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                                   Dr. Abraham Kuyper
       See "Translated Treasures" page 440

                                          Volume  LVII, No. 19, August 1, 1981  -


434                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                                   CONTENTS                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July. and August.
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         Christ on Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .434    Department Editors:  Rev.  Wayne  Bekkering,  Rev.  Wilbur  Bruinsma,  Rev.  Arie
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         Mistaken on All Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437               Lubbers,  Rev.  Rodney  Miersma,  Rev.  Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.  James  Slopsema,
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MEDITATION


                                                             Christ on Trial
                                                                              Rev. C. Hanho


                      Ques. Why did He suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge?
                     Ans. That He, being innocent, and yet condemned by a temporal judge, might thereby free us
                 from the.severe judgment of God to which we were exposed. Question 38, Lord's Day 15, Heid.
                  Catechism.


      The hour had come.                                                                   on every step of the way. He knew that this was
      Throughout our Lord's earthly ministry He                                            God's hour, prepared from all eternity for Him to
spoke repeatedly of the hour that had not yet come.                                        bring the ransom for the sins of His people, and
He referred to it as His hour, which was always be-                                        thus to lead many sons to glory. It was the hour of
fore His consciousness and which He approached                                             the  cross,  the grave, the  resurrection, and  the  as-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 435



     tension  into glory. On the eve of His crucifixion       that could be used to condemn and kill Him.
     Jesus declared in His sacerdotal prayer, "Father,          God set the spotless Lamb, the Sinless One,
     the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son          before  Annas  with the charge that he inspect Him
     may glorify Thee" (John 17: 1).                          thoroughly to see whether he could find anything
       This is what impresses us in that night of horrors,    at all that would prove the Lamb unworthy to be
     when all hell broke loose and "both  Herod and           the sacrifice for sin. 0, how  Annas  searched! How
     Pontius Pilate; with the Gentiles, and the people of     desperately he tried, not sympathetically, but in
     Israel, were gathered together" against God's Holy       cruel hatred against God and His Anointed, to find
     Child Jesus. On the part of those who were seeking       some blemish somewhere that would disqualify
     to kill Jesus there was nothing but confusion, frus-     Him for the purpose He must serve. But, search as
     tration, and even desperation, while from God's          he would, he could only conclude, as was so often
     point of view everything was running on schedule,        repeated during the trial of Jesus, "In this Man can
     with clock-like precision, to carry out His work of      no fault be found." The spotless Lamb was ready to
     salvation for His people, that is, "for to do whatso-    be delivered into the hands of His accusers.
     ever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before            Condemned as the Lamb of God.
     to be done" (Acts 4:27, 28).                               Our Savior moves from  Annas  to Caiaphas and
       It is for that reason that Jesus could say to the      the Sanhedrin. Here is assembled the highest civil
     temple guard and the mob that came to the garden         court and the most powerful ecclesiastical
     to take Him prisoner, "This is your hour, and the        assembly in Israel. This body has the power to exer-
     power of darkness." God surrendered His Son into         cise the keys of the kingdom, to declare a person
     the hands of wicked men to be crucified, to die, and     within or outside of the kingdom, blessed or accur-
     to rise again on the third day, according to the         sed of God. Until their power had been restricted
     Scriptures. The Scriptures as God's revelation of        by Caesar they also could `execute the death
     His plan of salvation through His obedient, suffer-      penalty.
     ing Servant were being carried out to the letter.
     This is the aspect from which our Catechism dis-           All semblance of decency and good order is lack-
     cusses the trial and condemnation of our Savior in       ing in this "consistory" room. The Sanhedrists
     this Lord's Day.                                         were called out of their beds to try Jesus in the dead
                                                              of night, even though they might meet only in day-
       The Perfect Lamb.                                      light. They were supposed to meet in the temple,
       After the capture in the garden God so directed        but since the temple was closed at night, they meet
     the events, that Christ was first led to Annas, who      in  .the palace of the highpriest. They have a
     was the real highpriest, even though he had been         prisoner on their hands against whom no formal
     replaced by Caiaphas.  Annas  was of the line of         charges have been issued, and no witnesses stand
     Aaron. Therefore it was his official duty to inspect     ready to      confirm    the    charges.    I n   t h e i r
     the Passover Lamb to see whether it was the perfect      determination to kill Jesus, now that they have laid
     sacrifice, without spot or blemish. God brings Jesus     hands on Him, they are ready to trump up charges
     to  Annas, so that Jesus may pass inspection before      and to seek false witnesses against Him, in order to
     him.                                                     condemn Him. Our Lord will have no part in this
       It all began actually already on Sunday, when          wicked perversion of-justice, but only strongly con-
     Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem,,          demns it with His powerful, majestic silence. He
     while chief priests and rulers stood helplessly by,      forces Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to face the real
     not able to touch or imprison the Man Whom they          issue and to demand of Him, "I adjure Thee by the
     had branded as public enemy number one. On               living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the
     Monday Jesus cleansed the temple. On Tuesday He          Christ, the Son of God" (Matthew  26:63). In other
     taught the people openly, and no one dared to            words, "Are You, or are You not the promised
     touch Him. On Wednesday the rulers bargained             Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the
     with Judas to wait until after the feast, when they      world?"
     would secretly murder the Christ. On Thursday              When Jesus answers in the affirmative, Caiaphas
I    evening Jesus celebrated His Supper with His dis-        hides his glee with a pretense of offended piety by
     ciples. It was then that he sent Judas out into the      rending his robe and declaring the words of Jesus to
     night to carry out his dastardly betrayal. Thus the      be blasphemy. The act of rending his robe spells the
     rulers had a prisoner on their hands at the time         end of the Old Testament priesthood. The great
     when thousands milled through the Holy City for          Highpriest has come, has claimed the  Highpriest-
     the feast. They had a prisoner without a formal          hood, and has presented His credentials. What
     charge against Him. It was left to that cunning          need have they of further witnesses? They reveal
     Annas  to try to extract from Him some statement         the wickedness of their hearts by casting out God


436                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



and His Christ, condemning Him as having no                 world empire of mankind as represented in that
place in their lives, as worthy of death. Our Lord,         day,  .the church and the world, including men,
on the other hand, is ready to surrender Himself to         women, and children, yes, including you and me,
the altar of the cross to bring the ransom for all          we all stand before the God of heaven and earth to
those given to Him of the Father.                           be exposed as God's enemies. The whole world
   The Lamb led to the slaughter.                           together seals its own condemnation in pouring out
                                                            its bitter wrath. The Word of Jesus, spoken shortly
   According to God's eternal purpose the Christ            before this, is fulfilled, "Now is the judgment of
must still be led before the Roman governor to be           this world: now shall the prince of this world be
condemned to a death' by crucifixion. The                   cast out" (Jn. 12:31).
Sanhedrin would have liked to drag Jesus out of the
city at dawn and finish their evil work by stoning            God's purpose in Christ could not be attained
Him. But they were afraid. They feared the Roman            with stoning Him to death. Our Lord had to be cru-
governor, who by God's providence was also                  cified, which was the Roman form of execution.
brought to Jerusalem for this occasion. And they            Crucifixion was a slow, painful, and shameful
feared still more the great mass of people at the           death. It spoke of the curse. Christ had to become
feast, many of whom still looked to Jesus as the            even before the eyes of men the Outcast, the
promised Messiah. So let Pilate carry the blame of          Accursed of God! For God laid upon Him the ini-
passing the death sentence on Him. They hoped               quity of us all. As the completely innocent, and the
that Pilate would take their word for it that this man      perfectly righteous Lamb of God He is led to the
must die, without bothering with a formal trial. But        altar of the cross to be sacrificed for our sin.
Pilate knew the Jews and still had enough sense of            In our Savior is perfect submission. Was He
justice that he felt the need of a bit of investigation.    thinking, somewhere along that road to Calvary, of
Woeful day for Pilate that he ever allowed himself          the words of the prophet, "He is brought as a lamb
to get involved in this travesty of justice! For no         to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers
matter what charges the rulers brought against Je-          is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth"? Was He
sus, Pilate is only the more convinced that this in-        singing in the depths of His soul His own Psalm,
nocent man deserves to be protected from the rag-                   "It is for Thee I am reproached,
ing lions. God forces Pilate to repeat over and over                  For Thee I suffer shame,
again, "I find no fault in this Man." Yet he squirms                Until My brethren know Me not,
in anxiety, for the powers of Jewry threaten to de-                   And hated is My name."?
throne him if he does not consent to their wishes.
So with a guilty conscience that still plagues him            We can only surmise, yet we do know that our
today in hell he gives an innocent Man, the Christ          Lord was so deeply conscious of us, His people,
of the Scriptures, over into the hands of His slaugh-       who joined ourselves with the whole world against
terers.                                                     Him, that His first prayer on the cross was that the
                                                            Father should lay our sins to His charge. Yes,
  God is carrying out His purpose in all this. The          "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
whole word is brought to trial on this day of days,         do."
the precursor of Judgment Day. Jew and Gentile,
rulers and kings, even men, women and children                With the church of the ages we confess: "There-
are confronted with the question, "What shall I do          fore God commendeth His love toward us, in that
with Jesus, Who is called the Christ?" With one             while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us....
accord they answer, each on their own responsi-             Therefore shall my mouth and heart show forth the
bility, "Let Him be crucified."                             praise of the Lord from this time forth forever
                                                            more. AMEN." (Communion Form)
  I pause a moment to ask: dare I sit in judgment
over them? Am I better than they? Do not I myself
deny Him, reject Him, even cast Him out by my
silence when I should speak, by my failure to love
and trust in Him as I should, by my sins against             The Standard Bearer
Him, which I commit every day? With shame I
hang my head and in holy wonder I watch Him                          makes a thoughtful
hastening on His way, even quickening His step to
die for such a sinner as I am.                                                gift for the
  Behold, the Lamb for sinners slain.                                  sick and shut-in.
  The whole world stands on trial in Jerusalem.
Satan and his demons are brought to trial. The chief
priests, the rulers of the Jews, the rulers of the great


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    4 3 7



EDITORIALS
Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



                           Mistaken on All Counts


  In De Reformatie (May 23, `81) there is a report         3. It is not true that the OPC of New Zealand
by the Rev. G. Van Rongen concerning the activi-           "maintains close ties" with our Protestant Re-
ties of the General Synod of the Reformed                  formed Churches. The fact is that there have at no
Churches (maintaining Article 31 of the Church             time  been any formal ties between the PRC and
Order),    popularly known as the Liberated                either the OPC of New Zealand as a denomination
Churches of the Netherlands. In the article men-           or the OPC of Christchurch. It is true, of course,
tioned he writes concerning the report of their            that at one time the PRC gave help to the Orthodox
deputies for contact with foreign churches, and in         Presbyterian congregation of Christchurch, at the
the course of his comments on various contacts             latter's urgent plea, in the form of  ministers-on-
makes mention of contact with the Orthodox                 loan. It is also true that even this has ceased when
Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. He mentions            the OPC of Christchurch bluntly rejected the  assis-
this in the category of "a third group of churches...      tance proffered by our Protestant Reformed
with which some contact has been made but of               Churches.
which we do not yet have sufficient knowledge in           4. The fourth mistake in these lines is that we
order to establish first a provisional and possibly        are "the Protestant Reformed Church in the United
later a firmer relation." After having made mention        States." Our denomination is not a "Church"
of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand, he                (singular), which suggests a collegialistic and hier-
states the following concerning the O.P.C. of New          archical view; but we are a federation of
Zealand: ". . .an off-shoot of the Reformed Churches       "Churches" (plural). And our official name is the
(of New Zealand) because men thought they detec-           Protestant Reformed Churches in America. More-
ted Scripture-critical sounds emanating from the           over, it should be below the Christian dignity of the
theological college of Geelong, which is maintained        Dutch churches to add: "also called `the Hoeksema
jointly by the Reformed Churches of Australia and          church,' " with its overtones of a sect. The late Dr.
of New Zealand. This O.P.C. of New Zealand main-           Schilder himself repudiated that expression when
tains close ties with the Protestant Reformed              he first became better acquainted with us in 1939.
Church in the United States, also called `the Hoek-        Besides, Herman Hoeksema died sixteen years ago;
sema church,' which has declared binding a purely          and the Protestant Reformed Churches are alive
Kuyperian doctrine of the covenant.. .  ."                 and well without him!
  It is not clear to me how much of the above              5. The biggest mistake is the claim that we de-
quotation is to be ascribed to the Rev. Van Rongen         clared binding "a purely Kuyperian doctrine of the
and how much to the deputies mentioned.                    covenant." Nothing could be farther from the
  But one thing is clear: the "information" is mista-      truth. The fact is that in the very Declaration of
ken on all counts.                                         Principles to which reference is made here, it is de-
1. It is not true that the OPC of New Zealand is an        clared binding that we repudiate the Kuyperian no-
off-shoot of the Reformed Church of New Zealand.           tion of presupposed regeneration, just as we repu-
Most of the members of these churches never had            diate emphatically the Liberated notion of a
any ties with the Reformed Churches of New Zea-            general, conditional promise for all who are bap-
land, and many came from the large Presbyterian            tized. Permit me to quote from the Declaration of
Church of N.Z.                                             Principles itself to substantiate my claim. In III-A of
                                                           the Declaration of Principles we read:
2. Nor is it true that the occasion of the start of the        III. Seeing then that this is the clear teaching of our
OPC was the so-called Runia case at Geelong. To                confession,
my knowledge, only one family currently in the                 A. We repudiate:
OPC (of Christchurch) was directly involved in the             1. The teaching:
Runia controversy at Geelong and in the Reformed                 a. That the promise of the covenant is conditional
Church of N.Z.                                                 and for all that are baptized.


438                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



         b. That we may presuppose that all the children                  the Liberated; after all, we have tried again and
       that are baptized are regenerated, for we know on the              again to get through to them on this, but always met
       basis of Scripture, as well as in the light of all history         with failure.
       and experience, that the contrary is true.                            However, I am concerned to emphasize this for
   Now I know that the Liberated brethren, both in                        the sake of other friends and brethren, also over-
the Netherlands and in Canada, have long main-                            seas. We of the Protestant Reformed Churches em-
tained and propagated this fiction about the Protes-                      phatically do not want to be known as holding to
tant Reformed Churches. They seem to think that                           any form of "automatic grace." And for that reason
there are only two possibilities when it comes to the                     we do not want to be known as holding either to the
doctrine of the covenant-their own view of a gen-                         idea of presupposed regeneration or to the idea of a
eral, conditional promise and the Kuyperian                               general, conditional promise.
(synodical) view of presupposed regeneration. But
this is simply not true, and it is a fact that we repu-                      We would appreciate correction on the part of
diate both ideas.                                                         whoever is responsible for the statements in  De
                                                                          Reformatie.
   I have little expectation that this will convince


                                   What View of Scripture's
                                 Inspiration and Authoritv?
                                                                                                    A




   Several issues back we made the remark that                            that in the GKN, the Reformed Churches of the
Report  36/44 of the Christian Reformed Church                            Netherlands. I have in mind specifically two such
concerning the Nature of the Authority of Scripture                       indications from two different pens in the  Meditu-
was child's play in comparison with the recent                            tion department of The Banner recently.
Dutch Report/Decision on this same subject. We                               The first is from the pen of the Rev. Michael De
still believe this, though this by no means implies                       Vries, of the Harderwyk CRC, Holland, Michigan
satisfaction on our part, of course, with the position                    (The  Baizner,  June 22, 1981). His meditation is on
taken by Report 36/44.                                                    the familiar passage of Psalm  139:19, 23. In the
   Whether the actual attitude assumed toward                             course of his meditation he quotes vss.  19-21a,
Scripture in the CRC is any better than that as-                          which I here quote from the KJV: "Surely Thou wilt
sumed in the Netherlands, however, is another sub-                        slay the wicked, 0 God: depart from me therefore,
ject.                                                                     ye bloody men. For they speak against Thee wick-
   For one thing, thus far there has been very little                     edly, and Thine enemies take Thy Name in vain.
attention and criticism of the Dutch  Report/Deci-                        Do not I hate them, 0 Lord, that hate Thee?" Rath-
sion in the American church press. On the part of                         er significantly, I think, he fails to quote vss.  2lb
some  ,there has been considerable hue and cry                            and 22: "and am not I grieved with those that rise
about         the       Dutch        churches'         s t a n d   o n    up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I
homosexualism; and there ought to be, indeed. Yet,                        count them mine enemies." Notice especially the
while I disagree with and condemn with all my                             Psalmist's statement: "I hate them with  perfect
heart and find repulsive that stand on homosexual-                        hatred. ' '
ism, I believe that the Report/Decision on the                               Concerning this attitude of the Psalmist the Rev.
Nature of the Authority of Scripture is much more                         De Vries writes in part: "Second, this outburst is
important, for the simple reason that it goes to the                      also appaZZing to me. In his zeal to be a loyal follow-
very basis of every stand which the Dutch                                 er of God, this psalmist became, however tem-
churches may take, whether on things doctrinal or                         porarily, a  religious fanatic,  (italics added). He is
things practical. Is this lack of criticism indicative                    ready to slay the wicked. He wants to call down fire
of a lack of concern, perhaps, or even indicative of                      from heaven on anyone who is less religious than
agreement in principle?                                                   he is. He seems to know with accuracy who the
   For another, there.are concrete indications from                       wicked are and what they deserve." The Rev. De
time to time that the attitude of some toward the                         Vries goes on to say in this connection: "One of the
inspiration and authority of Scripture is far from                        great tragedies in the history of the church has been
sound and is, in fact, not basically different from                       the intolerance, the injustice, the oppression, and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                439



the violence practiced with religious sanction.               said you do not need-anyone but the Writer himself
These `hate' verses of Psalm 139 are a stark remin-           to teach you, he meant that-only you can answer
der that a believer can so easily be gripped by this          such questions as, What is God saying here for me?
seething hatred and that none of us is immune to              What does this passage mean for  my  life?" Pure
it."                                                          subjectivism!
   Now apart from the totally specious exegesis im-             Where this takes one as far as Scripture is con-
plied in the above quotation, notice where this               cerned becomes plain in the next paragraph: "So
leaves one with respect to the question of inspira-           don't come to  thz Bible with a lot of preconcep-
tion and authority of Scripture. Either the psalmist          tions. Be open to Go-d;-You  will be in for some de-
was infallibly inspired by the Holy Spirit to be,             lightful surprises thatlhave escaped a lot of us for a
"however temporarily, a religious fanatic," which             long time."' Among these "delightful surprises"
is, of course, unthinkable and blasphemous.                   are: 1. Hezekiah's prayer for the extension of his
Or-and to a Reformed believer this is equally un-             life was "peevish." The Rev. Veenstra writes:
thinkable and blasphemous-the psalmist thought                "Jacob's romantic marriage to Rachel was one of
and wrote these words on his own, without the in-             his many mistakes with centuries-long penalties, as
fallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And do not           was Hezekiah's peevish prayer for extension of an
overlook the fact, by the way, that these words are           already `full' life." Yet this "peevish" prayer was
part of a prayer, addressed directly to the Lord!             heard and answered by the Lord. 2. lob teaches the
   The second is from the pen of a minister emeri-            very opposite of-what Job himself confessed:  "lob
tus in Rehoboth, New Mexico, the Rev. Rolf L.                 teaches us that-the Lord giveth, and  Satan  taketh
Veenstra  (The Banner, July 6, 1981, p. 19). He writes        away."     - __
on Psalm  119:97, but in the course of his brief                Basically: of course, this sort of thing is no better
meditation goes rather far astray from his text,              and no  worse-than  things that are found in the
which allows him to introduce his errant notions.             Report/Decision of the GKN.
First he furnishes a thoroughly erroneous explana-              The office of The Banner ought to be flooded,with
tion of inspiration, meanwhile neglecting the truth           negative mail about things like this, and there
concerning     inspiration     and     its    consequent      should be a huge outcry in the CRC against such
authority: "One thing that we should always                   tampering with Holy Scripture. Yes, and the
remember is that the Bible alone is inspired, which           authors of such writings should be brought to eccle-
means simply that it is alive (like our voices) and it, in    siastical account. But that day is past, I fear. Only it
turn, can transmit life, like a candle passes on flame, "     is measuring with two measures to bar a man from
(italics added). Is this the meaning of the truth that        candidacy for errant .views on Genesis l-3, but then
the Bible is inspired? To ask the question is to              to tolerate such writings in the CRC's official press.
answer it. He goes on to explain: "And when John



               Synod of the Protestant Reformed
               Churches 198 1 (report concluded)

   It certainly cannot be said of Synod 1981 that it          covered in the July issue.
was hasty in its decision. For a synod which did not
involve any student examinations, this was a rather             In the first place, synod had before it a report
lengthy synod, which did not conclude its sessions            from the committee appointed to propose a new
until Monday evening, the 15th of June.                       liturgical form for use at the occasion of public
                                                              confession of faith. This report proposed not only a
   By the time this appears in print, it will not be          new form to be used in conjunction with the
long before the printed Acts of Synod appears, and            questions currently asked at the occasion of public
therefore we will not enter into detail about the             confession of faith, but it also proposed a new set of
items not covered in the first installment of our             questions. It was chiefly this aspect which led
report.                                                       synod to reject the report. It was pointed out that
   We make mention of three significant items not             this was contrary to the committee's mandate and


440                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



also contrary to the original proposal brought by           was a protest against that decision from our mis-
our Lynden congregation in 1977.                            sionary, Rev. den Hartog; and there was also a
   In the second place, synod had before it a rather        lengthy letter of objection from the GLTS, which
lengthy report concerning a subject which has been          synod took into consideration. In addition, synod
before our synods more than once in recent years,           granted to our visiting seminarian from Singapore,
that of the idea of a "minister-on-loan." This report       brother Lau Chin Kwee, the privilege of the floor to
was occasioned by a protest brought to synod in             speak in behalf of the GLTS. There was lengthy dis-
1980. In substance, the Study Report agreed with            cussion of this matter, and the views were not
the protest, but it was much more detailed. The             unanimous. Nevertheless, synod maintained the
issue itself, of course, has become moot: our               decision of last year. In addition, synod adopted an
churches are no longer concretely faced by this             explanatory statement (too lengthy to include in
question, due to the fact that the OPC of Christ-           this report) which was also to serve as the sub-
church, N.Z. no longer desires such a  minister-on-         stance of the message which our emissaries were to
loan from us. Nevertheless, synod gave rather               convey to our missionary and to the GLTS. As of
lengthy and careful consideration to the Study              this writing, our emissaries, the Rev. D. Engelsma
Report on its own merit, and then rejected it by            and the Rev. M. Kamps, are already in Singapore.
majority vote.                                              While, along with several others, we had our reser-
                                                            vations regarding this decision, we nevertheless
  In the third place, Synod of 1981 was confronted          sincerely hope and pray that the decision will be
by the question concerning the institution of the           well received and that in due course the institution
church in Singapore. It will be recalled that Synod         of the church in Singapore may take place. It is high
of 1980 upheld the policy initiated by the calling          time!
church and the Foreign Mission Committee to the
effect that such institution must take place on the           This concludes our report. May the Lord add His
basis of the Three Forms of Unity. This year there          indispensable blessing to the decisions reached by
                                                            our Synod of 1981!

TRANSLATED TREASURES


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



(In the last couple of paragraphs Kuyper, while speaking    the Word of God. Only God's Word has authority
of the way in which the church is deformed, describes       over the conscience. Therefore, if a church binds
how that deformation takes place in the confession and      the conscience directly to the Confession as if they
walk of the members and in the deterioration of the         had value in themselves; if she attempts on her
ministers of the Word in their calling.)                    Synodical gatherings to prove things from those
42. Concerning Deformation In the Confessions.              Confessions instead of from the Word of God; if she
  Members and ministers confess, but what they              permits no gravamina to be submitted on the
confess is the confession of the church. Thus a             ground of God's Word; if she loses from sight the
church also becomes deformed, in the third place,           obligation which rests upon her always to let the
if she, though maintaining a reasonable walk                rightful authority of the Word control her organiza-
among her members and a very pious attitude                 tion and her Confessions; then an unhealthy  con-
among her ministers, nevertheless permits the               fessionalism arises against which the Holy Spirit in
sinew of her public confession to be cut. This pro-         the church protests. An entirely different form of
cess of sickness passes through more than one stage         sickness is that which arises where the Confession
and has more than one form. That sinew of confes-           is indeed honored as a proverb, but is not recog-
sion is, first of all, cut if a church becomes confes-      nized according to its true worth. This is the sin of
sional in a wrong sense-that is to say, if she draws        ecclesiastical dualism; it is a disruption of the con-
her principle from her confession instead of from           nection which, if everything else were well, ought


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               441



to operate the body and soul of the church in har-        Church, only that is orthodox which praises the
mony. One considers then that the Confessions             glory of the visible raising of Reformed landmarks.
serve a good purpose as identification marks over
against those who are outside, but the church             43. Concerning Deformation In the Administration
excludes the Confessions from the judicial process.           Of the Means Of Grace.
This also falsifies. Indeed, with respect to the out-       The church lives out of grace and this grace
siders, it gives the impression that people confess       comes to her through the means God ordained for
outwardly that which they acknowledge not to              that end: the preaching of the Word and the admin-
confess in the inner chamber. At least they do not        istration of the holy sacraments. Hence the church
confess it in such a way that these confessions are       languishes from anemia if these means of grace are
allowed to control, also on the highest levels of the     kept from her, or, worse yet, are poison so that in
church, all that which stands under the sovereignty       the place of these means of grace the wrong food is
of justice. This leads of itself to the confessional      administered. This deformation originates because
sickness in its most acute form known under the           the listeners and the preacher wish the person of
name of a lack of maintenance of freedom of               the minister to be heard in the churches instead of
teaching. This evil works in two ways, namely,            God Almighty. The Word is a means of grace if the
both in the internal organization of the church and       minister and the congregation actually bow deeply
in her relationship to other churches. Internally         under and come together in order to be instructed
this evil shows itself in the church as soon as the       in that Word. Every kind of theme preaching is
church permits people to be members who come              therefore to be strongly condemned as a profana-
from elsewhere without satisfactory evidence that         tion of the Word. Also to be condemned is preach-
they agree with the confession of the church; or          ing on an idea and seeking a text to place alongside
else, in their own fellowship, they give full right to    the idea. And to be condemned is preaching on a
persons who are either careless about or react            text where something other than an exposition of
against the confession. A worse form of this evil         the Word of God is brought. The deformation of
appears in the organization when the church toler-        this means of grace begins thus with orthodox
ates deacons, elders, and finally also ministers of       preachers, especially with those who put experi-
the Word who have deviated widely or in small             ence in the place of the Word. But once having
measure from the Confession. On the other hand,           begun in this way, this evil proceeds further among
this sickness reveals itself in the connection with       half-believing and unbelieving ministers by de-
other churches when a church continues in cor-            stroying all Scriptural preaching. And it ends when
respondence or church union with churches who             a church building is a place where only captivating
either do not have the same confession or do not          or boring orations are heard.
maintain it.                                                It is the same with the holy sacraments. If once
  This confessional sickness usually has a twofold        the fearful thought slips into the preacher that the
evil consequence, namely, first, that in the absence      sacrament is dead and that now life only comes
of right, each person sets himself as judge in the        through his moving addresses, through his solem-
church so that the judging and condemning of one          nity and impressiveness, then the sacrament is
another never comes to an end. And, secondly, a           gone in principle. The sacrament is only when
sort of new conventional standard comes into force        Christ works through His Holy Spirit. Thus pathos
as a standard of orthodoxy which is outside the           just does not fit. It is advisable, rather, to restrain
working principle of the true Confession. The             the feeling. And he who, as a liturgist, seeks the
church imagines then that it is not necessary to          power of the sacrament in pathos, clearly expresses
retain in a Reformed Church a correct reformed            that he does not believe in the power of Jesus. This
principle as long as the church remains orthodox          is noticed most clearly in the treatment of the
and honors with the beautiful name of orthodox a          ecclesiastical liturgical forms. He who is sound
certain arbitrarily outlined confession, or a             speaks in connection with the sacraments in the
confession which no one can understand because it         best and purest way when he speaks through the
lacks every clear statement of doctrine. The church       word of the church (in its liturgical forms) and
begins with distorting the right and ends by              reads those forms in a calm voice without mutila-
pushing into its place a pure arbitrariness. Nothing      tion or omission, entirely and clearly, in order to be
is more arbitrary in a church than to call something      very brief in what he himself adds. But he who on
orthodox which does not            agree with the         the other hand departs with his heart from the holy
Confessions of that church. In the church of Rome         power of the sacraments, either rejects the form
only that which is Romish is orthodox. In the syna-       entirely or mutilates and bumbles it, and thereupon
gogue only that which is Jewish and which rejects         once again solemnly comes with the real thing, so
Christ is orthodox. And so also in the Reformed           he imagines, when he makes his own address and


442                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



word, and thoughtlessly presents what he himself            their position as elder and grant the higher title only
has invented.                                               to ministers. A consequence of this is that the
44. Concerning Deformation In Discipline.                   spiritual and moral consciousness of duty and
                                                            calling languishes. They no longer have any idea of
  Allowing discipline to disappear from the church          the glorious power which King Jesus has given
of Christ is not only a failure to maintain the con-        them to exercise. And finally, they, having become
fessions and a failure to keep the sacraments pure,         powerless and spiritless, and permitting no disci-
but it is, in its deepest sense, an abandoning of           pline to be exercised among themselves, lose also
authority. Just as people outside the church can            the courage to exercise discipline over others. The
advise  someone concerning something and bind it            deformation of the church which proceeds from
on the heart, so also people judge that a church            the degeneration of the eldership is at least as
possesses no higher power than to  recommend  to            serious as the deformation which finds its origin in
her members her confession and to admonish them             the degeneration of the office of minister. It is the
to godliness. Letting go of discipline is therefore a       sickness of anarchy in the office of elders which
mislaying of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, a           begins with a giving up of right and authority and
nullifying of the power which Christ has put in His         order in the consistory and which proceeds to the
church, and, by this, a cutting off of the authority        abandoning of all right also in the synodical gather-
of King Jesus: they hear Jesus as prophet; they             ings. It is principally revolution when the
thank Him as the High Priest; but they renounce             shepherds allow the flock to pass judgment on
His authority as King. This sickness makes a deadly         them while the flock refuses to bow its will to the
attack on the essence of the church. It originates          judgment of the shepherds. The lawlessness of the
mainly in the elders. They, as those office bearers         congregation proceeds from this sickness as well as
who with the ministers are most particularly called         from the spiritual prostitution of the ministers, the
to the rule of the church, begin to reduce their            falsifying of the means of grace, and whatever
office to an appendix of the office of minister in-         more. But this is all really a consequence, not the
stead of confessing that they have been put in office       actual essence of this sickness. Its unique mark is
by King Jesus in an equally royal way with the              an abandonment of authority.
minister. Presently they no longer see an office in

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                            Missionary Methods (5)
                                               Prof. Robert D. Decker


  If the life of the Apostle Paul indicates anything        disputed in the synagogue and market place and
at all it indicates that the work of a faithful mission-    then preached his famous sermon on Mars Hill at
ary of the Gospel of sovereign grace is incredibly          the request of the pagan Stoic and Epicurean philo-
difficult. Acts 17 records the history of the               sophers (verses 16-34). It is to this incident and
Apostle's work in Thessalonica and Berea while on           especially to this sermon of the Apostle that we
his second missionary journey. In both places there         wish to direct our attention. It has much to teach us
was much positive fruit upon the preaching of Paul.         concerning the proper method of performing
Many believed and churches were established. In             mission work among the heathen.
both places, however, the Apostle encountered
fierce opposition and persecution. In Thessalonica             Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, is in Athens. He
certain Jews who were moved with envy provoked              is very really in the world but not of the world. Paul
"lewd fellows of the baser sort" to set the whole           is in the very heart of the world. Not only was
city in an uproar while attempting to capture Paul          Athens the seat of the culture of the Graeco-Roman
and his companions (Acts  17:5ff.). These same un-          world, but it was destined to be the seat of the
believing Jews followed the Apostle to Berea and            culture of the whole of Western civilization.
stirred up the people there. Under these circum-            Politically Athens was of little or no importance. It
stances the Apostle fled to Athens alone (verses 13-        was the university seat of the world with all its rich
15). While waiting for Silas and Timothy, Paul first        environment and traditions. Paul, the Apostle of


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                443



Jesus Christ, was in the city of Pericles and             ment of the law and the prophets. At other hours
Demosthenes, Socrates and Plato and Aristotle,            and along with this synagogue preaching the
Sophocles and Euripides. In its Agora (market             Apostle went to the market place where he rea-
place) Socrates had employed his "Socratic                soned with anyone who happened by (verses  17,
method" of teaching. Here was the Academy of              18).  It was in this market place that the "Painted
Plato and the Lyceum of Aristotle, the porch of           Porch" stood where Zeno, the Stoic, held forth.
Zeno (father of Stoicism), and the Garden of              Thus it is not at all strange that the Apostle en-
Epicurus (founder of Epicureanism). Here men still        countered the Stoics and Epicureans (verse 18).
talked about philosophy, poetry, religion, and any-       These professional philosophers and professors
thing else anyone wished to discuss. Athens was           were always ready for an argument, and so they
the art center of the world. The Parthenon, that          frequented the market place. It is quite clear from
most beautiful of temples, crowned the Acropolis.         the text that these two groups were united in their
                                                          love of arguing and in their attitude of opposition to
  It is likely, at least that is the impression one       Paul. Some dismissed the Apostle as a mere babbler
receives from the narrative, that the Apostle did not     of foolish and vain things, but others wished to
intend to go to Athens to preach. Once here, how-         hear more of Paul. These took the Apostle to the
ever, he will not be idle. God in His providence          Areopagus where Paul would preach. Before we
does not leave Himself without witness in this            examine the Apostle's sermon we must know
heart of antichristian, godless culture and learning.     something of these Stoics and Epicureans.
The Apostle will preach the Gospel of God's sover-
eign grace in the crucified, risen Lord Jesus Christ.       While they were united in their opposition to the
Also here the world's most brilliant philosophers         Apostle and the Gospel of the risen Christ, they
must respond to the question: "What think ye of           were in fact two rival schools of philosophy. The
Jesus Who is called Christ?"                              rivalry was rather intense as well. From a certain
                                                          point of view both were born out of earlier, classi-
  While waiting for Silas and Timothy to arrive           cal Greek philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and
from Berea, Paul's spirit was stirred or provoked         Aristotle. At the same time they were reactions to
when he saw that the city was wholly given to             the more abstruse philosophy of the earlier period.
idolatry (more correctly translated: "the city being      Socrates had turned men's thought inward. His
full of idols"). This is no exaggeration. Ancient his-    theme was, "Know Thyself." This was fundamen-
torians tell us that Athens was "all altar, all sacri-    tal and more basic than the study of physics. Plato
fice, and offering to the gods." The idolatry and         followed with a profound development of the inner
sensualism of it all leered at Paul from every side.      self (metaphysics). Aristotle sought to unify and
Ancient historians tell us Athens had more idols          relate both physics and metaphysics. Both Zeno
than all the rest of Greece put together. We are told     and Epicurus took a more practical turn in all this
that at the time of the Emperor Nero, Athens had          intellectual turmoil and raised issues that had to do
over thirty thousand public statues besides count-        with everyday life.
less private ones in the homes. One wag sneered
that it was easier to find a god than a man in              Zeno (336  - 264 B.C.) was the father of Stoicism.
Athens. Every gateway or porch had its protecting         This philosophy was called Stoicism after the porch
god. They lined the streets and caught the eye at         in the market place where Zeno taught his students.
every prominent place. There was no place on              The tenets of this philosophy are rather difficult to
earth where it was more unlikely that the preach-         sum up. This is true for two reasons. The first of
ing of the gospel would bear positive fruit than in       these is the influence of Platonism on Zeno's
Athens. Is it any wonder that the spirit of this holy     thought and the second is the fact that his thought
man of God was provoked within him? Paul was              underwent several modifications. In his  Word Pic-
zealous for the Lord and His Christ. He simply            tures  of  the  New  Testament  A.T. Robertson com-
could not stand all this blatant blasphemy of the         ments: "He (Zeno) taught self-mastery and hard-
holy name of His God. At the sight of all this cor-       ness with an austerity that ministered to pride or
ruption the Apostle was saying in his heart, "Woe is      suicide in case of failure, a distinctly selfish and un-
me if I preach not the gospel."                           loving view of life..." (vol. III, p. 280). Already at
                                                          this point it is obvious that Stoicism is the very anti-
  First Paul went to the synagogue and disputed           thesis of the Gospel of Christ which the Apostle was
with the Jews. He literally reasoned with them. The       preaching. There is more. The Stoics were, in addi-
Apostle was explaining and defending the Gospel of        tion, pantheists. They identified God with the uni-
Jesus Christ over against the idolatry of Athens to       verse. Still more, they were determinists or fatalists
the Jews and God-fearers. No doubt he was show-           in the strictest sense. They believed in repetitive,
ing the Jews in the synagogue how Jesus of                successive cycles of existence. Not even God could
Nazareth in His cross and resurrection is the fulfill-    intervene and-save a man from his fate. Thus they


444                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



faced life and "took it as it came," almost without       or reward after death. The followers of Epicurean-
emotion. From this aspect of their philosophy is          ism conveniently overlooked the insistence of
derived the meaning of our word, "stoic." This            Epicurus that sensuality was incompatible with
philosophy was subjected to more modifications            pleasure. These were known in New Testament
and to a certain degree popularized at the hands of       times for their immorality and coarse corruption.
three Stoics of the later Roman period: Seneca,           They pursued pleasure for its own sake. They held
Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.                           that there was no absolute moral law by which man
  Concerning Epicurus (341  - 270 B.C.) Robertson         must conduct his life. "Eat, drink, and be merry,
has this to say: "Epicurus considered practical           for tomorrow we die" was their credo.
atheism the true view of the universe and denied a          These made up the audience on Mars Hill. God's
future life and claimed pleasure as the chief thing       servant was in the heart of the antichristian world.
to be gotten out of life" (Word Pictures Of The New       In an environment which could hardly have been
Testament, vol. III, p. 280). Epicurus was a disciple     more inimical to the Christian faith the Apostle
of Democritus. This philosophy taught that the            would do just one thing. He does not attempt to
world came into existence by the accidental coming        meet and refute these ungodly philosophers on
together of constituent atoms. (This is a flat denial     their own philosophic grounds. Much less does the
of the Creator God of Holy Scripture.) These              Apostle accommodate the Gospel to these corrupt
thought that the ultimate aim in life was the pursuit     philosophies. Paul brooks no compromise. He does
of happiness (an ancient version of the "Bill of          what every faithful missionary must do no matter
Rights"). Epicurus himself, however, constantly           where he finds himself. He preaches the Gospel of
counseled against sensual indulgences of any kind.        the sovereign God in Christ Who commands all
Further, they denied the existence of and interven-       men everywhere to repent because He has appoint-
tion of God in the affairs of human life. Hence they      ed a judgment day! (verses 30, 31)
denied life after death and any kind of punishment

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter to Timothy

                                      August 1, 1981
Dear Timothy,                                             such a thing in the church. I suppose, in a certain
  I am going to interrupt our letters on pastoral         sense, this is something always present, something
work for a while to turn to another subject which         with which the servants of the Lord have to deal as
has recently come to my attention, and which is of        a part of their ministry. I am reminded, e.g., of the
sufficient importance to write to you about without       fact that, already in the Old Testament, the             '
delay. It is somewhat misplaced to write to you           children of Israel were dissatisfied with the
about this, because, with these letters, I really want    ministry of Moses and Aaron while they were in
to reach your congregation and the saints to whom         the wilderness. You recall how certain people arose
you minister the word. But I am writing to you and        in the congregation and brought the complaint: "Ye
not to your congregation in order that you may            take too much upon you, seeing all the congrega-
instruct the people of God under your care con-           tion are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is
cerning this matter. I refer to the fact that it is       among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
becoming increasingly common among the saints             above the congregation of the Lord?" (Numbers
to. engage in carping criticism of their preacher and     16:3). But it might be well to consider the fact that
of the preaching in general, an evil in the church        those who were such rebels were destroyed when
which will destroy the church if it continues. You        the ground opened up and swallowed these people
and your colleagues are sometimes placed under            alive, and others were destroyed with a plague. You
intolerable pressures by such criticism and it will,      will recall too that the people of the Northern
sooner or later, have an effect upon your ministry.       Kingdom could not bear the words of Amos and
  I am not absolutely sure why there ought to be          told him to go home and prophesy in the land of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                445



Tudah because the land could not bear his preach-            But there is a lack of understanding of the insti-
ing. But the Lord, while he told Amos to go back to        tute in our day. This arises, in some measure, out of
Judah, promised that He would send a famine of             a certain suspicion of the institute in people's
the Word in the land which rejected the preaching          minds-a suspicion which has risen because the
of His servant.                                            church institute has led them astray and failed to
  But, while it is undoubtedly true that this is a         fill their deepest spiritual needs. But the fact
cross which the minister of the Word has to bear, it       remains that this distrust of the institute has led to a
is an evil in the church for all that.                     spirit of criticism which, in the mind of the critic,
   Some of the reason for this evil which persists in      gives every person the right to take pot shots at the
the church is due to a growing spirit of indepen-          preaching at will, and to subject the minister to
dence which exists in the land and which creeps            scathing criticism and unchecked fault-finding.
into the church. This spirit of independence has           Every person assumes to himself the right to set
two sides to it. On the one hand, there are those          himself up as a standard of right and wrong in all
who, independently of anyone else, set themselves          matters of doctrine and Scriptural exposition. And a
up as authorities on all matters so that they feel free    spirit of dissatisfaction and unrest is unleashed
to challenge every remark which the minister               within the congregation which makes the work of
makes. But, on the other hand, and, perhaps, more          the ministry difficult at best. Every man considers
deeply, there is a refusal to bow before authority.        himself a theologian and every individual thinks
The minister comes into the pulpit on the Lord's           himself to be better informed on all matters of
day clothed with the authority of Christ. This             doctrine and Scriptural truth than God's appointed
authority rests not only in the office which he holds,     servant. Also in matters of doctrine, it is every man
but rests also in the Word which he brings; for the        for himself, and woe to the minister who dares to
office which he holds he has received from Christ,         call such critical members to time. He is immedi-
and the Word which he brings is the very Word of           ately branded as a know-it-all, a tyrant and dictator,
the infallible Scriptures. In the wicked world there       a pastor who will not let each individual member
is a complete repudiation of authority in every form       function in his office of believer.
in which it manifests itself, and this refusal to bow        .There  is no question about it but that the mem-
before authority comes also into the church.               bers of the church of Jesus Christ function in the
  I think too, though, that, at least in part, the evil    office of all believers. And it is also certainly true
of which I speak is due to a lack of appreciation for      that each individual believer has the calling before
the Biblical doctrine of the church. Our mission-          God to "try the spirits, whether they be of God."
aries and others who have had opportunity to labor           We ought to notice this for a moment because it
in church extension work will tell you that one of         has bearing on this matter. God has entrusted the
the great problems which they face on the mission          task of preaching the Word, administering the
field and among many with whom contact is made             sacraments and exercising Christian discipline to
is the lack of understanding of the institute of the       His  church.  This surely means that, although the
church. God has ordained that the church of Christ         church performs her task through the special
shall take on institutional form in this world. In         offices, the church has an active role to play in all
short, that means that it is the will of God to make       this work. The  church  preaches-though it be
of His church an  organizafion.   It is true that this     through the office of minister. The  church  rules-
organization is unique among men-there is only             though it be through the office of elder. The church
one like it. But it is an organization nonetheless. It     shows mercy to the poor-but it does this through
has officebearers who are appointed by Christ and          the office of deacon. The  church  disciplines and
who are entrusted with the work of the "organiza-          excommunicates-though this work is performed
tion." It has rules of conduct, prescribed by Scrip-       through the elders.
ture, drawn up under the guidance of the Spirit of           The church is given this work because the
Christ, which rules prescribe the life and work of         members of the church all function in the office of
the officebearers and members in all their relation-       all believers. All have the anointing of Christ. The
ships to the church. And it is formed into an organi-      saints need not that anyone should teach them, for
zation with all the members in order that the              they all know the Lord (Hebrews 8111, I John 2:27).
church of Christ may worship the Lord as the               All the saints receive the promise of the Spirit (Acts
gathering of believers and their seed. Only as such        2:17, 18).
an organization can the people of God engage in the
work which Christ has given them to do: the                  And it is exactly this position which God's people
preaching of the Word, the administration of the           hold within the church which gives them the
sacraments, and the exercise of Christian discip-          responsibility to try the spirits whether they  .be of
line.                                                      God. It is indeed a sad thing when the pulpit is


446                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



filled with heresy, when the elders no longer exer-         him as an ambassador. Scripture has some frighten-
cise discipline against wicked members, when the            ing words to say about unfaithful ministers. I
poor are shoved off on the government to be cared           remind you of just one such passage, Ezekiel 34:2-
for, when the sacraments are corrupted, and no one          10-a passage which you do well to read at least
in the church dares to raise his voice. The people sit      once a year. And Jeremiah has also such choice
passively, allow the house of God to be desecrated          words to speak against those shepherds who are
and the name of God to be openly mocked, and                unfaithful (Jeremiah  23:1-4, e.g.). A minister must
things go on without one single murmur of com-              be so completely committed to his work and calling
plaint. This is sad and wrong and means the end of          that he has no time for anything else but the work,
the church in that congregation.                            and that he will lay down his life for his sheep if
  I am not saying to you that the officebearers have        that is required of him. Anything else is terribly dis-
the right to do as they please, to perform their work       pleasing in the sight of God.
in direct opposition to the Scriptures, and that the          But there is another side to this question, and it is
people in the pew must keep silence while all this          particularly this side with which I am concerned.
goes on and act as if nothing is happening. This is           The people of God are repeatedly enjoined in the
serious dereliction of duty which brings the wrath          Scriptures to submit themselves to those within the
of God upon the church.                                     church whom it pleases God to use to rule over
  The believers must function consciously and re-           them. I want to call your attention to several such
sponsibly in their office. They must object when the        texts in subsequent letters, but I remind you now
minister preaches heresy or fails to perform his            of what our own Reformed confessions say about
work. They must protest when the elders no longer           this matter. In Article  XXX1 of our Belgic Confes-
rule in the name of Christ. They must insist that the       sion we read the striking words: "Moreover, that
deacons labor faithfully in their office. They must         this holy ordinance of God may not be violated or
do all in their power to keep the table of the Lord         slighted, we say that every one ought to esteem the
from being profaned. This is their solemn calling           ministers of God's Word, and the elders of the
before God.                                                 Church, very highly for their work's sake, and be at
  I am not saying either, you understand, that the          peace with them without murmuring, strife or con-
minister, once he has attained to his office, has the       tention, as much as possible."
right to do less than God calls him to do. Upon the           This is surely the teaching of Scripture through-
minister rests the heavy responsibility to preach           out.
the Word, in season and out of season, to labor                                               Fraternally in Christ,
diligently in the cause of the gospel, to preach with
all his might the truth which God has entrusted to                                                       H. Hanko

FROM HOLY WRIT

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


                  ALL NATIONS                               The "nations" will be saved, and not simply the
                     Chapter 8                              elect  out  of every nation. These interpreters of
                                                            Scripture construe such passages as Isaiah  2:2,
  In this Chapter I would call the reader's attention       Micah 4:1, 2, and even Revelation 7:9ff as referring
to certain key passages of the Bible which shed the         to the nations which have national capitals and
only light on the question of what must be consid-          governments: Great Britain, Germany, etc. These
ered by the Bible-believer to constitute the "all           nations, as nations, shall be Christianized and they
nations" which are blessed in faithful Abraham.             shall say: "come let us go up to the mountain of the
When the Post-millennialist interprets the term all         LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He
"nations" in the prophecies of the Old Testament,           will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His
he insists that this must refer to all nations as such.     paths..." (Is.  2:3).


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   447



  Now the question is, will such interpretation of           the nations their inheritance, when He separated
the term "all nations" stand the touchstone of the           the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people
Scriptures? Can it stand as the true interpretation of       according to the number of the children of Israel. For
the Bible when interpreted by the rule: Scripture            the LORD's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of
interprets Scripture? To investigate this rather             His inheritance." What does this mean, that the
briefly is the burden of this chapter.                       bounds of the nation's inheritance were set accord-
  It is very interesting to note that the term "all          ing to the number of the children of Israel? This
nations" is interchanged in Genesis with the term            means that in the time of the scattering of the
"all families." In Genesis the term "all nations" is         people at Babel, so that they became many nations
used, first of all, in the LORD's speaking His               over the earth, there was a very set, definite pre-
promise to Abraham, before his coming to the land            ordained plan and purpose of God, the highest
of Canaan. Perhaps God first spoke these words in            wisdom, the manifold wisdom of God shown to the
Ur of the Chaldees, and later reiterated them to             angels; He was unfolding the mystery of godliness
Abraham in the land of Haran.  We read in Acts 7:2,          in history, and angels stooped down in rapt atten-
"The God of glory appeared unto our father                   tion to look into it. Every last elect was placed
Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he               exactly in that place in every nation where he
dwelt in Haran.  And said unto him, Get thee out of          would serve the gathering of the church. This
thy country and from thy kindred, and come into              church would be gathered out of every nation along
the land that I will show thee." In this promise to          these lines: "God blesses Shem. He enlarges Shem,
Abraham God says "And I will make thee a great               and Japheth shall dwell in his tents!"
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name               Here is the wisdom of God Who works all things
great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless        according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1: 11).
them that bless thee and curse them that curse
thee.  And in thee shall all the families  (Hebrew:            It is well to bear a few rudiments of Scripture in
mishpachah) of the earth be blessed. " The families of       mind, when we attempt to interpret the Bible in the
the earth are the generations of Noah from Shem,             matter of the "nations."
Ham, and Japheth. That by these "families" is not              1. That we must ever interpret Scripture in the
meant every nation as nation is quite evident from           light of Scripture. We must allow the Bible to inter-
what we read already in Genesis  9:24-27.  A very            pret, and we must believingly follow this instruc-
evident. distinction is made between the genera-             tion, not adding to or detracting from its teachings.
tions of Shem, Japheth, and Ham. It is in Shem that          This is a very spiritual and painstaking task. This is
the great blessings of Jehovah will be, at first rather      a rule which has ever been the very A.B.C. for Bible
exclusively, according to the standard of elective,          interpreters from the days of yore in the church of
discriminating grace. Later Japheth shall dwell in           Christ.
the tents of Shem, which refers to the gentiles being
ingrafted into the olive tree of Israel, the elect Israel      2. That we are on safe ground, and then only,
of God (Rom.  1l:llff). And Canaan will be a                 when we listen to how, in the New Testament,
servant of servants.. . "unto his brethren"! This            Christ and the apostles and prophets interpreted
already shows that, in this Noahic blessing, there is        the Old Testament Scriptures. That means that in
a distinction made between the two seeds in the              the case of Genesis 12:3 and 18:18 we listen to Paul
human race. All nations are not blessed, as                  in Galatians  3:8b where these "nations" are no
"nations" in Shem, and they will as such never               other and none more than those who receive the
dwell in the tent of Shem, that is, be incorporated          Spirit by faith in Christ, who belong to Christ, and
into the "great people," the Israel of God (Gal.             who are, therefore, the sons of Abraham, heirs of
6: 16). The "nations" will never have peace upon             the promise of the Spirit. These are the reborn sons
them. The nations are restless, their waters cast up         of God who cry, Abba, Father.
mire and dirt (Isaiah  57:20, 21). These nations as            3. Only thus do we interpret the less clear
"nations" are never brought near by the blood of             passages in the light of the more clear passages. It is
Christ.                                                      nameless stupidity and sin to attempt to reverse this
                                                             order.' It is utter folly to explain clear and lucid
  The  kindreds of the earth are well arranged by            passages of Scripture, be they from the Old Testa-
God according to sovereign election of grace!                ment `or from the New Testament, in the light of
  Think of Deuteronomy 32:7, 8, 9, where we read             some indefinite passage of the prophecies which
these significant words of Moses, "Remember the              really cannot be understood very clearly until Jesus
days of old, consider the years of many generations:         came to fulfill them in the fulness of time as the Son
ask thy father and he will shew thee; thy elders,            of God in the flesh.
and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided            And now let us return to the term "nations" once


448                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



more. Let us attempt to understand this Biblical           geneology, that which is native soil in any country,
term a bit more in depth.                                  the term could very correctly be translated
  To begin with the Hebrew term which is trans-            "nations" =  tu ethnee  in the Greek Septuagint,
lated "nations," we ought to notice that this term is      which is quoted by Paul in the Greek text in
the word goi. Just a quick look at Young's Analytical      Galatians  3:8, 9. When Paul quotes Genesis  12:3 in
Concordance teaches us that the term is also trans-        a very key passage in Galatians  3:9 and speaks of
lated with the English words:  Gentile, heathen,           nations = Gentiles, he is not referring to the
nation, people and another. And Young informs us           "heathen which imagine vain things against God,"
that the term is translated "gentile" some 30 times;       and who, therefore, are held in derision in God's
"heathen" some 142 times; "nation" some 373                holy laughter, and who do not kiss the Son, and
times; "people" 11 times; and "another" one time.          who are broken to shivers with a rod of iron. He
This indicates that the astute Bible scholars who          views the nations as the Gentile-world from
translated the KJV of the Bible were well aware that       which the elect church is gathered; they, who once
the term goi had to be interpreted in the light of the     were far, are now brought nigh by the blood of
context. There is an element of discretion and inter-      Christ (Eph. 2: 17, Is. 57: 16).
pretation here in these several renderings of the            To overlook these distinctions in the use of the
Hebrew noun.                                               two terms "nations" and "heathen" is disastrous
  To understand these several different words by           for proper understanding of the Scriptures in this
which the term  goi  and  goijim  is translated, we        point of considering the "nations." All we obtain
ought to notice, first of all, that there is a rather      then is a vague and meaningless mumbo-jumbo,
marked difference between the two terms                    mere gibberish.
"nations" and "heathen." The former term is                  Only thus will we intelligently keep the avenues
derived from M.E. nation. And from the M.F. nation         open to understand that the nations are to come to
which is derived from the Latin  nation  which             Zion; that these nations are the representatives of
means: birth, race, nation. That which is akin is          the children of Zion, although naturally natives of
expressed in the term "nation"; it expresses the           another nation, nonetheless those who are born in
idea of what is kindred. Perhaps from this we              Zion, and who sing: all our fountains are in thee!
derive our Dutch noun  kind  = child, and German           This means that we dare to confess that the Son of
Kindlein. It expresses the natural organic growth of       God gathers and defends and preserves a church
a people. Thus we speak of native soil as the place        from the beginning of the world to the end out of the
of our birth. Let us keep this idea of a nation in         whole human race,  elect unto everlasting life, and
mind. We will return to it. However, the term              that I (born in the nations) am a citizen of this
"heathen" is quite different in viewpoint and in           heavenly kingdom, this elect church, and that I
emphasis. The translators of the KJV undoubtedly           shall forever remain such. Blessed is the "great
felt that the term goi in the Hebrew text could not        nation" which God made for Abraham and His
always be translated adequately by the term                Seed forever.
"nation." The text in its context required a better
English word, which expressed the utter hostility of         Yes, thus we are prevented from glibly teaching
the  goi  against the Lord and against His anointed        that the "nations" of the world are becoming better
Son to sit on David's throne forever (Ps. 2:lff). The      and better under the preaching of the Gospel by the
                                                           power of the Spirit of Christ, and that there ever
term "nation" was in a sense in its connotation too
broad. Sometimes the Bible speaks of nations not           will remain the heathen nations, who imagine vain
from the viewpoint of their enmity against God, but        things against the Lord and His anointed. The gates
                                                           of hell will constantly attempt to prevail against the
as being the people, the families of the earth
(mishpachah                                                church-constantly until the end of the world. And
                = families, tribes, Gen.  12:3b). Since    thus we are in the world yet not of the world. And
the term "nations" has the basic idea in it of birth,      Israel dwells safetly alone!



       The Standard Bearer
       makes a  thoughtfkl gift
                                       .
          on any occasion.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    449



THEDAYOFSHADOWS


                                   Though He Fall...
                                                Rev. John A. Heys



  As a stranger in a strange land Joseph under-            he confessed God boldly and as an exemplary child
standably was a lonely man.                                of God. And that is why it hurts so to read what we
  Before he was sold into Egypt the circle of his          do in Genesis 41:45. And that is also why we must
friends was very small. His mother died when he            be on guard not to let our pity for him lead us to
was only a young lad. His ten stepbrothers hated           make excuses for him.
him and could not speak peaceably to him. His                Out of a clear, blue sky we read that Joseph, this
younger, full-brother was too young to afford a            same devout man of God, married an Egyptian
very rich measure of fellowship and friendship to          woman who was the daughter of the priest of On.
Joseph. It was mainly his father that supplied             Even if we, to be charitable, take the other possible
Joseph with friendship and fellowship in his early         translation that his wife's father was the prince,
days.                                                      rather than priest, of On, the fact remains that he
  Arriving in Egypt, after being sold by his               married outside the covenant sphere and took to
brothers, his social life was hardly existent, because     himself an unbeliever for a wife. He became
he had no friends to surround him, encourage, and          unequally yoked through marriage. No, he did not
strengthen him. In a small way Potiphar befriended         seek her, was not overwhelmed by some fleshly
him, but he soon turned into an enemy who cast             beauty, did not fall in love with a face. Young
Joseph unheard into prison. The jailer befriended          people in the church will do that, and they reveal
him, but this was cut short when the king brought          that the love of a man or of a woman means more to
him out of prison to explain his dreams. The exalta-       them than the love of God. And although they
tion that Pharaoh gave him erected a wall between          know ahead of time that this love for a creature will
him and the Egyptians. He became Lord over them            take them away from a life of love for God, they are
instead of a friend among them. His work required          driven by their inner, fleshly emotions to go that
of him extensive travel through the land to buy            way of the flesh. Joseph, however, had a wife given
surplus corn and wheat, and there was little if any        to him, arranged for and settled by the king. We
time for a social life. His life was at that time          read the Pharaoh gave him a wife.
mainly business and travel.                                  There may have been political or even religious
  Even beyond all this, and deeper than it all, was        overtones in this deed of Pharaoh. The idol On was
the fact that there was such a tremendous spiritual        the sun god of the Egyptians; and in that light the
difference between him and the Egyptians, so that          translation of the KJV, which we have, is no doubt
he knew the meaning of the word loneliness. He             correct. Her father was a priest of On rather than a
was a descendant of Shem; and they were descen-            prince, of On. Deliberately or otherwise, then, the
dants of Ham. He was a man with strong faith in            king is bringing pressure upon Joseph's spiritual
God; and they were worshippers of Egypt's idols.           life. At least, Satan is behind it to destroy if possible
How could he, with the life of Christ in him, have         Joseph's faith in God. On, the sun god of the
concord with those who were ruled by Belial? What          Egyptians, was feared and worshiped because he
communion could there be between him, as a child           was supposed to be the one who gave such
of light, with these children of darkness?                 abundant crops as they now enjoyed those seven
  Because of all this you can pity the man. You can        years. ;And he would also be accused of sending the
have deep sympathy for him. Your heart can bleed           drought that brought on the famine. That god
for one who at such a young and tender age has             would: therefore have to be appeased; and what
known so much disappointment and hardship. But             better way would there be for the king to do so than
do not let all this move you to make excuses for           to bring Joseph into the families of those  ,who
him. Do not try to defend him in that wherein he           worship this idol?                                  .'
may not be defended. His conduct in Potiphar's               Or, On, also being the name of the capital city of
house was highly commendable. Before Pharaoh               lower Egypt, being named after this idol-and


          450                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



          having received also both the Greek name Heliopo-           only begotten Son.
          lis, from the Greek word for sun, and the Hebrew              And Joseph did in this way get some relief from
          name of Beth Shemesh, after the Hebrew word for             his loneliness and tears. We read after the birth of
          sun (Heliopolis meaning City of the Sun, and Beth           his firstborn son, whom he called Manasseh, which
          Shemesh meaning House of the Sun)-there is the              means forgetting, that Joseph stated, "For God hath
          possibility that to appease the wrath and dis-              made me forget all my toil, and all my father's
          appointment of the prince of this city, for being           house" (Genesis 41:51). By toil he means the rough
          passed by in favour of this Hebrew, the king                road on which he had to walk since his brothers
          arranges a union between the two families, or               sold him into Egypt. Physically he did not have
          deems it wise to grant honours to the  ,family by           such a rigorous life of toil and  labour.  He had
          such a union.                                               nothing yet compared with what Jacob's descen-
            Whatever Pharaoh's reason was for giving                  dants will have there in the land of bondage. But it
          Asenath to Joseph, it may be stated that she was an         was very hard on his soul. He had grief, and he
          unbeliever, and, as we said, that Joseph married            knew misery in great measure. His soul had been
          outside the covenant sphere. We find that fact              busy, working overtime; and seldom was he
          stated three times. In Genesis  41:45 and 50 and in         without the agonies of his unjust treatment and
          Genesis 4620 Joseph's wife is presented with that           hatred of men.
          same description, "daughter of Potipherah priest of
          On." God is saying something to us when He holds              That he forgot all his father's house means that
          this truth repeatedly before our eyes. We do not            the separation forced upon him, and which he
          simply read, "And Joseph took unto himself a wife,          could not change, no longer brought him the grief
          Asenath, who bore him two sons...." The identity            that it formerly caused him to have in his soul. He
          of this woman as being anything but a descendant            did not forget who his father was. He did not forget
          in the line of Shem, whom Noah blessed and to               what his brothers had done to him. He remem-
          whom he in God's name declared, "Blessed be the             bered that he had a younger brother at home by the
          Lord God of Shem," is repeatedly brought to our             name of Benjamin. But the loneliness that he felt
          attention. Lest we overlook it, and fail to see its         was gone. He had a family; and he had a son who
~         import, it is stated again and again.                       now occupied much of his attention. He did not
     -                                                                now live with himself-and perhaps talk to himself
            The reason in God's mind for calling this to our          -because there were no friends to fellowship with
          attention, and for displaying this weakness and sin         as his soul desired. When he came home at night
          in Joseph is that we must repeatedly, in Old and as         after his work, or from his travels across the
          well in New Testament, see and learn this humbling          country, he did not sit with himself in silence and
          yet comforting truth that we are saved by grace:            in the gathering dusk to review in his mind the past
          "not of works, lest any man should boast"                   and its hardships, with his heart going back to his
          (Ephesians 2:9), and `I...it is not of him that willeth,    father's house, where he wanted to be. He had this
          nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth            child to come home to, and to take on his knee. He
          mercy" (Romans  9:16). We who slip and slide,               had joys and new experiences that pushed away
          stumble and falter must repeatedly be comforted             from his mind that sordid past.
          by this; and God's glory as a merciful God must
          shine forth before us.                                        And above all, his faith is what sustained him
            All the above implies that it was sinful for Joseph       and enabled him to endure all that hardship. That
                                                                      faith displays itself when at the naming of his first-
~         to accept this wife. The king gave her; but Joseph
          received her. We do not read that the king gave her         born son he said, "God hath made me forget.. . ." He
          at Joseph's request, and that he fell so far from his       did not lose his faith in God. And God in His mercy
          righteousness that he could begin looking for a wife        had preserved in this child of His a true faith, even
          at all costs and simply with fleshly considerations.        though he had slipped and been unfaithful in
          But the passage clearly reveals that he put up no           taking such a wife. Surely "the steps of a good man
          protest and did take her to live with her and to raise      are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in His
          up children there in Egypt through her. Whether he          way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast
          feared the king, and this was now his weakness, or          down; for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand"
          whether it was the loneliness coupled with the              (Psalm  37:23,24).
          realization that he would have to stay there in the           But God does more. Joseph is given another-son,
          king's service for many years to come, the fact is          whom he calls Ephraim, and which means fruitful.
          that he stumbled; and all this was in God's counsel         His aged father Jacob on his deathbed agreed with
          that we might be furnished once again with the              Joseph's evaluation expressed in this name. For
          truth of His tender mercy and amazing grace that            Jacob had gathered his sons in order to tell them
          saves us by the perfect obedience and death of His          what would befall them. Of Joseph he said, "Joseph


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 451



is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well,      comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
whose branches run over the wall" (Genesis 49:22).         comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her
He who was formerly alone has now begotten two             warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is par-
sons.                                                      doned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand
  Both Jacob and his son Joseph, however, ascribe          double for all her sins." That is right: doubZe for all
it all to God, and neither one boasts of doing any-        her sins. She receives the forgiveness of these sins.
thing in his own power. And if the birth of                But she also receives heavenly blessings. She is
Manasseh could move Joseph to say that he had for-         given a pardon, but also a blessing. Her sins are
gotten his toil and his father's house, how much           taken away, but she is given a place in God's house
more the birth of another son should fill his heart        of many mansions.
with gladness and fill his days with remembrance             The courts may set a man free after his punish-
of what God is doing for him, instead of what men          ment has been suffered the predetermined length
had done unto him. He knew a mercy without                 of time. But the courts do not take him out of
measure.                                                   prison, furnish him with a new home, a new auto-
  And let us never doubt God's mercy or fail to            mobile, and a million dollars in the bank. The God
find comfort in His works. Sinful though we be,            of all mercy sent His Son to suffer our punishment
wholly unworthy of the smallest part of any                and took all our guilt away. But also out of prison
blessing as we are, God's mercy forgives and               He brings us into the house of many mansions and
blesses the sinner for whom He sent His Son to             makes us exceedingly rich with heavenly treasures.
make atonement, and who knows himself as one of            No wonder Paul, in Ephesians 2:4-6, declares that
these because his sins bother him. Isaiah cried it         "God Who is  rich  in mercy...hath...made us sit in
out so wonderfully in Isaiah  40:1, 2. "Comfort ye,        heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                           The Spirit of our Age (3)
                                                  Rev. K. Koole


  We conclude our discussion of what we have               nothing else than the calloused conscience in
designated as the dominating spirit of our age,            action. Such is the spirit of the age with which we
namely the absence of shame, or if you will, the           have to contend.
callous conscience. We have stated that the histori-
cal Christian church herself has taken the lead role         The question arises, how is it that the conscience
in encouraging men to lead lewd, defiant lives.            becomes calloused, so that even members of the
They have assured the underprivileged (found both          church become insensitive to sin and reveal an
among the neglected poor and the spoiled rich) that        absence of shame? The answer is, the conscience
God does not condemn  their disobedience, but He           becomes calloused by its being continually con-
condemns rather those who have insisted upon a             fronted by immorality in its many forms. This is
"puritan" morality, and who have given people a            true of the believer as well as the unbeliever. When
guilt complex. They must bear the greater responsi-        we are continually subjected to the observation of
bility. And we have stated that ultimately what is         evil, the conscience becomes calloused, insensitive
behind this lawless spirit which dominates our             to the sinfulness of sin, not only as it is practiced by
society is nothing else than the spirit of Anti-Christ     others, but as found in our own lives as well.
itself (paving the way for the coming of the man of          There is a similarity between the sensitivity of
sin). It has worked relentlessly exactly to arrive at      the conscience to sin, and of the nose to odors.
such a point where society has no shame. Now the           With the nose we can smell, though in man this
church speaks its language, instructing the people         sense is very underdeveloped (and I wonder if
that good is evil, and evil is good, and that              there is not some lesson in that, too). But it is a
righteousness is determined by majority prefer-            rather interesting phenomenon that the human
ence. And majority preference has brought into             nose grows accustomed to smells. Odors that at
focus the "new morality." And the new morality is          first nearly send one reeling, do not phase one after


452                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



awhile, and sometimes in a very short time at that.       only be because our consciences too have become,
Open a septic tank and the smell will nearly over-        to a greater or lesser degree, calloused. And, quite
power you. Yet in time the nose will become               frankly, I fear there are evidences that this is taking
"dead" even to such an obnoxious odor, accus-             place within us. All I have to do is take stock of my
tomed to it. Or for instance, a city man may visit his    own life. What would have once caused our grand-
farmer friend who raises pigs. Standing near the          parents to blush with shame and to gasp with aston-
stye, the city man may ask "How can you stand the         ishment, is met by us with a shrug of the shoulders.
smell?", to which the farmer will reply "What             There is deterioration.
smell?" or "Oh, you get used to it." On the other           This absence of shame reveals itself not only in
hand, the farmer may ask those living in the              our attitudes, but also in our lives. One hears
suburbs south of Chicago, when the wind is coming         disturbing reports of increasing disrespect shown
from the direction of Gary, Indiana, how they can         by our young people to those in authority. Whence
stand it. The city man will reply, "I can not smell       comes this bold spirit? And that is one thing. But
anything." The point is, so it is with the conscience.    what is worse is that we as parents should receive
Subject yourself to the obnoxious odors of some           these things with indulgent smiles. One sees the
particular immorality long enough and the time            dress of our young women, especially in the
will come that your conscience will cease to func-        summer, which accents rather than covers. Where
tion with respect to that sin. It will become             is the modesty? the shame? It is absent. These are
deadened, and with deadly results.                        but two examples. There is evidence of growing
  A clear example of this would be Lot, who               permissiveness in our Christian homes. And per-
pitched his tent towards Sodom, and voluntarily           missiveness is always a sign that the conscience is
subjected himself and his family to seeing Sodom's        growing insensitive towards sinful deeds. The
gross wickedness. In time they lived within               danger is that hand in hand with this permissive-
Sodom's gates. We read that Lot "in seeing and            ness goes increasing promiscuity. That is inevita-
hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day         ble. The spirit of the age will make it so.
with their unlawful deeds" (II Peter  2:8). Yet he
continued to live there, growing more accustomed            But there is yet more, and here we come to the
to the immorality, until he almost felt at home           nub of it. The calloused conscience affects how we
there. Strikingly, he would not leave of his own          listen to the Word. The Word functions in part
accord. We read in Genesis  19:16, "And while he          exactly to keep our consciences sensitive. But there
lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, . ..the        can come a point where we in our callousness resist.
Lord being merciful unto him; and they brought            the preaching (which attitude grieves the Holy
him forth, and set him without the city." He was          Spirit). That was evident in Lot and his poor
plucked as a brand out of the fire, lest he perish        response to the angels' warning. He was saved, but
with the ungodly. But so insensitive had Lot              at what a cost to himself and to his generations!
become that even the words of warning that the              And it is here that I see that the mortal danger
messengers of God spake did not unduly alarm              lurks. The mortal danger of the spirit of our age is
him. So dulled had he become even to the very             that it makes us in time increasingly numb to the
word of God itself preached to him by angels. And         Word of God itself. Perhaps some will respond,
as for his family, it perished spiritually. That Lot's    "But we are still sensitive to the preaching." Are
daughters were without shame is plain from the            we? As sensitive as we should be? Let me use an
way in which they used him to sire his own grand-         example which, quite frankly, causes me deep con-
children. And remember, these things were record-         cern. It has to do with television. (Perhaps you say,
ed for our examples.                                      "I know what's coming. We've heard it before."
  In our day the dreadful thing for us as children of     That is just the point. How many times before? And
God is this, we do not have to go out of our way to       what has been our response?)
be confronted by gross wickedness. In our age               Three generations of preachers have denounced
lewd, promiscuous behavior greets us around every         television in strongest terms. In the three genera-
corner, and profanity flares at us from every direc-      tions of preaching against the evils of Hollywood,
tion. How can one leave Sodom when the whole              the question arises, has the number of sets in our
world has become Sodom? Where can one find                households decreased or increased? Has the
sanctuary for self and one's children? Indeed, the        number of hours that we, with our children, have
spirit of the age pervades the very atmosphere we         spent in front of it decreased or increased? The
breathe.                                                  answer is surely obvious. In general there has been
  As I have stated before, this spirit is a grave         steady, all but unimpeded, increase. We certainly
threat to the Christian's life, so much so that we        do not purchase colored television sets to use as
ought to be alarmed. If we are not alarmed it can         knick-knack shelves. We watch them. And this in


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                453



the face of preaching by preachers who have all but        you expect?" This is too easily done. It is an excuse.
stood on their heads warning against the dangers of        The spirit of this age has a great influence upon our
television sets in our homes. That's sensitivity?          lives indeed, but the persistent word of God is,
   Television is so apt an example because there is        "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you"
no means whereby the conscience of the Christian           (James  4:7). And again, "Flee also youthful lusts"
is so continually subjected to observing evil men          (II Timothy  2:22). These admonitions must be
engaged in sinful deeds. It reeks with the stench of       taken seriously. Positively, we combat it through
violence, sex, and blasphemy, if your "nostrils" are       fervent prayer, close attendance to God's word,
but holy enough to detect it. It is the conscience         and by fleeing every situation which could serve to
deadener par excellence. The world itself admits it.       harden our consciences. Thus we flee the world,
Who has not known its captivating power? The               while yet being in the world.
angels could scarcely stir Lot from Sodom. Can the           The burden of keeping God's people sensitive to
preaching stir us from the evils portrayed on tele-        sin falls especially upon the preachers. No matter
vision?                                                    how strong the spirit of the age moves (and it can
   The question that persists then is this, what does      blow with such power that it  seems  that one is
all this say about our attitude towards the preach-        speaking into the teeth of a hurricane which flings
ing? Are we so sensitive? Has not the "smog" of            one's words behind him), preachers must not grow
society's evil atmosphere  coroded  our consciences        despondent. We must simply preach with greater
to the sinfulness of sin in many respects? And the         vigor and zeal. The Spirit of the Lord is irresistible,
next question that arises is, can a people resist the      however things may appear. The Lord will keep his
preaching in some areas, and yet remain pliable            seven thousand.
and sensitive in others? It is doubtful. At any rate,        And so, as the coming storm gathers its fury over
they can do so only under severe tension, and in           the raging seas, and already begins to blow over the
time, except there be a complete submission to the         land, the word of God remains, "Cry aloud, spare
word of God, this callousness will spread to other         not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my
areas as well. There comes a point when you either         people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
submit completely to the Word, or you become               their sins" (Isaiah 58:l). For the promise is, "When
aggravated and wish the preacher would just stop           the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of
harping on some particular sin all the time. Such is       the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And
the danger of callousness towards even one particu-        the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them
lar sin.                                                   that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the
   In conclusion we ask, how can we counteract the         Lord" (Isaiah 59: 19,20).
influence of the spirit of our age in our lives? Let me      Evil floods the land. Keep the dikes solid by
emphasize something in a negative way first of all.        turning from evil and by walking in the way of
We can not counteract it by saying with a shrug of         repentance and faith. The Redeemer has come
the shoulders, when we see callousness infecting           once. He is coming again. May He keep us faithful,
our lives and the absence of shame characterizing          and so find us keeping our garments unspotted
our children, "It is the spirit of our age. What can       from the world.

QUESTION BOX

            Yielding Ourselves Up ToJesus Christ
                                                      C. Hanko


    A reader asks:                                                confidence, and the `giving one's self up';
       "I would appreciate a discussion of the                    is this active, passive, both or neither?
       concept `yielding' in Romans 6: 13.                        Where does this fit into the experience of
       Connected with this, I think, is the phrase                the Christian?"
       in the prayer in the form for the Lord's              The entire verse referred to in Romans  6:13
       Supper,  ' . ..that we may daily more and           reads: "Neither yield ye your members as instru-
       more with a true confidence, give our-              ments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield your-
       selves up unto Thy Son Jesus Christ.' I             selves unto God, as those that  are  alive from the
      am interested in the object of the true              dead, and your members as instruments of  righ-


454                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



teousness unto God." As the reader suggests, this          commandments. We yield them as instruments of
same thought is expressed in the prayer of the form        unrighteousness to sin.
for the Lord's Supper.                                           By the wonder of grace we are delivered from the
  The key to the entire verse from Romans 6 is             bondage of sin through the resurrection of Jesus
found in the words, "as those that are alive from          Christ from the dead. The living Christ makes us
the dead." We are reminded that we were dead in            new creatures, born from above by the work of
trespasses and sins. We died in Adam. Now we               regeneration. The Spirit of Christ implants in us the
live, for we are raised from the dead in Christ Jesus.     life of Christ, thus spreading abroad in our hearts
  The implication is that when we were created in          the love of God. We love God. We hate all that is of
our first father Adam we lived. We were created in         darkness. That does not mean that our natures are
the image of God in true knowledge, righteousness,         renewed. Sin still wars in our members. Our
and holiness. We loved God with our whole heart.           natural inclination is still toward sin. But the power
We knew God in love and we served Him in love.             of sin is broken, so that sin no more has dominion
Our whole inclination was to devote ourselves to           over us. We recognize sin as transgression of God's
God in praise to His Name. With our eyes we saw            law. We can and must fight against it, also as it still
the wonderful beauty of the flower, the trees, the         wars in our members. The new man in Christ has a
lion, and the stars of the heavens. With our ears we       daily fight against the old man of sin within him.
heard the song of creation arising from the birds in             Therefore Scripture admonishes us to "yield our-
the trees, of the wind in the pines, of the babbling       selves unto God as those who are alive from the
brook, and the joyful rushing of the waterfalls.           dead." God does not deal with us as automatons.
With our hands we touched the silky petal of the           He works in us by His Spirit as in rational, moral
flower, the furry animal, the luscious fruit. We           creatures, who by the grace of God are able and
used hands and feet to care for the garden. All the        willing to do according to His good pleasure. By the
while our lips declared the exuberant joy of our           means of His Word, and in answer to our prayers
souls, "My God, how great Thou art!"                       He makes us sincerely willing to fight sin, that is,
  But sin came. Eve lent her ear to the deceptive          no longer to yield ourselves to the sinful inclination
lies and blasphemy of the tempter, allowed her             of our natures.  Only  then can we also use the
eyes to look covetously on the forbidden fruit. Her        members of our bodies as instruments of righteous-
mouth watered. Her hand almost spontaneously               ness unto God. Though our sinful nature draws our
reached out and plucked the fruit. She set her teeth       eyes to vanity, the new life in Christ causes us to
into it and ate it. She extended her hand with the         look away. Though our natural inclination is to
forbidden fruit to Adam. He saw what she had, he           listen to the enticing songs of lust or the slanderous
listened to her, took it, and likewise ate it. Together    tongue of sinners, by the grace of God we close our
they yielded their members as instruments of               ears to all that is evil. Though sinful words slip so
unrighteousness unto sin. That is, they used the           readily from our lips, we pray: "Let the words of
members of their bodies, which were given to them          my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
to use to the glory of God, to transgress God's com-       acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and
mand, and thus to sin against Him.                         my redeemer" (Psalm 19:14). See also Psalm 141:3,
                                                           4.
  The result is that we are all born in trespasses               Positively, we surrender ourselves in prayer and
and sin. We are by nature dead in sin. Sin is not a        childlike trust to God, that we may bring forth
mere act which we can perform or not perform at            fruits of righteousness unto Him. This is the idea of
whim. Sin is a power that enslaves us, rules over          the prayer in the form of the Lord's Supper. Our
us, and drags us down ever deeper into greater sins        confidence is never in ourselves, but our
under the righteous judgment of God, so that our           confidence is in Christ, Who has begun a good
end is everlasting destruction in hell. Because of         work in us and will surely finish it. Therefore this
our depraved nature we can only yield ourselves to         act whereby we "give ourselves up unto Christ" is
sin. We hate God; we crave the works of darkness.          not a mere passivity, but is an act of faith, whereby
We always stand in rebellion against God and all
His commandments. The very command not to sin              we pray, "Have Thine own way, Lord, for Thou art
                                                           the Potter, I am the clay." Only in that way do we
arouses in us the urge to do it. Our thoughts are          grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ
enmity against God, the very imagination of our            unto the perfect man in Him.
hearts is evil. We always try to exalt ourselves as if
we were God. Therefore our eyes lust after sin, our              Thank you for writing.
ears are attentive to sin, our mouths speak evil con-
tinuously, our hands reach out for evil. In one                  Study the Standard Bearer
word, we use all our members to transgress God's


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                      455



                                                    Book Reviews



THIS WAS JOHN CALVIN, by Thea B. Van                                      has worked in His Church in all ages and Who
Halsema; Baker Book House, 1981; 221 pp., $3.95                           brought reformation to the Church through His
(paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)                                    servant John Calvin.
   This book was first published in 1959 as part of
the Christian Biography Series. It has since been
translated into several languages and now pub-                            FACETS OF PRAYER, by Frans Bakker, (Translat-
lished in paperback. It is an excellent biography of                      ed from the Dutch by Cornelis and Fredrika
John Calvin and we highly recommend it.                                   Pronk); Baker Book House, 1981; 105 pp., $2.45
   While it is written in an imaginative and interest-                    (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)
ing way, it is based on solid research and is histori-                       The author of these meditations on prayer was
cally accurate. In fact, it contains in it a large                        ordained in 1956 and died in 1965, after only nine
amount of information concerning Calvin and his                           years in the ministry. He writes in this book of
work which is not generally known. At the same                            "kinds" of prayers: secret, persevering, improper,
time, it is also written in such a way that young and                     arrogant, humble, unfulfilled, bold, true, pleading,
old can appreciate it and enjoy it. Not only I but                        effectual, thankful, and prayer which is too late.
also my family enjoyed it. And it is even a book                          The author has some nice insights into prayer and
which parents can read to their small children.                           comes with Scriptural and Reformed material for
   The book is written so that one can recognize the                      the most part. It is interesting reading as devotional
/greatness of the Swiss Reformer, but at the same                         material and points the believer to the importance
time, the reader is pointed repeatedly to God Who                         of prayer in his life.





                       ANNOUNCEMENT                                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   Classis East will meet in regular session on Wednesday, Septem-           On July 25, 1981, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS. ARNOLD
ber 9, 1981 at the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church. Material         HAVEMAN celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.
to be treated in this session must be in the hands of the stated clerk      We thank God for these years of love and guidance they have
at least three weeks prior to the convening of the session.               given us. It is our prayer that we may experience, with them, God's
                                                          Jon Huisken     covenant love and faithfulness.
                                                          Stated Clerk       "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
                                                                          them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."
                      ANNOUNCEMENT                                        (Psalm  103:17)
                                                                                                                    their children,
   The 1981-82 Term of the Theological School of the Protestant                                                          Chet and Sharon
Reformed Churches will begin, D.V., on Wednesday, September  .2.                                                         Will and Sue
All students, pre-seminary and seminary, are expected to be present                                                      Vern and Mary
for first semester registration at 9:00 A.M.
                                                                                                                    their grandchildren,
                                           Prof. H.C. Hoeksema, Rector                                                   Janna and Mike
                                                                                                                         Jennifer, Nicole and Derek
               NOTICE OF CONFERENCE!!!                                                                                   Geoffry and Elizabeth
   Plan now to attend the officebearers' conference on Tuesday,                                         NOTICE!
Sept. 1 at 9:00 AM in our Hull, Iowa, Protestant Reformed Church.
The subject of the conference is: "The Office and Work of the Ruling         Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in
Elder." Officebearers in both the East and West, as well as anyone        Hull, Iowa on September 2, 1981, at  8:30 A.M., the Lord willing.
interested in attending, are welcome. Free camping facilities are         Material for the agenda must be in my hands thirty days before the
available. Anyone in need of lodging and/or copies of the conference      meeting of  Classis. Delegates in need of lodging should inform the
papers should contact: Rev. Ron Cammenga                                  clerk of the Hull Consistory of their need.
                         P.O. Box 497                                                                                         Rev. David Engelsma
                         Hull, IA 51239                                                                                       Stated Clerk
                                                       Ron Cammenga                                                           Classis West

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

                                                             _  --





456                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




                         News From Our Churches

  The calls of Redlands, California and Isabel,           topic, I think. In their May, June, and July bulletins
South Dakota to Reverends Slopsema and  Bekker-           our Covenant Church of Wyckoff, New Jersey
ing, respectively, have both been declined.               reports the following building progress: "The
  No doubt our readers remember what was                  plumbing has been laid in the sub-floor of the base-
written in the May 15 news column concerning the          ment and inspected. Public Service has brought
search of our  Redlands  congregation for "a quali-       power to the utility pole on the property. The
fied man to oversee a crew of mostly volunteer            cement floor of the basement of our new sanctuary
help." You recall the "qualified man" was sought          was poured this past week."
to oversee the construction of a new house of wor-          I have found, for the most part, that summer
ship. Apparently members of  Redlands read the            bulletins are generally quite anemic as far as news-
part of the May 15 news column concerning the             worthy information is concerned. June and July
collection plates that Mr. George Joostens had            bulletins of many churches do announce at least
made for our Loveland Church and decided on that          one item of common interest, however, that being
basis that he was their man. Well...that may have         information    concerning      "church,"     "Sunday
had something to do with it. Regardless, a July 5         School," and/or "congregational picnics." Obvious-
Redlands  bulletin reports, "The Lord in His good-        ly the traditional church picnic still has a place in
ness has brought Mr. and Mrs. Joostens safely into        many, if not all, of our churches. It is also obvious
our midst. We welcome them back to Redlands and           from the bulletins that the picnics are not all
look forward to working with them as we build the         conducted in the same way: most common is the
new church."                                              each-family-supply4ts-own-food method; some use
  From that same July 5 Redlands  bulletin we read        the potluck method; others utilize catering services;
that, "Seminarian and Mrs. Lau Chin Kwee plan to          while  Redlands Young People's Society served
visit here from July 11 until 16." Incidentally by the    Spaghetti. The picnic committee of Southwest
time this news is published many of our western           scheduled their picnic on the day of their pastor's
churches will have had opportunity to meet and            and his wife's wedding anniversary. The congrega-
fellowship with the Laus (remember, last name             tion took the opportunity to sing their anniversary
first). It seems fitting that while the Laus are the      wishes to Rev. and Mrs.  DeVries. One final note
recipients of our American hospitality, two of our        concerning church picnics yet, this one experi-
ministers, Reverends Engelsma and Kamps, are the          enced first hand by the undersigned: The picnic
guests of our GLTS brethren in Singapore. These           committee of our Hope, Grand Rapids congregation
pastors have been sent to Singapore because, ac-          selected a rainy June 20 date for their picnic. It was
cording to a  Doon, Iowa bulletin: "The Synod of          later suggested by a member of the picnic commit-
1981 mandated the  Doon  consistory and the               tee that their intent in picking a rainy day was to
Foreign Mission Committee to send emissaries to           avoid being chosen to direct future picnic activities.
Singapore and the GLTS as quickly as possible for           A personal note to the pastor of our Trinity P.R.
the purpose of explaining Synod's decisions to our        Church in Houston, Texas: The six  15@ stamps you
missionary and the GLTS."                                 sent along with your last bulletins were greatly
  Though we have digressed considerably from              appreciated; however, endorsed pay checks are
church building programs, we should return to that        preferred.                                        CK


