      The
STANDARD
     BEARER
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          .





. ..perhaps the most surprising thing of all to
those who to a greater or lesser degree are
ignorant of their Reformed heritage, is the
fact that the Canons, even more than the
Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Con-
fession, are deliberately, deeply, and warmly
pastoral in their  pres.entation of the great
truths'of the Christian faith.
See "The Pastoral Character Of the Canons"
                                                          -page 17



                                           Volume  LVIII, No. 1, October 1, 1981  -


2                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER
                            CONTENTS                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                            Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
     Meditation-                                                                  Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                  Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       "I Believe in Jesus Christ...Dea  d and Buried" . . . 2    Department Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
     Editorial-                                                   denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J.  Engelsma,  Rev. Richard
                                                                  Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hando, Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
       The GKN on the Nature  of the                              Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                  Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev. Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopsema,
         Authority of Scripture (7) .................        5    Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
                                                                  Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION
                              "I Believe in Jesus Christ...
                                         Dead and Buried"
                                                         Rev. C. Hanko

                   Ques. Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto death?
                   Ans. Because with respect to the justice and truth of God, satisfaction for our sins could be
             made no otherwise, than by the death of the Son of God.
                   Ques. Why was He also "buried"?
                   Ans. Thereby to prove that He was really dead.
                   Ques. Since then Christ died for us, why must we also die?
                   Ans. Our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but only an abolishing of sin, and a passage
             in to eternal life.
                   Ques. What further benefit do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross?
                   Ans. That by virtue thereof, our old man is crucified, dead and buried with Him; that so the
             corrupt inclinations of the flesh may no more reign in us, but that we may offer ourselves unto
             Him a sacrifice of thanksgiving.                             Questions 40-43 Heidelberg Catechism.


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    3



  "It is finished!"                                      three days and three nights in the belly of the fish,
  The loud, triumphant cry of God's obedient Ser-        as prophecy of His death and burial. Repeatedly
vant rent the awesome silence of Calvary, penetra-       Jesus had forewarned His disciples that the Son of
ted into the troubled soul of every one present at       Man had to be delivered into the hands of sinful
the cross, and reached out to heaven into the heart      men, be crucified, and arise again on the third day.
of God.                                                    It all comes down to this, Christ's physical death
  The Scriptures were fulfilled. The whole divine        and burial were an integral part of His atoning suf-
plan of redemption was carried out in its minutest       fering, without which we could not be saved. In
detail.                                                  other words, this was a necessary part of Jesus' tri-
                                                         umphant march through death and hell into glory.
  Satisfaction had been made for the guilt of those
given to Christ of the Father. The great Highpriest        In a certain sense, Jesus' death and burial were
had completely atoned for our sins and merited for       exactly like that of the guilty sinner under the
us eternal life.                                         wrath of God. It is appointed unto all men to die. At
                                                         birth we enter this present valley of death to wend
  The bitter cup of hellish agonies had been             our way through it during the time appointed for
drained to its dregs. Jesus could well breathe the       us. Even as our birth is the only entrance into this
prayer into the receptive ear of God, "Father, into      valley, so death is the only exit. Dying we die, for
Thy hands I commit My spirit." Heaven responded          we lie in the midst of death. With Paul we are
in full agreement. The earth quaked, the rocks rent,     forced to confess, "I die every day." In our natural
graves were opened, the finger of God tore the tem-      state the fear of death holds us in bondage as long
ple veil from the top to the bottom. Let priests and     as we live, for death surrounds us, death works in
worshippers take note, let the stunned crowd at          our members.
Calvary tremble, by bowing His head Jesus died,
awaiting other hands to commit His body to the             Death is separation. It is the separation of soul
grave.                                                   and body. The heart stops. Breath ceases with a
                                                         final gasp. The mind no longer functions, the eye
  Even this aspect of Christ's humiliation is as un-     does not see, the ear does not hear, the mouth is si-
pleasant to us as it must have been to our Lord's        lenced. The body has died, and the soul goes into
disciples at that time. Why must God in the Son          eternity.
enter our physical death and lie in the grave among
the dead of all ages? Why was it necessary for             Death is separation from all earthly relation-
Christ to be humbled even to the extent that He          ships. Someone's husband or wife, son or daughter,
died and was buried? Seeing that He had finished         brother or sister, or friend is no more. The earthly
His atoning suffering on the cross, why could He         bond is so completely broken that it can never be
not be snatched away like  Enoch, or be taken to         restored. That person's place is gone, life goes on
heaven by a whirlwind in a chariot of fire, as Elijah    without him or her.
was? Why must He die? Why must He make "His                Death is also separation from God. Already now
grave with the wicked"? (Isaiah 53:9).                   the sinner is confronted with the opposition of an
  Our fathers answer these questions by saying           angry God. Even in his imagined success, prosper-
that God's justice and truth require this shameful       ity, and pleasures God's holy wrath condemns him
humiliation as a necessary part of the divine satis-     at every turn of the way. He may banish God from
faction for sin.                                         his thoughts, drown the voice of conscience in
                                                         wicked revelry and defiant rebellion, but God's
  God's justice demanded it. When we fell into sin       hand rests heavily upon him every moment of the
in paradise God's verdict against us was, "Thou          day or night. Already now he experiences the bitter
shalt surely die." God's justice demands that the        fruits of his sins in himself and in all his relation-
sinner must die physically and spiritually. God's        ships. Death and the grave are for him the pass-
holy wrath casts the sinner far from Him, both now       ageway to hell, there to experience to the full that
and forever. Jesus had to bear that wrath in             condemning word, "Depart from Me, thou worker
complete self-surrender, both in body and soul, to       of iniquity." Dives in hell pleads for a drop of water
save us from our sins.                                   to cool the tip of his tongue for a passing second,
  God's truth demanded it. The Old Testament             but even that is refused him. In the judgment day
Scriptures had spoken of the suffering Servant of        the bodies of the wicked are raised as fit instru-
God, Who by way of suffering would lead many             ments for further agony in torment.
sons into glory. Our Lord Himself had challenged           Christ died our death. He was buried. He laid
the rulers in Jerusalem, "Destroy this temple, and       among the dead of all ages as one of them in the
in three days I will raise it up." On another            universal cemetery of this world. His death and
occasion Jesus reminded them of Jonah who was            burial were so completely like that of sinful man.


4                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     Yet, in another sense, they were so entierly dif-          Pilate had given the order to seal it as tight as possi-
ferent. He is the Son of God, Who has power over                ble. But God had His own purpose with all this. He
sin, hell, death, and the grave. Our Lord Jesus                 had kept the women  ignora-n-t-of  the death watch.
Christ had the authority and the power to change                He had blotted out of their minds the fact that the
the whole course of death and the tomb.                    tomb had been closed with a heavy stone. He had
     Christ's death followed its own unique pattern.            inclined their hearts to come to the grave early on
First He suffered the torments of hell, then He died            Sunday morning with spices and ointments to per-
our physical death, and only after that was He                  form a last ministry of love upon their departed
buried. He made His death a passageway to glory.                Lord, no, to show them the wonder of the resurrec-
                                                                tion victory. The stage was set for the glad tidings,
     Christ had already crushed the head of the                 "The Lord is risen, is risen indeed!"
serpent and destroyed the power of sin when He
raised His cry of victory on the cross. At that mo-               One more question, But why, then, must we still
ment, at three o'clock of that memorable Friday af-             die, since Christ has completely conquered over
ternoon, to be exact, Christ had passed through His        death for us?
nadir, through the lowest point of His suffering in               The answer is, that Christ has made death and
the state of humiliation. Out of the depths of hell,       the grave a passageway, not only for Himself, but
as it were, He had raised the suppliant plea, "Lord,       also for all His redeemed.
hear My voice, let thine ear be attentive to the voice            Consider a moment, we were in Christ when He
of My supplication" (Psalm 130:2). God heard Him           was crucified. As our Communion Form reminds
and drew Him to His bosom. The Son of God began            us, we were in Him so completely, "as if (we) in His
His march of victory out of the state of humiliation            (our) own person had satisfied for all His (our) sins,
toward the state of exaltation, which God had pre-         and fulfilled all righteousness." Therefore when
pared for Him at His own right hand.                            Christ died, we died in Him; when He arose, we
     Christ dies triumphantly. As Lord over death He       arose in Him; when He went to heaven, we were
has power to command death to take Him, not as its         included in Him (Ephesians 2:5,6).
prey, but as its Victor. With a loud voice Jesus bows             Therefore already now we are partakers of Christ
the head and surrenders Himself to physical death,         and of all His benefits. We are new creatures with
even as He gives His spirit into Father's hand. That       the life of our resurrected Lord in our hearts. We
same day He enters paradise, even while His body           see heaven as our future home. True, we still daily
is committed to the grave.                                 experience the struggle between the old man of sin
     Meanwhile God had prepared for Him an honor-          and the new man in Christ, yet we have the assur-
able burial. While the malefactors who had been            ance that we are more than conquerors through
crucified with Jesus possibly were cast to the vul-        Him Who loved us unto death and loves us still.
tures or laid in a shallow grave, our Lord received a             As we walk through this valley of the shadow of
proper burial. As  evidenc.e of His perfect sacrifice,     death we know that we do not live in vain. We are
not a bone of His body had been broken. The blood          privileged to devote ourselves as living sacrifices in
and water flowing from His side had showed the             thanksgiving to our God. The light of the eternal
cleansing power of His atoning suffering (John             day shining at the end of this dark valley beckons,
19:34-37). Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus               calls, urges us to carry on even until we reach our
were led by the Holy Spirit to prepare His body for        goal. And when the time of our departure arrives,
burial and to lay it away in a new grave. Once more        we leave this mortal body to be with the Lord.
the Scriptures were fulfilled, which promised that         These bodies are sown like seed in the earth, ready
He would be with the rich in His death (Isaiah             to sprout into our resurrection bodies. In that day
53:9).                                                     when the trumpet sounds, this corruption will put
     How wondrous are the ways of God, unfath-             on incorruption, this mortal will put on immortali-
omed and unknown! When night settled over the              ty, and death will be swallowed up in victory by the
garden where Jesus lay, everything stood in readi-         power of Him Who subdues all things to himself.
ness to proclaim the glorious resurrection gospel.         Hallelujah!
     The stone that was rolled in front of the tomb        I
bore the official order for everyone to "keep off."                The Standard Bearer
Intruders would be duly prosecuted. A guard had
been placed at the tomb to make doubly sure that
no man would touch that body. This was intended                   makes a  thought/id  gift
to allay the fears of the chief priests and rulers, who
heard Him speak of a resurrection from the dead.                         on any occasion.
This also soothed the guilty conscience of Pilate, for


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               5



EDITORIAL


                    The GKN on the Nature of the
                         Authority of Scripture (7)
                                              Prof. H. C. Hoekserna



   It has been a few months since we last dealt with       sing. In other words, this chapter begins already
this subject (cf. June, 1981 issue), and so we shall       with the wrong method. At the conclusion of this
briefly review what was written at that time, so           initial reference to Nathan the Wise the Report
that our readers may catch the thread.                     makes three statements, as follows:
   In the June issue we began our treatment of the               1) As Christians we cannot prove to other religions
crucial chapter of the Report/Decision of the                 which also appeal to a holy book that our Bible is the
General Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken                     only true, authoritative Word of God. The authority of
(GKN) concerning the Nature of the Authority of               Scripture is known and recognized only in faith.
Scripture. Chapter IV deals directly with this sub-             2) Others in whom we have placed much trust
ject.                                                         have testified to us of this faith and still continue to do
   However, instead of discussing immediately the             so. It is through them that we have come into contact
first section of this chapter, "The Foundation of the         with faith. If we have come to this conviction of faith,
Authority of Scripture," we proceeded to a brief              we should be thankful to them for their instruction
look at the second section, "The Historical Trust-            and we should be aware that it is only in community
                                                              with them and with the Church of all ages that we can
worthiness of the Bible." We did this because this            say what the authority of the Scripture concretely
second section offers a concrete illustration of the          means for us.
Report's view of the authority of Scripture. That               3) Living between the time when God gave His
second section flatly denies that the Bible is any            Holy Word and the end of the times, we as Christians
more historically trustworthy than are other                  can do no better than to show that the recognition of
sources. Thus it illustrates sharply and clearly that         the authority of His Word effects salvation in the
the Report/Decision indeed denies the divine au-              world.
thority of Scripture though it seeks to leave the im-        Now it is not my intention to discuss these state-
pression that it adheres to the Reformed view in a         ments in detail. In fact, it is not entirely clear to me
somewhat modified and more up-to-date form.                what the intent of these statements is. But one thing
   In the present installment of this series we return     is clear. Already at this point the Report studiously
to a discussion of the first section of Chapter IV,        avoids making any statement to the effect that the
where the Report's view of Scripture's authority is        Bible is in itself,  objectively,  of divine  authority-
set forth.                                                 period. Notice that first statement. It can, of course,
   Meanwhile, we mention parenthetically that an           be understood favorably. But it studiously avoids
English translation of this Report/Decision is now         saying anything objective of the authority of Scrip-
available. This English version is entitled God With       ture. Does Scripture have divine authority  whether
Us-on the nature of the authority of Scripture. Some       or not that authority is known and recognized in faith?
of our readers may be interested in obtaining it.          You understand, of course, the approach here is in
Write to RES Secretariat, 1677 Gentian Dr., S.E.,          complete agreement with the notion of "relational
Grand Rapids, MI 49508. The cost is $3.00 plus             truth" in the first chapter of the Report.
50~ for mailing. This  loo-page booklet will be an           But in the next part of this section the cat begins
eye-opener as to the deterioration of the  Gerefor-        to come out of the bag, so to speak.
meerde Kerken.                                               First of all, the Report employs a very old ploy
  This section of the Report begins in a very              that has been used to disparage the orthodox view
strange way. It refers not to Scripture and the Con-       of Scripture.        Similar statements are made
fessions, as might be expected of a Reformed               elsewhere in the Report. And while it is true that in
synodical study committee; but it refers to the fable      this instance the Report does not ascribe this belief
of Nathan the Wise in a play written by G.E.  Les-        to anyone, yet the very fact that it makes reference


     6                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



     to this idea shows the direction of the Report.                       Again, while there may be an element of truth in
     Notice:                                                          statements like this, the whole intent is to prepare
                                                                      the way for the idea that the Bible is not infallible
             Along with its valuable elements, the fable of Na-
           than the Wise has also various shortcomings. One that      and inerrant. This becomes plain in the immediate-
           is immediately apparent is the image of the ring.          ly following paragraph:
           Where the ring came from, who had given it its mira-               We may believe that the work of the writers also
           culous power, that the story does not tell. Especially           was done under the special care of the Holy Spirit and
           unsatisfactory is the comparison of a tangible object            that they did their work extremely conscientiously,
           with the revealed truth, the Word of God. Words can              certainly when it concerned texts which they recog-
           be transmitted only through the mediation of people;             nized as holy. Yet we have to reckon with the possi-
           they do not exist apart from those who speak, write,             bility that now and then the writers made human mis-
           hear or read them. Our Bible did not fall as an object           takes. For example they, entirely in good faith, may
           from heaven but has been given to us through the media-          have given a date to an event, which historically
           tion ofpeople.  (italics by author]                              viewed, was wrong. We shall see that the assumption
                                                                            that the original manuscripts [the so-called  autogra-
          Now I do not care for the entire reference to the                 pha) were not without error is not at all in conflict
     fable, as I said. But the one item which the Report                    with the recognition of the authority of Scripture, pro-
     finds "especially unsatisfactory" I would classify                     vided one is well-aware of the natzue of this authority.
     as satisfactory: the comparison of a tangible .object                  Actually, even if the autographa were without error
     with the revealed truth. But the Report, of course,                    that would still not help us, because of no one Bible
     does not want objective truth, only "relational                        book has the original manuscript been preserved. We
     truth." After all, what nonsense is it that words "do                  do know for a certainty that those who later trans-
     not exist apart from those who speak, write, hear or                   cribed the manuscripts century after century did
     read them?" But I am especially concerned about                        make mistakes. This appears from the copies which
     the very last statement in the paragraph just                          have been discovered.
     quoted. I recall that when Dr. Harry Kuitert spoke                    Thus the Report begins to introduce into the pit-                  .
     at the Christian Reformed Ministers' Conference a                ture the possibility of human errors in Scripture.
     good many years- ago, he made similar statements,                     The next step is to introduce the idea of a dual
     to the effect that the Bible did not simply come as a            element (divine and human) and dual authorship
     bolt out of the blue, or just drop from the sky. Here            (divine and human) in Scripture. This is done as
     the Report makes the point that "our Bible did not               follows:
     fall as an object from heaven...." Now statements
     like these are a very gross and blatant attempt to                       Even when the speaker of the Word of God was
     draw a caricature of the orthodox view of Scripture.                   gifted with the Holy Spirit (and) stood as close to the
     In response to them one can only ask: what ortho-                      scribe as was the case with Paul we do not hear solely
                                                                            the voice of the Spirit. He who reads the letters of Paul
     dox Reformed man ever taught that the Bible came                       cannot help being impressed by the fact that they also
     in that way? No one! Well, then, why bring up a                        bear the stamp of his personality. And even more so,
     matter which no one believes? Whether or not the                       of his personal life. It is as if the man Paul is somehow
     Bible fell out of the blue is not an issue and never                   present in his writings. One can therefore really not
     was an issue. And if men impute this idea to those                     speak about the divine Author without in the same
~    who hold to the absolute divine authority and                          breath mentioning the human author. The Bible is the
     origin of Scripture, they are building straw men.                      product of a special relation between God and people
                                                                            who were elected by Him.
          But, you see, this is but one step in a subtle plot
     to detract from the absolute authority and divine                     And thus we have arrived at a very old and com-
     origin of Scripture.                                             mon position, namely, that the Bible is the product
          The next step follows. After citing many Scrip-             of dual authorship, divine and human.
     ture passages in answer to the question, "Why then                    It only remains for the Report, by means of its so-
     must we nevertheless attribute divine authority to               called relational concept of truth, to refine this very
     such human work?" the Report goes on to claim:                   old error and try to make it more palatable.
     1)  In Bible times most of the authors were speakers                  Meanwhile, remember that the Report ends by
     who dictated their writings and whose words were                 contradicting our  Belgic Confession, as we shall
     written down by professional scribes.                            see.
     2) In other cases we must assume that the writers                     But about this we shall write next time.
     jotted down as carefully as possible what they re-
     membered.
     3) It also happened that words once spoken were                        Study the Standard Bearer
     for a long time passed on by oral tradition before
     they were inscripturated.                                        I                                                                  I


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      7



         .-                              Editor's Notes

Seminary Convocation. September 2 marked the                   continued support and prayers as we continue this
beginning of a new term for our Protestant Re-                 work.
formed Seminary. This year we have seven stu-                                           * * * * *
dents in our seminary department and four in our                 Publication  News. The RFPA Publications
pre-seminary department. A goodly and interested               Committee expects to come out with two signifi-
audience joined us at our Fall Convocation at                  cant paperbacks this fall. One is already being
Southeast Church on the evening of school                      printed; the other will soon be sent to the printer.
opening. Prof. Ha,nko was our convocation speaker              They will be priced at $3.95 each. The two books
this year. You can share a little in our convocation           are: We And Our Children (The Reformed Doctrine of
via the transcript of his address in this issue.               Infant Baptism)  by Prof. Hanko, and a reprint of
                        *****                                  Herman Hoeksema's  In The Sanctuary.  Both will
                                                               make excellent additions to your library of Re-
New Volume.  With this issue we begin a new                    formed literature. So why don't you join our RFPA
volume-the fifty-eighth-of our  Standard Bearer.               Book Club and make sure that you get these books
There is only one change in our staff this year: Rev.          automatically (and at 20% discount) as soon as they
Carl Haak will replace Rev. Wayne Bekkering, who               come from the press? By the way, we expect that
tendered his resignation but will function as a guest          both books will be ready well before Christmas,
writer. We have some special plans again this year;            too; and they will make excellent gifts to that friend
but we'll save them for a surprise! We cherish your            who has everything.

CONVOCATIONADDRESS


                Building With Sword and Trowel
                                                    (Nehemiah 4:13-18)
                                                      Prof. H. Hanko



  At the time Nehemiah did his work among the                     It is to this that I wish to call your attention for a
people of Judah, the Jews had been back in Judah               few moments tonight at our convocation exercises.
from captivity for some time. The temple had been                 This building of the walls of the city of God is
rebuilt and the people had planted their farms and             still the  ,essential work of the Church today.
vineyards. But the walls of the city were still lying          Throughout her history, the church must and does
in ruins, and the people, because of much discour-             continue to build the walls of Zion-not in the typi-
agement, had all but abandoned the work.                       cal sense any more in which Judah did the work,
  This report had reached Nehemiah who was cup-                but in the spiritual reality of gathering, defending,
bearer to the king of Persia in Shushan the palace.            and preserving the Church of Christ. And it is still
Upon hearing these sad tidings and praying to his              necessary to do this work with the weapons of war
God, he obtained a leave of absence from his duties            in one hand and the tools of building in the other.
to go to Judah and help with the work. This work                                      * * * *
he performed under great duress and through
many difficult  struggIes until the walls were fin-               It is not surprising that when the captives re-
ished. When the enemies of Judah launched attacks              turned from Babylon their most pressing work was
against the workers, Nehemiah armed the people                 the re-establishment of the kingdom of Judah. The
with weapons while they worked so that with one                nation, after all, represented, and indeed was, the
hand they did the work and with the other hand                 Church of God, and the people of Judah were the
they held a weapon.                                            people of God upon whom God had set His love. As


     8                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



     a step towards that goal, the people had immediate-          Scripture often compares the Church also in the
     ly set about building the temple, for the temple was       New Testament to a walled city. The Psalmist was
     the center of Judah's entire ecclesiastical life as the    speaking of the Church as well as Mount Zion
     Church. After several delays and many discourage-          when he, in Psalm 48, sang: "Mount Zion's walls
     ments the temple had been completed. The next              behold, About her ramparts go, And number ye the
     order of business was the rebuilding of the walls          lofty towers That guard' her from the foe." Even
     and the establishment of Jerusalem as the political        more explicit is our Psalter rendering of Psalm 87:
     and religious capital of the nation. Jerusalem was         "Zion, founded on the mountains, God, thy Maker,
     the seat of the throne of David, beautiful for situa-      loves thee well; He has chosen thee, most precious,
     tion, the joy of the whole earth. In fact, the very        He delights in thee to dwell." When Jesus speaks to
     existence of the people as a nation depended upon          His disciples of the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
     the rebuilding of the walls and the raising of Zion's      He likens the Church to a city with large and strong
     ramparts. Without this the nation could not and            iron gates which must be opened and shut by the
     would not long endure. The work of Nehemiah was            use of the keys. And when the prophet of Patmos
     directed to that end.                                      sees the new Jerusalem come down from God out
          But no sooner did Nehemiah begin the work, and        of heaven, the glorified and perfected Church, he
     no sooner did it become evident to the people              sees that Church as a city foursquare with founda-
     around Judah that the work was proceeding seri-            tions and gates in her walls.
     ously and with every prospect of being completed,            The Scriptures use the figure of a city with walls
     than the enemies set about attempting to defeat            to describe the Church because the Church is a
     these purposes. They tried mockery first: a fox            kingdom within a kingdom in this present world.
     jumping over the walls will knock them down.               The Church is, in this evil world where darkness
     When this failed, they marshalled their forces             and sin dwell, a foreign element, a foreign king-
     under the leadership of Sanballat and Tobiah to            dom, a strange and other-worldly people out of step
I    launch a frontal attack against the workers.  Nehe-        with the inhabitants of the world. Her King is
     miah heard of the plan and immediately armed the           Christ, her laws are the precepts of the gospel, her
     men so that they would be in a position to defend          armies march to the beat of different drummers,
     the walls and ward off the attack. When the ene-           her whole life is antithetically opposed to all that
     mies of Judah saw Judah's resolve, they abandoned          the world stands for. For this very reason, the
     their plans of a frontal assualt and decided on a          Church is a city with many enemies, a besieged city
     plan of infiltration: "And our adversaries said,           -to use the graphic figure of the prophet Isaiah, a
     They shall not know, neither see, till we come in          city which from every human point of view is con-
     the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the            stantly in perilous straits and under constant
     work to cease" (vs. 11). It was in response to this        attack. But the Lord's assurance comes to those
     threat that Nehemiah devised the strategy outlined         who inhabit the city that the gates of hell cannot
     in this passage.                                           prevail against her. She is strong and unconquer-
          Nehemiah first of all divided the available men       able in the world. But her strength lies in the
     into two groups. The one group would be responsi-          strength of her walls. And her walls are the truth of
~    ble for defense and would be constantly armed for          the Scriptures. The city, as Jesus reminds His disci-
     battle while the other half would be engaged in the        ples, is built upon the cornerstone of the confes-
     work. Of the half that were engaged in the work,           sion: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
     the carriers of bricks and mortar would carry their        God." Upon that rock Jesus builds His Church; and
     loads with one hand and carry a weapon with the            against that Church the gates of hell cannot prevail.
     other. Those who actually worked on the wall and             But for this the walls must be built.
     needed both hands to lay the bricks carried a sword          There can be no doubt about it, I think, that in
     strapped to their side. Trumpeters were placed at          our day, as in Nehemiah's day, the walls of Jerusa-
     critical spots on the walls to blow the trumpets and       lem lie in ruins. One need only look about him at
     summon all to a spot being attacked. Even while            the church of our time to see that, instead of high,
     the work went on, therefore, every man was al-             sturdy, well-maintained walls with strong towers
     ways ready to fight with his weapons at hand.              and guarded ramparts, the church has nothing but
                              * * * *                           piles of stone and rubble. The Church has not only
                                                                failed to continue to build the walls, but has failed
          This instructive and beautiful narrative of God's     to maintain what she had while the walls visibly
     Word is given to the Church as an illustration, by         crumbled before her eyes. In fact, much worse and
     way of figure, of what the calling of the Church           a great deal more saddening, the Church has turned
     continues to be throughout her history. The                her own hands systematically to tearing down the
     building of the walls of Jerusalem goes on today.          walls erected by former generations.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    9



  The Church has chosen to forget that she is a be-         Nevertheless, defense is important. Without it
sieged city in the world and has instead chosen to        the work cannot go on. If the enemy is allowed to
make alliances with her enemies round about her.          penetrate into the ranks of the workers, the work
The enemy has been allowed to enter the city.             will be stopped.
  There are especially two evidences of this. The           And so the Church, in the building of the walls,
truths of Scripture which are the stones in the walls     has the calling to engage in this aspect of the work.
are abandoned in favor of the philosophies of men.          There is a strange, but growing, reluctance to do
The heritage of the fathers is forgotten and the truth    this work today. Even within our own circles there
of God's Word is openly scorned. The enemies'             are complaints that are made against any kind of
ideas are adopted and hailed as enormously impor-         negative criticism of other views, whether that cri-
tant insights into matters of truth. The walls of the     ticism appears in the preaching or in the writings
truth crumble and fall into piles of rubble. The          published within our Churches. And these com-
second evidence of this is that the antithetical walk     plaints about criticism or erroneous views are often
of the members is lost as the Church seeks friend-        accompanied by pleas for greater tolerance of oppo-
ship with her enemies. This too results from a            sing viewpoints and doctrines that are incompatible
crumbling of the walls because when once the              with the Scriptures or the historic Reformed faith.
walls are torn down and reduced to piles of rubble,
the wicked come into the city and live with the in-         This impatience with the negative aspect of the
habitants of the city to teach them the evil ways of      defense of the faith arises out of very weak and
the ungodly. This happened in Nehemiah's day              wrong attitudes. There is often, also among us, a
when a generation of children spoke half the              lack of understanding of what constitutes sound
language of the Jews and half the language of             doctrine. There is a sad inability to differentiate, to
Ashdod.                                                   distinguish properly, to understand clearly the
                                                          sharp and careful lines which Scripture draws in
  How sad it is to see Jerusalem lie in ruins.            connection with the truth. And this is, in turn,
  But the attacks of the enemy continue unabated.         often closely connected with a lack of deep and
As in Nehemiah's day, the enemies of the Church           abiding love for the truth as it is maintained by and
do not want the walls built. They will attack either      for the cause of Christ. There is not the love of the
by frontal assaults or, if that fails, by the more        truth and of the Church which there ought to be.
gradual but deceptive device of under-cover infil-          Nevertheless, the defense of the truth against
tration so that they may attack from within.              false doctrine is essential, now also, even as it was
  We must never once forget it: the Church is             in the days of Nehemiah.
under attack today, fierce and unrelenting attack. It       All the officebearers within our Churches are
was so throughout all time; it is no less true today.     bound to this by the Formula of Subscription in
                      * * * *                             which they promise, "to refute and contradict all
                                                          errors and to exert themselves in keeping the
  The walls of Jerusalem must be built.                   Church free from such errors." All the members of
  Today also a sword is needed to engage in de-           the Church are bound to this same calling by the
fense.                                                    examples of the apostles and prophets and by the
  The weapons with which the men of Judah were            admonitions of the Scriptures to contend earnestly
armed were obviously for purposes of defense.             for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.
There is a point here which we do well to empha-          And to this calling we are urged by the testimony of
size, though it be in passing. The weapons were not       the Church of all ages. When the Church failed in
given to the workers on the walls of Jerusalem so         this aspect of her calling, her failure was marked by
that the men could engage in offensive warfare.           rapid decline and by a swift drift into false doctrine
This was not the purpose nor was it their calling.        and worldlymindedness. And when the Church
They were not called to leave the walls of the city to    stood firm and uncompromising for the truth, she
conquer the enemies' land. Our swords, too, are de-       also prospered in her calling and in faithfulness to
fensive weapons. We are not commanded to                  God.
conquer the world for Christ as some within the Re-         The sword of the defense of the faith must be
formed community would have us do. We are to be           wielded carefully. It must be wielded in the Semi-
preoccupied with building the walls. And because          nary, in the pulpit, and by all God's people, even
the enemy attacks in an effort to keep the walls          from their vantage point in the pew, for we all are
from being built, we need weapons. But the world          engaged in the battle. It must be wielded by careful
will not be gained for Christ, and we must not ven-       study of the truth, by appeal only to the Scriptures
ture forth from the walls in order to conquer the         as the rule for faith and life, with courage and fear-
strongholds of the enemy.                                 lessness, but with meekness and fear as Peter  ad-


IO                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



monishes us.                                                   There are three things which must be said about
                         * * * *                             that.
      But not only must the inhabitant of Jerusalem            In the first place, that work of building must be
fight; he must also build. The walls have to go up. It       done on the basis of what the church of the past has
is important and necessary that he fight to keep the         done.  By this I refer not only to the what the  post-
enemy out. But he must also build. He must work              apostolic church did, what the Reformers did, what
with stone and mortar; for the walls are the defense         our.own ancestors of the Reformed faith did in the
and strength of the Church. Without them the                 building of the walls. But I refer too to what is part
Church is easy prey for the wicked. Her safety lies          of the heritage of our own Protestant Reformed
in her walls.                                                Churches. God has given to us a place in that work
                                                             of developing the truth. That unique place we must
      That can be done by the development and ad-            know, and to t,hat truth we must be faithful.
vance of the truth of the Scriptures.                           Secondly, this is a task which must be performed
      There have been arid, perhaps, always will be          by the whole Church. It is not the work of the
movements of reform within the Church which are              Seminary alone. Nor is it the task of the professors
almost completely negative. These movements are              and ministers of the Word. But it is the work of the
against evils in the church: against false doctrine          whole Church. The truth can be developed only
and worldliness, against hierarchy and church poli-          when all God's people search the Scriptures, dis-
tical tyranny. Now it is certainly true that reforma-        cuss  sound doctrine, love the truth, give them-
tion in the Church begins with being against evil.           selves to the study of good literature, make the pur-
But this can never be enough. One must also be for           suit of the truth an exciting adventure. Then, and
something. One must have a sword; but one must               then only, will also the ministers preach lively and
wield the trowel with as much conviction and de-             vibrantly, and then and then only will the truth ad-
termination, with as much zeal and eagerness as he           vance and the walls of Zion go higher.
swings the sword. Else all the work will come to
nothing. He cannot stand all day on the  partially-             Thirdly, this must be done with careful regard to
finished walls fighting; he has got to get the walls         doctrine. The Seminary must concentrate on sound
built up to a point where he can find protection be-         doctrine. The pulpits must preach sound doctrine,
hind them. He cannot only fight; he has got to               instructing the people, developing the truth,
build.                                                       feeding God's sheep with the bread of life. And this
                                                             sound doctrine must be preached in such a way
      And so the Church must ever be busy with the           that the truth is reflected in the consciousness of
development of the truth. A stagnant church is a             the people of God to become their own cherished
church doomed to death. A developing Church is a             possession. Then will all work together to build the
living, vibrant, and exciting church which is strong         walls of Jerusalem, and then the Church will be
and safe in the world.                                       saf&
      The truth is contained in the Scriptures. The             Our Heidelberg Catechism tells  us  that Christ
Scriptures are God's Word. As such they an inex-             alone gathers, defends, and preserves His Church.
haustible mine of glorious truth because they re-            That He has given  us  a place and calling in this
veal the truth of God Himself in Jesus Christ as the         glorious task is reason for profound gratitude. That
God of our salvation. They are that mine out of              the work is His, in  us  and through  us,  is the hard
which are brought the stone which can be fitted              ground for all our courage to go forward in the con-
into the walls of the city of our God. That work is          fidence that Zion today too is beautiful for situation
also our calling.                                            and the joy of the whole earth. Against her the gates
      How must that be done?                                 of hell cannot prevail.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren


                      The "Wiser" Children of Men?

      I find letters to editors often interesting,  some-    secular magazine, Changing Times,  June, 1981. I
times provocative. On occasion I've quoted such              have no idea who the writer of the letter is. There is
letters. This time I quote an interesting letter from a      no indication of the writer's religion-if there is any


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           11



at all. The arguments are not based on Scripture,                by the offspring, but a mother who makes a choice for
but only upon human reasoning. Yet one must be                   something outside is telling the child that he is less im-
struck by the fact that this human reasoning warns               portant. She becomes a role model for neuroticism.
about the very thing that ought also to concern the                 As I read the article, I kept having flashes of the pic-
child of God. We ought to show concern about the                 ture in psychology books showing the pitiful baby
same subject for Scriptural, spiritual reasons.                  monkey hanging on to the wire and scrap of cloth, its
Sometimes, it seems, the children of men are                     surrogate mother. Is that what we are doing to our
"wiser" than those of the light. The writer is con-              youngsters?
cerned about "jobs vs. motherhood":                             Far more important, of course, is what Scripture
     It is heartening to read in "Making the Switch From      teaches. Children are an heritage of the Lord. Their
   Job to Full-time Mother" (Apr. issue] that somewhere       training and direction is of importance not only for
   in this country there are women self-directed enough       this life, but for that to come. There is no task, for
   to thumb their noses at an acquisitive society and rear    man or woman, more important than the proper in-
   their children.                                            struction of the covenant seed. The high calling of
     A child is not getting much if he is not getting his     women as mothers within the home ought never to
   parent's presence. Talking about "quality time" has        be degraded or mocked as some sort of inferior
   to be the ultimate cop-out. True quality time is when      position. Nor is the acquisition of earthly posses-
   the child needs the parent and the parent is imme-         sions as important as the training of our children in
   diately available-not when the parent decides to           the fear of God's Name. If those within the world
   schedule a few minutes to be attentive.                    recognize the absolute necessity of the mother in
     And what about developing self-esteem? A mother          the home, ought not we, believing the testimony of
   who has to work will be understood subconsciously          Scripture, emphasize this even more?

                                       Evils of Gambling

  Michigan is one of the states having a state-run                sion, " says state Lottery Commissioner....
lottery. And business has never been better. There                  . ..Nearly half of the daily game's 1,400 sales com-
is a recession in the country with Michigan hit                   puter terminals are in the Detroit area, state officials
hardest of all-but people have money to buy                       said. Lottery opponents note that in many of the com-
lottery tickets. The  Grand Rapids Press,  Sept. 8,               munities with high concentrations of lottery termi-
198 1, reports about this:                                        nals, the family incomes are lower than average.
     Despite the state's dismal economic picture, offi-             That irks Rep. William Ryan, D-Detroit, who says
   cials say the Michigan lottery continues to bring in           the people who spend money on the lottery are those
   plenty of money.                                               who can afford it the least....
     By the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, sales are ex-      This sin of gambling is supported by the state.
   pected to top $500 million-by far the most profitable      The consequences of the sin are evident when
   performance among the 14 states that run their own         those who can not afford to gamble, do so neverthe-
   games, according to the Council of State Govern-           less. The state has taken advantage of the greed that
   ments.                                                     is in natural man, and promotes this through its
     No matter what befalls the state, be it double-digit     constant encouragement of citizens to gamble.
   unemployment, a persistent business slump or               Gambling, or taking of "chances" has increasingly
   nagging inflation, people continue to bet, state offi-     become a part of advertising of products as well.
   cials said.                                                The child of God must not succumb to the tempta-
     "I think we're going to see the state relying more       tions of gambling. And we are called to warn and
   and more (for revenue) on what I call `enterprise          admonish all those who use their positions of au-
   activities,' like us and the Liquor Control  Commis-       thority to promote such sin.

                              And: the Evil of Abortion

  Christian  News, June 8,  1981, presents an  editori-          that abortions are required, for therapeutic reasons,
al by Haven B. Gow on abortion:                                  like the threat to the psychological or physical well-
                                                                 being of the mother. In 1954, however, the late Dr.
     Many supporters of abortion on demand maintain              Alan Guttmacher, an avid pro-abortionist, conceded


12                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



       that,  `I...it is possible for almost any patient to be        many women to procure abortions?
       brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers               One explanation for abortion is a lifestyle that, as
       from a fatal illness such as cancer or leukemia and, if        author L. Brent Bozell observed, reduces moral choic-
       so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less           es to economic choices. Since it is cheaper to procure
       save, life."                                                   an abortion than to rear a child, many would rather
         In April of this year, the Rhode Island State legisla-       kill an unborn baby than accept an economic burden.
       ture heard testimony concerning a bill to prohibit             Many would rather have a new swimming pool or a
       public funding of abortions. According to one physi-           trip to Europe than a new baby.
       cian, Dr. Joseph DiZoglio, he had questioned a                    . ..Many crave sexual "freedom" but do not want to
       number of physicians who performed abortions and               accept responsibility for their deeds. Abortion
       all had informed him that "they have never per-                becomes an easy, quick, cheap and convenient "solu-
       formed an aboriton for medical reasons." Dr. DiZoglio          tion" for a tragic and embarrassing problem and what
       also pointed out that one abortionist (who had per-            results is the destruction of unborn human lives.
       formed between 15 and 20 thousand abortions) openly           Abortion is, of course, murder. The sin is terrible
       and candidly confessed that not one of the abortions
       he performed was ever performed because it was "ab-         in the sight of God Who has condemned murder in
       solutely necessary."                                        His commands. Yet the evil continues to grow. We
                                                                   must also unceasingly condemn this terrible sin
         . ..If most abortions are not performed for therapeu-     which is officially and legally approved within our
       tic reasons, then what are the reasons that motivate so     nation.

                                     "Biblical Universalism"?

      The  R.E.S. News Exchange,  July 7, 1981, contains               commended for this study and for his courage in pub-
a review of a very controversial book, Unconditional                   lishing it.
Good News, by Rev. Neal Punt. The review is by                        I guess that not much need be said of the above.
Dr. Sierd Woudstra:                                                Neither the reviewer nor the writer of the book
         The writer of this provocatively stimulating book,        gives much indication for a love of and appreciation
       the Rev. Neal Punt, is a minister in the Christian          for the old Reformed confessions. One can truly
       Reformed Church of North America....                        wonder how any can remain within the circle of
         Punt bases his perspective on what he calls "A            the Reformed camp while holding to the above
       fresh approach to the universalistic texts" [heading of     positions. Notice two things: there is expressed the
       chapter V). He contends that these "passages should         desire to find Scriptural grounds to say to everyone,
       be approached with the assumption that there is a           "Christ died for you." This is an attempt to deny
      sense in which the Bible can say `all persons are            the truth of "Limited" atonement. One can under-
       saved', or `all persons are elect in Christ' " (32). In     stand such a contention from the Arminian, but
       Punt's judgment "these texts (which he discusses in-
       dividually in chapter VI) speak of an actual salvation      hardly from one who claims to hold to the Canons
       and not merely of a potential or provisional salvation"     of Dordt. Notice too that there is the attempt made
       (33). That is why Punt confidently asserts that "all are    to say that those who never heard the gospel (in the
/      elect in Christ except those who the Scripture declares     Old Testament age when Israel was God's people,
       will be lost"  (731, namely, "all and only those who        and in the New Testament age where some have
       persistently and ultimately refuse to respond to the        never heard the gospel) can also be saved.  Woud-
       call of the gospel." (27).                                  stra claims that Punt also insists that all children
         Punt's approach has an undeniable pastoral attrac-        who die in infancy are saved. (One might ask about
       tiveness to it. Everlasting damnation is almost too         the babies who drowned at the time of the flood-
       fearful to contemplate. It would also account for the       and their ultimate destiny. If these were all saved,
       possibility of salvation for the millions who lived         and God did not deem it necessary to bring them
       before Christ and were never part of Old Testament          into the ark, the flood was of real advantage to mil-
       Israel as well as those millions whom the church            lions besides Noah and his family.) One might also
       failed to reach with the saving Gospel. God Himself         be inclined to follow such teaching with the
       is a "universalist" (Ezek. 33:11, I Tim. 2:4) and those     thought that it is better that the heathen never
       who profess His name should be nothing less. This re-
       viewer deeply appreciates what Punt aims to do in           heard the preaching and that all babies (also ours)
       this study: to make it possible on Scriptural grounds to    were to die in infancy. But Scripture knows of no
       say to everyone, "Christ died for you." I was happy to      such nonsense. God saves His elect people in Jesus
       read Punt's insistence that all children who died in in-    Christ (Eph.  1:4). Punt's position represents, per-
       fancy are saved (see chapter XI). Punt is to be             haps, the ultimate conclusion to the teaching of the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               13



first point of common grace which speaks of the            must steadfastly maintain the scriptural teaching
free offer of the gospel. The Reformed churches            which is expressed in our Canons so emphatically.

THEDAYOFSHADOWS


            The Rough Speech of a Tender Love
                                                Rev. John A. Heys


  An aged father in the land of Canaan sat in the          like of which men in Egypt had never seen before.
doorway of his tent. His mortal frame revealed how         Before these nine years Joseph had served as that
heavily the burden of his one hundred and thirty           slave in Potiphar's house, and perhaps a year in pri-
years, as a pilgrim and stranger here below, had           son. We may be sure then that it was ten years
weighed down upon him. The fleshly tent or taber-          later, and the possibility of fifteen is not wholly to
nacle in which his soul dwelt (II Corinthians  5:l)        be rejected. But the point I wish to make is that al-
showed definite signs of wear and tear; and he             though they wanted to do so, these ten brothers
knew that it was but a matter of time, and then that       were not able all that time to erase from their minds
tent would no longer be a fit abode for the soul,          the cruel and wicked thing which they had done to
and, as Solomon declared, the spirit would return          Joseph.
to God Who gave it. His face was lined with evi-              How could they? Daily they saw the grief written
dence of a deep grief and sorrow that had torment-         on the face of their father; and they knew what
ed his soul ever since ten of his twelve sons had          caused him all that grief. When they appeared
brought him the blood-stained coat of his most be-         before Joseph in Egypt-not recognizing him as
loved,son,  and had led him thereby to believe that        their brother-they said, in Genesis  42:21, 22, "We
this son had been slain by a wild beast.                   are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we
  Far to the south and west, and in the land of            saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us,
Egypt, this son, now thirty years old, was not only        and we would not hear; therefore is this distress
very much alive but also very highly exalted in the        come upon us. And Reuben answered them saying,
Egyptian kingdom. He had known slavery, having             Spake I not to you, saying, Do not sin against the
been sold by his ten brothers for twenty pieces of         child; and ye would not hear? therefore his blood is
silver unto the Ishmaelites, who in turn sold him to       required." We must not think that this was a
the captain of the king's guard to be his slave. He        sudden thought that now in this predicament sud-
also knew imprisonment, for, being unjustly                denly rose before their consciousness. After only
accused of attempted rape, he was without a                ten years, the memory of such evil by men so filled
hearing cast into the dungeon. But the God of his          with the fury of anger would have become quite
fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob brought him up           dim and would have dealt only with generalities.
out of that prison to be so highly exalted in the king-    But now they speak of a very clear and vivid re-
dom that he was answerable only to the king. And           membrance of the anguish of their brother's soul
the very life of the nation was entrusted to his care      which they saw and would not consider. They had
and rule. He was now a married man and had two             guilty consciences all these years and were fearful
sons. Grandsons these were of that aged father in          that their sins would find them out. And it was not
the land of Canaan, grandsons whom he had never            caused simply by that grief which they saw of their
seen and whose very existence he could not have            father. Indeed God kept this grief there for them to
believed to be possible.                                   see. But His Spirit and His grace gave them no rest.
  From ten to fifteen years had passed since this          And His grace is preparing the way for them to con-
aged father had been so cruelly deceived and this          fess this great evil.
son had been so wickedly removed from the family             Memory is a wonderful gift of God which He
circle. Seven of these years were a time of feasting       uses to make His children know the misery of their
and of greatly satisfying increase in the fields, so       sinful condition. And as we remember our past sins
that far more grew than could possibly be                  the knowledge of our sins and misery grows. The
devoured, and was prudently stored away for                years must not dim our awareness of our evil and
future use. Then two years of these ten to fifteen         guilt before God, but must in God's grace bring us
years saw disaster in the fields and crop failures the     to the point where we cry out with the psalmist,


14                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



"Mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an              unpleasant. The word may also be translated as
heavy burden they are too heavy for me" (Psalm               sharp or hard. In either instance it stands contrast-
38:4). The Spirit must then bring us in that                 ed with what is pleasant and enjoyable, and speaks
miserable state to the cross, and so to the only com-        of what brings suffering to one degree or another,
fort in life and in death, that we with body and soul        in one way or another. And Joseph's words there-
belong to our faithful Saviour Who fully satisfied           fore were designed to make his brothers suffer, not
for all our sins by His precious blood and delivered         through physical violence but by pricking them in
us from the power of the devil. The memory, and              their hearts.
then the memory of sin is so important in that faith           Now whether we are speaking of punishment as
and comfort. And so with `consciences that                   giving one that which one deserves because of
bothered them all these years, with memory of                one's evil deeds, or as chastisement, that is, as a
their evil, which God gave them and would not let            deed of love to seek to correct and save, let us get it
slip from their minds, and in the dreadful situation         straight: IT MUST HURT! If it does not hurt either
in which they found themselves before Joseph,                physically or psychically, the treatment loses its
these ten brothers confess that which they had               power and has no effect, either to correct or to
never confessed before. They confessed that they             teach that crime does not pay. Our whole penal sys-
sinned against God and that God had now come to              tem here in our country fails so miserably so often
visit them for their sins; that they had manifested          for that very reason. Criminals, lawbreakers, in-
not only hatred against Joseph, but against God. We          jurious persons, those who commit violence and
are, however, running ahead of the Scriptural ac-            immoral deeds, thieves and even traitors of the
count, and we ought to go back a step or two to un-          country dare to complain that their accommoda-
derstand what is taking place here in Egypt.                 tions in prison are not luxurious enough, and are
      Although in his deep grief and sorrow Jacob lost       too confining. Though they illegally made life
all his appetite, and ate only because his body              miserable for others, they dare to say that the au-
called for nourishment, he realized also the need of         thorities may not make life miserable for them. In
food for his children and their children. And so,            some instances they live in more comfort and
having heard that food could be purchased in                 luxury, with more delicious and expensive meals
Egypt, he sent his ten sons to meet the son that they        than many law abiding citizens. Yet they claim that
had sold for twenty pieces of silver. He is not aware        these should supply them with what is smooth,
of that aspect of the mission; and neither were the          comfortable, and a joy to the flesh. And then when
ten brothers. But God is arranging a confrontation           they have served their sentences they have to go
and a fulfillment of Joseph's dreams. One it is in           back to stealing and murder to seek to obtain the
which the brothers are at once recognized by                 higher standard of living they had while "incarcer-
Joseph; but Joseph's identity is completely hidden           ated." In jail they had color TV sets. Returning
by those years and his Egyptian dress, and perhaps           home to their black and white sets they are not sat-
Egyptian goatee and hair style. The brothers have            isfied. They had it better in some respects in prison
not the slightest inkling of his identity. No one is         and must go out to change things by theft, even if it
farther from their minds than Joseph as they bow             requires murder. Accustomed to well-prepared,
before him in the land into which they sold him.             many-course meals on holidays while "paying for
      And now, take note, this brother, who had been         their crime," they cannot adjust to less upon re-
abused and maltreated so shamefully, speaks to               turning home; and they violate the law again to
these ten instruments of cruelty through an inter-           maintain the joys and pleasures of the  well-
preter . though he knew their language and spoke to          equipped athletic facilities and gear that were theirs
them in it at a later date-and speaks roughly to             during the time when they should have had rough
them, both as far as tone of voice and as to content         treatment to teach them that crime does not pay.
are concerned. For he accused them of being spies,           And they who trampled on the rights of others are
that is, deceitful men, men of fraud, men who hide           supposed to have rights to defend themselves in
the truth, persons who pose to be what they are              living outside the law. A man caught in the act of
not.                                                         attempted or &en real murder is only a suspect,
      But let me caution you not to misunderstand            not a murderer!
Joseph in his actions and accusation. Let me warn              But look at yourself, as I had to do just before
you not to entertain evil thoughts concerning him.           writing these lines, after experiencing for four
Carefully analyze the whole situation before you             weeks unrelenting, constant, severe pain, and
make any judgment. And by all means strive to see            while flat on my back. Do you hear the Word of
the divine principle behind his handling of the mat-         God in each pain? He speaks in it. And rather than
ter.                                                         complain, rather than ask, "Why am I thus? Why
      It is true that what is rough hurts, or at least is    did this have to happen to me?" we do well to ask,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               15



"And what does God say in EVERY pain? Why is               pains for the longest time in this life has only
our way so rough here below?" And the answer is            scratched the suriace of the torments of hell where
not simply that our light affliction works for us a far    the awful pain never ends.
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It is            And God uses our miseries to bring us to the
not to be glossed over with the statement that all         cross where alone there is hope of the wiping away
things work together for good to those that love           of our tears and the complete removal of the curse.
God.                                                       And He uses pain and a rough way to bring us to
  All the above is true, but to see this and to appre-     this knowledge of our sin and guilt, to confession of
ciate it we have to go back and deeper into the mat-       it, and so to the cross for deliverance from it. For
ter. We are so often too carnal, too unspiritual to        only in the way of knowing our sins as sins against
hear it, or even to link the two together. But every       God does He show His Son as the Deliverer. And to
bit of rough treatment that God gives us should at         know our sins we must know the pain and penalty
orzce remind us of sin, should bring us back to para-      which God metes out and sends upon sin.
dise and make us hear God say, "Cursed is the                Joseph, therefore, rather than being a cruel, vin-
ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all    dictive seeker of vengeance, is an instrument in
the days of thy life: Thorns and thistles (and how         God's hand to bring his brothers to this knowledge
rough and sharp they are) shall it bring forth to          and confession. It was love that moved him, and
thee...In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread..     then spiritual love. That is why he had to turn from
. . " Sin and pain are inseparable. Every pain should      them and weep (Genesis 42:24). That is why he put
at once bring us to the remembrance that in Adam           their money in their sacks. These were not deeds of
we are all guilty and deserving of far more severe         revenge but of love. Rough sandpaper makes a
pains than those that we at the moment suffer. By          smooth surface. When God uses rough sandpaper
one man sin entered the world and death by sin             upon you, do not pray that He will change it for
(Romans 5: 12). Death we deserve above all the tem-        smooth silk and satin. Pray that He may first
poral pains; and death for the unpardoned sinner           smooth out your life and make you see His
opens the door to hell for him. And that man or            correcting love in Christ.
woman who has suffered the most excruciating

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Rev. J. Kol-teriug


                 Acts-Christ Gathers His Church
                                           (conclusion)

  The outline sets forth in some detail how Christ         First Luke concentrated on certain areas of
gathered the church during the years immediately           missionary activity, not on all of them. The two
following the presence of the Holy Spirit. Let us          leading missionaries were Peter and Paul. Many
now examine some of the distinctive features of            others labored as well, but these two were the focal
this book.                                                 point of his attention. Secondly, and this is parallel
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES                                       with the above, Jerusalem was seen as the center
                                                           out of which Peter worked and Antioch was seen as
   1. Since the contents of this book deal with the        the center out of which Paul worked. There were
early missionary activity, it stands to reason that        other areas of labor, e.g. Egypt and Spain, yet little
the book contains the methods by which the Holy            attention was given to them. The main purpose of
Spirit gathers the church. A few examples: a               the Holy Spirit is to show that the power of the
missionary must be ordained and sent out by the            gospel was great in Asia and Europe, especially
church  (13:2,  3); his labor must begin at home and       Rome, which became the center of the entire world
reach out from there; the Jews first and then the          at that time. Christ gathers His church from the
Gentiles (13:14,42); and many others.                      whole world. Thirdly, the greatest detail is given
  2. The evaluation of the progress of these mis-          concerning those events in which Luke was person-
sionaries must be seen in the light of certain things.     ally involved and present with Paul.


16                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



      3. Since Acts is history, it also contains many    is it important for us to be a member of the church?
sermons and messages which the apostles                    4. Why do you suppose the resurrection of
preached. Here, too, we.can learn two truths. First,     Christ has such a prominent place in the preaching?
the method of missionary activity is preaching, and,     Look up examples of sermons in the book of Acts
secondly, the content of that preaching is the Word      and demonstrate its importance.
of God. Great emphasis is laid upon Christ and the
Holy Spirit. The word is from the living Christ Who        5. Do you think that the decision by the apostles
sent His Spirit to gather the church.                    to choose a replacement for Judas was hasty and
                                                         probably wrong? Did God intend Paul to be the re-
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION                                 placement (see 1: 12-26)?
      1. Compare the opening words of this book with       6. Why were there miracles that accompanied
the Gospel of Luke and discover for yourself the         the preaching? Should the same be true today?
similarity. How does Acts compliment Luke?               Explain.
      2. List as many principles for missionary            7. Do you think Paul compromised on the gospel
methods as you can which you can draw from the           when he preached for the Jews on their Sabbath
example of Paul. Be specific and refer to passages       (13:44ff.), or on Mars' Hill when he referred to
from the book. For help you can consult Wm. Hen-         Jehovah as "The unknown god" (Acts 17:16-31)?
driksen's  Bible Survey,  pages 201-208, where he
gives six examples.                                        8. Would you say that the response to the gos-
                                                         pel, some believed and many opposed, is normative
      3. After reading this book of Acts, what impor-    for the church of all ages? Explain.
tance can you see for the instituted church and why


                    Romans-Justification by Faith

      We now turn to yet another of Paul's letters       background of his learning and life. He and his
which he wrote to the churches, this one to the          writing stand distinct from other writers, e.g. Luke
church at Rome. As you know, this was by no              or Peter.
means the first letter which he wrote. Our English         Paul was from Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia. In all
Bible does not follow the order of chronology,           probability, Paul received his early training from
rather the books are arranged by subject matter.         this important city. It was one of the great learning
We have first the gospels, then the Acts, then a         centers of his day, along with Alexandria and
series of letters known as epistles, concluded with      Athens. Here Paul received his early knowledge of
the prophetic book of Revelation. Paul had already       the classics, including the Greek authors. Paul
written Galatians, I and II Thessalonians, as well as    makes reference to this knowledge in Titus  1:12,
I and II Corinthians before he wrote Romans. We          "one of themselves even a prophet of their own,
shall see this in greater detail as we go along.         said, the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow
THE AUTHOR                                               bellies." Not only did he learn about many facts of
      Paul identified himself in the letter to the       his day, he also learned the disciplined method of
Romans as its author: "Paul, a servant of Jesus          refutation. It was a mark of scholarship to think
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the      logically, to reason carefully what one intended to
gospel of God...to all that be in Rome, beloved of       say. Paul stands out among all the Bible authors as
God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace         being able to set forth the ultimate principle of
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"           truth and then to demonstrate its reality. Under the
(l:l, 7). With this assertion, practically all Bible     providence of God, Paul was trained in this art and
scholars agree.                                          God used it for the sake of the gospel.
      Since this epistle demonstrates as much, if not      Paul also may have learned his skill at tentmak-
more than any other written by the apostle, the          ing here in his hometown. The province of Cilicia
capability of Paul as a writer, we do well to review     thrived on the trade of tentmaking. The material
a bit of his background. This is not done in an' at-     was produced from the hair of goats which was
tempt to discredit the reality of divine inspiration.    woven into rough cloth used forkthis purpose.
The epistle to the Romans shows that God used              We would fail to understand Paul's training if we
Paul, as a living instrument, who wrote from the         leave the impression that all his training was in the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 17



culture of the Greeks. He made reference to his              There is no historical support for the idea that
education in his appeal before the Jews in Jerusa-         Peter had gone to Rome and labored there. This can
lem; "I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in            be seen most clearly in that the church of Rome
Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city     was a Gentile church and Peter was the missiotiary
at the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the        to the Jews. The Romish church which teaches that
perfect manner of the law of the fathers and wax           Peter was the first pope at Rome is beating at the
zealous toward God, as ye all are this day" (Acts          wind.
22:3). At what age we do not know, but Paul as a             We do learn from the Bible that there were Jews
Jew soon moved to Jerusalem to pursue a thorough           in Rome. After the great dispersion, they fled from
Jewish education. This he received from one of the         Jerusalem throughout the world. We read that
greatest Jewish scholars of his day, Gamaliel. This        some of them had travelled from Rome to Jerusa-
too is significant under the providence of God, for        lem and were present at Pentecost (Acts  2:lO).
Paul knew the Jewish argument about work righ-             Upon their return to Rome they took with them the
teousness by the keeping of the law better than            gospel of Jesus Christ. Later Priscilla and Aquila
most Jews themselves. In this way he was able to           had gone from Rome to Corinth at the time when
overthrow all their notions of salvation by the keep-      Claudius had banished all Jews from the city (Acts
ing of the law, and over against that he set forth         18:2). It seems they were already Christians when
Jesus Christ and His righteousness which becomes           Paul met them at Corinth for we do not read of
ours through faith in His perfect work.                    their conversion at that time. Subsequently they
  One more thing ought to be mentioned in con-             returned to Rome and labored there, for in this
nection with Paul's learning. He makes the point in        epistle Paul extends his greetings to them as part of
Galatians 1: 11,  12,  "But I certify to you, brethren,    the church at Rome (16:3).
that the gospel which was preached of men is not             The church then must have been composed of a
after man. For I neither received it of man, neither       few Jews and mostly converted Gentiles. In this let-
was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus            ter Paul addresses the church as Gentiles  (1:13).
Christ." One indication of apostleship was that a          Over the years, Paul had made acquaintance with
true apostle received his learning from Christ. Paul       some of them and thus he was interested in their
came later and under the providence of God re-             welfare to the point that he would like to come to
ceived such instruction by immediate revelation.           them.
He did not have to depend upon other men; rather
he also sat literally at the feet of Jesus, though some      We can well imagine what the spiritual condition
years later. This referred not only to the appearance      of such a church was, in such a large (over a million
of Christ to him on the Damascus road, but in all          people) and influential city. Since the church was
likelihood to his special training when he was in          Gentile, attacked by many Jews who resided in the
Arabia (Gal. 1:17).                                        city, the apostle viewed the needs of that church as
                                                           an example of many churches. The letter to Rome
THE CHURCH AT ROME                                         contains a message sorely needed by almost all the
  Paul did not labor directly in Rome for the estab-       Gentile churches. It deals with the attack by the
lishment of the church there. He was influential in        Jews that only the children of Abraham and the cir-
an indirect manner, for the Christians that were in        cumcised had favor with God, and if one was in
the church were benefitted by the ministry of Paul.        such a position he was in special favor with God.
Paul did not come personally to Rome until the end           There was a great need for the great theme of
of his life, when he had appealed to Caesar.               justification through faith.

GUESTARTICLE

          The Pastoral Character of the Canons
                                                Rev. Ronald Hanko


  There are, undoubtedly, many reasons why                 and denominations often forget that they are part of
wholesale departure from Scripture truth is so char-       the Church of all ages, and that, also with regard to
acteristic of Reformed Churches today, but not             doctrine, they stand in organic connection with the
least among those reasons is the fact that Churches        Church of the past. If the Church is faithful to the


18                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



truth then she is built on the foundation of apos-          heritage, is the fact that the Canons, even more
tolic doctrine and prophetic teaching, and by the           than the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Con-
grace of God that doctrine and that teaching is an          fession, are deliberately, deeply, and warmly
inheritance received from the faithful Church of            pastoral in their presentation of the great truths of
years past. It is not only to her disgrace but to her       the Christian faith.
own ruin that the Church forgets this.                        When we speak of the pastoral character of the
      For Reformed Churches, perhaps more than any          Canons, we mean not only that the Canons set forth
others, this heritage of truth is to be found in their      sound doctrine, but that in the Canons these doc-
creeds. Those creeds or confessions are the fruit of        trines (including the doctrines of election and rep-
hard study, careful interpretation, and life-long de-       robation) are applied in a very practical and person-
fense of the Word of God by those who have gone             al way to the difficulties and problems of the Chris-
before, and it is through faithful use of those creeds      tian life. That is, after all, what pastoral work is all
that we as Reformed Christians "come into" our in-          about: the personal, private application of the Word
heritance. The trouble is that Reformed Churches            of God to the needs of God's saints. From that per-
today, almost without exception, are Churches               spective the Canons are in a very real sense, "The
without a heritage, not because they have discard-          Pastor's Handbook," and can be used (often and
ed their creeds but because they have neglected             with much profit) by the officebearers of the
them. The creeds are useful and profitable only in          Church in their pastoral labors.
so far as they are used in the preaching, the teach-          One example is the problem of lack of assurance
ing, and in all the work of the Church. Through             of salvation, very troubling to those who are seek-
neglect of her creeds, a Church cuts herself off            ing such assurance, and a problem which ministers
from the organism of the Church and lays herself            of the Gospel must oftentimes face in pastoral
open to the withering influence of false teaching           counseling. The Canons have much to say here.
and worldliness.                                            They speak in general of the fact that God's people
      The argument is that the creeds which we have         not only may but do obtain the assurance of elec-
are not useful. They were written at a time when            tion, forgiveness, and eternal life (I, 12 and V, 9);
cold, abstract discussion of obscure doctrinal points       and they reject the error of those who teach "that
was the order of the day, but now the Church has            there is in this life no fruit and no consciousness of
progressed from such dogmatic argumentation to              the eternal election to glory, nor any certainty" (I,
real, meaningful activity. The creeds are full of           B, 7). So too, the Canons emphatically declare that
scholasticism, are far removed from the simple,             this assurance does not come in the way of some
practical teaching of Scripture, and are therefore,         kind of subjective "revelation" but always in
all but useless in the Church of Jesus Christ. The          connection with the Word of God and the work of
strange thing is, however, that this attitude is fos-       the Spirit as He applies that Word to us (V, 10 and
tered by those who also want nothing to do with the         14).  At the same time the Canons do not let us for-
so-called practical teaching of the Scriptures on           get that this assurance is very closely connected
such matters as women in office and homosexu-               with a sanctified walk and even warn against all
ality. Nonetheless, this attitude does find fertile soil    carnal security, licentiousness, rash presumption,
in the ignorance of the creeds which is so wide-            wanton trifling with the grace of election, and stub-
spread, even among those of Reformed heritage.              born refusal to walk in the ways of the elect (I,  12,
      Among those who subscribe to our "Three               13  and V, 10, 12 and  13), speaking of the "grievous
Forms of Unity," the Heidelberg Catechism, the              torments of conscience" which this produces (V, 5
Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dordt, this            and 13). Thus, too, there is the necessity of watch-
attitude is found especially in respect to the              ing and prayer (V, 4).
Canons. So generally are the Canons considered to             Nor do the Canons forget that this assurance is
be "outdated" that there are few any more who               not given to all in the same measure (I, 12) and that
know anything about them. There are few who                 there are some "who do not yet experience a lively
know that the Canons, in five chapters or "heads,"          faith in Christ, an assured confidence of souls, (and)
defend, prove from Scripture, the "Five Points of           peace of conscience," or, again, some "who cannot
Calvinism." Many do not even know what the                  yet reach that measure of holiness and faith to
"Five Points" are. Even fewer know that rather              which they aspire" (I, 16). To these the Canons
than speaking of errors which vanished from the             speak with comfort of not being alarmed at the
Church hundreds of years ago, the Canons deal               mention of reprobation, or of ranking themselves
pointedly and Scripturally with those errors which          among the reprobate, but of persevering in the use
are troubling the Church today. But perhaps the             of the means of grace and humbly waiting for a sea-
most surprising thing of all to those who to a greater      son of richer grace, quoting the promise of a "mer-
or lesser degree are ignorant of their Reformed             ciful God" that He will not quench the smoking


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 19



flax or break the bruised reed (I, 16). In the midst of     of the Gospel as the God-appointed means of grace,
our temptations, the Canons say, we are not always          the neglect of which is always and again a matter of
sensible of the full assurance of faith, but we must        "pastoral" concern (I, 3; III  & IV, 6 and V,  14), and
not forget that God, Who is the Father of all conso-        they warn that it is "tempting God" to separate His
lation, does not suffer us to be tempted above what         grace from the means that He in His wisdom has
we are able, but always makes a way of escape that          chosen to bring that grace to His people (III  & IV,
we may be able to bear it, quoting Scripture once           17).
again and adding the promise that by His Spirit God           Other examples of the pastoral character of our
always renews that "comfortable assurance" (V,              Canons can easily be found, but the point is that the
11).  We are even assured that it is impossible for         Church is standing on solid ground when she,
God's people to commit the "sin unto death" (V, 6).         through her offices, brings the Word of God in con-
  In connection with the doctrine of election, the          nection with the Confessions which she has re-
Canons address another soul-wrenching question,             ceived from the Church of the past. There is com-
that of the salvation of the children of believers          fort even in knowing that it is the same truth, as ex-
who die in infancy. Also here the Canons bring rich         pounded and set forth in our Confessions, which
comfort, quoting I Corinthians 7: 14 and assuring us        builds up the Church of Jesus Christ today as well
that "godly parents have no reason to doubt of the          as 400 years ago; comfort also for those who bring
election and salvation" of such infants (I, 17). What       that Word, that they are not facing new problems,
could be more comforting than that to godly                 but problems which have always been found in the
parents who must bring a little one to the grave,           Church, the solution to which the Church has
and what more pastoral on the part of the minister          always found in God's holy Word. Without our
than to bring them that confession of the Church?           confessions, or in ignorance of them we have every
  These are just two examples; there are many               reason to feel that we stand alone, and reason also,
others. The Canons speak of our attitude both               therefore, to be afraid. But through our confes-
toward those who live "regular lives" and toward            sions, that is, through faithful use, faithful study,
those who have not yet been called, warning                 faithful reading of our confessions, including the
against the sins of pride and of judging others (III &      Canons, we stand in living connection with the
IV,  15). They speak of the practical importance and        Church of all ages "fair as the moon, clear as the
comfort of the doctrines of election and the perse-         sun, and terrible as an army with banners" before
verance of saints (I, 6, 14 and V, 15). They have           which even the devils tremble and fear.
much to say about the importance of the preaching

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                            Signs in the Church (II):
                                Apostasy in the Pew
                                                   Rev. K. Koole


    "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in              both in the doctrines which heretics boldly assail
   the latter times some shall depart from the              (the infallibility of the Scripture; "denying even the
   faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and              Lord Who bought them") and the rapidity with
   doctrines of devils;" I Timothy 4: 1                     which it over-runs the church ("they shall deceive
    "And they shall turn away their ears from               many' ' -Matt. 24: 11). We focused on the pulpit last
   the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."             time, as it takes the lead in leading the church
    (II Tim. 4:4)                                           down the road of apostasy. In this article we turn
                                                            our attention to the pew.
  We stated in our last article that Christ prophe-
sied that in the days shortly before the end of the           What must be underscored is that not only do
world and the final judgment upon the false church          false prophets bear responsibility for the apostasy
there will be rampant apostasy (Matt.  24:10-13).           evident in the Protestant churches of our day, but
There has always been apostasy in the church, but           the pew also bears great responsibility. There can
the apostasy of the latter times distinguishes itself       be no apostasy in a congregation or denomination


20                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



unless the pew co-operates (which co-operation can         icy wind of worldliness.
come either by outright assent or by silent proxy).           As Paul warned Timothy, "For the time will
False prophets can not flourish in a church where          come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
they get no hearing, where the pew protests (imme-         but after their own lusts shall they heap to them-
diately, not two or three generations down the             selves teachers, having itching ears" (II Tim. 4:3).
line), and where the elders are willing to suspend
and depose out of a zeal for the truth.                       Apostasy begins with a generation that is simply
      The only antidote for apostasy is members of the     indifferent toward things spiritual. They are willing
church who care more about the truth than about            to put up with a little heresy. It is not worth split-
the feelings of the heretics, however nice they may        ting over. They seem to think it will die out of itself.
be. After all, heretics are always nice men with like-     They are sadly mistaken. They forget that a little
able personalities who attract young disciples and         leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
who have their sympathizers. Arminius is an out-              In time there comes a generation whose souls are
standing example. In Matthew  7:15  Christ likens          absolutely vexed by sound doctrine. They can not
false prophets to wolves in sheep clothing. Though         endure it. It sets their teeth on edge. So they shut
they have the heart of a wolf, they have the de-           their pulpits to those who preach the truth. And
meanor of a sheep. For this reason Peter warns of          they develop itching ears. They are not content to
those "who privily shall bring in damnable here-           hear the old ways, the time-tested truths, but their
sies" (II Peter 2: 1). They are subtle, not vicious. We    ears itch for something new and' astonishing. So
must take care not to be deceived. They are to be          they are forever scratching their ears with the
expelled for what they preach, not for how they            newest remedy on the doctrinal market. They heap
appear.                                                    to themselves false prophets. They want a continu-
  The point is, in our day and age, the pew sup-           al supply of original ideas. They abhor expository
ports and encourages false prophets. Protestants           preaching. It is too serious and boring. The empha-
like nice men, who say what they want to hear.             sis falls on style, not content. They want to be en-
They do not take to men like stern Elijah, or per-         tertained by famous names and with big produc-
sistent Jeremiah, men like the staunch Athenasius,         tions. What they want is to have their senses stimu-
and crusty Gomarus, and blunt old Ophoff, men              lated, rather than their hearts.
who were unflagging opponents of error, who put               Such we see happening in our day. The words of
the truth before popularity or following. No, they         Jeremiah  5:30, 31 are most appropriate. "A won-
like men who speak smooth, soothing words, men             derful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
who have a certain sophisticated charisma about            the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear
them, men who are more concerned about a follow-           rule by their means; and my people love to have it
ing than about principle. The prime examples are           so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" That's
the freshly manicured TV personalities whose               the point-"my people love to have it so." The
"gospel" hurts no one's feelings. The last thing they      blame does not fall simply upon the deceptive pro-
want is to be "guilty" of convicting people of the         phets. Rather the people are deceived with their
guilt of their sins. Such preachers the pew                own consent. They are seduced willingly. And how
welcomes in our day.                                       eagerly and shamelessly the pew flirts with her de-
  Christ, of course, predicted this. "Because ini-         ceivers is astonishing and a sign of the time.
quity shall abound, the love of many shall wax               Remember that the words of Jeremiah describe
cold." Christ is talking here not about the world,         the Old Testament church shortly before the judg-
but about the Christian church. Their love would           ment of God came by way of the Babylonian Cap-
wax cold, their love for the truth, for God's Holy         tivity. So it comes again. God will deal in such a
Name, their love of serving God and being subject          way with those whose ears itch, that the ears of
to His good commandments. And as their love for            those who hear of God's judgment will tingle (Jer.
God's Word flickers and wanes, false prophets              19:3).
multiply like rabbits, wax bold as lions, and like           For our own instruction, what we must remem-
dragons dare to expound bigger and bigger lies,            ber is that blatant apostasy and infatuation with
denying the most fundamental truths. And people            false prophets starts rather innocently, without
swallow those lies without blinking.                       notice. In a word, it starts with the loss of the First
  So it is in our day. Iniquity abounds, and people        Love. A people lose their first love. The hearing of
have become numbed to it and by it. People of the          the truth does not warm them as it once did. They
church become so enthralled with the pleasures of          begin to take it for granted. And from there they
worldly entertainment and iniquity that their flame        slide out into the shute of indifference and worldli-
sputters, and in a few generations it goes out com-        mindedness, and on into the ever-accelerating apos-
pletely. The love of God's truth is blown out by the       tasy, to the bitter end, the cold, icy clutches of the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 21



false church.                                                I say again, do not underestimate pew pressure.
  The loss of one's first love is no little matter.        Ministers are certainly conscious of it. The pew has
John's words to the church of Ephesus bears this           clout. It can easily influence the pulpit for good or
out. "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee,           evil. In times of controversy the temptation is al-
because thou hast left thy first love. Remember            ways to tailor the sermon to the preferences of the
therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent          congregation. Who cares to step off the pulpit into a
and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee      hornet's nest which one's words have stirred up?
quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his        The temptation is not only to say the things which
place, except thou repent" (Rev.  2:4, 5). The             please the dominant group of the congregation, but
warning is that the loss of a people's first love will     also to avoid the issue which is likely to touch raw
end eventually in the removal of the candlestick. So       nerves. One rationalizes, thus the tranquility of the
serious is that first step, the loss of the first love,    church will be maintained. But the real conse-
that except there be repentance, the candlestick,          quences  ,are that one, can not say simply "Thus
the light of the preaching of God's Word, shall be         saith the Lord!" Rather, one addresses God's
quenched. Let every church examine itself, and let         people with the words "Thus saith the Lord," after
her people be governed always by the spirit of re-         having subjected His Word to the agreed upon re-
pentance. Apostasy is never far from any pulpit,           strictions. Indeed, under such circumstances it will
nor any pew. It is as close as our own hearts.             not be long ere the light of the candlestick is extin-
  The pulpit is under tremendous pressure from             guished.
the pew in our day. People clamor for change. That           It takes a tremendous amount of grace for
manna from heaven is so dry. It sticks in their            preachers for the sake of principle to resist the pres-
throats. The pressure is to make it more tasty, to         sures from the pew. It is not a matter of guts, but
add some spice. Let us never underestimate pew             grace and conviction. One does not always find that
pressure. The strongest willed, best-intentioned           grace in preachers. May God grant that it may con-
minister can cave in to pressure from the pew.             tinue to be found in God-fearing, Bible-believing,
Think of Aaron, the High Priest. At the foot of Sinai      creed-confessing preachers. And may the pew en-
he gave Israel the golden calf because they insisted       courage them-not by a slap on the back, but by
that he give them gods. A man of no less caliber           taking heed to the word preached. That is the great-
than the strong-willed, bold-spirited Apostle Peter        est encouragement. Such demonstrates the Spirit
relented to pew pressure. He withdrew himself              and His power. It is among the generations of those
from the gentile Christians because of pressure            who love God's Word and keep His command-
brought to bear upon him by the Christians who             ments that there shall yet be found faith upon the
were of the circumcision. He went against his own          earth when our Lord Jesus returns. God keep us
better judgment to satisfy those of the circumci-          faithful unto the end.
sion. Paul had to rebuke him (Gal. 2).



                                          Book Reviews

THE REFORMERS AND THEIR  STEPCHILD-                        that their position on infant baptism, on the
REN,by Leonard Verduin; Baker Book House, 1980;            relation between church and state, and on other
292 pp., $7.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.)      related  matters,is  a position which can be traced
  I read this book by Verduin when it first came           back to the Anabaptists, the Waldensians, the
out about sixteen or seventeen years ago. But now          Cathari (both Medieval dissenting movements), all
that it has been republished, it has been sent to the      the way to the Donatists of Augustine's day and the
Standard Bearer for review and I read it once again.       early New Testament Church. This book, though
My opinion of the book remains pretty much un-             written by a Christian Reformed minister, gives
changed.                                                   some support for this claim of the Baptists. They
                                                           like the book very much.
  The reprinting of the book was brought about in
part by the fact that many Baptists have rather              Verduin is very much interested in the whole
recently discovered the book and find in it some           question of the relation between church and state.
support for their basic position. The Baptists claim       In this book, in another book which he wrote,


22                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



{Anatomy  of a  Hybrid), and in magazine articles          ism when, in fact, it was much more. The rise of
Verduin has written again and again on this                Anabaptism was only over the one issue of the
subject. He finds the relation that existed between        relation between church and state (p. 36). Verduin
church and state in the first three centuries of the       claims that the Anabaptists wanted to get the state
church's existence a proper one. Constantine the           out of religious matters. The words of the reformers
Great spoiled it all by making the church a kind of        which contradict this are simply pushed aside by
state church. The Roman Catholic Church estab-             Verduin with the remark that the reformers mis-
lished an elaborate- sacerdotal system in which the        understood the Anabaptist position (p. 48).
church and the state were identified. The Reform-          However, a prima  facie  case can be made for the
ers were first of all inclined to repudiate this close     assertion that the Reformers knew more about the
alliance between church and state, but finally,            Anabaptists than Verduin does. Calvin comes in for
under various pressures and for various reasons,           some hard treatment at the hands of Verduin. He is
they went back to the same notion which Rome               said to be chiefly to blame for the burning of
held. That situation continued for many years until        Servetus. His views on the relation between church
finally the church began to get it straight that the       and state are misrepresented. Verduin should have
church and state could not have any such close             read Hughes' "Introduction" to "The Register of
alliance. The position of the First Amendment in           the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the time of
this country is Verduin's position-emphatically!           Calvin" for an interesting and enlightening discus-
      The book is written mainly to show how the           sion of this point. He takes the position that the
Anabaptists of Reformation times repudiated the            "sacral" stance of the Reformers led them to deny
Reformation because of a correct conception of the         sanctification-something patently false (p.  105 ff.)
relation between church and state which the  Ana-          He accuses the Reformers of refusing to maintain
baptists held, but which was repudiated by the             and teach church discipline. He claims that anyone
Reformers. It is, therefore, an urgent and passion-        in the Medieval Period who objected to the Roman
ate defense of the Anabaptists' position.                  Catholic view of the sacraments was also one who
                                                           believed in the separation of church and state
      There are good features about the book. It is        because the Romish Church used the sacraments to
packed full of interesting historical data concerning      maintain a sacral society. He makes a great deal of
dissenting movements in the Middle Ages and con-           the notion that the difference between the Reform-
cerning the Anabaptist movement. It has many               ers and the Anabaptists was one of a believers'
interesting quotes in it from very obscure sources         church-an issue closely related to the matter of
(although, for the general reader, these quotes are        separation between church and state (p. 157).
of not much value because they are in original
languages). It is written in a lively style and makes        But the position of Verduin also leads him to
for interesting reading. It correctly points to grave      serious doctrinal errors. He bases his view of the
weaknesses in the appeal of the Reformers to the           separation between church and state on the
state for protection. It justly criticizes the Reforma-    doctrine of common grace: the state is the area of
tion for trying to advance the cause of the Reforma-       common grace; the church that of special grace (p.
tion among Anabaptists by putting recalcitrant             81).  In a footnote on p.  87  he speaks somewhat
Anabaptists to death. It gives a side to the  Ana-         favorably of the French Revolution because it was
baptist position which is not very well known and          anti-sacral. He holds that the Reformers taught
which ought to be better known. For all these              infant baptism only as a defense of sacralism and
reasons and for others the book is worth reading.          comes perilously close to denying infant baptism.
      However, it must be read with caution. Verduin       He rejects an excellent statement of  Bucer on this
seems to be of the opinion that the church-state           subject (p. 213).
issue is the only real issue of importance in the            His quotations are not always the strong support
whole history of the church of Jesus Christ and that       they seem to be. Sometimes his quotations are from
all church history ought to be interpreted in the          secondary sources; sometimes, and this happens at
light of the struggle to come to a proper conception       crucial points in the argument, the source of a
of this matter. The result is that the book has in it      quotation is not given; and sometimes the quota-
historical inaccuracies and wrong emphases which           tions are subject to quite different interpretations
could easily lead the unwary reader astray or could        than Verduin gives them (pp. 177,213).
give to one who does not know a great deal of
church history wrong conceptions of the past                 And so this interesting book is marred by histori-
history of the church. We will mention a few such.         cal inaccuracies, by a stretching of historical points
                                                           because the author has an ax to grind, and by
      Verduin argues that the Donatist movement was        generally poor historical work in some areas which
nothing more than a protest against Constantinian-         ought not to be present in a book by a scholar.


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                        23



SERMONS ON THE SAVING WORK OF                                                which we are accustomed to hearing. They are
CHRIST,  John Calvin; Selected and translated by                             different for various reasons: they often treat large
Leroy Nixon; Baker Book House, 1980; 302 pp.,                                sections which contain many more than one main
$7.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                          idea; they are analytical in character, i.e., rather
   These sermons were first published in 1950                                than consisting of a theme with divisions, they
under the title, "The Deity of Christ." My edition                           proceed through the passage explaining each
of them was published by Eerdmans in hard cover.                             sentence briefly; they are very practical, calling the
This is a paperback edition.                                                 attention of the audience to many practical aspects
                                                                             of their life and calling. This latter is not to say that
   The volume contains sermons selected at                                   they have no doctrine in them; but Calvin shows a
random: one on the birth of Christ, one on the                               remarkable ability to weave the doctrinal and the
nativity of Christ, eight on the suffering, one on the                       practical into a consistent unity.
resurrection, four on the ascension, four on the out-
pouring of the Spirit and one on Christ's second                                 They make for excellent reading and we recom-
coming.                                                                      mend these sermons to our readers. They are fine
                                                                             gifts also and are worthwhile additions to anyone's
   The sermons of Calvin, many of which have now                             library.
been published, are quite different from sermons


                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                       NOTICE!!!
   On October 10, 1981, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND                    Plan now to attend the Fall Meeting of the League of Eastern
MRS. JOHN KUIPER, will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.             Mens' and Ladies' Societies to be held on Thursday, October 8,
We are thankful to our heavenly Father for keeping them for each             1981, at 8:00 p.m., at Southwest Protestant Reformed Church, the
other and for us, their children and grandchildren. It is our prayer that    Lord willing. Rev. Herman Veldman will speak on "The Great
our Covenant God will continue to bless them and keep them in His            A p o s t a s y . "
care.                                                                                                                                Elsie Kuiper, Sec'y.
   "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of
righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews
12:ll).

Robert and Jane Scott                   Larry and Joyce Hoezee
   Bob, Laurie, Cristy                     Larry Dale, Susan,  Tricia                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Richard and Faye Dykstra                Jay and Jone Kuiper
   Randy, Eric, Jamie                                                            On October 1, 1981, our parents, MR. AND MRS. GILBERT
                                                                             GRIESS, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                           We, their children and grandchildren, thank our heavenly Father
                                                                             for giving us God-fearing parents who have brought us up in the fear
   On October 2, 1981, our parents MR. ALVIN P. AND MRS.                     of the Lord. It is our prayer that God will bless and keep them in His
ESTHER GRIESS celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary. We                  care in the years to come.
their children are Thankful to our heavenly Father for keeping them              "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His truth
for each other and for us these many years. We pray that they may            endureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5)
continue to enjoy the blessings of our covenant God.
                                                                             Larry and  lleen Wrenn                     Glen and Twyla Griess
   "For we know that all things work together for good to them that              Barry and Lory                              Jessica, Sarah, and Luke
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
(Ram.   8:28)                                                                Ivan and Carol Griess                      Dennis and Sharon Griess
                                                                                 Sheila, Jamie, and Valerie                  Cory
Mr.  & Mrs. Wm. A. Griess              Mr.  & Mrs. Russell Golgert
Mr.  & Mrs. Otto Trautman                 and Grand Children                 L-eon and  Vicki Griess                    David Griess
Mr. Paul Griess                           and Great Grand Children               Shon, Julie,  Christi,  and Tiffany    Tim Griess


                                 News From Our Churches

   Everyone likes a pat on the back once in awhile,                          bined with Reformed Theology written in a beauti-
and here's a rather lusty one for our Standard Bearer                        fully clear and understandable manner. Praise God
from a reader in Moorestown, New Jersey: "In                                 From Whom All Blessings Flow, and brothers your
today's world of constant complaints and lack of                             paper is a tremendous Blessing!!"
contentment, this letter is written for the purpose
of giving many thanks for your magazine. It is with-                             Rev. Bekkering, pastor of our Houston, Texas
out a doubt THE BEST Christian periodical in the                             congregation, has declined the call extended him
entire world! It is a perfect companion to Holy                              from Isabel, South Dakota. To assist Isabel during
Scripture since it is 90% Scripture exposition com-                          this vacancy, Rev. Lubbers plans, the Lord willing,

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





24                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


to preach and administer the sacraments in their           input with regard to the topics to be discussed and
midst during the months of September and                   the methods of dealing with them. 3) Who partici-
October.                                                   pated in the conference.7  Ten ministers and one
      That our Southwest, Grand Rapids congregation        seminarian stayed at the camp for the duration of
has completed the construction of their new par-           the conference while seven other ministers and
sonage is clear from August bulletin announce-             another seminarian came out on a daily basis to
ments which invite the congregation to an open             attend one or more of the sessions. 4) What topics
house on Monday and Tuesday, seek volunteers "to           were discussed? The topics, Preaching, Missions,
help move the pastor and his family" on                    and Culture were introduced by Pastors Slopsema,
                                                           Van Overloop, and Bekkering, respectively, and
Wednesday, and later report their pastor's (Rev. De        discussed. 5) What is your evaluation of the con-
Vries) change of address as 4895  Ivanrest Ave.,           ference? "Very profitable!" It was enjoyed by mini-
S.W., Grandville, MI 49418.                                sters as well as their wives...." especially those
      Back in July a Kalamazoo, Michigan bulletin an-      from `isolated' pastorates." Further evidence that
nounced: "A ministers' conference is being held            the conference was enjoyed and appreciated is ap-
this week Tuesday through Thursday at the West             parent from the fact that there were  volunteers  to
Wind KOA Camp near Saugatauck." To learn more              plan another conference. In passing, it was men-
about this ministerial activity, we discussed the          tioned that singing "until we were hoarse" was not
conference with Rev. R.  VanOverloop, pastor of            an uncommon  occurence  at the ministers' confer-
our Birmingham, Alabama mission station.                   ence. Also, it was noted that only one skunk was
Following is the substance of that interview: 1)           sighted.
What is a Ministers' Conference? A ministers' con-           We close this column with a timely quotation
ference is a gathering of ministers and prospective        from "From the Pastor's Desk" page of First News
ministers for the purpose of sharing ideas, experi-        (bimonthly news booklet to the congregation  ,of
encing one another's fellowship in a less formal           First Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan). Rev.
way than ecclesiastical assemblies, and developing         Joostens wrote: "Again we stand on the threshold
in areas of ministerial work. 2) Who plans a               of another catechism and society season. No man is
Ministers' Conference? This year Reverends  Bek-           an island in the church of Christ. `There is one
kering and Van  Overloop  made most of the ar-             body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one
rangements. The planning was assisted by minister          hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one bap-
reponses to questionnaires concerning logistical           tism, one God and Father of all, Who is above all
kinds of information, i.e. time, place, etc. as well as    and in you all.' (Eph. 4:4-6)"                     CK

                                Report of Classis East

September 9, 1981                                          the consistories. This matter was treated in closed
Southwest Prot. Ref. Church                                session.
  Classis  East met in regular session on September          Expenses for the classis amounted to $762.00.
9, 1981 at the Southwest Prot. Ref. Church. All the          Classis will meet next on January 13, 1982 at
churches were represented by two delegates. Rev.           First Church, Grand Rapids.
W. Bruinsma chaired the meeting. In attendance
also were Rev. S. Houck and Rev. J. Kortering.                                         Respectfully submitted,
  The business of the session was routine with the                                     Jon J. Huisken
exception of a discipline matter brought by one of                                     Stated Clerk


