     STAAIDARD
           BEARER
r           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . We must never separate grace and faith,

     as if grace proceeds from God and faith`pro-
     ceeds from us. Faith belongs to grace, is part
     of it; faith is grace in operation in the heart of
     the elect sinner. . . . it is all grace, from the
     beginning to the very end. The Reformation
     gospel! . . .May we ever hold fast to it!
                   See "Saved By Grace" - page 50




                                          Volume LIX, No. 3, November  I,1982  -


50                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                    CONTENTS                                                                                ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                    Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                          Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mich.
      Meditation -                                                                      Editor-in-Chief:  Prof.  Homer  C.  Hoeksema
         Saved By Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., . . .50    Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald
                                                                                        Cainmenga,  Rev.  Arie  denHartog,  Prof.  Robert  D.  Decker,  Rev.  Richard  Flik-
                                                                                        kema,  Rev.  Cornelius  Hanko,  Prof.  Herman  Hanko,  Mr.  David  Harbach, Rev.
      Editorial -                                                                       John  A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole,  Rev. Jay  Kortering, Rev. Geor e C. Lubbers,
                                                                                        Rev.  Rodney  Miersma,  Rev.  Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.   James S  opsema,
                                                                                                                                                                    B            Rev.
         The RES and the WCC - Unresolved . . . . . . . . . .53                         Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
                                                                                        Editorial Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
      My Sheep Hear My Voice -                                                                            4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                          Grandville, Michigan 49418
         Letter to Timothy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 Church News Editor: Mr. David Harbach
                                                                                                               4930 Ivanrest Ave.,  Apt. B
      Signs of the Times -                                                                                     Grandville, Michigan 49418
         TheDaysofNoah(l)..  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                        Editorial Policy:  Every  editor  is  solely  responsible  for  the  contents  of  his  own
                                                                                        articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
                                                                                        Question-Box  Department  are  welcome.  Contributions  will  be  limited  to  ap-
      Guest Article -                                                                   proximately  300 words and must be neatly written or  typewritten, and must be
                                                                                        signed.  Copy  deadlines  are  the  first  and  the,  fifteenth  of  the  month.  All  com-
         A Minister-Rabbi Conversation . . . . : . . . . .                              munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
                                                                                        Reprint Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
      Taking Heed to the Doctrine -                                                     magazine  by  other  publications,  provided:  a)  that  such  reprinted  articles  are
                                                                                        reproduced in full; b] that proper acknowledgement  is made; c) that a copy of the
         God's Providence and Sin (1). . . . . . . . . . . . .                          periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
                                                                                        Business Office: The Standard Bearer
      Bible Study Guide -                                                                                 Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus.  Mgr.                 PH:.(616]   243-2953
                                                                                                          P.O. Box 6064
         Colossians - Christ the Head of All Things                                                       Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                                                                        New Zealand Business Office: The Standard Bearer
      Faith of Our Fathers -                                                                                             c/o Protestant Reformed Fellowship
                                                                                                                         B. Van Herk, 66 Fraser St.
         Nicene Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                Wainuiomata. N&w Zealand
                                                                                        Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $10.50 per year. Unless a definite request
      The Lord Gave the Word -                                                          for  discontinuance is received, it is  assumed that the subscriber wishes  the sub-
                                                                                        scription  to  continue  without  the  formality  of  a  renewal  order,  and  he  will  be
         Presenting the Gospel to Strangers (1) . . . . .                               billed  for  renewal.  If  you  have  a  change  of  address,  please  notify  the  Business
                                                                                        Office  as  early  as  possible  in  order  to  avoid  the  inconvenience  of  delayed  deli-
      From Holy Writ -                                                                  very. Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                        Advertising Policy: The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial advertising of
         Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures. . . . .                                any kind. Announcements  of church and school events, anniversaries, obituaries,
                                                                                        and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00  fee. These should be sent to
      Report of Classis West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                    the  Business  Office  and  should  be  accompanied  by  the  $3.00   fee.  Deadline  for
                                                                                        announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                        15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                        Bound Volumes:  The  Business  Office  will  acce t  standing  orders  for  bound
                                                                                        copies  of  the  current  volume;  such  orders  are  llled
                                                                                                                                                 P      as  soon  as  possible  after
                                                                                        completion  of  a  volume.  A  limited  number  of  past  volumes  may  be  obtained
                                                                                        through the Business Office.

MEDITATIQN


                                                             Saved By Grace
                                                                             Rev. H. Veldman


                    "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not ofyourselves: it is the gift of God. "
                                                                                                                                            Ephesians 2:8


      October 31,  1517,  the evening before the                                           ments, denied the people of God free and  unhin-
church's All-Saints' Day, November 1, Martin                                               dered access to God and His throne of grace, and
Luther nailed the ninety-five theses to the church                                         had also denied them the divine Scriptures, thrust-
door at Wittenberg, thereby challenging anyone to                                          ing itself between the child of God and the God of
debate these theses with him. The church of that                                           his salvation. The church had denied the truth that
day was teaching and practicing a salvation by                                             we are saved solely by or out of grace, through
works, had presented to the people seven  sacra-                                           faith, the gift of God.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                               51



  For by grace are ye saved. Do not fail to notice         read that we are quickened, made alive, who were
this very significant "for" here. We have here the         dead in trespasses and sins. In verses 5-6 we read
reason for something the apostle had stated in the         that God quickened us together with Christ, hath
immediately preceding context. Notice what we              raised us up together, and made us to sit together in
read in verse 7. God, according to verse 4, is rich in     heavenly places through Christ Jesus. All this sure-
mercy; He has loved us with a great love. Accord-          ly emphasizes the wonderful grace of the living
ing to verse 5, He has quickened us together with          God. That a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, is
Christ, and already in this verse we are told, in          saved, made alive through Christ, raised up to-
parentheses, that we are saved by grace. God has           gether with Christ, sits in heavenly places in Christ
raised us up together, made us sit together in heav-       Jesus, surely indicates that this wonderful grace of
enly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages     God is more, ever so much more than merely an
to come He might show us the exceeding riches of           attitude or unmerited favor.
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ           Indeed, the grace of God is a power, a power of
Jesus. For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and       God. God Himself is the God of all grace, the God
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Why is      of all.beauty, the God Who is eternally attracted to
all this true that is set before us in the verses pre-     Himself as the God of infinite perfection. And the
ceding our text? Why? Because we are saved by              grace of God to us is the almighty love of God
grace through faith, and this is the gift of God. May      whereby He causes sinners, dead in trespasses and
we never forget this. Twice in this brief context          sins, to share in His own beauty and perfection. It
(also in verse 5) the expression occurs: by grace are      is  this'grace  which the Lord would bestow upon
ye saved. It is this truth that is impressed most em-      His own.
phatically upon the consciousness of the church.
Destroy this truth, ignore or distort it, and you de-        This takes place through Christ Jesus. How this
stroy t-he very foundations of the church of God.          is emphasized in our text and context! We read re-
                                                           peatedly of the Christ  .here. Besides, we read that
  One more thing. To what does the apostle refer           we are saved by grace, and this means deliverance
when he writes: "and that not of yourselves: it is         out of the greatest misery, sin, and translation into
the gift of God"? The form of the words "that" and         the highest good. By the grace of God we were rec-
"faith" indicates that the one cannot refer to the         onciled to God. We were dead in trespasses and
other. The word "that" refers to all that which pre-       sins. In Adam we could sin but never pay for sin. In
cedes in this text. The apostle means to say that our      Adam we could die but had no power to regain life
salvation by grace through faith is not of ourselves,      in God's favor. We could only increase the guilt of
but that it is the gift of God.                            our sin every day. We had become enemies of God,
                      **********                           hating Him and hating one another. But we were
  Saved by or out of grace!                                saved, and saved by grace! God reconciled us unto
                                                           Himself. We, who were legally objects of divine
  How simple is this truth of the Word of God!             wrath, have now, legally, become objects of His
How clearly this is set before us throughout the           love and favor, entitled to the life of His everlasting
Scriptures! Everywhere this truth receives all the         covenant. How necessary was this reconciliation,
emphasis! And, yet, how contrary is this grand             this paying of all our guilt and this meriting of
testimony of Holy Writ to the natural man. How             God's everlasting fellowship, as in harmony with
true it is that man always seeks to distort and to de-     the full satisfaction of God's unchangeable righ-
stroy it! How true this was at the time of the Wefor-      teousness! Eternally the Lord chose us in Christ
mation!  The church of that day proclaimed a salva-        Jesus. Eternally He ordained Christ to be the Head
tion by works. That church actually declared ac-           of His church, that He should become flesh,
cursed whoever denied the meritoriousness of our           assume the burden of all our sin and guilt, enter our
good works. Imagine, the church assigned people to         deepest woe, become sin for us that we should be-
hell who believed that we are saved solely out of          come the righteousness of God in Him. It was by
grace, and who believed that grace, the grace of           grace that God sent His Son into the world. Always
God, is the exclusive source of all our salvation.         the Lord was prompted by the desire to save His
They actually persecuted them!                             people, dead in sins, that they should be perfect
   Saved out of grace. What is this grace of God? Is       and, beautiful as He is. It was by the power of that
it merely an attitude of divine favor, or a divine un-     grace of God that His Son was born in our flesh and
merited favor? Of course, God's grace to us is a           blood, ascended the cross of Calvary, was sustained
divine attitude, an attitude of love, and it is surely     and empowered to bear God's infinite wrath and to
unmerited. But the Scriptural significance of grace        pay for all our sins and trespasses. Indeed, we are
is surely deeper than this, and this is true particu-       saved by grace, in and through Jesus Christ, our
larly in this text. At the beginning of this chapter we     Lord.


     52                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



           Shall we adopt the Arminian conception of salva-      creatures in Christ, calls us, powerfully and irresist-
     tion? Reconciliation itself can never save us. If the       ibly and efficaciously and sweetly, out of darkness
     work of salvation be confined to the cross, we, who         into the light of the gospel, so that we may sing
I    are dead in sins by nature, will remain dead in sin.        forever of the glories of our God: saved by grace,
     We ourselves must be saved. Shall we say that the           that no flesh may ever boast.
     work of God was finished at the cross, that then the                            **********
     work by man begins? Or, shall we mix the two, the
     work of God and that of man, God and man cooper-              Always salvation is of the Lord.
     ating, working together, God offering salvation and           It was solely of God that He chose us in Christ.
     man accepting it?                                           Then the Lord had no counsellor with Him. It was
       How impossible is this view!                              by the same grace that He reconciled us to Himself
                                                                 through the death of His Son. It was also by sover-
       The Arminian claims to have a richer gospel than          eign grace that He wrought faith in us, implanting
     do those who preach a Christ only for a few. Does           us into Christ. And now it is by that same almighty
     he not speak of a Christ for all? Really, however, he       grace that we are preserved unto the very end, until
     impoverishes the gospel. Really, he has a Christ for        the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace ye aYe
     nobody. A Christ that died for all really died for          saved, and the form of this word emphasizes that
     none, because a universal Christ never paid for sin.        this work is perfect and that it therefore will be fin-
     Had He really paid for the sins of all, none could          ished.
     possibly perish. Hence, a universal Christ did not
     pay for the sins of any.                                      By grace we are preserved and through it we per-
       How impossible is this view also, thanks be to            severe. Yes, our preservation is all of God. It is
     God, according to the text. Are we not saved by             never by works, or on account of works, or by
     grace through faith? Always we must remember                virtue of our cooperation with the grace of God. It
     that we are saved by grace. We must never separate          is all pure grace; nothing of man is ever mixed with
     grace and faith, as if grace proceeds from God and          it. On the other hand, we persevere. Indeed, we are
     faith proceeds from us. Faith belongs to grace, is          not simply carried into glory, as in a Pullman
     part of it; faith is grace in operation in the heart of     sleeper. This work is a power within us, causes us
     the elect sinner. Besides, we read in the text: not of      to hold fast to the God of our salvation, so that we
     ourselves; it is the gift of God. And then we read in       fight even unto the end. Indeed, the grace of God
     verse 9: Not of works, lest any'man should boast.           preserves and we persevere. And nothing can ever
     Hence, it is all a gift of God, from the beginning to       separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,
     the very end. Nothing proceeds from us. The whole           because it is all grace, from the beginning to the
     work of salvation is a gift of God.                         very end.
      , Through faith.                                             The Reformation gospel!
     0, we are not saved because of faith, as if God               We are children of the Reformation?
     saves us because we believe. Neither are we saved             May we ever hold fast to it!
     upon the condition of faith. As a prominent com-
     mentator remarked: Grace is God's part, faith is
     man's part. Faith is then a condition which we
     must fulfill before God will save us. Indeed, there
     are no conditions unto salvation at all. Salvation is a
     gift of God. We make not a single contribution                  The Standard Bearer
     toward it. We are saved through faith and by grace.
     Grace operates through faith.                                         makes a thoughtful
           God's mighty grace.
       Faith is the spiritual tie that unites us with                         gift for the sick
     Christ. In Him is all our salvation. Faith is the spiri-
     tual faculty whereby we know Him, taste Him,                             or shut-in. Give
     long for Him, trust in Him, rely on Him, appropri-
     ate Him, live out of Him, as a tree lives out of the
     rich soil. Saved through faith, God's mighty work               The Standard Bearer.
     of grace, His means of grace, a power that is
     wrought in our inmost heart by the mighty power
     of the grace of God. Saved by grace through faith.
     By this grace of God the Lord unites us with Christ,
     quickens us together with Christ, makes us new


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            5    3



EDITORIAL


          The RES and the WCC - Unresolved
                                              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



  Recently there was sent to me for review a copy              following: "8. That the Synod determine that a final
of the "Report to RES Chicago 1984 on Ecumenical               decision whether or not member churches of the
Relations. ' ' A title imposing enough to scare a              RES may also be members of the WCC, must be
person! Actually the report deals with a perplexing            made by the RES 1984 and not delayed beyond that
problem which the RES (Reformed Ecumenical                     meeting,"
Synod) has faced repeatedly over many years, but                  And part of the decision at Nimes was to appoint
never solved. The problem is that of dual member-              the Study Committee which produced the report
ship in the RES and the World Council of                       now under discussion. This Study Committee was
Churches. More concretely, it concerns such dual               "to make a comprehensive study, from Scripture
membership on the part of the GKN (Reformed                    and our confessions, of the Reformed concept of
Churches in the Netherlands) and the Indonesian                the church and its implications for current and fu-
churches which belong to the RES. Further, it is               ture ecumenical relationships." The committee
accurate to say that the greatest concern is with              was also instructed "to include in its study the
such dual membership on the part of the GKN, the               question of the membership of RES Churches in the
largest member church of the RES, ever since 1969.             WCC." It should be added that this report was to be
  This is not to say that the RES has not dealt with           prepared and distributed well in advance of RES
the subject of membership in the WCC nor taken                 1984, so that the member churches would be able
decisions on the matter. The record will show that             to consider it and to send their reactions and recom-
ever since 1949 the matter of the World Council                mendations to the RES Secretariat by April, 1984.
has been on the agenda of the RES repeatedly, and                 And so this 60-page report has been prepared and
that in 1968 especially there was a lengthy report             distributed.
on this subject-and, on the whole, a fairly good
report, too-just one year before the Dutch                        I will not trouble the reader with a detailed re-
churches decided to apply for membership in the                view of the contents of this booklet. Most of the
WCC. The record will also show that repeatedly the             report is a repetition of the report of 1968. There is
RES has taken decisions frowning upon and ad-                  nothing substantially new in it. Besides, there is a
vising against membership in the WCC on the part               lengthy review of all the anti-WCC decisions of the
of member churches of the RES. But the record will             RES over the years, a report of responses from
also show that none of these decisions has had any             member churches and from regional conferences
"teeth" in it, so  .that the GKN was compelled to              during 1982. And then follows a section of Obser-
choose between the RES and the WCC.                            vations" and a section of "Recommendations" by
                                                               the Study Committee.
  And even as this matter has been brewing in the
RES for many years, so it was inevitable that some                Among these "Observations" the following
of the more conservative member churches began                 appear to be crucial in their influence upon the
to insist that there had to be a showdown on the               "Recommendations:"
issue. All this apparently came to a head at the RES                  7. The crisis in the RES centers mainly on the WCC
Nimes (France) 1980. Churches began to withdraw                     membership of the GKN, applied for in 1969, shortly
or to threaten to withdraw from the RES if such                     after the important decisions of the 1968 RES in con-
membership in the WCC continued to be                               nection with the first major study report on the WCC,
permitted. The result was that RES Nimes attempt-                   and is increasingly complicated by,the  doctrinal and
ed to initiate action which would result in a defini-               ethical developments and decisions in the GKN con-
tive decision by the 1984 RES concerning WCC                        cerning H. Kuitert, H. Wiersinga, homosexuality,
membership. Part of this decision reaffirmed the                    Biblical authority, etc.
"advice given by every meeting of the RES from                        9. The RES has lived with the Indonesian WCC
1953 onwards to member churches not to join the                     membership for two to three decades and with the
WCC." A significant point of this decision was the                  GKN WCC membership for more than a decade.


54                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



       10. Four of the five Regional Conferences of the RES               4. That the ecumenical methodology or strategy by
       in the spring of 1982 appear to have favored toleration          which a Reformed church and/or  the RES carries out
       of dual membership and no one of these conferences               wider ecumenical responsibility (Constitution III, 2) is
       recommended termination of RES membership for a                  of great significance since  membership  in organizations
       church also holding WCC membership, on that                      involves co-responsibility while  witness and contact  do
       ground alone, although that position was strongly                not necessarily do so.
       held by some members of some of the regional confer-               5. That the RES has therefore correctly advised
       ences. (Note. On this statement we make the                      against membership of RES churches in the WCC and
       following remarks: 1) The suggestion of termination is           wisely warned against the possible negative influence
       indeed made or implied in two of the eleven sugges-              of such membership.
       tions made in various Regional Conferences. Cf. p. 54
       of the Report. 2)It must be kept in mind that the other            6. That the RES, while advising against WCC
       evils of the GKN, mentioned in "7" above, were not               membership, has up to now not given adequate atten-
       within the mandate of this committee. This is the im-            tion to how the RES Constitution III, 2 is to be carried
       plication of the words "on that ground alone" in this*           out by member churches and/or by the RES itself.
       observation. In other words, termination on the                    7. That the RES Interim Committee be instructed
       ground of WCC membership plus other grounds may                  to propose ways by which RES ecumenical responsi-
       well have been favored. HCH)                                     bility to the WCC and its member churches may be
         11. The critical nature of the decision facing RES             carried out in more significant ways than is possible
       1984 is evident from the withdrawal of five churches             through the Interim Committee alone.
       from RES membership and the threatened withdrawal                  8. That the fact that some RES member churches in
       of others. On the other hand, the forced withdrawal or           their particular situation have joined the WCC is per-
       termination of one or more RES churches which hold               haps understandable historically, although in regard
       membership in the WCC may well lead to a signifi-                to the advice of several RES synods, and proper ecu-
       cant reduction in RES membership..In fact, either                menical strategy or methodoltigy,  such membership is
       way, there appears to be a serious, long term loss for           regrettable.
       the RES-perhaps a threat to its very existence!                    9. That the RES,  while  : reaffirming its advice
      When I look at these observations, it appears to                  against WCC membership, decides not to terminate
me that Number 11 gives expression to the                               the RES membership of those churches now holding
suggestion that the Study Committee found itself                        WCC membership on that ground alone.
and the RES between the proverbial "rock and a                            10. That the RES once again call upon the RES
hard place." Either way, the RES is threatened with                     churches holding membership in the WCC to reconsi-
such a significant loss of membership that the very                     der that membership in the light of the above recom-
existence of the RES may be threatened. At the                          mendations and the entire  r&port  of the Study Com-
same time, it may very well be that all the other                       mittee, and whatever their action be on that question,
problems with the GKN may very well tip the                             urge them to clearly give evidence that they are
balance in favor of terminating its membership in                       authentically Reformed both in faith and practice
                                                                        (Constitution III, 1 & V,2).
the RES. The latter would be a severe blow to the
existence of the RES indeed!                                           A reading of these ten points should make it plain
      The "Recommendations" of the Report we will                    to any reader that if these recommendations are
quote in full:                                                       adopted, the RES is not one whit farther with the
                                                                     whole question of WCC membership than in 1968.
         1. That the RES reaffirm its previous decisions on          Repeatedly the RES has advised against WCC mem-
       the World Council of Churches (e.g., ACTS 1968, Art.          bership, and repeatedly the RES has advised RES
       95 and 105 with grounds].                                     churches holding membership in the WCC to re-
         2. That in the light of the Scriptural and Reformed         consider that membership. What progress is repre-
       doctrine of the church and its implications for ecu-          sented here? None! And if you add to this the fact
       menical relations, the Reformed churches maintain-            that now a recommendation is made "not to termi-
       ing their Reformed confessions should give priority to        nate the RES membership of those churches now
       the RES in fulfilling their ecumenical responsibilities       holding WCC membership on that ground alone,"
       internationally [Constitution III, 1).                        there is, in fact, retrogression here. This certainly
         3. That in addition to a Reformed church's ecu-             implies that churches are guaranteed safety in spite
       menical responsibility to other Reformed churches             ofthe fact that they hold WCC membership.
       within the RES (III,  l), RES churches have an ecu-             But this brings up another question. What about
       menical responsibility to all other churches according
       to the RES Constitution (III, 21, that is, "to give united    Point 8 of the RES Nimes decision? That point was:
       testimony to the Reformed faith in the midst of the           "That the Synod determine that a final decision
       world living in error and groping in darkness, and to         whether or not member churches of the RES may
       the churches which have departed from the truth of            also be members of the WCC, must be made by the
       God's Holy Word."                                             RES 1984 and not delayed beyond that meeting." It


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              55



seems to me to be plain:                                  question, though unresolved, will not be discussed.
1) That the Study Committee studiously avoids             Put in other words, the RES would then decide that
recommending any kind of "may" or "may not"               though WCC membership is wrong, ill-advised,
decision.                                                 warned against, nevertheless the RES will do
                                                          nothing against it, but will tolerate it.
2) That these recommendations do not provide any
guidelines for a "final" decision. Why should these       4) That the churches which have complained
recommendations, if adopted, be any more-or less          against WCC membership and have already threat-
-final that all the previous decisions of the RES,        ened withdrawal-if they have the courage of their
decisions which were essentially the same?                convictions-cannot tolerate such a "final"
                                                          decision to leave the matter unresolved. And I cer-
3) That if these are indeed intended to constitute a      tainly hope they have such courage of their convic-
"final" decision at RES 1984, this can only mean          tions!
that the RES would take a "final" decision to leave
the matter unresolved, so that from now on the              I also hope that the RES will not dodge this issue
                                                          by expelling the GKN on other grounds.

MYSHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter to Timothv1

                                  November  1,198Z          It is true that in the controversies which plagued
                                                          the early church over the doctrine of Christ, there
Dear Timothy,                                             was at least one controversy in which the distinc-
  After a rather long break, I want to resume our         tion between body and soul was important. I refer
correspondence on the subject of the relation be-         to the so-called Apollinarian heresy according to
tween pastoral work and Biblical psychology. It           which Apollinaris believed that Christ in our flesh
was almost a year ago that we interrupted our dis-        possessed a human body, but not a human soul. He
cussion of these things, but we did break off the dis-    taught that the soul of Christ was divine. Neverthe-
cussion at a point where we can now pick up a new         less, when the Council of Chalcedon finally formu-
subject.                                                  lated for all time the Scriptural doctrine of the in-
  The subject I want to discuss with you in this          carnation, it did so in terms of a distinction be-
letter is the'subject of the personality. While it is     tween person and nature. And, because we believe
possible to become very technical in such a discus-       that Christ entered into our flesh and became like
sion and while I want to avoid such technical dis-        us in all things except for sin, the distinction be-
cussions, there are certain aspects to the question       tween Christ's person and nature is important for
which are important as a pastor in the Lord's flock       us also. Christ did not have a human person such as
comes to grips with the problems which he faces in        we do; but He did have a nature such as ours in
his congregation.                                         every respect except sin.
  The question of the "person" is, from many                It is clear why Rev. Hoeksema considered this
viewpoints, an important question. I recall that          distinction so very important.
Rev. Hoeksema used to insist in class that it was           It seems to me that it is not far from the truth to
always better to make a distinction between the           say that when an infant is conceived in the womb
"person" and the "nature," and that, indeed, this         of its mother the nature of the child comes from its
distinction was more important and more signifi-          parents, while the person is directly formed by
cant even than the very common distinction be-            God. We cannot, I think, be sure about this formu-
tween "body" and "soul." By way of illustrating           lation of the idea because we know so little about
this point, he would often remind us that the doc-        the conception and birth of a child. But there seems
trine of Christ could only be understood in terms of      to me to be no doubt about the fact that at the
the distinction between "per'son" and "nature"            moment of conception, God impresses the indivi-
while the distinction between body and soul had           dual mark and stamp of the person upon each
little importance in understanding the incarnation.       nature. Certain it is that the child conceived in the


56                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



womb is a person from the moment of conception.            formed by the, delicate and almighty power of God,
This is clear enough from many different passages          remains essentially unchanged from the moment of
of Scripture. David, e.g., says in Psalm 139, in           conception to all eternity in heaven or hell. The
speaking of his own conception in the womb of his          nature changes as I am born, grow up, live my life,
mother: "For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou            and finally die. The nature changes both in body
hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will                and soul as  I am educated, acquire a certain
praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully            amount of knowledge, learn from experience and
made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul           pass through the whole of life. But that deepest core
knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from          of man's being which is his person remains the
Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously             same always  - even through the resurrection and
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes       into everlasting glory. That unchangeable "I" is the
did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in          subject of all that one dpes. I am born. I cry. I eat. I
Thy book all my members were written, which in             learn to walk. I am angry. I love or hate. I am  a~
continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was          sinner. I am redeemed. I am justified. I am
none of them" (vss. 13-16). This passage so clearly        sanctified. I marry. I grow old. I die. I go to heaven.
teaches that personality is part of the infant from        I live forever with God. Whatever happens to the
the moment of conception because David speaks              nature has as its subject the person, the I.
throughout of himself as "I." And that "I" is a ref-         Now this person is a marvelous creation of God.
erence to his person. "I am fearfully and wonder-          It is very difficult to say enough about this.
fully made. " "I was made in secret."                        For one thing, you will recall that when we are
      Those who favor abortion of unwanted infants         discussing the nature of man we talked about the
deny all this. They do not want to read the text the       fact that man has a rutionaZ.and moral  nature. That
way it is in Scripture. They would read these two          is, he has a nature with a mind and a will. He has a
passages somewhat along these lines: "A mass of            nature which can think and know, which can de-
protoplasm which after four or five months or more         sire and want. He has a nature which can know the
in the womb became me is fearfully and wonder-             difference between good and evil and which can do
fully made." You see the point here. If an infant is       the good and evil. Now it  is important to under-
a person from the moment of conception, then               stand that only a rutionuZ and morul nature can also
induced abortion is always murder because a                be a personal nature. That is why a star or a rose or a
person is deliberately destroyed. Those who favor          centipede or a chimpanzee cannot be a person.
abortion and want to get away from the charge of           None of these creatures has a rational, moral
murder have got to insist that up to a certain point       nature. Man was given such a nature and only man
that babe in the womb is not a person. But this they       can be a person.
can never do in the light of Scripture. Just one more        Yet when God forms the person at the moment
passage. God says to Jeremiah in  1:5: "Before I           of conception He does so in such a way that the per-
formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before           son exactly fits the nature. Every man's nature is
thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified             different. It is, of course,, essentially the same.
thee...." It ought to be clear that persons are sanc-      Every man has a body and soul. Every man has a
tified: not trees, not animals, not blobs of proto-        mind and a will. But this nature differs with every
plasm. If Jeremiah was sanctified before he was            individual. It differs in appearance-in color of the
born then obviously he was also a person. _                hair and eyes, in facial and bodily features, in size,
      But we digress a bit.                                shape, and color. It differs in power of the mind-in
                                                           ability to memorize, to do mathematics, to compose
      The personality of a. man is unique to man. Trees    music, to write and understand poetry, to play the
are not persons. Flowers are not persons. Animals          piano, to speak, to understand and comprehend,
are not persons-not even the highest of them.              etc., etc. This list of differences goes on and on and
Only man is a person. That is probably why we do           on. These are all differences in the nature. But
not even speak of the "face" of an animal. Probably        when God puts the stamp of the personality on the
the face of a man most clearly reveals his personali-      nature at the moment of birth, that personal stamp
ty, his personhood. Animals do not have faces.             exactly fits the nature. The work of God is not of
They have snouts and muzzles. They have mouths             such a kind that the person is created apart from the
and jaws, noses and ears and even eyes. But they do        nature, arbitrarily and mechanically attached to the
not have faces, and we do not use the word "face"          nature, and assigned a given nature through which
to describe the front of their heads. People have          to function. That is absurd. The person is formed
persons. People are persons.                               along with the nature itself,. but in such a way that
      The person is that "I" in a man which is the sub-    God stamps that nature individually with a person-
ject of all the activity of the nature. That person,       ality that exactly fits the nature with all its charac-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               57



teristics and gifts. In this way the person and nature    which populated the earth from the first moment of
are so formed by the hand of God that the individu-       time. Consider all the babies that died before the
al is one, perfect, unified whole.                        moment of birth or soon after. Consider the masses
  And yet each person is also different.                  of humanity which populate the earth today. Of all
                                                          these billions, there have never been and there will
  I can remember being told as a child that every         never be two persons alike. They are all different.
snowflake is different from every other snowflake,        God makes each one different. And only God can
that every leaf on the tree is different from every       do this.
other leaf-on that tree and on every other tree.
This was a very great wonder to me and impressed            But I must bid you farewell for the present. We
me greatly with the almighty power of God. But the        shall come back again to this in the future.
same is true of persons. There are living now and                                             Fraternally,
have lived over the course of history billions of                                             H. Hanko
people. Consider all the throngs and multitudes

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                               The Days of Noah (1)
                                             Rev. Wilbur Bruinsmu



  A wise man once said, "The thing that hath been,        apostles the signs of His second coming, stated in
it is that which shall be; and that which is done is      Matthew 24:37-39,  "But as the days of Noe were, so
that which shall be done: and there is no new thing       shall the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the
under the sun." That wise man was Solomon; and            days that were before the flood they were eating
the words which he spoke were not merely words            and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, un-
of wisdom but the Word of God (Ecclesiastesl:9).  It      til the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew
is true therefore; there is no new thing under the        not until the flood came, and took them all away; so
sun. What we see happening today in the world             shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
and church has happened many times over. It is for        Because this is true we receive from Scripture a
that reason that the apostle Paul, for example,           profound and illuminating insight into what is
could write to the Corinthian church in I Corinthi-       occurring in our day simply by studying those
ans 10 concerning what the nation of Israel encoun-       events which occurred prior to the Flood. That is
tered while journeying through the wilderness and         our intention in this installment and in those to
then add (vs.  ll), "Now all these things happened        come, the Lord willing.
unto them for ensamples: and they are written for           The first point of similarity between the days of
our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world           Noah and the day in which we live is the break-
are come."                                                down of the separation between the church and the
  The same can be said concerning the events sur-         world. There is a large-scale amalgamation between
rounding the great judgment of the wicked world in        those within the church and the wicked world. The
the Flood. The events of the days just prior to the       true church of Jesus Christ becomes smaller and
Flood are recorded in Scripture for our example.          smaller. We are able to say that this is true not only
God by His grace made sure that these events were         because we who have been given spiritual eyes can
recorded in Holy Writ for our admonition upon             see it happening today but also because this is
whom the ends of the world are come. In fact, the         exactly what happened in the days of Noah. In
days prior to the Flood are not only an example of        Genesis  6:1-d, we are given an account of that
events which recur in history but they are exactly a      mixing of the church and the world. "And it came
!ype of the days in which we now live, the days just      to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of
prior to the final judgment of this world. In other       the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that
words, the days of Noah are but an Old Testament          the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they
shadow which points us to the days in which we            were fair; and they took them wives of all which
now live. That is why Jesus, when teaching His            they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not


58                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet     do. The adornment of the ungodly women is the
his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.             outward adorning of plaiting of the hair and of
There were giants in the earth in those days; and          wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel. They
also after that, when the sons of God came unto the        seek to look "fair" by appealing to the passions and
daughters of men, and they bare children to them,          lust of men. Their conversation is unholy and un-
the same became mighty men which were of old,              chaste. And ungodly men are no different. This too
men of renown." Such is the account given us of            is what they look for in a woman. They look for it
the unholy alliance between the church and the             exactly because these same things are the very de-
wicked. world in the days of Noah.                         sires of their own life.
      We cannot help but be struck by the fact that the      The sons of God, on the other hand, are those
basic way this amalgamation of church and world            who live out of a hope and longing for a heavenly
took place was by means of mixed marriages. And            kingdom. In them Christ has so worked by His
what we mean by mixed marriages is marriage                Spirit that as a result they yield their members as
between two people of different and opposing               instruments of righteousness to do the will of God.
spiritual races: the sons of God and the daughters of      They no longer dwell in the darkness and bondage
man. We reject, of course, the contention that the         of sin. They receive God's command, "Be ye holy
sons of God referred to here in Genesis 6 were in          as I am holy!" They know their calling to be.
fact angels instead of human beings. Those who             separate from the world and never to be unequally
claim this explain this passage to mean that these         yoked together with unbelievers! And because of
angels saw earthly women that they were fair, and          that work of the Spirit within their hearts they
as a result became involved in a strange sort of in-       strive with all their being to be a distinctive and a
tercourse with them. The result of this relationship       peculiar people who show forth the praises of Him
was that these women produced offspring which              Who has called them out of darkness into His mar-
were mutations of human kind: giants and mighty            velous light! These truly are the sons of God. Cer-
men of renown. Such an interpretation of the term          tainly, we understand as well as did God's people
"sons of God," however, destroys the entire point          of Noah's day that there remains this great spiritual
of the passage. Although it is true that there were        gulf between these two spiritual races.
men of large stature and undoubtedly of great                Yet, in the days prior to the great Flood we find
physical strength in those days, nowhere does this         that a great synthesis transp$red between these two
passage speak of them as the fruit of some kind of         spiritual camps; and that it did so by means of inter-
intercourse between women and angels. Besides              marriage between those of God's people and those
this, nowhere does Scripture support the fact that         of the wicked world. Young men who called them-
angels came to earth, married women, and lived             selves believers, who claimed to be sons of God,
with them. No, the plain teaching of this Scripture        looked upon the outward beauty, the sex-appeal, of
cannot be avoided: there was a synthesis between           the wicked women of this world and lusted after it.
the church and the world.                                  Instead of walking the life of the antithesis and
      The sons of God were those who belonged to           heeding God's command to come out from among
God's church and who claimed to be God's people.           them and be separate and touch not the unclean
They were those who confessed to be Spirit-led             thing, they took them wives of all which they
children of God who could address God as their             chose. Young women too who outwardly confessed
Father in heaven. The daughters of men, on the             that they were children of God gave themselves in
other hand, were the ungodly, unbelieving children         marriage to ungodly men because they desired the
of darkness. These despised God and His com-               strength and the ways of these men.
mandments and were  characteriied  by the lust of            No doubt, these intermarriages were the result of
the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.     a deeper spiritual problem. The sons of God,
From a spiritual point of view, then, there should         though going through the outward motions of faith
have been a day and night difference between these         and walk, no longer lived out of the longing for the
sons of God and the daughters of men. Whereas the          forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. They no
wicked use all the good things of creation as well as      longer hoped in the coming of a heavenly kingdom.
the knowledge and skill God has given them in the          Their desires had become earthy, sensual, devilish.
service of sin and darkness, the people of God use         The ways of this wicked world and all it had to
all this in the service of God. The daughters of men,      offer were more desirable to them than fellowship
i.e., the reprobate, live for the day; they eat, drink,    with the ever-blessed God. The daughters of men
and make merry. They strive after the fulfillment          could offer them the pleasures and the "fun" of this
of their own sinful desires and their own self-grati-      world. The riches and power, the artistry and in-
fication. They look for an earthly kingdom where           dustry attracted them. The' fashion and entertain-
man is supreme and can do anything he wants to             ment of the wicked appealed to their earthly,  sen-


                                          THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     59



sual pleasure. This became the spiritual basis for           unholy coalition between the church and the
the many intermarriages that took place between              world.
the sons of God and the daughters of men. Thus the              Not  onZy  was this true of the days of Noah. Re-
great fusion of the church and the world took place.         member Solomon's wise words: "There is no new
  The result was devastating!                                thing under the sun." Repeatedly this also
  The children of these marriages became mighty              happened in the history of Israel as a nation. What
men  which,were  of old, men of renown. And cer-             do we find concerning the nation of Israel in Judges
tainly the Scripture does not mean that these                3:5-7, as soon as they had been given their posses-
became men of great spiritual  strength and stamina.         sion in the promised land? This: "And the children
God's children never become in this world men of             of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites,
renown. Of course not! Simply because their affec-           and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and
tions are set on the heavenly they remain weak and           Jebusites: and they took their daughters to be their
despised according to the standards of the world.,-          wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and
Paul writes in I Corinthians  1:26-29, "For ye see           served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise               in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many               God, and served Baalim and the groves." Such sin
noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish           never departed from this nation either. Ahab mar-
things of the world to confound the wise; and God            ried the wicked Jezebel who led Israel into the
hath chosen the weak things of the world to con-             worship of Baal. It was also Solomon himself who
found the things which are mighty; and base things           married many heathen wives and led Israel into sin
of the world, and things which are despised hath             by worshipping the gods of the heathen. So this sin
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring          continued until there was but a small remnant left
to nought things that are: no flesh should glory in          in Isaiah's day; and that remnant was "left as a
His presence. " No, the children of these "mixed             cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cu-
marriages" did not become great spiritual leaders            cumbers, and a beseiged city." In fact, so much had
of the church! They became the mighty and the                Israel become a part of the world that for the sake
noble of this world, men who developed this crea-            of those few "sons of God" left in Israel God led the
tion of God in the service of sin! We will write more        nation into the judgment of the captivity.
on this later.                                                  But what is striking in all this is this: "the thing
  As these men increased in the world the people             that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that
of God decreased, until there were only eight souls          which is done is that which shall be done." The
in all the world that remained as sons of God at the         days of Noah are a type of the days in which we live
time of the Flood. Wickedness had increased and              now. What is happening today? We consider this
the church had almost completely disappeared. All            next time.
this was true in the days of Noah because of that

GUESTARTICLE


                  A Minister-Rabbi Conversation
                                            Rev. Robert C. Hurbuch



II. About Christianity and Judaism                           each bowed his head and prayed a silent word of
  At a popular restaurant in a southern city the Re-         thanks and asking of God's blessing, the rabbi in
formed pastor, Rev. Nathanael K. Russo and the               his heart addressing Jehovah alone, and the pastor
Rabbi Nathan Klug met over a mid-day repast to re-           also addressing Jehovah, but in the name of His
sume a friendly conversation centering around the            Son. The only thing their prayers had in common
Being and nature of God. On the center of the                was the Hebrew "amen."
dining table was a pyramidal folder imprinted with              The rabbi opened the conversation with "Natha-
a Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish "grace." The              nael, I've been wanting to ask you: Why do you
rabbi and the minister, paying no attention to this,         Protestant ministers continually refer to your faith


60                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



as `our Judaeo-Christian religion' or `our Judaeo-           the Tradition was of greater authority than that of
Christian heritage`? Is this sort of a `cover' for a         the Scriptures. Since the Tradition of the Elders was
guilt-feeling, say, for having blamed the crucifixion        said to interpret and clarify the Law, it, and not the
on the Jews? Or is it an ecumenical ploy by which            Law, was regarded as  the  authority (of Judaism).
you would convey to the Jewish community that                Therefore traditional Judaism is Talmudic Judaism.
Christians no longer sprout `anti-Semitic' horns? Or         Isn't that so?"
what? Pardon my being so frank."                                "Oh, yes! You are so right! In fact, it was our
      "I appreciate your frankness, Nate; let's by all       own late Rabbi Stephen S. Wise who put it in words
means continue in that vein. In reply to your ques-          I could never improve on when he said, `The return
tion,  we- in our churches do not think of Chris-            from Babylon, and the adoption of the Babylonian
tianity as `Judaeo-Christian.' The term  judueo-,  to        Talmud, marks the end of Hebrewism, and the be-
us, means `relating to the Jews, their language and          ginning of Judaism.' "
their religion,' which is Judaism (a religion, by the          "Well, Nate, I have to agree with that modern
way, as I know you will admit, quite in contradis-           rabbi on that remarkable statement. Then isn't it
tinction to Christianity). It would be a legitimate          true that the religion of the Old Testament was the
usage to speak of something as Judaeo-German, for            religion of the  Hebrews,  and could, indeed, properly
example, referring to a German dialect written in            be called Hebrewism, which, however, was aban-
Hebrew consonants with Slavonic words and                    doned by the Jews when they adopted the Talmud
idioms, known popularly as Yiddish. (However,                as their religious authority? You say you agree with
Yiddish is not at all popular, as you also know, with        that one hundred per cent. I see. And does not that
Orthodox Jews preferring to read and speak                   adoption constitute the beginning of Judaism?"
Hebrew.) There is also a Judaeophobia, an aversion
to Jews, or a morbid dread of Jewish ascendancy.               "It certainly does, my Protestant friend; so that
Antipodal to this would be Judaeophilism, a regard           those Protestant ministers who are ever speaking of
for Jews or Judaism. But Christianity, the term              `the Judaeo-Christian ethic,' and the like, don't
itself unquestionably implies, is derived from               know what they are talking about!"
Christ. Christianity fundamentally has nothing in              Then that K. Russo fellow, keeping silent a
common with Judaism. Besides, it is not a question           moment, thought to himself, "They surely don't.
of determining blame for the Crucifixion. Yet on             For there is an antithesis between Judaism and
that score, please read the messianic prophecy  of<          Christianity. All the opposition our Lord suffered,
Isaiah 53. There is better counsel than what you             up to their murder of Him on the Cross came from
will get from the modernist metropolitan                     Judaism as represented by the scribes, chief priests,
ecumenical councils.                                         and elders of the Jews. We could say that the gospel
      "But Rabbi, it is of the greatest of interest to me    as expressed in the Old Testament Scriptures might
to know your answer to this question: What is the            conceivably be termed `Hebrew-Christian,' but
foundation and highest authority of Judaism, as the          they may not, and especially the New Testament
Jewish leaders conceive of this?"                            Gospel may not, properly be called  `Judaeo-Chris-
      "Reverend, undoubtedly that authority is the           tian.' Christianity is no way `Judaeo' because it is in
Talmud."                                                     no way Judaistic. Aloud he said, "Rabbi, tell those
                                                             clergymen who think John the Baptizer got his reli-
      "Clarify this point, Rabbi; let me understand it       gion from Judaism and the Talmud to read the third
clearly-not the  Tenach is that authority, but the           chapter of Matthew's Gospel; and if they think
Talmud?"                                                     Christ Himself owed any of His teaching to
      "That is correct. The authority of Judaism lies        Judaism, tell them to read Matthew  15:1-g,  and,
not in the documents of the Torah, the Prophets              above all to read Matthew's 23rd chapter. Oh, sure,
and.the  Holy Writings, but solely in the Talmud."           right! You'll have to first read all that yourself. But
      "Thank you, friend. That honestly puts this issue      you will find nothing `Judaeo-Christian' in either
in proper perspective. But did you know that our             John's or Christ's theology!"
Lord, ha-Moshiach, the Messiah, if you please, or              "Pastor, I'm learning more from you about the
even if you don't please, Himself referred, in con-          Bible and the Christian faith than in all the years
tradistinction to Christianity, to Judaism and its           I've attended the `rap' sessions of the metropolitan
foundation of authority? He did. In His time, and            council of churches with ministers, priests, and
among His disciples, this authority of Judaism was           rabbis present! If I understand these words of Jesus
known as `the tradition of the elders.' This tradition       correctly, then in them He flatly condemned
was regarded by some of the Sadducee and Phari-              Judaism and rejected it with the same vehemence
see factions as of equal authority with the Holy             as in His cleansing of the temple! Am I right? You
Scriptures. Many others went farther to claim that           solemnly nod your head in answer. Then when we


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                              61



Jews make this discovery, how can you expect us to                  the Messiah is that son. Is that correct? and if so,
listen any further to your Christianity?"                           how can that be?"
   "Christ does not condemn true Hebrewism (after                     "That is absolutely correct, and your own He-
all He was the Hebrew of the Hebrews), nor does                     brew Scriptures, the very oracles of God (Romans
He condemn any true Jew. Do you know that ac-                       3:2), state this literally. Surely you remember the
cording to the divinely inspired prophet to the Gen-                words of Agur, `Who hath ascended up into heaven
tiles, the apostle Paul, we Christians are Jews in the              or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His
strictest spiritual sense of the word? He wrote,                    fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment?
under the guidance of the Spirit of God, `For he is                 Who hath established all the ends of the earth?'
not a Jew who is one ou-twardly; neither is that cir-               (Any child of the synagogue could answer that!)
cumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a                `What is His name?' (Why, you immediately
Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that                   answer, Everybody knows His name is Jehovah!
of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter;                 Right!) `and what is His Son's name, if thou  canst
whose  praise  is not of men, but of God' (Romans                   tell?' (Proverbs  30:4). Here is the proof, not from
2:28-29). Now suppose, just for a moment, that                      the Talmud, but from the Hebrew Scripture, that
Jesus Christ is, according to the Hebrew Scriptures,                Jehovah has a Son. From these same Hebrew ora-
the promised Messiah. Then wouldn't you have to                     cles you, or any one else, ought to be able to tell,
listen to Him, even to His most heart-searching and                 with the help of the great prophet, Isaiah (chapter
f l e s h - w i t h e r i n g   l a n g u a g e ? "                 7:  14), that His name is  ImmanueZ!  Now, since it is
   "I suppose, assuming the way you just put it; and                getting late, perhaps at another time we could look
Orthodox Jews would likely concede an affirmative                   into Sepher Tehillim, at Psalm Two, where Messiah
answer."                                                            is further identified as Jehovah's Son."
   "Yes, I should think they would. For Moses                         Both men arising from the table shake hands.
prophesied of Messiah in the Law, `The Lord thy                     The rabbi bids farewell with "Shalom lekah! Peace
God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the                      to you! As a reformed Jew I must say the ham was
midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto Me. To                    delicious! Next time, it's my treat and I request that
Him ye shall hearken' (Deuteronomy  18:15).                         we share our views on the touchy subject of  `anti-
Indeed then you would have to listen to Him, for                    Semitism.' You agree? Wonderful! I'm looking for-
`every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall                  ward to it." On his way homeward the Protestant
be destroyed from among the people' [Acts  3:23)."                  preacher lifted up his heart in prayer and song to
                                                                    the triune Jehovah in the words, "Praise the Lord,
   "You seem to have a lot of reverence for the Jew-                for He is good, For His mercies ever sure From
ish, or as you would put it, the Hebrew Messiah.                    eternity have stood, To eternity endure; Let His
From our former conversation I gather that you                      ransomed people raise Songs to their Redeemer's
Christians believe that Jehovah has a son, and that                 praise!"

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


                           God's Providence and Sin (1)
                                                          Rev. H. Veldman



   In this rubric, "Taking  ,Heed To The Doctrine,"                 wholly independent of the Lord. He confuses
we wish to call attention, first of all, to the doctrine            man's freedom with man's sovereignty. He denies
of God's providence in sin. We believe this subject                 the organic connection between Adam and the
to be pertinent. It is surely a fact that the doctrines             human race. He has no eye for the headship  of the
of the sovereign government of the Lord over all                    first father of the human race. According to the
things and sin have been a "bone of contention"                     Pelagian conception of things, the will of man, -as
throughout the ages. The Pelagian would solve this                  far as its root is concerned, is good. That will is not
problem by simply denying God's absolute                            affected by the sin of Adam. The sinner can will to
sovereignty and maintaining the will of man as                      be good. He can will to be regenerated or not to be


                                                                      .
                                                                                  -



           62.        -      ..                        T H E   STANDAkD   B E A R E R -



           regenerated. This also explains why Arminius was                decree of God is strictly sovereign. The motive
           compelled to interpret Romans 7 as if the unre-                 prompting this infralapsarian view is to avoid pre-
           generated man is speaking in that chapter. The will             senting God as the author of sin. And, let us bear in
           of the sinner is inherently and essentially good. All           mind, we share this concern with our  infralap-
I          things, therefore, are dependent upon this will of              sarian brethren. We, too, want to avoid making the
           man. However, with this conception we simply                    Lord the author of sin. The Lord is too pure of eyes
           lose God as the sovereign Ruler over all things, and            that He should ever behold iniquity. Nevertheless,
           have no eye for the stern and undeniable reality                this infralapsarian view of sin and grace is surely
           that all men sin and that only few a_re saved. Let the          not satisfactory. First of all, it does not explain the
           Pelagian try to explain the absolute corruption of              strong expressions in Holy Writ that touch upon
           the whole human race and that only a few choose                 this matter. We need not at this time call attention
           the way that leads to life and glory everlasting. Is it         to these strong expressions in the Word of God.
           not an amazing phenomenon that, if all men are                  And we may add that also the infralapsarian broth-
           born with a will that is inherently and essentially             er himself will concede this.  ,When I speak of the
           good, only a few choose the way that leads to ever-             "infralapsarian" brother, I do this, in the first
           lasting life and glory? Besides this Pelagian concep-           place, because our confessions are infralapsarian
           tion, we must also deal with the deterministic con-             and, secondly, because I will always welcome into
           ception of things. This conception goes to the other            our fellowship a strong,  s,ound infralapsarian.
           extreme. It explains this problem simply by  deny-              However, his view does not do justice to the strong
~          ing the responsibility of man. According to this                expressions of Holy Writ. Secondly, this view does
           view man is merely a machine. He is moved about                 not answer to its purpose. The infralapsarian pur-
     - by God's qwnhand-w-ithout  any action on his part.                  poses to avoid making God the author of sin. And,
           In this- operation of God, man is wholly passive.               we repeat: we appreciate and share this concern.
           This is the deterministic conception. This presenta-            But, I ask you, what is more cruel: a God Who
           tion we do and must also reject. It has no place in             causes man to fall, or a God Who can prevent his
           its system for man as a moral, responsible being.               fall but nevertheless leaves him in his sin and
     .-                                                                    perdition? If a person is perishing in a burning
             In Reformed circles, in connection with this                  house and I am able to deliver him out of that
           problem of God's providence and sin, we are faced,              burning house am I, then, not responsible for his
           first of all, with the weak infralapsarian conception           perishing in that inferno? Thirdly, infralapsarian-
           of sin. When we insert the word "weak" here, we                 ism has no eye, fundamentally, for the antithesis.
           realize that our confessions are infralapsarian. And            Dualism, as -well as the antithetic conception of
           we endorse those confessions. They are not weak.                things, speaks of light and darkness, life and death
           How is this possible? Now we must bear in mind                  as contrasted with one another. What, then, is the
           that these confessions are Reformed. We must also               difference between them? The antithesis explains
           bear in mind that they are strong presentations of              this contrast as originating in the one source, the
           the truth. They declare emphatically that the Lord              one and only true God, whereas dualism presents
           does not will to bestow faith upon the reprobate,               them as having a twofold origin, always opposing
           that the Lord has sovereignly willed to leave them              one another and with the issue, therefore, constant-
           in their misery, does not will to save them. This is            ly in doubt. Infralapsarianism places sin in God's
           strong language. We can surely endorse this. Only,              counsel without trying to explain its origin, views it
           we believe that Scripture teaches us that we must               independently of the Lord. Surely far better is the
           go beyond this. The Word of God does not merely                 supralapsarian conception of this matter. This view
           teach that the Lord, be it sovereignly, does not will           places, in God's counsel, the decree of election and
           to save and bestow faith, but it also holds before us           reprobation before the fall of man. Creation and
           that the Lord sovereignly hardens and prepares ves-             man's fall are but God's sovereign means to realize
           sels of wrath for everlasting ruin and destruction.             His sovereign decree concerning the salvation or
           The word, "infra-lapsis" means literally: under the             perdition of man. And I assure you that, also in con-
           fall. The exponents of this doctrine place election             nection with sin, I would rather begin with God
           and reprobation, in God's counsel, under or as                  than without the Lord or with the devil. Beginning
           following the fall of man. The fall, corruption of the          with God, we are perfectly safe.
           human race, is their starting point. They begin with
           this in the counsel of God. They prefer to speak of               This problem of God's providence and sin is a
           sin as taking place with God's permission, and,                 difficult problem. We do not deny this difficulty.
           therefore, believe that the Lord has elected and rep-           And neither are we so presumptuous as to believe
           robated out of a fallen humanity. Reprobation,                  that we can explain it. The difficulty of this prob-
           then, is God's sovereign decree to leave people in              lem does not lie in the proposition as such. God is
           sin and death, if only we bear in mind that this                sovereign and man is a responsible being. This is


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        6 3



clearly the teaching of the Word of God. We must              ever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears
never confuse these thoughts or detract from them.            turn out to my advantage; for He is able to do it, being
These truths must stand, must also be preached                Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful Father.
and taught in all their significance. Our churches              Question 27: What dost thou mean by the provi-
have been accused of failing to lay sufficient em-            dence of God? Answer: The almighty and everywhere
phasis upon the responsibility of the sinner. Of              present power of God, whereby, as it were by His
course, we need not be too alarmed because of this            hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all
accusation. On the one hand, this accusation is               creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought,
absolutely untrue. And, on the other hand, to be              fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and
accused of this simply means that we are in good              sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come,
                                                              not by chance, but by His Fatherly hand.
               The enemy of the truth has always
~r%?%is charge against the defenders of the truth               Question 28: What advantage is it to us to know that
and of the Word of God. So, these truths must stand           God has created, and by His providence doth still up-
and they must be preached and taught. The diffi-              hold all things? Answer: That we may be patient in ad-
                                                              versity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things,
culty, however, lies herein: how can the holy God             which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust
direct the actions of iniquity, all these actions, so         in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall sep-
that we do not lose sight of man's responsibility and         arate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His
yet maintain that the Lord is holy and righteous.             hand, that without His will they cannot so much as
God may  work  sin, but man  does  the sin. God is            move.
never the author of sin. An author is one who does           This providence of God is also held before us in
something voluntarily and willingly. An author is          our Confession of Faith. We read in Article 13 of
one who delights in his activity. God is never the         this Confession:
author of sin. Man is the author of sin. I repeat: we
do not purpose to solve this problem. But we do                 We believe that the same God, after He had created
desire to discuss the question, in order that we may          all things, did not forsake them, or give them up to for-
                                                              tune or chance, but that He rules and governs them
receive comfort from the Scripture's presentation of          according to His holy will, so that nothing happens in
sin and the providence of God. We cannot solve the            this world without His appointment: nevertheless,
problem. But we may and can surely say something              God neither is the author of, nor can be charged with,
about it. Fact is, we must face the problem. God is           the sins which are committed. For His power and
God. This is Scriptural. We cannot avoid this truth.          goodness are so great and incomprehensible, that He
That would be folly. And sin is sin. That, too, is a          orders and executes His work in the most excellent
reality. Also this fact we cannot deny or avoid.              and just manner, even then, when deeds and wicked
This, too, would be folly. We speak of the reality of         men act unjustly. And, as to what He doth surpassing
sin. Indeed! Sin is a universal phenomenon. Sin               human understanding, we will not curiously inquire
characterizes the entire human race. None is                  into, farther than our capacity will admit of; but with
exempt. And think of all the misery which this                the greatest humility and reverence adore the righ-
                                                              teous judgments of God, which are hid from us, con-
phenomenon of sin leaves in its wake. Think of all            tenting ourselves that we are disciples of Christ, to
the diseases and of death. Think of all the wars and          learn only those things which He has revealed to us in
rumors of war, and of all the misery which these              His Word, without transgressing those limits. This
wars leave in their wake. Think of all the social un-         doctrine affords us unspeakable consolation, since we
rest, of all the economic unrest, of all the hatreds          are taught thereby that nothing can befall us by
characteristic of all the children of men. All these          chance, but by the direction of our most gracious and
disturbances and hatreds are reported daily, over             heavenly Father; Who watches over us with a pater-
the radio and in the news on television. And the              nal care, keeping all creatures so under His power,
daily papers are full of them. What a folly it would          that not a hair of our head (for they are all numbered),
be to ignore the reality of sin! God's providence and         nor a sparrow, can fall to the ground, without the will
sin. And we must surely face them in the light of             of our Father, in Whom we do entirely trust; being
                                                              persuaded, that He so restrains the devil, and all our
each other.          **********                               enemies, that without His will and permission, they
                                                              cannot hurt us. And, therefore, we reject that dam-
  The truth of God's providence and sin is surely             nable error of the Epicureans, who say that God re-
confessional. We must surely maintain our confes-             gards nothing, but leaves all things to chance.
sions. We may not and cannot deny them. It is,
therefore, proper that we turn, first of all, to our             Know the standard
confessions. We read of this truth in our Heidelberg
Catechism, in questions and Answers 26  - 28 in
Lord's Day 9 and 10, and we quote:                                       and follow it.
     Answer 26: . ..and further that He will make what-


6 4                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE

                                              Colossians -
                      Christ the Head of All Things (1)
                                                      Rev. J. Kortering


       This letter to the church at Colosse is closely re-       Timothy as "our brother" in the greeting (1: 1).
lated to the one to the church at Ephesus. They                     A few things seem to indicate that the congrega-
were written about the same time and under the                   tion of Colosse was mostly Gentile converts. In
same circumstances. Even the thoughts are very                   chapter 1:27 we read, "To whom God would make
similar. There are differences however. Colossians               known what is the riches of the glory of this mys-
is more polemical, it deals with combating error,                tery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
while Ephesians concentrates upon encouragement                  hope of glory." Again in chapter 2:13 Paul refers to
and teaching. The polemics of Colossians deal with               the "uncircumcision of your flesh." The error that
a specific heresy that plagued that congregation,                forms the background of this letter was a strange
while Ephesians has a broader application. The                   mixture of pagan (Gentile) philosophy and Jewish
doctrinal emphasis is also different; Ephesians                  legalism. Some Jews had fled to that region through
stresses that the church is the body of Christ and               the dispersion and evidently had some influence on
Christ is its head, while Colossians views Christ                the thinking of the people.
from a broader point of view, that of Head of the
entire universe.                                                 AUTHOR, OCCASION, AND DATE
THE COLOSSIAN CHURCH                                                Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul. He
       The city of Colosse was located about  100  miles         designated himself as the author (1: 1). He was
east of Ephesus, 13 miles from Hierapolis, and  10               accepted as the author by the early Christian
miles from Laodicea. It was in the region of Phrygia             church both by the quotations the early church
on the Lycus River which flowed into the Euphra-                 fathers made from this book and by their accep-
tes valley. In the fourth century before Christ,                 tance of him as the author. A later objection to the
Xerxes and Cyrus visited this city. In later times the           Pauline authorship came when it was pointed out
city diminished in stature and was overshadowed                  by the higher critics that the vocabulary and style
by Laodicea.                                                     were different from Paul's writings. They discov-
                                                                 ered thirty-four words in this brief epistle that are
       From the letter itself (2:1),  Paul indicates that he     not found in his other letters. If, however, one
did not know the members of the church by per-                   allows for the use of such words due to the subject
sonal contact; he had learned of them from others                matter being discussed and the circumstances
(1:4).  Whether this means that Paul never travelled             under which he wrote, the differences are no more
to Colosse, we cannot tell. We conclude from this                than in his other epistles. We may conclude with-
that Paul was not directly involved in the establish-            out reservation that Paul wrote these words by the
ment of this congregation. While Paul labored in                 inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesus for two years during his second
missionary journey, the gospel spread throughout                    The letter to the Colossians is one of the prison
that entire region: "all they which dwelt in Asia                epistles written by Paul during his early imprison-
heard the Word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and                   ment in Rome. The other early prison epistles were
Greeks" (Acts  19:lO). During this time a young                  Ephesians and Philemon. Philippians was written
man by the name of Epaphras came to him from                     during his second imprisonment at a later date.
Colosse to learn about the truths of the gospel of               During his first imprisonment, Paul could have
Christ. Paul instructed him and sent him back to                 friends stay with him in the house and comfort
Colosse and the regions about there, to preach the               him. This letter to the Colossians indicates that
gospel (4:12, 13). Hence, Paul refers to Epaphras as             Mark, Aristarchus,  Justus, Luke, Demas, and
"our dear fellow-servant" (1:7). At the same time,               others were with him in Rome (4: 10, 14).
he became the minister of that congregation, "who                   Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon were
is for you a faithful minister of Christ" (1:7). Proba-          written about the same time. Tychicus was the man
bly Timothy accompanied him, since Paul refers to                who brought the letter to Colosse (4:7). He also car-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 65



ried the letter to Philemon. You remember that            Jewish legalists who carried the formalism of the
Philemon was a member of the church at Colosse            Pharisees into the church. Yet, the result would be
who owned Onesimus, the runaway slave, who                the same, to be right with God one had to keep sea-
fled to Paul at Rome and who was instructed by            sons and external rituals, etc. Because his readers
Paul to return to his master. While Tychicus was          were Gentile converts, Paul did not argue that the
bringing this letter to Philemon, he also took with       relationship between the Old Testament and the
him Onesimus (4:9). While making this trip, Tychi-        New Testament did away with the external
cus would naturally pass through Ephesus, so it           legalism of the law as he did in the letter to the
was easy for him to drop off that letter en route.        Galatians. Rather, here he points out that in Christ
   These facts lead us to set the date of composition     all the external emphasis is done away by the cross
about A.D. 62.                                            (2:12, 13). In addition to this, if such ideas of angels
                                                          were allowed to go unchallenged, eventually the
   The immediate occasion for writing this letter         universal rule of Christ would be lost. Only Christ
was the information Paul received by Epaphras             is the true Head of all things as He serves the One
that the church of Colosse was being attacked by an       Living God (1:19, 20).
evil philosophy.                                          THE MESSAGE
   Paul immediately warns the church that they be
not spoiled by "philosophy and vain deceit" (2:8).           Here too we can appreciate the glorious gospel
In this letter he also designates some of the evil        that the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul to write.
tenents of the false religion that was making in-         Here he is in prison, yet surrounded by his fellow
roads into the church of Colosse. They worshiped          laborers who come and go, keeping him informed
angels (2:18);  practiced voluntary asceticism - that     on the welfare of the church. Now comes Epaphras
is, abstained from certain things and restricted the      from Colosse and reports on the condition of the
body  (2:18,  20-23); and practiced certain Jewish        church there. He tells Paul of the terrible philoso-
laws regarding food, drink, feasting, and ceremoni-       phy that has infiltrated the church and influ-
al days (2:11, 16, 17).                                   enced some of the members. Perhaps some have
                                                          even left the faith. And for what? the beggarly doc-
   This heresy was a strange mixture of Judaism           trine that teaches men to hate their bodies and flee
and Eastern philosophy. The seeds of Gnosticism           from the world, to pray to angels rather than to
are evident, though as a philosophy it did not reach      Christ. What is the answer? It is this: Christ Jesus,
its great influence until the second century. The as-     He is the image of the invisible God! He redeemed
cetic tendency was rooted in the notion that earth        His people by His precious blood and delivered
and the physical were evil. They glorified the mind,      them from condemnation. He is exalted higher than
and the ultimate goal was to rise above the flesh.        all principalities and powers, above devils and
They saw in Jewish laws a spirit of self-denial. The      angels. He is the Head of the church, the Firstborn
angels were heavenly hosts able to come between           from the dead. Now, in Him we that are afar off are
man and God to help deliver man from the limits of        reconciled unto God. Indeed, the  Headship  of
his earthly existence. Hence, they prayed to angels       Christ over the whole universe, especially the
as if they could intercede with God.                      church, is God's good news to His people. That
   The concern that Paul had with the presence of         cannot be compared to the foolishness of men. The
this evil philosophy is evident. If this lie was          letter to the Colossians gives us that detail. Well
allowed to be taught and go unchallenged, the             may we open our eyes to read and our hearts to un-
church would once again be placed under the bond-         derstand.
age of the law. True, it was different from the old
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS


                                        Nicene Creed
                                               Rev. James Slopsema


HISTORY                                                      The Nicene Creed arose out of the great Trinitar-
   The Nicene Creed can not be fully appreciated           ian controversy that rocked the church early in her
 without a proper understanding of its history.            history and threatened her very existence.


     6 6                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



            The Christian church from the beginning of her        Father. This suggests that Jesus is somehow divine,
     existence has believed the truth of the Trinity, that        which was exactly Origen's conviction. On the
     God is somehow three yet one. This is the current            other hand, however, Origen virtually contradicted
     thought running throughout the whole of Scripture.           this by teaching that the eternal generation of the
     It is expressed in the baptism formula where the             Son by the Father is not rooted in God's being but
     church is instructed to baptize in the name of the           in His counsel or will. Consequently, Origen taught
     Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is implied in the           that the Son of God was eternally  creafed by the
     benediction of the Apostle Paul upon the church:             Father. The eternal generation of the Son by the
     "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of         Father consists in the communication of a divine
     God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be                 yet secondary substance to the Son. The Son there-
     with you all" (II Cor.  13:14). In these and many            fore is divine, yet subordinate. He is a secondary
     other passages of Holy Writ it is quite apparent that        God beneath the Father. This view of Origen is con-
     God is triune, three yet one. And whereas the                fusing to say the least. And because Origen was a
     Christian church has always believed this truth she          prominent figure in the church this confusion
     was not able in the beginning of her history to give         would spell trouble for the church in the years
     expression to this truth in very clear and concise           ahead.
     terms.                                                         Over the years two discernable positions devel-
            The truth that God is triune is basic to all          oped within the church. There were those who em-
     the great truths of the Scripture. It is the one foun-       phasized the teaching of Origen concerning the
I    dation upon which everything else rests. A denial            eternal generation of the Son. They taught that al-
     of the triune character of God will inevitably lead          though the Father and the Son were personally dis-
     to a denial of the whole of the truth of God. For that       tinct they were nonetheless of the same essence or
     reason the powers of darkness chose to attack this           being. In light of subsequent history this view has
     doctrine first in the church's history. For the first        been called the orthodox view. The chief propo-
     300 years of her existence, the devil had sought to          nents of this view were Alexander, bishop of Alex-
     destroy the church through terrible persecution.             andria, and later Athanasius, an arch-deacon of
     This failing he next sought to destroy her by attack-        Alexandria. Over against this arose the view of
     ing the very foundation of the truth upon which her          Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria. He took as his
     whole existence depended-the doctrine of the                 starting point the idea of Origen that the Son of God
     Trinity. He was aided in this by the fact that the           is created of the Father and therefore subordinate
     church in her early history had not come to a con-           to the Father. From this he deduced that whereas
     cise understanding of these things.                          Christ is truly the Creator of all things, He is never-
            The Trinitarian controversy developed around          theless only a creature Himself and therefore not
     the identity of Jesus Christ. That the Father is God         truly divine.
     was not a matter of dispute. Neither was there                 As these two ideas emerged the church soon be-
     much discussion at first concerning the Holy Spirit.         came hopelessly entangled in bitter controversy.
     If Jesus is God, co-eternal and co-equal with the            The contest between these two views broke out
     Father, then it simply follows that the Holy Spirit is       about A.D. 318. For their denial of the true deity of
     also God in the same sense of the word. But if Jesus         Christ, Arius and his followers were deposed and
     be something.less than God, then the Holy Spirit is          excommunicated by a council of a hundred Egyp-
     simply some impersonal power of God. The                     tian and Libyan bishops at Alexandria in A.D. 321.
     identity of Jesus therefore was the key to this con-         This did not stop Arius from spreading his blasphe-
     troversy.                                                    mous lies. He continued to propagate his views in
            This controversy had its roots in the contradic-      Palestine and Nicomedia. Nor was Arius without
     tory theology of Origen. Origen (A.D. 185-254) was           his sympathizers even among the bishops of the
     a church father who lived in Alexandria of Egypt.            church. Consequently, the church saw bishop rise
     Origen was a speculative and original thinker. His           up against bishop and province against province.
     greatest downfall was the influence he allowed               The entire church was engulfed in controversy.
     heathen philosophy to have upon his theology. The              In A.D. 325 the emperor Constantine called an
     result was that much of his theology bordered on             ecumenical council, the first ever, representing the
     heresy. This is especially true if judged in light of its    whole Christian church, to settle this matter. This
     further development. Origen's teachings concern-             council was held in Nicea, the second city of Bithy-
     ing Christ are what interest us at this point. Origen        nia, which was a province of Asia Minor. Nicea was
     taught on the one hand that Jesus Christ is the Son          chosen for the site of this very important council
     of God eternally generated of the Father. He attri-          because it was only 20 miles from the imperial resi-
     buted to Christ many of the attributes of God, es-           dence in Nicomedia. This council was attended by
     pecially emphasizing that Christ is eternal with the         318 bishops, about one-sixth of all the bishops of


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           6 7



the church. Although the whole church was repre-            all the truth, God used Athanasius and the
sented at this council, the eastern branch of the           orthodox party to sway the majority to the orthodox
church was more strongly represented than the               position and confess the deity of Christ. Because
western branch. The council was convened around             the statement adopted by the council of  Nicea
Pentecost, the end of May, and lasted until the 25th        differs somewhat from the Nicene Creed as we
of July of the same year.                                   have it today,we quote that which the council
  Very soon three distinct parties or groups                adopted in full.
emerged at the council. There was the orthodox                    We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker
party led by Athanasius, the arch-deacon of Alexan-            of all things visible and invisible.
dria, who had just recently come to prominence in                 And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begot-
the church. He would be the future spokesman for               ten of the Father (the only-begottne, i.e., of the
the orthodox view. This group firmly clung to the               essence of the Father, God of God, and) Light of Light,
deity of Christ. They were at first a minority. They           very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of
were however more talented and influential than                one substance with the Father; by Whom all things
the other two groups The second group was led by               were made (in heaven and on earth]; Who for us men,
Arius and numbered about 20 bishops. These                     and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate
propagated the views of Arius which flatly denied               and was made Man; He suffered; and the third day He
the deity of Christ. Then there was the third group            rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence He
which composed the vast majority of the delegates.             cometh to judge the quick and the dead.
These more or less took a middle ground. Philip                   And in the Holy Ghost.
Schaff in his History of the Christian Church Volume              And those who say: there was a time when He was
III, page 628, describes this majority group thus:              not; and: He was not before He was made; and: He
"Many of them had an orthodox instinct, but little              was made out of nothing, or out of another substance
discernment; others were disciples of Origen, or                or thing, or the Son of God is created, or changeable,
preferred simply Biblical expression to a scholastic            or alterable;-they are condemned by the holy catho-
terminology; others had no firm convictions, but                lic and apostolic church.
only uncertain opinions, and were therefore easily             This confession was certainly a victory for the
swayed by the arguments of the stronger party or            truth and for the church. Yet this was not the end
by mere external considerations".                           of this controversy as we shall see in a future
  According to His promise to lead the church into          article.
THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


          Presenting the Gospel to Strangers (11
                                                Rev. Steven R. Houck


  It is certainly true that the Christian life is not an    ly if you are shy by nature. They do not know you
easy life. It is a hard life, with many problems and        and you do not know them. You don't know how
difficulties. For we are sinners and our sinful flesh       they will respond to you, whether they will accept
is constantly seeking to hinder us from performing          what you say or reject it and even become angry
the good works we will to do. It is no wonder,              with you. and on the other hand they do not know
therefore, that we Christians find it so hard to tell       who you are, nor what you want from them. There
others of the faith that God has given to us. For pre-      are so many people peddling all kinds of strange
senting the gospel to others, especially to strangers,      philosophies these days, that people are very cau-
is indeed a most difficult and arduous task. It is          tious, and understandably so. All of this causes
hard work that demands courageous zeal from a               anxiety and fear on the part of both. In fact, some
heart filled with a love for the truth.                     strangers are so fearful that they will not even talk
  This is true first of all because of the very fact        with you. They simply refuse to hear you.
that when we present the gospel to strangers we are            What makes this even more difficult is the fact
dealing with strangers. When we do not know                 that we are not only confronting the stranger, but
someone, it is always hard to talk to them, especial-       we are confronting the stranger with the gospel. We


6 8                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



do not go to him to speak about the weather, nor to        fare. They will also learn something of what we be-
talk about current events. We go to bring the gospel       lieve as they read the pamphlet. In this way we
of Jesus Christ, the truth. And the very nature of         become less of a stranger to them. After giving
the gospel is that it either unites and binds together     them time to digest the material, we then call them
or it divides and separates. Often times it is the lat-    on the telephone to make our first personal contact.
ter that we experience. There are not very many            We use the telephone, because it is always easier
people who readily respond positively to the               for a person to talk on the phone than it is to talk
gospel. Many people reject what we bring. They do          face to face. We can tell them that we are the ones
not want it. Especially when we go as Protestant           who sent the literature which they requested. With
Reformed people, with the pure doctrines of the            this point of reference as our introduction, most
Word of God. For that reason we are often times            people will very readily talk with us. We can repeat
very offensive. We are offensive not only to the un-       the telephone calls several times at appropriate in-
believer, but many times offensive to the "Chris-          tervals to become more and more familiar with
tian" and even to the "Christian" who calls himself        each other. But ultimately our goal is to make a
"Reformed." For the truth is always offensive to           personal, face to face contact with them. If this pro-
the flesh. We must be very thankful to God for the         cedure is followed with wisdom and discretion,
truth He has given to us; but we must understand,          when finally we do meet the stranger in his home,
too, that it is that very God-given truth that makes       he will no longer be a complete stranger. We will
the presentation of the gospel to the stranger even        know each other and that makes things much
more difficult.                                            easier.
  What, then, can we do about this difficulty? Can           This is not the end of it however. We must be
we in some way make the presentation of the                very careful to continue the contact. We must not
gospel easier? Or do we simply have to face the dif-       be like so many who think that they can
ficulty head on? One thing is certain-we may not           "evangelize" a person in thirty minutes or an hour.
change the gospel. No, never. Nor do we want to            They go with their pamphlets, like The Four Spiritu-
change the gospel-not if we love the truth. It is a        aZ Laws, and think that if they merely go over these
terrible thing when someone changes the message            pamphlets with the stranger, they have completed
of the gospel in order that it might be more accept-       their task. For when they are done, all that is left is
able to the one to whom he goes. It is a great and         that the stranger make his decision. If he accepts
terrible sin. We must not ever change the gospel to        Christ, then they have won a convert, and if he re-
make it easier for us to share our faith. Then we          jects Christ and the gospel, there is nothing more to
deny the faith.                                            be done. That is the end  of- it. That is not the ap-
  There is, however, something that we can do in           proach of a Calvinist. That is Arminian. A Calvinist
many cases. We can try to ease the problem some-           recognizes the fact that God does not always work
what by making the stranger less of a stranger.            in such a way that we see dramatic and immediate
Some evangelistic organizations make a big thing           results. We must continue to make contacts and not
out of knocking on doors and talking to complete           expect everything to happen at once. In many cases
strangers. But, in my opinion, this is not a very          it takes a long time for a person to come to the
effective way to present the gospel. Not that we           knowledge of the truth. Sometimes it takes several
never confront the complete stranger with the              years.
gospel. Sometimes that is necessary. What is better,         We must, therefore, continue to send appropri-
however, is to get to know the stranger a little bit       ate literature, continue to talk with these people on
before you meet him face to face with the truth. If        the telephone, and continue to visit them in their
you know him and he knows you, at least a little,          homes. The result will be that we create a personal
then there is not so much anxiety.                         relationship with them. They learn to trust us and
  This familiarizing process can take place in the         look upon us as those who bring them something
following manner. First of all, we advertise our lit-      that benefits them. Not that it always works out
erature in the local newspapers. These ads should          that way. Certainly some reject us before we make
be large enough so that they attract the attention of      much progress; but many, in time, become recep-
the public. Those who have an interest in spiritual        tive to the gospel. One of the most important princi-
things will then write to us and ask for this liter-       ples to remember, then, is that it takes time. We
ature. When we send them this material, they will          must be very patient. Especially when we are deal-
learn something of us. They will learn who we are          ing with someone as far away from us as an unbe-
and what church we represent, because our name             liever. But the same is true of those who call them-
and address will be on each pamphlet. The very             selves "Christians." Even they do not find it easy to
fact that we send them literature will tell them that      see the truth as we do. It is of utmost importance,
we are interested in them and their spiritual wel-         therefore, that we take all the time that is needed to


I                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  6 9



     cultivate a personal relationship which then             gimmicks as a means to present the gospel. That is
     becomes the medium of sharing our faith.                 their real purpose. Thus they are not honest with
       The next step is to encourage the most promising       the stranger. Some come with a memorized speech
     and most advanced of our contacts to join together       which they prepared ahead of time. It sounds so
     in a Bible study. We do not ask them to leave their      "canned" that everyone knows it and resents it.
     own churches, if they are members of churches.           Who likes to hear some cold, uncaring, memorized
     They are not ready for that yet. But, in order that      speech? It is neither sincere nor honest. There is
     they might have the benefit of systematic study          nothing that annoys me more than to be ap-
     with others who are interested in the truth, we          proached by a salesman in a store with a memor-
     establish a community Bible study. The emphasis is       ized speech about the merchandise. It doesn't leave
     placed, not on leading them to the Protestant Re-        you with the impression that he cares about your
     formed Churches as such, but on leading them to          needs and problems. You know that all he cares
     the truth, the Reformed Faith. Only after a person       about is his own pocketbook.
     has advanced to the place where he is ready, do we         We must be honest and open with the stranger if
     introduce him to our formal worship services and         we are going to get anywhere with him. We must
     all that belongs to our faith and practice as Protes-    show him that we come to him without any gim-
     tant Reformed Churches. If this is done too quick-       micks and because we are truly interested in his
     ly, we will, often times, scare them away before we      spiritual welfare. It is wrong to hide from him
     have the opportunity to share with them the riches       either our identity or our purpose, as so many
     of God's sovereign grace. We are not interested,         "evangelists" do. At the very beginning, we must
     merely, in gaining members for our churches. We          tell him that we are Protestant Reformed, without
     are interested in leading people to the truth that we    apology. We must tell him that we are here to tell
     love and cherish so dearly.                              him of our faith in Christ and share the truth with
       All of this leads us to the question, "How, then,      him. We don't want to sell anything, nor do we
     do we approach the stranger?" That is, "What is the      want to take .a religious survey. We come with the
     general manner in which we speak to him in order         truth and that is all. This is always the best policy.
     that we might build a relationship with him?" In         For even if we try to hide something from them,
     answer to these questions we recommend three             they always find out sooner or later. We can not
     principles. First of all, it is important that we be     hide anything from them. But then we have shown
     very honest when we approach the stranger. We            ourselves to be dishonest. And who wants to listen
     must take great care that we are honestly con-           to someone who is dishonest? Surely not a stranger.
     cerned about presenting the gospel to him. In all of     We go to the stranger with the Word of Truth.
     our presentation, it must be evident to him that we      Surely then, it behooves us to bring that Truth in an
     are true. There are so many today who are not true       open and honest way-a way that is honoring to
     and honest. So many put on a front and use all           our Lord Jesus Christ Who is Himself the Truth.
     kinds of gimmicks. They try to trick their way into                                        (to be continued)
     houses to gain opportunities to speak about the
     gospel. Some approach the stranger as a salesman         *Text of an address given by Pastor Houck at Mission Empha-
                                                               sis Day in Kalamazo Protestant Reformed Church in May,
     selling books. Others claim that they are taking a        1982.
     religious survey. But all of these people use these

     FROM HOLY WRIT


              Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures,
                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers


                         Chapter II                           of voices, all clamoring for a hearing for their  un-
                                                              derstanding of the correct, orthodox way of  inter-
            The Great Hermeneutical Rule Of                   preting the Scriptures, particularly the Old Testa-
                Interpreting Prophecy ( 1)                    ment Prophetic writings called the Scriptures.
       In our present  church-world, to mention  her-           Howbeit, it is not our intention to add one more
     meneutics seems almost like joining the multitude        voice to the din of voices concerning the general


7      0                                              THE` STANDARD BEARER



question of how to ascertain the "message," the                   He tells them that they do not believe because they
KERUGMA, in the Scripture. We stand firmly                        are not of His sheep (John 10:26-28). He keeps His
anchored in the commitment that the Bible is the                  sheep in His own power by His mighty word of the
Word of God, and we agree with the Belgic Confes-                 Gospel-preaching.
sion Article III which, speaking of the Word of                     Now there always have been men and women
God, declares,                                                    who hear the Gospel, who do not believe the Word
        We confess that the Word of God was not sent nor          of God, the Scriptures, and who wrest these oracles
      delivered by the will of man, but that hoZy  men of God     of God to their own destruction. This is particularly
      spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the          true of certain men throughout the ages who, con-
      Apostle Peter saith [II Peter 121). And that God after-     cerning the Parousia, the final great and glorious
      wards from a special care for us and our salvation,         manifestation of the Son of Man upon the clouds of
      commanded His servants, the prophets and apostles,          heaven, wrest the Scriptures to their own destruc-
      to commit this revealed word to writing, and He             tion.
      Himself wrote with His own finger the two tables of
      the law. Therefore we call such writings holy and             It is true, the Scriptures themselves speak of the
      divine Scriptures. [See Exodus  24:4; Psalm 10219;          truth of the "last things" in language which is hard
      Hab. 22.)                                                   to be understood. Peter writes thus in II Peter 3:16:
     Furthermore, it is well, at the outset of this               "...wherein  are some things hard to be under-
writing on "believing all the Prophetic Scriptures,"              stood." The term in the Greek is "dusnoeetu." This
to confess here publicly and before all the angels                term emphasizes that Paul wrote certain matters
and all the saints, that,                                         concerning the coming of Christ which require
                                                                  hard and difficult.study. It seems that we have such
        We receive all the 66 books of the Bible as holy and      a passage of Paul recorded for us in II  Thessalo-
      canonical, for the regulations, foundation and confir-      nians 2:3-12. What Peter emphasizes is that scoffers
      mation of our faith, believing without doubt all things     and mockers, who really do not love the coming of
      contained in them, not so much because the church
      receives and approves them as such, but more es-            the Lord, and who will discourage the saints (II
      pecially because the Holy Ghost witnesses in our            Peter 3:1-7) are the very men who are ignorant and
      hearts that they are from God, whereof they carry the       unsteady, and wrest them to their own destruction.
      evidence in themselves. For the very blind are able to      Such do not themselves enter into the kingdom of
      perceive that the things foretold in them are fulfilling    heaven, and they would forbid those who would
      (Belgic Confession, Art. V)                                 enter the kingdom to enter. The beautiful Scrip-
     In this Confession we expressed the very germ of             tures of Paul as well as of Christ Himself, do not in-
our faith in the Divine Scriptures, also as to their              cite them to "hasten" the presence of the day of
principle of interpretation. In this Confessional                 God, and they do not really look for a new heaven
statement is embodied the sound principle of Scrip-               and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (II
tural hermeneutics that Scripture must interpret                  Peter  3:12-13). These never were such that they
Scripture. This is implied in that these Scriptures               expected to see the Lord Himself glorified. They
are a unity, and that as such they are the regulation,            never therefore purified themselves as God is phre
foundation, and confirmation of our faith.                        (I John 3: l-3). They contradict the Scriptures to
                                                                  their own destruction. They receive their own
     The Holy Scriptures are all given by inspiration             (idian . . . apooZeian)  destruction. They have their re-
of God. That is what is known as the "Theopneusa-                 ward of disobedience. They received not the love of
tos" of Scripture; they are God-spirited,  God-                   the truth!
breathed. They are the very breath of God in the
Word incarnate. They contain what the Spirit says                   Into this pitfall no man needs to fall unto his own
to the churches (II Tim.  3:16; John  15:26;  16113-15;           destruction because of these "things hard to be un-
Rev.  2:7). And if we have an ear to hear we will                 derstood." He must ever explain the less clear in
indeed believe this testimony of the Scriptures, and              the light of the more clear passages of Holy Scrip-
emphatically we will believe that the things thereof              ture. The Scriptures are throughout clear and per-
are being fulfilled! The Jews, unbelieving hearers of             spicuous. Jesus always quotes the Scriptures as
Jesus' words, failed to hear because they believed                those which can very readily be understood, and
not (Matt.  11:15;  13:9, 43). In the day of judgment             applies them to Himself. There is one truth which,
Jesus will not condemn the unbelievers, but the                   concerning the Last Things and the final return of
Word which he has spoken will do so (Rom. 2: 16; II               Christ, remains hidden from us: the exact day and
Thes. 2:10-12).                                                   hour of Christ's return (Matt.  24:36; Acts  1:7; I
                                                                  Thes. 5: l-11). The truth is that this is not a disad-
     This is Jesus' own Word to the church!                       vantage at all for the church of the New Testament.
     He tells us that His Word is always heard by His             This is the spiritual incentive to be watchful unto
own sheep. When the  cavilling Jews oppose Him,                   prayer (Matt.  24:42-44;  Matt.  25:1-13; Rev.  22:17).


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                71



Hence, we are admonished ever to pray and not to           believe in Me, for he wrote concerning Me  (pevi...
faint (Luke 18:1-g).                                       emou)." And it is very evident from the preposition
  There are some passages in the Old Testament             peri  that this means that the first five books of the
prophecies which are hard to be understood. These          Bible have one central subject: Jesus Christ and
require much devoted and sanctified study. And,            Him crucified!
alas, the number is legion who fall in the class of           This is the key to undkrstand the Old Testament
those who wrest these Scriptures very much from
the pattern of sound words of doctrine to their own        Scriptures!
destruction. Those who wrested the words of the               Here we read the great hermeneutical principle
beloved Paul to their own destruction did this too         that Christ is the end  (felos) of the law, for righ-
with the other Scriptures (II Peter  3:16). One can-       teousness to those who believe, whether they be
not tamper with the Scriptures simply in one place.        Jew or Greek, or barbarian, bond or free, male or
The teaching of false preachers eats as does the can-      female. And this also indicates that the entire old
cer; it must depart by the very logic of their error       Testament not only predicted the coming of the
from all sound words of doctrine which are for the         Christ, but has meaning only when Christ comes to
edifying of the saints (Titus 1:l; Rom. 6: 17). This is    fulfill the promise to alZ nations.
a solemn warning, also for the writer of these lines,         Thus Jesus interprets the Scriptures to both the
not to depart from the pattern of sound words-, unto       travelers to Emmaus, as well as somewhat later that
which the church has been delivered in Christ              evening to the eleven disciples, Thomas being
Jesus (Rom. 6:17).                                         absent however (Luke 24: 13-32 and Luke 24:44-49).
  And with this in mind we need not some clever            And we only will fare well as exegetes of Scripture
rules of interpretation but we need sound rules of         when we carefully listen to Jesus, the great inter-
interpretation which Jesus Himself gives of the Old        preter, and learn His infallible hermeneutics. No,
Testament  prohecies. We have this given to us by          Jesus did not give a formal course in the science of
Jesus Himself after His glorious and triumphant            hermeneutics to His disciples after His resurrec-
resurrection from the dead.                                tion. What Jesus did was to set the Cross in the
                                                           proper place in the teaching of all the Old Testa-
  We call attention to Jesus' unfolding of the Scrip-      ment Scriptures.
tures with infallible accuracy. Jesus must have
done this already when He was twelve years old,              Jesus starts this instruction in a very pedagogical
when He was there with the rabbis," sitting in their       way with these two travelers to  Emmaus, as they
midst, both hearing them and asking them ques-             walk and talk of the strange and marvelous fact that
tions; and they were all amazed at His understand-         Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified by the leaders
ing and His answers" (Luke 2:46, 47). Twice on the         in Israel (Luke  24:19, 20). And now they have
evening of the day of Christ's resurrection He inter-      another fact which must be explained, but it seems
preted the Scriptures. Jesus stands there between          like a deep riddle which defies all explanation.
the ages as the fulfilment of all the promises. He         Jesus is reported to have risen from the dead; yea, it
stands there where the kingdom is really taken             is the third day, the tomb was found empty in a
away from the Israel of the Old Testament dispen-          very wondrous way, and certain women reported
sation, as the Theocratic kingdom, and as this             that Jesus was no longer dead. He is alive! And so
kingdom will be given to others. He will take His          they have a very deep problem which can not be
church out of nonage, the time of her childhood            fathomed or interpreted by human ken, but which
and grant her the Spirit of adoption from on high,         must be solved by a clear-cut, definite interpreta=
crying "Abba, Father"' in their hearts. Now shall all      tion of all the Scriptures, as these cast their light
nations be blessed in Abraham, as before was               upon this Wonder of wonders: the death and resur-
preached by the Holy Scriptures [Gal.  58). These          rection of Jesus Christ.
Scriptures "foresaw" that the Gentiles too were by           These two travelers need a lesson in good inter-
God to be justified by faith [Gal.  3:8). That is true     pretation of the Scriptures, and then this  "peripa-
not simply of some isolated passage in the Old             tetic" instruction of only two students becomes the
Testament, but this is true of "the Scripture." Paul       great hermeneutical rule of interpreting the Old
writes in the Greek "he graphee"! All the Scriptures       Testament prophecies, including the place of Old
speak thus as in one grand and glorious speech. It is      Testament Israel in the great economy of salvation!
the one central  theme  of the Old Testament. This         Christ was made a minister of the circumcision for
Jesus expressed to the unbelieving Jews, as                the truth of God, that He might confirm the promi-
recorded in John  5:45: "Think not that I will con-        ses given to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might
demn you unto the Father, there is one that  con-          glorify God for His mercy (Rom.  158, 9; Ps. 18:49;
demneth you, even Moses, into whom ye trust. For           Deut.  32:43; Ps. 117:l; Is. 11:lO).
if ye would believe Moses (that one] ye would


       THE STANDARD BEARER
           P.O. Box 6064                                                             j Gl$EF~~H~ /
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





7 2                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                                Report of Classis West

                                    September 30,  1982      Classis  forwarded to Synod, 1983, with its
                                                           approval, an overture of South Holland, that Synod
                                                           see to the inclusion in our  PsaZter  of the three
       Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed            Trinitarian Creeds-the Apostles' Creed; the
Churches met in  Doon, Iowa from Tuesday morn-             Nicene Creed; and the Athanasian Creed.
ing, September 21, until late in the evening on
Thursday, September 23. At the request of two                Edmonton sent to the Classis  a "request for help,
Consistories and by the action of the Classical Com-       according to Article 41-4 of the Church Order." Ed-
mittee,  Classis  had been postponed from the date         monton asked for the interpretation of Article 21 of
originally set, September 1, in order that  Classis        the Church Order: "The consistories shall see to it
might examine two men who had accepted calls to            that there are good Christian schools in which the
churches in the West. Ten ministers and fourteen           parents have their children instructed according to
elders represented the churches of the West. Rev.          the demands of the covenant."  Classis  responded
R. Moore presided over the meeting. The delegates          in six points: 1) Because God's covenant is with
ad examina from Classis  East - Rev. C. Hanko, Rev.        believers and their children, our children must be
G.  VanBaren, and Rev. B. Woudenberg-were                  instructed according to the "demands of the cove-
present for the examination of the men who had ac-         nant." 2) Christian parents have the calling to train
cepted calls; and Rev. G. Lubbers, minister emeri-         up their children in the way they should go accord-
tus in  Classis  West, was present at the sessions of      ing to the Word of God. 3) This covenant instruc-
Classis.                                                   tion is accomplished not only in the home and
                                                           church, but also in the day school. Therefore, Re-
       On Tuesday,  Classis  examined Mr. Thomas           formed believers establish Christian day schools.. .
Miersma and Mr. Jon Smith, according to the re-            4) The consistory is called to encourage the organi-
quirements of Article 4 of the Church Order. This          zation of our schools by the members of the congre-
examination was requested by the Consistories of           gation. 5) The consistory has the duty to admonish
Edmonton, Alberta and Edgerton, Minnesota,                 and exhort those parents who fail to carry out their
whose calls the men had accepted. Mr. Smith gave           covenant obligations. 6) Consistory members them-
his "specimen of preaching" before the  Classis  on        selves ought to support our own Christian schools.
Tuesday         morning; Mr.     Miersma gave his            Edmonton and Isabel asked for special (emergen-
"specimen of preaching" at a special worship ser-          cy) subsidy for 1982 in the amount of  $4,250.00;
vice of the  Doon  congregation on the evening             Isabel asked for additional subsidy for 1983 in the
before  Classis,  in the presence of the delegates of      amount of  $3,000.00; and  Edgerton  asked for
Classis  and the delegates  ad  exumina.  Both men         $l,OOO.OO  for the moving expenses of their new
successfully sustained the peremptoir (decisive)           pastor. Classis  granted these requests and forward-
examination. Classis  advised Edmonton to proceed          ed them to the Finance Committee of Synod.
with the ordination and installation of Mr.  Mier-
sma;  Classis  advised Edgerton  to proceed with the         Because of the delay (due to immigration pro-
ordination and installation of Mr. Smith. The presi-       ceedings) in the installation of Mr. Miersma,
dent expressed to both the joy and thankfulness of         Edmonton asked for pulpit supply. Rev. Kuiper
the Classis.                                               was appointed to fill Edmonton's pulpit the
                                                           Sundays of October 17,24, and 31.
       A great deal of  Classis' time was taken up with
the consideration, in closed session, of several ap-         Classis  West will meet next in South Holland on
peals and of a Consistory's request for Classis' ad-       March 2, 1983, the Lord willing.
vice concerning the second step of censure of an                            Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
impenitent member.                                                          Classis  West


