeed possible.
very well wait, take their time about making con-            For us, our choice is exactly reversed. Moses was
fession of faith?                                          born an Israelite, but was in the house of Pharaoh
  How must we explain this, first of all, as far as        when he made his choice. We are born and con-
Moses is concerned? First, we must consider                tinue in the midst of God's covenant. Moses was in
Moses' life span. He lived to be one hundred and           the world and Israel beckoned to him; we are in the
twenty years old, So, at the age of forty he had           church and the world beckons to us. Yet, our
finished one third of his life. Hence, according to        choice is fundamentally the same. We must choose
our age, he made his choice at the age of  twenty-         to be called an Israelite, to be one with the party of
five. Secondly, we must consider the circumstances         the living God. And this implies that we choose to
of Moses' life. He was, after being found by Pha-          be treated as such. On the other hand, we can cast
raoh's daughter, brought up in his own home, that          our lot with the world. I, then, care not for the
of  Amram  and Jochebed. We may safely say that            people of God; I do not share their life; I care not to
Moses remained in his home sufficiently long to be         have anything to do with them. I am a child of the
instructed in all the ways and promises of the Lord.       world and this is exactly what I want to be. And
How otherwise can we explain his choice to be              remember, it is either-or. Perhaps some may think
with the people of God? Later he was instructed in         that, although they may not desire to walk as
all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Now it cannot be          children of God, they do not desire to be called the
true that the learning of the Egyptians was very           children of the devil either. However, it is either-or;
meager. Moses' instruction in Egypt, therefore, was        we must choose between God and Mammon. We
very extensive. Thirdly, we must bear in mind that         `cannot love both, cannot hate both. It is either-or.
his choice was deliberate. There was nothing hasty
about it. Fact is, he esteemed the reproach of Christ                           ITS CONTENT
greater than all the riches of Egypt. Hence, he did          Moses rejected the treasures of Egypt.
some accounting, some figuring. He weighed and               What these treasures are we readily understand:
considered the reproach of Christ and the glories of       the wealth of Egypt which would be his as one of
Egypt. He was, therefore, very deliberate.                 Egypt's princes, and also the glory and honour
  The same applies to us. To be sure, we must not          which would be his as of the royal family. Only,
delay. We may imagine that we can wait, confess            these treasures could be had only as the enjoyment
the Lord whenever we choose, and in the mean-              of sin for a season. The "enjoyments of sin" are the
time enjoy the pleasures and treasures of sin. This        enjoyments that come to us from sin. As such we
is wrong, and, of course, miserably arminian, as if        interpret this expression. Riches and honour are


412                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



not sinful in themselves. But they become sinful          when presently He will reveal Himself in all His
when used in the service of sin and against the           love and faithfulness, in that day when all shall be
Lord. Now this does not necessarily mean that             ma-de new, we shall share in His glory and Christ
Moses served sin in the lowest, filthiest sense of the    will be revealed as having saved His own, also and
word. Moses could also choose for sin, as the son         even then when our cause appeared to be utterly
of Pharaoh's daughter, in the sense that he chose         hopeless.
Egypt's idolatry. All this he rejected.                                    ITS POSSIBILITY
  The same also applies to us. We can have the              How was this possible for Moses?
treasures of this present time. We can have access
to the riches of this world. The devil is only too          Was Moses not apparently a fool? On the one
eager to give them to us. However, all this we can        hand, think of what he refused. And, on the other
have as the enjoyment of sin for a season. We can         hand, notice what he chose. He chose affliction. Is
certainly have them if we choose them as the enjoy-       there any hope in that? We read that he expected to
ment of sin. Remember, however, they are only for         be rewarded. But, upon what can he possibly base
a season.                                                 his expectation? Are not all things against him as he
                                                          leaves Pharaoh's house and casts his lot in with
  What did Moses choose?                                  miserable Israel? Is it not folly for him to descend
  He chose to suffer affliction with the people of        from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the status
God. We need not doubt the meaning of this. Afflic-       of a powerful prince to the degradation of a slave?
tion and the people of God are inseparably connec-          However, he had his eye fixed upon the
ted. They suffer because they are the people of           recompence  of the reward. This reward means lit-
God. Moses, choosing to be called an Israelite,           erally, the payment of wages due. The word means
would also share their persecution and revilement.        that God rewards our works, rewards the good and
And it must not escape our attention that for Moses       punishes the evil. However, how is this possible?
it was either-or. There was no neutrality here. He        He did this, first of all, by faith. Faith, also here, is
could not possibly have the one without the other.        the evidence of things not seen, the substance of
As the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he would stand          things hoped for. Looking forward to this recom-
over against the people of God; if he chose the           pense, his faith was surely the evidence of things
latter, he would, of course, forfeit the former.          unseen, the substance of things hoped for. Secondly,
  Besides, he also chose the reproach of Christ.          how was it possible for Moses to exercise this faith?
This expression, "reproach of Chrst," is a wonder-        Faith is, to be sure, a  .gift of God. But, faith also
ful expression. The reproach of Christ is the re-         takes hold of the mind. Moses was not a fool. His
proach upon Christ. Reproach is contempt and              faith was not contrary to reason. We must bear in
scorn and ridicule, it is hatred in one of its worst      mind that he had been instructed by his parents in
forms. In a certain sense, this reproach of Christ is     all the ways of the Lord and in all His promises to
Christ's reproach because, after all, what we are we      Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which pointed to the
are because of Christ; that we are reproached is          City that has foundations. We now understand
because Christ is  inus. But this reproach of Christ      what happened. Moses considered these things,
is also His reproach because He is its Object. As the     compared the glories of Egypt with the promises of
people of God are treated with contempt and scorn,        Israel, and he knew and believed that all the riches
Christ takes it to heart, views it as being heaped        of Egypt could never be compared with the ever-
upon Him (which is surely true); and He will surely       lasting glories of Israel.
avenge Himself.                                             How truly this applies to us! Christ has come.
  Thus it is throughout the ages. We, too, must           God indeed rewards the good and He punishes the
choose to suffer affliction with the people of God.       evil. However, Christ's work is our reward; He
And this affliction is inseparably connected with us      merited it for us, the glory of life everlasting and
because we are the people of God. A servant is            heavenly immortality. And we believe. This faith is
never greater than his master. As Christ said,            a gift of God, given unto me in sovereign grace and
"They hated Me, they will also hate you." And we          mercy. And, believing, we take hold of Jesus, see
must account the reproach of Christ greater than all      Him at the right hand of God, love God and look
the riches of Egypt. Indeed, Christ's reproach is re-     forward to His everlasting tabernacle. And, seeing
proach upon Christ. There is something wonderful          our present affliction, we know that it is working
about this. It not only seals the truth that we are       for us an eternal and exceeding weight of glory.
Christ's, that we belong to Him, but it is wonderful      And well may we say to the world: you can have all
to serve Christ's vindication of Himself, to suffer in    your riches and treasures, which are only for a
order that we may be used for the purpose of His          season; give me Jesus, now and forevermore. This
glory, that Christ may be glorified through us. And       is our calling. This choice is wonderful and it is sure.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             413



EDITORIAL


                           Synod of the Protestant
                        Reformed Churches 1981
                                              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


  At the time of this writing, Saturday, June 13, our     I had an unduly large share of the work and also
synod has not yet completed its labors, and there         some of the most difficult items. Committee III
are still a few important items to be dealt with.         finally volunteered to help Committee I by taking
Hence, my report cannot be complete. The fact that        over some of the items assigned to the latter. I
synod has not yet finished its work is not due to a       mention this not only from the point of view of
large amount of disagreement and wrangling, how-          equitable division of labor, but also from the point
ever, but due to the fact that synod had a very large     of view of the fact that if synod expects good work
agenda, filled with important matters, and due to         from its advisory committees, they should not be
the fact that synod labored very thoroughly and           overburdened with work.
carefully in dealing with the business of the                On Thursday, June 4, the synod began its de-
churches.                                                 liberations.
  For the first time in our history Holland was the          One of the most important items on which synod
site of synod's meetings, and the calling church was      had to decide was the spate of items related to the
the First Protestant Reformed Church of Holland,           subject of baptism on the mission field, a subject
Michigan. Rev. John A. Heys, president of last            with which our churches have been busy-and to
year's synod and minister emeritus of our Holland         an extent, troubled-ever since 1975, when the
church, led the pre-synodical service. The text of        matter was first brought up. Last year's synod.had
his sermon was Hebrews 2: 1, "Therefore we ought          taken several decisions in this area with which con-
to give the more earnest heed to the things which          siderable dissatisfaction was expressed, and several
we have heard, lest at any time we should let them        individual protests had been filed, some of which
slip." A transcript of this sermon will appear, as        came to synod with the approval and support of
usual, in the printed Acts of Synod for your later        consistories and of  Classis East. Not only so, but
perusal. By the way, there is nothing official about      this whole question was intimately connected with
this report, it must be remembered; it is written         our mission work. Also from a practical point of
partly from notes and partly from memory. If you          view, therefore, it was important that this question
want the official decisions in their literal form, you    be dealt with definitively. With regard to the pro-
must consult the printed Acts when they appear in         tests, synod decided to sustain them as far as their
a couple of months.                                       church political aspect was concerned. This meant
  The Rev. G. Van  Baren functioned capably and           that Synod of 1980 erred in renewing the motion of
longsufferingly as synod's president, allowing            Article III of Synod of 1977 (the original (negative)
ample opportunity for discussion but reminding            decision concerning baptism); and it also meant
the delegates of the need of making a decision            that Synod of 1980 erred in not giving preferential
when the time was ripe. The other functionaries           treatment to the Study Report of the committee
were: Vice President, Rev. D. Engelsma; First             appointed in 1979. In a way, however, that also
Clerk, Rev. M. Joostens; Second Clerk, Rev. M.            meant that this year's synod was back to "square
Kamps. As usual, after the various matters on the         one" as far as the baptism question was concerned.
Agenda were apportioned among the four advisory              When synod turned back to the Report of 1979's
committees, synod recessed on Wednesday, June 3,           committee, it became apparent in the process of the
to allow the committees time to prepare their ad-         discussion and debate that harmony was not to be
vice. The actual deliberations of synod began on          found along these lines. However, the discussion
Thursday, June 4. I have one comment in this con-         centering about that report also helped to focus
nection. Synod could have been a bit more equit-          synod's attention on certain areas of agreement as
able in dividing the material among the advisory          well as areas of misunderstanding. And it also
committees. As it turned out, Advisory Committee          served to focus the attention on the question of
                                                                                                           n


414                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



what constituted the main problem area in which a                  lated to our foreign mission work. One of the main
decision had to be reached. The result of a rather                 questions was that concerning the institution of the
long and sometimes tense  discussison was that                     church in Singapore. At this writing only a partial
synod referred the matter back to Advisory Com-                    decision has been reached on this matter, and I do
mittee I for new advice. This committee returned                   not deem it wise to publish only a partial decision
with new advice somewhat later, and this advice                    on a matter which was discussed long and
was adopted by unanimous or near-unanimous                         carefully. In this matter, by the way, brother Lau
votes. Needless to say, everyone at synod was glad                 Chin Kwee was given the privilege of the floor to
and thankful when finally this agreement was                       speak in behalf of the GLTS.
achieved. Because of the importance of the deci-                     From the above account, it will be clear that
sion, I shall quote it in full.                                    synod did not remain with the report of Committee
       Introduction:                                               I all the time, and my report is not chronological.
         Our committee felt that after many years of discus-       When a committee is sent out for new advice or
       sion and debate the Synod of 1981 has come to a signi-      there are other reasons to depart from the order of
       ficant state of agreement. We therefore present our         the day, synod frequently turns to reports of other
       advice based on this agreement as a succinct state-         Advisory Committees which may have part or all of
       ment on Baptism on the Mission Field.                       their reports ready.
       OUR ADVICE:                                                   Advisory Committee II had as its chief assign-
       A. We advise Synod to declare that Scripture and our        ment matters of domestic missions. I cannot enter
       Confessions (major and minor) charge the missionary         into all the details of routine mission matters in this
       with the task of preaching and baptizing.                   connection. Let me briefly mention a few more im-
       Grounds: Matt. 28: 19 and 20, Mark 16: 15 and 16.           portant matters. 1) The work in Lansing, Michigan
           Apostolic practice: Acts 2:38 and 44, 8:12, 13, 16      (Rev. Steven Houck) and the work in Birmingham,
                                and 38,  9:18,  lo:47  and 48,     Alabama (Rev. Ronald Van Overloop) is to be
                                16:14,  15 and 33, l&8, 19:5.      continued. Synod passed a motion of commenda-
       B. We advise Synod to declare that the command of           tion and encouragement to these two missionaries
       the Lord to baptize is clearly expressed in the 2nd duty    who, by the way, were present at synod and ad-
       of the Form for the Ordination of Missionaries,  I'...
       thou art  holden  if it pleases God to make thy work        dressed us concerning their work. 2) The efforts to
       fruitful unto the gathering of a church (gemeente)          call a missionary for the Lynden, Washington area
       ( = congregation, HCH), to administer the Sacrament         are to be renewed. 3) Synod decided to give partial
       of Holy Baptism according to the institution of the         financial support to the work in Bradenton, Florida.
       Lord and the requirement of the covenant."                  4) Much attention was given to the work in
       1. The question remains what is the meaning of this         Jamaica. There were many housekeeping details to
       limiting "if" clause, viz. when may the missionary          be attended to. Synod decided that a policy to guide
       baptize?                                                    a missionary must be adopted before any
                                                                   missionary is sent to that field. Authorization to
       2. Re this question we advise Synod to declare that
       this means:                                                 send emissaries on a longer term basis was given. 5)
          a. When the preaching and teaching of the                The Mission Committee was instructed to investi-
          missionary is fruitful and there are proper candi-       gate whether there is a viable field in Wellington,
          dates (and their households) who are Reformed in         New Zealand.
          doctrine and walk. Acts 16:14, 15, 30-34.                  Committee II was also charged to advise Synod
          b. This must be determined by the calling church
          upon solid evidence furnished by the missionary,         concerning an appeal of the decision of a consistory
          in conjunction with the Mission Committee                and of  Classis  East in a censure case. I cannot and
          (Foreign or Domestic).                                   need not report on this, because it was dealt with in
       C. Synod declares that it is clear from the Scripture       closed session. Without violating any rule,
       cited above and from the second duty of the mission-        however, I may report that this matter was given
       ary that this baptism must be done unto the gathering       full and careful attention, that the appellant was
       of a church (gemeente). Therefore it is crucial that a      given a full hearing, that it struck me that synod
       church be instituted as soon as feasible.                   dealt pastorally with this matter and that especially
         1. With respect to a specific field this can only be      the elder delegates spoke out very clearly in this
         determined by the calling consistory upon the ad-         regard, and that the decision unanimously upheld
         vice of the missionary, in conjunction with the mis-      the decision of Classis  East.
         sion committee.
         2. The precise moment of readiness for institution          The main task of Committee III was to deal with
         cannot be legislated by Synod.                            Theological School matters. Much of this material
  Once this important matter was out of the way,                   was routine. The one matter which was not routine
synod could turn its attention to other matters  re-               is the fact that synod approved the granting of a


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             4 1 5



partial sabbatical to this  wr<iter  the coming school       This brief report has touched only on the  high-
year. The purpose of the sabbatical is to give me         lights. There were many other things before this
time to do research and to write, especially in con-      busy synod. And there are still, at the time of this
nection with the history of our churches. This pro-       writing, a good many things to be treated. May the
posal was initiated by my colleagues, to whom I am        Lord bless the decisions reached unto the welfare
grateful both for the proposal and for their willing-     of our churches and of His cause.
ness to take over some of my school work in the
coming term.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                               Mission Methods (4)
                                             Prof. Robert D. Decker


  As we continue our study of the missionary              preached to them exclaiming, "Of a truth I perceive
preaching of the Apostles we wish to concentrate          that God is no respecter of persons; But in every na-
on the preaching of the Apostle Peter to Cornelius        tion he that feareth him and worketh righteous-
and his household. The familiar narrative is found        ness, is accepted with him" (verses 34, 35).
in the tenth chapter of the Book of Acts. Cornelius,
a devout man who "prayed to God alway," was an              Concerning this incident and the sermon of Peter
officer in the Roman army who resided in  Caesa-          (verses 36  - 43) there are several points which we
rea. One afternoon an angel of God came to him in         ought to note. This is the first time the Word went
a vision telling him that his prayers and alms were       strictly to the Gentiles. It is true that Philip had
answered, and instructing him to send men to              preached to the Samaritans, many of whom
Joppa to call for Simon Peter (verses 1  - 5). Peter,     believed and received the Holy Spirit when Peter
the angel said, "shall tell thee what thou oughtest to    and John had come; but there was some Jewish
do" (verse 6). This Cornelius did. On the next day,       blood in them (Acts 8). Cornelius and those
as the men of Cornelius were approaching Joppa,           "many" who were with him were Gentiles. Hence
Peter went to the housetop to pray. In a vision from      this is the beginning of the spread of the Gospel
God, the Apostle saw heaven opened and a great            beyond the borders of Israel to the nations of the
sheet let down in which were all kinds of wild ani-       world. Centuries earlier the prophets had spoken of
mals. A voice said to him, "Rise, Peter; kill, and        the "Day of the Lord" when all nations would
eat" (verse 13). Peter's characteristic response was,     "flow into Jerusalem." The beginning of the fulfill-
"Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that      ment of that prophecy takes place with Peter's
is common or unclean" (verse 14). This happened           being sent to and preaching to Cornelius and his
three times. While Peter doubted concerning the           relatives and friends. This is a highly significant
meaning of the vision the men of Cornelius came to        step in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ.
the house calling for him. At the same time the           Evidence of this significance may be found also in
Holy Spirit instructed Peter to go with these three       Acts fifteen, where the Apostles and Church
men, "doubting nothing: for I have sent them"             leaders gathered in Jerusalem to discuss the
(verse 20). Peter accompanied the men back to Cae-        question of the circumcision of the Gentile con-
sarea where he met Cornelius and a good number            verts. There Peter related the entire incident and
of his relatives and close friends. Peter explained to    that became one of the deciding factors in the final
Cornelius that "God hath shewed  me that I should         determination of the          "Gentile-circumcision
not call any man common or unclean. Therefore             question" by the conference. There too the Church
came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I          finally realized that "God is no respecter of per-
was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have     sons."
sent for me?" Cornelius responded by relating his           It is to be noted as well that Cornelius was not a
vision to Peter, concluding, "Now therefore are we        pagan Gentile. He was not an idolater who had no
all here present before God, to hear all things that      knowledge of God. In fact the passage describes
are commanded thee of God" (verse 33). Peter then         him as "A devout man, and one that feared God


416                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



with all his house, which gave much alms to the             It is perfectly obvious from Peter's preaching
people, and prayed to God alway" (verse 2). But it        that God is absolutely sovereign in the whole pro-
is also true that Cornelius knew nothing of Jesus         gram of redemption. Man neither conceives of it
Christ as his Savior and Lord. One receives the im-       nor does he execute that program of redemption.
pression that he had never even heard of Jesus of         What does Peter preach concerning man? Nothing
Nazareth. It is precisely for this reason that God        except that it was man who crucified Jesus and man
brings the Apostle Peter to him and prepares Cor-         is a sinner who can be saved only through faith in
nelius to receive Peter and the Gospel which he           the name of Jesus. It's all God. At the risk of being
preaches. Thus the incident serves a dual purpose.        redundant it must be emphasized again, this theme,
On the one hand, Cornelius and his relatives and          God, must be dominant in all mission preaching.
friends must be brought to the consciousness of           This theme must dominate all preaching in the pul-
faith in Jesus Christ and gathered into the Church        pit of the established church as well. Only this Gos-
through baptism and the Holy Spirit. On the other         pel which is strictly according to the Holy Scrip-
hand, Peter and the Church must understand that           tures is the Good News. The missionary must not
the time has come when Christ will gather His             hesitate to proclaim the absolutely sovereign God
Church out of the nations in obedience to the will        in all his preaching and in all his teaching. To the
of God Who is no respecter of persons (cf. verses         degree that he fails to do this he robs the Gospel of
34, 35).                                                  its power, its efficacy. Indeed, to that extent he
                                                          preaches a false gospel, the very antithesis to the
  Concerning the content of the message Peter             true Gospel.
preached, it follows exactly the pattern we
observed in Peter's Pentecost sermon and the ser-           Because the Apostle proclaimed God he
mon he preached in Jerusalem upon the occasion of         preached Christ, for God is revealed in Christ and
the healing of the lame man at the gate Beautiful.        Christ is of God. Peter proclaimed the good that
The sermon is completely  Theocentric.  All of the        Christ did, especially as that was revealed in Jesus'
emphasis is upon God, the Sovereign God Who is            healing ministry in Galilee and  Judea. The Apostle
revealed in Jesus Christ Who is "Lord of all" (verse      preached the cross of Christ. The heart of the
36). The Apostle begins by affirming, "God is no          message was that God Who ordained Jesus to be
respecter of persons." Those who fear God and             the Judge of the living and the dead raised Christ
work righteousness in every nation are accepted           from the dead. Peter preached forgiveness of sins
with God (verses 34, 35). God is the One Who sent         through faith in the name of Jesus. These elements
the Word by Jesus Christ. "The word which God             must characterize the church's preaching both at
sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by      home and to the nations. Notice how everything
Jesus Christ: (He is Lord of all:) That word I say ye     the Apostle preached fits together. Take away any
know, which was published throughout all  Judea,          one element and the gospel is lost! There can be no
and began from Galilee, after the baptism which           gospel without God, without Christ, without the
John preached" (verses 36, 37). It was God Who            cross, or without the resurrection. Without sin the
annointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit unto His min-        cross is meaningless. Without faith it is impossible
istry and saving work. "God annointed Jesus of            to please God (Hebrews  11:6). This unlearned for-
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power:              mer fisherman preached the blessed Gospel of God
Who went about doing good, and healing all that           in all its harmony and beauty and power. There
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.        was no undue emphasis on one element or point to
And we are witnesses of all things which He did           the neglect of the others. Peter proclaimed the
both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem;           entire gospel. It was not a watered down, simplified
Whom they slew and hanged on a tree" (verses 38,          gospel which becomes no gospel at all which Peter
39). This Jesus, Peter proclaimed, "God raised up         preached. It was doctrinal! It was meaty! It was the
the third day, and shewed Him openly" (verse 40).         truth of God in Jesus Christ. Because it was all of
The risen Christ was not shown to all the people,         that it was emminently practical. The Gospel is the
"but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to         power of God unto salvation to every one who
us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose          believes, the Jew first, but also the Greek (Romans
from the dead" (verse 41). It was God Who com-            1: 16). What could be more practical than that?
manded the apostles to preach to the people. In that        While Peter was still preaching (verse 44) the
preaching they were to testify that it was Christ         fruit came a hundredfold. The Holy Spirit fell upon
Who was ordained of God to be the Judge of the            them and they began to speak in tongues. Through
living and the dead (verse 42). To this Christ all the    that sign God showed the Jewish Christians that
prophets gave witness, "that through His name             indeed He "also to the Gentiles granted repentance
whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission        unto life" (Acts 11:18). Seeing this, Peter said, "Can
of sins" (verse 43).                                      any man forbid water, that these should not be bap-


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            4 1 7



tized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well                  wonder! What the church must understand is that
as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in                     God still performs those wonders through the
the name of the Lord..." (verses 47, 48). What a                   proper preaching of His inspired, infallible Word.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren



                                          "Join and Receive"
                                     Plan for Presbyterians
                                                                             L





  Three of the smaller Presbyterian denominations                            And finally, the focus will be on Fort Lauderdale,
will be, and are, talking merger-but in a manner                           Fla., during the week of June 15-19, when the Presby-
rather unique. Attention has been called in the                            terian Church in America convenes its Ninth General
Standard Bearer  to this proposal during the past                          Assembly.
year.        Details    concerning        various Assembly                   The actual documents and recommendations to
meetings are presented in the April 29 issue of the                        come before the three assemblies, already distributed
Presbyterian Journal:                                                      to teaching and ruling elders of the churches, [are
                                                                           reproduced in the Presbyterian Journal for study of its
         Never before in American Presbyterian history has                 readers).
   there been anything quite like it.                                     The proposed division of the new church into
         Presbyterian denominations have divided often and              presbyteries is presented. The editor of the
   merged on rare occasions. But the proposal before the                magazine comments:
   major assemblies of three conservative Presbyterian
   bodies during the next two months suggests a new                          Whether the churches will be joined we do not now
   course: that the largest (and newest) of the three                      dare predict. But one request we earnestly would
   churches simply receive the two other denomina-                         make of the debating parties: Do not-please, do not-
   tions.                                                                  employ that standard stalling tactic so familiar in the
                                                                           devious ways of man-centered ecclesiastical politics,
         Well, almost simply. Since the procedure is not a                 "We need to postpone action on this proposal because
   merger and not a union in the historic sense, years of                  we have not had time enough to study it."
   negotiation and discussion have been bypassed.                            That one is unworthy of men who profess a high
         But there still have been practical matters to be                 regard for perfect candor.
   worked  out; There are presbytery boundaries to re-
   draw, parallel ministries to bring together, employees                    Let every man vote his conscience, for or against
   to take care of, and traditions on all three sides to be                the proposal. But let it be done this year-not put off
   sensitive to.                                                           and put off and put off.
         Center stage in this ecclesiastical drama for the last           By the time this article appears in print, these
   few months have been the inner-church committees                assemblies            will probably have made their
   of the three denominations, which have met repeat-                   decisions. The results will be interesting indeed.
   edly (and often with observers from the churches                The difficulties of this kind of merger have been
   looking on and listening to the process) to hammer out          pointed out many times. These three denomina-
   details.                                                        tions have similar creeds, yet they differ in impor-
         The work of those committees is now largely done,         tant respects. The question will be how these differ-
   and that part of the cast will withdraw to the wings            ences will be resolved-or whether the church can
   while delegates to the assemblies themselves walk out           live with this "diversity." These churches might
   to play their important role in the process,                    decide on uniting, but unresolved differences have
         The scenes will be played first at Lookout Mountain,      a way of surfacing again later-and often result in
   Tenn., where the Reformed Presbyterian Church,                  divisions once again.
   Evangelical Synod, gathers May 22-28 for its 159th              I                                                                      1
   General Synod.                                                                       Take time to study
         Then the scene shifts to Beaver Falls, Pa., where the
   48th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian                              The Standard Bearer
   Church is scheduled to meet May 28-June 4.


418                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



                                          A Plea for the Psalms

  In  CuZvinist Contact, January 23, 1981, Rev. J.                   interest too in these songs. Dordt College choir, with
Tuininga addresses a letter to the editor concerning                 Dale Grotenhuis as its director, has prepared a
the singing of the psalms:                                           number of records on the psalms-beautiful ar-
                                                                     rangements made by the director and sung by the
              On the matter of music, I agree with Mr.  Tensen       choir. Mr. Grotenhuis, a few months ago, led also
       that the New Testament church should not sing only            our Covenant High School Choir at First Church in
       the 150 Psalms. At the same time, in picking songs for
       worship services, I find myself going back again and          Grand Rapids, in the singing of these psalms. The
       again to these Psalms. These Psalms are so God-cen-           interest and deep appreciation of our people were
       tered in comparison to many of the hymns, even in             seen in the large audience which gathered to listen.
       the Psalter Hymnal. The latter are too often  man-            It was a soul-stirring presentation which brought
       centered, and are too sweet and sentimental, not to           tears to some eyes. The music was not complicated
       say unbiblical.... I hope some of these will be elimina-      or difficult. The words were well-known and oft
       ted in a new edition of the Psalter (Hymnal). There are       sung in our own churches during their services. Yet
       indeed some very excellent hymns.... But apart from           the program appeared to be appreciated above even
       some of these, I still prefer the psalter section to the      some where more difficult music would be used,
       hymnal section.                                               and greater effort and ability of a choir and its
              I would also like to make a plea for our Christian     director would be required.
       schools to teach our children more of those versified
       psalms. Many of our parents and grandparents could              One can hope and pray that this interest and ap-
       sing many of the psalms without cracking a book.              preciation of the versified psalms develops and
       They learned them in school. Why can't we do the              grows in our own midst, and that others also see
       same? Let's use the treasure we have in the Psalter           increasingly the beauty and richness of the  versi-
       rather than concentrating on cheap gospel ditties and         fied psalms. With shame, one must confess that it
       other frothy songs. Our children will be the richer for       appears easier to appreciate the rich heritage which
       it.                                                           is ours-when others outside of our own churches
  And I would add: "Amen." We have used the                          indicate their own interest and appreciation of
psalms for song exclusively in our church services,                  these same psalms.
and largely also in our schools. Sometimes we grow                     May I add: those of us who were privileged to
tired, it seems, of the old songs. One hears at times                attend the 2000th broadcast of the Reformed
of complaints because of the extensive use of the                    Witness Hour at First Church, Grand Rapids, were
psalms in our circles. Yet one can also be heartened                 again also deeply moved by the singing of the
in hearing pleas for a greater emphasis of the                       audience and choir under the direction of Mr.
psalms in song. These are indeed theologically rich.                 Roland Petersen. Several psalms were sung-the
They are not of a sickly sentimental  nature-                        arrangements of which proved most interesting and
though some are indeed sentimental in a proper                       uplifting. Cassette recordings, I understand, of this
way. There's "meat" in the psalms and in their ver-                  singing too are available by writing to the Reformed
sification. Recently there has been a bit of revival of              Witness Hour.


                                Remarks on Pentecostalism

   The Christian News, March, 1981, contains an                          the Hare Krishna cult and numerous others isms that
article of interest concerning Pentecostalism. It                        are sweeping the world? What of the Muslim religion
states:                                                                  itself? The fact is this should give leaders a pause as to
                                                                         what might actually be taking place when orthodox
              . ..The charismatic phenomenon, though labelled  as        churchmen are taken in by its influences.
       a fresh manifestation of the Spirit in the latter days
       has all the earmarks of a cult. If numbers is to be                 That the whole movement is based on some very
       taken as a sign of the fact that the movement is cross-           faulty interpretations of the Scriptures is very evident
       ing denominational lines, then what of the Moonies,               to anyone having any workable knowledge of the


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           419



    New Testament. In the first place, the term                          And then there are the "tongues.". It is unfortunate
    "charismatic" is a misnomer and very misleading.                   indeed that this old English word, once commonly
    One might just as well speak of the "energematic" or               used for languages, was not translated languages. The
    the "diakonic" movement, since these words are also                word "tongues" carries with it a kind of esoteric
    used in I Corinthians 12 to describe the workings of               meaning, a certain mystique, as if here we have some
    the Spirit. Or better yet, why not speak of the                    very special manifestations where people prattle in
    "karposaic" movement since fruit-bearing is after all              some unknown Spirit language. In fact "unknown"
    the ultimate aim of the Christian life, not boasting of            does not occur in the original Greek as you will note
    the gifts we have in watering and planting or what-                in the use of italics in the English Bible where this
    ever.                                                              word occurs in I Corinthians 14. The "tongues" used
      Being baptized in the Spirit seems to be another em-             on ,the day of Pentecost were only unknown to those
    phasis-not "with" or "by," when actually the New                   who were from a different country....
    Testament Greek allows for no such subtle distinc-               The author continues, pointing out that this is
    tion. Always we are told in the Scriptures that the            nothing else than another form of ecumenism
    Spirit was poured out upon them-the new Christians             where doctrinal soundness is not a determinative
    were not immersed in the Spirit. Is there perhaps a            factor in union. Let us too be warned against this
    subtle twist to reinforce immersion as the proper              "sect" where the individual is highly magnified
    mode of baptism?                                               and God is not truly and properly honored.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS


                                     An Answer of Peace
                                                        Rev. John A. Heys


  Two more years went by, and Joseph was still in                  the service of the king of Egypt. More years must
the king's prison. He had committed no crime; but                  come and go before he meets his brothers; and then
one whose dream he had interpreted had forgotten                   after a while he will see his father again. It took
his promise to report to the king Joseph's unjust                 patience, and it took faith in God. Well may we
imprisonment. So often God teaches us patience by                  learn the truth of the song, "Be still my soul, the
bringing us into situations where we have to wait                  Lord is on our side." Repeatedly we must rebuke
for Him to give relief. The same thoughts that went                ourselves for behaving as though we are God and
through the mind of the psalmist in Psalm  46:lO                   that the world revolves around us. Daily we must
must have gone through Joseph's mind during                       .learn  that we exist for God's glory, and not He for
those two long years: "Be still, and know that I am                ours; that He is not our servant, but that we are His.
God." We deny that He is God, you know, when
we are impatient and dissatisfied with His ways                      God chose to bring Joseph and his father together
with us. We want, and often expect, God to jump                   again in the way of three sets of dreams. Joseph was
the moment we cry. But let us understand well                     given two dreams that told him that he would be
that, when that is the case, we assume the position               exalted above his brethren, and even above his
of being God, and we look upon Him as our ser-                    father. Two fellow prisoners were each given a
vant. All too often that is the sinfulness even in                dream, the interpretation of which laid the ground-
those good works which we call prayer.                            work for Joseph's deliverance out of prison. And it
                                                                  took yet another set of dreams given to Pharaoh
  All through those long years before and after the               that finally brought him to a position where his
butler had promised Joseph that he would bring his                father would come to see him in Egypt. God is at
case to the attention of Pharaoh, Joseph had prayed               work. He never forgets His people. And all things
to be set free and to be able to go to his father's               do work together for good to those that fear Him.
house once again. And although God answered his                   We must, however, leave the working of all these
prayer, He did so in His own time, and in His own                 things in His hands, and walk by faith in the midst
way. Seven more years will come and go, and                       of our adversities.
Joseph will still be kept from seeing his father. He is
set free and brought up out of prison. But seven                     Note as well that two of these three sets of
years of prosperity come and go, and he is still in               dreams are given to unbelievers, while the interpre-


420                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



tation is every time given to a child of God. This is      the question in Psalm  15:1, "Lord, who shall abide
so because what God does is always for the good of         in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy
His church. The wicked may have to prosper for             hill?" (Note: His  holy  hill), the answer in part in
the good of God's people; and you can be sure then         verse 4 is, "He that sweareth to his own hurt, and
that they will have things going well for them. They       changeth not." Do not argue that the psalmist
may need reverses and troubles; and these will             speaks only of promises with an oath. That certain-
most assuredly come upon them. We ought to read            ly is true-and marriages are performed before
often and carefully Psalm 73, lest we, like Asaph,         God's face and made in His name-but to promise
envy the wicked and cry out that clean hands are           and not keep the promise, even when no oath is
worthless, and a pure heart vain. Likewise we              taken, is to lie; and lying is always sin!
ought to be sure in our minds that when God gives            The butler's inability to remember his promise
dreams-and they in their fulfillment bring to un-          God used to bring to the king's attention Joseph's
believers what they call good-to those outside His         ability to interpret dreams. And Pharaoh's agitation
church, it is a matter that is going to serve the good     and fear-note that Joseph speaks to him of an
of His church, and not at any time the harm and            answer of peace, indicating Pharaoh's agitated state
destruction of His church.                                 -God used to bring Joseph out of his imprisonment
  This is clearly evident in this incident in Genesis      and to his exaltation in the kingdom.
41. And it is so interpreted by God Himself when             Joseph is brought out of shame and degradation
Moses is led to pen the words of Joseph in Genesis         to the highest place below the king that anyone
5020, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me;         could occupy in that day. He was raised above Poti-
but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is     phar who had cast him without a hearing into the
this day, to save much people alive." The dreams of        dungeon. Yea, because Joseph had been given
Pharaoh serve the realization of that purpose of           authority so that all Pharaoh's people would be
God which consisted in saving much people alive.           ruled by Joseph, he could give orders to Potiphar,
Certainly included in that "much people" are               and Potiphar would have to obey. Should someone
Egyptians who are unbelievers. That will always be         refuse to bring the extra grain to be stored away,
the case here below. Ungodly parents must live and         Joseph could call Potiphar to enforce the law. Quite
be healthy to bring forth children whom God will           a change has come in the life of Joseph, but also in
in time give a new birth with life from above.             the life of Potiphar who had dishonoured Joseph so
Without those wicked, unbelieving parents these            deeply.
children would never be conceived or born the first          All this took place not simply because Pharaoh
time with life from below. The chaff serves the            was above Potiphar, but because God is above Pha-
wheat; and the scaffold serves the building. But           raoh and the whole creation which He made.
God has His eye on the wheat and on the building.          Pharaoh asked no questions. He did not inquire in-
No man erects a building for the scaffold, or raises       to the reason for Joseph's imprisonment, did not
wheat for the chaff. And the all -wise God has wis-        call in Potiphar to verify what the butler told him.
dom far above the wisest of mortals.                       He believed what the butler said, because "the
  And so at the right time, divinely appointed from        king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers
eternity, the butler remembers Joseph and                  of water: He turneth it whithersoever He will"
confesses his sins before Pharaoh. We read in our          (Proverbs  21:l).  It certainly is true that because of
English translation that the butler remembered his         his fear and agitation Pharaoh was desperate, and
"faults this day. " The word here translated faults is     he was intent on getting an answer to his dreams.
better translated as sins. Used 34 times in Scripture      Joseph was his last resort. But all this, too, was in
this Hebrew word is translated 30 times as sin, once       the hand of God as He arranged all this and con-
as offences, once as punishment (implying sin), and        trolled every moment and every part of the circum-
once as grievously, which literally translated would       stances. It is God Who is even now fulfilling the
be, "Jerusalem hath sinned sin" (Lamentations              dreams that He gave to Joseph some years before
1:8). And it was sin. that the butler forgot Joseph. It    this. All this is not coincidence but God working all
was that in that he broke his promise to Joseph.           things together for those that fear Him. And we
And we must not take that lightly. We often shrug          may be sure that Joseph, when he advised the king
our shoulders, pass it off as nothing of consequence       to appoint a man "discreet and wise, and set him
to break a promise-and the divorces multiplying            over the land of Egypt," was not campaigning for
also in the church are instances of this-but God           the job. God moved the king to see the wisdom of
calls all breaking of promises sin. What is more, He       having one in whom he believed the spirit of God
presents making a promise and keeping it, even             could be found. Joseph had no way of knowing that
when it hurts, as a mark and distinguishing charac-        in this way his dreams would be fulfilled; and he
teristic of the citizens of His kingdom. After asking      was not trying to help God fulfill those dreams.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              421



  There. is, however, more in that peace of which         things which are written in the book of the law to
Joseph speaks than what Pharaoh saw in it. In a           do them." And this is found in the New Testament,
state in which his mind was agitated and his heart        after the cross of Christ, and in Galatians 2: lo! God
was full of fear, it would be peaceful to learn that      does not speak out of two sides of His mouth. His
the dreams did not mean that something terrible           right hand does know what His left hand does. And
was going to happen to him and his kingdom, that          He does not bless with His right hand His church,
his kingdom was not those withered, thin, and east-       and with His left the world.
wind blasted ears, or those ill-favoured and lean           Peace comes to us through the Prince of Peace.
kine, so that after seven years his kingdom would         We do well to read that beautiful second chapter of
begin to deteriorate. But even as the dreams were         Paul's epistle to the Ephesians where he declares
given for the sake of the church, and spoke of good       that now in Christ Jesus, we who were sometimes
for the church, so the answer of peace which              far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, "for
Pharaoh would receive was of a peace that is solely       He is our peace," and then place this next to John
for the church.                                           17:9   where this Prince of Peace declares that He
  This does not mean at all that the wicked, those        prays not for the world but for those whom the
outside of the church, do not receive what they call      Father gave Him out of the world. It is then a very
good and what fills man's flesh with delight. It does     particular peace.
not mean that God is not good to all His creatures.         What is more, one error leads to two, if you do
And that surely includes man, the highest of His          not come back to the truth. If we ignore the whole
earthly creatures. Countless thousands of unbeliev-       Word of God, choosing select passages to speak of a
ing Egyptians ate well during the famine, and had         mercy and grace on all mankind that nullifies the
all the food they needed during all those seven           truth that everyone is cursed who does not keep the
years when nothing grew in the fields. And it was         things written in the law, either by doing so himself
good nourishing food that God provided for them           or having it done for him by Christ because he is in
through Joseph. Even so today it is good sunshine         His church, we are going to corrupt the truth about
and good rain that God sends down on the world as         God Himself. Then we will have to maintain a god
well as on the church.                                    who changes. Gracious and merciful he is now in
  But let it be remembered that all peace comes           this life; and he loves every man in the world. Yet
from God through the One Whom God Himself in              he lets some of them perish! And the moment they
Isaiah 9:6 calls "the Prince of Peace." God will give     die he has no grace, mercy, or love for them any-
no peace apart from Him and His cross. Man                more. Our God's, the only true God's name, is
brought evil upon himself when in Adam he fell;           Jehovah, I Am That I Am. He tell us Himself, "I am
but God brings peace only to some whom He saves           the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6). And that can
in Christ. You can argue all you will, you can philo-     only mean that those for whom He has no grace,
sophize as much as you want to, but God says,             mercy, and love in the life to come, He did not have
"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all           these for them either in this life.

FROM HOLY WRIT

                   The So-Called Post-Millennial
                                           Proof-texts
                                                Rev. G. Lubbers


      ONE KINGDOM  - ONE CHURCH                           all! Equally silent they are concerning the Church
                                                          as the  elect  people of God, gathered out of every
                     Chapter 6                            tongue, tribe, people, and nation of the earth; yes,
  It is a rather startling fact that the proponents of    concerning the Church as she is "a chosen  genera-
Postmillennialism write volumes about the                 tion, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people" (people
Kingdom in terms of the "golden age," but are             for God's own possession), a Church "which is to
silent in every language about the Church, the            shew forth the praises of Him who has called them
Body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in    efficaciously out of darkness into God's marvelous


 422                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



 light" (I Peter 2:9), about all this not a word is said.     God gathers, defends and preserves to Himself a
   That is, however, really as telling as it is startling!    church,  auf of the whole human race, elect unto
                                                              everlasting life, in the unity of faith, and that I am
   I repeat: we do not read about the Kingdom of              and shall forever remain a living member of the
 God as they are the citizens of the heavenly king-           same." Yet, the proponents of Postmillennialism
 dom, fellow-heirs with the saints and of the house-          claim to be Reformed, even boasting a little that
 hold of God, the dwelling-place of God in the Spirit         they are representing the true Reformed tradition.
 (Eph.  2:13-22). I can understand such silence about         Fact is, they do not sound the Reformed keynote of
 the Church by the Dispensational  Premillennial-             Question 54 of the  Heid. Cat., Art. 14 of the Belgic
 ists, who deny that the prophets saw the New                 Confession, Art. 7-12 of Head of Doctrine I of the
 Testament Church in the searchlight of their pro-            Canons of Dort, or Chapter XXV, 2 of the West-
 phecy, but not on the part of the Postmillennialist,         minster Confession.
 who confesses that Church and the Kingdom are
the same people of God. I repeat:  Dispensationa-               It is the Reformed Confessional position that the
 lists deny that what they denominate "the Church-            visible church in the world, which consists of the
 Age," was foretold in the promises of old; but               whole number of the elect, is the fulness of Him
 Postmillennialists  confess that the prophets fore-          that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23) and that the church
 saw the New Testament church as the fulfillment              is the Kingdom of Christ (Matt.  13:47)  outside of
 of prophecy, the promise to Abraham and to his               which there is no salvation. Incidentally, if we may
 seed.                                                        anticipate our articles, the "out of every nation"
                                                              may not be construed or misinterpreted as indica-
   We must at this juncture bear in mind what we              ting all nations themselves. We hope to notice this
 have learned from I Corinthians  15:24-28, namely,           more particularly in the future.
 that the Kingship of Christ does not end at the
 Parousia in the last day, when Christ officially               When one reads the Bible carefully it is quite
 presents the Kingdom to God the Father, and when             clear and evident that Jesus speaks much about the
 God in that act becomes all in all. Really, God is,          Kingdom of God: it was the great central "theme"
 even now in the Dispensation of the fulness of               of His preaching (Matt.  4:23; Mk.  1:14, 15). This
 times, very much all in all, but not so manifestly as        kingdom is not earthly but heavenly, which truth is
 He will be in the ages to come in the eternal state.         emphasized in the entire Gospel of Matthew,
 Then we will see  filly manifested God's glory in            where the term occurs some twenty times or more,
 Christ, the Lord of lords, the King of kings. This im-       but only three times do we read: kingdom of God.
 plies, among other things, that the citizens of that         Besides, in the good confession before Pilate, Jesus
 kingdom will be the entire Church, the body of               says: My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).
 Christ, as kings and priests unto God! (Rev. 1:6; Ex.        In another place we read, "And when He was de-
 19:6; Is.  61:6; Rev.  5:lO; I Pet.  2:5, 9). For the        manded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God
 kingdom and the Church are one and the same                  should come, He answered them and said, The
 people in identity and in number; they are the same          kingdom of God cometh not with observation (with
 people called out of darkness into God's marvelous           outward show). Neither shall they say, Lo here! or,
 light. The latter is denied by  Premillennialists,  but      lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within
 this is really the doctrinal position of the  Postmil-       you" (Luke 17:20, 21).
 lennialists.                                                   There is a very significant passage in Matt. 16:18,
    Nevertheless, we read so very little about the            19 which merits our attention at this point. There
 Church of God in relationship to the Kingdom of              we read,
 God in all the writings of the proponents of the                   "And I say also unto thee, That thou art
  "golden age" of the Kingdom before the return of                Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
 Christ upon the clouds of heaven!                                church; and the gates of hell will not prevail
    Now this is rather startling, to say the least. But it        against it.
 seems to this writer, that it is also rather revealing             And I will give unto thee the keys of the
 of a one-sidedness in presenting the truth, which                Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou
 leads to grave and serious errors, not only in the               shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in
 field of Eschatology, the doctrine of the Last                   heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
 Things, but also in that of Theology and Ecclesiolo-             earth, shall be loosed in heaven."
 gy. It is a theory which disrupts the structural               These are very significant utterances from the
 truths of the Reformed Faith, and of the sound               mouth of the Son of Man, Who unfolds here the
 words of doctrine contained in the Scriptures. It is         mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in the world.
 rather ominous not to hear the clarion sound con-            Without going into detailed exegesis of this passage,
 cerning the Holy Catholic Church: "that the Son of           we notice the chief elements in this teaching:


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  423



  1. This is the first and only time that Jesus            tian discipline in the Name of the Lord. These keys
speaks of the Kingdom of heaven, joining it with           are the strong bulwarks, the impregnable palaces of
the Church, which He calls "My church." This is            the King in Zion as He dwells in the midst of His
His ehheesia,  the called-out ones,lcalled out of dark-    people, the church in the world. In this church He
ness into God's marvelous light, and that too, in          exercises the Key of David, and calls upon His
every tongue, tribe, kindred, and nation. This             church to do so in His Name (Rev.  2:2; 14-16; 20-
church is the body of Christ, the living branches in       23). From this it appears that the Kingdom of
the true Vine, Christ. They are those who are born         heaven is inseparably connected with the Church;
again, and who, therefore, can see the kingdom of          the one is not without the other in the world, in this
God with spiritual eyes of faith (I Pet.  1:19-22; 2:1-    life or in the life to come. Thus the Son of God
10; John 15:1-8; 3:3).                                     gathers, defends, and preserves the church, elect
  2. The text clearly teaches that this church             unto everlasting life; thus only the living members
stands in need of protection against the "gates of         abide in the church as heirs of the Kingdom of
hell which would prevail against her." In this             heaven forever. Thus they are God's house when
church of Christ the life that is lived is a  hingdom-     they remain in the faith, firm to the end (Heb.  3:6,
life, the life of the Kingdom of heaven here on earth.     14).
This life is manifested in those of whom this                 5. This keynote of the holy Scriptures is
Kingdom consists: the poor in spirit, those that           sounded in the Reformed confessions, which
mourn in Zion, the meek in the earth, those who            keynote is not the basic note in the writings of Post-
long for the righteousness of the Cross by faith,          millennial advocates, even though they say loudly
those who are merciful, having received sovereign          that they are Reformed. To say the wrong thing
mercy, those who are pure in heart and who shall           loudly does not make it true, neither if it is said
see God face to face in His Kingdom, and finally,          often and repeatedly. That the Church and
those who are the peacemakers, and who shall be            Kingdom of heaven are basicially one and the same
denominated sons of God! Here Christ connects              people is not taught clearly, and it is almost forgot-
very  integraZZy   the Church and the Kingdom. He          ten in silence, to the best of my knowledge. For the
speaks of them not only in one breath, but shows           position of the Reformed Churches we refer to our
how the keys of the kingdom of heaven are for the          references earlier in this essay.
well-being of the Church (Matt. 5:2-g).                      6. It ought to be clear that severing the proper
  3. Only Christ is the Builder of the Church. "I          relationship of the church and the Kingdom of
will build My Church" (Matt.  16:18). That is a            heaven can only work ill for the proper understand-
Divine work which distinguishes Christ from                ing of both the church and the Kingdom. The em-
Moses. The latter is only a faithful servant in all of     phasis of either of these two must needs lead to a
God's house (Heb. 3:1-6). Christ really built the          one-sidedness which leads to heresy and error.
church in three days (Eph.  2:20, 22; I Pet.  2:5; Col.    Whatever influence goes out from the Church and
2:7; John  2:19). He builds His church only with           Kingdom of heaven in the world must always be
living spiritual stones, the living members of the         such that it keeps the "gates of hell" at bay, and
Kingdom of heaven (I Pet. 2:5).                            frustrates the attempt of the forces of Satan to
  4. Christ also clearly reveals in this passage that      triumph over the church. Only when the Kingdom
all who deny the content of the great confession of        of heaven is established more and more in the
Peter, revealed to him by the heavenly Father,             hearts of the elect people of God, the living
must be barred from the Church and from the                members of Christ's church, are such living
Kingdom of heaven. Such must be deemed as be-              members also the  heirs  of the Kingdom of God
longing to the very gates of hell which would pre-         (Rom.  4:13, 14;  8:17; Matt.  5:5;  19:29;  25:17; I Cor.
vail against the church. With this in view Christ          6:9, 10; Rev. 21:7).
will give to Peter and to all the apostles and to the        The lines of demarcation between the church
whole church the "keys of the Kingdom of heaven"           and the gates of hell must not silently be erased, nor
(Matt.  16:19;  18:18; John  20:23; Rev.  1:18b;  3:7).    denied in an attempt at a world-wide Kingdom of
These keys are the public preaching, the official          God in the world, which embraces all nations,  as
preaching of the gospel, and the exercise of Chris-        nations!

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


4 2 4                                             THE  .STANDARD BEARER



SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                                The Spirit of This Age (II)
                                                             Rev. K. KooZe




           "...but unto them that are defiZed  and unbe-              "spirit" now rules society. We live in a time which
         Zieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and             resembles the days of Lamech before the flood, and
         conscience is  defiZed. They profess that they               of Sodom and Gomorrah before the brimstone.
         know God; but in works they deny Him, being                    `When we point to the immoral excesses which
    abominabze, and disobedient, and unto every                       infect our society we are not suggesting that sins
    good work reprobate." Titus 1:15, 16                              which are committed in our day were unheard of in
   We continue our discussion of the spirit of this                   days gone by. Hatred and perversion have always
age which we have designated as the absence of all                    characterized and warped fallen man. And that has
shame. We have implied that there is an internal                      always revealed itself in man's actions. We are not
aspect to and an external evidence of this "spirit."                  romanticists who yearn for the so called "good-old-
The internal aspect involves the hardening of the                     days." We have no desire to turn the clock back.
conscience. Men grow callous to every prick of con-                   Yesteryear led but to today. For every sin man
science. Men do not feel demeaned or debased in                       commits today, its parallel can be found in days
the performance of sin, not even when they know                       gone by-everything from gluttony to murder,
that others know them for what they are, slaves to                    from insurrection to sodomy. Fallen man has never
various passions. Nor does man find at all repulsive                  been free from these impulses or practices.
the observation of gross sins as practiced by others.                   Yet there is a difference between our age and
Rather he is attracted to and entertained by them.                    yesteryear. Strikingly, the world itself recognizes
Confront such men with their own iniquities, and                      that. Significantly, they speak of the "new morali-
they are not touched; point out to them the                           ty." By this term unbelieving society indicates that
immoral behavior of others, and they ask blandly,                     the change of which we have been speaking has not
"But what is wrong with that?" The conscience is                      gone unnoticed. Even the defiled and unbelieving
seared, callous.                                                      recognize that the moral-ethical atmosphere has
   The external evidence of this lack of shame is                     changed.
gross, public immorality, which we can label "law-                      From a certain point of view there is no term so
lessness,' ' or in the words of Christ Himself,                       poorly adapted to indicate this change as "new
"Abounding lawlessness" (Matt.  24:12). Lawless-                      morality." What society is referring to is not mor-
ness is, in a word, defiant, flagrant disobedience.                   ality, but immorality, and essentially it is not new
Abounding  lawlessness puts it on a large scale,                      but old, as old as fallen man and spiritual death. But
dominating every segment of society. This lawless-                    the term will serve. By it society means that old
ness refers not merely to acts of civil disturbances,                 norms which governed what was acceptable beha-
such as rioting and violent crime, but this lawless-                  vior are outmoded. New standards are to be estab-
ness encompasses every form of immorality and                         lished by which right and wrong, good and evil are
disobedience to God's holy laws. Being without                        to be judged. An example would be the contem-
shame, men know no law. God's laws of morality                        porary sexual permissiveness which makes public
and subservience to the authorities of home, the                      semi-nudity and common-law marriage lawful, and
church, and of state are ignored and even flagrantly                  which declares that sexual perversion is normal.
defied. This is not because men are ignorant of                         Now what is new is not these types of fornica-
them, but it is because men brazenly hold the laws                    tion. Art shows that man has long been fascinated
of God in open contempt. When such a point is                         with nudity, and history tells us that much fornica-
reached it can be said that men are without shame.                    tion has been winked at, especially by the nobility.
They become exhibitionists, looking for an audi-                      What is new is not the fact that men can be found
ence to applaud their sin.                                            overturning God's laws and demonstrating a
   Our position is that there are signs that this                     certain boldness while doing so (though never on


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                425



such a grand scale as in our day). What is aston-           of sin? That He says that good is evil and evil is
ishing is that not only do men defy all authority as        good, that is the gospel? God forbid. What shall we
they break the law, but society asserts that this new       then say? The words of Titus  1:16 apply. "They
lawlessness is law-it is right, it is good, it is neces-    profess that they know God; but in works they
sary if the old wrongs are to be righted.  That  has        deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and
never occurred before. Never before has society             unto every good work reprobate."
made an effort to establish that immorality is                The immoral depths into which western civiliza-
moral, or declared lawlessness lawful (e.g., legal-         tion has plunged herself in all of her institutions
ized abortion and labor strikes). Always mankind            and practices astounds. Yet for the student of the
has recognized that lawless behavior was a devia-           Bible it ought not come as a complete surprise, as
tion, and that it must not have official approval or        an unexpected turn of events. Scripture plainly
legal sanction, or all of society would be sucked           foretells of this state of affairs. The "spirit" govern-
into a raging whirlpool and disintegrate. But con-          ing society of which we have been talking is but the
temporary society has taken the bold, self-destruc-         coming to surface of another "spirit" which has
tive step to define unrighteousness as law and              long been working in this world, namely, the
morality. What can be clearer than man's insis-             spirit of Anti-Christ.
tence that the worst criminals have rights! When
has society ever guaranteed convicted criminals'              Having warned the church against worldliness
rights? Never until today. Such is the spirit of this       the Apostle John writes, "Little children, it is the
age; sin is legal, and law is used to justify man's ab-     last time: and as ye have heard that anti-Christ  shall
sence of shame.                                             come, even now are there many anti-christs:
                                                            whereby we know that it is the last time" (I John
  What is especially reprehensible is that this             2: 18). And in this same epistle the Apostle speaks of
"spirit" dominates not only society in its life and         "that spirit of  anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard
laws, but, as well, it has infected the historical          that it should come; and even now aZready  is it in the
Christian church down to its roots. Lawless,                world" (I John 4:3).
depraved behavior is sponsored by the nominal                 Significant, too, are Paul's words of warning in II
Christian church.  That  has never before occurred          Thessalonians 2:7-9, "for the mystery of iniquity
either. The foremost voice in blessing the evildoer         doth  already work:  only he who now letteth  (pre-
in the way of disobedience has become the church.           venteth  - K.K.) will let, until he be taken out of the
That she is guilty of this can be shown. She sup-           way. And then shall that Wicked (lit.  - Lawless
ports dissatisfied workers who strike and who may           One) be revealed.. .Even him, whose coming is after
even turn to violence. These lawless ones remain            the working of Satan with all power and signs and
members in good standing. Spokesmen for                     lying wonders."
Christian churches encourage and justify civil dis-
obedience by pointing the finger here, there, and             Throughout history that sinister, monstrous
everywhere but at the real culprits of the crimes.          spirit of Anti-Christ, which finds its source in hell,
                                                            has been working in society. It has not been fully
  The church ordains not only women into the spe-           revealed as yet, but, though submerged, at times it
cial offices (thereby showing callous disregard for         has stirred up society to such frothings that its
clear Scriptural injunctions), but also self-adver-         strivings can not be mistaken. Meanwhile, it lurks
tised homosexuals. Such, says the church, are wor-          just beneath the surface, waiting for the right "at-
thy examples of Christ for His flock, and through           mosphere" into which it can emerge, show its
such Christ is pleased to speak His gracious, saving        hideous strength, and be universally acclaimed and
word, supposedly. We are not to judge them,                 adored.
though they show no signs of repentance or shame.             It seems evident that it is this very absence of
They are not guilty of sin, but only have a different       shame which is what the reprobate,  anti-Christian
life-style. The guilty ones, we are told by preachers,      spirit has been striving for millennia to engender.
are the ones who make these people feel guilty. So          Such a "spirit" (attitude) would be in complete har-
the church seeks to ease the conscience of the              mony with a spirit spawned by Satan in the abyss of
guilty, and condemns the righteous. This is done,           hell, namely, one which completely despises God's
mind you, in the name of the Lord of righteousness          laws. Anti-Christ would be fully at home in a socie-
and truth. Those who cry out against such abomi-            ty dominated by this absence of shame. They
nations are labelled as narrow-minded bigots and as         would be of the same lawless spirit. Such a society
the modern pharisees. What is this world coming             would be ripe for his appearance.
to? It is clear: the End.                                     It is the very absence of shame which works to
  That God loved sinners, and that Christ died for          the coming Anti-Christ's advantage. Such a spirit
the ungodly is certainly true. But that He approves         paves the way for him. Men, having no shame, sow


426                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It is             exchanging her freedoms for security. And, horror
inevitable that by such lawlessness as we see about            of whores, the church will proclaim this one
us the fabric of society shall be ripped to shreds, or,        "Savior."
to use a prior figure, that it shall disintegrate as in a        We too must be warned against being contami-
raging whirlpool. For who will save society as it             nated by the pernicious spirit of our age. It threat-
self-destructs? Who will throw it the lifeline? Who           ens the very life of our churches and families. We
else but Anti-Christ! The Lawless One will impose             are those whose conscience must remain undefiled.
his  law upon society, calling it Divinely-ordained           We shall focus on how these matters directly con-
law. Society will gladly grant him absolute power,             cern us in the next article, D.V.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


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


  We now take up the study of the Gospel itself               resisted the attempt of the Jews to make Him their
and see how the Holy Spirit led John to develop the           king (6:1-71).
exalted theme of Jesus, the Son of God.                          Jesus visited Jerusalem a third time during the
BRIEF OUTLINE                                                 Feast of Tabernacles and Feast of Dedication (7:1-
  1. The Gospel of John opens with a reference to              10:39). The brothers of Jesus suggested that He
Jesus as the Word, the Logos (l:l-18). As the Word,           hasten to Jerusalem to show His power  (7:1-9);
Christ existed before He was born ( 1: 1). He partici-        Jesus resisted this haste and eventually went to
pated in creation  (1:3,4). He is the Light of the            Jerusalem; there was tension in the city for fear of
World to fallen man  (1:5-13);  He came into our              the leaders of the people, but Jesus entered into
flesh (1: 14); John the Baptist came to bear witness           controversy with the people; this resulted in their
of Him (1:15-18).                                             trying to take Him (7: 10-31). The Pharisees and
                                                              Chief Priests sent officers to take Jesus. They failed,
  2. Before the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus re-               for some of them testified, "Never man spake like
vealed Himself to more and more people  (1:15-                this man." There was division among them (7:32-
6:71). John the Baptist introduced Him as the Lamb            53). The woman taken in adultery was set before
of God (1: 15-34); Jesus gathered His disciples (1:35-        Jesus; He exposed their hypocrisy and pardoned
51); He performed His first miracle, changing water           her  (8:1-11).  Jesus discoursed on the light of the
into wine (2:1-11);  He made His first sojourn to Ca-         world and spiritual blindness; the Jews took up
pernaum  (2:12);  He went to the Passover at Jerusa-          stones to kill Him, but He passed by (8: 12-59). On
lem to reveal His authority by cleansing the temple,          the Sabbath Jesus healed the man born blind; the
and He taught the people (2:13-21); He visited with           Jews excommunicated this man for his faith; Jesus,
Nicodemus and instructed Him concerning the                   however, comforted him (9: 1-41). Jesus taught the
necessity of regeneration and the great love of God           parable of the Good Shepherd (10: 1-21). From Solo-
(3:1-21);  John the Baptist testified concerning Jesus,       mon's Porch, He declared His divinity. This was
that he, John, must decrease and Jesus must in-               during the Feast of Dedication (10:22-39).
crease  (3:22-36); Jesus went to Galilee and on the
way He had conversation with the Samaritan                        3. After the Feast of Dedication, Christ entered
woman  (4:1-42).  In Galilee Jesus went to  Cana and          into public confrontation  (10:40-12:50).  He raised
healed the son of the  Nobelman  (4:43-54); He re-            Lazarus from the dead and, "From that day, the
turned to Jerusalem for the second Feast of the               Jews took counsel together to put Him to death,"
Passover (5:l); there He healed the lame man at the            ( 11: l-57). Mary annointed Jesus for His burial ( 12: l-
Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath and taught con-                11); Jesus entered into Jerusalem riding on a young
cerning the Sabbath (5:2-47);  He returned to Galilee         ass; the Greeks seek Him; the Jews reject him
and fed the five thousand, stilled the storm, and              ( 12: 12-50).


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              427



   4. The private ministry of Christ to His disciples     Jesus while He hanged on the cross, "forthwith
(13:1-17:26).  Before the Passover Feast, He washed       came there out blood and water" (19:34).
His disciples' feet  (13:1-20); He informed the disci-      Jesus is God and man!
ples that one of them would betray Him (13:21-27);
Judas was dismissed  (13:27-30); Jesus instructed           2. John included material that substantiates the
His disciples regarding the new commandment to            truth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is true of the
love one another; He also prophesied Peter's denial       miracles recorded: water changed into wine (2:1-
(13:31-38); Jesus gave His farewell to His disciples,     11); healing of the Nobelman's son  (4:46-54);
promised the Holy Spirit, and said He would return        healing of the impotent man at the Poolhf Bethesda
(14: l-16:33). The sacerdotal prayer (17: l-26).          (5:2-g); feeding of the five thousand  (6:1-14);  Jesus'
                                                          walking on the water (6:16-21); healing of the blind
   5. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus           man  (9:1-17);  raising of Lazarus  (ll:l-44); resurrec-
(18:1-20:31).  Jesus went to Gethsemane and was           tion of Jesus  (20:1-29). Reference to these miracles
arrested  (18:1-15). He was taken to  Annas  and          is made in the context of setting forth the divinity of
Caiphas. During this trial, Peter denied Him three        Christ. Similarly, John includes the well-known
times  (18:16-27). He was subsequently taken to
Pilate for trial  (18:28-19:16).  Jesus was crucified     seven "I am's." In these discourses Jesus also
                                                          teaches the people concerning His divine ministry:
(19:17-37), He was buried (19:28-42), He arose from       I am the bread of life  (6:35); I am the light of the
the dead. Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John visited         world  (8:12,  9:5); I am the door of the sheepfold
the tomb  (20:1-10); the Living Christ appeared to        (10:7);  I am the good shepherd (lO:ll, 14); I am the
Mary Magdalene  (20:11-18); He appeared to His            resurrection and the life  (11:25); I am the way, the
disciples without Thomas being present (20: 19-23);       truth, and the life  (14:6);  and I am the true vine
a week later, He reappeared to them when Thomas           (15:l).
was also present (20:26-29); John added a reminder
as to why he wrote the Gospel (20:30,31).                   3. Once again we see that the Holy Spirit chose
                                                          the right man for this task. Such a profound truth as
  6. The conclusion of the Gospel  (21:1-25). Christ      the deity of Christ defies human reasoning. One
appeared to seven disciples who caught no fish; He        could easily get caught up in philosophical terms
instructed them to cast the net on the other side and     and heavy language. Yet, John writes with the
they caught many; He ate with them  (21:1-14).            simplest vocabulary and most concise sentences so
Jesus spoke to Peter, instructing him three times to      that one can identify his writing very easily by this
feed His sheep  (21:15-19); Jesus spoke concerning        trait. This is not to say that John suffered from
the future of Peter and John  (21:21-23); and finally     limited vocabulary. The words that he does use
John attested to his authorship of the Gospel             indicate that the church at that point in time had
(21:24,25).                                               matured to understand many difficult concepts of
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF JOHN'S GOSPEL                     truth. This is indicated in his use of terms such as
   1. As we said, the special emphasis of the Gospel      light and darkness, world, flesh, believe, truth, hate
is upon the divinity of Christ. The Holy Spirit led       and love, know, abide, glorify, and such like.
John to make reference to this in such a way that           4. John sets forth the ministry of Jesus to indivi-
the readers might know that Jesus is the Son of           duals. Surely, Jesus preached to the multitudes, but
God. Consider, "the Word was God" (1:l); "Before          here in John's Gospel, we learn more how Jesus
Abraham was born, I am" (8:58);  "I and the Father        brought the Word from "house to house." At the
are one" (10:30); "He that hath seen me hath seen         same time, almost incidentally, we get to learn
the Father"  (14:9);  and the confession of Thomas,       something of some of these individuals that receive
"My Lord and my God"  (20:28). As God, He                 such personal care. Examples are: Nicodemus (3:1-
existed before He was born of Mary  (1:14;  8:58;         15;  7:50-52;  19:39); the Samaritan woman  (4:1-26);
17:5).  John calls Him the Word, the Logos (1:1,14).      Philip  (1:43-46; 6:5-7;  14:8-l 1); Thomas (11: 16;
  John was careful, however, not to deny the              14:5,6;  20:24-29);  Mary and Martha (ll:l-40; 12:2-
reality of the human nature at the expense of the         8); Mary the mother of Jesus (l:l-5; 19:26,27).
divine. Current in John's day was the heresy of             5. The Gospel of John makes more references to
Gnosticism and its by-product Docetism. This view         Christ's ministry in Jerusalem and  Judea than do
emphasized that flesh was evil. Hence when Christ         the  Synoptics. This helps us understand something
became man, He did not take on a real human               of the chronology of Jesus' ministry and at the same
nature, but simply appeared as a man. John care-          time gives us insight into the ceremonial life of the
fully stressed, "And the Word was made flesh and          Jews. Three Passover Feasts are mentioned  (2:23;
dwelt among us" (1:14),  "and the bread that I will       6:4;  13:l). There is reference to the Feast of Taber-
give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the    nacles  (7:6), Feast of the Dedication of the Temple
world" (6:51).  When the soldier pierced the side of      (10:32); and one unnamed feast  (5:l). From the


428                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Gospel of John, it becomes apparent that Jesus            church of all ages?
spent more time in Jerusalem and its environs than           3. Does the fact that John was an eyewitness to
seems to be indicated in the  Synoptics. This adds        the ministry of Jesus add anything to the credibility
some dimension to the words of Jesus recorded in          of the Gospel?
Matthew  23:37, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets and stonest them which are              4. Discuss why Jesus is called the Word, Logos
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered           (1:l).
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her           5. Go through the seven "I am's" and show how
chickens under her wings and ye would not!" As            each one tells us something of the divinity of
the Son of God, He did not come to establish an           Christ.
earthly kingdom in the capital city of Jerusalem.            6. Take the miracle of the resurrection of Laza-
Rather He directed His people to the eternal,             rus from the dead (ll:l-54). Show that the miracle
heavenly kingdom (6:39,40;  14:3; 21:22).                 substantiates Christ's teaching, "I am the resurrec-
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION                               tion and the life" (11:25)  and that from this also He
  1. What do we know about the author, and can            sets forth His divinity.
we show how God wisely chose him to write?                   7. From the point of view of inspiration, did
  2. What is the special message that the Holy            John paraphrase the words of Jesus (he wrote them
Spirit led John to emphasize in this Gospel, and          at least  40 years later) or do we have the actual
what is the importance of this message for the            words of Jesus. Explain.

GUESTARTICLE


           As Many As Were Ordained Believed
                                                Rev. R.G. Moore



  When was the last time you have contemplated            directed not only to the elect, but also to the repro-
the Word of God as it is recorded in Acts 13:48? It       bate; not only to the godly, but also to the ungodly.
reads as follows, "And when the Gentiles heard            It must be so distinctive that under its influence the
this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the       reprobate and ungodly cannot remain, but will
Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life        reveal themselves as haters of the truth of God and
believed." This is really an amazing statement! For       His Christ."
we read that the Gentiles were glad at the preach-           Further, Hoeksema goes on to state, "And more-
ing of Paul, who brought the gospel of Christ. Not        over, even the elect regenerated are not perfect.
only this, but they glorified the word of the Lord!       There is much flesh in the church. Daily they have
They that did this had previously been unbelievers        to strive with the desires and lusts of the flesh, and
-heathen. But the fruit of the preaching is belief        must be admonished steadfastly to walk in the way
and gladness!                                             of the covenant, to hate sin, and to fight against it,
  On the other hand, many when they heard the             and flee from it."
preaching of the apostles were not glad, but
despised the word of the Lord. So incensed were              Such was the preaching of the apostles always,
they that they would, if it were possible, kill the       also on the field of missions. This, too, was true of
apostle who so preached Christ. The unbelieving           Christ Himself in His preaching. Hear His word
Jews did this, often stirring up a crowd against          recorded in Matthew  10:34: "Think not that I am
them; and also the unbelieving Gentiles did this, as      come to send peace on earth: I came not to send
in Ephesus.                                               peace, but a sword." Such is His preaching that it
                                                          even sets a man at variance with his father, and a
  In the light of this twofold reaction to the preach-    daughter against her mother. The fruit, therefore,
ing of Christ, what a wonder that we read what we         of the apostle's preaching was such that many
do in the text of Acts 13:48.                             despised the apostles and the word that they
  Rev. H. Hoeksema states the following truth in          brought, while others were glad, and rejoiced,
his, Reformed Dogma tics. "The preaching must be          praising God and glorifying His Word.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             429



  Why? Why do some receive the exhortations of             of rest He declared to them, according to Deuteron-
the Word with gladness-become humbled by it,               omy 7:6-8, "For thou art an holy people unto the
and give all glory to God? According to many, the          LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen
answer lies in the fact that some men are better           thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all
than others. They are willing to have the  word-           people that are upon the face of the earth. The
they have an innate goodness that enables them to          LORD did not set His love upon you, nor chose
strive after the word. They open their own hearts to       you, because ye were more in number than any
accept the preaching, while others will not.               people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But be-
  So prevalent is this idea or theory in the church        cause the LORD loved you, and because He would
world today, that man has so constructed para-             keep the oath which He had sworn unto your
phrased versions of the Bible to change the wording        fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a
of our text, so that it might read exactly in harmony      mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of
with their evil theology. The result is that they          bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of
make Acts 13:48 read just the opposite of the truth        Egypt." The reason Israel was redeemed out of the
in-breathed by the Spirit of Christ. We take note of       land of bondage and led into the land of rest is alone
this by quoting from Reach Out, one of the versions        God's sovereign and eternal covenant love which
of THE LIVING NEW TESTAMENT. Acts  13:48                   He has set upon them, and which He promised to
reads, according to this instrument of Satan, the          their fathers. God is faithful to save those whom He
following way, "When the Gentiles heard this, they         has called in love. He loved them eternally. He
were very glad and rejoiced in Paul's message; and         loves those whom He calls by His Word throughout
as many as wanted eternal life, believed."                 the ages, for He has chosen us in Christ before the
                                                           foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4). It is the
  The emphasis in this version falls upon man and          eternal ordination of our faithful covenant God that
his will, rather than upon God and His work. Thus          is worked out by His calling through the preaching
the ingathering of the church is presented as              of the gospel. Jesus explains that His sheep hear His
dependent upon the will of man.                            voice, whereas those who are not of His sheep do
  However, if this were true, this would be an             not (John 10). In verse 29 our Lord teaches us that
overwhelmingly fearful thing for both the hearers          the sheep are given Him of His Father. Therefore,
and the preachers of the gospel of our Lord. Cer-          though many who are not of His sheep take up
tainly, if we were to assume that the ingathering of       stones to slay His servants, and cut off the preach-
the church was dependent upon the hearers' desire          ing of Christ, nevertheless, of those who are the
for eternal life, then it would be utterly impossible      ordained it is said "many believed in Him there."
to take up the calling to preach the word of Christ.         It is evident from Acts 13:48 that the believing is
For then the salvation of Christ's church would            the fruit of the ordination unto eternal life. For as
become dependent upon the ability of the preacher          we are ordained in Christ, so is Christ sent of God
to convince people to want eternal life! But natural       as our ordained Head to redeem us. This was the
man will not ever desire eternal life, for he is dead      testimony of the Spirit in Deuteronomy  7:8. It is
in sins and trespasses (Eph. 2: 1). This is very           because of God's elective love alone that He has
evident from the preaching of our Lord, Jesus              redeemed us out of the house of bondmen, whether
Christ. When He preached upon the mountain to              typically or in reality.
the multitude, and even fed them miraculously,               This same testimony we receive in Ephesians 1.
only a few remained with Him. Why was this true?           We are chosen from eternity in Christ unto the
Was not Jesus good enough in His preaching? God            adoption of children, and it is on this basis also that
Forbid! Rather, Jesus explains that only those             Christ has come in our flesh, "In Whom we have
whom God draws unto Him will come to Him,                  redemption through His blood." It is by Christ's
believing in Him.                                          redeeming work that we have the forgiveness of
  According to the Word of God which we are con-           sins, and are become righteous. And upon the basis
sidering, the preaching of Christ is received by           of Christ's merits, His righteousness, He calls us
those ordained unto eternal life. This is wholly           out of darkness into the marvelous light of God's
different! And this was extremely comforting for           fellowship. He sheds forth His Spirit, making
the apostles as they preached the gospel, as it is also    known unto us the mysteries of God's will, sealing
for Christ's faithful servants of all ages as they go      unto us the Word.
forth preaching the Word of God. May we have                 Therefore, on the basis of the atonement and the
grace to remember this in our preaching and                righteousness of Christ we are united by His Spirit
missionary labor.                                          to Christ Himself. Thus God gives unto His chosen
  This truth is found throughout the Scriptures.           ones eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to under-
When God brought His people into the typical land          stand.


430                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  The natural man has not been given this. He has            Indeed, it is in gladness that we receive the
eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, etc. Jesus    blessed gospel of our salvation! For true gladness
says to them, "For this people's heart is waxed            comes with the knowledge that the cause of our
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing and their        alienation to God is removed, that we have been
eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should        reconciled by God to Himself through our Lord
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and         Jesus Christ. As we are justified by His blood we
should understand with their hearts, and should be         are now drawn unto God by His Word and Spirit.
converted, and I should heal them" (Matt. 13:15). It       And the fruit is that we now in principle and soon
is obvious from this text that the unbelief of the         in perfection will dwell in His fellowship and
wicked is also ordained of God.                            blessed communion.
  But those who are ordained unto eternal life by            Then, indeed, we have peace which God alone is
the living God are covered by Christ's blood and           able to give. For even our sins can no longer
are called by Christ's Word and Spirit unto belief.        condemn us. Nor is any enemy able to have the
We are converted and He heals us. And we are               victory. All things are well! Gladness is to have
given the conscious testimony of our righteousness         fellowship with God through the blood of our Lord,
in His blood, and thus by grace walk out of Christ         and to live in God's blessed fellowship as His
in the works of faith, trusting in Him and praising        servants.
God.                                                         And then, surely, as He proclaims His Word to
  It is in confidence and in comfort that we are           us we glory in that Word. For it is the Word of our
able therefore to preach the gospel of Christ. For         salvation in Christ. We cannot glory in anything
we know that God never sends forth His word to             else, can we? Surely not in anything we are able to
return unto Him void, but that it always accom-            do! But what we are forever unable to accomplish,
plishes His perfect purpose. It does this as well          the gospel of Christ teaches that God has done for
when the ungodly hearts are hardened, that God's           us. He forgives us in the blessed Son and He
power and righteousness may be revealed in their           delivers us unto the eternal life unto which He has
condemnation in the way of their sin, as it does           ordained us, Let him that glorieth, glory alone in
when the ordained unto eternal life receive that           our God.
Word in gladness.




                                        Book Reviews

ARE FIVE PQINTS ENOUGH? Ten Points of Cal-                 points are briefly treated); The All-embracing
vinism, by Leonard J. Coppes; Reformation Educa-           World View; The Concept of Holiness; The
tional Foundation, 1980; 197 pp., $4.95 (paper).           Concept of Church Government; The Understand-
(Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                              ing of the Sacraments; The Understanding of
                                                           Evangelism; The Understanding of Worship.
  The rather strange title of this book was chosen
because the author is convinced that Calvinism is            This is basically a good book and we strongly
richer than the familiar and well-known "five              recommend it to our readers. It is, in capsule form,
points, " and he is convinced that the wealth and          a good summary of the basic tenets of Calvinism
breadth of Calvinism ought to be emphasized and            and the Reformed faith-from a presbyterian
publicly proclaimed. Dr. Coppes is a firm believer         perspective. It is relatively brief: that is its strength
in the "five points" and spends a great deal of time       and its weakness. It is too brief to be of help in a
in the book inveighing against the errors and              thorough study of some of these important ques-
dangers of Arminianism, but he has many positive           tions; but it is sufficiently brief to serve as a study
things to say about Calvinism other than the speci-        guide in schools and societies. Each chapter is
fic doctrines of the "five points." A list of the          followed by a list of further reading. The section on
chapter titles is a list of "the ten points of Calvin-     infant baptism was, in this reviewer's opinion,
ism' ' : The Use of Scripture; The Sovereignty of          especially good for a brief treatment.
God; The Covenantal  Strucure of Scripture; The              The weaknesses are not many. There is an incon-
Plan of Salvation (the chapter in which the five           sistent line in some places where the author speaks


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       431



of the free offer of the gospel and of man's capabil-                     plied, brings to the Bible. To illustrate this we quote
ity of doing moral good. But the references to these                      just one passage taken from the introduction to the
are only two or three in number and then of a                             discussion of Romans  9- 11:
passing kind. The author was quite unconvincing                                 If it had been customary since the Reformation to read
in his defense of sprinkling as the only proper mode                            the epistle as a compendium of Pauline theology, and
for baptism when he appealed to Acts  1:5 and                                   consequently to give undue prominence in these
interpreted the "tongues of fire" which came on                                 chapters to the question of predestination, F.C. Baur
the believers at Pentecost as "droplets." But this                              pioneered the way to a historical understanding. He
latter is a minor point.                                                        made this section of the letter the hermeneutical
                                                                                center of the whole epistle, which as he saw it was
   The book can be obtained either from the pub-                                oriented to the debate with Jewish-Christians. Chris-
lisher, the address of which is: 9400 Fairview Ave.,                            tian universalism is championed here against Jewish
Manassas, Virginia 22110, or, the author whose                                  particularism. Baur thus initiated a process which has
address is: Box 55, Harrisville, PA 16038.                                      not yet ended. By resolutely raising the question of
                                                                                the  Sitz im  Leben  of the primitive Christianity of our
                                                                                letter, he also set it in the relativity of all things histor-
COMMENTARY ON ROMANS,  by Ernst  Kase-                                          ical. By way of exposition of chs. 9-11 Baur, the chief
mann; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,                                       witness of the Protestant churches, became first the
1980; 428 pp., $22.50. (Reviewed by Prof. H.                                    catalyst in a radical tendency criticism of the NT, then
Hanko.)                                                                         a Janus-headed figure in the history of religions, who
                                                                                on the one side has been viewed in terms of
  Ernst Kasemann was formerly Professor of New                                  eschatology as an apocalyptic, while on the other side
Testament at the University of  Tubingen in                                     he has been viewed in terms of the cult-piety of
Germany. While not the most radical of higher                                   Hellenism as a mystic.
critics, he nevertheless stands out in the field and                          A commentary such as this makes a mockery of
shows in all his works the devastating influence of                       the truth of the perspicuity of Scripture. One
higher criticism on Bible studies. This is also about                     cannot understand the commentary which is sup-
the only value of this rather lengthy commentary: it                      posed to make clear the Scriptures; but rooting
demonstrates vividly the radical reinterpretation of                      around in the commentary, one cannot make much
Scripture which higher criticism, consistently ap-                        sense out of Romans either.

              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                          "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall
                                                                          be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." (Ephesians
   The Ladies  Societv of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed             c_.-,,,
                                                                          3.3 I  I.
Church expresses its Christian sympathy to Mrs.               Florence
Bouwkamp at the death of her father, MR. JOHN KNOPER.                                                        Their children and grandchildren

   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
(Psalm  116:15).                                                                       CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY EXPRESSION
                                       Rev. G. Van  Baren,  Pres.             The Bible Class of the saints at the Hickley (Maine) Church express
                                       Freda Zwak, Sec'y.                 their heartfelt sympathy with Mrs. Abbie Hilton, and with her children
                                                                          and grandchildren in the death of their husband, father and grand-
                                                                          father, CLARENCE N. HILTON.
                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                      We commend them to the gracious keeping of Jehovah, who is a
   On June 26, 1981, our parents, MR. AND MRS. ARTHUR BULT                merciful God to the merciful, a Husband of widows and a Father of
celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.                                orphans, with the prayer that their hope be alone on the blessed
                                                                          resurrection of the saints. (Psalm  18:25, 26).
  We thank our Heavenly Father for all the years of covenant Chris-
tian instruction received through them and pray that God will bless                                                    Susan Moody, Sec'y.
them in the years to come, keeping them ever in His care.




                               News From Our Churches

   The latest news we have from our calling                               following Rev. Veldman's extended visit, Rev.
churches is that  Redlands has extended a call to                         Cammenga spent two Sundays there on classical
Rev. Slopsema. Though without a pastor of their                           appointment, and he was to be followed by
own,  Redlands has continued to receive pulpit                            Seminarian Deane  Wassink "beginning June 7
supply with considerable regularity. From  Red-                           through August, if necessary." Obviously Redlands
lands' bulletins of May 17, 24, and 31 we learn that,                     has not given up hope that the Lord will, in His

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





432                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



good time, send them an undershepherd.                       We' missed a lecture in our spring speech and
  Speaking of seminarians, from a Hope, Michigan           lecture list of our last news column, that being one
bulletin we are informed that Seminarian Jon Smith         given  lin the United Methodist Church of Franklin
will be spending the summer months laboring with           Lakes;  New Jersey by Rev. Ronald Hanko, pastor of
our Isabel, South Dakota congregation.                     our Wyckoff congregation, on the topic "Sover-
                                                           eignty and Responsibility."
  Although it is not unusual that our schools                Do you remember Rev. Jose Martinez? You may
conduct graduation exercises at this time of the           recall /that it was he who deciphered a mistakenly
year; it is interesting to note that graduating classes    addressed Spanish letter that was sent to the S.B.
of our Adams, Hull, and Redlands schools all chose         post office box. From a May 10 Trinity Protestant
the same class text: "The Lord is my light and my          Reformed Church (Houston, Texas) bulletin we
salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the              quote /the following: ". . .we plan to have a program
strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"           of slides and a talk by Rev. Jose Martinez on his
Psalm 27: 1                                                former labors in El Salvador. Rev. Martinez has
  Also worthy of note is the fact that our Redlands        long been acquainted with our churches and
school imported Rev. Cammenga all the way from             appreciative of our faithful stand for God's truth.
                                                                  .--
Hull, Iowa to speak at their commencement exer-            We plan to have a time of refreshment and fellow-
cises. If you have read the preceding portion of this      ship following the program so that we can get better
column carefully, however, you have figured out            acquainted with the Martinez family." Considering
that there was no need for Rev. Cammenga to make           this idea of getting better acquainted with the
a special trip to California to give this speech since     Martinez family, I wonder if they have ever con-
he was there at the time on classical appointment.         sidered visiting Michigan?


                                Report of Classis East

  Classis East met in regular session on May 13,           see once more the wonderful evidence of God's
1981 at the Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed                  grace working mightily in our consistories and in
Church. All the churches, with the exception of            our congregations."
Kalamazoo, were represented by two delegates. It is          Kalamazoo, upon review of its pastor's salary for
significant to note that not since 1953 has  Classis       1982, requested and was granted a $1000 increase
East met in Kalamazoo. The meeting also gave               in subsidy for 1982. Covenant requested and was
occasion for the delegates to view the new church          granted permission to contact the churches in
building there.                                            Classis  East and Classis West (via synod) for collec-
  The business of the session, except for the one          tions for its building fund.
item involving a request for the erasure of a bap-           Classis will meet next on September 9, 1981 at
tized member, was routine.                                 Southwest Church.
  The report of the church visitors was heard. The                                         Respectfully submitted,
visitors report that all the churches were visited                                                   Jon Huisken
and they concluded their report as follows: "We                                                       Stated Clerk


