     STANDARD
          BEARER
P           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE


       The women of the world love to dress in
     such a way that they excite the men' of the
     world to sinful thoughts and desires...`. The
     Christian young woman must have no part
     of this at all. For her it is a grievous thing that
     the men of the world should be looking at
     her with. evil thoughts and desires.... The
     young woman truly motivated by the love of
     God and also love for her brothers in the
     Lord will wear nothing that could possibly
     lead another to sin in his heart.
     See ' `Christian Attitudes Towards Sex' '
                                                           -page  397

L                                          Volume LVIII, No. 17, June I,1982


386                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER .
                                   CONTENTS                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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   Meditation-                                                                             Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       The Spirit of the Glorified Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . 386                      Department  Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur  Bruinsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                           denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
   Editor'sNotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389         Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
                                                                                           Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
  Editorials-                                                                              Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
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MEDITATION

                        The Spirit of the Glorified Christ
                                                                               Rev. H. Veldman


                    "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all
               the house where they weYe sitting."                                                                                                        Acts 22


  There is a divine program, a divine schedule, and                                          the third day, ascends to heaven forty days later,
this program is minutely executed, in "nature" and                                           and ten days after His ascension He pours out His
in grace. There is an exact moment for everything                                            Spirit into the church. Pentecost is the fiftieth day
under the sun, in the heavens above and upon the                                             after Christ's resurrection, forty days plus ten.
earth below. This is also true of the realm of grace.                                        Pentecost is the beginning of the Day of the Lord,
Christ is born in the moment of the "fulness of                                              which Day will not end until it reaches its climax
time." Jesus dies when His hour is come. He rises                                            when Christ returns upon the clouds of heaven.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              387



  "When the day of Pentecost was fully come," or,         for us everlasting life and glory, and is now glori-
"in the being fulfilled of the day of Pentecost."         fied forever in the Father's right hand.
The day of Pentecost had fully come; it had been            The Spirit of Pentecost as the Spirit of the glori-
completed. The Old Testament is completed before          fied Christ also explains the richness of salvation of
the New begins; the Old Testament lamb is slain,          the church of God in the Old Dispensation. Indeed,
the last one, when the Lamb of God takes away the         how poor, comparatively speaking, was the church
sin of the world. In the Old Testament the day of         in the Old Dispensation! To be sure, the people of
Pentecost was a symbol, a shadow of the New,              the Lord experienced in the day of the shadows the
which must make way for its fulfillment. That Old         salvation of the Lord, enjoyed the riches of that
Testament shadow must run its course, must be ful-        salvation, the forgiveness of sins, the love of God,
filled, but, when it is fulfilled, it must be followed    and the hope of everlasting life and heavenly glory.
by that fulfillment, the Pentecost of the New             They were surely rich! They sought the heavenly
Dispensation.                                             city of God, the city that has foundations. When we
                                                          say that they were poor comparatively speaking,
  Two matters  ire  *em*pha*size*d concerning the         we refer to the fact that they were saved only in
HolySpirit in Holy Writ. First, He was poured out         hope. God's plan of salvation for His people had
upon Pentecost. We read in John  7:39: "But this          then not been revealed as yet unto them. We read
spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on         in Ephesians 3:4-5: "Whereby, when ye read, ye
Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet        may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
given because that Jesus was not yet glorified." We       Christ. Which in other ages was not made known
read literally: "for the Holy Ghost was not yet."         unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His
The word "given" appears in the translation in            holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." It is true
italics. Notice, too, what we read in Isaiah 3214-15,     that the apostle, in this passage in Ephesians 3,
Joel  2:28-32,  Zechariah  12:lO. And, secondly, the      refers to the mystery of the will of God in connec-
Holy Spirit was also in the Old Dispensation, as we       tion with the salvation of the Gentiles. Neverthe-
may read in Haggai 2:6, Psalm 51:13, Psalm 104:30,        less, in the Old Dispensation the church of God was
Ezekiel 11:5, etc.                                        saved only in hope. In those days of the shadows
  Pentecost is surely not the birthday of the             the Holy Spirit caused the believing saint to take
church. The Holy Spirit was surely not poured out         hold of the shadows and look forward to their ful-
upon that day as the Holy Spirit of God. He is the        fillment. What the Lord had in store for His people
Holy Spirit. This name denotes Him as the third           had then not been revealed as yet. They saw this
Person of the Trinity. God is spirit, which means         salvation only in shadow and in type. But now
that He is exalted above all material, and must be        Christ has come and the Spirit of the glorified
distinguished from it. It means also that He is           Christ has been poured out. Now the shadows and
absolutely invisible, and, positively, that He is the     types of the Old Dispensation are no longer needed.
God of all infinity and perfections. In this sense the    Jesus has come. We now have fellowship with God
Father and the Son are also spirit. Besides, God is       through Jesus Christ Himself. To be sure, we still
holy; also the Father and the Son, however, are           see in a glass darkly. Jesus is in heaven. We see
holy. That the third Person is called the Holy Spirit     Him by faith and only through the Scriptures. But
means that as the third Person of the Trinity He is       presently we shall see Him face to face, when all
peculiarly consecrated to the Father and the Son.         the earthy shall be done away; then the church of
The Father is the eternal source of the Godhead;          God will be received up into heavenly glory and
the Son is the eternal Image of the Godhead; the          immortality; God's tabernacle shall then be forever
Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son,              with men.
peculiarly consecrated to the divine fulness, search-                        * * * * *
ing eternally the deep things in the Father and the         How does this Spirit of the glorified Christ
Son.                                                      operate in the church of God? How important is
  The Spirit of Pentecost is the Holy Spirit as the       this question? How this work of the Holy Spirit is
Spirit of the glorified Christ. Jesus has come and is     minimized, virtually destroyed in our present day
glorified. In the Old Dispensation He was not yet.        and age! First, this Holy Spirit is irresistible. How
Then He existed only typically and symbolically.          the Scriptures emphasize this truth! It is
The salvation of God in and through Christ Jesus          emphasized in this text. When we read that the
had not yet been realized historically. There were        sound came from heaven we realize that the dis-
then only types and shadows of Him. But now               ciples who gathered there recognized the heavenly
Jesus has come and is glorified. He has suffered and      origin of this sound. And this is undoubtedly
died, has borne the eternal and infinite wrath of         mentioned to emphasize that the disciples
God upon all our sins and trespasses, has merited         recognized in this fact the fulfillment of the


 388                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



promise of the risen and heavenly ascended Lord             mined solely by the living God. Of course! His
that He would send the Comforter. And notice, too,          work is irresistible. But then this surely means that
that we read of a sound as of a mighty rushing              He saves whom He wills. He does not ask admit-
wind. There was no wind. A wind did not fill this           tance; He simply enters the human heart. He saves
room. The Holy Spirit filled it. Only, His coming is        sovereignly. He passes by Athens, captures Rome
accompanied by a sound of a mighty, rushing wind,           by storm. Yes, some are taken but others are left.
a sound of an irresistible gale. This, however, is          Capernaum is sovereignly rejected; Lydia's heart is
also emphasized in John  3:8: "The wind bloweth             opened. Indeed, it is so true: "Of all whom Thou
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,       hast given Me I shall lose nothing but raise it up
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it         again at the last day."
goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."                            *  *  *  *  *
Indeed, the wind bloweth where it listeth. Hence,
we cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it                The Holy Spirit takes hold of the entire man, fills
goeth. No man is therefore able to control it.              him according to his capacity, his mind and will
   This irresistible character of the operation of the      and his desires, dwelling in his inmost heart. This is
Holy Spirit lies in the nature of the case. First, this     symbolized in the text: "and it filled all the house."
is true because of us. We are conceived and born            He renews the heart, kindles therein the love of
dead in sins and in trespasses. For this reason the         God. He enlightens the mind and causes it to dis-
world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees           cern spiritually. He directs the will, so that we may
Him nor knows Him. We do not read that the world            confess that we hate all sin and have a delight in all
does not will to receive Him  - though this is also         righteousness. Yes, He fills us. He causes us to hate
true. But the world cannot receive Him. Man, the            ourselves and our sin completely; no good thing
natural man, cannot receive Him, go out to Him,             cleaves to our flesh. He makes us desirous to walk
pray for Him, desire Him, bow before Him, be led            in  all the commandments of the Lord. Christ
by Him, acknowledge and obey Him. Fact is, the              covers, pays for aZZ our sins. He protects us against
world does not see Him and it does not know Him.            all  our enemies. He gives us the fulness of joy and
Man does not see Him, that is, does not look upon           hope.
Him with interest and desire. For, he does not                Is it any wonder, then, what we read in verse
know Him. This is the knowledge of fellowship.              llb? Indeed, they spake of the -wonderful work of
Man has never tasted Him, experienced Him. The              God. Of course! Of what else could they speak? Of
Spirit is a total stranger to him. Hence, for the           what else can we speak? Is not the operation of the
world to receive Him is a spiritual impossibility.          Holy Spirit irresistible and sovereign? Is He not the
  Does it, therefore, lie in the nature of the case         Author and Finisher of our salvation? Is not this
that the operation of this Spirit is and must be ir-        salvation a fulness of joy which all eternity will not
resistible? However, this irresistible character of         be able to exhaust? Let us, then, proclaim these
the Holy Spirit is also because of the Holy Spirit          wonderful works of the Lord, of the God of our sal-
Himself. He is the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit          vation.
He is the living God, Who calls things into                   Let us proclaim them individually.
existence by His almighty word. He calls the dead             Let us proclaim them as churches, in all our
to life, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to    preaching and teaching.
walk, the dumb to speak. He alone sheds the love
of God abroad in our hearts. His work is surely ir-           And then we shall taste the blessed assurance
resistible. Him no man can deny entrance. He is as          that God is for us and nothing can therefore be
the wind that blows with crushing and irresistible          against us.
force. Indeed, the work which God has once begun
shall surely be done. This mighty work of the Holy
Spirit which generally occurs in the hearts of His
elect during their infancy, unnoticed by them,               The Standard Bearer
takes place with dynamic, explosive, irresistible
force. Let us never forget: the work of the Holy                makes an excellent
Spirit in the hearts of all God's elect throughout the
ages is surely irresistible.                                           gift for the sick
  And, therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit is also
sovereign. This, too, is emphasized in John  3:8.                          or shut-in.
Indeed, the wind bloweth where it listeth, pleaseth.
That this work is sovereign means that it is never
dependent upon the will of the creature. It is deter-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            389


                                        Editor's Notes

Publication News                                          Summer Schedule
  We are pleased to inform you that another RFPA            We remind you that with this issue the Standard
publication has come from the press.  The Wonder          Bearer  goes on its summer schedule, which means
OfGrace, one of the most popular little books of the      that there will be only one issue per month in June,
late Herman Hoeksema, has been reprinted as an            July, and August.
attractive paperback. The price is $3.95. Originally      Reports on Synods and GeneraZ Assemblies
the chapters of this book, first published in 1944 by
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, were a                  June is the month when our own Synod and the
series of radio addresses. Having served on the           Synods and general assemblies of several other
Radio Committee at that time, I recall that this was      denominations meet. In the July issue we hope to
a very popular series; and when the book was first        carry a report about our Synod's actions and a
published, it had a rather wide distribution. Each        report on seminary graduation. This year not only
step of the truth of salvation by grace is carefully      the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church but
explained in the light of Scripture. If you are not a     also the General Assemblies of several Presbyterian
Book Club member, get this book by writing to the         churches are meeting in Grand Rapids. If possible,
RFPA, P.O. Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan               we will also provide coverage of the latter, especial-
49501.                                                    ly since the matter of "Joining and Receiving" will
                                                          be up for consideration at some of the Presbyterian
                                                          assemblies.

EDITORIALS
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


                    More Janus-Headed Theology

  In a recent issue of the PresbyterianJournaZ  (May      John was no other than to make this benefit
12, 1982, pp. 9, 10) Donald A. Dunkerley presents         common to the whole Church. Then under the
some more Janus-headed theology, again classify-          word  aZZ  or whole, he does not include the
ing those who disagree with it as Hyper-Calvinists.       reprobate, but designates those who should believe
This time he writes about the subject of the death of     as well as those who were then scattered through
Christ in relation to the general offer of salvation.     various parts of the world."
  I suppose that on the basis of Dunkerley's                One could comment at length about Dunkerley's
explanation even John Calvin himself could be             article. He comes with no Scripture and no Confes-
classified as "Hyper." For Calvin in commenting           sions. He plays fast and loose (even as in an earlier
on one of the very passages which speak of the            article) with the dirty name "Hyper-Calvinist,"
"world" in connection with Christ's atoning death         without any foundation or documentation. He
(I John 2:2) writes: "Here a question may be raised,      assumes that the notion of a general offer of salva-
how have the sins of the whole world been                 tion is Reformed  - an altogether unjustified and
expiated? I pass by the dotages of the fanatics, who      unfounded assumption. And so one could engage in
under this  pretence extend salvation to all the          a lengthy and detailed refutation of Dunkerley's
reprobate, and therefore to Satan himself. Such a         position. But I am convinced that neither
monstrous thing deserves no refutation. They who          Dunkerley nor the  Presbyterian Journal  would be
seek to avoid this absurdity, have said that Christ       persuaded.
suffered sufficiently for the whole world, but              There is one issue, however, which Mr.
efficiently only for the elect. This solution has         Dunkerley should face.
commonly prevailed in the schools. Though then I            He himself writes at the conclusion of his article:
allow that what has been said is true, yet I deny         "If Christ's death has not grounded a free offer of
that it is suitable to this passage; for the design of    salvation to all, then we have no offer to proclaim."


390                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



   I agree!                                               H. Smith, R.B. Kuiper, and Edwin Palmer. Others,
   For many years we of the Protestant Reformed           among them J. Oliver  Buswell Jr., say that it is
Churches have insisted on this, ever since the            proper. Dunkerley quotes  Buswell as follows: "I
Synod of the Christian Reformed Church in 1924            hold that the atonement of Christ actually ac-
adopted the heresy of the general, well-meant offer       complishes the salvation of God's elect and of
of salvation. We have posed the question a bit more       God's elect only. But it is certain that the atone-
concretely than has Dunkerley. We have asked:             ment is the basis of God's common grace, and the
reverently speaking, how can God offer salvation to       basis of the universal offer of salvation `to every
all in the preaching of the gospel when He does not       creature.' In the sense of the offer of grace it is
have salvation for all men, seeing that Christ            certainly Scriptural to say to a lost man, `Christ died
atoned for the elect only?                                for you.' That is, Christ died so that the offer might
                                                          be presented to you."
   Along came Prof. Harold Dekker in the 1960's
and said, "God loves all men redemptively, and               With the latter Dunkerley agrees. He writes: "If,
Christ died for all men atoningly." However, he           as we have seen, the death of Christ is sufficient for
would not make the latter statement unqualifiedly:        all and there is a sense in which Christ died for all,
Christ died for all men atoningly, but only in three      then it cannot be completely incorrect to say to a
respects out of four. Even this, however, the             potential believer, `Christ died for you.' It may be
Christian Reformed Church would not buy. True,            misleading or ambiguous, it may be an unwise
they would not and could not condemn it as heresy         thing to say, but properly understood it is not
(chiefly because they were saddled with the First         untrue."
Point of 1924 and its well-meant offer of salvation);        Now remember, it is not merely a question of
and so they only declared Prof. Dekker's position to      whether the preacher or evangelist says that which
be "ambiguous and abstract." Meanwhile, the               is not completely correct, that which is misleading
Study Committee in the case took essentially the          or ambiguous, that which is unwise to say, that
same position as does Mr. Dunkerley, namely, that         which is "not untrue" if properly understood. No,
there are not only saving benefits of the death of        it is a question of God! For the preacher speaks in
Christ, but also non-saving, "common grace"               the name of and on the authority of God! He pro-
benefits of that atonement.                               claims that God, on His part, offers salvation to all!
  Herewith I have outlined half of the position of        In other words, God Himself says that which is
Mr. Dunkerley with respect to the death of Christ.        "not completely correct," that which is "mislead-
                                                          ing or ambiguous, " that which is "unwise to say,"
  You see, Mr. Dunkerley appeals to a number of           that which is "not untrue" if properly understood
Reformed theologians who take the position that           (this means the same thing as that which is not true
there are not only saving benefits of the atonement       if properly understood).
of Christ, but also non-saving, "common grace"
benefits. He cites James Oliver  Buswell Jr., R.B.          You see, after all, the free offer of salvation to all
Kuiper, A.A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, Loraine                is an offer of  saZvation.  And if God does not have
Boettner, Morton H. Smith, and Edwin H. Palmer.           salvation for all (and He does not  - not according
The only reference to the creeds which he makes is        to His predestination nor according to Christ's
to Canons II, 3 - a reference which he would never        atonement), how can He offer salvation to all?
have made if he had understood the Canons and             Setting aside for the moment the fact that the entire
studied their background. This, as I said, is the         philosophy about non-saving benefits of Christ's
same position as that taken by the Study                  atoning death is neither Scriptural nor Confession-
Committee in the so-called Dekker Case in the             al, how can these alleged  non-saving  benefits of
1960's. They wanted to condemn Prof. Dekker's             Christ's death be the basis of a free offer of salvation
position, but cling to the First Point and its  well-     to all?
meant offer, just as did the OPC in the  Murray-            I agree therefore with Dunkerley: if Christ's
Stonehouse pamphlet on the Free Offer in the Clark        death has not grounded a free offer of salvation to
C a s e .                                                 all, then we have no offer to proclaim.
  The other half of Donald Dunkerley's position             But I add: Christ's death has not grounded a free
involves the question: is it proper to say to the lost    offer of salvation to all.
man, the unbeliever (No one speaks in this connec-
tion of the reprobate. HCH), "Christ died for you?"         Why not? Because Christ's death has not
                                                          grounded salvation for all!
  Some of the theologians cited by Dunkerley say
"No" to this question. They say it would be mis-            Let God be true!
leading, or grossly ambiguous, or technically pro-          Study The Standard Bearer
per but very misleading. Among these are Morton


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         391



               The `eodem modo' Rejected in the
                       Conclusion of the Canons (2)

[In the May 15 issue we called attention, first of all,         does not move toward "twofold destinies and twofold
to the meaning of this expression and to the fact               futures, but to the.. . way of faith as the only way of
that it was an Arminian slander against the                     salvation in view of God's liberating grace." Here the
Reformed doctrine of reprobation, a slander                     motif and pattern of God's action are opposed to
rejected and repudiated by the fathers of                       arbitrariness. (p. 102)
Dordrecht. Secondly, we began to call attention to             Berkouwer himself sums up the shift in doctrine
the misuse of this rejection made by modern Re-              in the Netherlands concerning predestination  -
formed theologians, mentioning first how G.C.                and all of this stands connected with the misuse of
Berkouwer already in 1955 used it to undermine               the eodem modo in the Conclusion of the Canons -
the Reformed doctrine of reprobation. In the                 as follows, p. 102:
present article we continue our discussion of this                Thus the reconsideration of election has tended for
misuse.]                                                        several years, not in the direction of a double decree
  There was no fundamental change in Dr.                        that merely waits to be executed, but in the direction
Berkouwer's position after his book on Divine EZec-             of grace as the nature, the character of election.
tion  in 1955, only an increasing clarity in his                Election is seen precisely as  not  arbitrary; and this
repudiation of double predestination and in his re-             tendency is not merely an intuitive protest - however
                                                                needed - against the notion of "absolute might," but
interpretation of the doctrine of election as a                 one that moves from a new recognition of the
"gracious election." The latter expression has in-              character of election itself. It arises from an awareness
creasingly been substituted for the idea of a sover-            that anyone who expects salvation from grace rather
eign and double predestination. A "gracious elec-               than from works is set immediately within the sphere
tion" is, of course, a thoroughly Reformed idea; but            of election; but he need not encounter alongside or
in today's theological parlance it has almost                   over election in grace a decision that was made in a
become suspect, because it is so frequently used as             hidden  decree. I cannot help noting that this shift
a cover for the denial of the truth that sovereign              within the firm tradition of the election doctrine has
election and sovereign rejection are inseparable                gained an encouraging consensus, supporting my own
aspects of sovereign predestination.                            efforts to understand the meaning of the confession of
                                                                election, and to discover in it anew the possibility for
  There have, of course, been other Dutch                       a celebration of the depths and riches of grace.
theologians who, like Berkouwer, repudiated                    Two more items must be mentioned in this con-
double predestination. Dr. A.D.R. Polman was a               nection.
Kampen theologian who early repudiated it. Dr.
Herman Ridderbos does so in his treatment of                   First of all, an official shift in doctrine came
Romans 9-l 1. Berkouwer writes about his consulta-           about in 1969-70 in the Gereformeerde Kerken. A
tion of Ridderbos in  A Half Century Of Theology,            similar shift had come about already in 1961 in the
Chapter 4. In part, he states the following:                 Hervormde Kerk, when they published, in
                                                             response to a gravamen, some guidelines for
     In view of this, Ridderbos did not interpret Paul's     dealing with the doctrine of election. Incidentally,
   words about Jacob and Esau as teaching double pre-        Berkouwer writes about these guidelines: "The
   destination. Indeed, the notion of double predestina-     publication of the guidelines provoked a renewed
   tion is "an arbitrary and radical distortion of the
   original intention of the biblical words." The word       consideration of the deepest intentions of the
   "radical" is not an exaggeration. Ridderbos sees          Arminians of the seventeenth century: their fear of
   election connected, not with a definite number of         the thought that God would be the author of sin
   people, but with Christ. This newer exegesis operates     and their fear of determinism." Note the suggestion
   in another climate than did the older exegesis, and it    that the Arminians had legitimate fears and good
   implies another kind of pastoral opportunity as well.     motivation in their opposition to the Reformed
   Ridderbos fails to find anywhere in the development       doctrine! But to continue, Dr. Berkouwer describes
   of Paul's thought "the hidden decree" that might          how the shift came about in the GKN:
   function as "the background or explanation of the
   separation (between people) that comes about by the            The same problems came to expression in the
   preaching of the gospel..."  (Pad, An Outline  of  His       gravamen that B.J. Brouwer, a physician, addressed to
   Theology,  E.T. 1975,  p. 35.2). Preaching, for Paul,        the Gereformeerde Synod. Brouwer was concerned
   creates a meaningful open situation; his argument            about the morality of signing a subscription to the


392                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



       creeds (which he was obliged, as an elder of the               order to illustrate concretely where the course
       church, to do] while he objected to certain expressions        begun in the 1950's ended in the 1970's.
       in the Canons of Dordt, particularly their teaching of
       reprobation in 116, 15 and  I/8  (Rejection of Errors]. The      Moreover, it ought to be clear as the sun in the
       gravity of his objections is clear in the question he          heavens, first of all, that if Berkouwer's position in
       asked about the Canons' statement on the decree of             1955-1982 had been that of the Synod of Dordt in
       reprobation: he asked whether the authors  - unwit-            1618-19, the slander repudiated in the Conclusion
   tingly  - were guilty of blasphemy, a question, he                 of the Canons would never have been made by the
       said, that he himself could not answer negatively.             Arminians, would never have had to be repudiated,
         The delegates at the Synod were unanimous in their           and would not now appear in the Conclusion. In
   understanding of the central thrust and intentions of              the second place, it ought to be plain that there has
       the Canons: the unmerited sovereign grace of God.              indeed been a  shift  in thinking since Dordt.
       But the question was raised as to whether this funda-          Berkouwer himself calls it a shift. The men who
   mental intention had not been forced into the category             take Berkouwer's position should all admit that
   of the "universal causality" of God. They pointed out              they no longer stand where Dordt stood.
   that Brouwer's objections were directed at the
   doctrine of double predestination and, therewith,                    And now we turn to the American scene. When
   against the "eternal decree of reprobation." Most                  one analyzes what has been produced on this
   deeply, then, the gravamen touched on the question                 subject by American theologians  - and I have in
   of the character of God and on His manner of relating              mind particularly Dr. Harry Boer and Dr. James
   to the human race. A synodical study commission                    Daane  - he finds little that is new; most of it is
   concluded that the disputed sections of the Canons                 repetition of men such as Polman, Ridderbos, and
   did not rest on the scriptural passages they cited, but            Berkouwer.
   were products of another source  - namely the
   philosophical-theological concept of the all-causative               As might be expected, in his Gravamen which
       God. "They are rooted in the doctrine of double pre-           was treated by the Christian Reformed Synod in
   destination, of which election and reprobation are                 1980, Dr. Boer also refers to the matter of that state-
   aspects of the unchangeable and eternal divine                     ment in the Conclusion of the Canons (Acts of
   decree, a decree that is realized in time." But the com-           Synod, 1980, p. 496). But he is not satisfied with it
   mission also had to deal with the question of                      and wants Canons I/6, 15 repudiated. He writes:
   blasphemy that Brouwer raised. It acknowledged the
   real intention of the Canons  - to put all possible                     We conclude: from the viewpoint of ultimacy, the
   emphasis on the sovereignty of Gods love and grace                    source of faith is not a mystery. It is a gift of God.
   for guilty and lost mankind, with which Brouwer                       From the viewpoint of ultimacy, the origin of un-
   agreed. But then it added that the disputed passages                  belief, like that of sin itself, is a mystery. We cannot
   do "not speak in a correct way of the Lord God." The                  penetrate into it. The statement in the Canons, "That
   Synod then concluded that it was justifiable to "enter-               some receive the gift of faith from God and others do
   tain and to publicize such objections as Dr. Brouwer                  not receive it, proceeds from God's eternal decree
   brought against the passages in the Canons of Dordt."                 (Chap. I, Art. 6,)" is in its second part untrue and
       [A Hcdf Century  Of Theology, pp. 104-105).                       constitutes a denial of the nondisclosure in the Word
  The second item is a statement of Dr. Berkouwer                        of God of any cause of unbelief other than the heart of
himself in 1974. When he and Dr. Herman Ridder-                          man. The rejection in the Conclusion of the Canons of
                                                                         the charge "that in the same manner (eodem  modo) in
bos appeared at the Synod of the Hervormde Kerk                          which election is the fountain and cause of faith and
to present the "Unanimous Testimony of Faith" (a                         good works, reprobation is the cause of unbelief and
kind of condensed new confession) in behalf of the                       impiety" is not a credible withdrawing of the clearly
GKN, and when they ran into considerable opposi-                         contrary teaching of the Canons in Chapter I, Arts. 6
tion from various quarters in the Hervormde Kerk,                        and 15. Rather it must be seen as a drawing back at
especially from men of the Gereformeerde Bond,                           the brink from the enormity of the consequences of a
Dr. Berkouwer was reported to have said, "We say                         theological rationalism made by men who, on the one
`No' to double predestination." After the synodical                      hand, did not have the courage to stand by what they
judgment about the Brouwer Gravamen, of course,                          had written and, on the other hand, refused to break
Berkouwer was entirely within his rights to say this                     with the logical premise that led them to it.
and to say this of the GKN. But I mention this in                                                                (to be continued)

                    Know the Standard and Abide by it.
                 Read and Study The Standard Bearer.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             393



Q U E S T I O N   B O X


                            The Battle of Armageddon
                                                           Rev. C. Hanko


  A question from our readers:                                     never known. The blood reaches to the horse
  "Will the battle of Armageddon take place in the                 bridles, by the space of sixteen hundred furlongs.
future, at the end of time, as a military conflict, or             Considering the arms race of today and the modern
is it a spiritual battle fought throughout the ages?"              war machinery we can already well imagine that
                                                                   this final battle will be a bloody conflict that takes
  This is an interesting question.                                  millions of human lives and brings untold
  The first reference to the battle of Armageddon                   devastation.
in the Book of Revelation is found in Revelation                      We must conclude from this that this battle will
14: 18-20:                                                          be both a military conflict and a spiritual battle.
     "And another angel came out from the altar, which                The next reference to this battle of Armageddon
   had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him           is found in Revelation 16:12-14, 16. There we read:
   that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp
   sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth;                "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the
   for her grapes are fully ripe.                                      great river Euphrates: and the water thereof was dried
     "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth,               up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
   and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the            prepared.
   great winepress of the wrath of God.                                     "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out
     "And the winepress was trodden without the city,                   of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of
   and the blood came out of the winepress, even unto                  the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
   the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six                    "For they are the spirits of devils, working
   hundred furlongs."                                                   miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth
  We note that:                                                         and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of
  1. This vision obviously refers to the end of                         that great day of God Almighty.
time. The angel comes out from the altar under                              "....And  he gathered them together into a place
which the souls of the martyred saints cry, "How                        called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."
long Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and                     1. Also here we should bear in mind the Scrip-
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"                  tural principle, that whatever is plainly figurative
(Revelation  6:9, 10). That time has now come.                      must be interpreted as figurative, and that which
Moreover, this vision speaks of the final judgment                  can be taken literally must be interpreted as such.
upon the wicked, which is already mentioned in
connection with the sixth trumpet (Revelation 9: 13-                  2. Here we read of the sixth vial, which again
21), and is here referred to as a treading of the                   brings us to the end of time. The emphasis falls on
grapes in the winepress of the wrath of God. Ac-                    the fact that Christ is carrying out the contents of
cording to verses 14-16 the church is already taken                 the book with its seven seals, the eternal counsel of
up into glory.                                                      the Most High God in Christ Jesus (Rev. 5, 6). Thus
                                                                    the time has arrived that the river Euphrates in the
  2. The grapes represent the antichristian                         Old Testament always represented the dividing line
kingdom consisting of those nations which have                      between Israel and the nations, between the
always borne the name of "Christianity," and also                   church and the world. We recall that Solomon's
of the pagans, both of which have filled the                        kingdom extended to the Euphrates. The kings of
measure of their iniquity by worshiping the beast.                  the East are referred to elsewhere as Gog and
Thus all nations of the earth are gathered together                 Magog, the pagan nations on the four corners of the
in one place to be cast into the winepress of the                   earth. In the New Testament the river Euphrates,
wrath of God.                                                       therefore, is still the symbolical dividing` line
  3. From verse 20 it becomes evident that they                     between that which calls itself Christianity and the
have been gathered together for battle, which                       pagan nations. This separation will be removed,
becomes a great slaughter, such as the world has                    maybe literally (the Euphrates could dry up as a


3 9 4                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



sign), but in any case symbolically, so that the           waves, and other devastations on the earth.
"Christian" nations and the pagans are temporarily         Modern man who boasts that he has conquered
united and finally join in mortal conflict, which in       diseases, can renew damaged organs of the human
the real sense of the word will be a world war. It is      body, can "almost" overcome death, discovers that
interesting to notice that the history of this present     he stands helpless over against the mighty Hand of
time ends even where it began, in the area of the          the Most High.
Euphrates River.                                             5. This results in a bitter disillusionment for all
   3. What happens, according to Scripture, is this:       those who worshiped the beast. Their god has legs
The devil stirs up the anti-Christian  political power,    and feet of iron mixed with clay. They turn against
along with the false church, to arouse the nations,        the beast in bitter rage. Meanwhile, because of
both those that profess to be the Christian nations        their deep awareness of God and of His almighty
and those which have always served idols, with a           power, they curse the God of heaven. The measure
wicked, God-defying, Man-exalting propaganda to            of their iniquity is full, so that there is not even a
worship the beast, in order to wipe out the name of        semblance of repentance any more. The  ."Chris-
God and of His Christ, and also His cause from the         tian" nations and the pagan nations arise in warfare
face of the earth. The people of God are the sand in       against each other, simply because the pagan world
the oil of the machinery of this world power, the          thinks it can destroy God by attacking "Christian-
hindrance that must first be removed to make Man           ity." Together they are actually at war with God
successful in setting up his throne on the earth as if     Almighty, pouring out their hatred against God and
he were God. The nuclear power, the large oil              the neighbor. This last battle is both a spiritual and
supplies, the advances in science, in medicine, in         a military conflict.
the realm of industry through its massive factories          This becomes evident from Revelation  19:11-15,
and machinery, and in commerce through its                 19:
powerful means of transportation on land, on sea,
and in the air, all give promise of an abundant life,               "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white
which will attract all the peoples of the earth to                horse: and he that sat upon him was called Faithful
marvel after and to worship Man, the source of all                and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and
this grand, promising, endless future. The devil will             make war.
seem to have attained his purpose at last; not God,                 "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his hand
but Satan through proud Man will rule the world.                  were many crowns; and he had a name written, that
                                                                  no man knew but himself.
  4. He Who sits in the heavens laughs; God holds
them in derision, for He has already exalted the                    "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in
                                                                  blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
hated, crucified Christ as Lord of lords and King of
kings at His own right hand in the heavens. Fools                   "And the armies which were in heaven followed
that they are, Satan, demons, wicked men, are re-                 him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
vealing the proud rebellion of their wicked hearts                and clean.
and are carrying out the counsel of the living God                  "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
to their own condemnation. Man transgresses the                   with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule
entire law of the Ten Commandments by rejecting                   them with a rod and iron: and he treadeth the wine-
and cursing the God of heaven, exalting his own                   press of the fierceness and wrath of God Almighty....
god, ruthlessly transgressing God's Sabbath, com-                   "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth,
mitting murder of babes and the unwanted, openly                  and their armies, gathered together to make war
committing the grossest forms of fornication and                  against him that sat on the horse, and against his
adultery, justifying with its own wicked excuses                  army."
every form of theft, backbiting, slander, in giving          Here our attention is called to:
vent to all the covetousness of his wicked heart. He         1. Our Lord Jesus Christ coming to judge the
breaks all the laws which God has established in           nations of the earth. His entire appearance is one of
creation, so that he misuses the animal world and          a mighty Conqueror Who already has attained the
the vegetation until he has polluted the soil, the air,    victory. He is the Lord of glory Who has conquered
the lakes and rivers, and even polluted the seas           over Satan, hell, sin, and death by His victory on
with his garbage and nuclear wastes. Gradually             the cross and His powerful resurrection from the
God is visiting man's sin on his own head by               dead. He has ascended to heaven where He has all
pouring out the vials of His just wrath. Diseases,         power in heaven and on earth as Lord of lords and
including social diseases, break out in uncontrolled       King of kings. He has already gone forth upon the
epidemics. Famines sweep the earth. The sun                white horse, conquering and to conquer (Rev.  6),
burns hot in the heavens, making life unbearable,          causing His Word to be a power unto salvation for
but also melting the glaciers, creating floods, tidal      those given to Him by the Father, and causing that


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                395



same Word to be a savor of death unto death to              its climax in the rise of antichrist. The church is
those who reject the gospel in the hardness of their        persecuted, because that church is considered to be
hearts.                                                     the sand in the oil of Satan's machinery. The
  2. The battle of the ages begun in paradise is            nations are aroused to pay homage to the beast and
now finished (Gen.  3:15). God has set enmity               to rejoice over their seeming victory over God and
between the seed of the woman and the seed of the           His Christ. But in the meantime the nations have
serpent. Evidences throughout the Old Dispensa-             abused God's creation, have corrupted the rivers,
tion appear plainly in the fact that God gathers His        the soil, the air, and the seas with their greed and
people in the line of continued generations and             wicked use of God's creatures. Thus they bring
causes the Christ to be born, even in spite of all the      upon themselves, to a great extent, their own
wicked attempts of Satan to prevent the Savior's            destruction as the vials of God are poured out upon
birth. God defends His cause on the earth as is             the earth. Sorely disillusioned, the nations arise in
evident from the various references to Armageddon           battle against God, ultimately blaming God for
already in the Old Testament. Deborah and Barak             their obvious failure to dispose of Him, and thus
are sent of God to destroy the Canaanites. Accord-          they arise in warfare against each other.
ing to Judges  5:19, a glorious victory is attained at         4. It is very well possible that history will end, at
the waters of Megiddo. God destroys the house of            least symbolically, where it began, at the
Ahab, who introduced the  Baa1 worship as the               Euphrates, of which we read that it will be dried up
national religion of the ten tribes. In the process of      to open the way for the pagan nations to go to battle
that destruction Ahaziah, king of Judah, is killed at       against "Christianity."
Megiddo (II Kings 9:27). It was also at Megiddo that           5. This battle results in a severe devastation
Josiah, the last good king of Israel, fell in battle. II    upon the earth and the destruction of millions of
Kings  23:26-29  tells us that the wrath of God             people,      maybe through nuclear warfare or
turned against unrepentant Judah, because of their          something very similar. In that hopeless situation
unfaithfulness and hardness of heart. Therefore             Christ appears, showing the whole world how
God would deliver them over into the hands of               useless was the battle of the ages in trying to fight
Babylon and thus preserve His people, the remnant           God and His Anointed. Fools that they were, they
according to election of grace.                             have only shown their own hatred against God,
  3. Through His victory on the cross Christ                have served His cause instead of destroying it, and
ascends to heaven to carry out the counsel of the           have filled up the measure of their iniquity, so that
Most High God, whereby Zion will be delivered               God is justified in His righteous judgment.
through judgment. This is the theme of the Book of             The battle of Armageddon is the culmination of
Revelation. The nations make themselves ripe for            the battle of the ages, begun in paradise and carried
judgment by making warfare against God, His                 on until the end of time.
Christ, and His cause upon the earth. This reaches

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD

                          Missionary Methods (12)
                                               Prof. Robert D. Decker



  Crucial to the methodology of Dr. John L. Nevius          churches can be planted and developed. Nevius
are a number of factors: 1) There are to be as few          himself, mind you, after some twenty years of labor
paid native preachers (helpers) as possible. 2) The         in China, had only two paid helpers to assist him in
converts ought to build and maintain their own              the care of some one hundred fifty mission stations
places of worship. 3) Leaders of individual mission         and young churches. (Cf. PZanting And DeveZopment
stations ought to remain in their station and calling       of  Missionary Churches.)
in life. 4) Ideally every convert ought to be the pupil
of one more advanced in the faith than he and the              Nevius continues by facing the question: "How
teacher of one less advanced than he. By following          shall we most effectually carry out the command of
these methods, Nevius argued, truly indigenous              our Saviour, `Feed My sheep,' `Feed My lambs' " (p.


396                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



35). Many, perhaps most missionaries and church           uous discourse is something which is almost un-
leaders, would reply: "by training native preach-         known in China. Even educated  Chinamen follow
ers." At the time; this work was being done by the        it with difficulty. A carefully prepared sermon from
leaders of each mission station. Nevius argues that       a trained native preacher or a foreign missionary,
"no other plan is possible" (p. 35). It would be          such a sermon as would be admirably suited to an
impossible to obtain native preachers for teaching        intelligent educated Christian congregation, is out
and preaching in the one hundred and fifty stations       of place in a new station. From the fact that it is
already established. At the time, according to            adapted to another kind of congregation, it is by
Nevius, there were only less than a dozen candi-          necessary     consequence        unsuitable here. An
dates for the ministry in the entire field. All the       attempt at formal preaching by those who have
while, Nevius reports, the number of stations is in-      neither the Scriptural knowledge nor the intel-
creasing. Still more, even if the ministerial candi-      lectual and practical training to fit them for it is still
dates were available it would be impossible for the       more to be deprecated. We who are accustomed
converts to support them. And, writes Nevius "...if       from childhood to instruction by lectures and ser-
the foreign Boards were able to assume this burden,       mons, naturally and very properly introduce them
their doing so would establish a precedent which          in the mission centers where we (the missionaries,
would add very much to the difficulties of making         Dr. Nevius and his paid helpers) are located; and
native churches independent and self-supporting in        our personal teachers and pupils trained in our
the future" (p. 35).                                      schools become accustomed to them and are
  Nevius continues: "In my opinion we may go a            profited by them. In the country stations a few of
step further, and say that the introduction of paid       the more advanced Christians may be benefited by
teachers in each station, even if it were possible,       a sermon, but to the great body of hearers who
would not at present be desirable. The leaders            most need instruction it would be like listening to
understand better than a person from a distance           utterances in an unknown tongue. This kind of
could, the individual peculiarities of the neighbors,     preaching gives rise in the Church from its very
and also the tones and inflections of the local           infancy to a kind of formalism which is almost fatal
dialect, local expressions, illustrations, and habits     to growth and progress. The congregation rises, or
of thought. They are likely to be more interested in      sits, or kneels as directed, and may maintain a
those about them, most of whom may be called              reverent attitude and listen, or have the appearance
their own converts, than any one else could be, and       of listening, to what is said: in a word they have a
are more disposed to give them the care and atten-        service and go home with their consciences satis-
tion necessary in instructing beginners. In teaching      fied, but their minds not enlightened. Even the
they set an example to others, a larger number of         Quaker method of sitting before God in silent medi-
teachers is thus secured than could be obtained in        tation or mute reverence would be preferable to
any other way, and learning and teaching go on to-        having the mind distracted by allusions to some-
gether, the one preparing for the other, and the          thing they have not heard of, thoughts beyond their
teaching being an important part of the learning,         reach and processes of reasoning which they
perhaps quite as useful to the teacher as to the          cannot follow. I am far from saying no good is
taught. Though the knowledge of the leaders may           accomplished. Those who engage in such a service,
be elementary and incomplete, they are quite in           as many of them do, feeling that they are offering
advance of the  ,other church members and inquir-         homage and worship to the true God their Heaven-
ers, and what they do know is just what the others        ly Father, though they may only catch an occasion-
need first to learn. The leaders are especially fitted    al idea from a prayer, or an exhortation, or a
to communicate this knowledge, simply because             sermon, will be benefited, and their worship will
they are not widely separated in intelligence and         no doubt be accepted. Most of the persons in our
sympathy from those who are to be taught" (pp. 35,        congregations are, as regards their mental develop-
36).                                                      ment, in the condition of children and have to be
                                                          treated as such" (pp. 36,37).
  Nevius continues his argument against using
paid, native preachers on practical grounds.                This is the heart of Nevius' argument for his plan
Preaching, "in its specific sense of logical and more     or method of mission work. Much of what Nevius
or less elaborate dissertation," simply would not be      says about the Chinese not being able to benefit
effective in the China of his day (p. 36). In other       from a "formal, logical, and more or less elaborate
words, preaching as we experience it in our               dissertation" is true. Not only so, but this is true of
churches, a forty-five to sixty minute exposition of      any mission field including even domestic fields.
a specific text or passage of Scripture, simply would     The church in its mission work is reaching out to
not be an effective means of reaching the Chinese.        the unconverted elect, and is preaching to and
Nevius writes: "We should remember that  contin-          teaching recently converted people of God. These


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    397



people are "novices" to the faith. They are un-                              Protestant Reformed Mission in Jamaica that one
familiar with the Bible, the Creeds of the church,                           cannot preach there as he preaches in the churches
the history of the church, Biblical concepts and                             here. This is just the point, and this is what mission
doctrines. But this is certainly no reason to mini-                          work is all about! If we understand preaching to be
mize or discard preaching! For all of the good in                            the exposition of the Word of God as it applies to
Nevius' method this is the weakness of his plan. All                         the lives of those who hear it by one who is called
agree  that the goal must be self-supporting,  self-                         by Christ through the church, there is no difficulty.
governing, indigenous churches. All agree that the                           The point is that the preaching must be adapted to
converts must be taught to be witnesses of the                               the peculiar needs and situation of the people to
gospel and that they must teach others by word of                            whom it is addressed. The problem is not new, nor
mouth and by the example of their Christian lives.                           did it first surface in China in Nevius' day. The
All agree that there should be no native preachers                           Apostles, especially Paul, faced the same problem
paid by the mission and no churches or schools                               in their labors. This is what he wrote to the Corin-
built by the mission. But there must be the preach-                          thians: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you
ing of the gospel!                                                           as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
   There must be preaching, for the simple reason                            babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not
that Scripture demands it. The clear testimony of                            with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,
the Word of God is: "For whosoever shall call upon                           neither yet now are ye able" (chapter  3:1, 2). One
the name of the Lord shall be saved" [Romans                                 cannot feed an infant a piece of steak. Neither
10:13). In order to call upon the name of the Lord                           ought a missionary attempt to feed spiritual babes a
one must believe in Christ. In order to believe in                           diet of the solid meat of the gospel. They need the
Christ one must hear Christ. The only way one is                             milk of the Word. When the spiritual babes have
able to hear Christ is through a preacher who is                             grown by means of the milk of the Word they may
sent (cf. Romans 10: 14-15). The simple fact is, it                          be nourished by the meat of that Word. This is the
pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save                          teaching of Hebrews  5:13, 14 as well: "For every-
t h e m   w h o   b e l i e v e   ( I   C o r i n t h i a n s   1:17-31).    one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of
Whatever else the missionary does on the field he                            righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat
must preach Christ crucified. By this means the                              belongeth to them that are of full age, even those
sheep of Christ hear His voice, are known by the                             who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
Good Shepherd, and follow Him (cf. John 10).                                 discern both good and evil."
                                                                               Mission preaching must be simplified. Great care
   We still face the practical problem which Dr.                             must be taken in the exposition of the Word to
Nevius cites and which is faced by every mission-                            explain every concept, every doctrine, in language
ary. How can the missionary preach to those who                              the people can understand. This may take the form
have never heard the gospel and to those who are                             of several ten minute expositions, interspersed by
novices to the faith? Nevius claimed that to the                             questions and answers and/or singing. Whatever
"great body of hearers who most need instruction it                          the particular format, the missionary must preach
(preaching, R.D.D.) would be like listening to utter-                        the gospel, for "it is the power of God unto salva-
ances in an unknown tongue" (p. 37). This would                              tion to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and
be true if one understands preaching to be a forty-                          also to the Greek" (Romans 1: 16). For this reason
five minute sermon as preached in the sending                                too the missionaries must look for and train those
churches. It is the unanimous testimony, for                                 converts whom the Lord calls to the ministry.
example, of the ministers who have labored in the                            About this we shall have more in future articles.

IN HIS FEAR

       Christian Attitudes Towards Sex (Part II)
                                                              Rev. Arie den Hartog


   The urgent calling of the Christian young man                             Knowing that the Lord hates the sins of immorality,
and young woman is to live chastely before the                               as we saw in our last article, we must keep  our-
Lord. We are exhorted by the Word of God to flee                             selves pure and holy and undefiled. We must main-
fornication and uncleanness in all of its forms.                             tain absolutely that God has ordained the use of our


398                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



sexual nature only for marriage. Our calling as              the motive of the man of the world is strictly that
young people is to exercise self-control and  self-          which is pleasurable and beneficial to himself, that
restraint so that we might keep ourselves holy and           which satisfies his own passions and lusts. It is said
undefiled for the marriage partner that the Lord             that as long as something is pleasurable and does
will give to us. In living this way we shall surely be       not hurt anyone else then it cannot be wrong. Now
radically different from the world. But the whole            it is simply not true that when one engages in forni-
Bible calls us to be different in all areas of our lives.    cation with another person he does not hurt that
As the world grows more and more immoral and all             person. That is simply impossible. When you sin
restraints on the sins of fornication and adultery are       against someone, you always hurt him. When you
removed, it becomes increasingly urgent that we              sin with another person you bring down upon your-
live opposite to the world. Also it becomes in-              self and that person the awful wrath and judgment
creasingly urgent that we do not allow our moral             of God. Nevertheless the absolutely most important
sensitivity for `the holy commandments of God to             question for the Christian in all of his life must be
be in any way dulled. We must steadfastly  gHard             what is pleasing unto the Lord and what is an
against the great danger of conforming our attitudes         abomination in His sight and an offense against
to the world, because almost everyone around us is           His holy majesty. May we as young people always
living in, immorality. The apostle Paul by the               live out of this motive, then we will be strong and
inspiration .of the Spirit of God urges us: "But             we will keep ourselves holy.
fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness,              We have a great example in the godly young
let it not be once named among you, as becometh              Joseph. You will remember when he was severely
saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor         tempted by the wicked wife of Potiphar. Surely
jesting, which are not convenient; but rather giving         humanly speaking this was a great temptation for
of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger,            Joseph. Joseph was a young man with like passions
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an              with all of us. Surely he could have been flattered
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of             by the proposition of this woman of high standing
Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you in vain            and honor. Humanly speaking he could have been
words; for because of these things  cometh the               overwhelmed by his mannish passions. Further-
wrath of God upon the children of disobedience"              more the advances of this woman were so per-
(Ephesians 5:3-6). This is plain language. You               sistent. There was opportunity to commit the sin of
young people can easily understand it. It speaks             fornication in complete secrecy from human
very loudly and forcefully. We could well under-             knowledge. But Joseph said to the wife of Potiphar:
line each phrase of these verses separately. When            "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin
we adhere very strongly to moral principles we will          against God?" What a powerful answer that was.
be counted square in the world but we will stand             May we as young people have the grace of God in
firmly upon the clear teaching of the Word of God.           our hearts to answer every temptation to fornica-
Many are the vain talkers in the world who are               tion with such words.
saying that fornication among young people before
marriage is perfectly innocent. Many teachers of               Another passage that brings out very wonder-
our day are encouraging young people to experi-              fully the motive out of which we are to live chastely
ment with sex before marriage. Many are saying               before the Lord is found in I Corinthians  6:18-20:
that it is wrong to deprive young people of the              "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is
pleasures and excitement of sex. Be not deceived by          without the body; but he that committeth fornica-
all this wicked worldly philosophy. There is a               tion sinneth against his own body. What? know ye
fearful and dreadful judgment from the holy God of           not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
heaven and earth coming upon all those who live in           which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
immorality and uncleanness.                                  not your own? For ye are bought with a price:
                                                             therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
  The motive out of which we are to keep our-                spirit, which are God's." Wonderful things are told
selves holy and pure must be first of all the love of        us in these verses about who and what we are as
God. We as Reformed Christians know that all our             Christians. Imagine, our bodies are the temple of
doctrine must be God-centered and God-glorifying.            the Holy Spirit! What a tremendous thing this is!
But let us also remember that our lives must be              God, the Holy God Himself, dwells in our bodies.
God-centered and God-glorifying. We must love                What great reason that is for keeping our bodies
holiness and purity because our God is the holy              pure and holy! Ought we not to be filled with holy
God and this is pleasing in His sight. We must be            zeal to keep the temple of the Lord pure? We have
constrained in this area of our lives by the great           been purchased with the precious blood of the Son
motive of the love of God. The wicked world in               of God. What a tremendous cost our Lord paid for
which we live is entirely man-centered. Therefore            our redemption. He redeemed us from all of the


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                399



corruption of sin. Ought we then not keep our             exercising self-control and restraint. You need not
bodies from the awful defilement of immorality?           know all the techniques of sex before marriage. The
We belong to God. We are His possession. He owns          best place to learn these techniques is upon the
us. He is the Lord of our life. Considering this          undefiled marriage bed in which you give yourself
surely ought to constrain us to keep from giving our      in faithful love to each other.
bodies over to lust and sin, and to use them rather         Many practical questions have been asked
for the service and glory of God. Let us present our      relating to the proper use of our sexual nature
bodies, also the sexual aspect of our bodies, as a        before marriage. What is proper activity for Chris-
holy sacrifice unto the Lord which is our solemn          tian young people when they are dating? Certainly
obligation and calling.                                   dating is a very wonderful and exciting activity for
   In I Thessalonians 4:3 and 4 we read: "For this is     young people. It can by the grace of God be a holy
the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye        activity if it is not spoiled by the great evil of forni-
should abstain from fornication; That everyone of         cation. It is the time when a young man and young
you should know how to possess his vessel in              woman come really to know what the opposite sex
sanctification and honor." It should be our greatest      is like. It is a time for you to experience the great
desire in our life to do the will of God. To use our      thrill, excitement, and mystery of boy/girl relation-
sexual nature in holiness and sanctification is the       ships. Times of courting can be some of the
will of God for us; this is pleasing in His sight, in     happiest and most exciting times of your life. How
this He takes great delight. Surely there is no           sad when all that is spoiled by sin. It is urgent that
greater good imaginable, young people, than to            you prevent this from happening. It is urgent that
have the favor and blessing of the Lord upon your         you always seek the blessing and favor of the Lord
life.                                                     upon all your activities together. Be aware of the
   The great beauty of the godly woman according          power of your sinful nature. Be steadfast and strong
to I Peter 3 is not to be found in outward adornment      against the temptation to sin. Do not place yourself
of any kind. Her great beauty is to be found in that      in tempting circumstances. Today most of the
she has a chaste conversation coupled with fear. As       world is saying that heavy petting is perfectly inno-
a young woman you want to be beautiful. Strive to         cent activity for Christian young people to be
possess true spiritual and lasting beauty. Strive to      engaged in. Some who want to seem to be a little
be beautiful first of all in the sight of God and then    less liberal suggest that such petting is permissible
you shall also be truly beautiful before men.             as long as there are agreed upon restraints. The vain
                                                          talkers of the world say today, let young people
   Though the love of God must surely be the high-        enjoy some of the great excitement and pleasure of
est motive for living chastely, it is also true that      sex. Do not restrain them from heavy petting, pas-
when we live chastely with our brothers and sisters       sionate embracing and kissing, playing with each
in the Lord we love them in the highest sense of the      other's bodies. Be not deceived, this is great sin in
word. It is not love in any sense of the word to          the sight of God. Young people must know that
commit fornication together. It cannot be love. To        they have committed the great sin of fornication
do this is to defraud and dishonor one another in         long before they lay with each other in bed. Further-
one of the profoundest ways imaginable. It is love        more, our sexual nature is such that petting and
always to exercise restraint and self-control in          fondling is the prelude to sexual intercourse. It is
dealing with one another. It is a hateful disregard of    unnatural when it is not and it will cause all kinds
one another's honor to give way to temptation and         of strains and frustrations. It is simply the case that
lust and to go on to use and abuse one another. It is     when young people engage in petting they will go
love in the true and holy sense of the word to keep       deeper and deeper into sin. They will more and
yourself undefiled for your God-given marriage            more and more give themselves over to use and
partner. It is pure and holy and wonderful love so        abuse one another. This is a great evil. When a
to keep your bodies that you can give yourself for        young man touches the private parts of a young
the first time and only to your beloved on the            woman to whom he is not married he has already
marriage bed. This kind of love is entirely un-           grievously violated her honor and defrauded her.
matched by all of the lust and fornication that the       We as young people must keep ,ourselves  far distant
world calls love. Let no man deceive you with vain        from this great evil.
words.                                                      Another prevalent sin, especially among young
   There is no need for sexual experimentations           men, is the sin of masturbation. We find that there
before marriage. Fornication will not train you to        are many vain talkers in the world and also in what
live in holy and faithful love with one another after     calls itself the church concerning this sin. Many
marriage. The best training for marriage is the           today are suggesting that this is a purely harmless
training of lovingly honoring one another and             activity. The more liberal are saying that young


400                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



men should be encouraged to find sexual release in        keep out the great immorality of the world. We
this manner rather than to engage in "antisocial          must fill our minds with "whatsoever things are
behavior." Many suggest that to restrain such             true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things
activity and to denounce it as sin will only cause        are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
great psychological frustration and maybe even do         things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and
permanent damage. The Bible condemns this                 if there be any praise, we must think on these
activity as sin. In the first place it involves the       things" (Philippians  4:8). What a tremendous
perversion of our sexual nature for a use which is        calling this is and what a far cry it is from the world
contrary to nature and to the ordinance of God.           and what is advocated in the apostate church.
God ordained that we must use our sexual nature             We must still say something about dress,
only in the holy loving relationship of marriage and      especially to young woman. The women of the
not for the gratification of our own sinful passions      world love to dress in such a way that they excite
and lusts. Secondly, this practice always involves        the men of the world to sinful thoughts and desires.
the sin of adultery in the heart which our Lord           They find great excitement in wearing clothes that
condemns. It is simply impossible that the Chris-         will turn the eyes of all men towards them. The
tian man engaged in such activity could be using          Christian young woman must have no part of this
his body in the service and glory of God.                 at all. For her it is a grievous thing that the men of
  According to the Word of God we must keep our-          the world should be looking at her with evil
selves pure, not only in our outward actions, but         thoughts and desires. The Christian young woman
also in our hearts and in our thoughts. Our Lord          knows the wickedness of man's heart and she
Jesus states in the Sermon on the Mount that "who-        knows the great power of the woman's body to
soever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath          entice and suggest evil. Therefore she must be
committed adultery with her already in his heart."        deeply conscious of the manner in which she
This word of the Lord has also been much gainsaid         dresses. There is no need of long lists of what a
in the wicked world today and also by the apostate        young Christian woman may wear and what she
church. The world in which we live is filled with         may not wear. She well knows that she must not
things that are intended to fill the heart and mind of    wear clothes that are unusually revealing and sug-
man with all kinds of immorality. Much of the             gestive. She must not wear clothes such as small
world's pleasure and entertainment is found in            two-piece bathing suits and skimpy shorts. To wear
watching immoral films that openly display nudity         such is a great evil. It does not matter if all the rest
and the sex act and all kinds of adultery and forni-      of the world is wearing them and even professedly
cation among men and women. Many in the church            Christian young girls. The young woman truly
today suggest that this is good art and acceptable        motivated by the love of God and also love for her
entertainment for the "Christian." If the Christian       brothers in the Lord will wear nothing that would
finds pleasure in watching these things there is          possibly lead another to sin in his heart.
something very seriously spiritually wrong with             For young people to live chastely is a very diffi-
him. In almost all places of the world today one can      cult calling. It is becoming increasingly difficult in
obtain books and magazines that portray nakedness         the world in which we live, a world filled with
in the grossest imaginable way. It is a great evil for    adultery and fornication. You are faced with tre-
Christians to read and look at these. It will surely      mendous pressures and temptations to sin. Perhaps
fill his heart and mind with great sin.                   your life is more difficult than that of any genera-
  We as Christians know that God judges not only          tion before you. Many young people in your day
our outward actions but also our heart and our            have given themselves over to great evil. Your
mind, our thoughts and our desires. It is quite           sinful nature is such that you too can easily come
possible for man to put on an outward show of             under the dominion of this powerful evil. The
being righteous and holy while in his mind and            answer is to stand fast and to stand strong in the
heart he is wicked. We know that our hearts are by        grace and Spirit of God. The answer is not to relax
nature desperately wicked. The Christian has the          the standards; the answer is not to remove
calling to keep his mind and heart pure. It is neces-     restraints and to allow the "freedom" of lust and
sary for us to fight against every evil thought and       fornication and adultery. The answer is to be strong
desire that comes into our mind and heart. We do          in the power of His might, knowing that by this
great evil in the sight of God when we allow evil         power you can and will be preserved also from this
thoughts and desires to reign freely in us. We must       great evil of the world. The answer is to have the
flee every temptation to evil thoughts and desires.       courage to be different and to be ready to stand
We must turn our eyes away from the sexy girls of         against the whole world. By keeping yourself holy
the world. We must exercise utmost spiritual care         and pure you will bring great glory to the name of
and watchfulness over our thoughts and heart to           God. By keeping yourself holy you do much to pre-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                401



pare yourself for a happy and blessed marriage and
also for proper fulfillment and sanctified use of               Keep your thoughts pure.
your sexual nature.

GUESTARTICLE


                       The Responsibility to Make
                                 Confession of Faith
                                              Rev. Ronald Cammenga



  Making public confession of faith has been called         like Israel at Sinai, they assume the full responsibil-
the Christian's Mount Sinai. What Sinai was for the         ities for members of God's church and covenant. At
children of Israel, that confession of faith should be      this occasion they not only profess faith in God, but
to the Christian. At Mount Sinai the children of            they say too, "All that Jehovah hath spoken we will
Israel did not become the covenant people of God.           do." A baptized member of the church, therefore, is
They were God's covenant people already. It was             an undeveloped, immature member. During his
only because they were the covenant people of God           childhood and youth he matures and grows.
that God had delivered them out of the land of              Ordinarily, as he grows physically and psychologi-
Egypt. But it was at Mount Sinai that the children of       cally, he also grows spiritually. At the time when he
Israel willingly assumed their full responsibility as       arrives at spiritual maturity, the time when he
God's covenant people. There they received God's            understands the privileges and obligations of
Word and Law. And there they willingly respond-             church membership and is ready willingly to
ed, "All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do" (Ex.          assume these, he ought to make public confession
19:8).  So it is with the believer who makes confes-        of faith.
sion of his faith. At the moment of confession of             Confession of faith is a momentous occasion. It is
faith he does not become a member of the church.            a momentous occasion in the life of the young per-
The young person who makes public confession of             son who makes confession of faith. It is a
faith is not by his confession "joining the church."        momentous occasion for his parents and pastor
Too often this seems to be the understanding of             who have labored with a view to and prayed to God
confession of faith. But this view is essentially           for his confession of faith. It goes without saying
Baptistic and ought not be the way in which confes-         that no young person ought recklessly to make
sion of faith is viewed in Reformed churches. The           public confession of faith. The seriousness of con-
fact is that by virtue of their baptism the infants of      fession may not be trifled with. And certainly no
believers are members of the church. That's                 young person ought to dare to make confession of
brought out in the first question asked parents at          faith for a wrong reason. You may not make confes-
the time they present their children for baptism:           sion of faith because everyone else your age seems
"Whether you acknowledge, that although our                 to be doing it. You may not make confession of
children are conceived and born in sin, and there-          faith because some of your friends are doing it. You
fore are subject to all miseries, yea, to condemna-         may not make confession of faith because your
tion itself; yet that they are sanctified in Christ, and    parents are pressuring you, or because you want to
therefore,  as  members of His church ought to be           get out of going to catechism, or from some other
baptized?" Reformed believers hold that, already in         ulterior motive. Confession of faith demands
their earliest infancy, even while they are yet in          sincerity. The young person who is considering
their mother's womb, the children of believers are          making confession of faith must be thoroughly con-
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. For this reason             vinced that he will make confession before the very
God's Word in I Corinthians  7:14 speaks of the             face of God and that God will certainly hold him
children of believers as "holy." By virtue of the           responsible for his confession. He must be
work of the Holy Spirit within them, already as             impressed with the fact that confession of faith
infants and children, they are members of God's             amounts to swearing an oath before God and His
church. Yet, by making public confession of faith,          church. It is serious business, to be sure.


402                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  And yet, the young people of the church must be            denying Him. Not to confess Him is to deny Him.
impressed with the fact that confession of faith is          In Romans  10:9, 10 we read: "That if thou shalt
also a solemn responsibility. This aspect of confes-         confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
sion of faith must never be lost from sight. Confes-         believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him
sion of faith is a great privilege. The young person         from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
who makes confession of faith ought to count it a            heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with
great privilege that he may make confession of               the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
faith. He ought to count it a great privilege to have        Surely there is nothing strange or un-Biblical in the
been born of believing parents, to have been                 fact that the church should require of adult mem-
brought up in the truth of God's Word. He ought to           bers a confession of faith. This is something to
count it a great privilege that God has seen fit to          which the Word of God everywhere calls us. Con-
work faith in his heart, under the preaching of the          fession of our faith is simply part of our life. It
Word and in the church. No question about it, it is a        ought to be as spontaneous as breathing.
great privilege to be able to stand up in the congre-
gation and confess our faith in the Lord Jesus. But            But, secondly, there is another reason why Re-
besides being a privilege, confession of faith is also       formed churches insist on a confession of faith by
a responsibility.                                            the young people when they arrive at years of
                                                             discretion. This reason has to do with the sacra-
  Sometimes I fear that the young people are not             ment of the Lord's Supper. The question whether
sufficiently impressed with that. Is it perhaps              the church has the authority to demand a confes-
because you fail to see this that some of you                sion of faith is closely bound up with our view of
hesitate making confession of faith? And not only            the Lord's Supper. Those in the past who denied
the young people themselves are to blame. Have               this authority to the church maintained what is
we as pastors and officebearers and parents done             called "open" or "free" admission to the Lord's
all that we should to impress this upon our young            Table. They maintained that attendance at the
people, their responsibility before God to make              Lord's Table is exclusively a matter of the personal
confession of faith? Have we explained carefully to          conscience of the individual attending. Whether or
them why this is their responsibility? Has this              not he would attend was his decision alone. Those
responsibility been laid before them in the                  who maintained the authority of the church to
sermons?                                                     require public confession of faith did so because
  There are those who question or deny this                  they also maintained that attendance at the Lord's
responsibility of making public confession of faith          Table is not only a personal matter, but subject to
in the church. There are many denominations                  the jurisdiction of the church. Responsibility for
which maintain that the church does not have the             the Lord's Supper is a responsibility which the
right to require this confession. A few centuries            church has. This is the Reformed view of the sacra-
ago, the Arminians in the Reformed Churches of               ment. This is the view which we, as a Reformed
the Netherlands denied this authority to the church.         church, have. The Scriptures teach that the Lord
These people point out that nowhere does Scripture           has entrusted the sacraments to the church. The
explicitly require this confession when the young            church administers the sacraments. And the
people arrive at years of discretion and before they         church has been given by God the responsibility to
are allowed'to partake of the Lord's Supper. How             guard them against misuse and desecration. (Cf. a
can this practice in our churches be maintained,             passage like I Cor. 11  and the Heidelberg
therefore? And on what do we base the respon-                Catechism, Q.A. 81, 82.) The practice of requiring a
sibility of making public confession of faith?               public confession of faith is based upon the
                                                             church's responsibility to guard the sacrament of
  The responsibility to make public confession of            the Lord's Supper. Since the time of the Reforma-
faith is based, first of all, on the general calling that    tion, Reformed churches have exercised control
the Scriptures place upon the people of God to               over the Lord's Table by means of public confes-
confess God's name in the world. Many passages of            sion of faith. Insisting on a public confession of
Scripture bring out this calling. Christ Himself says        faith before admission to the sacrament is one way
in Matthew  10:32, 33: "Whosoever therefore shall            in which the church fulfills her responsibility
confess Me before men, him will I confess also               before God in regard to the sacrament.
before My Father which is in heaven. But whoso-
ever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny            Ultimately, therefore, the responsibility of the
before My Father which is in heaven." Not only               young people to make public confession of faith is
does Christ lay before us our calling publicly to            just their responsibility to partake of the Lord's
confess Him, in this passage, but He also makes              Supper. In instituting the Lord's Supper, Christ
plain here that there are only two alternatives. If          said, "Take, eat, this is My body. Drink ye all of it."
we are not confessing Him, we are guilty of                  Those were commands, imperatives. Christ


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                             403



obligates every adult believer to partake of this          to, use the sacrament, we must also be impressed
means of grace, the Supper. The Apostle Paul, in I         with the attendant duty of making public  confes-
Corinthians  11:29, teaches us that when we are            siorrof our faith.
able to discern the Lord's body in the sacrament,            This is your responsibility, young people. Don't
we ought to partake of the sacrament. We must be           neglect your responsibility before God. Don't
impressed with the duty that is ours to use this           hesitate; don't draw back. But prayerfully, by His
means of grace. And being impressed with our duty          grace, carry it out.

FROM HOLY WRIT


            Spiritual Submission to One Another
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers



  There are certain terms in the Bible which we            19 and 20. And then it is an activity and manifesta-
need to study with great care, and they must be            tion of being "filled with (in) the Spirit."
interpreted in the light of the immediate context, as        The meaning of the verb "to submit" is very
well as in the broader context of all the Scriptures.      clear in its current usage in the Scriptures. The
  The Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter both              term is used in Classic Greek in a military sense, of
speak of the  spirifual  submission  which all Chris-      a soldier submitting to his general and superiors.
tians, be they men or women, owe to one another            However, in the Bible the term is not used merely
in the fear of God.                                        of such a relationship among men. Basically it is
  It is well that this be noticed in this day in which     used of our deepest attitude toward God. That is
we live.                                                   the use of the term in James 4:7. In the context we
                                                           read that God resists the proud and lofty and that
  This is a day in which there is a very great evil        He gives grace to the lowly. Only by being lowly
under the sun. It is the evil that women in the            will we avoid "wars and fightings" among us
church aspire to be officebearers in the church, to        (James 4: l-5).
be ministers, elders, and deacons. And there are
many denominations which fall into this error.               And so James says, "Submit yourselves therefore
And, it is true, that we who stand must beware lest        unto God."
we fall. And may the Lord of His church Himself              This takes us out of the clutches of the Evil One.
keep us in His ordinances.                                   In our basic attitude toward God we are to
  There is a sobering word from the pen of Paul in         submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God in
Ephesians  5:21 which we ought to take to heart in         Christ Jesus. This unbelievers refused to do and
these days, lest we give foolish and ill-advised           therefore they perished in their sins, submitting to
directions in the battle. We all are inclined to  one-     their own righteousness (Rom. 10:3).
sidedness when we take up the cudgel to defend               Yea, we are to submit to every ordinance of man
the ramparts of God's church. And we must warn             for the Lord's sake. Only thus do believers submit
each other against the evil of one-sidedness, lest we      to God Whose servants they are (I Peter 2:13; Rom.
not preach and teach the whole counsel of God.             13:1-4).  We are not to be wiser than God, nor are
  We read in Ephesians  5:21, "Submitting your-           we to be revolutionaries. There were ever, and
selves one to another in the fear of God."                there are ever, zealots who disobeyed God and
  There is a difference of opinion concerning the         came to ruin by the dictum of Jesus: He that uses
proper interpretation of the participle "submit-          the sword perishes with the sword (Matt.  26:52).
ting." In the Greek text we read Hupotassomenoi. If       They did not submit to God, no more than would
this cannot be read as "an imperative" and the            the Jews in Jeremiah's day, who refused to receive
beginning of a new paragraph as is suggested by           the prophecy that Israel must prepare for seventy
A.T. Robertson in his Word Pictures on this passage,      years of captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:1-14).
then it is a participle in line with the former parti-       This is the strong word which Paul employs here
ciples, "speaking, singing, giving thanks," in verses      in the text, be it in a participle construction, "be ye


404                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



filled with the Spirit, " or whether it must be read as    dispute, isn't it?
an imperative. In either case it falls under Christian        Perhaps an instance from Scripture will verify
admonitions, and a precept of the Gospel, for the          this point for the reader.
Spirit-filled believer.                                       We all know the classic passages from I Peter 3: l-
  For it must not be overlooked that this is a "sub-       6 which will teach us what the will of the Lord is in
mission" in the fear of God. The term "fear of             this matter. And we are interested what the will of
God" may sometimes be taken in the objective               the Lord is; that alone can be binding on our
sense of the term. Fear then refers to the godly           conscience. And then I would have you notice how
teaching. This hardly seems to be the meaning              Peter points to Sarah, the free woman, as the great
here. This refers to subjective, godly fear, which is      example of meekness. She was really a princess of a
the very beginning, the principle of wisdom. A man         woman; she must have had remarkable grace and
who seeks for and finds such wisdom is a happy, a          beauty, even at an advanced age. Twice her weak
blessed man indeed (Prov. 3: 13).                          husband had allowed her to fall into the hands of
  Now it ought to be observed that whether this is         adulterous kings (Gen.  20:5 and Gen.  12:19). Only
an imperative verb mood, or  whether.it  is a parti-       the intervention of God Almighty had spared
ciple depending on "filled with the Spirit" (vs. 19),      Abraham disaster. Yes, Sarah was submissive to
the simple truth of the matter is that this is to be a     her husband, when she connived with him. But
universal, reciprocal submission to "one another."         neither were obedient to the Lord in these sad
This, of course, refers to the members of the body         incidents in which Abraham sought to save his own
of Christ. It is the manifestation of the unity of the     life, by speaking  halfltruths concerning his  good-
Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4: l-3). It is a         looking wife.
walking worthy of our calling in Christ Jesus in all          Yes, Sarah had internal beauty before the Lord.
meekness.                                                  In her was the hidden man of a meek and quiet
  In this way we buy out the time in these evil            spirit which in the sight of God is of great price.
days.                                                      That is the Sarah which Peter says the women, the
  Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of          frivolous and vain women must emulate. With
God.                                                       such women Paul was dealing. The beauty parlor
                                                           beauties!
  Does Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
Who leads into all truth, mean that there are excep-          But there is another Sarah, too, to whom
tions and relationships in life where this is not true?    Abraham is told to subject himself in the fear of
Notice that in the very next verse he writes, "Wives       God. And well might Abraham fear, and well may
submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto           any husband fear if his wife speaks to him as did
the Lord." Does this veto the injunction of the Lord       Sarah to Abraham. I am not referring to that very
to husbands to submit to their wives in the fear of        bad advice of Sarah to Abraham to raise up seed on
God? Does Paul mean to say: husbands, you only             her knees from Hagar her Egyptian handmaid, her
rule over your wives; they only submit? Paul does          slave-girl. That backfired badly for both of them.
not say: wives submit - husbands rule. Look care-          That was not walking objectively in the "fear", in
fully what Paul writes here. The injunctions are:          the revealed will concerning God's promise (Gen.
wives submit and husbands Zove! Yes, love even as           15: l-6). Abraham did not here walk in the revealed
Christ loved the church. Here is not some worldly          will concerning the promised seed, in whom all
male chauvinistic dominion on the part of the male         nations would be blessed. They were both
believers in the church. Both men and women                disobedient. Neither one submitted to the other in
are under their Lord in heaven!                            the fear of God. Both were disobedient. And
                                                           Abraham should have firmly resisted this tempta-
  Both are told to walk in the fear of God!                tion and walked "in hope against hope" (Rom.
  And this is not some mere "principle" arrived at         4: 18). And then a son is born, but he is to be forever
by human deduction, but it is the declared, explicit-      the picture of the people who are brought forth
ly declared will of God. This is just as clear and         unto eternal bondage (Gal. 4:24).
explicit and exalted as the fifth commandment:                But there is another Sarah.
"Honor thy father and thy mother" (cf. Eph. 6:1-3).           It was really a happy moment for this aged
  There is a sense, therefore, in which the man in         ninety-year-old wife of Abraham, childless, barren!
the church is to be submissive to the woman in the         And now the word comes that she shall have a son
church. Paul does not teach that only women are to         at the set time. This is told her while both she and
be submissive in the Lord, but also men are to be in       her husband are dead (Rom.  4:19, 20; Heb.  ll:ll,
such godly submission in the Lord.                         12). And when told of this son she thinks of her
  That Paul teaches this in this text is really beyond     impotent husband. Old man that he is become,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 405



ninety and nine years old. And she laughs with a          every Christian husband take this to heart for his
very quiet, doubtful laugh in her heart. And she          salvation's sake. It was at the occasion of the wean-
speaks of her husband and calls him "my adonai,"          ing of Isaac. Abraham was very happy in having an
my lord! That is the incident Peter refers to when        heir son. And this must have galled Hagar and her
he says, "Calling him her lord."                          son, Ishmael. For Ishmael mocked Isaac and
  Now you might say: Sarah was submissive. Yes,           reviled him and persecuted him (Gal. 4:29). And it is
she was in the Lord, as later Elizabeth, the mother       at this feast that we see Sarah rise as a woman in
of John must have been. And Abraham too was               Israel and she rebukes her husband saying, "cast
submissive in the Lord, as was Zacharias, after he        out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this
had been smitten with dumbness. And when                  bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even
Zacharias intervenes in the naming of the son,            with Isaac" (Gen. 21:lO).
whom the neighbors would name Zacharias, and                Abraham did not desire to submit. The Lord
when he writes and says, his name is John, Jehovah        must come and take the side of Sarah. She sub-
is gracious, that was submission in the fear of God.      mitted herself to her husband in the fear of God,
  But that does not tell the complete story of all the    but in such a way that Abraham must submit to her
Scriptural ramifications of this submission unto          in the fear of God.
God in the fear of God on the part of Abraham and           She spoke the very oracles of God.
Sarah!                                                      May we have many mothers in Israel who speak
  There is more to be said if we are to preach the        the oracles of God to their husbands and to their
full counsel of God. And let the wise take it to          children.
heart: Sapienti sat!                                        Let us all be submissive to each other in the fear
  There came a time when Abraham had really to            of God, being filled with the Spirit of Christ.
submit to his wife in the fear of God. And well may


                                Open Letter of Thanks

To: The Saints of the Protestant Reformed                 sufficient for these things? So remember to pray for
     Churches.                                            us that we may not corrupt His Word, but as of
From: Mr. & Mrs. Lau Chin Kwee                            sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we
          Singapore Address:                              may speak in Christ.
          Apt. Block 99,170-G, Whampoa Drive                Soon, we will be going home and the thought of
          Singapore 1232.                                 saying `farewell' brings to memory the many count-
          Republic of Singapore.                          less incidents of kindness and hospitality shown to
          May 17,1982                                     us, unworthy creatures. We are indebted to so
                                                          many of you that to list all your names is an impos-
Dear brothers and sisters,                                sibility in this short letter, nor is it wise seeing that
  Greetings to you in the Name of our Almighty,           the praise of God is to be desired rather than the
Sovereign God of Heaven and Earth; the Covenant           praise of men. But, we especially want to thank the
God Who has done wondrous things in ages gone             3 professors of your seminary who had helped me
by and even now in our midst! Amen.                       to accomplish that which the church in Singapore
                                                          sent me here to do, that is, to study for the ministry
  By the time we leave for Singapore, the Lord            of the Word of God.
willing, on June 9, 1982, we would have spent our
profitable 22 months in your midst. As a denomina-          Good-bye, then, our friends and brethren in
tion of 58 years old, you certainly have a lot to         Christ! If we do not meet again on this side of
teach us over the pulpits, at the seminary, in your       Jordan, we will on that other, by His grace. Mean-
private homes, in the schools and in your indivi-         while, let us be faithful on our part to "cleave to
dual lives. For all these we are thankful to our          this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that we
Covenant God and to you, His people, without              trust in Him, and love Him with all our. hearts, with
whose prayer and financial support this dream             all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our
would never have come true. The truth which we            strength; that we forsake the world, crucify our old
have seen and heard of you, we are most eager to          nature, and walk in a new and holy life."
impart to our own people in Singapore. But, who is          Good-bye and thank you!


406                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                                         BookReviews                                                 j

EERDMAN'S HANDBOOK TO THE WORLD'S                         which covers one hundred thirty-eight pages. The
RELIGIONS,  R. Pierce Beaver et al, Consulting            remaining six hundred-plus pages are devoted to an
Editors; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand                 explanation of the fifty-two chapters of this lengthy
Rapids,  Mich. 448 pp. (cloth) $21.95. [Reviewed by       prophecy. It is, of course, no small undertaking to
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema]                                      write an adequate explanation of this long
  This is an excellent reference work. It is loaded       prophecy in the space of a little more than six
with information concerning the ancient religions         hundred pages. This is also, in this reviewer's
of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and northern Europe. It           opinion, the weak point of this commentary: it is
has a very interesting and informative section on         too scant. The seminarian or pastor who wants to
religions of the Orient, such as Hinduism,                preach Jeremiah will discover that while this com-
Buddhism, Jainism, etc. It contains a large section       mentary may be helpful in some respects, he will
on Judaism and Islam. The book has over two               have to do considerably more exegetical work
hundred photographs, one hundred of which are in          before he has sufficient material for  sermon-
full color. It contains numerous charts and maps.         making.
And at the end of the book is a section called the          With these strictures, we recommend this
"Rapid Fact-finder section," in which one can very        volume as a suitable addition to one's library.
quickly find brief information concerning various
aspects of one or another religion. All in all, this      TRUMPETER OF GOD,  A Biography of John
very beautifully published book can serve as a good       Knox, W. Stanford Reid; Baker Book House, 1982;
addition to one's reference shelf.                        353 pp., $8.95 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H.C.
  A note of caution is necessary, however. The            Hanko]
approach of the book to the development of religion         John Knox is usually considered to be the father
is evolutionistic. The book's treatment of Judaism        of the Reformation in Scotland. Much has been
is very faulty because of a serious failure to take       written about Knox both by his spiritual heirs and
into account the unity of the old and the new             by his enemies. Reid justifies the addition of
dispensations and the fact that the religion of the       another book on this Reformer with the words:
Old Testament and that of the New are one and the         "The present work, however, is not a complete
same. And the book's approach to the subject of           story of John Knox's life. It could not be within a
Christianity also leaves very much to be desired.         book of this size. Rather it is a biographical study
All of this means that one's use of the book must be      which seeks to interpret Knox in order to provide a
strictly limited to the information and the facts fur-    better understanding of one who has not infre-
nished. One has to ignore the evaluations given and       quently been misrepresented both by his adulators
the explanations of origin. Naturally, this also          and his critics."
detracts from the value of the book.                        The book, in this reviewer's opinion, is only
  Nevertheless, if one uses a book of this kind with      partially successful in attaining this goal. The book
discretion, it can be a valuable reference work.          is an interesting biography, filled with a great deal
                                                          of factual data concerning the life of this Reformer.
                                                          But it does not do the interpreting which one would
THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH  (New International                  ordinarily expect. It has very little to say about
Commentary On The Old Testament), J.A. Thomp-             Knox's theology and its influence on subsequent
son; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids,             Presbyterian thought in Scotland; it does not enter
Mich. 819 pp. (cloth) $22.50 (Reviewed by Prof.           into an evaluation of the great issue of the relation
H.C. Hoeksema)                                            between Church and State which dominated in the
  This large volume is one of a projected series on       Reformation in Scotland.
the Old Testament. In this series, now under the            Nevertheless, this is a good book. It is well re-
General Editorship of R.K. Harrison, various Old          searched and written in a scholarly, though easily
Testament scholars contribute commentaries on             understood style. It is packed with many details of
the various books of the Old Testament. It stands to      the life of this great Reformer and gives a sense of
reason that the quality of the commentaries differs       the tension and importance of the times. Its style is
with the quality of the commentators.                     rather pedantic at times, but this is difficult to avoid
  This is a rather helpful volume. Perhaps its            in a biography filled with so much information. We
strength lies in the large introductory section,          recommend the book highly to all those who have


                                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                  407



an interest in the great battles fought on behalf of                                                                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
the truth and in those heroes of faith who have now                                                          On June 20, 1982, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND MRS.
joined the company of just men made perfect. It                                                            STUART LOOYENGA will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 30th
should have a place in every Christian school                                                              wedding anniversary. We give thanks to them for their loving
                                                                                                           guidance and covenant instruction and to our Heavenly Father for His
library and in every home where the people of God                                                          many blessings upon their marriage and family.
have a love for the heritage of the truth given us                                                            "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that
from the Reformation.                                                                                      hope in His mercy" (Psalm 147: 1  I).
                                                                                                                                                Russ and Carole Dykstra
                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                                          Heather, Heide, Christopher, Ryan
                                                                                                                                                David and Sue Looyenga
   Our parents, MR. AND MRS. ANTHONY DE YOUNG, celebrated                                                                                           Lisabeth, Brendan, Brianna
their 35th wedding anniversary on May 23, 1982. We are thankful                                                                                 JaneLooyenga
to our Covenant God for having kept them for each other and us. May                                                                             Don and Kathy Knott
they experience God's richest blessings in future years.

   "Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon
Israel." (Psalm  128:6).                                                                                                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                  Their grateful children and grandchildren,                                  We announce the joyous occasion of 50 years of marriage for our
                                  Mr. and Mrs. Joszef  Postma                                              parents and grandparents, MR. AND MRS. THEODORE ENGELSMA,
                                       Phillip, David, Daniel and Stephen                                  on June 27, 1982. An open-house for family and friends will be held
                                  Rev. and Mrs. Meindert Joostens                                          Wednesday, June 23, 1982, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Village
                                       Faith, Timothy, Steven, Joy and Paul                                House of New Amsterdam Village, 7905 Cottonwood Dr., in
                                                                                                           Jenison, Ml.
                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                   We thank our heavenly Father for giving us God-fearing parents
    The Faith, Hope, and Love Society of the South Holland Protestant                                      who have brought us up in the fear of the Lord. It is our prayer that
Reformed Church expresses their Christian sympathy to Mrs. Carolle                                         God may continue to bless them through their walk in life together.
H o l l e m a n   i n   t h e   d e a t h   o f   h e r   g r a n d m o t h e r ,   M R S .   C L A R A       "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
AMPTMEYER. May our God strengthen her and her family by His                                                them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children:
word and spirit.                                                                                           To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His
    "The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that                                        commandments to do them" (Psalm  103:17, 18).
hope in His mercy" (Psalm  33:18).                                                                                                                   Ron and Betty Selvius
                                                      Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.                                                                         Cathy and Curt, Doug, Rhonda
                                                      Mrs. Denise DeJong, Sec'y.                                                                     Ron and  Dena  Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                         Steve, Sheila, Marsha
                                                                                                                                                     Chuck and Pat Engelsma
                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                                              Denise, Tom, Susan, Paul
                                                                                                                                                     Marie and Al De Young
    The Faith, Hope, and Love Society of the South Holland Protestant                                                                                    Laura, Lisa
Reformed Church expresses their Christian sympathy to Mrs. Martha                                                                                    Phil and Joyce Kraima
Regnerus in the death of her step-mother, MRS. WIERENGA. May she                                                                                         Patricia, Andrea
find comfort in the words expressed in Psalm  37:18, "The Lord
knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall be
forever."                                                                                                                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                      Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.                              O n   M a y   1 0 ,   1 9 8 2 ,   o u r   p a r e n t s ,   M R .   A N D   M R S .   E D W A R D
                                                      Mrs. Denise DeJong, Sec'y.                           CAMMENGA, celebrated their 31 st wedding anniversary.

                                                                                                              We, their children and grandchildren, are deeply grateful to God for
                                                                                                           the years He has given them together. We are also grateful for the
                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                instruction they have given us in the fear of His name. We pray that
    The Faith, Hope, and Love Society of the South Holland Protestant                                      God will always be near them and sustain them in the years to come.
Reformed Church expresses their Christian sympathy to Mrs. Sarah                                              "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good
DeJong in the death of her step-father, MR. CARTER. May our God                                            of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's
strengthen her by His word and spirit.                                                                     children, and peace upon Israel" (Psalm  128:5,  6).

    "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted"                                                                                        Rev. Ron and Rhonda Cammenga
(Matthew  5:4).                                                                                                                                      Randy and Joyce Cammenga
                                                      Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.                                                                     Rev. Ron and Nancy Hanko
                                                                                                                                                     Sandy Hilldore
                                                      Mrs. Denise DeJong, Sec'y.                                                                     Bob and Tom Cammenga
                                                                                                                                                          and 10 grandchildren
                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  In gratefulness to our Heavenly Father we acknowledge His                                                                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
blessing these many years through Godly instruction by our parents
and grandparents, MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM SWART, who celebrate                                                   O n   M a y   3 1 , 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS. EGBERT
their 35th wedding anniversary on June 20, 1982.                                                           GRITTERS  celebrated their 25th anniversary.
    "Except the Lord built the house, they  labour in vain that build it:                                     We pray that God will always continue to bless them and keep
except the Lord keep the city, the watch man waketh but in vain"                                           them in His care in the years to come.
(Psalm  127:l).                                                                                               "For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth
                                           Rev. and Mrs. Ronald Van  Overloop                              endureth to all generations" (Psalm  100:5).
                                           Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Kalsbeek                                                                   their children,
                                          Judy Swart                                                                                          Brian, Roxanne, Brenda, Loren, Marvin,
                                           12 grandchildren                                                                                   Rhonda, Valerie, Susan and Sharla

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





408                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


                         News From Our Churches
  Most Standard Bearer readers do not receive the       zine, I highly recommend it to you. In addition to
Beacon Lights  (a Protestant Reformed publication       staying current with the young people's activities,
designed especially for Christian young people) and     you will find a lot of worthwhile reading. For a
therefore are not aware of the many activities with     complimentary copy or to subscribe, send to
which the young people of our churches busy             Beacon Lights,  1401 Su-Lew S.W., Grand Rapids,
themselves. Generating funds for the annual young       MI 49504.
people's conventions and providing opportunities                       **********
for spiritual growth and Christian fellowship moti-
vate much of their planning. Incidentally, their          An "All Day Mission Conference" was held on
1982 Convention is scheduled for August 16-20 at        April 22 at our church of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa.                    The conference was advertised as follows: "The
                                                        morning session will begin at 10:00 A.M. with an
  Following is a partial list of recent and  not-so-    introduction by Prof. Robert Decker on `The
recent activities that the young people's groups of     Protestant Reformed Churches In Their Mission
our churches around the country have had: Last          Work' followed by Rev. Steven  Houck on `The
December the young people of our South Holland,         Problem of Presenting The Gospel to Strangers.'
Illinois congregation held a Christmas party where      Lunch will be served for those who wish to stay
pizza and pop were served. In February a sliding        during the noon hour. The afternoon session will
party was held at Johnson Park in the Grand             begin at  1:30 P.M. with Mr. Dewey Engelsma on
Rapids, Michigan area. On March 4 a Spaghetti           `The Mission Work in Singapore' and Seminarian
Supper was held at our Hope Protestant Reformed         Lau Chin Kwee on `The Function of Cell Groups in
Christian School in Walker, Michigan. Also in           Singapore Work' followed by `The Mission Work in
March the young people of our First Church in           Jamaica' by Rev. Heys." The conference was
Grand Rapids sponsored a "breakfast of eggs,            climaxed with an evening lecture by Rev. Ronald
bacon, juice, muffins, grapefruit and coffee." A        Van Overloop, missionary pastor of our Birming-
Family Night, including volleyball games and a          ham, Alabama mission station, on the topic: "The
baked goods auction, was held in Loveland, Colo-        Responsibility of the Christian in Mission Work."
rado on March 22. On April 3 our Houston, Texas         As nearly as this reporter could detect, the confer-
young people sponsored a recreational outing            ence was very well attended and received. Cassette
which included "volleyball and other games." The        tapes of the conference sessions are available by
annual Spring Banquet of the Federation of Prot-        writing to:    Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed
estant Reformed Young People's Societies was held       Church, 427 North Fletcher, Kalamazoo, MI 49007.
on April 23 at our Hudsonville, Michigan church.                       * ****i****
On that occasion Rev. Engelsma spoke on the topic,
"Sharing One Another's Burdens."                          The church visitors to our church of Wyckoff,
                                                        New Jersey did more than just visit while they were
  In addition to these and numerous other activi-       there in April. Rev. J. Heys showed pictures con-
ties, the young people in the Grand Rapids area         cerning the recent work in Jamaica, and Rev. C.
conduct young people's mass meetings in connec-         Hanko lectured on the subject, "The Keys of the
tion with Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and              Kingdom." In addition both ministers conducted a
Easter. Also, singspirations are held once a month      worship service on the 18th of April. Incidentally,
on a rotating basis at the various Grand Rapids area    during the morning service, Rev. C. Hanko bap-
churches.                                               tized his great-grandson; infant of the pastor of the
  Obviously many of our young people busy them-         Wyckoff congregation, Rev. Ronald Hanko. (Speak-
selves with these worthwhile activities; and that's     ing of the baptizing of great-grandsons, Rev. M.
to be encouraged. Also to be encouraged is their        Schipper recently did the very same thing in our
regular reading of the aforementioned magazine:         Southwest Church of Grand Rapids.)
the Beacon Lights. If you do not receive the maga-                                                       CK


