          The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       But the pastors watch for our souls....If we
     get a hold on that idea once,  then we will
     understand why we must yield to them and
     be persuaded by them. When we resist we
     throw our eternal bliss into jeopardy. When
     we carp and criticize, when we pick and
     bite, when we nag and condemn, then we
     show our callous disregard for the eternal
     blessedness of our soul.
      See "My Sheep Hear My Voice"-page 462



.                                        Volume LVII, No. 20, September I,1981 -


458                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                  CONTENTS                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                     Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                           SeconBClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
  Meditation-                                                                              Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                           Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
       Crucified! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..45  3    denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
                                                                                           Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461         Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                           Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
  Correspondence and Comment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461                           Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION

                                                                      Crucified!
                                                                               Rev. C. Hanko

                    Ques. 39. Is there anything more in His being crucified, than if He had died some other
                death?
                    Ans. Yes (there is); for thereby I am assured that He took on Him the curse which lay upon
                me: for the death of the cross was accursed of God.
                    Ques. 44. Why is there added,  `He descended into hell"?
                    Ans. That in my greatest temptations, I may be assured, and wholly comfort myself in this,
                that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His inexpressible anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in
                which He was plunged during all His sufferings, but especially on the cross, hath delivered me
                from the anguish and torment of hell. Heid. Cat. Lord's Days 15 and 16.

  "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the                                           is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal.
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world                                            6:14).


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                459



  The world glories in her life of shame, the Phari-        utterances. Meanwhile the naked body was
see in his self-righteousness, the false teacher in the     exposed to the sun. Before very long fevers racked
number of those whom he has deceived. But as for            the body.
the apostle Paul, there is only one thing in which he         Crucifixion was also a shameful death. Only
glories, namely, the cross of Jesus Christ! This con-       foreigners and slaves were subjected by the
fession the Holy Spirit laid on the lips of our fathers     Romans to such mistreatment. The naked body of
who composed these beautiful statements men-                the victim was exposed as a spectacle for all to look
tioned above. Thereby we also learn to confess: I           upon in scorn. Here on the Place of the Skull hung
am assured!                                                 three who were condemned as criminals, with their
  I am assured that my Lord Jesus Christ took my            accusations written above their heads. Here as
curse upon Himself, and delivered me from it.               helpless victims of their own "crime" they suffered
  I am assured, even in the dark hour of tempta-            while the wayfarer stopped a moment to shed a tear
tion, when all the sinfulness of my depraved nature         of pretended condolence, to breathe a self-righ-
asserts itself, and my conscience condemns me as            teous sigh, or to make a sarcastic remark. Crucifix-
being worthy of everlasting anguish and torment of          ion was a sign of being rejected of God and of
hell, that even then I may find comfort in Him Who          men; it was a slow, painful and shameful death.
bore my hellish torments all His life, yes, especially        But was this not equally true of the two  male-
on the cross.                                               factors, as well as of Jesus? To ask the question is to
  "I believe in Jesus . . . crucified!"                     answer it. Surely the agony of the cross was painful
                                                            for the other two, but far more agonizing for our
  Although our Book of Instruction places four              Lord. We recall that He had been captured in the
other questions between the two that are quoted             garden after His bitter struggle on the previous eve-
above, it is obvious from the contents of both of the       ning. All night long He had stood on trial. No rest or
above mentioned, that they belong together. Our             consideration was shown to Him. Instead, He had
fathers are discussing the Apostles' Creed, and             been slapped, spit upon, beaten, and generally mis-
therefore follows the order found there. But our            treated. The cross was but a climax of all the torture
fathers also clearly saw that the confession, "He           that He had undergone in the last hours of His
descended into hell" can have no other meaning              earthly life.
but that Christ suffered the torments of hell par-            Christ's shame was also far worse than that of
ticularly during the three hours of darkness on the         the malefactors. Our sinless Lord was spiritually far
cross. Therefore we depart for the moment from              more sensitive than were Adam and Eve when they
the order of the Catechism to fix our attention on          sought covering for their nakedness. He was
the two related questions and answers.                      certainly far more conscious of the shame of sin
  "Where they crucified Him, and two others with            and the stare of sinful men than the children of our
Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst"            age, who glory in it. He was deeply aware that He
(John 19:18).                                               was made the gazing stock of all who passed by.
  Crucifixion was a very painful death. In our day          The ribaldry, the cutting sarcasm, the bold challen-
a criminal is executed, whether in the gas chamber,         ges to come down, the mockery of His power and
or in the electric chair, or on the scaffold, as swiftly    His ministry of mercy, and even of His trust in
and as painlessly as possible. But the Roman form           God, cut as so many sharp knives into His soul. The
of punishment by crucifixion was the very                   chief priests and rulers, who in the depths of their
opposite. It was intended that the victim should            hearts knew better, gloated with far more wicked
suffer as long and as agonizingly as possible. The          satisfaction than the Philistines when they watched
cross was laid upon the ground and the condemned            the helpless and blind Samson as he groped before
person was laid upon it with arms outstretched.             them.
The hands were either bound by ropes or nailed                But all this does not explain the inexpressible
with spikes to the cross beam, while the feet were          anguish, pains, torments and hellish agonies of
either bound or nailed to the upright shaft. Then           which our fathers speak. The Catechism refers to
the cross with its victim was raised up and the base        the death of the cross as "accursed of God." This
jammed into a hole in the ground. The weight of the         refers to the practice in the Old Testament, when
body tore at the nails in the hands and feet, caused        Israel hung the bodies of the slain leaders of the
the arms to be drawn upward and the knees to sag,           enemy upon a tree as a spectacle of disgrace. This is
so that the back pressed hard against the rough             what Joshua did to the five kings of Canaan (Joshua
wood, the shoulder blades and ribs crowded the              10:26). According to the law of Moses, those bodies
heart and lungs, making breathing extremely diffi-          might not remain upon the tree over night, because
cult. The words uttered from the cross, either by           that kind of exposure was an expression of God's
Jesus or by the malefactors were few and but short          curse upon His enemies.


460                                       / THE STANDARD BEARER



  God's curse is the expression of His righteous         in the intimate fellowship with the Father could
judgment upon the guilty sinner. God declares,           fully understand the horror of isolation in being
"Cursed be he that conformeth not to ald the words       cast out, sent away from the Fountain of Life and
of this law to do them" (Deut. 27:26). Let/none of us    Blessing. Only the Christ, to whom the approval of
think lightly of that curse. From the  ti!me of our      God meant more than life itself, could drink to the
conception, that curse rests upon  us. Every             full the dreg of the cup of God's holy wrath against
moment of every day we only add to that curse by         our sins. In perfect Self-surrender He gave Himself
our evil desires, sinful thoughts, corrupt words,        up unto the horrors of hell until His soul cried out,
and wicked deeds. We transgress a22 of God's com-        "My God, My GOD, Why hast Thou forsaken
mandments. We keep none of them.  j Our con-             Me?" Only once, and never again, there arose a cry
science accuses us, along with the Word of God,          from hell that penetrated to the righteous judgment
that we are guilty of sinning against the Most High      of God for the sins of His people. God in heaven
Majesty of God, and therefore deserve His righ-          heard, and responded by delivering His Son from
teous condemnation even to the everlasting tor-          the depths. For God was in Christ reconciling us
ment of hell.                                            unto Himself, nevermore to reckon our transgres-
  Our Savior hung between the two malefactors,           sions against us. God gave His Son. The Son gave
representatives of the fallen human race, also of        His life. Greater love than that is inconceivable. We
you and of me. Above their heads was written their       stand rooted to the ground in holy amazement. God
names and their crimes. Whatever the offense,            loved us when we were still enemies, and loves us
these two had transgressed God's law, even as we         still!
do daily. As the repentant sinner confessed, they           "And Jesus in the midst."
deserved to die even as we do. Thus the Scripture           That cross of Jesus still makes separation. It is a
was fulfilled, that "He was numbered with the            savor of life unto life and a savor of death unto
transgressors" (Isaiah 53: 12).                          death. For the Word of the cross is foolishness to
  This is our assurance and comfort  iin all our         those perishing, but is the power of God unto all
misery, that God made Christ a curse for us (Gal.        who believe.
3:13). All our sins were laid upon Christ. All your         As we stand at the foot of the cross we confess
and my guilt was reckoned to His account. As the         anew: "I believe in Jesus Christ . . . crucified!"
Innocent One He bore the eternal wrath of God
against our sins. He bore that wrath all his life, in       In all our greatest temptations we may comfort
an ever-increasing measure, but especially during        ourselves in this, that our Lord Jesus Christ has de-
the three hours of darkness on the cross,. How can       livered us from the depths of hell unto eternal life.
                                                         Confessing and forsaking our sins we find mercy,
we express this better than by saing, "He descend-
ed into hell"? During the morning hours of that par-     ever again. During the severest onslaughts of the
ticular Friday the Lord was deeply aware of those        powers of darkness we can rest assured that our
                                                         Savior still overcomes sin, still is mighty to save,
round about Him. He prayed that God  lmight  for-        and still preserves us by His almighty power.
give, and thus lay upon Him the horrible sin that        Although we would certainly perish if left to our-
also His own people were committing against Him          selves, we confidently look for deliverance and the
in that very hour. He extended His forgiving mercy
to the repentant murderer. He made /separation           ultimate victory with Him in His Kingdom.
between His sheep and the world by that! assurance          Hallelujah! What a Savior!
of mercy. He showed His concern for His mother.
But at noon darkness descended upon the cross and
its surrounding area. The sun was hidden, even as a
sign that God's face was hidden from His obedient
Servant. The mouths of His mockers were silenced.
The crowd stood in awe. For this was plainly the           The Standard Bearer
hand of the Almighty. Here on Golgotha Judgment
Day had descended as far as Christ was concerned.                  makes a thoughtful
Our Lord experienced "inexpressible anguish,
pains, torments and hellish agonies." The inspired                       gift for the
Poet of Psalm 42 expresses it this way, "Deep
calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts;                  sick and shut-in.
all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me."
Our Lord was cast out, cast out of God. In His holy
wrath God said to His Son, "Depart from Me, I
know Thee not"! Only the Son who rested eternally


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            461



                                       Editor's Notes

PubZication   News. Scheduled for autumn publica-         you have not already done so) join the RFPA Book
tion by our Reformed Free Publishing Association          Club, so that you can take advantage of the 20%
are two paperbacks which will sell at $3.95 each.         discount offered on all RFPA publications.
The first will be Prof. Herman Hanko's We And Our
Children (The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism).                               ***
This valuable little book, as the sub-title indicates,    Seminary Publications.  The Prot. Ref. Seminary
sets forth the Reformed doctrine of infant baptism;       Bookstore is offering my new syllabus in Old Testa-
but it does so over against the Baptist position. The     ment History,  The Era of the Judges,  at a price of
book is an adaptation of a series of articles in the      $6.75. This material will be helpful for any societies
Protestant Reformed Theological Journal which were        in our churches which are studying the book of
written by Prof. Hanko in response to the Re-             Judges. If you want a copy, write to: Prot. Ref.
formed Baptist David Kingdon's  ChiZdren of Abra-         Seminary Bookstore, 4949  Ivanrest Ave.,  Grand-
ham.  The second will be an edited reprint of             ville, Michigan 49418. The seminary has several
Herman Hoeksema's In The Sanctuary (Expository            other syllabi which will furnish valuable aid for
Sermons on the Lord's Prayer),  a book which has          both Bible studies and after-recess studies in our
long been out of print but which found wide accep-        various Men's, Ladies', and Mr.  & Mrs. Societies.
tance when it was originally published some forty         Write for our publications and catalogue.
years ago. Before these books appear, you should (if



                    Correspondence and Comment

  We received the following letter from the Rev.          God's Word in an unreal or really dishonest way
Rolf Veenstra under the date of August 4:                 and you will soon be shut up to making it myth,
Standard Bearer,                                          parabolic, time-conditioned, and only relatively
                                                          relevant for every generation. And all of must
Grand Rapids, Mich.                                       remember that while the Bible accurately and
  As one of your subscribers I have not noticed a         honestly reports everything that Joseph, Job, et al,
regular feature of "reader responses." However, a         said and did, the Holy Spirit does not ipso facto give
"letter to the editor," especially one of apprecia-       His imprimatur to everything that they did or said.
tion, is always in order for any magazine. Forgive                        Yours for the Truth,
my failure to have done so before.                                               (signed) Rolf Veenstra
  I have been particularly appreciative of your
Bible studies presently considering Old Testament         Comment
history. Too long our "treatment" of this material
has been of a Sunday school, moralistic sort. I laud        First of all, welcome to our letters-to-the-editor
your writer for having the honesty of untraditional       department, and thanks for the words of apprecia-
approaches to pre-Christian events and characters,        tion for our writer on Old Testament history, Rev.
notably Joseph, usually represented as a flawless         Heys.
sort of Horatio Alger Boy Scout who climaxed his            Secondly, I suspect that the last paragraph of this
climb by marrying the boss's daughter. (Sad result,       letter is possibly an oblique reference to my criti-
of course, was that two entire tribes, especially         cal comments in our August issue concerning your
troublesome Ephraim, were half-Egyptian, and              recent meditation in The Banner. If so, then I beg to
golden-calf conditioned.)                                 respond as follows:
  An uncolored explanation of Holy Writ is es-            1) I find a different note sounded in this paragraph
pecially essential, as I see it, to those of us who       than in that meditation. I refer to your explanation
believe absolutely in the absolute authority and in-      of inspiration and to the statement which I charac-
fallibility and historicity of Scripture. Interpret       terized as pure subjectivism.


462                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



2) I am happy to note that you count yourself               pret itself. Now if you do that with respect to Job's
among those who believe "absolutely in the abso-            confession, you will never say that Job was mistak-
lute authority and infallibility and historicity of         en in that confession. For in the verse following
Scripture."                                                 that confession you read: "In all this Job sinned
3) I certainly agree that the fact that the Bible accu-     not, nor charged God foolishly." In other words,
rately and honestly reports what men said and did           the Holy Spirit did indeed "give His imprimatur" to
does not imply that the Holy Spirit approves what           what Job said. The same is true of Hezekiah. In the
they did or said. We may certainly distinguish be-          first place, there is no shred of evidence that his
tween what is formally inspired and what is materi-         prayer was "peevish." In the second place, the his-
ally inspired, or between an inspired and infallible        torical record shows that Hezekiah had no son as
record of someone's words and/or deeds and words            yet, which meant that if he died, the line of the
(such as the Psalms, for example) which;are  them-          promise would be broken. In the third place, the
selves inspired in content. My criticism was not            Lord Himself heard and answered Hezekiah's
concerning this.                                            prayer and confirmed His answer by a marvelous
                                                            sign. Again, therefore, the Holy Spirit did indeed
4) My point was that your interpretation of                 "give His imprimatur" to Hezekiah's pious prayer.
Hezekiah's prayer (as "peevish") and your inter-
pretation of Job's confession (as incorrect, in so far      5) Finally, I certainly agree with your statement:
that you claim that Job does not teach that the Lord        "Interpret God's Word in an unreal or really dis-
taketh away, but the devil takes  away)+this  inter-        honest way and you will soon be shut up to making
pretation was totally arbitrary and a violation of the      it myth, parabolic, time-conditioned, and only rela-
principle that Scripture is and must be its own in-         tively relevant for every generation." History sub-
terpreter. If you believe in the absolute authority of      stantiates this.
Scripture, you must needs allow Scripture to inter-                                                         HCH

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                    Ledter to Timothy

                                   September 1, 1981        And it is the calling of members of the church
Dear Timothy,                               1               towards their ministers that concerns us.
  In my last letter to you I began a discussion of a          In this passage in Hebrews the Scriptures speak
prevailing evil that is present in the Church of            of obeying those who are our pastors and ministers.
Christ: the evil of carping criticism of one's minis-       The word which is translated "obey" is not the
ter, which makes his work so exceedingly difficult          common word in the New Testament for "Obey."
and undermines the authority of His ministry. I             It is a word which means literally: "to be persuad-
want to pursue this discussion with you a bit in this       ed, to listen to." It is rather interesting that this
letter. And I want to do this by calling your atten-        word should be used here. It suggests the fact that
tion to a passage in Hebrews  13:17:  "Cbey them            our natural inclinations are in quite the opposite di-
that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves:         rection from what our pastors say to us. This is un-
for they watch for your souls, as they  [that must          derstandable. Our pastors bring to us the Word of
give account, that they may do it with joy, and not         Christ which is found in the Scriptures. And our
with grief: for that is unprofitable for youj"              natural inclination is exactly the opposite of what
  While the text speaks particularly of the relation        the Scriptures say. The figure is, therefore, of un-
between those in the congregation and  !the elders          restrained sin and rebellion against God which
(for they, specifically, are those who have the rule        characterizes us in our life in the world. But the
over the saints), the apostle refers here also to the       Word of God acts as a restraint, a check, a constant
ministers of the Word. They too are elders. This is         pull on us to draw us away from the direction in
clear from I Timothy 5:17: "Let the elders that rule        which we would ordinarily go. It tugs us away from
well be counted worthy of double honour, espe-              the roads of sin and pulls us in the direction of
cially they who labour in the word and Idoctrine."          God's will. But because we are creatures with


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                             463



minds and wills and because God sanctifies us also             But this is essential if we are to be persuaded of
so that our minds and wills are renewed, this work           the truth. The two admonitions go together. The
of the pastor in bringing us the Word is directed to         Scriptures are saying here: "Be persuaded by them
our minds and wills so that we consider what the             that have the rule over you; and, in order to do this,
minister has to say and are persuaded of the cor-            you must learn to yield to them." Notice: Yield to
rectness of the Word which he brings. We see that            them!  Yield to what they say, surely. But yield to
what he says, because it is the Word of Christ, is           them! They are the ambassadors of Christ. They
the truth, the description of the way of righteous-          speak Christ's Word for Christ and in His name.
ness, of happiness and joy. And so we are per-               Only when we yield to them will we be in a spiri-
suaded that we ought to abandon our ways in                  tual frame of mind to be persuaded by them. If we
which our natural inclinations lead us and follow            refuse to yield to them, you know what the result
the way of our pastor's instruction.                         will be. We will never be persuaded either of the
  The same is true of the admonition to submit               truth of what they say, nor will their word bring
ourselves. Here too, the word "submit" means                 about even a semblance of change in our lives.
literally: "give way to, yield, resist no longer." This        The whole matter comes down to this: we must
is a very powerful word and clearly imposes upon             recognize the fact that we have a higher authority
us the calling to deliver ourselves over, without res-       than ourselves. We are creatures whose every
ervation, to the instruction which we receive at the         breath is given by God; but we are also servants of
hand of our pastors. Our natural tendency is to set          the Lord Christ. And we bow, therefore, before His
ourselves up as being just as knowledgeable (and             authority. We have none of our own. But that
perhaps more so) than those whom God has                     authority over us comes through our pastors. When
appointed over us. I recall that while I was going to        they speak we hear the very voice of Christ Who is
college, my philosophy professor told us that he did         supremely our authority.
not go to church any more. He told us that the                 Now, the apostle gives a good reason why we
reason for this was that he knew more than his               must do this. He does not mean to say that we must
minister and could say it better. Now this was un-           do this because Christ is supremely our Lord. That
doubtedly true because he was a very brilliant man.          is true too, and it is taught in other passages of
But this was hardly the point. And yet he expressed          Scripture. But he comes here with another reason:
what is really in all of us. We have a natural inclina-      "For they watch for your souls, as they that must
tion to go our own way. We are like sheep who con-           give account." That is quite a statement.
stantly go astray. We are bullheaded and like to
have our own way. We are stubborn and resentful                The idea is that pastors are fully aware of the fact
when anyone tells us that what we do is wrong.               that Christ, when He put them in office, gave them
And this is characteristic of us because we all like to      the responsibility of taking care of the spiritual
think that we have a corner on knowledge and                 needs of God's people. Christ will also some day, in
ethics, that we all know better than anyone else             the day of the great judgment, ask of every pastor:
what the truth is and what ought to be our own               "What did you do for my sheep?" Christ will re-
conduct in the problems of life. It is the natural in-       quire of them that they explain all their conduct as
clination of man to set himself up as the final              pastors and give account of everything which they
authority in all matters of life and walk. There is          did to see whether or not these pastors were always
something in everyone of us which agrees with the            caring for the spiritual needs of the sheep.
proud boast of the poet, Henley: "I am the master              I would tremble with fear if I stood in the boots
of my fate /. I am the captain of my soul."                  of many so-called pastors. Their concern is not the
  And this is, after all, the point at issue. It is disa-    spiritual welfare of the sheep, but their own per-
greeable and contrary to our inclinations to submit          sonal well-being. They shear the sheep instead of
to another's authority. And to submit to a min-              feeding them. They gather the wool from the sheep
ister's authority is repugnant to us. But the                for their own financial gain rather than lead the
authority with which he comes is the authority of            sheep into the green pastures of the Word. They
his office and of the Word of Christ. And, therefore,        lead the sheep down roads of heresy and world-
what is required of us is that we yield to this              liness and care not at all what happens to the sheep
authority and stop resisting it. We are called to fight      as long as they have their houses and lands. They
against our tendencies to set ourselves up as author-        scatter the sheep on the hills and mountains of Is-
ities and to listen to Christ. This is very difficult and    rael while they live lives of leisure and earthly
can come about only through the sanctifying power            pleasure. But this is not the point here. The text is
of the Spirit which breaks our stubborn and resent-          talking about faithful pastors. And it is saying that
ful wills and gives us the proper humility to yield to       faithful pastors do all their work in the conscious-
Christ.                                                      ness of the fact that someday they shall have to give


464                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



account of everything they do to Christ Who has set           give that food to God's people.
them in their office. This is a tremendous thing to             The souls of God's people are constantly threat-
look forward to. And pastors are so conscious of              ened. They are threatened, not with material and
this that it is a thought which governs them in all           physical dangers, but with spiritual dangers. They
their work.                                                   are threatened by temptation, by the devil, by their
  When they prepare their sermons to be delivered             own natures, by the world about them. And this
on the Lord's Day, they are controlled by the                 threat is very great because it is the threat of eternal
knowledge that they shall have to tell Christ some-           suffering in hell. Pastors know how dangerous a life
day how they prepared that sermon for the spiritual           we live. We do not know the half of it ourselves. It
benefit of Christ's sheep. When they come with                must look to Christ sometimes as if we play freely
that Word to the side of a saint in the hospital,             and loosely with our everlasting salvation.  .We
when they bring that Word to those who grieve                jeopardize the well-being of our souls by playing
deeply because they have just seen one they loved             fast and loose with danger.
very much die, when they put their Bibles under                 But the pastors watch for our souls. They know
their arms to bring the Word to one who seems to              that the Word of Christ is alone able to deliver us
prefer the ways of sin to the ways of the Scriptures          from all these fierce animals that threaten our eter-
-whenever they open their Bibles to speak a Word              nal salvation. And so they are duty bound to come
from Christ, they know that they shall have to give           with that Word.
account to Christ someday. And they shall have to
answer this question: Did you watch for the souls               If we get a hold on that idea once, then we will
of My sheep?                                                  understand why we must yield to them and be
                                                              persuaded by them. When we resist we throw our
  So all-controlling is this thought, that they               eternal bliss into jeopardy. When we carp and criti-
literally give their lives for the spiritual well-being       size, when we pick and bite, when we nag and con-
of God's people.                                              demn,  then, we show our callous disregard for the
  This is what the reference to "souls" is all about.         eternal blessedness of our soul. When our pastors
Jesus tells us in the parable of the rich fool that a         speak to us therefore, we must recognize this fact:
man's life consisteth not in the things which he pos-         they are watching for our souls. What a difference
sesses. We have food and drink for our bodies. But            this will make in our attitude towards them.
that is not the whole of our life. We have also a soul          But I must sign off for the present. We can talk
life. And, contrary to what the rich fool thought,            more about this again.
the soul cannot eat corn and drink wine. The soul,
because it is spiritual, needs a spiritual food. That                                        Franternally in Christ,
food is the Word of God. The ministers are called to                                         H. Hanko

FROM HOLY WRIT


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


          NO KEY POWER-NO KINGDOM                             speak. As we have before stated, it is the teaching
                       OF HEAVEN                              of the Post-millennial advocates that toward the
                         Chapter 7                            end of this present Dispensation of the New Testa-
                                                              ment the entire world and all nations will be "chris-
         (This chapter in Rev. Lubbers' series has            tianized." This will be brought about by the preach-
       been placed out of order. Chapter 8 appeared in        ing of the Word through the Holy Spirit. "All
       the August issue. Our apologies to the writer          nations" will then be the domain of the church to
       and readers alike.)                                    such an extent and degree that the righteousness of
  The great institution of the Key-Power of Christ            Christ will prevail universally. And the question is:
in the Church in the midst of the world is worthy of          will there be the exercise of the key-power of the
careful consideration when we examine the "gold-              preaching and of ecclesiastical discipline  in the
en-age" period of which the Post-millennialists               realization of such a kingdom of peace?


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        465



  This all sounds very much as if there will be no               nearly all except those who belonged to the ruling
longer the reality that some enter the kingdom of                 classes. Today the world at large is on a far higher
heaven, and some do not. All will be kingdom of                  plane. Christian principles are the accepted standards
Christ, it is alleged. That will be the "victory" of             in many nations even though they are not consistently
the Word: all nations will become Christian! The                 practiced. Slavery and polygamy have practically dis-
world is growing better and better. It will be                   appeared. The status of women and children has been
beneficial to hear from an avowed Post-millenialist              improved immeasurably. Social and economic condi-
                                                                 tions in almost all nations have reached a new high
himself how this will be achieved by Christ                      plateau. A spirit of cooperation is much more manifest
through the preaching. And then we should ask the                among the nations than it ever has been before. Inter-
question: is there room for "key-power" in such a                national incidents which only a few years ago would
preaching concerning the kingdom of Christ in this               have resulted in wars are now usually settled by arbi-
world?                                                           tration. As evidence of international good will witness
  If one inquires: when will this utopia of the vic-             the fact that the United States this fiscal year (July
tory of the Gospel become ultimately realized, the                1957 to July 1958) appropriated more than three
answer is:                                                       billion dollars for foreign aid and mutual security pro-
                                                                 grams, and since the end of World War II has given
     The redemption of the world is a long, slow process,        more than sixty billion dollars for these purposes...
   extending through centuries, yet surely approaching           (idem, ppg. 38, 39).
   an appointed goal. This process ultimately shall be
   complete, and before Christ comes again we shall see         We could quote more, but this will suffice to
   a Christianized world (Page 38, The Millennium,  L.        show what an avowed advocate of the Post-
   Boettner).                                                 millennial teachings understands by the world
  The question will not down: will this envisioned            becoming better and better. The aforementioned
Post-millennial "world" be Christianized in the               citations show very clearly what, according to this
sense that all men shall be spiritual citizens of the         teaching, must be understood by the influence of
Kingdom of God, and that, too, by virtue of the               the preaching of the Gospel by the operation of the
power of regeneration which translates them out of            Holy Spirit. Yes, in the Millennium of this golden
the kingdom of darkness into God's marvelous                  age of "spiritual prosperity" during this present
Kingdom of grace in Christ Jesus? To this question,           dispensation "the world at large, will enjoy a state
thus put, we do not receive a direct and unequiv-             of righteousness such as at the present time has
ocal answer. We read,                                         been seen only in relatively small and isolated
     This does not mean that all sin will ever be eradica-    groups, as for example in some family circles, some
   ted. There will always be some tares among the wheat       local church groups and kindred organizations"
   until the time of harvest,-and the harvest, the Lord       (idem, page 14).
   tells us, is the end of the world. Even the righteous
   fall, sometimes grievously, into temptation and sin.         Now we must measure this so-called kingdom of
   But this does mean that Christian principles are to        Christ by our Savior's own standards. Will this pre-
   become the accepted standards in public and private        sentation of the kingdom accord with the fact that
   life [idem, page 38).                                      Christ speaks of the "keys of the kingdom" of
  But does this mean that these Christian "prin-              heaven, and that this kingdom does not come by
ciples" proceed from a regenerated heart, so that             outward observation? (Luke  17:20; Matthew  16:18,
good works are performed in great gratitude of                19; John  20:23). In that Post-millennial kingdom in
having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,                the world, which is nothing more than some
yea, good works which proceed from a true and                 humanistic-humanitarism at best, is the preaching
living faith in Christ, are performed from the love           of the Gospel indeed of such a kind that it .calls to
of Christ shed forth in the hearts of the regenerated         faith and repentance with the clarion cry of a John
children of God, and are, therefore, performed to             the Baptist, "Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven
the glory of the riches of the grace of Christ? We            is at hand"? Is such a kingdom the realization of the
will let the author of the aforementioned citations           prophecy of Isaiah 40:3, "Prepare ye the way of the
speak for himself. Writes he,                                 Lord, make His paths straight"? Of course, not! It is
                                                              the Satanic attempt to bring about a united
     That a great spiritual advance (I underscore, G.L.)      kingdom in the world, the unification of all nations,
   has been made should be clear to all. Consider, for        to overcome the "wounded head" of the confusion
   example, the awful moral and spiritual conditions that
   existed on earth before the coming of Christ-the           of tongues of the tower of Babel; this has nothing
   world at large groping helplessly in pagan darkness,       essentially to do with the unity of the body of
   with slavery, polygamy, the oppressed conditions of        Christ in the bond of peace, which is in the one
   women and children, the almost complete lack of poli-      body of Christ, where we have one Lord, one faith,
   tical freedom, and the ignorance, poverty, and ex-         one hope, one baptism, one God and Father, Who is
   tremely primitive medical care that was the lot of         above all, in all and through all (Ephesians 4:3-6). It


466                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



is nothing else but the preaching of a "social Gos-          Is there then not any influence of the righteous
pel" which is not a gospel, and which falls too            saints in the earth? Indeed, there is. They are the
under the anathema of Paul in Galatians  1:7: "but         light of the world, a city on a hill-top which cannot
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert          be hid (Matthew 5: 14). And the saints walk in
the Gospel of Christ"! Paul writes "though we or           beautiful works, they let their light shine before
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto         men. And it is evident in these good works that
you than that which we have preached unto you,             they are children of their heavenly Father. But in
let him be accursed!"                                      their conversation and confession they are the con-
  What was this truth of the gospel preached by            demnation of the world as was Noah in his day. We
Paul? It was the justification of the poor and guilty      read in Hebrews  11:7 that Noah in his preaching
sinner in the blood of the Cross, and of fulfilling the    and building of the ark "condemned the world, and
law of Christ in loving the brother, by a saving faith     became heir of the righteousness which is by
which expects the hope of righteousness in the last        faith."
day, and which fulfills the law, which in one word           It is true that Christ has overcome the world.
is: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. This is       This does not mean that the world is going to be
the love which Christ has shed abroad in our hearts        Christianized. It means that this world remains "the
by His Spirit when He makes the dead sinner alive,         present evil world" (Gal.  1:4). This is the world,
and makes him sit with Christ the glorified Lord in        (ioonos) age, which is under the prince of the power
heavenly places (Galatians  5:5, 14; Ephesians 2:1-        of the air, the spirit that now works (energizes) in
10).                                                       the children of disobedience. Out of this present
  In this preaching of the Cross there is key-power,       evil world the church has been "delivered"  (Ephe-
which binds on earth and binds in heaven, and              sians  2:2, 3; Galatians  1:4). It required the atoning
looses from sins on earth and looses in heaven,            work of Christ to deliver us from this present evil
when the Judge of heaven and earth judges righ-            age, the reprobate mass of mankind. Christ will put
teously. But in this kingdom of Post-millennialism         this reprobate world under His feet, and rule them
there is no preaching of the Gospel, which is a            with a rod of iron. That He does every day.
power of God unto salvation for the most sinful            Now is the judgment of this world. In this
sinner, who is brought to faith and conversion! Nor        judged world we shall have tribulation. This is an
is there a conviction of sin, righteousness, and           overcome-world at Calvary and in Christ's resur-
judgment in such a kingdom; the conviction by the          rection, ascension, and sitting at God's right hand.
Holy Spirit in the consciences of men, excluding           Satan is cast out; he can no longer accuse the breth-
the unrepentant from the kingdom of heaven, as-            ren day and night before God's throne (Revelation
signing them to the company of those who are rep-          12:9-11). And Christ has the keys of hell and of
resented by the gates of hell (John  16:8-l 1). These      death; He shuts and no man opens, and opens and
are the false church, which do not possess the             no man shuts.
infallible earmarks of the true church, where Christ         Where there are not keys of the kingdom to open
gathers His people into His kingdom in the way of          and shut, there is no kingdom. And the kingdom of
conversion and repentance of true faith. These ear-        the Post-millennial dream is just that. It is a dream,
marks are: the true preaching of the Gospel, the           an illusionary mirage in the desert. For Christ con-
proper administration of the Sacraments, and the           nects the keys of the kingdom and the gathering of
exercise of Christian discipline.                          the Church of the ages. The gates of hell shall never
                                                           triumph!

GUESTARTICLE

                                     Family Devotions
                                             Rev. Ronald Cammenga


  Regular, daily, family devotions ought to be a           sarily bad. To be sure, there are bad habits. But
habit among us. We ought to be in the habit of             there are also very good habits. In fact, because we
reading the Scriptures and praying. We should not          are the kind of creatures that we are, because of the
think that because something is a habit it is  neces-      way in which God Himself has made us, habits are


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              467



unavoidable. We have the habit of eating breakfast        Scripture to which you can turn that will say in so
every morning, for example. That's a good habit.          many words: Thou shalt conduct family devotions.
There would surely be something wrong if, after           And you surely will find no passage of Scripture
waking up in the morning, we had to sit down and          that commands that family devotions be carried on
think about what we should do next. No, we auto-          in the way in which we customarily conduct them.
matically set the table and sit down to breakfast.        No passage of Scripture is going to say in so many
We have the habit of going to church on Sunday.           words that before our meals we must pray, and
Now, of course, our going to church on Sunday             after our meals we must read the Bible and pray
must not be ONLY a habit. But there would surely          once again.
be something wrong if we woke up on Sunday                  Nevertheless, it is the case that the Scriptures
morning and had to sit down and think about what          very clearly enjoin upon us the practice of family
we ought to do that morning. No, we wake up on            devotions. Everything that we Christians do is not
Sunday and take it for granted that we are going to       to be found as a direct command in the Word of
church. It's a habit with us; something we do             God. There are many things that pertain to our
almost automatically.                                     walk in the midst of the world that are deductions
  That's what ought to characterize our family            and implications from Scripture. The Scriptures,
devotions. We ought to be in the habit of having          for example, nowhere say in so many words that
regular family devotions. To be sure, our family          we ought to have our own Christian schools. Yet,
devotions, like our going to church on Sunday,            our churches have always insisted upon this,
must not be ONLY a habit. It must never be the            wherever the Lord makes this possible. It is simply
case with us that we have family devotions simply         an implication that we have drawn from the Scrip-
because we are in the habit of it. We mustn't have        tural truth concerning the covenant. There are
family devotions simply because our parents had           many things in our lives that we do, not because
them with us when we were growing up. We                  Scripture explicitly commands us to do them, but
mustn't have family devotions simply because this         because they are certainly implied in Scripture.
is the way things are done in our churches. And we        Strikingly, when speaking of Holy Scripture, the
surely mustn't have family devotions merely               Westminster Confession of faith says this: "The
because we consider it a part of our distinctive          whole counsel of God, concerning all things
Dutch heritage. If these are the reasons why we           necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith,
make family devotions a habit, then our family            and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture,
devotions will be ONLY a habit. And either we will        or by good and necessary consequence may be
very soon lose them altogether, or they will degen-       deduced from Scripture." There are things that the
erate into a pious formality. Nevertheless, in the        child of God must deduce from the Scriptures. The
good sense of the word, we ought to be in the habit       practice of family devotions falls into this category.
of having family devotions. Family devotions ought        It is a practice that by good and necessary conse-
to be carried on daily and regularly in our homes.        quence we deduce from Scripture. It is a practice
We ought to be in the habit of having family devo-        which the Scriptures clearly imply.
tions because it is a good and spiritually beneficial       How does Scripture imply that we ought to have
habit. We ought to be in the habit of having family       family devotions? From what passages of Scripture
devotions because we understand it to be our              may this practice be deduced? There are, first of all,
solemn duty and obligation before God. We ought           several passages of Scripture which urge prayer
to be in the habit of having family devotions             upon the child of God. The Scriptures make very
because they afford us an excellent opportunity to        plain that the child of God must be instant in
worship our God through prayer and the study of           prayer. In Luke  1:18 we read that Jesus spake a
the Scriptures. We ought to be in the habit of            parable unto His disciples "unto this end, that men
having family devotions because they afford us            ought always to pray, and not to faint." In Luke
parents an excellent means by which we may fulfill        21:36 Jesus exhorted His disciples: "Watch ye
our calling to instruct the covenant seed in the truth    therefore, and pray always, that ye may be account-
of God. For all these reasons we, like our fathers        ed worthy to escape all these things that shall come
before us, ought to make family devotions a habit         to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." In
in every one of our homes.                                Romans  12:12 we read: "Rejoicing in hope; patient
  Perhaps you ask: But where do the Scriptures            in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." The
specifically enjoin family devotions upon us?             apostle writes in Ephesians  6:18: "Praying always
Where in the Bible are we told that we must have          with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." The
family devotions? It is to be admitted that the Scrip-    admonition of the apostle in I Thessalonians  5:17
tures do not specifically enjoin family devotions         and 18 is: "Pray without ceasing. In everything give
upon God's people. There is no specific passage of        thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus


468                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



concerning you."                                           began in the days of Seth to gather together publicly
  The clear teaching of Scripture is that the child of     in order to call on the name of the Lord. That very
God must be always, continually in prayer. If that         fact implies that private, family worship of the Lord
is the case, is it not reasonable to conclude that also    had preceded this. The fact that "then" men began
our family lives are to be characterized by prayer?        to gather publicly to call upon the name of the Lord
If we are to pray always, are we not to pray also as       exactly implies that before this time the worship of
families? Is it not true that our prayers as a family,     the Lord had been in the nature of family worship.
our family devotions, are but one part of fulfilling       Nor does the "then" imply that now that men gath-
the calling of Scripture that we must be instant in        ered to worship God publicly they no longer con-
prayer? I would maintain that from these Scripture         tinued the practice of doing that as families. They
passages, the practice of family devotions is a good       certainly continued to do that. The "then" means
and necessary consequence.                                 that now in addition to that, besides and alongside
                                                           of that, they also began to call upon the Lord's
  Besides insisting on the necessity of prayer in the      name publicly.
life of the child of God, the Scriptures also exhort
the child of God to be a student of God's Word. The          Deuteronomy  6:7 is also noteworthy in this con-
word of the Lord through His servant Moses was:            nection. There the Lord tells His people that a man
"And these words, which I command thee this day,           is not only to teach his children the Word of the
shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them         Lord when he walks in the way, when he rises up
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them       and when he lies down. But he is also to instruct his
when thou  sittest in thine house, and when thou           children when he "sits in his house." While he is
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and          sitting down in his house, surely while he is sitting
when thou risest up" (Deut. 6:6, 7). The word of the       down in his house to eat his meals, he is to be in-
prophet Isaiah to backsliding Israel was: "Seek ye         structing his children.
out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of             Strikingly we read of Jesus that, before He dis-
these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My         tributed the bread to the multitude of over four
mouth it hath commanded, and His spirit it hath            thousand which He miraculously fed, He gave
gathered them." In John  539 Jesus says: "Search           thanks. Our prayers before our meals are not a
the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal       custom which originated with our Dutch fore-
life: and they are they which testify of Me." And          fathers. It's something our Lord Himself taught us
finally, in Acts 17:11, the apostle Paul holds before      to do by His own example.
us the worthy example of the Berean Christians:              And, finally, there is also the word of the apostle
"These were more noble than those in  Thessaloni-          Paul in I Timothy  4:4, 5: "For every creature of
ca, in that they received the word with all readiness      God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be re-
of mind, and searched the Scriptures &iZy, whether         ceived with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the
those things were so."                                     word of God and prayer." And the striking thing is
  The clear injunction of Scripture is that we must        that the context here is exactly concerned with food
always be studying, always reading, always search-         and with eating. The apostle has said in verse 3:
ing the Word of God. Is it not reasonable to con-          "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
clude from that that also in and as families we            from meats, which God hath created to be received
ought to be doing that? If we are to search the Scrip-     with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
tures daily, are we not to be busy doing that in our       the truth." Family devotions at meal times are
own homes and with our own families? Is it not also        exactly an expression of this thanksgiving which
clear that the practice of reading the Scriptures as a     the child of God ought to give to God for the crea-
part of our family devotions is a good and necessary       tures, for the food and drink, which He gives to us.
consequence to be drawn from the teaching of the           Prayer and the reading of God's word at meal times
Scriptures?                                                is not only proper, but ought to be considered by us
                                                           as necessary, a good and necessary consequence of
  Besides these Scripture passages which enjoin            the teaching of Holy Scripture.
prayer and the study of the Scriptures upon the
child of God, there are also a couple of passages in                                          (to be continued)
Scripture which rather clearly allude specifically to
the practice of family devotions. The first such                      Know the Standard
passage is Genesis 426: "And to Seth, to him also
there was born a son; and he called his name Enos:                           and follow it.
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord."
This text undoubtedly refers to the first gathering of        Read The Standard Bearer
believers for the public worship of Jehovah. Men


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 469



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


           Acts-Christ Gathers His Church (1)
                                                Rev. J. Kortering


  In the opening statement, "The former treatise           mained there for some time. On the third journey
have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began         he rejoined Paul and accompanied him to Jeru-
both to do and teach, until the day in which He was        salem. Also he was with Paul on the journey to
taken up" (1: 1, Z), Luke makes obvious reference to       Rome and during his first and second imprison-
the Gospel that he had already written. Now he             ment (Col. 4: 14; Philemon 24; II Tim. 4: 11).
proceeds to write about the things that Jesus  con-           3. He is referred to as "the beloved physician"
tinues  to do. The Holy Spirit was given to the            in Col. 4:14. We do not know much about his labor
church, and in His strength the apostles went forth        as a medical man. The Gospel account makes
to teach and preach. The exalted Christ continues          special reference to events that had medical signifi-
His work in the gathering of the church. In a few          cance, e.g., Luke  4:35;  4:38;  5:18;  6:6;  8:43;  8:55;
short years the Gospel spread from Antioch to Asia         9:38;  18:25;  22:50. The same could apply to the
Minor to Achaia to Macedonia to Rome. Many of              reference in Acts  28:1-6 when the viper bit Paul
the Jews continued to reject Him, yet the door was         and had no fatal results. A doctor would appreciate
opened to the Gentiles. Only one thing explains this       the reaction of the barbarians to the non-effect of
great wonder: Jesus, Who began His ministry as a           venom.
babe in Bethlehem, climbed the hill of Calvary,
arose from the dead, ascended into heaven, now                4. The early church fathers attributed Acts to
gathers His church by His Word and Spirit. We see          Luke. From the very beginning it was commonly
the evidence of this in the Book of Acts.                  accepted that Luke had written this history.
AUTHOR AND DATE                                               This is not to say that there was no subsequent
                                                           controversy over the authorship of this book.
  The opening verses quoted above indicate that            Around the year A.D. 144 one named  Marcion in-
Luke had written the Gospel prior to writing this          sisted that there was only one Gospel, his version of
book. Looking back at the first four verses of the         Luke, and that there was only one true apostle,
Gospel, we notice that there too he mentions               Paul, and that only his nine epistles to the churches
Theophilus and expresses, "That thou mightest              and the one to Philemon were authentic. The early
know the certainty of those things wherein thou            church combatted this error and thereby had op-
hast been instructed"  (1:4). Luke became the              portunity to assert the complete canon of Scripture
historian, both of the life and ministry of Jesus          including Acts. Luke's account of the history of the
while He was on earth and of the gathering of the          gathering of the church was especially crucial in
church in the early years. The Gospel of Luke and          this debate.
the Acts of the Apostles are companion volumes,
both written by Luke, the beloved physician.                  More modern critics have tried to discredit
  In connection with our article on the Gospel of          Luke's authorship of Acts. They suggest for
Luke, we made reference to the fact that Luke also         example that if Luke wrote Acts and he was Paul's
wrote Acts. We summarize the proof as follows:             companion in travel, why is there so little mention
                                                           in the book of Acts of Paul's great suffering which
   1. The style of writing in both the Gospel and          he refers to in II Cor. 11:23-27. Also, if we read the
Acts is similar. Luke was well educated and his            epistles of Paul to the churches, we learn of much
Greek vocabulary and sentence structure indicate           spiritual controversy and weakness in the churches
this.                                                      which do not appear in Acts. An example of this is
   2. Luke was a traveling companion of Paul and           the council meeting held in Jerusalem regarding
was therefore an eyewitness to much of what he             circumcision of the newly-converted Gentiles.
wrote in this book. He does not refer to himself by        From Acts it appears that this council settled the
name, a practice which was common with the                 matter; from Paul's letters to the churches we see
authors of the Bible. He does use the pronoun "we"         that the problems continued to plague the church-
in certain sections: Acts  16:10-17;  20:6-16;  21; 27     es. Does this discredit Luke's authorship? The
and 28. He traveled from Troas to  Philippi and re-        answer must be, no! Paul wrote from a different


470                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



point of view. He became the pastor of the church-               account was useful to the early church. In time,
es and deals with many things in a pastoral way.                 however, Luke was joined to the other gospel
Thus his reference to his personal persecution was               accounts (Mark and Matthew) and later John was
not to make more of it than others, it was to dis-               added. Next to the Gospel accounts, the church had
credit his accusers in Corinth who claimed that he,              Paul's letters. These dealt with specific needs in
Paul, was not an apostle and that he was preaching               specific churches, but they were, however, edify-
for personal gain. On the other hand, Luke wrote                 ing for all the churches. Without the book of Acts,
Acts from the point of view of history and a record              we can see there would be a vacuum, a lack,
of events that demonstrated the success of the                   especially since it is a book that demonstrated the
gospel.                                                          establishment of the churches and the continuity
  In trying to affix a date for the writing of Acts, we          that existed between them. To meet this need the
must consider the following:                                     Holy Spirit led Luke to write Acts.
  1. There is no indication of the destruction of                   Secondly, Luke had a continuing concern for his
Jerusalem which took place in A.D. 70. It would                  friend Theophilus. As we pointed out in connection
seem strange, to say the least, that Luke would                  with the Gospel of Luke, the name means "lover of
write a historical account of the advance of Chris-              God" or "loved by God." More than likely he was
tianity from Jerusalem to Rome and not make some                 converted by Luke's preaching. There must have
reference to Rome's sacking Jerusalem if that had                been more to this man than his being a personal
actually occurred.                                               friend of Luke. Since he is addressed as "most ex-
                                                                 cellent" (Luke  2:3), he seems to be a Greek that
  2. Also, there is no mention of Nero's terrible                lived in Rome, perhaps one with some position of
persecution of the Christians. As we learn from                  authority, and therefore in a key position to influ-
history, Rome was burned about A.D. 64, and Nero                 ence the gospel for good. We can only imagine that
blamed the Christians for it. This led to one of the             the Holy Spirit used Luke to direct the evidence of
worst periods of persecution, and that persecution               the Gospel and the spread of Christianity to
had a tremendous impact upon Christians every-                   convince this man that Jesus is indeed the Christ,
where. Yet, we do not read of this in Acts. Rather               Savior and Lord. By such evidence the door would
we get the impression that the gospel was well re-               in turn be opened to the entire world.
ceived wherever the apostles went.                                  Finally, the contents of the book of Acts indicate
  3. Another consideration is that there is no men-              that Luke also had a purpose in defending the faith
tion of the death of Paul. This we know took place               of Christianity over against any Roman charge that
during the time of Nero. Acts closes with Paul's                 Christians were guilty of sedition or insurrection
imprisonment. If he had in fact been executed,                   against world government.
would not Luke have closed his account of Paul's
missionary labors with such a reference?                            Let's try to place this book in its historical
                                                                 perspective. During the writing of it, Paul was in
  These facts lead us to consider the year A.D. 63 --            prison. The movement of history was leading the
as the approximate time of the writing of Acts. ,                world against Christianity. Nero was on the hori-
During those years, there would also have been  `,  I            zon. The world-wide curiosity about Christianity
need for such a history that Luke  wrote.!.  We will              centered in this question: Do Christians stir up
examine this in connection with the  purpose  of                 trouble, do they fulfill their obligations as citizens,
Luke's writing it.                        `- y                   are they trouble-makers? The Jews were constantly
                                                  L               stirring up the people, trying to establish this case
PURPOSE OF WRITING                                               against Christianity. Consider how they did this
  We must remind ourselves that the purpose of                   before Pilate, and in the uprisings in Jerusalem,
writing this book did not simply rest in the heart of            Iconium, Derbe, Lystra, Philippi, Thessalonica,
Luke. Rather the Holy Spirit over-ruled  alli, of                Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and even Rome. As
Luke's thoughts and provided the church with this                trquble arose, the Jews tried to blame the Christians
book. God had need for this book and He move&--                  -and cast them in an evil light.
Luke to see that need as well.                          i. :.
                                                        I           Luke sought to disprove this in the Acts of the
  In this connectionwe point out three things.          "        Apostles. He set forth the fact that the Jews were
  First, the book of Acts serves as a bridge between             the trouble-makers, not the Christians. Christ Him-
the Gospels and the Epistles. It would seem that                  self was not guilty of insurrection. He taught the
originally the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the                people to render to Caesar the things of Caesar. He
Apostles circulated as a two-volume set. Both were               paid his taxes. Even Pilate had to testify, "I find no
written at about the same time, the early to middle              fault in this man."
60's. We can just imagine how the historical                        The same was true of His followers. Peter and


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          471



Paul did not set the people against the government.            declared that the disagreement with the Jews was
They preached Christ Jesus, the Living Lord, Who               religious not civil  (18:12); at Ephesus, the leading
required obedience to government. Christians are               citizen declared Paul was not guilty of public
not instructed to rise up against the government,              sacrilege  (19:31, 35); in Palestine Felix and Festus
not even repressive governments like Rome.                     found Paul innocent, and even the Jew  Herod
Rather, they are to be obedient for Christ's sake.             Agrippa II and his sister  Bernice  agreed that noth-
  Luke sets forth in Acts the evidence that even               ing was done amiss (24: l-26,32). At Rome Paul was
Jewish and Gentile officials in government believed            allowed to carry on his missionary activity
in Christ and found no incompatibility in doing so.            (28:3Off.).
In Cyprus the proconsul believed  (13:7, 12); in                 Let the whole world behold that Christ is Lord
Philippi the chief magistrate apologized to Paul and           and that His Lordship does not make a Christian
Silas for illegal beatings  (16:37); in Corinth Gallio         violate his earthly citizenship.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. VanBaren



                 Denied Admission to the MinistrvA.

  Several accounts have been presented in church                     But the anxiety of some delegates was evident
papers about the recent action of the Synod of the                 when, on several occasions, Mr. Libolt expressed his
Christian Reformed Church in denying admittance                    belief that the opening chapters of the Bible are "not
of a candidate for the ministry in the C.R.C. The                  transparent to the event." Here the chairman of the
action was certainly unprecedented in recent years                 advisory committee which had earlier interviewed
                                                                   Libolt-Rev. Peter Brouwer, delegate from  Classis
in that denomination. This candidate questioned                    Minnesota South-zeroed in on the young scholar's
the literal character of the first chapters of Genesis.            views: "When in Genesis 3 it tells us there was a tree,
The account of what happened is interestingly pre-                 was it a real tree? When it tells us there was a voice
sented in CaZvinist Contact of July 3, 1981.                       which spoke to the woman, was it a real voice?" After
     For the first time in many, many years, a candidate           wondering aloud what was meant by the questioner's
   for the ministry was denied admission into the minis-           use of the word "real," Libolt explained that,
   try of the Christian Reformed Church, because of his            "because of the kind of God we have, it's quite possi-
   belief of the event character of Genesis l-3.                   ble that the events happened just that way."
     Clayton Libolt is a 34-year-old Old Testament                   But he would go no further than possibility, al-
   Scholar who graduated from Calvin College and Semi-             though he was invited to do so several times over. At
   nary a few years ago and who pursued his MA degree              each point, he noted that "because of the kind of lit-
   at the University of Michigan and was working on his            erature we have been given at that point in Genesis, I
   doctorate.                                                      don't think the (Genesis l-3) narrative says or means
                                                                   to say that these things are `real' in the sense of your
     Mr. Libolt had been recommended by the faculty of             question." The kind of writing one finds in Genesis'
   Calvin Seminary and by the board of trustees of                 early chapters, he insisted, is "not like a newspaper
   Calvin College and Seminary.                                    report."
     When his name came up for approval at synod's ad-               When asked to interpret a New Testament passage
   visory committee, that committee chose to interview             from St. Paul's letter to the Romans (the fifth chapter
   him. Six of the 13 members of that committee were               in which "the one man Adam" is compared with "the
   unhappy with what they had heard. The remaining                 one man, Jesus Christ"). Libolt argued that the
   seven, a majority of one, recommended that synod                purpose of that passage was to teach that "in one man,
   approve Libolt's candidacy only after interviewing              Christ, there is the possibility of life," but in his view
   him on the floor of synod. The committee itself was             the passage would not require the presence of a his-
   united on only the second part of that recommenda-              torical character named Adam.
   tion: that Mr. Libolt should be interviewed by the full           . ..At 7:30 p.m., the synod re-entered closed session
   synod.                                                          to consider what it had heard and what it would do.
     . ..When asked how the Bible is different from other          An hour later, Calvin Seminary president John Krom-
   books regarded by some as "holy", he responded                  minga  came out of the session. He took Libolt aside to
   directly: "It's inspired by God."                               explain that the delegates had reached their decision.


472                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



          By an unofficial count of 95 to 58, the synod of the      these same views-which were condoned by  classis
       Christian Reformed Church had decided that Clayton           and synod when protests and appeals against these
       Libolt would not be made a candidate for "the minis-         views were rejected by the broader gatherings?
       try of the word and sacraments" in this denomination         Some men, maintaining the same views of Libolt,
       in 1981.                                                     remain ministers and professors in good standing in
  The synod is to be commended for its action.                      the C.R.C.
One could be encouraged, too, by the rather sizable
support for the rejection of this candidacy. Surely a                 It seems to me that two actions must follow out
Reformed church could not do otherwise.                             of synod's decision. First, the synod ought to insist
                                                                    that the views expressed by Libolt are not accept-
  Yet some very troubling questions must remain                     able in the C.R.C.-and that those who neverthe-
within the C.R.C. What are the views of the faculty                 less maintain them, walk contrary to their ordina-
of Calvin Seminary who recommended this man                         tion vows and their signing of the formula of sub-
for the ministry in the C.R.C.? Were they ignorant                  scription. After all, to reject one man while
of Libolt's views-or do they hold to and teach                      allowing many others to teach the same things,
them too? What of the board of trustees of Calvin                   would be the height of hypocrisy. But secondly,               I
College and Seminary and of the seven members of                    those who agree with Libolt can not in good con-
the advisory committee-all of whom also                             science remain silent. Either they properly protest
recommended Libolt for the ministry? Are his                        the action of the synod, or they resign from the
views acceptable to them? What of the 58 members                    office of the ministry. Surely these can not teach
of the synod who voted for accepting Libolt as can-                 and preach what synod now rejected. Nor can one
didate in spite of the clear statement of his views on              in good conscience go "underground" with his
the floor of synod?                                                 views until such time as they prove to be more
   Other disturbing questions must remain. What                     popular in the C.R.C.
of those who substantially maintained publicly


                      Union Dues Vs. Religious Beliefs

  The Grand Rapids Press, June 28, 198 1, presents a                   Morgan, a spokesman at the church's national head-
report of a court battle concerning the paying of                      quarters in Washington. "But we think there is an in-
dues to a union in spite of one's religious objec-                     herent problem in any organization in which people
tions:                                                                 unite for suppression or coercion-where a small
                                                                       group of people seeks to manage or control all activity
          When Doris McDaniel was fired nine years ago for             in a given area."
    not paying her union dues, she began waging a battle                 In "closed-shop" states-where laws allow labor
    on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church that                 contracts that require union membership as a condi-
    labor unions fear could hurt their pocketbooks.                    tion of employment-unions argue that religious ob-
          At issue are sections of Title VII of the Civil Rights       jectors can remain non-members but should be re-
    Act of 1964, which requires companies and unions to                quired to pay the union an amount equal to regular
    accommodate employees' religious beliefs unless                    dues.
    doing so causes the union or company "undue hard-                    This year, U.S. District Judge Noel Fox in Grand
    ship."                                                             Rapids ordered Essex International Inc. of Berrien
          Dozens of cases like the one involving McDaniel are          Springs to reinstate and give back pay to McDaniel,
    before courts across the country, and the battle now               who was fired in 1972 because she would not pay
    centers on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San            dues to the local chapter of the International Associa-
    Francisco. There, a three-judge panel on Jan. 15 heard             tion of Machinists.
    two separate but similar cases involving Seventh-day                 Officials of the union and Essex had denied her re-
    Adventists' challenges of union dues-paying.                       quest that she be permitted to contribute an amount
          . ..Among the teachings of the Seventh-day Adven-            equal to the dues to a local, non-religious charity.
    tist Church is a recommendation against union                        . ..The union contended that the Title VII section
    membership or            financial support of labor                was unconstitutional because it amounted to govern-
    organizations.                                                     mental "establishment of religion," which'is prohibit-
          "We have members who are union members and                   ed by the First Amendment. But Fox disagreed, saying
    we leave it to their individual conscience," said John             there was a "great distinction between  unconstitu-


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            4 7 3



   tional government sponsorship of religion and consti-              Amish, Plymouth Brethren IV, Mennonites, National
   tutionally permitted protection of religious beliefs and           Association of Evangelicals,  Christian Missionary Alli-
   practices."                                                        ance and Old German Baptists.
     "This opinion may force defendants in these cases              It appears that courts, in some instances at least,
   to at least attempt to make an  accomodation, rather           give legal redress to those who for conscience' sake
   than stonewall,"  Boothby said. "Normally, what we             can not belong nor join nor support the union. We,
   face is the union and the company doing nothing until          perhaps, ought to take advantage somehow of this
   we get into court."                                            fact. There ought also to be investigation into the
     . ..Since the court cases began, Congress has acted-         "amending the National Labor Relations Act to pro-
   amending the National Labor Relations Act to prohibit          hibit the requirement of union membership or
   the requirement of union membership or financial               financial support from members of seven religions
   support from members of seven religions "historically          . . . . " Could not the name of our churches, small
   holding conscious objection"-Seventh-day Aventists,            though they may be, be added to that list?

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                               Missionary Methods (6)
                                                     Prof. Robert D. Decker


  In the previous issue we discussed a bit of the                 the God of creation. To the Athenians he became as
history, the setting, and the audience to whom the                an Athenian that by all means he might save some
Apostle Paul preached on Mars' Hill in Athens (cf.                of them.
Acts 17: 16-34). In this issue it is our intention to               According to verse twenty-two the Apostle
examine the content and the fruit of the Apostle's                "stood in the midst of Mars' Hill." Concerning the
preaching (cf. verses 22-34).                                     significance of this, John Peter Lange comments:
  This entire incident in the ministry of the Apos-               "With all the confidence of faith he takes a position
tle, it strikes us, is a beautiful example of what the            in the middle of the plateau on the hill.. . . He saw
Apostle confessed to the Corinthians: "For though I               before him the Acropolis, which rose above him,
be free from all men, yet have I made myself                      and was adorned with numerous works of art;
servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And                 beneath the spot on which he stood, was the magni-
unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain                ficent temple of  Theseus; around him were
the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under                numerous temples, altars, and images of the gods"
the law, that I might gain them that are under the                (Lange's Commentary On The Holy Scriptures). The
law; To them that are without the law, (being not                 Apostle was standing on the very throne of  Anti-
without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)                 Christian philosophy, art, science, religion, and
that I might gain them that are without law. To the               culture! Here he will proclaim the gospel of the
weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak:                sovereign God as revealed in the resurrected
I am made all things to all men, that I might by all              Christ. Seeing all this idolatry the Apostle pro-
means save some. And this I do for the gospel's                   claims: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all
sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you" (I               things ye are too superstitious" (vs. 22). "Too su-
Corinthians  9:19-22). Mind you, the Apostle does                 perstitious" means "very superstitious." Some
not compromise, either in his method or in what he                commentators attempt to soften the blow by inter-
preaches. He proclaims the gospel of the risen Lord               preting Paul to mean that the Athenians were very
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. But the               religious, even a God-fearing people (cf. Lange, A.
Apostle does that in terms to which the Athenians                 T. Robertson,  et.  al.). This simply is not true. The
can relate. The Apostle points to their superstition,             Apostle points to the very heart of the problem of
to their idols, to their poets and commands them to               these Athenian philosophers. They were very su-
repent and believe in the resurrected Christ. Note                perstitious. This means they were wholly given to
that the Apostle does this not on the basis of an                 idolatry and vain philosophy. They had turned
exposition of the law and the prophets as he always               from the living God, the one, true God to serve
did before the Jews. Rather, the Apostle points to                idols. The Apostle certainly does not compromise


  474                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  the gospel or accommodate himself to this heathen          attests to this fact. Thus Paul preaches.
  audience. He begins by pointing to their unbelief as         "Have we not pointed out that Paul here too
  that was manifest in their idolatry. This is where         knows himself a debtor to the Greek as well as to
  every missionary must begin. Paul simply tells             the barbarian?
  them that in all of their affairs they are very super-
  stitious.                                                    "Well, then, all the philosophic constructions
                                                             with which the Greek attempts to bolster his idola-
    As proof of all this superstition the Apostle cites:     trous world with his `wisdom' must be shown to
  "For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I          have this one `Achilles heel.' And here too Paul will
  found an altar with the inscription, TO THE UN-            be caused to triumph in Christ, making the savour
KNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly                      of His knowledge known in every place, to the one
  worship, Him declare I unto you" (vs. 23). Among           the savour of death unto death, and to the other
  the multitude of altars and shrines to the many            the savour of life unto life. For Paul is not as many,
  gods was this one inscribed: "To The Unknown               which corrupt the Word of God; but of sincerity,
  God." Apparently the Athenians were concerned              but as of God, in the presence of God he speaks in
  lest they miss one of the gods. They feared the            Christ! And in this preaching he does not find a
  anger of the god they might have overlooked. More          spiritual-ethical good  point of contact  with these
  than this, the altar to the unknown god indicates          pagans. There is none. There is only a point of `ap-
  the weakness and the utter futility and foolishness        prehension' for those who are `grasped' by the
  of their idolatry. To this point our own Rev. George       Spirit of grace, and plucked out of this evil world.
  C. Lubbers wrote convincingly: "So morbid is their         And these were but few here in Athens!
  fear that they even have an altar erected to the
  UNKNOWN GOD. They had written that super-                    "Still Paul appeals here to the `conscience' of
  scription on that altar. And it should be quite evi-       these men, and evil conscience, a non-sanctified
  dent that Paul is not here teaching or suggesting          conscience! Thus we read in II Corinthians 4: 1, 2:
  that the Pagan was in real spiritual quest after the       `Therefore seeing we have received this ministry,
  living God. They were not  seeking  God. Paul only         as we have received mercy, we faint not! But have
  cites this as evidence that the Athenians' multipli-       renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not
  city of `gods' shows that none of these are truly          walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
  gods, for else they would not have still built an altar    deceitfully, but  by manifestation of the truth  com-
  to another. Paul points to the `Achilles heel' in          mending ourselves to every man's conscience in
  their idolatry. It is here that he points to the deep      the sight of God.' Here is no mere sparring for ad-
  spiritual-psychological bankruptcy of all the other        vantageous position in debate, no cheap trafficking
  `gods,' and even this unknown god does not avail           of the Gospel as done by ancient and modern
  them aught. Notice well that Paul is here not mere-        `gospel hucksters,' but a commending to the con-
  ly engaging himself in some clever witticism, but is       sciences of these haughty Epicureans and Stoics!
  giving, by implication, a profound, basic and soul         These are weighed in their own consciences and
  searching psychoanalysis of the basic problem of all       found wanting. All their `gods' are found wanting!
  their religiosity. With this one observation he            The altar to the UNKNOWN GOD attests to this
  points out the `Achilles heel' of the vaunted  invul-      fact. And the imaginary impregnable fortress
  nerableness of the religion of these Epicureans and        topples, as did Dagon of old when he fell prostrate
  Stoics!                                                    to the ground" (The Standard Bearer, vol.  41, pp.
                                                             428,429).
     "Paul is not engaging in a philosophical discus-
  sion of `comparative religions,' that he may come to         Concerning this altar to the "UNKNOWN GOD"
  the `conclusion' that the Christian religion excels        the Apostle continues "Whom therefore ye ignor-
  that of paganism on certain points as to doctrine          antly worship, Him declare I unto you." There is
  and ethics, being careful not to expose `Athens' as        another reading of this sentence which is transla-
  being entirely corrupt and worse than useless, but         ted: "What therefore ye ignorantly worship, this
  he is preaching! He is preaching Christ here on            declare I unto you." This latter reading has the bet-
  Mars' Hill: Jesus and the resurrection! And all the        ter support and we accept it as the correct one. It
  world must stand `under sin,' and all the world            was not, therefore, as many commentators explain,
  must stand guilty before God, and every mouth              that the Athenians ignorantly worshipped Jehovah
  must be stopped (Romans  3:19). The entire world           by means of their altar to the "UNKNOWN GOD."
  must become...guilty before God. Also here in              Not at all!  What  they worshipped in their spiritual
  Athens on Mars' Hill! Here the glories of the Grae-        ignorance and blindness out of the hardness of their
  co-Roman world stand in the condemnation; the              hearts was not the Almighty God but an idol. They
  Greek moralist too is guilty; thus he stands in his        worshipped a conception of their own minds and
  own conscience. The altar to the UNKNOWN GOD               that is an idol. In their spiritual ignorance they  re-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   475



jetted God as He was plainly revealed to them in          pointed them to their idolatry which came from
the things which are made. In the creation all about      their spiritual blindness and rejection of the one,
them those Athenians could see even God's eternal         true God. Paul proclaimed the sovereign God of
power and Godhead. But they had changed the               heaven and earth, the Creator God.
glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of          Note well, Paul declared God to them. That word
the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and           means: to announce, promulgate, make known,
four-footed beasts and creeping things (cf. Romans        proclaim publicly, publish abroad. One thing it
1:18 ff.). This accounts for all their foolish wicked-     does not mean is: to offer or invite! The Apostle
ness and futile superstition. This is what I declare       simply published abroad there on Mars' Hill the
to you, says Paul. He speaks plainly of their spiritu-     glorious gospel of sovereign grace in God's Christ.
al ignorance and blindness. The Apostle did not,          And Paul did that against the black background of
therefore, proclaim an idol unto them, nor did he         the idolatry, vain philosophy, and foolishness of
commend them for seeking after the true God. He           the learned Athenian philosophers.



                           Report From Singapore
                                              Rev. Arie den Hartog


  Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings in the       vant Christian topics, chapels, a visit to an area nur-
name of our great God and Savior. It has been quite        sing home, various types of recreation, and Chris-
some time since we have written a report about the         tian fellowship. The whole camp was a very
work of the Lord in Singapore, a work which God            blessed and wonderful experience and I am sure
has been pleased to give us as Protestant Reformed         very beneficial for those who attended. Attendance
Churches to do. We rejoice with thanksgiving to            was regularly over sixty. During the evenings we
the Lord that He continues to prosper and bless our        always had additional visitors. On Friday evening
work in spite of our own many weaknesses. The              we had more than 100 young people in attendance.
Lord causes the G.L.T.S. not only to continue to           I could go on to tell you many more details of the
grow in numbers but also to grow in the spiritual          camp but I must keep this report as short as pos-
knowledge of the truth of His Word and especially          sible. We were again much impressed by the godli-
the truth of the Reformed Faith which we love and          ness and zeal of the youthful saints in Singapore.
cherish as the Lord's heritage to us.                        Immediately after the camp our family spent a
  Let me tell you again some of the major develop-        three-day vacation on the island of Santosa, a resort
ments of the work here. In the month of June we            island just off Singapore. This was a much needed,
had one of the greatest yearly events for the             brief but enjoyable and refreshing vacation. All of
G.L.T.S. I refer to the annual June Camp or Retreat.       this was arranged and paid for by the members of
I have told you about these before, indicating that        the G.L.T.S. We were much moved again by their
they are somewhat similar to our own annual Pro-           love and appreciation for us.
testant Reformed Youth Conventions. The theme
of the week-long camp this year was "I Love Thy              The month of June is always an exceptionally
Kingdom Lord." The camp was held at a most                 busy month for the G.L.T.S. In our churches in the
beautiful facility belonging to the Presbyterian           U.S.A. it is usually the case that the summer months
Church in Singapore. In past years the G.L.T.S. has        have fewer church activities. It seems that things go
had camps under some pretty adverse conditions.            on all year round here and even increase during the
Therefore it was an unusual joy to have the beauti-        summer months. During the month of June the
ful place that we had this year which included a           G.L.T.S. observes its anniversary every year. This
chapel for our meetings, dormitories for sleeping          includes an annual general meeting of the society
quarters and even a dining hall for meals. Your mis-       where there is election of officers, the budget for
sionary was asked to give a series of five messages        the year is adopted, and reports from various de-
on the camp theme. I also preached a message on            partments are read. This year was the 18th anniver-
the subject of the millennium. There were many             sary. Considering that this society has existed some
activities during the camp besides the messages,           18 years without becoming a church, one can ap-
including such things as discussion groups on rele-        preciate the intense longing for institution of the


476                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



church. I might add that the budget adopted this         a second worship service on the Lord's Day. Mean-
year is nearly $50,000. This is a very large sum of      while our tape hours are a real blessing to the mem-
money which requires a lot of sacrificial giving,        bers that attend. We listen to many of our Protes-
considering the average income of the membersof          tant Reformed ministers preaching. We also sing
the G.L.T.S. This budget includes partial or full        from The Psalter.
support of three brothers studying for the gospel          Let me devote the rest of my space to report to
ministry. The observance of the anniversary              you the progress towards the organization of the
always includes a special Lord's Day worship ser-        church in Singapore and in that connection the re-
vice. This was again a great highlight of the year. I    sult of the decision of our synod of 1981 and the re-
preached a sermon based on Lamentations  3:22-23         cent visit of the emissaries, Rev. Kamps and Rev.
with the theme: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."             Engelsma. We know that many of our readers are
Attendance at this worship service was the highest       very anxious to hear about this. As many of you
ever at a worship service, 168 besides the small         know, there has been a difference over the question
children. After the worship service there was a buf-     of when creeds should be adopted in the develop-
fet luncheon and fellowship.                             ment of the church on the mission field. The ques-
  Another significant event at the general meeting       tion involved is not that of the necessity and impor-
of the G.L.T.S. was the announcement of another          tance of creeds for the future church in Singapore.
young brother's intention to study for the gospel        There is no difference of opinion on this question at
ministry. We rejoice that the Lord is providing for      all. All see the need of studying and adopting
us another future laborer for His church. His call to    creeds. The question is whether it is absolutely es-
the ministry is in itself a beautiful story. I cannot    sential for the church on the mission field to adopt
tell you the whole story. The brother had for a long     the creeds before her organization and whether or-
time been wrestling with the call to the ministry.       ganization should be delayed until such time as the
He has just completed his military service. He was       creeds can be adopted. The G.L.T.S. from the time
also considering the possibility of studying to be-      that we first arrived here to the present has been
come a lawyer. The brother applied to the                spending much time carefully studying our Three
Singapore University to study law and was accept-        Forms of Unity. The opinion both of your mission-
ed. However, just before the beginning of school he      ary and the G.L.T.S. was that before creeds can be
was so compelled by the call to the ministry that he     adopted they must be carefully studied. In this way
decided to forego his place in the University to         a group such as the G.L.T.S. will come to know and
study law and he decided instead to take up studies      love our creeds and make them their own confes-
for the ministry. This decision was taken against        sion. We were of the opinion that such a careful
much opposition from his home. He is presently           study would take an extended period of time. At
studying liberal arts courses in the Singapore           the same time there is a great desire for the organi-
University. He is also taking two courses under my       zation of the church in Singapore. We did not want
instruction. In one or two years we shall be attemp-     to see the organization of the church delayed any
ting to get this brother in our seminary in the          further until the completion of our study of the
U.S.A.                                                   creeds.
  For the last few months we have been making              Thus the decision of our 1981 synod came as a
quite a few pastoral calls to the homes of our mem-      very great disappointment to us. It seemed that this
bers. At one time we had thought that this was im-       decision would again delay the organization of the
possible because of the pagan homes. However, we         church for a long time. There was a strong feeling
are finding that it is often possible to make such       that we needed more time to study our creeds and
calls as long as a Singaporean brother goes along        on the other hand did not want to delay the organi-
with me. Thus we make these calls somewhat like          zation of the church. There was a strong feeling
our family visitations in the U.S., with one of the      against signing the formula of subscription to our
leaders of the G.L.T.S. It is a good way to get to       creeds before an opportunity to study them care-
know our members better and to be able to minis-         fully. Several meetings of the executive committee
ter more specifically to their individual needs.         were held to wrestle with the dilemma of what to
   us a couple of weeks ago we started another           do under the circumstances. We were in the state
"hJ,uie church  " or tape hour. I have told you          of great crisis.
about these  beiore. We have worship services at           We thank the Lord that the emissaries Rev.
these where we listen to tape recorded sermons.          Kamps and Rev. Engelsma were sent here to help
We now have five of these tape hours meeting si-         with the crisis. Though there was great disappoint-
multaneously at various locations in Singapore           ment in the G.L.T.S over the decision of our synod,
every Lord's Day evening. We still hope and pray         the emissaries were graciously received. Further-
that the day will come that we shall be able to have     more, we are all very thankful to the Lord for the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               477



great amount of good which they did while they             the grace of God to see the wisdom of submitting to
were here. They were kept very busy giving                 the decision of our synod though not agreeing with
speeches, preaching, and counseling the members            it. The best course of action under the situation was
of the G.L.T.S. Their main labors were connected           decided upon. Thus it was decided to set aside as
with the explanation and discussion of the decision        much as possible the work of the G.L.T.S. for the
of the synod with the leaders of the G.L.T.S. The          next few months so that we can concentrate as
impressions that were left did much to relieve the         much time and energies as possible on completing
situation. The emissaries did much to convince the         our study of the creeds. This will mean that the
G.L.T.S. that our churches were seeking their high-        leaders will be meeting three times per week to
est good and that our churches also greatly desired        study the creeds under the instruction of your mis-
that the church be organized in Singapore as soon          sionary. This will also mean that the leaders will be
as possible.                                               greatly burdened with a tremendous amount of
  After several more meetings of the executive             work besides all the other work in which they are
committee they were not however convinced of the           involved. We hope, however, that all of this will
correctness of the principle of the decision of our        result in the speedy organization of the church
1981 synod. There is a clear understanding of the          while at the same time giving opportunity for the
importance of creeds for the church. There remains         careful study of the creeds. We pray that the Lord
however, a disagreement on the question of when            will bless all of these efforts unto the end of the es-
these creeds must be adopted. The G.L.T.S.                 tablishment of a strong Reformed Church in Singa-
continues in their desire to have more time to study       pore.
the creeds. They disagree that in a situation in             We hope that this somewhat detailed explanation
which the creeds are already being studied and             will help you to understand and appreciate our sit-
where there is already a love for the truth of the Re-     uation here in Singapore. We covet your prayers on
formed Faith, that in such a situation organization        our behalf. Pray also that the Lord might continue
must be delayed until the study of the creeds is           to prosper our work as Protestant Reformed
complete.                                                  Churches here in Singapore and that He might con-
  After a difficult struggle the G.L.T.S. was led by       tinue to bless our relationship with the G.L.T.S.

THEDAYOFSHADOWS

                               A Dream Come True
                                                Rev. John A. Heys

  In faithfulness to his calling Joseph gathered the       periods when his master was gone, and the oppor-
surplus food in Egypt for seven years, and built up        tunity certainly presented itself for this slave to
a huge store of food for the seven years of famine         become a free man by returning to Canaan. He
that were coming. Most likely he bought the food           made no attempt to break out of jail, even though
from the farmers, and it was not commandeered by           many liberties were given him. His only attempt
the government. And I say that he did this in faith-       was that of the legal way of the king reviewing his
fulness because once again in servitude he does his        case. And even then, it would be to return to Poti-
calling in the fear of `God's name. In Potiphar's          phar's house as his slave, or to be sold by him to
house he was faithful, even though Potiphar                another man in Egypt. As an exalted ruler in Egypt
thought otherwise of him. In prison his faithfulness       whose work required of him that he travel from
was noticed and commended. Now he is found to              one end of Egypt to another, and furnished him
be faithful in the office which the king gave him. It      with horse and chariot, and placed huge sums of
was not an office which he sought. He did not after        money at his command, he still did not make a
striving, and working himself up, attain to this lofty     break for liberty. He never used the freedom in
position in the Egyptian kingdom. It was God's             Egypt to help him get out of Egypt.
providence and the king's appointment that made              Why? Was he fearful of being caught? Did he
him next to the king in the land of Egypt.                have a timid nature that made him so look up
  To that faithfulness belongs also the fact that he       against all the dangers of flight, and of hiding from
did not once try to escape and to get back to his          pursuers, that he just could not make the step? Was
father's house. In Potiphar's house there were long        he-so in contrast to Moses-attracted by Egypt's


478                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



wealth and culture? Did he delight so much in the         ciful master. But the believer is interested in what
pleasures of Egypt that he forgot the promises of         God has to say in His Word. He does not try to live
God and the land of promise? It is true, as he said,      by bread alone-and no man ever will live by bread
that "God hath made me forget all my toil and my          alone-but also by the words that proceed from
father's house" (Genesis  41:51), after Asenath, the      God's mouth and exhort him to leave all vengeance
daughter of the Priest of On, who was in the service      and recompense unto God, and, if he must, seek
of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, presented him with a         employment elsewhere; but always being "subject
son. His lonesomeness vanished both by the acquir-        unto the higher authorities, for there is no authority
ing of a family and the press of the work he was          but of God, the authorities that be are ordained of
called to do. The sharp edge of the cruelty of his        God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the authority,
brothers, of Potiphar, and the forgetful butler was       resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist
gone. The memory of the joys at home also faded as        shall receive to themselves damnation" (Romans
years went by and new and exciting experiences            13:1,2).
were his in this strange land. Yet all this does not        Now it is not at all impossible that Joseph expect-
explain his failure to attempt an escape.                 ed, or saw the great possibility that his brothers
  From God he received the grace of contentment           would also come to Egypt for food. We read in
with his lot. Long before the Apostle Paul was on         Genesis 41:56, 57, "and the famine was over all the
the scene and could write, "I have learned, in what-      face of the earth; and Joseph opened all the store-
soever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philip-      houses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the
pians 4: 1  l), Joseph had also received that same        famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all
grace. From God also he received grace to be obe-         countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy
dient to those in authority over him. He would, by        corn; because the famine was so sore in all the
God's grace, be obedient to God, and therefore he         lands." And Canaan, remember, bordered on
obeyed Potiphar without complaint, and even as            Egypt. They were separated by the River of Egypt,
though all these goods were his own. Therefore also       which is not to be confused with The river of Egypt,
he was-though unjustly in prison-subject to the           namely, the Nile.
rules and regulations and sought the good of the            But before we run ahead, let us consider the rea-
prison. And now as well, Joseph recognizes the            son for that famine. For surely God has a purpose
hand of God and an appointment by God to be ser-          in whatever He does. We are so aimless, and we do
vant to Pharaoh and Egypt, and he serves to the           so much thoughtlessly, but the All-wise God does
best of his ability. Today men take little or no pride    nothing without an immediate reason and without
in their work. They work only for that pay check at       an all-controlling reason. The immediate reason for
the end of the week. And the workmanship on their         that famine was to get Jacob and his family out of
products is often a shame and a disgrace. But             the promised land and into Egypt. The all-control-
Joseph sought Egypt's good as though he was seek-         ling reason behind this famine is that which moves
ing his own good, because he saw it all as God's          God in all His works: the glory of His own name.
domain and his own calling to be faithful to God in       The move of Jacob and his family into Egypt will
His creation.                                             serve that purpose of God's glorification. And the
  He may have seen his position as one in which           famine will bring Jacob and his family-or let us be
he could help his father's house, for the famine          a bit more specific, the Church-into Egypt, where
would also be in that land, but behind it all, and        He will show forth His glory and get Himself
basic to it all, is his faith in God and desire to be     honour and glory both upon the enemy, and in His
pleasing in His sight. And we do well to remember         Church.
Joseph and to emulate him. Our working condi-               Every detail in that coming of Jacob and his sons
tions may not be ideal, and the owner may not care        into Egypt must not be spiritualized. Egypt is going
about our life and health. The pay may not be what        to be a picture of Satan's power over us in that as
others get in other places of employment, and for         hopeless as it became for the Israelites to get out
the same or similar work. But look a bit higher.          from under the bondage of Pharaoh, so we are in
Look to Him Whose servants we all are. And ask            the house of the bondage of sin. But Jacob's journey
not, "What am I worth? Am I being treated fairly?"        into Egypt is not a picture of how we got into that
Instead ask those words of the Apostle Paul, "Lord,       bondage of Satan. For one thing Adam and Eve did
what wilt Thou have me do?" and "What does God            not get us into the kingdom of Satan because of a
demand of me?" The unbeliever cannot do that and          scarcity of food. They had the abundance and
must go on strike, which causes the cost of living        wealth of paradise. What is more, God warned
to go up another notch and makes another future           Adam against getting himself in the service of sin,
strike inevitable, and is equally a failure in the        while here He encourages Jacob to go and assures
attempt to get ahead of the unbelieving and unmer-        him that he will be brought up out of that bondage.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               479



  But the broad lines are there. God, in order to          him, Emphasis is laid upon the. fact that he remem-
glorify His own name, will bring His Church into           bered the dreams which God gave him. He remem-
Egypt and under cruel, inescapable servitude to            bered God's word and God's promises to him. He
teach His people their hopeless situation as sold          saw the dream come true.
under sin and in the bondage of the devil-And  then          And let me ask, "What means more to you, the
He will bring them out with a high hand, and reveal        cruelty men heap upon you, or God's promises to
to them what He in His grace does for His Church.          vindicate His people in the day of Christ? Are you
What is more, He will, while they are in that bond-        going to run quickly to the rulers in the church with
age, show them His blessing as they grow to be a           your grievance against a member, or are you going
tremendously large nation, so great that another           to run quickly to the word of God for comfort and
Pharaoh becomes fearful of them, seeing the possi-         for instructions as to how He would have you
bility that they take over his entire land. And this is    handle the matter? Will you listen to Him when He
a truth for us to consider today. We are rapidly ap-       says, `Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall
proaching those days when Egypt's bondage and              be called the children of God'? Or are you going to
cruelty will be over-shadowed by the cruelty and           write a new Sermon on the Mount and write
impossible living conditions in the day of the Anti-       boldly, `Blessed are they that fight for their rights
christ. And although we cannot expect, and must            and for the things of this world; and they shall be
not expect God to bless His Church with earthly,           called the children of God'?" Let me give you some
material wealth and treasures, He will as surely           good advice. If the brother sins against you, do not
bless His Church in those days as He did Israel in         take the matter to the authorities in the church UN-
that day. He will no more forget His Church in that        LESS YOUR PRIMARY AND ONLY PURPOSE IS
day than He did for one moment in Egypt. And               TO SAVE HIM FROM SIN. You must go there for
deliverance will come; and plagues shall fall on that      his sake, not for your own. You must go there for
world of iniquity.                                         the sake of the Church of God, not for the return of
  But to return to the narrative, how often is it not      some earthly possession, honour, or the like for
that what is not said is as important, or even more        yourself.
important, than what is said? We read in Genesis             And Joseph's "rough" speech to his brothers
42:6-g that Joseph knew his brothers when they             had their spiritual well-being in mind. He is seeking
came and, as the eleven stars of his dream, made           to bring them to confession of their sin against
obeisance to him, and that he remembered the               GOD, not against himself. Evidence of this is that
dreams which he dreamed of them. The brothers              he puts all their money in their sacks-a manifes-
remembered neither that dream, nor at the                  tation of his love for them. Likewise his speech
moment the cruelty that they had inflicted on this         after their second visit for food, when he could not
brother, who stood before them but was unrecog-            restrain himself, and had to leave the room to
nized by them. Nothing actually was farther from           weep. And never forget his words of peace after his
their thoughts. And after all they did not know            father died, "Fear not (for they feared his wrath)...
whether the Ishmaelites had sold Joseph into Egypt         ye meant it for evil against me; but God meant it for
or somewhere else, and if sold into Egypt whether          good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
he was not sold later on and to some remote corner         people alive." Joseph is interested in the good of
of Egypt.                                                  God's church and not in self vindication.
  But although we read that Joseph remembered
the dreams, we do not read-and that is signifi-                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
cant-that he remembered their cruel treatment of             The members of the Hudsonville Ladies Society express their
him. He did, no doubt about that. But it is not men-       Christian sympathy to Mrs. John C. Lubbers at the death of her
                                                           brother MR. JACOB SCHUT.
tioned, because he was not ruled at the moment by             "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
that memory. And his "rough" speech to them                also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." (I Thess. 4:14).
must not be understood as the result of a fit of                                                        Rev. G. Van Baren, Pres.
anger at the thought of their great wickedness to                                                       Freda Zwak, Sec'y.

                         News From Our Churches
  "In harmony with the decision of this year's             formation was taken from the "News from our sis-
synod that our church in Lynden resume calling a           ter churches" section of a Hull bulletin. We have
missionary for the Monroe-Mt. Vernon Washington            since learned that Lynden has extended their call to
area, Lynden has composed the following trio:              Rev. Joostens. We have also heard that Rev.  Joos-
Revs. Bekkering, Koole, Joostens." That bit of  in-        tens is considering another call from the west coast,

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





480                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


this one from our Redlands congregation.                  which clearly illustrates the committee's observa-
  In our last news column we reported concerning          tion that pamphlet distribution is being "carried on
the tour of our churches by Mr. and Mrs. Lau. We          by others." Trenggunu,   NlaZuysiu   - "Kindly send me
have traced a part of their trip, via bulletin an-        a complete catalog of your tapes. The Lord willing,
nouncements, only to find that their trip ended pre-      I will start a tape ministry to spread the Reformed
maturely in  Redlands where Mr. Lau Chin Kwee             faith next year in my church and my community."
was admitted to a hospital due to a bleeding ulcer.       Philudelphiu,  Penn. - "Dear Brethren: May the Lord
In compliance with a doctor's recommendation the          Himself bless your efforts in His behalf through the
Laus have returned to Grand Rapids.                       work of evangelism and the publication of various
                                                          pieces of literature. I have found your Consolation
  The work of evangelism goes on! Please take note        booklet to be helpful in my ministry among the
of the following evidence of the truth of that state-     sick. I would like 100 copies." Mt.  LuuueZ, N.J.  -  "I
ment: 1. From a Hull, Iowa bulletin: "At the Re-          used hundreds of your pamphlet, `God is Our
formed Witness Committee meeting held this past           Refuge and Strength!" TitusviZZe, FZu.  - "Please send
week, a letter was received from Joseph Tan of            12 copies of `Modern Bible Versions.' I gave away
West Malaysia. Mr. Tan had obtained a copy of our         my supply of these booklets. I intend to pass out
Reformed  ,Witness  pamphlet. He requested more           more of them to friends and neighbors. The need
copies for his own use, for distribution in his coun-     for this pamphlet is great."
try, and possibly even for translation into his native      From the summer issue of "First News" (bi-
language." 2. From a Loveland, Colorado bulletin:         monthly newsletter to the congregation of First
"Members of the church extension committee will           Church in Grand Rapids) we learn that Rev. C.
distribute a pamphlet, `The Key to Good Preaching'        Hanko and his daughter Alice left on July 29 to pick
written by Rev. J. Slopsema and made available to         up the work in Bradenton after a two-month break
us from the Reformed Witness Committee of Doon-           in the services there, and that Rev. Harbach has
Edgerton-Hull. 500 copies have been mailed this           agreed to labor there during the month of Septem-
week and the committee plans to send them at that         ber. The newsletter further reports: "Because of
rate each month." 3. From an Edmonton, Alberta            our unforeseen absence from Bradenton, we
bulletin: "We received a call from a listener of our      cannot report the kind of progress for which we
radio program who said, `The radio message is like        had hoped in the field itself. But there are other
going to a meal, and being completely satisfied.' "       indications which indicate that the Lord is indeed
4. From a South Holland, Illinois Newsletter:             blessing our efforts there. One of them is the assis-
"...there is an aspect of our work which is brought       tance which has been offered by one of our sister
out in the correspondence we receive. It is this: that    congregations. Southeast has agreed to contribute
the distribution and reception of our pamphlets is        $4,500 to the cause this year. That, by itself, is
now to a very large extent, carried on by others-by       important for us, because our budgeted amount for
those outside of our own Protestant Reformed cir-         the year in Bradenton is being rapidly depleted.
cles. Yes, this is of the Lord Who watches over His       But, in addition, and perhaps even more impor-
Own Word. This is an ideal situation, is it not?          tantly, two members of Southeast's consistory have
Ought not these considerations encourage us to            for the past several months been meeting with our
persevere in our labors?" Concerning their latest         church extension committee, thus involving South-
pamphlet they write, "Very shortly, we hope to re-        east in the actual conduct of the work. We welcome
ceive from the printer, the pages and the covers for      this kind of cooperation and hope that it will yet
our new pamphlet: `Remembering the Lord's Day.'           prove to be mutually beneficial." We are thankful
When we do, it is again our plan to call for some         for these evidences of the Lord's blessing on our
assistance from the congregation in preparing the         labors. We repeat a part of the quote from the South
pamphlet for distribution." That same newsletter          Holland newsletter: "Ought not these considera-
contains a vast number of excerpts from correspon-        tions encourage us to persevere in our labors?"
dence that the committee has received, some of                                                                CK


