            T               h                    e
     STANDARD
           BEARER
r            A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                   Y





     .  .  . Persecution does not come to you as a

     matter of course; simply because you say that
     you are a Christian. The world can easily tol-
     erate those who are content to say that they
     are Christians, but whose lives reflect only
     minor differences. Persecution, reproach,
     scorn falls upon those who Zive their Chris-
     tianity. . . . .
                 See "Signs of the Times" - page 470




c                                        Volume LVIII, MO. 20, September 1, 1982 1


458                                                              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
       Israel's Passage Through the Red Sea . . . . . . . . .458                     Deparhnent  Editors:  Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bminsma, Rev. Arie
                                                                                     denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma, Rev. Richard
   Editorials-                                                                       Flikkema, Rev. Cornelius  Hanko,  Prof. Herman  Hando,  Rev. John A. Heys, Mr.
                                                                                     Calvin Kalsbeek, Rev. Kenneth  Koole, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C.
       More Suggestions About Our                                                    Lubbers, Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James Slopsema,
                                                                                     Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman.
          Synodical Meetings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461         EditorialOffice:   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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       The "eodem modo" Rejected in the                                                                 Grandville, Michigan 49418
          Conclusion of the Canons (4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .462               Church News Editor: Mr. Calvin Kalsbeek
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MEDITATION

              Israel's Passage Through the Red Sea
                                                                        Rev. H. Veldman

                  "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do
              were drowned.  If                                                                                                           Hebrews  11.29


  Indeed, the foolishness of God is wiser than men                                         This same truth is also held before us in this
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.                                          Word of God. How unbelievably foolish appears to
How foolish it may have seemed for Israel and                                          be the course which Israel took! Is it any wonder
Moses to keep the Passover that night in the land of                                   that Pharaoh must have thought that Moses was
Egypt. Yet this feast of the Passover was Israel's                                     beside himself? A more foolish course could not
deliverance. The king had commanded them to                                            have been selected by this leader of the Hebrews!
leave, and the Egyptians had laden them with gifts                                     However, one vital matter must be borne in mind.
of silver and gold as remuneration for all the years                                   Notice what we read in Exodus  14:4, 8 and in
of hard labor and bondage.                                                             verses 17 and 18. Hence, at least three times we


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              459



read of tbs. hardening of the hearts of Pharaoh and        southward and march along the western shore of
the Egyptians. God, while delivering His people,           the Red Sea. Hence, the word is brought.to Pharaoh
deliberately leads Pharaoh and his host to ruin and        that the Israelites are hopelessly entangled in the
destruction, because He would make His power               land, are in a predicament from whence they can-
known.                                                     not escape. How hopeless is Israel's position! To
                    Apparently Foolish                     the north of them they see the advancing Egyptian
                                                I          army. To their left is the Red Sea, and it they cannot
  Israel's passage through the Red Sea  - is' there        possibly cross. Before them and to the west lie the
anything, in all the annals of history, comparable to      mountains and the wilderness. Indeed, Israel is
this incident? Where, in all the pages of history, do      hopelessly entangled in the land. Is it any wonder
we read of the migration of an entire people out of        that the king of Egypt resolves to set out after them?
one land into another, and then through a sea and a        Remembering the ten plagues, how he hated Israel!
river and a waste howling wilderness? As far as this
amazing incident is concerned, it is apparently              Secondly, what a folly confronts them as they
utterly foolish.                                           must pass through the Red Sea! 0, it may appear
                                                           that it was safe for Israel to proceed. Had not a
  How true is the Word of God as stated in 1 Cor-          riverbed been made dry for them? Yet, also this
inthians 1:25!  The foolishness and weakness of God        passage appears to be utter folly. First, the Red Sea
(regarded by the world as such) are indeed wiser           is about six to seven miles wide at this spot. What a
and stronger than men. How this is verified                long way for such a procession! Secondly, would
throughout history! Was it not thus in the days of         not the Egyptians be able to do so, travel much
Enoch, that mighty witness of the Lord and                 faster than they and hem them in? However, we
preacher of righteousness before the flood? Do not         must also bear in mind the following. Had the Lord
the days of Noah speak to us of the same truth? Is it      simply made this pathway through the Red Sea,
not thus throughout the ages? Are not, apparently,         and was He, visible to all, holding up these waters
all the advantages with the wicked world? Are not          so that they would not come cascading down upon
the people of the Lord hopelessly outnumbered? Is          them, all would have been simplified. But Moses
not the church of God always a little flock? Do not        had stretched out his rod and an east wind had
the children of this world have access to all the re-      come up and had blown all that night. What as-
sources of this world? Is not, therefore, the position     surance did Israel have that that east wind would
of God's little flock in the midst of the world one of     continue to blow? Yes, the wonder was that that
utter hopelessness and helplessness? Yet, that             east wind had blown when Moses stretched out his
mighty world will be destroyed and that little flock       rod. But, to Israel it all must have seemed rather
of the Lord will be saved. And the same truth is           natural. Only a few saw Moses stretch out his rod.
held before us in this text. On the one hand, we           All that Israel perceived was an east wind that blew
have here the power and wisdom of the world,               into their faces. And, if Israel believed only this,
represented by Pharaoh and Egypt, the mighty               this is not so strange, is it? Do not the unbelieving
world power of that time and age. And, on the other        critics say the same thing? How they claim that this
hand, we have here the power and the wisdom of             is only a natural phenomenon! How hazardous it
God. We might think that Pharaoh would have                seemed to be for Israel to "take the chance"
learned his lesson, having suffered when Jehovah           because of this east wind! What if it stopped blow-
devastated his land with ten mighty and dreadful           ing?
plagues. However, the Lord hardens his heart, also
the hearts of the Egyptians; He leads them in the            Thirdly, is our position in the world, apparently,
way of utter folly and destroys them in the Red Sea.       less foolish? We are called to be God's people in a
                                                           wicked world, far greater and stronger than we. We
  Indeed, apparently how utterly foolish is Israel's       seek a city we cannot see; we hope for a glory that
course as set forth in this history! First of all, what    is humanly impossible; we long for everlasting life
an agonizingly slow procession departs out of the          beyond the grave, and our only hope is simply the
land of Egypt. Some two million souls there were,          Word and promise of the Lord, the fulfillment
and Psalm 105 informs us that there was not one            whereof is humanly absolutely impossible. Suffer-
feeble one among them. Imagine: not one feeble             ing and persecution and ridicule and mockery here
one among them, and this in spite of the terrible          below; glory  .and life beyond, on the other side,
bondage to which Israel had been subjected! And            humanly impossible and unattainable.
what a foolish route! One would think that a pro-
cession of this nature would at least take the short                       Wondrously Wise
route to Canaan, in a northeasterly direction                First, salvation must be of God alone. God has
through the land of the Philistines. But such is not       willed for His people and places them in impossible
the case. Israel is commanded by the Lord to turn          situations. He has willed for us a mountain of guilt


460                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



which no man can possibly pay. He has willed for            we read of the hearts of the Egyptians. Perhaps this
us chains of sin which we cannot possibly break, a          host had hesitated, not trusting the situation. But
pathway through sickness and death with which               the Lord hardens their hearts. They see -only the
we cannot possibly cope. Salvation must be of God           east wind. And in their spirtual hardness and blind-
alone. His right arm and hand must bring salvation.         ness and hatred against God and His people, they
Man must never have the opportunity to ascribe              plunged into the sea after Israel, are led to their
salvation to himself. All attention must be focused         everlasting destruction. Indeed, the foolishness and
forever upon the living God, the God of our salva-          weakness of God are wiser and stronger than men.
tion.                                                       And this occurs throughout the ages.
  How strikingly this applies to Israel here! How                         Possible Only By Faith
desperately hopeless was Israel's position! Mind              By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by
you, this was deliberately of the Lord. Jehovah             dry land. This was possible only by faith.
commanded Moses to lead Israel along this impos-
sible route. Imagine: two million souls, including            Of course, not all the Israelites believed, as we
children and babes, with all their cattle, threatened       read in 1 Corinthians  10:5. Indeed, with many of
from the rear by the mighty Egyptian host, flanked          them God was not well pleased. This was true at
on their left by the Red Sea, hemmed in by moun-            the time of Moses and it is true throughout the ages.
tains and the wilderness! All this because salvation        This faith applies undoubtedly-to Israel from the
must come solely from the Lord. Notice what we              viewpoint of the remnant according to election.
read in Exodus  14:13-14. Indeed, Israel shall do           Only they believed, and all the rest of them simply
nothing. The Lord alone will fight for them.                went along with them.
  Secondly, Pharaoh and his host must be de-                  Israel believed. Indeed, everything appeared to
stroyed. On the one hand, this applies to Israel's          be an insurmountable obstacle. It surely seemed
route. Notice, first, that Israel's route is directed by    that the way they travelled would never lead them
the Lord. The Lord directs and commands Moses to            to Mount Sinai or to the promised land of Canaan.
lead Israel along the western shore of the Red Sea          But, they believed. And this faith, also here, is the
instead of taking the short route through the land of       evidence of things unseen, the substance of things
the Philistines. And Jehovah hardens Pharaoh's              hoped for. Israel must go forward, forward, if you
heart. This is repeated in verse 8. Indeed, that king       please, into the sea. The object of their faith is not
could and should have known better. He certainly            what they see. Presently, the wind blows, a path is
should have had every reason to remain at home.             struck through the sea, some five to six miles long,
Had the Lord God of Israel not devastated his land          and they go on, believing that they will be delivered
with ten mighty plagues? But the Lord hardens his           from the Egyptian host following them. They will
heart. Sovereignly Jehovah works in Pharaoh that            be saved. The Egyptians will be drowned (literally:
he wants to pursue Israel. He is no stock and block         swallowed down) by the waters which will close
(and this is emphasized by "heart"), but it is all of       over them.
the alone sovereign God of Israel. Then, on the               And does this apply to the church throughout the
other hand, this occurs at the Red Sea. The Lord            ages? We must and do believe in the foolishness of
commands Moses to stretch forth his rod over the            preaching, in the cross which is the foolish content
Red Sea and then causes an east wind to blow all            of this preaching. The world will continue to hate
that night. What is the implication of this? 0, if the      and ridicule us. Nevertheless, we believe; that
Angel of the Lord had appeared visibly to Pharaoh           cross will never fail us. It is the power of the living
and his host, then the king and his host undoubted-         God unto salvation. We shall be saved, now and
ly would have refused to follow Israel into the sea.        forever.
But now the Lord causes that east wind to blow.               God's ways are impossible ways.
Pharaoh saw only the east wind and attributed to it
the passage through the sea. Again we read in verse           We, however, shall be saved.
17 that the Lord will harden their hearts. Only now           Unto the Lord be all the glory, now and forever.

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                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              461



EDITORIALS
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


                      More Suggestions About Our
                                   Svnodical Meetings
                                     A




  We promised some more suggestions with a view               Now what can and should be done about this?
to the improvement of our synodical gatherings.               In the first place, Synods ought to abide by the
   One of these is rather minor, but would never-           rule. The rule does not mean that from day to day
theless serve to improve the manner and the ef-             and arbitrarily a Synod can change the time of
ficiency of Synod's work. It concerns the time of           meeting, sometimes even on the spur of the
our meetings and the rather arbitrary manner in             moment. The rule means that ordinarily Synod
which this time  - sometimes on very short notice           shall meet at the stated times unless this be other-
- is changed. Our synodical rules call for Synod to         wise determined at the very beginning of Synod.
meet from 9 A.M. to 12 Noon and from 1:30 P.M. to           Thus, for example, at its opening session a Synod
5:00 P.M., unless otherwise determined by Synod.            could determine that it is not going to convene until
At this year's Synod the time of meeting was rather         noon on Monday, or that it is going to convene at
arbitrarily changed on more than one occasion on            8:30 every morning and adjourn at 5:30 every after-
very short notice. Once the noon recess was ex-             noon.
tended after an overtime morning session. On                  In the second place, I think Synod could save
another occasion a late afternoon decision resulted         some time and avoid evening sessions for the most
in a lengthy evening session. And at the very con-          part if it would do two things: 1) Convene more
clusion of Synod's meetings, as previously men-             promptly at its stated times, and especially after
tioned, Synod suddenly and without even an offi-            coffee breaks (which sometimes become much
cial decision extended its afternoon session well           longer than the stipulated fifteen minutes). 2)
into the early evening hours.                               Change the stated time of its sessions to 8:30 A.M.
  Now whatever one may think of the standing                to 12:00 Noon and  1:15 to  5:30 P.M. In the course
rule in this matter, the fact is that these sudden and      of a week's meetings this would add the equivalent
arbitrary changes are not conducive to orderliness,         of almost a full day's sessions to the time available
in some cases are not conducive to good work, and           for Synod's work. `Perhaps this could be done
for some delegates work a hardship. As far as the           especially in those years when Synod must spend
last item is concerned, it should be remembered             considerable time on examination of candidates. I
that there are other activities going on besides            do not think, however, that it would be wise to fill
Synod. This is especially true for local delegates,         such a lengthened day with examinations; our stu-
that is, delegates from the area in which Synod is          dents already find the examination schedule rather
meeting. Some are business and professional men,            gruelling. On examination days Synod could either
who have to use spare time in the evening to pay a          adhere to the present schedule of 9-to-5,  or it could
little attention to their business affairs. In other in-    spend some time on committee reports if any of the
stances, there is congregational work to be attended        advisory reports is ready.
to between sessions. Frequently there are school              In the third place, Synod could consider setting
graduation programs while Synod is meeting; some            itself a program of business. Other Synods or gener-
have to speak at these programs and others want to          al assemblies do something of this kind. For
attend because members of their families are in-            example, it could determine that on such-and-such
volved. Besides, it is questionable whether Synod           a day (or days) it will devote its attention to the
even does good work and efficient work at such ex-          report of Committee I, and on the next day it will
tended sessions after having already concentrated           begin with Committee II, etc. With such a program,
for a whole day on matters requiring careful atten-         in case a given report has not been completed, it
tion. And, finally, the way our sessions were ex-           would either be given extended consideration by
tended and changed at this year's Synod on the              special motion or consideration would have to be
spur of the moment, no delegate can plan his activ-         postponed to a later session. But something of this
ities even for a day at a time.                             kind - provided it does not put Synod in a bind -


462                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



would nevertheless serve to keep Synod "on the                              ber (or not to remember) what may have been
ball." Of course, an efficient chairman can do                              stated on the floor of  Classis. Hence, two things
much  - both by word of gentle prodding and by                              must be remembered in this connection:
enforcing the rules of order  - to "keep Synod's                            1) A consistory requesting subsidy should make its
nose on the grindstone," even without an officially                         request as clear as it possibly can. It should check
adopted program.                                                            the data for accuracy and consistency. And, if need
   My next suggestion has to do with subsidy re-                            be, it should add explanatory notes if there is any-
quests. This was also mentioned on the floor of                             thing unusual about the request. Oral explanations
Synod at the time when our 1982 Synod was delib-                            on the floor of Classis,  it should be remembered, do
erating on the various subsidy requests. The sug-                           not get through to Synod.
gestion, however, is for the consistories and classes                       2) A  Classis  should not routinely approve, or
rather than for Synod. It has to do with the fact that                      rubber-stamp, subsidy requests. It is the  Classis  -
every now and then a subsidy request furnishes in-                          not the Synod - that has the duty to go over these
sufficient financial data, or data that is not clear, or                    subsidy requests with a fine-toothed comb. It
data in which there is an apparent contradiction.                           belongs to the jurisdiction of the Classis to question
Down through the years this has been more or less                           and to resolve any apparent inequities: Should a
of a perennial problem. From time to time Synods                            Classis deem a request exorbitant, it should state
have even revised the subsidy request form in                               this  - with reasons, of course. Should a  classis
order to get a clearer picture of a subsidized con-                         deem a request too low, or should it find that the
gregation's true financial needs and in order to                            minister's salary appears to be inadequate, the
insure that a request is equitable. But repeatedly it                       Classis should take this up with the consistory and
has happened at synodical meetings that a question                          possibly advise a larger request. The reason for this
arises or that attention is called to an apparent con-                      is plain:  Classis deals directly with the consistory
flict in the data, but no one at Synod is able to                           and is in a much better position to inquire and to
answer the question or resolve the conflict. Be-                            advise on these matters than is the broadest
sides, it must be remembered that a consistory's                            assembly, Synod. In the past our  Classis used to
voice concerning its subsidy request is through the                         appoint a special advisory committee on subsidy re-
request-form signed by the president and clerk of                           quests and to give them careful attention. This good
the consistory - not through an individual minister                         practice should be followed today by both of our
or elder who happens to be a delegate to Synod.                             classes. It would make the work of Synod easier
The same is true of the Classis' decision concerning                        and expedite it. And it would resolve problems
that request: the voice of the  Classis  is through the                     which Synod frequently cannot solve.
official decision appended to the request and pub-
lished in the Agenda, not through any individual                              Next time I will have a few words of critique
delegate from the  Classis who happens to remem-                            about some of the actions of our last Synod.


                 The "eodem modo" Rejected in the
                             Conclusion of the Canons (4)

[In our  discussion  of this subject  we called attention, first of all,    explanation, if only this expression is read in the
to the meaning  of this expression  and to the fact that it was  an         context of the rest of the Conclusion, in the light of
Arminian   calumny,  or  slander,   directed  against   the  Reformed       the Canons themselves, and in the light of the his-
doctrine of reprobation - a slander  rejected and repudiated  by            tory of the Arminian controversy.
the  fathers  of  Dordrecht  in  the  Conclusion  appended   to  the
Canons  (May  15 issue].  Then, in the June and August  issue  we             As we said, this expression must be understood
called attention to the misuse  of this rejection  made  by modern          in the light of and as being in harmony with what
Reformed theologians  both in the Netherlands  and in America.              the Canons themselves say about the doctrine of
Now  we are up to our  positive  discussion  of this matter.]               reprobation. That this is true and that the Conclu-
What Is The Correct Understanding?                                          sion must not be understood as a kind of modifying
   The correct understanding of this expression in                          appendage to the Canons is in harmony with what
the Conclusion is very simple and can be readily                            the Conclusion itself states; and it is also historical-
understood. Actually there is hardly any need of                            ly accurate. In the first place, it should not be over-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              463



looked that in this very Conclusion the Synod of          doctrine of sovereign election. Against the doctrine
Dordrecht begins by re-affirming the doctrine of          of justification by faith the charge is brought: this
the Canons. The very first statement is this: "And        doctrine makes men careless and profane. As soon
this is the perspicuous, simple, and ingenuous            as you would change the doctrine to one of justifi-
declaration of the orthodox doctrine respecting the       cation by works, no one would bring this charge.
five articles which have been controverted in the         Against the doctrine of sovereign election, the same
Belgic churches; and the rejection of the errors,         charge is brought: this doctrine makes men careless
with which they have for some time been                   and profane, or makes men carnally secure
troubled." How strange it would be if in that same        (Canons I, 13 and the Conclusion). As soon as you
Conclusion in the very next paragraph the Synod           change the doctrine- to one of election on the basis
would nevertheless back off from and modify that          of foreseen faith (conditional election), no one will
"perspicuous, simple, and ingenuous declaration of        register this charge against your doctrine. So also
the orthodox doctrine" respecting one of those five       here, the charge is that the doctrine of sovereign
articles. And how illogical that would have been on       reprobation means that reprobation is the cause of
the part of the very theologians who are sometimes        unbelief and impiety  in the same  manneT  that elec-
criticized for their stringent logic and even called      tion is the fountain and cause of faith and good
"scholastic" by some. In the second place, this is        works. As soon as you would change the doctrine to
confirmed by the fact that the Conclusion of the          one of conditional reprobation or reprobation as a
Canons was not adopted in separation from the             mere judicial response to sin, this charge will not
Canons proper and as an after-thought. Not at all.        even be brought against your doctrine. This is so
The Acts of the National Synod of Dordrecht tell us       true that the very fact that such a charge is brought
that in the one hundred thirty-fifth and one hun-         against your doctrine is a pretty good indication
dred thirty-sixth sessions all five heads of doctrine,    that you are doctrinally on the right track!
along with the Conclusion, were once more read              Now let us note carefully the specific point of
and finally adopted, and that then each chapter was       this slander and its repudiation. It has nothing
separately subscribed to by all the delegations.          whatsoever to do with election and reprobation
How strange it would have been if at the very ses-        themselves being "in the same manner," as Dr.
sions in which the delegates once more explicitly         Daane contends. No, but the Reformed Churches
affirmed the doctrine of reprobation as taught in         are slandered as teaching that "reprobation is the
Canons I, they would also deliberately have               cause of unbelief and impiety in the same manner in
adopted and affirmed by their signatures a Conclu-        which election is the fountain and the cause of faith
sion which was designed flatly to contradict that         and good works." What is the point here? It is as
doctrine. No, the only explanation is that what is        follows:
stated in the Conclusion is in perfect harmony with
what was first stated in the body of the Canons.          1) The Arminians acknowledge that the Reformed
                                                          teach that election is the cause in the sense of being
  Besides, the simple fact is that here in the Con-       the  fountain  of faith and good works. And this is
clusion the Synod was not adopting a doctrine, nor        correct, according to Canons I, 9.
even rejecting an error. That part of Synod's work
was finished. Here the Synod is merely calling at-        2) The Arminians accuse the Reformed of teaching
tention to various calumnies, slanders, false             that reprobation is the  cause  of unbelief and im-
charges, which  the. Arminians brought against the        piety  in the same manner,  that is, the  cause in the
Reformed truth. Concerning these, which the               sense of fountain.
Arminians tried to impute to the Reformed                 3) In other words, this comes down to the old
churches, the Conclusion says: The Reformed               charge that the Reformed teach that just as God is
Churches not only do not acknowledge these ideas,         the Author of faith and good works, so He is the
but even detest them with their whole soul.               Author of unbelief and impiety. Just as a fountain is
  And then we must remember that the particular           known by the water that flows forth from it, so that
calumny of the Arminians which we are discussing          sweet and good water flows from a sweet and good
will never be registered against any other view of        fountain, while bitter and foul water flows from a
reprobation than the Reformed doctrine of  soveT-         foul and bitter fountain, so it is in the spiritual
eign reprobation. The moment you change reproba-          sense of the word. From .a good fountain flow forth
tion, as Daane and Berkouwer do, to a so-called           faith and good works. From a foul fountain flow
judicial response of God to man's sin, no  Armin-         forth unbelief and impiety. And the Arminians
ian will ever bring this charge against your doc-         accuse the Reformed of teaching that just as God's
trine: it would neither be necessary nor would it         election is the good fountain of faith and good
make sense. It is the same with this doctrine as          works,  so'God's reprobation is the foul fountain of
with the doctrine of justification by faith and the       unbelief and impiety. This is the point of their "in


464                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



the same manner."                                          faith proceeds from God's eternal decree. God is
  Now what is the Reformed answer to this? It is as        not the Author of their unbelief, but it is neverthe-
follows:                                                   less according to His decree that they are unbeliev-
                                                           ing. And Article 15 plainly states that the decree of
1) In the first place, we certainly acknowledge and        reprobation by no means makes God the author of
believe that God's election is the cause and fountain      sin, but it also insists that the decree of reprobation
of faith and good works. The electing God is the           (both as a decree of preterition, passing by, and as a
Author of all our salvation through Jesus Christ our       decree of condemnation) proceeds out of God's
Lord. This is the plain teaching, as we said, of           sovereign, most just, irreprehensible and un-
Canons I, 9.                                               changeable good pleasure. Reprobation is not be-
2) Secondly, we detest with our whole soul that            cause  of sin. No, the reprobate are sovereignly ap-
God's reprobation is in the same manner the foun-          pointed to be vessels of wrath fitted unto destruc-
tain  of unbelief and impiety. This was already            tion. And the damnation to which they are eternal-
plainly stated in Canons I, 15: the doctrine of repro-     ly and sovereignly appointed is a damnation in the
bation by no means makes God the author of sin.            way  of  their own sin and unbelief, that is, in the
God is the overflowing fountain of all good, never         way of the sin and unbelief of which they them-
the fountain of evil. No, the foul fountain of unbe-       selves are the authors and of which their own evil
lief and impiety is sinful man's own wicked and            heart is the fountain.
perverse heart.                                              Thus there is perfect harmony between Articles
3) Thirdly, this by no means places unbelief and           6 and 15 of the First Head of Doctrine and this
sin outside of the decree of reprobation. Article 6        rejection of an evil Arminian slander in the Conclu-
plainly states it, that some do not receive the gift of    sion.

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                          Missionary Methods (14)
                                              Prof. Robert D. Decker


  While there are many commendable features of             possible. On their periodic visits in the spring and
the missionary methods proposed by Nevius which            fall they were able to give only general instructions
can and ought to be implemented by our own mis-            and direction. Hence, writes Nevius: "To secure
sionaries both at home and abroad there is one very        thorough and methodical teaching, no plan has
serious weakness, namely, the lack of preachers            been found practicable but that of a select number
and preaching. Whatever the details of methodol-           of learners coming to us in Chefoo. These have
ogy employed by the missionary, preaching must             been organized into classes which have formed a
be at the heart of it. This will become even more          kind of Normal School" (p. 39).
apparent as we continue our study of the book,                The missionaries selected the "more advanced
PZanting And Development of Missionary Churches,           church members" for these classes. These were
by John L. Nevius.                                         neither employed nor paid by the mission. They re-
  The stations (groups of converts, potential              mained in their regular occupations. Students came
churches) of the Presbyterian mission were approx-         with the understanding that what they learned in
imately two hundred miles from the homes of Dr.            these classes they were to teach others upon their
Nevius and his fellow missionaries. Why the mis-           return to their homes. The classes ran from six to
sionaries lived so far from the field Nevius does not      eight weeks. Travel and living expenses were sup-
say. It would seem that this would rather seriously        plied by the mission for those who were unable to
affect the work. Much better it would be if the mis-       meet these expenses. Food and lodging were also
sionaries lived among the people so as to have             provided. The studies were mainly in the Scrip-
direct, daily contact with them. Perhaps there was         tures. In addition there was some elementary and
good reason for this, but, as was said, Nevius does        basic instruction given in astronomy, geography,
not say. The fact that they were so far from the field     history, and "general knowledge." Concerning the
made thorough instruction by the missionaries im-          method of instruction, Nevius writes: "Here, as in


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              465



the stations, lessons are carried on catechetically,       on Sunday, is interested in the truth, makes a pro-
and what is taught one day is the subject of exami-        fession of Christianity, and in process of time his
nation the next. Much attention is also given to re-       home becomes a new propagating centre. Stations
hearsing Scripture stories"  (p. 40). One hour per         started in this manner have the advantage of a
day was devoted to instruction in vocal music by           natural connection with the parent station, and
Mrs. Nevius. As much as possible the same stu-             they are nourished and supported by it until they
dents came year after year. Large sections of both         are strong enough to have the connection severed
the Old and New Testaments were covered. Many              and live and grow independently" (pp. 42, 43).
of the students studied the material several times.        Nevius reports that the Baptist mission tried both
Nevius estimated that the knowledge of his pupils          methods (paid agents and the self-propagating). As
would compare favorably with that of intelligent           a rule the stations which began under the labors of
adult classes in Sunday Schools in the churches in         a paid agent were comparatively weak and unre-
America. The hymns which they sang were transla-           liable and some even fell away. Those begun under
tions of familiar English hymns, in the same meters        the self-propagating method "have generally main-
as the originals, and sung to the same tunes. They         tained a healthy, vigorous growth" (p. 43). Con-
were taught to sing by note, and some, Nevius re-          sequently the Baptists, instead of increasing the
ports, read music very well.                               number of paid agents as the number of church
  The fruit of all this was considerable. Illiteracy in    members increased, reduced the number by nearly
the rural districts where Nevius worked was high,          one half.
somewhat greater than in China as a whole. "Not              The Nevius plan was and to a certain extent still
more than one out of twenty of the men can read,           is almost revolutionary. Common practice was, and
and not  o'ne of a thousand of the women" (p. 41).         for the most part still is, that missionaries in addi-
By way of contrast, according to Nevius: "Among            tion to preaching the gospel train converts for the
our Christians, nearly all the children and most of        ministry. These are then at least in part supported
the adults of both sexes under fifty years of age          by the sending church. As was pointed out in pre-
learn to read. Some have made remarkable progress          vious articles Nevius had only two such "paid
in the study of the Scriptures. A large proportion of      agents" among the one hundred fifty stations
them have committed to memory the Sermon on                which must have had several thousands of mem-
the Mount and many other select passages of the            bers. It comes as no surprise to find him writing: "I
Bible. Scripture ideas and phrases have entered into       have often been asked, `why do you not employ
the language of every-day life. Persons of advanced        and pay more native agents?' I reply by another
age, though themselves unable to read, take great          question, Why should I? The only men I could
pleasure in relating Scripture stories and parables,       employ are exerting what influence they have for
and in teaching others less instructed what they           good where they now are. My paying them money
have learned" (p. 42).                                     and transferring them from one place to another
  Turning to the subject of the "Manner in which           would not make them better men nor increase their
Stations are Propagated," Nevius informs us that           influence. It might have the opposite effect. During
the original stations were formed as the fruit of the      the past few years I have in fact frequently been in-     .
preaching of paid evangelists. These continued             clined to attempt to enlarge and hasten the work by
under the guidance of an unpaid "leader" (p. 42).          selecting and employing native agents from my sta-
New stations of the Presbyterian mission were for          tions, and have requested money appropriations
the most part established without the help of paid         from our society to enable me to do so. When the
evangelists. The way in which this happened is in-         time has come for carrying out this plan, however, I
teresting. Nevius writes: "When a man becomes a            have refrained from taking the proposed step, fear-
Christian the fact is known through the whole              ing that it would do more harm than good. I am
circle of his acquaintances, male and female, far          asked again, `Do you intend never to employ native
and wide. It is generally believed that his mind has       paid agents?' My reply is, I leave this question to be
lost its balance. He is shunned for a time, but            determined by the circumstances and in the light of
before long his friends visit him either from sym-         the future. If suitable men are found and it is clear
pathy or curiosity. They find him in apparently a          that employing them as paid agents would do good,
normal condition and working quietly in his shop           I should be glad to see them employed, and the
or on his farm, and are curious to know what this          more of them the better" (pp. 43,44).
new departure means. An opportunity is thus af-              That the missionary should strive to establish an
forded of presenting the claims of Christianity as         indigenous church which is self-supporting,  self-
not the religion of the foreigner but the true religion    governing (in the Biblical sense), and self-propagat-
for all mankind. The visitor goes home and thinks          ing is certainly correct, Biblical methodology. With
about the matter and comes again, attends service          this no one ought have any quarrel. The problem


466                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



with the Nevius plan is that it nearly totally ignores      seem, would be the best means of finding those
the chief means of grace, the preaching of the              whom the Lord calls to the ministry. Certainly
Word. Not only is preaching the chief means of              there must have been in those classes young men
grace, but because it is that, it is also the chief mark    whom Dr. Nevius and his fellow missionaries could
of the church of Jesus Christ! In the light of pas-         have trained for the ministry. These could then
sages such as Romans  lo:14 ff. and Ephesians 4, it         have labored in the field preaching and teaching
is certainly legitimate to ask: how can the church          others. How could this possibly harm the work?
be gathered apart from the preaching of the Word?           How could this in any way at all detract from the
  There is more. The apostles, especially Paul, did         indigenous character of the church in China or in
not proceed through Asia Minor and the rest of the          any other place? How could it diminish the zeal of
Mediterranean world establishing "stations" which           the converts or stifle their desire to witness to and
remained "stations" for a number of years. They             teach others?
instituted the church in each place. They ordained            We quite agree with Dr. Nevius, however, that
elders.     These congregations had preachers,              these native preachers ought not be in the employ
Timothyfo>example. That these churches were in-             of and paid by the sending church and its mission-
digenous, self-supporting, self-governing and  self-        aries. That is harmful indeed for all the reasons
propagating is abundantly evident from the New              cited by Nevius. The people among whom Nevius
Testament, especially the Book of Acts.                     worked were for the most part farmers, shop-
  The Bible Classes or "Normal School," it would            keepers, craftsmen, etc. These could have support-
                                                            ed preachers. So it should be also today.

GUESTARTICLE


                            Creation? or Evolution?
                                               Rev. Ronald Cammenga



  The church has always confessed the truth of the          view be derived from and be in harmony with Holy
creation of the universe by God. In one of the old-         Scripture. To be sure, the Bible is no detailed
est of its creeds, the Apostles' Creed, in the very         science textbook. The Bible is the revelation of God
first article of that creed, the church sets down her       in Jesus Christ, the Savior of His people (Heb.  l:l,
faith in "God the Father, Almighty, Maker of                2). Nevertheless, when the Bible does speak on
heaven and earth." We believe in God Who is an al-          matters that concern science, it speaks infallibly
mighty and sovereign God. And the one great work            and authoritatively (II Pet. 1:20,21).
that reveals God's almighty power and sovereignty             Just exactly because the creation account is part
is His creation of the heavens and the earth. The           of God's inspired Word, it is necessary for a man to
truth of creation is a basic and fundamental doc-           possess faith in order to be convinced of the truth
trine of the Christian religion. It belongs to those        of creation. Only the man who has faith, faith
things which are necessary for every Christian to           worked in his heart by God Himself, receives the
believe.                                                    Bible as the Word of God. And since the truth of
  It is especially our purpose in this article to con-      creation is a part of the Word of God, faith is ab-
sider the truth of creation over against the denials        solutely necessary if a man is to be convinced of the
of this truth by the error of evolution. Our one            truth of the Scriptural doctrine of creation. This is
source in setting down the truth of creation and            exactly what the writer of the Epistle to the
opposing the error of evolution will be the Bible.          Hebrews says in Hebrews  11:3: "Through  faith we
Since the Bible is the inspired and infallible Word         understand that the worlds were framed by the
of God, the Bible is "profitable for doctrine" (II          word of God, so that things which are seen were
Tim.  3:16). Also for the doctrine of creation the          not made of things which do appear." Receiving
Bible is "profitable. " Because we believe the Bible        the truth of creation is not a matter of being con-
to be "the only rule of faith" (See the Belgic Confes-      vinced only that creationism is philosophically
sion of Faith, article VII), also as regards our view       more acceptable than evolution. Receiving the
of the origin of the universe, we insist that that          truth of creation is not simply a matter of being


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                467



convinced that creationism is the best explanation          pletely compatible with Christianity. The theory of
of various scientific facts and discoveries. One can-       evolution is fundamentally atheistic and anti-God.
not be convinced of the truth of creation on purely         Those who hold to this view must necessarily reject
rational grounds. But receiving the truth of creation       the opening words of the Bible, "In the beginning
is a matter of faith. Apart from faith in God and in        God..." (Gen.  1:l). The origin of the universe is not
God's Word, we cannot hold to the Scriptural doc-           within itself, which is the necessary implication of
trine of creation. This means that the reason why a         the theory of evolution. Matter did not bring forth
man rejects the teaching of God's Word concerning           matter. One creature did not give rise to another
creation is that that man does not possess faith. The       creature. But all things had their beginning in God.
only reason is unbelief.                                    Before the world was, He existed. The Psalmist de-
  The doctrine of creation is denied by the theory          clares in Psalm  90:2: "Before the mountains were
of atheistic evolution. This is far and away the most       brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth
common view that is being taught in the schools             and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
and universities of our land today. Most of the text-       Thou art God." The world and every creature in the
books used for the various branches of scientific           world has the origin of its existence in God. It is
study are written from this evolutionary perspec-           God Who has made all things.
tive. The vast majority of history textbooks view
the history of the world in the context of the theory         In the second place, we reject the theory of athe-
of evolution. The evolutionary "theory" is con-             istic evolution because it is a fundamental rejection
fidently presented as the unassailable explanation          of the authority of the Word of God. This only fol-
of the origin of all things. And anyone who might           lows, of course. Because the atheistic evolutionist
possibly arise to challenge the claims of the evolu-        denies God, he must also go on to deny God's
tionists is derided as unscholarly, unscientific, and       Word. On what, we ask, did Darwin base his
simplistic. By most men this evolutionary "theory"          views? On what do evolutionists today base their
is actually viewed, not as a theory at all, but as          views? What is the source of their theories? The
established fact.                                           answer is: The theory of evolution is based on
                                                            man's explanation of so-called scientific facts and
  The theory of evolution was first publicized by           discoveries. The authority of the Word of God on
the English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin                the origin of all things is completely set aside and
(1809-82). Darwin first presented his views con-            ignored. And though the Bible tells us very plainly
cerning the origin of all things in his well-known          about the origin of all things, men turn to geolog-
book, The Origin of the Species. In this book Darwin        ical, archeological, and astronomical discoveries in
aimed to show that every species is a development           order to arrive at an explanation of the beginning of
from previous species, which clearly implies that           the universe. The Christian objects to this. We do
man himself has evolved from earlier and different          not mean to imply that scientific discoveries actual-
forms of life. Darwin believed that all life is in-         ly contradict the teaching of God's Word about the
volved in a fierce and unrelenting struggle for             origin of the world. Nor do we mean to imply that
existence, in which struggle only the fittest survive.      the creation itself does not evidence the truth of its
He concluded that there exists a process of "natural        original creation by the hand of God. What we are
selection" which, over the course of thousands of           objecting to is the whole question of method. For
years, produces the remarkable variety of living            the believer, be he scientist, farmer,  factory-
creatures, through this process of, evolution. This is      worker, or house-wife, the source of our knowledge
the view that is popularized today. The only differ-        is first of all the inspired Word of God. First we
ence is that, whereas Darwin spoke of the evolu-            turn to God's Word. And then, in the light of that
tionary history of the universe in terms of                 Word, we turn to the creation around us. We do not
thousands of years, men today speak in terms of             turn to the creation itself first of all in an effort to
millions and billions of years.                             arrive at an understanding of the origin of all
  On the very face of it, the Christian rejects this        things. Our views are not molded first of all by our
view of atheistic evolution. His faith in the Word of       discoveries and  our  interpretation of various facts.
God compels him to do this. For several reasons we          This is fundamentally nothing but rationalism,
reject this view. In the first place, we reject this        man's mind being made the standard of all truth.
view because it is a view that rules God completely         But our views are molded by the teaching of the
out of the picture. It is essentially atheistic. Its ex-    Word of God. We regard it, and nothing in the
planation of the origin of all things does not begin        place of or alongside of it, as the standard for our
with God and faith in God's Word. We are not                faith and practice. And the teaching of that Word of
swayed by Darwin's claim to be a Christian. Nor             God is, "In the beginning God created the heaven
are we moved by the claim  of. many today, who              and the earth" (Gen. 1: 1). In Psalm  33:6 we read,
hold to similar views, that their theories are  com-        "By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made;


468                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



and all the host of them by the breath of His              things which are seen were made of things which
mouth." In II Peter  3:5 the apostle Peter tells us        had already appeared. His position is in flat contra-
that men are willingly ignorant of the truth that "by      diction with the Word of God. Besides, the Word of
the Word of God the heavens were of old." And              God knows nothing of an ever increasing ascen-
John  1:3 tells us that "All things were made by           dancy in the creation, as the theory of evolution
Him; and without Him was not anything made that            teaches. Things are not getting better and better.
was made." ,                                               The Word of God teaches something quite differ-
  In the third place, on the basis of Scripture we         ent. In Romans 8:20 and following, the apostle Paul
reject the very idea of evolution. We reject the idea      speaks of the creation being made subject to vanity
that the creation derived its existence out of itself      on account of the sin of man. He speaks of the
and develops along the lines of a natural selection        creature being subjected to the bondage of corrup-
in an ever increasing ascendancy. The very idea of         tion and the creation groaning under this bondage.
such a process of evolvement is denied by the Word         This bondage of corruption is not something that
of God. This is exactly what the writer of the             the creation shall itself overcome by means of a
Epistle to the Hebrews'says is NOT the explanation         process of evolution. But this is a bondage from
of the origin of all things. Not only does he affirm in    which the creation shall be delivered only when the
Hebrews  11:3 that the worlds were framed by the           Lord Jesus Christ comes again at the end of time.
Word of God, but he specifically says, "so that              Our conclusion? "By faith we understand that
things which are seen were  not  made of things            the worlds were framed by the word of God." The
which do appear." Yet, this is exactly what the            man who confesses this truth must also necessarily
evolutionist says. It is exactly his position that         reject the false view of atheistic evolution.

FROM HOLY WRIT


                          The So-called Proof-texts
                               of Postmillennialism
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers


       The Exalted Man of God in Perfection                when exegeted according to sound rules of inter-
                    (Chapter 14)                           pretation. Others in our day speak of this perfection
 \We have now come to our last chapter in these            of the Kingdom in terms of the so-called Cultural
essays on Postmillennialism. Thus far we have re-          Mandate, which they then elicit from Genesis  1:26.
peatedly noticed that it is the teaching of the Post-      In this passage we read, "And God said, let Us make
millennial writers that God intends to Christianize        man in Our image, after Our own likeness, and let
the entire world and every nation under the sun.           them have dominion over the fish of the sea and
Every facet of human life is to be Christian due to        over the fowls of the air, and over all the earth, and
the power of the Gospel by the Spirit, that is, in         over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
their political, social, economic, and religious life.     earth."
Such is to be the leaven of thekingdom of heaven.            It was under the energetic leadership of the late
Everything in this world will be under the Ch&sti%?        Dr. Abraham Kuyper that the adherents of the
motif before Jesus returns to claim His kingdom            theory of Common Grace  (Gemeene Gratie)  teach
publicly.                                                  that Genesis  1:26 speaks of a Cultural Mandate to
  It ought, however, to be kept in mind that not           Adam, and in him to the whole human race, to
every Postmillennialist bases his teaching on the          subdue the earth. And it is then pointed out that
same considerations for such a world-dream of a            God adds the words, "Be fruitful and replenish the
Christianized, perfected world. Some think of this         earth and subdue it" (Gen. 1:28).
perfected kingdom in terms of the power of the               This theory of Common Grace holds that this
Holy Spirit by the preaching of the Gospel. This too       same Cultural Mandate is still in effect after the fall
we have noticed repeatedly and we have shown               of man, after the entire world has become dead in
that the Bible passages referred to do not teach this      trespasses and sins, incapable of doing any good


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 469



and prone to all evil, except they be born again by         It was the word which was written in the "banner"
the Spirit of Christ. The natural man is not as evil as     of the war-flag of the Protestant Reformed Church-
is spoken of in Ephesians  2:1-4. There are still in        es of America. I repeat that the way now is not
him the glimmerings of natural light. And, there-           "nature and grace" but "sin and grace" in the
fore, by virtue of this restraining influence,  non-        natural. Yes, then the natural is first, but it is there
regenerative influence, of the Holy Spirit the              to sewe the spiritual and the heavenly. And this will
natural man can still fulfill the Cultural Mandate of       be accomplished through the death, resurrection,
Genesis 1:26. In our day this Cultural Mandate is so        and glorification of Christ.
connected with Common Grace that the world and                2. Man stood in paradise, not merely as a moral
the church work together, and so subdue the world           rational creature, but he stood there as the "Man of
in all spheres: cultural, educational, aesthetic, polit-    God." He was a son of God, man of God, image of
ical, and economic, yea, even in a religious sense.         God, God's prophet, God's priest, and God's king.
  Both church and world fulfill the creation                It is, therefore, a begging of the question, exeget-
ordinance of Genesis  1:26. Fact is, this latter is ac-     ically, to speak of a mere "cultural" mandate in
claimed as being the very genius of Calvinism.              Genesis  1:26. It was basically a "covenant" man-
When the church does this she is doing so as the re-        date for Adam with the law of God in his heart.
generated man, and the world does this by virtue of         Adam is to have dominion over fish, fowl, and every
the restraining power of Common Grace.                      creeping thing. He is not yet so perfected that he
  Now a careful reading of the text will show that          also has dominion of the powers and principalities
the main thrust of Genesis  1:26 is summed up in            in the heavens. That is indeed the perfection of
Genesis 1:27, where Moses writes, "So God created           Adam and the human race in the one man, Jesus
man (male and female) in His own image, in the              Christ. But that was not yet. However, the creature
image of God created He him...male and female               is there to serve man, his needs, his dignity under
created He them."                                           God. We see that, once more, when Noah is as-
                                                            signed such dignity over the animals and all crea-
  The  chief  point in this creation narrative in           tion (Gen. 9:5). Even the beast that kills a man must
Genesis 1:26 is not what man is obligated to do; the        be put to death as God's vengeance.
real crux is how God created man, and to what high
estate He exalted him in the earthly creation: lord           3. And thus the earth must be replenished and
over all. He was lord over all under God. Yes, God          subdued. The term to subdue in the Hebrew text is
created man in His own image and likeness. This             "Kabash"; it does not mean to subdue like an
does not merely mean that man has "dominion," as            enemy is subdued in battle (Judges  3:30;  8:20), but
teach the Arminians concerning the image of God             it means the ultimate sovereignty of man over all
in man; however, the text basically teaches the             creation. For Adam this meant the earthly creation.
exalted position, his divinely given and increated          He was of the earth, earthy (I Cor. 15:47). God gave
dignity above the animals, the moving creature, the         the earth to man; it is the natural habitat of the first
animal world in sea, land, and air, and also far            Adam. However, man was really driven from his
above sun, moon, and stars. However, it must not            high estate. This was only at the tree of life. But the
be willfully forgotten that man stood thus in dignity       cherubim of God drove him from the holy place of
only as long as and as far as he stood clothed in true      God. He no longer has sovereignty. He is a fallen
righteousness and holiness, serving his Maker and           man, and creation fell in him and was subjected to
Creator. No Cultural Mandate can be fulfilled in            vanity because of him. Now the song is in order:
the spiritual, ethical sense of the word apart from         vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It is a vicious circle
the obedience of love. A hateful world, hating God          until Christ came to save the world, and to make a
and the neighbor, no longer can or will subdue the          new heaven and a new earth where righteousness
world and all things in God's Name and to His               shall dwell.
glory.                                                        However, all things are subject to vanity in hope
                                                            of being delivered from the vanity of corruption
  We should notice that in the state of original            into the glorious liberty of the children of God
righteousness Adam is to:                                   (Rom.  8:20). And in this sense we can understand
  1.  RepZenish  the earth.  The entire earth must be       that profound word of Christ, "For God sent not
peopled (Gen.  1:28). All nations are out of one            His Son to condemn the world, but that the world
blood. Yes, God has determined the times before             through Him might be saved" (John  3:17). And so
appointed and the bounds of the habitation of all           there is not merely a saving work of Christ to save
the nations. But when God still had man subdue              sinners, but there is also a cosmological extent to
the world, and all nations are gathered and scat-           this work. The entire creation, heaven and earth,
tered in all the earth, it is in the deep way of Sin and    will be subjected under the last Adam. All shall be
Grace. That is, indeed, the watchword of Scripture.         placed under one Head, in heaven and on earth


470                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



(Eph. 1:lO).                                                   "learning," it is said - correctly said, if rightly un-
  And thus we come to the Man of God, the Seed of              derstood. Nor does God need our slothful ignor-
the Women, Christ in His church Head over all                  ance; He does not use spiritual  - ethical dullards
things (Eph. 1: 10). And thus Christ is really the One,        either. He needs and uses and prepares and molds
as the Firstborn of all creatures, Who has the                 men to His service in every field by the Word of
dignity and the preeminence over all things. The               truth, which is profitable for reproof, correction, in-
words of God, spoken as a soliloquy (God said by               struction in righteousness, that the man of God be
Himself: let us make man) surely come to pass. The             thoroughly prepared unto every good work (II Tim.
great design and plan of God in these words was                3:16, 17).
not frustrated by sin. In the way of "sin and grace"              However, that is not the perfection of the "cul-
this is brought to a high glory and luster so that now         tural" mandate, but it is the fulfillment of Gods
man is not only lord of the earthly, but he is Lord            law in every sphere of life,  including  aZso the cul-
over all things.                                               tural  in a man who has been saved from sin, and
  Mere cuZturaZ  mandate fulfilled here in the earth-          who looks in hope for a world which is to be com-
ly? Not at all. Yes, we begin to see a bit of this in the      pletely delivered from the vanity of the curse of the
church. God has brought forth a church by the                  Fall into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Word of truth to be "some firstfruits'of His crea-                And, therefore, to teach a perfected world here
tion." Firstfruits! This beckons presently a full har-         of the nations, is like that of a thirsty man looking
vest. But we must remember that the church is                  for a well of water in the thirsty and dry desert, and
saved in hope. It is not yet seen - this putting under         as he stumbles along sees only a fleeting mirage in
Christ's feet of all things (Heb.  2:8, 9). And we             the desert. Let us not be deceived by vain talk. The
never shall see this in this life. This will not be till       "cultural" (if so we may speak of it for convenience
the regeneration of all things, not till this earth and        sake) mandate will be when the Christ is "per-
heaven are consumed by burning heat, the ele-                  fected" in the glory of His kingdom, that is, when
ments are burned, and we shall receive the new                 He and His church are exalted to the highest pin-
heavens and the new earth which we earnestly                   nacle of dignity,. the very effulgence of God's glory,
look for; yea, for which we press the gates of                 the expressed image of His being, above the angels.
heaven in earnest hope (II Peter  3:10-14;  Matt.                 This kingdom is now here in principle in the
19:28).                                                        church. Truly all things are now Pro  Rege.  Yea, all
  There is one point which we must not overlook.               things are already laid at Christ's feet. He is subject-
It is that the saints in the sphere of their life are the      ing all things now. The great Consummation will be
light of the world, a city on a hilltop which cannot           when Christ enters into the eternal Kingdom, con-
be hid. The fact that we are "some firstfruits" of             summated in the heavens above in the ages to
God's creatures implies that we begin in hope to               come.
live as kings and priests on the earth under Christ.              That will be the Man of God. All things will be
So we do have Christians who are doctors, lawyers,             subjected under His feet, He is the Lord of lords,
professors in learning and science. We have talents            and the King of kings forever. Lift up your heads,
which we may not and must not bury in the                      0, ye gates, and the King of glory shall come in.
ground. And we must really labor while it is day to            Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and
the highest of excellency. God does not need our               mighty, He is the King of glory!

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                    The Church of the Present Day
                                   and Persecution (11
                                                      Rev. K. KooZe


  "Yea, and all that will Zive godZy in Christ Jesus shaZZ     allow for any exceptions. He says not simply that
suffer persecution."                     II Timothy 31.2       the church will have much persecution in the New
  The striking thing about the text quoted above is            Testament age, or that many of the church will
that Paul states it as an absolute rule. He does not           know what persecution is, but that everyone who


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             471



will live godly (piously, reverently)  shaZZ  suffer      promised that, because they believed on Jesus, they
persecution. Such is the fact.                            would not  ,have to suffer bodily persecution? So
  These words are in harmony with Christ's                they will justify their denying the Name of Christ
words: "but because ye are not of the world, but I        and engaging in various unbiblical practices. In-
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the           deed, as Christ says in Matthew  24:10, "And then
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said           shall many be offended, and shall betray one
unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If    another, and shall hate one another." It is one thing
they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute         to confess that Jesus is Lord when there is little cost
you" (John  15:19b, 20). Persecution is part and          for one's person in so doing, and quite another
parcel of the life of every Christian who bears           when the blistering heat of persecution relentlessly
Christ's Name in sincerity, his walk being consis-        beats down on one. To survive such times one must
tent with his confession.                                 be truly rooted in Christ Jesus. Those who are not
                                                          will fall into the category of what one might call
  It is my intention to consider how these words          "shallow-soil hearers. " "But he that received the
apply to us who are living in the last half of the        seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth
twentieth century. If there is one thing that seem-       the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath
ingly is foreign to our experience it is persecution.     he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for
This is not to say that there are not members of the      when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of
body of Christ in this present day who are now suf-       the Word, by and by he is offended" (Matt.  13:20,
fering bodily persecution at the hands of godless         21).
men and threats against their person because of
their confession. Tales trickle out from behind the         What these texts make clear for our purposes is
Iron and Bamboo Curtains of those who have been           that he who is not preparing himself for the fierce-
imprisoned and disfigured for Christ's sake. In-          ness of the persecution will wither away and be ex-
deed, persecution of Christians through inquisition       posed as not having been firmly rooted and ground-
has not been irradicated by man. But as for our own       ed in Christ as the Pillar of all truth. Those who
persons, persecution seems to touch us very little, if    take these words seriously prepare themselves.
at all. Persecution? What is that?                        How well prepared are you? What are you doing to
                                                          prepare yourself?
Exactly because at the moment persecution seems             Especially pertinent to our discussion is the mat-
so far removed from us personally, it is well to con-     ter of persecution at the present. It is my contention
sider this matter now and again. It is well to con-       that even at the present time children of God are
sider it because of what the future holds for the         the objects of a form of persecution. This should
church of these last days  - almost certainly for         not surprise us. Revelation 12 speaks of the casting
some of us personally, namely, bitter, bodily suf-        of Satan out of heaven into the world by the
fering. The Great Tribulation is, as we know, a sign      ascended Christ at the beginning of the New Test-
of the imminent reappearance of the Lord. "Im-            ament age. Satan is there portrayed as a great
mediately after the tribulation of those days shall       dragon persecuting the woman, who represents the
the sun be darkened . . . ..And then shall appear the     Old Testament church (vs. 13). In verse 17 we read,
sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all      "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and
the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the     went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with            which keep the commandments of God, and have
power and great glory" (Matt. 24:29, 30).                 the testimony of Jesus Christ." The whole of New
  There are those who challenge this and speak of         Testament history is one of Satan engaging in war
these words of Christ as having been fulfilled at the     against the elect remnant, in enmity seeking out the
time of the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Or they          seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to
speak of a rapture whereby the Lord catches His           Baal. That war still continues today. That we must
people up into heaven before the Great Tribulation,       keep in mind. There is no truce. To think that there
which shall be directed at the Jews primarily. Such       is is to be deceived yet again. This war in which
is, however, a false doctrine and can only have evil      Satan is constantly engaged, which is ultimately to
consequences. Such instills a false hope in the           the death, must always reveal itself in persecution
hearts of members of the church. It shall result in a     of some form or the other. That includes today.
final falling-away. Those who nourish this false            Persecution does not always come as a direct
hope will be able to submit to every law Antichrist       threat of violence upon one's person in response to
legislates, which will declare, "Obey this or be          one's stand. It can also take more subtle forms.
counted a rebel and bear the consequences." After         Remember always what Satan's ultimate goal is, to
all, they will reason, our Christian faith was not to     remove from this world the witness of the church
put us into this predicament. Had they not been           to the Sovereign God, to His truth in Christ, and to


472                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Christ's Kingdom; He wants to silence the church's             Peer pressure, practically put, translates into re-
testimony against the lie.  .To accomplish  ,this pur-      proach and ridicule for not conforming to society's
pose, other means less severe in nature than that of        world and life view. And, you understand, this way
bodily injury can be used  - means, nonetheless,            of life is not determined by any synodical decision,
whereby pressure is brought to bear upon the                but by the advertisers of Madison Avenue. It is the
Christian to compel him to compromise his godly             world that determines the climate, the way of life in
way'(opening  the way for the next generation to for-       which the Christian finds himself. And the child of
sake it completely), and to cease his militant stand        God must decide either to adapt himself to that way
against that which is false and evil. Such means are        of life, going by what is currently acceptable, mak-
much in evidence today. And especially what I               ing various compromises as Lot did, in order to
have reference to is that which has come to be              smooth the way  .for himself; or he must resolve to
called "peer pressure."                                     swim against the current, so to speak, and follow a
  Peer pressure is the pressure to conform to the           different course, one which is counted peculiar at
standards set by some dominant group as that                best, and downright stupid and irresponsible at
affects one's attitudes and behavior, the whole of          worst. "Where is your common-sense?" one is
one's life style. Everything is governed by "What           asked. Who could be so dense! Indeed, to resist the
will people, especially those my age, think?" We            way of "common sense, " as the world defines it, in
become more conscious of their judgments than of            order to pursue the way of righteousness takes an
Gods. The man who resists conformity is threat-             "uncommon" grace. One must be willing to stand
ened with being excluded and scorned.                       alone. Few such can be found. As Christ states,
                                                            "Nevertheless, when the Son of man  cometh, shall
  We commonly think of this in terms of young               He find faith on the earth?"
people, the teenage years, when peer pressure
means so much, molding so much of their                        Such is the form persecution takes today. It is not
behavior, determining everything from the kind of           overt and physical, but indirect, and leaves not a
socks they wear, to the way they cut their hair, to         mark on you, that is, on your body. But it can and
the music they listen to. But we are mistaken if we         has left very definite marks on the outlook and
imagine that peer pressure is something with which          walk of members of the Christian church. We must
only the teenage has to contend. It is just as intense      consider some of these threats next time, D.V.
and unrelenting for the adult. This pressure is                In parting I remind you that Paul says, "All that
especially acute upon young couples as they must            will 1ivegodZy (or piously) shall suffer persecution."
make crucial decisions in determining the pattern           Persecution does not come to you as a matter of
of their home life. To what extent is it going to con-      course, simply because you say that you are a Chris-
form to the current norms and practices of society?         tian. The world can easily tolerate those who are
Are we going to "wait" to have children until we            content to  say  that they are Christians, but whose
have "adjusted" to each other and "established" a           lives reflect only minor differences. Persecution,
good home environment (as though courtship has              reproach, scorn falls upon those who  Zive  their
nothing to do with becoming "adjusted" to each              Christianity, upon men governed by the principles
other), or are we going to pray for covenant seed           of God's Word rather than by popular opinion. Such
from the very beginning? I can tell you what the            the world despises and the false church hates. But
"wise" of this world would counsel, but at the              see how easy it is to avoid derision? Be a Christian
same time I would be at a loss to tell you what book        in name only, compromise a few principles. Such is
of the Bible such "wisdom" comes from, unless it's          the temptation. Is it a temptation to which you are
Hezekiah. That seems to be the favorite book of             yielding, or which you resist? Be ye not conformed,
most modern "Christian" counselors these days.              but transformed!
But more about these matters later.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

                        Paul's Letter to Philippi (1)
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering

  Upon reading this letter, it soon becomes  ap-            letter one general theme which the apostle is
parent that it is different from the other letters that     making for the church of Philippi. In this, one of his
Paul wrote in that it is impossible to draw out of the      most personal letters, he touches on many subjects


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               473



which are of importance for the Philippians as well       joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the
as the church today.                                      riches of their liberality" (II Cor. 8: 1, 2). On four
THE CHURCH OF PHILIPPI                                    different occasions the congregation of  Philippi
                                                          came through with money to help Paul in the hour
  While on the second missionary journey, Paul,           of his need. Twice they sent him help just after he
Silas, and Luke were called by the Holy Spirit to         left them for Thessalonica (Phil.  4:15, 16). During
labor in the Church of Philippi. Having gone              his ministry in Corinth, he had material need and
through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they           he refused to take it from the Corinthian congre-
were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the           gation but gladly received it from the church of
Word in Asia. They turned instead to Bithynia, and        Philippi (II Cor.  11:8, 9). Now also, the Philippians
even there the Holy Spirit suffered them not to           had sent Paul help while he was imprisoned at
preach (Acts 16:6,7). The direct word came to them        Rome (Phil. 4: 10). Paul reciprocated this love by
at Troas when the Macedonian man appeared to              visiting the congregation repeatedly. It seems that
Paul in a vision, "Come over to Macedonia and             Paul chose to visit the church of Philippi whenever
help us" (Acts  16:9). After two days' journey by         he had special need. With them he found comfort
ship, they came to Neapolis and then overland for         and solace. There was spiritual closeness. We may
eight miles they came to Philippi. There the need         notice that Paul made the following visits to the
for help became apparent. Since Paul's custom was         church: after writing the First Corinthian epistle,
to preach to the Jews first, he sought out the place      he went to Philippi to await the response; after the
where they gathered. The Jews were too small in           riot in Ephesus, he retreated to Philippi; he cele-
number to have their own synagogue, hence they            brated the week of Easter A.D. 58; and after the
assembled by the River Gangites. It was here the          first Roman imprisonment he retreated to Philippi.
Holy Spirit led Lydia and her household to true           This letter also reflects upon this close fellowship
faith (Acts  16:13-15).  Subsequently, the Roman          which Paul enjoyed with this church. "Always in
jailor and his household were converted after the         every prayer of mine for you all making request
earthquake at midnight (Acts 16:25-40).                   with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the
  From the evidence given us in the Bible, we con-        first day until now" (Phil.  1:4, 5). He extols their
clude that the congregation at  Philippi was com-         sincerity: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have
posed mostly of Roman Gentiles. There is no refer-        always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but
ence to any Jewish opposition, which was so com-          now much more in my absence, work out your own
mon throughout Paul's missionary work. This tells         salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2: 12). The
us that the potential Jewish membership was small         warmth of the love he had for them is expressed,
to begin with. The names of the members of the            "Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and
church mentioned in this letter are Greek or              longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the
Roman: Epaphroditus (2:25), Euodias and Syntyche          Lord my dearly beloved" (Phil. 4: 1). We can cer-
(4:2), Clement  (4:3). Since this was the first church    tainly conclude from this that Paul loved the
established in Europe, it has special meaning for         church of Philippi and felt very close to them.
the Gentiles of all ages.
  It is also interesting to note that the women of the    DATE AND AUTHOR
church receive considerable attention in this letter.       The apostle Paul designates himself as the author
Looking back we are reminded that the initial con-        ( 1: 1). By mentioning Timothy in verse one, he does
tact with this church was through a group of              not mean to tell us that Timothy wrote it in con-
women gathered by the river (Acts 16:13). The first       junction with him, rather that Timothy was present
convert was a woman (Acts 16:14, 15). Two women           with Paul and also extended like greetings and
are mentioned in the letter as being in disagreement      sentiments to the church. There is no dispute over
(Phil.  4:2). Specific reference is made to other         Paul's authorship.
women in the church (Phil. 4:3). This may be attrib-        In trying to determine the date, we are able to
uted to the great influence Lydia had upon the            learn from the letter itself that it was occasioned by
church.                                                   the generosity of  Philippi in sending Epaphroditus
  Paul sustained a close and warm friendship with         to Rome. Evidently the Philippians had lost contact
the church of Philippi. The members of the church         with Paul for some years. Nevertheless, when they
were considerate of Paul and demonstrated their           heard that he was in prison in Rome they im-
love for him repeatedly. Paul makes special men-          mediately reacted by sending Epaphroditus, per-
tion of this to the Corinthian church: "Moreover          haps their pastor, though we cannot be sure of his
brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God            identity. He not only cheered Paul by his presence,
bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that           but he also brought a love offering from the church.
in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their     While in Rome, Epaphroditus became very sick, so


474                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



sick in fact that Paul feared his death and inter-        deacons, (Phil 1: 1). This was characteristic of his
ceded before God for his life (Phil.  2:25-30).  God      later letters, hence this letter is linked with them.
spared him and he was about to return home to               This evidence carries weight and leads us to con-
Philippi. This gave Paul opportunity to send this         clude that this was Paul's last letter to the churches.
letter with him, a letter in which he could express       It is significant that his parting word should be to
his thanks to them for their love shown to him once       his beloved Philippi. The date stands then some-
again and also to encourage them to carry on the          where around A.D. 63 or 64.
work of the Lord.                                         THE MESSAGE
  There is plenty of internal evidence that shows
conclusively that the letter was written during the         As we stated before, we cannot draw any one
Roman imprisonment, more than likely  .after  he          theme or central message from this letter. It is a
wrote Philemon, Colossians, and Ephesians. The            personal letter from Paul to a dear congregation
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia  sets forth     whom he loved and to whom he desired to express
seven reasons for believing this. We summarize            that love a final time.
them as follows:                                            This is not to say that there are not specific points
  1. At least four trips were made between Philip-        that Paul desired to make in this letter. We can
pi and Rome, a distance of some 700 miles, before         enumerate two of them (Tenney,  @bZe Survey).
Paul wrote this letter: someone carried the news of         First, Paul emphasized the importance of the
Paul's imprisonment to Philippi, Epaphroditus             gospel.  There are nine references to the gospel: 1:5;
brought the gift from  Philippi to Rome, news of          1:7;  1:12;  1:16;  1:27;  2:22;  4:3; and  4:15. It was his
Epaphroditus' illness was taken from Rome to              privilege to preach Christ crucified and risen  (2:8),.
Philippi, and a letter of sympathy was returned           and by faith in this Savior the saints have righteous-
from  Philippi to Rome. This involved considerable        ness before God  (2:9). The apostle glories in this
time, since these trips were not made in immediate        gospel to the very end.
succession.                                                 Second, Paul sets forth this great theme withjoy.
  2. Paul makes reference in this letter (Phil. 1: 13)    The entire letter rings with the positive note of joy.
to the fact that' the gospel had been preached            This is remarkable in view of his imprisonment and
amongst the Praetorian (Roman) guards. This too           imminent death. Over against these adversities,
must have taken some time.                                Paul is confident in the joy that flows from the
  3. In addition to this, Christ was preached ex-         gospel. He remembers the love of the Philippians
tensively throughout the city of Rome. A church           with joy (1:3); he rejoices in that Christ is preached
had been established there and already some party         (whether in pretense or truth)  1:18; he expresses
spirit had taken over this church (Phil.  1:15-17).       joy over the humility  pf the saints  (2:2); he even
One doesn't think of this taking place in a couple of     says it is reason for joy if he become a martyr for
years.                                                    the sake of the gospel  (2:17);  and finally he ex-
                                                          presses joy that the Philippian church remembered
  4. Luke was well known to the Philippians, yet          him with their gifts while he was in prison (4:lO).
he does not send his greetings in this letter and he
surely would have done this if he were there. He            What a lesson there is for us in this letter which
was present when Paul wrote Colossians, as was            we do well to read and study. We who have so
Demas (Col. 4: 14). Paul promised to send Timothy         much freedom and enjoy so much luxury, still do
to Philippi, "since he had not one like minded"           so much complaining. For shame! May our eyes be
(Phil.  2:20). If Aristarchus, Luke, or Demas were        opened to understand that in the world we must
there, Paul could not have said this. They were           expect tribulation, and even that experience is not
there when Paul wrote the other later prison              for our destruction, but our salvation.
epistles.                                                   Not material prosperity, not worldly fame, but
  5. His prison conditions were worse than his            the gospel is the cause for our eternal joy.
first imprisonment. At that time he was in a hired
house, had his friends around him, and he could
preach freely. Now, he was confined and lonely.                          Take time to
  6. Paul wrote as if his case would be decided
soon, Philippians  2:23, 24. He was facing his final              read and study the
trial. This was not his expectation when he wrote
the other letters.                                               Standard Bearer
  7. Paul included in his greetings to the saints
which are in  Philippi mention of the bishops and


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              475



THE DAY OF SHADOWS


                                By Hunger Driven
                                             Rev. John A. Heys


  Through the good counsel which Joseph gave            all Pharaoh's, they agreed to sell their land and
him, the king of Egypt not only retained his king-      even their bodies. The people became poorer and
dom, but he increased his wealth in material things     poorer, and the king became richer and richer.
as well. The coffers of his kingdom overflowed            Now, that they sold their bodies does not mean
with money from the Egyptians, but also from the        that they became vulgar and immoral. In verse 19
Canaanites. In real estate his holdings were ex-        of Genesis 47 it is explained for us. They agreed to
tended beyond what any man would have                   be servants of Pharaoh and give him the strength
imagined a few years before Joseph interpreted his      and  labour of their bodies. Seeing that they were
dreams.                                                 now Pharaoh's servants, he could and did remove
  In the wisdom which God gave him Joseph ad-           them from their barren, useless land into cities
vised the king to store up the surplus food during      where they could not only serve him but more
the seven years of plenty. When the seven years of      easily be cared for as far as the need of bread is con-
famine came, the king had a vast store of food to       cerned.
sell. He had not stocked up luxuries which only a         In verse 22 it is pointed out that the one excep-
few would buy, but he had what every man in             tion to all this was the priests of Pharaoh, which
Egypt needed for his very life. He had stored up the    can mean the princes. But assume that the transla-
necessities of life, namely, bread, without which no    tion is correct, should we condemn Joseph for ex-
man can live. And so Egyptians, and Canaanites as       cluding them? For an answer we must go back to
well, bought with money, cattle, land, and their        Genesis  41:40 where the king tells Joseph, "Thou
own bodies what Pharaoh had to sell.                    shalt be over my house, and according to thy word
  Pharaoh could have lost his kingdom, for a king-      shall all my people be ruled; only in the throne will
dom without people is not kingdom. And without          I be greater than thou." These priests were ap-
bread there would be no people left to rule. In due     pointed by Pharaoh, and the decision to feed them
time Pharaoh himself would starve to death had          without selling their cattle (which they did not even
God not sent Joseph and given him to know the           have) and land and bodies belonged to a decision of
meaning of the dreams and what to advise Pharaoh.       the throne where Pharaoh was greater than Joseph.
The famine was a dreadful one. Genesis 47: 13 says        Without a doubt Joseph did not approve as a
that, "There was no bread in all the land; for the      child of God. He had no desire to support idolatry
famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and     and superstition, but he was as powerless to change
all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the         all this as we are when our government taxes us for
famine." The dreams of the king also pictured a         the murder of abortions, and declares tax-free insti-
very grievous famine. The seven thin, ill-favoured      tutions that serve and foster the antichrist and his
kine ate up the seven fat kine, and you could not       kingdom. To withhold part of our income tax be-
see any change in them. The seven withered, thin        cause we do not agree with these and other policies
and wind-blasted ears of corn ate up the seven full,    is not a case of serving God rather than man, but it
good ears of corn, but you would not know it by         is a case of not rendering to Caesar what is
looking at them after they devoured these full, good    Caesar's. Rome promoted some very wicked pro-
ears.                                                   grams. Yet Jesus told Peter to go and pay the taxes
But now Pharaoh's subjects live and the coffers         which Caesar demanded even of Himself, the Son of
of his treasury are being filled to overflowing in      God in our flesh (Matthew 17:24-27).
spite of the famine. In times of depression, or even      And note that it is stated that, "The land of the
recession, the governments today, as a rule, have       priests bought he not." The occasion to buy it never
less income in taxes because of less employment         presented itself to him. They ate at the king's table
and financial power of the people. Not so here          and did not need to come to Joseph to buy their
in Egypt in this day of the shadows. The people         food. What is more, the statement is negative.
spent their last pennies for bread. Then they came      There is no positive statement that these priests
to Joseph and offered their cattle. When these were     were his friends, that he favoured them and made


476                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



an exception for them. What we read simply means         best clothes we would have discarded long ago.
that he complied with the king's wishes because          Here too there is evidence of being driven by
there was no way to withhold food from these false       hunger to steal, to beg, to deal dishonestly to try to
priests. They ate of the king's portion, and Joseph      be sure of food tomorrow, and even to kill. Hunger
could not in obedience to God refuse the king the        is a painful experience. And we know so little of it
amount of food he ordered. The priests were              because of our abundance and social programs  -
Pharaoh's friends, and were favoured by him, not         which in Joseph's day were nonexistent  - as well
by Joseph.                                               as our high standard of living in America. If men
  But the whole picture which is given us here is of     will steal and kill in our land to get luxuries and
a people driven by hunger, a people willing for the      conveniences, to get baubles and riches, we ought
sake of life to give up what they could not eat. For     to understand the force that drove the Egyptians to
them life was sweeter than land which they could         the desperation of selling every earthly possession
not use, and money that could not satisfy that           that they had to retain life, as well as take away that
gnawing pain of hunger. Better, they reasoned, to        painful cry for food that issues forth from their
live  .as servants than to die and lose all hope of      stomachs and was to be seen in their emaciated
getting a few material possesions later on after the     bodies. Hunger is a cry for life. It stems from a de-
famine had ended. Note also that they ask for seed       sire to live. It is a strong uncomfortable awareness
with a view to the future.                               of need. And it can be stilled and satisfied only by
  The point to be noticed is that the people come to     food.
Joseph with the proposition that he give them bread        Now I would not wish physical hunger and a
in exchange for cattle, land, and their service. How     famine of earthly bread upon anyone. But would to
different from the day in which we live, when men,       God that our people would hunger more for the
also in the church, do all they can to keep all their    Bread of Life! That there is a famine of the Word
luxuries, and sometimes even to add to them, by          today every serious-minded, sincere child of God
going to the deacons, or to the government for food      will concede in spite of all the "preaching" and
stamps. How reluctant to give up any of their many       means of getting the "preaching" out to the multi-
luxuries and treasures they are for a relative who is    tudes by printed page and spoken word. To find
in need, and how quick to contemplate expensive          good, sound Biblical preaching that builds up the
surgery or treatment if the deacons or the govern-       faith in Christ is hard to find. The "seven years" of
ment will pay the bill, and they can continue to         doctrinal richness and prosperity when joy was to
hold on to all their riches. Instead of using what       be found in discussing and seeking instruction in
God gave in the past, they think that the govern-        rich doctrinal issues are long past, and the years of
ment and deacons owe them a living. They will go         famine of the Word have begun.
on strike, refuse to work while holding on to their        Well do I remember the days of my youth when
jobs, and deny the employer the right to give it to      the retired men on street corners or stores could be
another, and then apply for unemployment com-            heard discussing such profound, significant truths
pensation! We had a man in our church years ago          as infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism, or
who changed jobs because he could make more              sovereign, eternal, unchangeable election, double
money - even though he was getting paid far more         predestination, and the like. Lectures on Biblically
than many in the congregation at his old job - and       orientated subjects were so well attended that, un-
because of circumstances connected with the new          less one came long before the lecture begun, one
job had to be out of work for one week. He came to       would find standing room only. But today, even for
the deacons for money for that week!                     church members, the worldly entertainment of the
  These lines are being written on the island of         TV set, the games and sports of the world, the
Jamaica where we are working and are surrounded          pleasures of the flesh so fill the souls that they
by relatively poor people and people in abject           know no famine of the Word. They are too busy
poverty. There are people who think they have it         with fleshly, earthly life to realize the chief require-
bad because they look at those who have more             ment of the soul. Church attendance becomes more
luxuries than they. They may pray, "Give us this         and more spasmodic. Sermons must become short-
day our daily bread," but they do not mean it, and       er and shorter, and men will flock to the preacher
their actions show this. But there are those whose       who will shorten things for him. The sermons must
emaciated bodies show that they do not get enough        become more and more shallow; and political and
nourishing food. And these often we find more con-       social matters rather than sin and salvation must
tent than those who have the average amount of           be the subject matter of the sermon. A moral
this earth's goods in their corner of God's creation.    pep talk must replace a spiritual consideration of
But it cannot be denied that there are here those        man's true spiritual misery, his deliverance from it
who go to bed with empty stomachs, and whose             and how he may show gratitude to God for it.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               477



  A famine is a terrible experience. To be in the          that spiritual food for them and their children
midst of a dire famine and not to. feel hunger for         would mean more to them than earthly life itself! 0
bread is a worse tragedy. It means that one is in-         that they would gladly be servants of God, and not
sensible to the very necessities of his life. It means     only give their bodies but their souls to His service!
that he is either spiritually dead when he feels no        0 that they would buy the truth and sell it not for
hunger for the Bread of Life, or he is so drunken          that which glitters but is not the gold of God's
with the pleasures of this world that his soul cries       kingdom! 0 that they by spiritual hunger would be
for more worldly stimulants, rather than for food!         driven to Christ and His cross and would be willing
  0 that our people would be willing to give up            to lose all their earthly possessions, if need be, and
their boats and trailers and latest model cars and         would use them and spend them to provide the
luxurious homes when the need arises so that their         Bread of Life for themselves and God's people on
children can have the spiritual food of the Christian      far-flung mission fields!
school! 0 that they would first seek the kingdom of          Driven by spiritual hunger, we are driven to
heaven and its righteousness with the assurance in         Christ. Driven by natural hunger, and being devoid
their souls that with all that they need to seek that      of God's grace, we are driven to the antichrist.
kingdom will be added to them! 0 that spiritual life       Count not the material cost. Count the terrible loss,
meant more to them than earthly possessions! 0             if the Bread of Life is not your daily portion.

TRANSLATED TREASURES


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

(Kuyper has talked about gradual church renewal            Wittenburg and Geneva, the reformers did not
in those churches which have not departed far              sever their relationships with the church in which
from the Scriptures. He has described what must            they were born in order to establish a new church,
be done to bring them back. In the following para-         but they loosened their own old church from its
graphs he talks about reformation in churches              relationship with other churches, called into
which cannot be reformed from within.)                     existence a new and better church relationship, and
55. Concerning Reformation By A Break With The             purified the church from errors. On the other hand,
    Existing Church.                                       as in Paris and Vienna, in Poland and Italy, people
                                                           left the church in which they were baptized and
  Covenant renewal by means of a spiritual                 established a new church over against the old.
awakening cannot be understood as reformation
any more than church renewal. In a narrow sense,             Attention is rarely paid to this important differ-
the term "reformation" has no other connotation            ence. Men commit the error of considering as
than that of the historical reformation of the             church only the one big common church as it was
sixteenth century which took place under the in-           bound together in a unity under papal authority.
spiration of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin and which         And because our fathers in Paris as well as Amster-
led to a break at that time with the existing church.      dam broke with the Romish hierarchy, people
                                                           imagined incorrectly that also here in our own land
  Anticipating a possible misunderstanding, we             and in London a new church was established. This
must make a sharp distinction between two very             was, however, not at all the case. As soon as the
different cases. It is one thing to attack the existing    matter is considered, even the most backward of us
church in such a way that this leads to a reforming        knows enough to realize that the Reformation did
of the old church in which one was born. It is some-       not really call a new church into being in this land,
thing entirely different to depart from that old           but the church was only a continuation in purer
church and to establish alongside of or over against       form of the old Christian churches which began
it a new church. Both these things happened in the         here in the sixth and seventh centuries. That which
Reformation of the sixteenth century.                      a part of us did in 1834 in the work of reformation
  In Amsterdam, e.g., and in London, just as in            is not at all the same as that which happened in


478                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



Amsterdam when Amsterdam became Protestant.'                              have a clear insight into the way reformation
It would be the same if our fathers had succeeded                         works.
in overthrowing in the churches the  synodical                               "A break with the existing church" is the most
hierarchy. The movement of 1834 can only be com-                          common expression for all more or less radical
pared with the reformation in lands such as Poland                        reformation. But this break can take place either
and Italy where the old church continued to main-                         with the existing organization alone (congregation),
tain. itself and the new little churches of the                           or with the existing church connection (denomina-
reformation could sprout only as new little plants                        tion), or , finally, not only with these two, but also
alongside of the condemned old church.                                    with the existing church in its entirety.
   To be clear on this matter we shall speak                                 There is not only a sharply defined distinction
respectively and successively of both forms of                            between these three, but also an ascent from the
church reformation: of reformation by means of a                          narrower to the broader.
break with the existing church in which the con-
cern is for the reforming of the old church; then                            The first break is only temporary, the wound
reformation by means of a break with the existing                         which heals.
church which results in the establishment of                                 The second break is lasting, but concerns not the
another church alongside of the existing church.                          church but the denomination.
   A mixture of these two kinds of church reforma-                           The third break involves the organization and
tion can also take place. In that case certain men                        denomination not only, but involves the church
succeed in purifying their old church through re-                         itself in its entirety.
formation of certain abuses, but the other churches                          The best known example of the first kind of
with which they stand in denominational connec-                           break is to be found in the history of the reforma-
tion cannot be persuaded to join a similar church                         tory movement of the Reformed at the time of the
reformation movement. Then a clash takes place                            Remonstrants. In s' Gravenhage, Harlem and many
which necessarily leads to a destruction of the old                       other places, even in classes and synods, this led to
and a construction of a new church connection.                            a very definite break, but to a break which was
This is a mixture of the two kinds of reformation                         healed again at the Synod of Dort and which since
because people do not then establish a new church                         that time has entirely disappeared.
but a new denomination; and so, in so far as this
concerns an individual church, it comes under the                            An example of the second kind of break is found
first category, while in so far as it concerns the                        in the reformation of Wittenburg, Zurich, and
denomination at large it falls into the second                            Geneva, in Amsterdam, London, and Copenhagen,
category.                                                                 in the sixteenth century.
  This forces us, for purposes of clarity, to describe                       The churches of the Afscheiding in our own
separately this mixture of the two kinds of church                        fatherland are examples of the third kind of break.
reformation. The result is that we shall now treat                           It is also to be noticed that a break with the exist-
this whole subject under three different headings.                        ing church is never understood by those who make
   1) Reformation through a break with the existing                       the break in any other way than as being a break
church by means of which reformation succeeds in                          with a sham church or a false imitation of the
maintaining the existing church in her church con-                        church.
nection.                                                                     The justification or condemnation of such a
  2) Reformation by a break with the existing                             break thus depends almost entirely on the que.stion
church by which a new church is set up.                                   whether this characterization of a church as a sham
                                                                          or false church is just. And so we must turn to a dis-
  3) Reformation through a break with the existing                        cussion and careful consideration of the marks of
church by which one is obligated to form a new                            the church by which this question is decided.
church over against the old.                                              `The  refernce is here to the Afsheiding under the
  Only by this threefold division is it possible to                       leadership of De Cock, Van Raalte, and others.
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of South East Protestant Reformed             On September 1, 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS. MELVIN
Church expresses its sincere sympathy to two of their members, Mr.        WIERSEMA  celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
and Mrs. Jack Feenstra, in the passing of Mrs. Feenstra's father, MR.       We are grateful to our Covenant God for these loving, God-fearing
HENRY MEULENBERG.                                                         parents. May they experience God's richest blessings in future years.
  May they find comfort in the words expressed in Psalm  37:18,           Phil and Joanne Lotterman             Marv and  Melva  Mastbergen
"The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance shall    Rich and Betty Heys                   Carl and Linda Wykstra
be forever."                              Rev. Carl Haak, Pres.           Bob and Dorothy Noorman                  18 grandchildren
                                          Mrs. Harlow Kuiper, Sec'y.      Bill and Marilyn Masselink               6 great grandchildren


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                       479



                    CONGRATULATIONS!!!                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY'
   Congratulations to REV. HERMAN VELDMAN who has now com-                      The Ladies Aid Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
pleted 50 years in the ministry.                                              Church wishes to express its sympathy to a fellow member, Mrs.
                                                                              John Kamps in the death of her young son, MICHAEL JOHN KAMPS.
   We give thanks to God for him and for his wife, who together have
served our churches faithfully these many years.                                 May our God strengthen her and her family by His Word and Spirit.

   "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,                 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence  cometh my
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at day" (II Tim.           help" (Psalm 121  :l).
4:8).                                                                                                                           Rev. G. Van  Baren,  Pres.
                  Council of South West Protestant Reformed Church                                                              Mrs. G. Hoekstra, Sec'y.
                  Rev. M. De Vries, Pres.
                  Clarence Kuiper, Clerk
                                                                                               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                                 On August 20, 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS.  GERRIT
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                         HOLSTEGE, celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.
   The Council of South West Protestant Reformed Church express                 We, their children and grandchildren, thank our heavenly Father
their heartfelt sympathy to Elder Jay Boone and Deacon Daniel Boone           for blessing us with these God-fearing parents who have brought us
in the death of a sister and aunt MRS. JEANETTE PLAS.                         up in the fear of the Lord. We pray that God will always be near them
                                                                              and bless them in the years to come.
   "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in
Him will I trust" (Psalm  91:2).                                                 "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His truth  en-
                                                                              dureth to all generations" (Psalm  100:5).
                                                  Rev. M. De Vries, Pres.
                                                  Clarence Kuiper, Clerk      Gary and  DaVonna Holstege             Don and Nancy Vanderlest
                                                                                 Mica1 and Nathan                       Nichole  and Daniel
                                                                              Doug and Mary Jane Prince              Joyce Holstege
                                                                              Al Holstege                             Sharon Holstege
   REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
                       ANNUAL MEETING                                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
South East Church, September 23, 1982  - 8:00 P.M.                               The Faith, Hope and Love Society of the Protestant Reformed
Speaker: Rev. M. De Vries                                                     Church of South Holland, IL expresses their Christian Sympathy to
Subject: "Holding on to the Sound Word"                                       Mrs. Wilbur Bruinsma, Mrs. Barney Haak, Mrs. Claus Haak, Miss Hen-
Election of 3 Board Members: Tom Bodbyl, Vern Casemier, Phil                  rietta Haak, Mrs. John Haak, Mrs. Dan Poortinga, Mrs. Dick  Poort-
Dykstra, Henry Kamps, Jim Koole, Stu Looyenga.                                inga, Mrs. P.S. Poortinga and Mrs. Gysbert A. Van  Baren  in the loss of
                                                    Board of the R.F.P.A.     their brother and brother-in-law, MR. JAKE HAAK.
                                                    P. Koole, Sec'y.             May God comfort the family  by.His Word and Spirit.

                                                                                                                             Rev. David Engelsma, Pres.
                                                                                                                             Mrs. Denise De Jong, Sec'y.
                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On September 1 1, 1982, the Lord willing, our loving parents, MR.
AND MRS. CASE LUBBERS, will celebrate their 25th wedding anni-                                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
versary.                                                                         On September 6, 1982, our parents, MR. AND MRS. HENRY P.
   We pray that God will always continue to bless them and keep               MEULENBERG will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 25th wedding
them in His care in the years to come.                                        anniversary. We, their children, thank our heavenly Father for the
   "If thy children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I             years He has given them together, and for their covenant instruction
shall teach them, their children shall sit upon thy throne forever            in the fear of His name. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to
more" (Psalm  132:12).                                                        bless them and keep them in His care.
                                                    Their loving children.       "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
                                                                              unto wisdom" (Psalm 90: 12).
                                                 Robert Lubbers
                                                 Renae Lubbers                                                their children, H. Steven, Janna, and Paul
                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan                                       Houston, TX

                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   We the children, grandchildren, and great grandchild of REV. AND                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
MRS. HERMAN VELDMAN give thanks to God that we may on                            On June 18, 1982, it pleased the Lord in His infinite wisdom to
September 9, 1982 celebrate both fifty years of marriage and fifty            suddenly take from the midst of the church militant unto Himself in
years in the ministry of the gospel in the Protestant Reformed                the church triumphant, our beloved brother and fellow member, MR.
Churches. We thank God for His care and keeping of them these past            BUD VAN UFFELEN at the age of 55 years.
years and for the blessings He has given both to us and our churches             May the Lord comfort the bereaved wife and children and relatives
through them. All praise be to Jehovah, our covenant God, Who daily
sustains their lives in our midst.                                            by His spirit and grace.
                                                                                 Though the suddeness of his departure was a great shock, we
   "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who               wish humbly to submit to the will of the Lord which always is wise
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in            and good. May his sudden passing also teach us all to number our
Christ."                                                                      days and redeem the time.
                                            Cornie and Evelyn Den Ouden
                                            Jack and Elaine Van Dyke                                 The Consistory of the Hope Protestant Reformed
                                            Jon and Joanne Huisken                                        Church, Redlands, California
                                              1 1 grandchildren                                      Rev. K. Koole, Pres.
                                              1 great grandchild                                     Charles E. Van Meeteren, Clerk

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





480                                           THE STANDARD BEARER




                             News From Our Churches

  At this writing many of our young people are pre-                   The Wyckoff, New Jersey Church building pro-
paring to attend their annual Young Peopl's Con-                   ject has progressed since February when we last
vention. This year's convention, planned by the                    wrote about it. The plumbers have "finished most
societies of our Hull and Doon,  Iowa and Edgerton,                of their work of installing water, gas and sewer
Minnesota churches, is being held in Northwest                     lines in the basement," the steeple is finished, and
Iowa. The planned convention speeches are as                       "Mr. C. DeGroot has provided and installed a set of
follows:                                                           doorposts and a lintel for the front entrance of the
       Aug. 17, Rev. Kuiper, "Called to Obedience"                 ch-urch."
       Aug. 18, Rev. Bruinsma, "Called to Moral                       They have experienced some set backs, however,
                Purity' '                                          as is evident from a building progress report in
       Aug. 19, Rev. Kortering, "Called to Faithful                Wyckoff's June 13 bulletin: "We have also had
                Church Membership."                                another disappointment; our request that we be
A glance at the titles  .above  leaves us with little              allowed to install closed-circuit television rather
doubt that much spiritual food is in store for our                 than a ramp or elevator to meet the handicapped
young people again this year.                                      code was denied by the township. There is the pos-
  Our calling churches have been very active                       sibility of appealing this decision, but there seems
during the past few months. Calls from Edmonton,                   to be very little chance of success." Meanwhile,
Alberta, Canada to Rev. D. Kuiper of Lynden,                       their June 20 bulletin reports, "We are unable to
Washington and Rev. R. Cammenga of Hull, Iowa                      continue work on the inside since this installation
have been'declined. Edgerton, Minnesota has ex-                    may require some changes in one or the other of the
tended a call to Candidate Jon Smith following a                   stairways."
decline of their call to Rev. Bekkering of our                                  * * * * * * * * * *
Houston, Texas congregation.
            * * * * * * * * * *                                       From a Southwest, Grand Rapids bulletin we
                                                                   have some wonderful news: "We rejoice with Mr.
  Back in January a Loveland, Colorado bulletin                    and Mrs. Lau Chin Kwee of the Evangelical Re-
announced: "The Lord willing our congregation                      formed Church of Singapore in the birth of a
will celebrate our 25th anniversary in the year                    daughter, Tabitha Liu, 6 lbs., 14 oz., on July 14.
1983. The consistory appointed a committee to ar-                  Both mother and baby are well." Funny thing
range for appropriate ways to celebrate as well as                 though, while the Laus were still in the states,
prepare an anniversary book." Apparently the ap-                   Chin Kwee was sure they were going to have a boy.
pointed committee is doing its work, for in May                                 * * * * * * * * * *
they informed the Loveland congregation that:
"The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of our church in                        The following verse for thought was gleaned
Loveland is just a year away and the committee has                 from a Loveland., Colorado bulletin:
been busy planning a celebration. There will be                             Gossip is the most deadly germ
two evenings of celebration. The first evening  -                           It has neither legs nor wings.
June 22, 1983 - will be a program with refreshments                         It is composed entirely of tales
afterward. We have asked each of our former min-                            And most of them have stings.
isters to have a part in the program. For the second                                                            E.E. Opdyke
evening  - June 23  - we are planning a potluck
dinner, with a slide show after."                                                                                       CK
                                                                                                                               . . .


