            BEARER
              A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                 b




             SPECIAL  ISSUE

          THE DOCTRINE OF LIMITED ATONEMENT

       This special issue, devoted entirely to the truth of Defi-
     nite Atonement, is the second in an anticipated series of
     five, each dealing with one of the "doctrines of grace." Par-
     ticular atonement, though hardly a popular doctrine today,
     nevertheless affords unspeakable comfort to the child of
     God. Far from being a mere cold, abstract dogma pro-
     claimed by the church, it is intensely personal in its applica-
     tion. For, with respect to the multitude of elect, it means
     nothing less than that "the Son of God loved each one of
     them personally, knew them, and gave Himself for them.. . .
     He loved not a vague number of men, among whom I also
     was one. No, He loved me personally! . . . He loved me so
     that He gave  - amazing grace  - HIMSELF for me!". (See
     the "Meditation". . .and then read on.)



c                                            Volume LIX, No. 5, December 1,1982 -


98                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                   CONTENTS                                                                                   ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                     Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                          SecondClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mich.
      Meditation-                                                                        Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                          Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald
         "Who Loved Me, and Gave Himself for Me". . . .98                                 Cammenga, Rev. Arie  denHartog,  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Richard  Flii-
                                                                                          kema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev.
      Editorial-                                                                          John A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Ja Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers,
                                                                                          Rev. Rodney  Miersma, Rev.  Marinus S ri
                                                                                                                                         C  Ipper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                          Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
         Election and Atonement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100              Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION

                                                        "Who Loved Me,
                                      and Gave Himself for Me"
                                                                       Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

                     I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I livb; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
                  which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
                  himself for me.                                                                                                        -Galatians  2.20


  I was there nineteen hundred fifty years ago                                              on Golgotha's hill, and I was nailed to the accursed
when they crucified my ILord!                                                               tree. I was there just as really as though they had
  I was there, too, in Joseph's garden on the third                                         driven the nails through my hands and my feet. I
day when He arose from the dead!                                                            was there just as really as though I had experienced
                                                                                            in those six hours of the crucifixion all the agonies
  At Golgotha's hill I was present. Still more, I was                                       and pains of hell. I was there as really as though I


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  99



had cried out, "My God, my God, why hast Thou                what really and truly happened, of a real event,
forsaken me?" And I was there as really as though I          before Paul ever made or could make this confes-
had cried with a loud voice, "It is finished!" For "`I       sion. And if you and I make this confession, the
have been crucified with Christ."                            same must be true. Understand this well. The apos-
  And I was there on Good Friday when they laid              tle is speaking exactly of this. He is not speaking of
Him in the tomb. And I was there with Him in the             something which became true of Christ and of him
sepulchre, wrapped in the grave clothes. And I was           when he first believed. He is speaking of something
there-with Him, in Him-when with a mighty tri-               which was true many years before he was
umph He arose, the Victor o'er the dark domain,              converted on the Damascus-road. And the same is
alive through death.                                         true for us. When we make this confession, we are
                                                             not speaking of something which became true after
  For: I have been crucified with Christ; but yet I          we were born and after we believed, or perhaps
live! I have resurrection-life, life out of the dead.        through our believing it. Then our confession is
And yet I live not all by myself. Nor do I live              after all a lie. Then it is not based on objective facts
merely next to or alongside of Christ. No, Christ            and events, and then it is not the expression of ob-
lives in me. And I live only in Him, live by the faith       jective truth.
of which the very Son of God Himself is the object.            No, the apostle is looking back to the event of the
For that Son of God loved ME! He gave Himself for            cross on Golgotha's hill, some thirty years or so
ME!                                                          before he makes this statement, and therefore also
                        *****                                many years before he even knew it was true, and
  How and why and on what ground is it possible              he is saying, "then and there the Son of God knew
to say such things?                                          me and loved me and gave Himself for me." And
                                                             you and I, when we make this confession in the
  Note carefully that this is a very personal con-           twentieth century, are saying, "Then and there,
fession. The apostle is not merely expounding an             nineteen and a half centuries ago, long before I ever
objective doctrine here. He is not merely saying:            saw the light of day and came from my mother's
"All God's people, or all the elect, or all who be-          womb, the Son of God knew me [put your own
lieve on Christ's name have been crucified with              name here) and loved me and gave Himself for me,
Christ, and now live." He does not merely state,             though I did not and could not possibly know it
"Christ lives in all His own." Nor does he set forth         then."
a dogma of definite atonement and say: "The Son of
God loved His elect, those whom the Father gave                This is what is meant-if I may connect this
Him. And, because He loved them, He gave Him-                meditation with the theme of this special issue-by
self in the behalf of and as the substitute for all          sovereign election and definite atonement. 0, as
those elect, and for them only in His atoning                long as you phrase it in objective doctrinal terms,
death." All this may be very true, but it is not the         you probably do not think of this. Then you say,
point of God's Word in this verse.                           "God chose a certain definite number of men. He
                                                             gave them from eternity to Christ. And Christ died
  In fact, the apostle does not even speak in terms          His vicarious death in the stead of and in behalf of
of "we" and "us" here.                                       that certain definite number of persons, thereby ob-
  No, this is a personal confession in the most spe-         taining for them perfect righteousness and all the
cific sense, in terms of "I" and "me." The apostle-          other benefits of salvation." You may even stress
and must he not often have thought of that fact,             that both election and the atonement were personal.
even as he does in this very epistle  (1: 13), that be-      And all of this-don't misunderstand-is true; and
yond measure he persecuted the church of God and             necessary it is to state these dogmas, highly neces-
destroyed the faith which he now preached-is                 sary especially in our day.
speaking of himself and of his own part with the                But now give that multitude of elect names and
crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus               faces. Think of them in terms of Abel and Seth and
Christ, of the fact that the Son of God loved him per-       Abraham and Moses and David, or in terms of Paul
sonally and gave Himself for him personally. And             and Peter and John and Titus and Timothy and
the intent of this Word of God is that we by faith           Crispus and Gaius and Tertius. Think of them in
shall go along with this very personal confession            terms of the fact that the Son of God loved each one
and make it our own.                                         of them personally, knew them, and gave Himself
  But then, don't you see, this very personal confes-        for them. Think of that multitude of elect in terms
sion, if it is true, if it is more than a highly elevated    of your own name and face and those of your
and emotional outburst, must be based upon and               fellow saints whom you know personally. Think of
must be the expression of objective fact, must be            the fact that these names are written in the Lamb's
the expression of what was objective reality and of          book of life, of the fact that they were there, with


100                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



Him, when He died and rose again, that He knew                   For me, He did this. And that means, first of all,
them and loved them and gave Himself for                      that He did it for my benefit, in my behalf, so that I
them-every last one of them, and them only.                   might profit from it, have all the advantage accru-
Think of the fact that in that very real sense the            ing from it, all the advantage that is implied in the
election of God and the atonement of Christ are               one word: resurrection-life!
personal. And then does not what might be termed                 But "for me" can be in my behalf and for my
the blurriness of an objective doctrine begin to give         benefit only because it is in the deepest sense of the
way to the bright light of a sure and only comfort?           word "in my stead, as my substitute."
Yea, does not the dazzling brightness of the glory of
our Sovereign God and the amazingly wonderful                   And this, in turn, stands connected with the fact
character of His beautiful grace shine forth?                 that the apostle says, "I have been crucified  wifh
                        * * * * *                             Christ." This points us to the fact that we-all the
                                                              elect-were  in  Christ when He died the accursed
   Think of it!                                               death of the cross, thus giving Himself for us. We
   The Son of God loved me!                                   were one with Him. We were one with Him legally,
   The Son of God, very God of God, Light of Light,           so that in His death of the cross He represented us.
and that, too, as the Word made flesh-the Son of              According to God's counsel He was our representa-
God in the divine nature and in the human nature-             tive head, and was crucified as such, not as a mere
He loved me! That surely means, first of all, that            individual. And I was in Him, just as really as I was
the Triune God loved me, loved me from all eter-              in Adam when he first sinned. And so I could be
nity, loved me with an eternally first love. And He           and was crucified with Him nineteen hundred fifty
from all eternity gave me to Christ, His only begot-          years ago. And when I was crucified with Him,
ten Son. My name was written in the Lamb's book               when He died the death of the cross and bore the
of life! And He loved me. Yes, He loved me from               curse in my stead and in my behalf, it was my curse
eternity. But the point of the text is very definitely        that He bore and bore away. But I was one with
that He loved me especially in the moment of the              Him also organically, so that His death is the death
cross, the moment when He gave Himself for me.                of my death, and so that His life in the resurrection
And it was that love which was the revelation of the          is the life of my life. The result is that I experience
eternal love of the Triune God.                               the power of that crucifixion in my life. My old
                                                              man of sin is crucified, and I am free from the law
  That love was sovereign! He loved me when I                 of sin and death, and live.
was a sinner, an enemy of God, when I did not and
could not and would not love Him! He loved not a                And being united to Him by a true and living
vague number of men, among whom I also was                    faith, so that I know Him and put all my confidence
one. No, He loved me personally! He loved me also             in Him, so that He is the sole object of all my trust, I
and emphatically when with the rest of fallen man-            know this and have the firm confidence whereby I
kind I nailed Him to the accursed tree.                       am able to confess it.
  Yes, indeed, it was His love toward the Father                I know that I am free from condemnation, by His
that moved Him to go the way of the cross. But in             righteousness.
that very love of the Father it was love also toward            I know that I am free from corruption, by His
me, poor, miserable, lost wretch of a guilty sinner.          holiness.
  He loved me so that He gave-amazing  grace-                   I know that I am free from all death, by His life.
HIMSELF for me!                                                 I know that I am free from the fear of falling, by
  Yes, Himself! He, the Son of God, very God of              His victory.
God-be it in the human nature-gave Himself. Do                  And when I think on these things, sometimes it
not the Scriptures put it elsewhere that we were              causes me to tremble!
purchased with the very blood of God?
EDITORIAL

                           Election and Atonement
                                                 Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


  This is our first special issue of the current             May 15, which was devoted to the truth of divine
volume-year. It is a follow-up on the special issue of       predestination; and it is the second in a projected


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 101



series on the so-called Five Points of Calvinism, or,    Reformed fathers continued by setting forth the
as some refer to them, the "doctrines of grace."         truth of definite atonement in the chapter on "The
  You probably have already noted that this issue        Death of Christ, and the Redemption of Men There-
is devoted to the truth of Limited, or Definite,         by," and so on. And so, as I said, one could argue
Atonement.                                               with some validity that the order followed in our
                                                         Canons is merely what is called an accident of
  Perhaps this occasioned a question in your mind        history.
-a question which might also have arisen in con-
nection with the special issue on Predestination-as        Yet, upon more careful consideration one may
to the order we are following in this series. The        discover that there is a deeper reason for this order,
question concerns the order we are following in our      both in the history itself and in the intrinsic rela-
treatment of the Five Points of Calvinism. Most of       tionships of these doctrines.
us are probably acquainted with the  pons                  As far as the origin of T-U-L-I-P is concerned,
assinorum,  o r "asses' bridge"-more prosaically         and, in fact, as far as the name "The Five Points of
called a mnemonic, or memory aid - involving the         Calvinism" is concerned, I have no historical infor-
letters of the word T-U-L-I-P. This word is used to      mation at hand. Frankly, I am fond of neither. With
help one remember the Five Points of Calvinism,          regard to the former, I think there is a lack of regard
with each letter standing for one of the points, as      for the proper relationship of the doctrines. And
follows:                                                 with regard to the latter-though I am well aware
T = Total Depravity                                      that it would be virtually impossible to rid our doc-
U = Unconditional Election                               trinal vocabulary of the expression-I am not fond
L = Limited Atonement                                    of having true doctrines referred to as an "ism" nor
I = Irresistible Grace                                   of having them named after a man. But not having
P = Perseverance of the Saints                           at hand the information regarding their origins, I
                                                         am not in a position to criticize from this viewpoint.
  Although the tulip is well-known as a Dutch
flower, and although this mnemonic has, I suppose,         However, with regard to the order in our Canons
a certain practical value, nevertheless the order of     of Dordrecht, I am certain that it is more than a
the five Points represented in T-U-L-I-P is not that     mere accident of history. There is an intrinsic rela-
represented in our (Dutch) Reformed Creed, the           tionship between the various doctrines. That intrin-
Canons of Dordrecht. And whatever may have               sic relationship is such that the five points, or Five
been the origin of this mnemonic, it does not have       Heads of Doctrine, are not five coordinate points,
its roots in our Reformed tradition as such. Anyone      all standing on the same level. Nor is their order a
acquainted with the Canons of Dordrecht will             matter of indifference. These points cannot be shuf-
recall that their order is:                              fled for the sake of fitting a certain memory aid. No,
Divine Predestination                                    the First Head of Doctrine, Of Divine Predestina-
Limited (or Definite) Atonement                          tion, is indeed  first. And it is first, too, in the sense
Total Depravity                                          that it stands at the head of all the others. It is deter-
Irresistible Grace                                       minative with respect to all the others.
Perseverance of the Saints                                 The Arminians saw this very clearly. They saw it
  Upon first consideration, it might seem as             more clearly than many Reformed people see it-or
though the order followed in our Canons of  Dor-         at least admit that they see it-today.
drecht, as compared with the order followed in T-U-        That the Arminians saw this relationship and
L-I-P, is of no great importance. After all, if one      saw the key position of the doctrine of divine pre-
maintains the truths of the Five Points, what differ-    destination in relation to the other doctrines of
ence does it make if he follows one order or             grace is plain from many things. In the first place, it
another? It might even be argued with some validi-       is plain from the very fact that they themselves
ty that the order followed by the Canons of  Dor-        made their first article in the Remonstrance the
drecht is nothing more than an accident of history.      article which set forth their doctrine of conditional
For the order of the Canons of Dordrecht was deter-      election, election on the basis of foreseen faith. In
mined by the order of the Five Points of the Remon-      the second place, it is plain from the fact that in all
strance, due to the fact that the Canons were a          the controversy and the conferences preceding the
judgment of and a reply to those five Arminian           Synod of Dordrecht the Arminians always made
points. Hence, even as the Arminians began by            the doctrine of predestination their very first line of
teaching conditional election, so our Reformed           attack. This is a very striking fact. They understood
fathers began by maintaining sovereign and double        very well that if they succeeded in destroying the
predestination; and even as the Arminians in their       Reformed position on predestination, they would
second point taught universal atonement, so our          also have succeeded in destroying the  entire


102                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



Reformed position on the particularity and                              righteousness. But He has in no wise determined, by
sovereignty of grace. In this connection, it is also a                  virtue of an absolute decree, to give Christ, the Medi-
striking fact that their attacks against the Reformed                   ator, to the elect alone, and through an effectual call-
doctrine of predestination were invariably directed                     ing to bestow faith upon, to justify, to preserve in the
against the doctrine of reprobation, first of all. Why                  faith, and to glorify them alone.
was this? It was not because the doctrine of repro-                    But this becomes more clear from the opinions of
bation was the weak spot, the so-called Achilles'                    the Arminians regarding the atonement. In
heel, of the doctrine of predestination. It was be-                  language which leaves no doubt whether the  Ar-
cause the doctrine of sovereign reprobation is,                      minians see the connection between predestination
`more than anything else, offensive to proud, sinful                 and atonement, they write in their first proposition:
man, hateful to the flesh. And the Arminians saw                           The price of salvation, which Christ offered to God,
that they could by craft and subtlety make this doc-                     His Father, is not only in and by itself sufficient for
trine repulsive to men, make it stinking. At the                         the redemption of the whole human race, but was also
same time, they saw clearly what many fail to see                       paid for all and every man, according to the decree, the
or do not want to admit today, namely, that the                          will, and the grace of God the Father; and therefore no
doctrine of sovereign election stands or falls with                      one is definitely excluded from the communion of the
the doctrine of sovereign reprobation. For this                          benefits of the death of Christ  by an absolute and ante-
reason they never ceased to attack reprobation,                         cedent decree of God. (emphasis added)
thinking thereby to undermine the entire doctrine                      And in their fourth proposition concerning the
of predestination, and thinking that thus they                       doctrine of the atonement this becomes even more
would destroy the entire Reformed position on the                    clear, when the Arminians return to their favorite
doctrines of grace.                                                  tactic of misrepresenting and vilifying the doctrine
  This becomes very clear from the Arminians'                        of reprobation in order to destroy the doctrine of
own words.                                                           predestination. They write as follows:
  First of all, already in 1610, when they drew up                         Only those are obligated to believe that Christ has
their Five Articles, the Arminians made it explicitly                    died for them for whom Christ has indeed died. But
clear that their second article, on universal atone-                    the reprobate, as they are called, for whom Christ has
                                                                        not died, are not obligated to this faith, and can, by
ment, followed from their first, on conditional elec-                   reason of their contrary unbelief, not be justly con-
tion. For, having laid down the heresy of condition-                     demned; in fact, if there were such reprobates, they
al election in Article 1, they went on to introduce                     would be obligated to believe that Christ has not died
their second article with these words: "That,                           for them.
AGREEABLY THEREUNTO, Jesus Christ, the                                 Accordingly, the fathers at Dordrecht-not blind-
Saviour of the world, died for all men and for every                 ly and naively following the order set by the  Ar-
man...." (emphasis added)                                            minians, but fully aware of this relationship-set
  In the second place, this becomes very plain in                    forth the doctrine of the atonement in the Second
the written opinions which the Arminian defen-                       Head of Doctrine. Election and the atonement are
dants were required to submit to the Synod of Dor-                   inseparable. There is an intrinsic relationship
drecht. Already in their written opinions on the                     between the two. The atonement (not: atonement,
first point (predestination) we find the following                   in general; but:  the  atonement) is definite, particu-
significant statement about the atonement:                           lar, in its very nature. The heartbeat of sovereign
       5. God has ordained that Christ should be the atone-          election pulsates in the atonement. This is the truth
       ment for the sins of the whole world, and by virtue of        that is expressed in that classic expression of the
       this decree He has decided to justify and to save those       doctrine of the atonement, Article 8 of Canons II,
       who believe in Him, and to provide men with the               which begins in the words, "For this was the
       means necessary and sufficient unto faith, in such a          sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and
       way as He knows to be befitting of His wisdom and             purpose of God the Father.. . ."


                           The Satisfaction of the Cross
                                                         Rev. James Slopsema

  At the center of all that God has revealed  con-                   ten Son come in the flesh. And at the heart of it all
cerning Himself stands the cross. God has revealed                   stands the cross. It is through the cross that God
Himself in the Scriptures as the God of salvation.                   brings salvation.
This salvation is all in Jesus Christ, the only  begot-


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                            103



  Not all are agreed on the meaning of the cross.                 prove of the evil. So it is also with God. To maintain
Some say that Christ died on the cross merely to                  Himself as the God of all perfection and virtue He
serve as an example for mankind. Others say that                  must necessarily punish all that is of sin and evil
the death of Christ on the cross serves to demon-                 and bless all that is upright and good. This is God's
strate what God can and will do to man if he does                 justice.
not repent. Still others see the cross as being the                 The truth of God's justice is very clearly set forth
basis for God to alter the "conditions" for salva-                in Scripture. It was clearly revealed for example in
tion. Whereas before God required perfect obedi-                  the law given at Mt. Sinai. Concerning this law
ence to the law, now God is satisfied with the im-                Moses informs the Israelites (Deut.  11:26-28), "Be-
perfect obedience of faith. These ideas merely                    hold, I set before you this day a blessing and a
direct our attention away from the true meaning of                curse. A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of
the cross.                                                        the Lord your God, which I command you this day:
  The Scriptures teach that at the cross God was                  and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments
satisfying His own justice so that He might receive               of the Lord your God...." The justice of God is also
unto Himself the elect sinner. This truth is beauti-              expressed in Isaiah  3:10, 11 where God instructs
fully set forth in Lord's Days 5 and 6 of the Heidel-             the prophet, "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall
berg Catechism. It is also spelled out very clearly in            be well with them: for they shall eat the fruit of
the Canons of Dordt, Head II, Articles l-3, which                 their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill
we quote:                                                         with him: for the reward of his hand shall be given
     Article 1. God is not only supremely merciful, but           him". In these and many other passages of Holy
   also supremely just. And His justice requires (as He           Writ God reveals that He is a just God, rewarding
   hath revealed Himself in His Word], that our sins              the good with good and punishing the evil with
   committed against His infinite majesty should be pun-          evil.
   ished, not only with temporal, but with eternal pun-              The situation of man is that he is a sinner. He has
   ishment, both in body and soul; which we cannot es-            sinned against God originally in Adam; and he sins
   cape, unless satisfaction be made to the justice of God.       against God every day of his life. According to the
     Article 2. Since therefore we are unable to make             justice of God his sin must be punished. And there
   that satisfaction in our own persons, or to deliver our-       is no way around this. God is a God of perfect jus-
   selves from the wrath of God, He hath been pleased in
   His infinite mercy to give His only begotten Son, for          tice. He can not simply ignore man's sin and bless
   our surety, Who was made sin, and became a curse               him in his sin. This would require that God deny
   for us and in our stead, that He might make satisfac-          Himself. Nor can man appeal to God's mercy in the
   tion to divine justice on our behalf.                          hope that God's mercy will in some way negate
                                                                  God's justice. God is indeed merciful. He is filled
     Article 3. The death of the Son of God is the only
   and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin.. . .      with pity and compassion for His people in their
  A proper understanding of the cross obviously                   woe. And His chief desire is to deliver them and
involves a discussion of God's justice. God's justice             bless them. This however does not detract from the
may be defined as the virtue of God according to                  fact that God is just, and therefore will and must
which He always maintains Himself as the God of                   punish all sin.
all moral perfection and goodness. God does this in                  In light of all this it is possible for sinful man to
two ways-by rewarding the good with good and                      receive God's blessings only in the way of satisfac-
by punishing the evil with evil. Perhaps this can be              tion. The demands of God's justice must be met or
made clear through an illustration. When a child                  satisfied. This satisfaction of God's justice must be
walks disobediently he ought to be punished by his                made either by the sinner himself or by someone
parents. How~ever,  when that same child walks up-                else who does it for him. This satisfaction includes
rightly according to the wishes of the parents, he is             two elements. First, satisfaction requires that the
properly rewarded in some way. This is necessary                  full weight of God's wrath against sin be endured.
if the parents will maintain themselves before their              God's justice requires that God punish the sin of
children as being upright and virtuous. It takes                  man to the extreme. Hence, satisfaction requires
little wisdom to see that one can not on the one                  that either the sinner himself or someone in his-place
hand claim to be a person of uprightness and inte-                endure the full burden of God's wrath against his
grity and on the other hand punish the good or                    sin. God must pour out the vials of His holy wrath
reward the evil. By rewarding evil with good or                   upon the sin of man and only when that wrath is
punishing the good a person shows very clearly                    spent and God can say that He has punished man's
that he loves the evil and hates the good. He reveals             sin to the extreme can He ever bless the sinner.
that he himself is basically evil. For a person to                However, this is not enough. God's justice also re-
maintain himself as upright and morally good he                   quires of God that He bless man only when there is
must show his approval for the good and  disap-                   a perfect righteousness or obedience to the law. But


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this the sinner has not done. Insomuch as he has            But He is more than a man; He is also very God.
sinned he has fallen short of the perfect obedience         Hence, He is able to endure all the divine wrath
required of him. Hence, to receive God's blessing           against man's sins. Finally, He is perfectly
the sinner must either by himself or through                righteous so that He can fulfill all obedience and
another present God with a perfect obedience and            thus present man in perfect righteousness before
righteousness. This is the idea of satisfaction.            God.
Another way to God's blessing there is not for the            All these things Christ has accomplished as
fallen sinner.                                              Mediator of God's people. Upon Him has God
  The sinner is not able to make this satisfaction          poured out all the vials of His wrath. Under this
himself. The reasons are quite obvious. He is not           burden Christ lived all His life long. But especially
able to meet either demand of Gods justice. First,          at the cross did Christ endure the wrath of God
he is not able to bear away the full weight of God's        against sin. There all the horrors of hell were con-
wrath against his sin. To make satisfaction he must         centrated upon Him. In perfect love and obedience
not only endure God's wrath against his sin; he             to the Father He endured His suffering to the bitter
must endure aZZ of it. This is impossible for a mere        end. At the cross therefore He finished the wrath of
creature. It is certainly possible for the creature to      God against the sin of His people and fulfilled all
bear God's wrath. Many in fact shall do so in hell.         obedience on their behalf. Thus, He made satisfac-
But the wrath of God against sin is so great that           tion for their sins.
man can never bear all of it so as to finish it. That is      This is the truth of vicarious or substitutionary
why hell is forever. But there is another reason why        atonement. That this is the meaning of the cross is
man can not satisfy for his own sin. God's justice          evident from passages of Scripture. Evident it is
requires a perfect righteousness. To make satisfac-         from Isaiah  53:5, "But He was wounded for our
tion man would have to present God with a perfect           transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities:
obedience. This also is impossible for him to do.           the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and
For man is by nature totally depraved. He is totally        with His stripes we are healed." This is the teach-
incapable of doing any good; he is inclined to all          ing also of I Peter  3:18, "For Christ also hath suf-
evil. Hence, man can never make satisfaction for            fered for sins, the just for (literally: in the place of)
his own sin so as to receive God's blessing.                the unjust, that He might bring us to God".
  Fallen man stands in need of a Mediator, a Sub-             What a blessing is the cross! All those for whom
stitute, One Who can make this satisfaction for him.        Christ suffered and died are free forever from the
God in His mercy has provided such a Mediator-              punishment of sin. Christ has borne it all away. And
His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Cer-          in Christ they stand before God in perfect righ-
tainly Christ has all the qualifications to make satis-     teousness. God according to His justice must and
faction for man. He Himself is a man and therefore          will bless them eternally with His glory. Blessed are
can properly bear the punishment for man's sin.             the people that stand in the shadow of the cross.


                       Calvary and Reconciliation
                                                  Rev. H. Veldman


  The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the           reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
cross of Calvary is an atoning sacrifice. This means        their trespasses unto them; and hath committed
that this sacrifice is the sacrifice of reconciliation      unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we
And this means that this sacrifice of Calvary effect-       are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did be-
ed reconciliation. Reconciliation was wrought by            seech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be
the cross of Calvary; it became a fact upon that            ye reconciled to God." Here we read that God has
cross.                                                      reconciled us to Himself, and that God was in
  That the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is this           Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Notice,
sacrifice of reconciliation is Scriptural. Notice what      please, that in this text this reconciliation is abso-
we read in 2 Corinthians  5:18-20:  "And all things         lutely one-sided. How thoroughly Scriptural this is!
are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by            God redeems us, not He and we; God came to us in
Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of          Christ, we did not go to Him; God came to us in
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ,             Christ, seeking to save the lost, we did not seek


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               105



Him. Everything proceeds  - from God! God                  cise a relationship of love with His people. He can-
reconciled us. We never read in Scripture that God         not exercise friendship with them. He cannot walk
is reconciled, that we do the reconciling. God is          with them, have them taste and experience His love
never the object of this reconciliation, always its        and friendship. Thirdly, this reconciliation implies
Subject; we are never the subjects of reconciliation,      that this relationship of friendship has been re-
always its objects. God reconciles, never we; we           stored. Reconciliation is a legal concept. It refers to
are reconciled, God never. And when we read in             our status, our legal relation to the law of God. Our
verse 20: "be ye reconciled to God," we do not             legal relation to the law is either that of guilt or of
read: "become ye reconciled." We were reconciled           innocence. We are legally either objects of the
by God in Christ upon the cross of Calvary. But we         wrath of God or of His love and favor. To be legally
do read: "be ye reconciled." And what the apostle          objects of divine wrath means that the law de-
is emphasizing is that, having been reconciled, be         mands of us that we suffer His wrath; to be legally
ye reconciled, walk now as reconciled, even as we          objects of His love implies that we are legally en-
would address an estranged couple, having been             titled to His love and favor. Now reconciliation im-
reconciled: having been reconciled, walk and               plies a change in the legal status, our legal relation
conduct yourselves now as reconciled.                      to the law of God. Hence, we define reconciliation
                                                           as that act of God whereby He changes the state of
  What is reconciliation? In this article we must be       the sinner from one of guilt, in which he is the
brief. Reconciliation is, first of all a covenant          proper object of God's wrath, into one of righteous-
concept. Reconciliation implies a relationship. We         ness in which he is the object of God's love and
do not reconcile strangers. We reconcile a husband         favor. And now God is the Reconciler. We may
and his wife, parents and children, employers and          never present the matter as if God were the one
employees, teachers and pupils, friends. Spiritual-        who is reconciled and as if Christ steps between
ly, God and His people are reconciled. With respect        God and man to reconcile the former. Scripture
to this divine reconciliation, the relationship that is    never speaks of God and the sinner as being mutu-
presupposed here is the eternal covenant relation-         ally reconciled. The cross of Calvary has effected
ship between God and His people. Secondly, recon-          this reconciliation. Calvary lays the basis for the re-
ciliation implies that this relationship has been dis-     storing of God's fellowship with His people. Now
turbed, that it cannot function. It has not been           the Lord can change the rebellious hearts of His
broken. One does not speak of reconciliation               elect children, regenerate them and call them out of
between a husband and a wife who have been di-             darkness of sin into His marvelous light, and once
vorced. A divorce terminates, breaks the relation-         more enter with them into a relationship of friend-
ship. Of course, this is true only as far as the hus-      ship. Only, however, now this relationship with
band and wife are concerned. They have                     them can never again be disturbed. God, in Christ,
terminated their relationship of marriage. As far as       has merited for His own everlasting life and glory,
God is concerned, their relationship as husband            inasmuch as this relationship has been restored and
and wife continues. This is the reason why di-             perfected through and in Immanuel, Jesus, God
vorced persons may never remarry as long as death          with us.
does not terminate their marriage. Now reconcilia-
tion implies that this relationship, although not            What, now is the distinctive feature of the cross
broken, has been disturbed. It cannot function.            of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is in this connection that
Applied spiritually to the covenant relationship be-       we call attention to the fact that there have been set
tween God and His people, reconciliation implies           forth several theories of the suffering of our Lord
that this relationship has been disturbed. It cannot       Jesus Christ. These theories are the moral theory,
function. To be sure, the sinner has broken it. The        the governmental theory, and the mystical theory.
sinner has turned his back upon God. The sinner            Time and space forbid me to discuss these theories
has adopted another relationship, a relationship           in detail. The moral theory advocates that the sacri-
with the devil. He has allied himself with the devil.      fice of our Lord Jesus Christ exerts a moral influ-
But, as far as God is concerned, this relationship         ence upon the sinner. The love of God as  revealed
has not been broken. His relationship with them is         in Christ upon the cross would influence the sinner
an eternal relationship. God continues to be the           to love God even as God has loved him. The gov-
God of His people. He continues to love them for           ernmental theory emphasizes that the cross of Cal-
Jesus' sake. This is the only possible basis for our       vary reveals the righteousness of God. If the sinner
salvation. God was in Christ reconciling the world         concedes this righteousness of God, if he recognizes
unto Himself. God so loved the world that He gave          what God could have done to him had it pleased
His only begotten Son. However, because of our sin         the Lord to punish him for his sin even as He pun-
this covenant relationship has been disturbed. It          ished Christ, if he confesses to God his sin and ini-
cannot function or operate. The Lord cannot exer-          quity he will be saved. And the mystical theory,


106                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



too, denies that the death of Christ is that of a sub-      that the cross of Calvary is efficacious because we
stitute. Upon the cross Christ actually bore our sin-       believe, but we believe because of the power of the
ful nature and delivered it up unto death. Upon the         cross. The theories mentioned above simply
cross our sinful nature died spiritually. And in the        present salvation as resting in and dependent upon
resurrection He arose with a new and glorified              the free will of the sinner. Calvary, however, is the
human nature, wholly free from sin and death. And           sacrifice of reconciliation. Calvary presents to us
if by faith we become mystically one with Christ,           the fact of redemption and salvation.
Who led to death and buried our sinful nature, and            Indeed, how Scriptural this is! Indeed, the  Ar-
Who arose in glory and righteousness, we, too, are          minian view, advocating the sovereignly free will
delivered from sin and partake of the glory of His          of the sinner (and may we ever bear in mind that
resurrection by virtue of this mystical union. Now          there are really only two possible views of salva-
it cannot be denied that there is an element of truth       tion: salvation is either rooted in the sovereign will
in this mystical theory. It is surely true that by          of our God or it is rooted in the will of the sinner),
grace we become one plant with Christ, so that our          wants nothing to do with the sacrifice of Calvary as
old nature is crucified with Him, and with Him we           an atoning sacrifice. Fact is, the Arminians dis-
are also raised in newness of life. It is also surely       carded the very term atonement, and advocated at
true that we are crucified with Christ and are raised       the time of the synod of Dordrecht the theory that
with Him and are set with Him in heavenly places.           Christ upon the cross simply merited for the Father
It is surely true that, upon the cross of Calvary, our      the right to renegotiate with the sinner to save him
sinful nature was condemned and that sin was for-           provided that he believe. But how contrary this is
ever denied its right to reign over us. And this is         to Scripture's presentation of the cross of our Lord
most emphatically true. But we must always bear             Jesus Christ. We have already called attention to
in mind and never overlook the fact that the Word           the fact that Scripture speaks of Calvary's sacrifice
of God always presents this power of deliverance            as the sacrifice of reconciliation. Then, there are all
from the dominion and defilement of sin as the              the sacrifices of the Old Dispensation which were
fruit of the cross, never as the ground of our recon-       expiatory, a propitiation, or covering for the sins of
ciliation and justification. That our sinful nature         God's people. This covering did not simply cover
was condemned upon the cross, crucified with                their sin, but covered those sins as a blotter, taking
Christ, is only because of the substitutionary char-        them up into itself and blotting them out before the
acter of His atoning sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ       face of God. And, finally, we may also call attention
suffered and died for His own, His elect own, as the        to the fact that Scripture speaks of the cross as re-
divinely appointed Substitute, He deprived sin of           demption. The word redemption means that the
its right to rule, and merited for us everlasting life      people of God were bought with a price, the price
and glory. This we may and must never overlook.             of the blood of the only begotten Son of God. They
  We now repeat the question: what is now the dis-          were purchased out of the power of sin and of the
tinctive feature of the sacrifice of Calvary? The           devil and bought with the price of the blood of the
answer is obvious: the cross of our Lord Jesus              Son of God to be the people of God and of His cove-
Christ is the atoning sacrifice, the sacrifice of recon-    nant even forevermore. Indeed, well may the
ciliation. The theories of the cross, mentioned in          church of God throughout the ages sing: "In the
the preceding paragraph, have one thing in                  cross of Christ we glory." We are saved, actually re-
common: they deny that the death of Christ is the           deemed and saved at the cross, through the blood
death of a substitute. They transfer the salvation of       of the Lamb of God and of the Son of God. Then
a sinner from the cross to the sinner's sovereignly         our redemption and salvation became a fact. All
free will. We are saved, not because of the cross of        that follows through the grace and Spirit of God is
Christ, but because of our faith. Now it is true, of        the fruit of Calvary. May we as churches never
course, that we are saved by faith. This is surely          deny this saving, redeeming, and efficacious power
Scriptural. However, we are saved by faith because          of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Resting in
of the cross of Christ Jesus, our Lord. It is not so,       Him, our salvation is forever sure.


                 The Perfection of Christ's Death
                                                 Rev. Ronald Hanko


  The subject of "Limited" or "Definite"  Atone-            Points of Calvinism. The differences between the
ment is often the most controversial of the Five            Calvinist and the Arminian, even on the subject of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             107



oredestination come into sharpest focus at this  '        therefore when Christ provides redemntion from
point. Even many so-called Calvinists, who agree          sin He gives us peace with God. The ideiof a gener-
with us on the doctrine of sovereign, unconditional,      al atonement clearly contradicts this for it teaches
double predestination, will disagree violently with       that although Christ died for every man, yet there
us when we teach that Christ did not die for all, but     are many who are not eternally "at one" with the
for a "definite" or "limited" number of persons.          Father.
They claim that Christ Himself did not teach defi-          The Arminian does this with all the words that
nite atonement, and they attempt, though rather in-       Scripture uses in connection with the death of
consistently, to be "Four-Point Calvinists," differ-      Christ: redemption, propitiation, ransom, satis-
ing from historic Calvinism at this point only.           faction, forgiveness, etc. Though he may use these
  In a certain sense, of course, even the Arminian        words, nonetheless he turns them on their heads
teaches a "limited" atonement, or at least a              and empties them of all their meaning. The word
"limited" salvation. He, too, believes that some          satisfaction is another good example. It is a word
only are brought to heaven and enjoy the eternal          which is used in all three of our creeds, and which
bliss of the saints. Universalism teaches both that       Scripture also used (Isaiah 53:ll). The word means
Christ died for all men, and that all men are actual-     "to do enough" and when we say that Christ's
ly and finally saved. But there are few, even among       death provides satisfaction we mean that Christ
the opponents of definite atonement who are will-         "did enough" to fulfill the demands of God's law
ing to go to this extreme in their teaching. They         for us, to deliver us from the curse of the law, and
teach that Christ died for all men, but that not all      to obtain for us righteousness and eternal  lie.
men are actually saved.                                   About the work of Christ the Arminian says, "not
  There are, then, two points at which the oppo-          enough." Christ cannot have satisfied, for there are
nents of definite atonement are at odds with us.          many who do not obtain eternal life, though
They differ first of all with regard to the "limita-      Christ's blood was shed for them.
tion." We believe that the atonement is limited by          There are then only two alternatives: either
the will and good pleasure of the Father and that         Christ saves those for whom He dies or Christ is not
Christ died only for those whom the Father gave           a Saviour. But, if Christ is not a Saviour, then the
Him, that is, for the elect (Canons II, 8). The Armin-    angel lied to Joseph and to the church of all ages
ian teaches that, from the viewpoint of God's inten-      when he announced the birth of Jesus with the
tion, the atonement is unlimited, that it was the         words, "He shall be called Jesus for  He  shaZZ save
good pleasure and will of the Father that Christ die      His people from their sins." Yea, the very name
for all men. Nor does he believe that atonement is        that God gives Him is a lie, for His work does not
limited by the cross; Christ gave His life as a ran-      measure up to the glorious name "Saviour" which
som for every man, without exception. Rather, the         is given Him by God.
opponents of definite atonement believe that it is          That correspondence between Christ's work and
the will of man which limits the atonement. Christ        its fruit is also taught in Luke  19:lO where Jesus
died for all, but the sinner's response to the work of    says, "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to
Christ determines whether or not he shall be saved.       save that which was lost." Notice here that those
  This is, obviously, a key point. If God's good          whom He seeks and those whom He saves are the
pleasure is limited by the will of the sinner, and if     very same persons. He does not seek all the lost and
God's will is frustrated by the decision of the sin-      save some. He seeks and saves the lost. And that
ner, then not God but the sinner is sovereign in sal-     the lost and the elect are the same limited number
vation. That certainly is a notion that the Calvinist     of persons whom Jesus seeks and saves is evident
abominates, especially when he reads in the Scrip-        from John 6:37: "All that the Father giveth Me shall
tures that God's counsel stands and that He does al       come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no
His good pleasure (Is. 46:lO). God is sovereign also      wise cast out"; and from Matthew  9:12, 13, where
at the cross.                                             Jesus teaches that "the lost" are those who by the
  Nevertheless, we must see that those who                grace of God know their lost estate. His seeking cor-
oppose the idea of "definite" atonement deny not          responds to God's choosing, and His saving is in
only the sovereignty of God in salvation, but also        perfect harmony with the Father's "drawing" so
the perfection of Christ's work on the cross. They        that in the end Jesus can say, "those that Thou
have an entirely different view of the nature of the      gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost."
work of Christ. They deny that the atonement is           And this He says, as it were, in the very shadow of
limited, but they also deny that it is "atonement."       the cross (John 17:ll).
The Calvinist believes that through the work of             Our creeds also teach the truth of limited or defi-
Christ he is "at.one" with God. Isaiah says that it is    nite atonement-Lord's Day VII, 20, of the Heidel-
our sins which separate us from God  (59:2) and           berg Catechism; the Belgic Confession, XVI, XXII;


108                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



Canons II, 8. Nevertheless, in connection with the         important fruit or benefit thereby gained (the bene-
error of a general atonement, there are those who          fit of satisfaction for sin)." Thus too the Fathers
lay hold of Canons II, 3 in a desperate attempt to         said that the error of the Arminians was "out of
prove their doctrine. This article of the Canons           hell." And what a terrible thing it is when the judg-
reads:                                                     ment of hell concerning the death of Christ is
          The death of the Son of God is the only          taught in the church. The Heidelberg Catechism
       and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction         says,
       for sin; and is of infinite worth and value,                 Though they boast of Him in words, yet
       abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of            in deeds they deny Jesus the only Deliverer
       the whole world.                                        and Saviour; for one of two things must be
We may notice, first of all, in connection with this           true, that either Jesus is not a complete
article that whatever it says, it does not teach a             Saviour; or that they, who by a true faith
general atonement. It does not say that the sacrifice          receive this Saviour, must find in Him all
of the Son of God actually does expiate for the sins           things necessary to their salvation. (Lord's
of the whole world. It does not even say that it was           Day XI, 30).
God's intention that it should so expiate for all.         So also this doctrine of a general atonement "tends
Then Canons II, 3 would contradict Canons II, 8            to the despising of the wisdom of the Father
which says:                                                (Canons II, B, 1)" Who gave His only begotten Son
         For this was the sovereign counsel, and           on the mere chance that some might be saved
    most gracious will and purpose of God the              through His bitter suffering and death.
    Father, that the quickening and saving effi-             And how clearly do the "deeds" of the  Arrnin-
    cacy of the most precious death of His son             ians show that they deny the perfection of Christ's
    should extend to all the elect . . . that is, it       work. The preaching of the Arminian degenerates
    was the will of God, that Christ by the blood          into mere begging-the minister begging those who
    of the cross . . . should effectually redeem           hear to exercise their will and come to Jesus Who
    out of every people, tribe, nation, and lan-           has a wonderful plan for their lives, if only they
    guage, all those, and those only, who were             will accept Him. In his mission work, he goes not
    from eternity chosen to salvation, and given           where and when a sovereign God sends, in the con-
    to Him by the Father . . .                             fidence that according to the good pleasure of God
Article 3 does not contradict this, but simply             that sending shall bear fruit, but he scurries hither
attempts to show what Article 6 teaches, that,             and thither desperately trying to bring his "gospel"
"whereas many who are called by the gospel, do             to all, that all may have their chance to profit from
not repent, nor believe in Christ, but perish in un-       Christ. In all his preaching and teaching he slanders
belief; this is not owing to any defect or insufficien-    the Son of God and blasphemes the name of Jeho-
cy in the sacrifice offered by Christ upon the             vah.
cross. . .  ."                                               The atonement is perfect because God Himself is
   The Arminian argument at the Synod of Dort was          perfect. We may be sure that He will not allow the
that the doctrine of definite atonement limits the         costly death of His Son to be a failure, nor His pre-
value of Christ's death. The Canons teach in Article       cious blood to be shed in vain.
3 and in Article 4 that the death of Christ is very          It may sound sweet to sinful ears to proclaim and
precious, but that this value of the death of Christ is    teach a general atonement, but such teaching de-
not determined by the number of those who profit           stroys the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
from His death, but by the fact that it was "the           Gospel of the glory of God. So also it destroys the
death of the Son of God," and that "it was attended        comfort that we have in the cross, for we believe
with a sense of wrath and curse of God due to us for       that the blood of Jesus is the only thing that stands
sin" (Canons II, 4).                                       between us and eternal fire; and if the blood of
   Really, it is the Arminian doctrine of universal        Jesus is not sufficient to save me from the fire, then
atonement which denies the value of the death of           what in all the world is? May we with the Apostle
Christ. For, according to this error, the blood of         Paul determine that we shall know nothing else in
Christ was shed in vain for many, and certainly            the church but Christ, the Son of God, crucified as
then is not all that valuable to those who are saved       a full atonement for the sins of those who were
for it is not the only ground and foundation of their      given Him by the Father.
salvation. The Canons point this out in II, B, 3
where the Fathers say that not they but the Armin-                     Take time to read
ians "judge too contemptuously of the death of                       The Standard Bearer
Christ, and do in no wise acknowledge the most


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                109



               Arminianism and the Atonement
                                               Rev. Steven Houck


  If sovereign, unconditional election disturbs the        will live, and all who are living now. Christ died for
Arminian, it stands to reason that the Calvinistic         all. He died fo,r the unbeliever, who will spend eter-
doctrine of the atonement will likewise greatly            nity in hell, just as much as He died for the believer
upset him. In fact, anyone who has ever had any            who will forever be with God in heaven.
dealings with these people will know that there is           That, however, creates a tremendous problem
nothing that so enrages the Arminian as the doc-           for the Arminian. For if Christ died for all and that
trine of definite atonement. When you tell him that        death is the means of salvation, then all mankind
Christ died, not for the whole world, but for a very       must be saved. But that can not be. Obviously,
specific and select group of people, he can hardly         there are many who are not saved. The Arminian,
contain his wrath. When you add to that the fact           however, has a very simple solution to that prob-
that this limited atonement is in perfect harmony          lem. Christ did not die actually to secure salvation.
with God's good-pleasure and even His love, the            He died merely to make salvation possible. That
rage of the Arminian knows no bounds. Even to              Christ shed His precious blood for all does not
suggest that God loves only the elect and therefore        mean that all are automatically saved. It means
sent Christ to die for only the elect is to declare war    only that all now have the possibility of salvation.
on one of the fundamental principles of his "faith."       Christ did not merit actual salvation. He merely re-
  To the Arminian, our doctrine of limited atone-          moved certain obstacles, so that man, if he wants,
ment is a most horrible doctrine that is contrary to       can have salvation by meeting the prescribed con-
the Scriptures and even abhorrent to God Himself.          dition of faith and repentance.
For they accuse us of limiting the meritorious work          For they tell us that, in the death of Christ for all
of Christ on the cross. They tell us that we make the      men, God is given the authority to save those that
cross of Christ insufficient for the salvation of the      come to Him by faith. In the cross the guilt of origi-
world. We belittle and under-value the precious            nal sin was taken away so that no one is worthy of
blood of Christ when we deny that He died for all          condemnation on account of that guilt. In fact,
mankind. We make God some kind of a monster                some go so far as to say that the death of Christ
Who is unfair and cruel in His dealings with man.          actually took away all the sins of every man, so that
  But is that true? Are we, who uphold the doctrine        God, in perfect righteousness, can save anyone.
of definite atonement, the ones who limit the value        They make one exception however. The cross does
of the cross? Are we the ones who destroy the              not remove the sin of unbelief. That is the one un-
power of His grace as manifested in the death of           pardonable sin. No one will ever go to hell because
Christ? Indeed the positions of the Arminian and           he rejects Christ. All other sins have been removed
the Calvinist are so contrary to one another that it is    by the cross. Thus God is free to save anyone as
impossible for both to be right. Someone has turned        long as he by faith accepts Christ as his Savior. In
the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ into the lie of    Christ, God has provided salvation for all. It is now
the devil. The question is, "Who?"                         up to man to make that possibility a reality. Thanks
  A careful evaluation of the Arminian position            to the cross, it is no longer a question of sin; it is a
will demonstrate very vividly that the destroyer of        question of faith in Christ.
the Biblical doctrine of the atonement is not the            All of this might sound very nice and good to the
Calvinist at all, but the Arminians themselves, the        majority of those who call themselves Christians;
very ones who point the accusing finger at us.             but we dare not be fooled. This Arminian view of
  The fundamental principle of the Arminian doc-           the atonement comes from the very pit of hell itself.
trine of the atonement is that Christ died on the          In reality it destroys the true doctrine of the atone-
cross for all mankind. The atonement is general and        ment and makes salvation utterly impossible.
universal in its scope.                                      It destroys the atonement as a substitutionary
  Does not Jesus Himself tell us, "For God so loved        satisfaction. The Scriptures teach us that when
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that         Christ died, He took the place of a very definite
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but          group of people. He bore the wrath of God against
have everlasting life"? God loved the whole world          the sin of His people, in the place of His people. In
and therefore sent Christ to die for all mankind.          that way He satisfied the justice of God on behalf of
The cross is so broad in its scope that it includes        us. God says that the sinner must die; but Christ
everyone who has ever lived, everyone who ever             died in our place. Thus the apostle Peter refers to


110                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



Christ as the One, "Who His own self bare our sins        also loved the church, and gave Himself for it"
in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to       (Eph.  5:25). Christ loved His Church and gave His
sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose            life for it. He did not die for all mankind. He died
stripes ye were healed" (I Pet.  2:24). Christ is the     for a definite and particular group, namely, for
substitute Who satisfied God's justice with respect       those whom the Father had given Him from before
to the sin of His people.                                 the foundation of the world (John 17:9).
  But the general, universal atonement of the  Ar-           For it is the elect and the elect alone that Christ
minian can not possibly be this kind of atonement.        purposed to save and does actually save, so that not
For if Christ's death truly is a substitution which       a single one of those for whom He died will ever
satisfies the justice of God, then all those for whom     perish (John 6:38-39). He did not come to make sal-
Christ died must be saved. If Christ actually died        vation possible. He came to save. The angel an-
for all men, then their sins, including the sin of        nounced to Joseph, "Thou shalt call His name
unbelief, have indeed been taken away. There is no        Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins"
Scriptural ground whatsoever for making unbelief          (Matt.  1:21). This is exactly what Jesus Himself
a special sin and excluding it from the cross. If the     said, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to
sin of unbelief is not paid for on the cross, then no     save that which was lost" (Luke  19:lO).  Jesus did
one will ever be saved. For even a true Christian's       not come to make it possible for the lost to be
faith is very imperfect and tainted with sin. That        saved. He came to save the lost. To that fact also the
imperfect faith alone would be all that is needed to      apostle Peter testifies when he says, "For Christ
send us to hell. No, if Christ actually became the        also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un-
substitutionary sacrifice for all, then all must be       just, that He might bring us to God" (I Pet.  3:18).
saved.                                                    Notice, he did not say, "that He might make it pos-
  The Arminians of old recognized this fact and           sible for us to be brought to God." He said, "that
therefore openly rejected substitutionary atone-          He might bring us to God"-actually bring us to
ment. They believed what we call the governmental         God. This is the teaching of Scripture throughout.
theory of the atonement. Christ's death was only an       Christ came actually to secure the salvation of His
example of what God could do to us if He wanted           people.
to. It was no substitution and it was not needed to         Thus the Arminian doctrine of the atonement is
satisfy God's justice. Christ did not have to die for     an abomination to the Lord. It is the lie of the devil.
our sin in order that we might be saved. His death        For it is nothing more than work righteousness. To
was merely an object lesson. It teaches us that God       them, the death of Christ is not even the critical
is a moral governor who will not pardon the sinner        thing. It is not His death that saves (that only makes
without a display of His displeasure.                     salvation possible); it is man's faith that saves. For
                                                          that is what makes the difference between heaven
  It is true that most Arminians today reject this        and hell. All share the death of Christ in common,
governmental theory and claim to believe whole-           but the one who exercises his free will and believes,
heartedly in substitutionary atonement. Neverthe-         that one alone is saved. Salvation, then, becomes
less, as we have demonstrated, their view of the          man's work. No wonder our fathers refer to this
atonement is of necessity inconsistent with substi-       doctrine of the Arminians as "the Pelagian error
tutionary atonement. You simply can not believe           brought again out of hell."
that the cross merely makes salvation possible and
still believe in substitutionary atonement. If              We Calvinists are not the ones who belittle and
Christ's death only makes salvation possible, then        undervalue the death of Christ. It is rather the  Ar-
the shedding of His precious blood did not blot out       minians. For they have such a low view of the
a single sin. The cross either took away sin or it did    atonement, that it is not even sufficient to save a
not. There is no other alternative, if His death was      single soul. And whose god is a monster? Is it not
indeed a substitutionary death.                           the god of the Arminians? For he is so cruel that he
  That is why we Calvinists insist that the atone-        makes our salvation utterly impossible. And not only
ment was both definite and particular. Christ died        is he cruel, but also weak and impotent, for his grace
for a very select group of people-His elect church.       can keep no one from hell, if men are unwilling.
This is the doctrine of the Scriptures. Jesus says, "I      How thankful we ought to be that this god is not
am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd giveth            our God. Our God, the true God, not only purposes
His life for the sheep" (John  1O:ll). Notice, Jesus      the salvation of His beloved people, but He actually
does not say, "for the sheep and the goats." No,          does save us through Jesus Christ. For His death is
only the sheep were in His heart when He suffered         an effectual power that surely brings us to God. As
all the agonies of hell for us. We learn the same         the prophet says, "He shall see His seed...He shall
thing from the apostle Paul's exhortation to hus-         see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied"
bands, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ         (Isa. 53:10-11).


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            111



                   Amyraldianism, the Marrow,
                                arnd the Atonement
                                                  Prof. H. Hanko


  Questions have repeatedly been raised, since the         AMYRALDIANSIM
time of the Calvin Reformation, whether or not the            Moise Amyraut (1596-1664) was the founder of
truth of particular        atonement or         limited    the Amyraldian School of thought. It is evident
redemption belongs to true Calvinism; whether              from his dates that he was a contemporary of the
Calvin himself actually taught this truth; and             Synod of Dordt, and it is evident from the date of
whether the true line of Calvin's teachings is to be       his major treatise, "Treatise on Predestination"
traced through those who held to this doctrine.            (1634) that he wrote with the teaching of the Synod
There are so-called Four Point Calvinists today who        of Dordt in mind.
maintain all the well-known five points except the
doctrine of particular atonement. And there have              His teacher, John Cameron, who taught in the
been those throughout post-Reformation times who           school of Saumur in France, was convinced that
have taught, in one form or another, a universal           Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor in the Academy
atonement.                                                 in Geneva, was in large measure responsible for the
                                                           shift to scholastic theology which characterized
  Among the latter are to be found the  Amyraldi-          Protestant thought everywhere but in France. He
ans and the Marrow men, both of whom claimed to            claimed therefore that he was interested in recap-
be followers of the teachings of Calvin, but both of       turing Calvin's true thought and restoring Calvinism
whom taught also a universal atonement in some             to its pristine purity. Interestingly enough, he de-
sense of the word. It is the purpose of this article to    veloped his ideas on the basis of a covenant concep-
explain briefly the teachings of these two groups on       tion according to which he taught that God had es-
the question of the extent of the atonement.               tablished a two-fold covenant: an absolute cove-
  Before we take a close look at the views of these        nant which was unconditional and which was
schools of thought, it would be worth our while to         rooted in antecedent love, and a hypothetical cove-
notice that in both instances a certain universality       nant which was dependent upon man's condition
of the atonement was taught, especially in connec-         of love. This latter covenant was the only important
tion with the free ofer of the gospel. We do not have      one because it was the covenant of revelation and
the space in this short article to trace the relation      of our experience.
between these two views in detail, but it is worth            Following this line, Amyraut taught that the
pointing out that it was really the question of the        hypothetical covenant embraced all mankind as
free offer in both instances which prompted the            one of the contracting parties. The promise of the
men of these two schools to teach certain universal        covenant was eternal life, but this promise was de-
aspects of the atonement. This is striking and signif-     pendent for its fulfillment upon the condition of
icant because it relates the issues of these two           faith.
schools to more contemporary thought in both
Presbyterian and Reformed circles and relates                 In connection with this view of the covenant,
these issues to the issues which stand at the basis of     according to Amyraut, stood the decree of predesti-
our own existence as Protestant Reformed                   nation, a decree which involved a twofold will of
Churches. The free offer of the gospel was an issue         God: a particular and unconditional will of God to
in the "common grace" controversy in 1924 which             save only the elect, and a universal and conditional
led to the beginning of the Protestant Reformed            will of God to save all men. These two wills of God
Churches, and, while the question of the extent of          are irreconcilable and are part of the hidden mys-
the atonement was not an immediate issue in 1924,          tery which we may not presume to try to under-
it did become an issue in the history of the Chris-         stand. Once again it is this latter will of God with
tian Reformed Church in the 1960s. It became an             which we have to do because it is a part of God's
issue because, holding to the free offer, the Chris-        providence, a part of what is really "new counsels"
tian Reformed Church could not escape the                   of God which He made because of the fall. It is
question of the extent of the atonement. In the '60s        according to this will that God desires the salvation
the CRC in fact put its stamp of approval on the            of all men.
doctrine of a certain universality of the atonement.          He makes this clear in his "Treatise on Predesti-
  With these preliminary remarks, we turn to a dis-         nation."
cussion of these two individual schools of thought.                  These words, "God wills the salvation of all men,"


112                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



       necessarily meet with this limitation, "provided that                 which he exercises towards us as His creatures fallen
       they believe." If they do not believe, He does not will               into destruction, in which we are all equal; the grace of
       it, this will of making the grace of salvation universal              redemption, which He has procured for us and offers to us
       and common to all men being in such a way condi-                      should be equal and universal,  provided we are equally
       tional that without the accomplishment of the condi-                  disposed to its reception. (Underscoring mine, HH.)
       tional it is completely inefficacious.                               Thus objective grace and an offer of pardon to all
         God (so) wills all men to be saved, that He invites         was earned on the cross by a universal atonement.
       them to repent, that He extends His arms to them,             The reception of such grace was dependent upon
       that He goes before them and calls them with a lively         the condition of faith.
       voice.
   As is true with everyone who desires to teach a                          Amyraut was the first to set forth clearly the idea
universal desire of God to save all men, Amyraut                     of an offer of salvation and root that offer in the
also faced the question of the relation between this                 universal sacrifice of Jesus Christ-even though he
desire to save all and the atoning sacrifice of Christ               limited that universality to intent and scope.
on the cross. How can God desire to save all unless                  THE MARROW
in some sense He sent Christ to save all? To answer                         It is difficult to understand the Marrow contro-
this objection, Amyraut taught that the atonement                    versy unless one understands also that there was a
is universal in intention and scope. That is, the                    history of Arminianism present in the Churches of
atonement is not only sufficient for all, its intention              England almost from the beginning of the Reforma-
is also to save all upon condition of faith, and its                 tion. Arminianism appeared already in England in
scope embraces all-once again, upon condition of                     the latter part of the sixteenth century and was the
faith. The grace merited by the cross was a grace                    occasion for the Lambeth Artides which were added
which was objectively for all, but was subjectively                  to the "Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of
given only on condition of faith.                                    England," the official Creed of the Anglican
   Closely connected to this stands Amyraut's                        Church.
conception of the free offer of the gospel. God's                           Davenant, who was present at the Synod of
universal will to save all is expressed in the gospel                Dordt as a delegate from England and whose party
as an offer. The external call speaks of a sufficiency               was represented at the Westminster Assembly, was
of salvation for all and of an objective grace for all               basically an Amyraldian. In his efforts to find some
which will be subjectively applied only upon condi-                  sort of `middle way between Arminianism and
tion of faith.                                                       Supralapsarianism, he too held to a hypothetical
  In his defense before the Synod of Alencon,                        universalism, a general atonement in the sense of
which Synod tried him for heresy and exonerated                      sufficiency and intent, a common blessing of the
him, he said:                                                        cross for all, and a conditional salvation.
         So that those who are called by the preaching of the          While his views were never adopted by the
       Gospel to participate by faith in the effects and fruits      Westminster divines nor by the church of his day
       of His death, being invited seriously, and God vouch-         either in England or in Scotland, nevertheless there
       safing them all external means needful for their              were always those who maintained them more or
       coming to Him, and showing them in good earnest,              less, and the thought which Davenant represented
       and with the greatest sincerity by His Word, what             continued to live within the church. It was this
       would be well-pleasing to Him; if they should not             which gave rise to the so-called Marrow controver-
       believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but perish in their ob-
       stinacy and unbelief; this cometh not from any defect         SY*
       of virtue or sufficiency in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ,      As a sidelight to this whole matter, it is interest-
   nor yet for want of summons or serious invitations                ing to note that Richard Baxter was a close follower
   unto faith and repentance, but only from their own                of Davenant and wrote in support of an Amyraldi-
   fault.                                                            an position. He was answered in an important book
  In his discussion of the atonement, F.  Turretin                   written by John Owen and entitled, "The Death of
says, with reference to the teachings of Amyraut:                    Death in the Death of Christ." This book is a com-
                                                                     plete and excellent refutation of every attempt to
         Some of our ministers teach "that by Christ's atone-
   ment a new covenant was established with all, their               make the atonement universal in every sense of the
       salvation rendered possible, and an offer made to             word. J.I. Packer is correct when, in his introduc-
   them in the Gospel." (The quote is from the writings              tion to the 1959 edition of John Owen's book, he re-
   of Testardus, a disciple of Amyraut.)                             marks that the arguments of the book have not to
  Turretin further quotes Amyraut as saying:                         this day been answered.
         Since the misery of the human family is equal and             The "Marrow Controversy" arose in connection
   universal, and the desire which God has to free them              with the treatment of the so-called Auchterarder
   from it by a Redeemer, proceeds from the mercy                    Creed by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          113



Church of Scotland. We cannot go into the details         presses it:
of this history in this article, but it was during the          That though none cordially close with God in Christ
discussion of this "Creed" on the  floor  of the             Jesus, and acquiesces in that ransom found out by
Assembly that Thomas Boston whispered to James                God, except only such as are elected, and whose heart
Hog that he had read a book which spoke to the                the Lord doth sovereignly determine to that blessed
very issues being discussed. The title of this book           choice, yet the Lord has left it as a duty upon people
was, "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," a book                  who hear His Gospel to close with His offer of salva-
published earlier by Edward Fisher.                           tion, as if it were in their power to do it.
  The result was that James Hog became responsi-            In defense of this position the Marrow men had,
ble for the republication of this book which was          of course, something to say about the atonement.
widely circulated in the churches. This book came         The Marrow men agreed with the orthodox that the
to the attention of the General Assembly in 1720          actual application of the blessings of the atonement
and was condemned by that Assembly. Among                 was for the elect only. But they argued that the
other things, the book was condemned for teaching         offer of the gospel could be made to all who heard
that an unlimited offer of Christ to all men in the       because the atonement was sufficient for all, be-
gospel and a warrant to each one who hears the            cause the atonement of Christ removed all legal ob-
gospel to receive Christ necessarily implies a uni-       stacles to salvation, because it was offered and was
versal atonement.                                         freely available to all on condition of faith, and
                                                          because there are blessings for all in the atonement.
  Twelve men, among whom were Thomas
Boston, James Hog, and the Erskine brothers, pro-           In order to defend this position, they spoke of a
tested this decision to the General Assembly              double reference of the atonement. The atonement
Meeting of 1721. Their protest was rejected and the       had a designed general reference to all sinners of
General Assembly retained its earlier decision,           mankind as such. Christ did not die for all so as to
although nothing in the way of disciplinary action        save all; but He is dead for all, i.e., He is available
was taken against the twelve "Marrow men."                for all if they will receive Him. Notice the distinc-
                                                          tion here which the Marrow men often made be-
  What was it that the Marrow men taught?                 tween "Christ died for all" and "Christ is dead for
  It is important to understand that the Marrow           all." The former they repudiated; the latter they
men wanted to establish in the preaching what they        taught. And by the latter they meant exactly that
called, "the warrant of faith." By this they meant        Christ is available for all if they will receive him by
that all men who heard the preaching had the right        fulfilling the condition of faith.
to believe and accept Christ as their Savior. They          Hence, so they taught, God, out of general phi-
wanted the preaching to press home upon everyone          lanthropy for all sinners, made a deed of the gift of.
who heard that he had no reason not to believe in         Christ and of the benefits of His redemption to all
Christ; that, indeed, he had every right to receive       indifferently to be claimed upon the condition of
Christ and participate in all the blessings of salva-     faith. This love is His "giving love,"' to be distin-
tion. They wanted to press this home upon the sin-        guished from His "electing love."
ner by assuring him that Christ had indeed died for
him, that salvation was his upon condition of faith,        The "deed of gift" or "grant of Christ" is not
and that nothing stood in the way of his coming to        itself the general offer, but is the foundation upon
Christ.                                                   which the general offer rests. This grant is real, uni-
                                                          versal, an expression of love, conditioned by faith,
  In order to implement this conception of the gos-       the warrant upon which the faith of every believer
pel, they spoke repeatedly of the free offer of the       rests and by which faith he is justified.
gospel which came to all who hear, an offer which
expressed God's desire and willingness to save               And so we see that in the interests of maintaining
them if they should come to Christ.                       a general offer, the Marrow men fell into the error
                                                          of teaching an atonement which in some important
  It is true that the Marrow men insisted that one        respects was universal. In this way they departed
could come to Christ only by a work of grace, that        from the teachings of Calvin, Beza, the Westmin-
all who came to Christ were those only whom God           ster Assembly, and the Synod of Dordt. In fact,
had elected from all eternity, and that, therefore,       although their views surely have gained the day in
the work of salvation belonged to God. But, as has        Presbyterian circles, these same views were
been true of all those who have maintained an offer       condemned by their own General Assembly, which
of the gospel, they fell into a double-track theology     condemnation has never been undone by the
which taught on the one hand an eternal and un-           Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
changeable purpose in God to save only His elect,
and, on the other hand, an intention and purpose of          What are the lessons to be learned from all this?
God to save all who hear the gospel. As Guthrie ex-          In the first place, it is important to understand


114                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



that wrong views of the extent of the atonement            have not been taught in Calvin or Beza, by West-
have, in the history of the church, always been            minster or Dordt, nor by those who have been
closely associated with a defense of the free offer of     faithful to this heritage. They have come from
the gospel. This ought to give us pause. As wide-          outside:    from Arminianism, Amyraldianism,
spread as is the teaching of the free offer in our day,    Davenantianism, the Marrow men, and such like
the fact remains that historically the whole               deviators from the faith. In fact, until the nine-
teaching of the free offer has led to a denial of the      teenth century the church has consistently con-
particularity of the atonement.                            demned these views as being contrary to Scripture
  The reason for this is not difficult to see. If God      and the Calvinism which rests so firmly on the
expresses in the preaching of the gospel His desire        Bible.
to save all men, and if indeed God is sincere in this        How these views finally gained the day within
expression, then it follows inescapably that such          both Reformed and Presbyterian circles is another
salvation is, in some sense of the word, available to      story which we cannot relate here. But let it be un-
all men. And if salvation comes only through the           derscored that the line of true Calvinism rests not
cross of Jesus Christ, then that cross had to merit        in the line of Arminius, Amyrald, Davenant,
salvation for all who are confronted with the gospel       Boston, etc., but rests in the line of Calvin, Beza,
offer. History has proved that the two go hand in          Dordt, Westminster and the Reformed faith.
hand.                                                        And so we may conclude that our defense of the
  In the second place, those who have taught both          truth of a limited atonement and our apology for
the free offer of the gospel and a general atonement       the truth of sovereign grace against the free offer is
of Christ have, until the nineteenth century, stood        a defense of the truth as it was confessed by the
outside the line of true Calvinism. These heresies         church throughout the Post-Reformation times.



                 Definite Atonement and Preaching
                                              Prof. RobertD. Decker


  The question, "How can one who holds to the              the virgin. That angel also instructed Joseph as fol-
doctrine of limited or definite atonement preach?"         lows:  ". ..thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He
has been a vexing problem, not for the one holding         shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew
to the truth of definite atonement, but for the oppo-      1:21b). All people is not the same as His people.
nents of that truth. Historic Calvinism, or the Re-        Only the latter are saved from their sins by Jesus.
formed Faith, has always maintained the truth of           When faced with a crowd of unbelievers Jesus said,
definite atonement. This truth is zealously                "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me;
preached, taught, and defended by the Protestant           and him that  cometh to Me I will in no wise cast
Reformed Churches. Christ died in the place of and         out" (John  6:37). Christ will not cast out those
for the sake of all those whom the Father had              whom the Father gives to Him. He will surely save
chosen in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the        them. Those who are not given to Christ by God
world (cf. Ephesians  1:3ff.) Christ by His suffering      will not be saved. They will indeed be cast out! This
and death on the cross satisfied the justice of God        is graphically illustrated in John 6:66: "Many of His
for the elect. The forgiveness of sins, the right to be    disciples went back and walked no more with
called the children of God, and everlasting life have      Him." All three of our Reformed. Creeds: the
been secured for the elect through the atonement           Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic or Netherlands
brought by Jesus Christ. The debt has been paid,           Confession, and the Canons of Dordrecht clearly
not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood       reflect this precious truth of the Word of God.
of the Lamb of God. This is the meaning of the vic-          Arminianism denies this truth. Arminianism
tory cry from the Saviour uttered just moments             teaches that Christ died for every individual of the
before He commended His Spirit to His Father: "It          human race. The atonement according to the  Ar-
is finished."                                              minian is universal in scope, sufficient to cover the
  This truth appears plainly on the pages of Holy          sins of all of mankind. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ
Scripture. When Joseph was minded to put away              on Calvary's cross is capable of washing away the
privily his pregnant wife, an angel appeared to him        sins of everyone. The Arminian teaches that the
in a dream to explain what had happened to Mary,           atonement is universal also in the sense that by the


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                             115



death of Christ salvation is made auaiZubZe  to all of          we have no gospel to preach. We cannot do mission
mankind. The obvious questions are: "why then                   work or evangelism since the gospel promise is
are not all saved?" and "how does one obtain salva-             only for the  .elect. We cannot, so we are told, pro-
tion?" The Arminian answers these questions with                claim the gospel to the nations. What must we
still another terrible error: man has a free will. (Our         think of this? Is it true? Are the mission efforts of
Reformed fathers rightly called the error of free               our churches hamstrung by the fact that we main-
.will "the Pelagian error brought again out of hell"            tain the truth of definite atonement and reject the
-Canons II, Rejection of Errors III) Through the                error of the offer of the`gospel? Nonsense!
preaching of the gospel, according to the Arminian,               Oddly enough this charge against our churches
salvation in Christ is offered to all who hear. Those           has not come from theologians from the Arminian
who "accept Christ" or "allow Jesus to come into                tradition but from within the Reformed tradition.
their hearts" are saved. Those who refuse the offer             Theologians and leaders within the Reformed camp
of the gospel are damned. But, all people have the              accuse the Protestant Reformed position of the very
ability to accept or reject Christ. There are varia-            thing of which the Arminians accused our
tions (several in fact) of the Arminian error, but it is        Reformed fathers nearly four hundred years ago.
not the purpose of this article to treat these.                 What is even more strange is the fact that our accus-
  With its twin errors of universal atonement and               ers use the very article of the Canons formulated
the free will of man Arminianism has always been                against the Arminian charge (II, 5, quoted above) to
and still is in a frenzy to "win souls for Christ."             defend the Arminian error of a gospel offer!
Evangelism and missions have top priority among                   The Protestant Reformed Churches have had a
Arminian or fundamentalist churches. Preachers                  great deal to do with Canons II, 5. In 1924 our
and evangelists (many unordained and with no offi-              mother church, the Christian Reformed Church in
cial connection to the institute of the church) barn-           North America, cited this very article in support of
storm the world conducting crusades aimed atcon-                its first point of common grace, more particularly
verting the whole world for Christ if possible.                 "the little point of the first point." That "little
Others make extensive use of the media, especially              point" teaches the "offer of the gospel." A little
radio and television, spending and taking in                    more than fifty years later, in the controversy
millions of dollars per year. Zeal for missions is              which wracked our churches and resulted in the
mandated by Scripture and, therefore, laudable. It              tragic split of 1953, this article was cited by those
is a shame, at best, that the mission zeal of Armin-            who taught a general, conditional promise of the
ianism is so misguided!                                         gospel. These tried to defend the statement, "God
  At the sarne time the Arminians charge the Calvin-            promises every one of you that if you believe you
ists with having no gospel to preach. If Christ died            will be saved," on the basis of Canons II, 5. Let it be
only for the elect, then one can preach only to the             clearly understood that the Protestant Reformed
elect. If the promise of the gospel is intended only            Churches fully and without any reservation what-
for the elect, there can be no general proclamation             soever subscribe to the statement of Canons II, 5.
of the gospel. Obviously, so argues the Arminian,               One cannot support the error of a "free offer" on
there can be no mission work or evangelism done                 the basis of this article. The article speaks of the
by the Reformed Churches. Really, claims the  Ar-               promise of the gospel and the command of the gospel
minian, there can be no preaching, even in the es-              but not of an "offer of the gospel." This promise
tablished church, since all in the church are not               and command must be preached promiscuously
elect and no one knows who are and who are not.                 wherever God in His good pleasure sends the gos-
   It was precisely this charge which prompted the              pel. This our churches believe heartily. Because we
fathers of Dordt to formulate this statement as a               believe this we strive by the grace of God to be
summary of the teaching of Scripture on this point:             faithful to the mandate of the King of the church:
                                                                "Go ye into all the world....."
   Morever the promise of the gospel is, that whosoever
   believeth in Christ crucified, shall not perish, but           This is Scripture. Jesus Himself did not hesitate
    have everlasting life. This promise, together with the      to preach the doctrines of election and reprobation
    command to repent and believe, ought to be declared         and definite atonement. For whom does Jesus lay
    and published to all nations, and to all persons pro-       down His life? Listen to the answer of the Saviour:
    miscuously and without distinction, to whom God out         "I lay down My life for the sheep" (John  10:15).
    of His good pleasure, sends the gospel.                     Why is it that some do not believe? Again listen to
                                      (Canons II, Article 5)    Jesus: "But ye believe not, because ye are not of My
   The Arminian charge has been and still is leveled            sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice,
at the Protestant Reformed Churches. Because our                and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give
churches have taken a strong and consistent stand               unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
against the so-called offer of the gospel it is said that       neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand"


116                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



(John  10:26-28). Where in all of this does one find                       Does this mean we cannot do missionary work?
anything that even hints of an "offer of the                             On the contrary, the precious truths of sovereign
gospel?" At one point Jesus even thanked -His                            grace are an incentive and an encouragement to do
Father for hiding the realities of the Kingdom from                      mission work. The sheep, the elect, are in the na-
the "wise and prudent" and revealing them unto                           tions. Preaching is the God-given means by which
"babes" (Matthew  11:25). The Lord ascribes that                         they must be gathered unto salvation. We may be
hiding and revealing to the good-pleasure of God:                        sure that God will accomplish His purpose in the
"Even so Father; for so it seemed good in Thy                            saving of His church in Christ. The church must
sight" (vs. 26). Verse 28 of this same chapter is a                      send out its preachers with the imperative of the
favorite of the Arminians: "Come unto Me, all ye                         gospel: "be ye reconciled to God" (II Corinthians
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you                     5:20). The church may rest assured that the preach-
rest." Does Jesus present an offer? No, He speaks in                     ing will be effective. To some it will be a savor of
the imperative: Come! This is a command, not an                          death unto death, but to others a savor of life unto
offer. Does Jesus call all people to Himself? Does                       life. In both God is well pleased. Thanks be to Him
He promise rest to all? No, He calls and He                              Who always causes us to triumph in every place! (II
promises rest only to those who are labouring and                        Corinthians 2:15-17)
heavy laden.



                             1924,1967 (Dekker Case),
                                       and the Atonement
                                                                Rev. C. Hanko

  1924                                                                   (common favor) and particular or saving grace as
  The first point of the well-known Three Points                         revealed in the preaching of the gospel. Yet this
adopted by the Synod of the Christian Reformed                           "general offer of the gospel" has become the main
Church in 1924 in defense of the doctrine of Com-                        issue in the entire common grace controversy. We
mon Grace reads as follows:                                              are immediately confronted with the question,
                                                                         since all mankind has forfeited the right to God's
   Relative to the first point, which concerns the ques-                 favor and grace through the sin of Adam, what is
   tion of a favorable attitude of God towards humanity                  the juridical basis for this "common grace"? It was
   in general and not only towards the elect, Synod de-                  asked repeatedly, At what stage of the suffering of
   clares it to be established according to Scripture and
   the Confession, that, apart from the saving grace of                  Christ on the cross was this "common grace"
   God shown only to those that are elect unto eternal                   merited? The question becomes even more serious
   life, there is also a certain favor or grace of God which            when one speaks of a "general offer of salvation."
   He shows to His creatures in general. This is evident                Where is the meritorious basis for such an offer?
   from the Scriptural passages quoted and from the                     Immediately the question arises, Is the atonement
   Canons of Dordrecht, II, 5, and III, IV, 8, 9, that deal             of the cross in some sense universal, that is, did
   with the general offer of the Gospel, while it also ap-               Christ, according to God's intent, in some sense
   pears from the citations made from Reformed writers                  merit the right to salvation for all men in general? Is
   of the most flourishing period of Reformed Theology                  there a universal atonement?
   that our Reformed fathers from ancient times favored                    Prof. Berkhof, who defended the three points of
   this view.                                                           Common Grace in a pamphlet entitled, "De Drie
  There is an obvious element of inconsistency                          Punten in Alle  Deelen Gereformeerd" (The Three
here. On the one hand, this first point speaks of "a                    Points in Every Respect Reformed) insisted still on
favorable attitude of God toward humanity in gen-                       a limited atonement. He wrote (page 8):
eral . . . apart from the saving grace of God shown
only to the elect." Yet, on the other hand, it also                         Our Church stands as firm as ever in the conviction
speaks of "the general offer of the Gospel," which                          that Christ died with the intention to save only the
                                                                            elect, though she recognizes at the same time the infi-
certainly refers to saving grace and not "common                            nite value of the sacrifice of Christ as being sufficient
grace." Dr. Abraham Kuyper, who developed the                               for the sins of the whole world. He who alleges that
theory of "common grace," would never have                                  Synod here seeks to introduce covertly the Arminian
agreed with this, since he made a sharp distinction                         doctrine of universal atonement becomes guilty of
between what he called "gemeene gratie"                                     false representation.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           117



  The professor states that God's love is limited to           of God, and that this love of God must have its
the elect, God's intention to save is limited to the           meritorious basis in the cross of Christ. In his arti-
elect, and the atonement of the cross is limited to            cle that appeared in the  Reformed  JournaZ,
the elect. He brands the universal atonement, cor-             December, 1962, entitled, "God So Loved . . . All
rectly so, as Arminian heresy.                                 Men!" he wrote:
  Yet notice the gross inconsistency when he                      The doctrine of limited atonement as taught by Berk-
writes in the same pamphlet:                                      hof and others has commonly been used to place a
                                                                  taboo on the proposition that Christ died for all men
   The general and well-meaning offer of salvation is an          and on any statement by a missionary to unbelievers
   evidence of Gods favor toward sinners, is a blessing           such as, "Christ died for you". Supposedly such lan-
   of the Lord upon them.... In the prophecy of Ezekiel           guage is Arminian. Actually it is not necessarily so. . . .
   we may listen to the voice of the Lord in the words            The doctrine of limited atonement as commonly un-
   that bear testimony to His mercy, "Have I pleasure at          derstood and observed in the Christian Reformed
   all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and        Church impairs the principle of the universal love of
   not that he should return from his ways and live?"             God and tends to inhibit missionary spirit and activi-
   And again, "For I have no pleasure in the death of him         ty. God so loved all men that He gave His only begot-
   that dieth [that is, of him that perisheth in his sins),       ten Son! May this great truth permeate the life and
   saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves and              witness of the Church in full power!
   live ye". These passages tell us as clearly as words can
   tell, that God has no pleasure in the death of the            Prof. Dekker insists that a universal love of God
   wicked; note that He does not say, "of the elect            and a sincere offer of the gospel rest on the basis of
   sinner", but "of the sinner" entirely general; and the      a universal atonement, and that according to God's
   tender calling we hear therein witnesses of the great       design! He writes:
   love for sinners and of His pleasure in the salvation of        As far as the atonement is concerned, four factors may
   the ungodly (page 21).                                          be distinguished, when we speak of design: sufficien-
  The contradictions stare us in the face. God's                   cy, availability, desire, and efficacy.
love is limited to the elect, yet God has also a "great          The professor wants to maintain, "The sufficiency
love" for all sinners. Christ died with the intention          and availability of salvation for all men and the di-
of saving only the elect (to say anything else is the          vine desire that all will receive it." Since all men are
Arminian doctrine), yet that saving merit of the               not saved he is forced to conclude that the atone-
cross is offered to all men without exception. God's           ment of Christ is limited in its efficacy.
intention is to save those for whom Christ died, yet             The reference of both Berkhof and Dekker to the
His tender calling and well meaning offer come as a            "sufficiency" of the atonement of Christ is an obvi-
blessing to all who hear the gospel. By no stretch of          ous attempt to appeal to the statement found in the
the imagination can those contradictions be harmo-             Canons of Dordt, II, 3, that the death of Christ is
nized.                                                         "of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient
  This has often been referred to as the "two                  to expiate for the sins of the whole world." From
track" theology, the one track representing particu-           the strong opposition throughout the Canons to the
lar grace and the other representing common grace              Arminian teaching of a universal atonement it
and the universal offer of salvation. Two tracks,              should be evident that the fathers meant nothing
mind you, one of which runs east and west, and the             more than that Christ would not have had to suffer
other north and south! Others have referred to this            any more  had He died  for the sins of the whole
contradiction as a mystery, since God's logic is sup-          world. Yet in spite of this obvious meaning of the
posed to be different from ours. Still others spoke of         statement, both Berkhof and Dekker appeal to it to
"the balance that is Calvinism," maintaining on the            teach universal atonement.
one hand that God loves only the elect, and on the                Dekker even speaks of God's  design  to save all
other that God loves all men; on the one hand,                 men. This can only mean that God made Christ a
maintaining total depravity, on the other, the "good           substitute for all mankind. Moreover, it means that
that sinners do"; on the one hand, particular atone-           God intended that Christ should atone for the sins
ment, on the other, universal atonement; on the                of all mankind by His obedient sacrifice on the
one hand, efficacious grace, on the other, a free              cross. Thus it was God's intention that the debt of
offer of salvation to all; and on the one hand, the            sin and guilt be paid for every individual. It is on
preservation of saints, while on the other, a falling          that basis of a universal atonement, that God now
away of saints. Call it what you will, the contradic-          declares to all men, "God loves you"; "Christ died
tions are obvious.                                             for you."
   1967 (The Dekker Case).                                        Salvation is avaiZabZe to all who hear the gospel.
   Prof. Dekker plainly saw these contradictions               The death of Christ, the payment for the debt of
and therefore wrote that there can be but one love             sin, the right to eternal life is offered to all, for


 118                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



anyone to reach out and to accept.                          wanted to maintain the "general offer of the
   Yet all men are not saved. Why not? The answer           gospel" as adopted in 1924, they would also have to
Dekker gives is, because the atonement is not effi-         maintain Dekker's conclusions drawn from that de-
cacious for all. One may well ask, Why? If accord-          cision. To condemn Dekker was to condemn 1924.
ing to God's design Christ died for all men, why is         They maintained the stand of 1924 in regard to the
the death of the cross not efficacious for all? Again,      general offer of the gospel, and they did nothing
how can that one love of God, and that one univer-          more than declare the statements of the professor
sal sacrifice for sin be efficacious for some, and not      to be ambiguous and warned the church against
for others? Obviously, if the debt is not paid for all      wrong      conclusions.     Dekker      was     neither
men, as God had desired, then it is not paid for any-       condemned nor exonerated.
one. Dekker denies the efficacy of the cross. How,             What they did do was to declare to everyone a
then, can anyone be saved? Still worse, this is a de-       certain doctrinal freedom. Those who should desire
nial of the sovereignty of God, for God does not at-        to teach that Christ died only for the elect may do
tain His eternal design and desire.                         so. Those who would proclaim that Christ died for
   What did the Synod of 1967 do about this? As far         all men, and that God loves all men, are also free to
as the Dekker case is concerned, they did nothing.          do so. This bodes no good for the Reformed faith
They were confronted with a dilemma. As became              once delivered unto us from the fathers, the truth
evident from the discussions at that Svnod. if thev         as revealed in the Scriptures.



                                          Book Reviews

THE CHURCH BETWEEN TEMPLE AND                               all kinds of ideas of God are formed; the human
MOSQUE,  BY J.H. Bavinck; Wm. B. Eerdmans                   mind as the  fubrica  idoZorum  (Calvin, "maker of
Publishing Co., 1981; 206 pp., $5.95, paper. (Re-           idols," R.D.D.) makes its own ideas of God and its
viewed by Prof. R. D. Decker)                               own myths. This is not  intentionaz  deceit-it hap-
   Dr. Bavinck occupied the chair of missions at the        pens without man's knowing it. He cannot get rid
Free University in Amsterdam from 1939 until his            of them. So he has religion; he is busy with a god;
death in 1965. Prior to 1939 he served for twenty           he serves his god-but he does ,not see that the god.
years as a missionary in Indonesia. The author              he serves is not God Himself. An exchange has
wrote an earlier work, Introduction To The Science          taken place-a perilous exchange. An essential
Of Missions, which this reviewer uses as a text in his      quality of God has been  bZurred  because it did not
Principles of Missions course. The Bavinck of this          fit in with the human pattern of life, and the image
later work which we now review is not the same as           man has of God is no longer true. Divine revelation
the Bavinck of the previous book. He obviously has          indeed lies at the root of it, but man's thoughts and
changed considerably, over the years.                       aspirations cannot receive it and adapt themselves
  In this book Bavinck deals with the "problem"             to it. In the image man has of God we can recognize
of the relationship between Christianity and the            the image of man himself." (p. 122 emphasis mine,
other world religions. Bavinck contends that the            R.D.D.)
church stands both "in community with and over                "The man who believes in gods and spirits and
against" other religions. Because all men share a           bows before his idols shows that he is touched by
"religious consciousness" there can be and ought to         God and that God is seeking him. But he shows at
be meaningful dialogue between the church and               the same time that he himself is busy suppressing
other religions.                                            that which is absolutely necessary for a person  to'
  A quotation or two will give something of the             come to God." (p. 124) These quotations are taken
flavor of the book. "Man has repressed the truth of         from the chapter in which Bavinck deals with
the everlasting power and the divinity of God. It           Romans  1:18ff. What Bavinck ignores is the fact
has been exiled to his unconscious.. . .That does not       that this so-called general revelation is a revelation.
mean, however, that it has vanished forever. Still          of the wrath of God ". . .against  all ungodliness and
active, it reveals itself again and again. But it cannot    unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in un-
become openly conscious; it appears in disguise,            righteousness" (Romans 1: 18).
and it is exchanged for something different. Thus             This book will need to be read and considered by


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                    119



anyone involved with missions and missiology. A                           and the various ethnic groups and nations within
much better book, one from a distinctively Re-                            South Africa, praying without ceasing for the
formed perspective, still needs to be written.                            enabling power of the Holy Spirit to face the diffi-
                                                                          cult problems confronting them all.
REPORT OF THE RES CONSULTATIVE COM-
MITTEE TO THE RES CHURCHES IN                                                I have not read for a long time nor studied care-
SOUTH AFRICA.  The pamphlet of 35 pages can                               fully the reports and the decisions of the RES on
be obtained for $1.00 from the Secretariat of the                         this matter of race relations in the South African
RES, 1677 Gentian Drive, S.E., Grand Rapids, MI,                          Churches. It is not possible for me, therefore, to
49508. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                       pass any judgments on the matter as such. From
                                                                          correspondence and contact with saints who live in
  The RES Nimes 1980 decided that the RES,                                South Africa, I do know that what we read in our
through its Interim Committee or a committee ap-                          daily newspapers and magazines is horribly biased
pointed by the IC, continue its discussion with the                       and inaccurate and cannot be trusted. But what
RES Churches of South Africa on their views of                            strikes me mostly is that while the RES is becoming
race relations. Such a committee was appointed. It                        increasingly involved in social issues of this sort,
drew up a preliminary draft of a report which it                          the RES has yet to deal firmly with the doctrinal
submitted to the RES Churches of South Africa for                         and moral apostasy of the GKN in the Netherlands
their comments. It also met with these churches                           which is far more terrible and far more a threat to
after a second draft was drawn up, and then pre-                          the Reformed character of the RES. One is left with
pared a final draft which is to be submitted to the                       the impression that there is greater concern in the
RES in Chicago in 1984. This pamphlet is a copy of                        RES over the race issue in South Africa than over
that final draft.                                                         the apostasy of the GKN.
  The pamphlet contains a brief history of this
matter within the RES, discusses the current                                 We urge all those who are interested in the RES
church situation in South Africa, explains what the                       and in these questions to obtain this report.
various churches which belong to the RES have
done to improve race relations, discusses the                             MORE DIFFICULT SAYINGS OF JESUS,  by
"Broederbond" and "Broederkring," assesses the                            William Neil/Stephen Travis; Eerdmans Publishing
situation and offers recommendations. We quote a                          Company, 1982; 128 pp., $5.95 (paper). (Reviewed
few of the recommendations to the RES Chicago,                            by Prof. H. Hanko)
1984:                                                                       William Neil first published a book on this sub-
   1. The RES churches in South Africa officially                         ject in 1977 and intended, in a later edition, to add
re-evaluate their responsibility to carry out the pro-                    more "difficult sayings." He died before he could
phetic role of the church as institute in line with the                   accomplish this, and the task was completed by
RES Statements on "The Church and Its Social                              Stephen Travis.
Calling. "                                                                   Since 31 such sayings of Jesus are discussed in
  3. All RES churches in South Africa carry out the                       this short book, it stands to reason that the treat-
decision of RES Nimes 1980 "to do all that is in                          ment of them is very brief, and the emphasis
their power to work for such changes in their                             throughout is on the moral aspects of our Lord's
country that (would) remove the structures of racial                      teaching. The book is not very helpful in an under-
injustice still present and use their influence with                      standing of Christ's ministry of the kingdom.
the South African government to effect such
changes."
   8.' All member churches of the RES in South                                          RESOLUTION  0~ SYMPATHY
Africa and all members of these churches do all in                           The Senior Mr.  & Mrs. Society of First Protestant Reformed
their power to conform more fully to the standards                        Church expresses their sincere sympathy to Mr.  & Mrs. Howard
                                                                          Pastoor in the death of his father, MR. REIN HARKEMA.
of God's Word for the promotion of justice, righ-                            "And we know that all things work together for good to them that
teousness and love in all relations among the races                       love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
                                                                          (Romans 8:28)
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                       Rev. M. Joostens, Pres.
  The Ladies Aid Society of the First Protestant Church of Grand                                                           Mrs. R. Pastoor, Secy.
Rapids, Michigan, expresses their Christian sympathy to one of their
members, Mrs. Rein Harkema, in ,the death of her husband, MR. REIN                                    NOTICE!!!
HARKEMA, whom the Lord took unto Himself on October 22, 1982.                Classis  East will meet in regular session on January 12, 1983 at
  "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon      the First Prot. Ref. Church of Grand Rapids. Material to be treated in
them that fear Him." (Psalm 103: 17)                                      this session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at least three
                                             Mrs. Nell Phillips, Pres.    weeks prior to the convening of this session.
                                             Mrs. H. Baar, Sec'y.                                                     Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk

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





120                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
       _"t'r

                                 News From Our Churches

                                    November  13,1982       Now that the missionary from Singapore, Rev.
  When I asked the question last time, "What is           den Hartog, and his family have been in the Grand
the `Question Box'?" I was not referring to the           Rapids area for awhile, he will by this time be in
"Question Box" that appears in this magazine. In-         Wyckoff, New Jersey. He plans on giving a slide
stead, I was thinking about the "Question Box"            program for the congregation while he is there. The
that appears in the Katy Times. Now you ask,              den Hartogs will leave the New Jersey area Thurs-
"What is the Katy Times?" The Katy Times is a             day, December 2. At this time I do not know where
newspaper found in Texas. You see, our Trinity            they plan on going next.
Protestant Reformed Church has started a venture            Prof. H.C. Hoeksema traveled to Blue Bell, Pa. to
called the "Question Box" in the Katy Times to
make the people around their area aware of what           speak at a Reformation celebration held at the
the Trinity Protestant Reformed Church is and why         Orthodox Presbyterian Church in that town. His in-
                                                          vitation gave him the opportunity to speak on the
they are sponsoring the "Question Box." The
answer to the first question is, "We are a church         importance of our "Canons" for today and on the
                                                          history of the Protestant Reformed Churches. I un-
that is interested in a deep, rich and consistent un-     derstand that Mrs. Hoeksema also spoke to a group
derstanding of the truth of God as it is taught in the    of people who are using or are going to use her book
Bible. We strive for a balance in emphasizing the         Peaceable Fruit  for studying. The people who are
knowledge of the Bible and living in obedience to         Orthodox Presbyterians in this area are familiar
it. Both are very important." The answer to the           with our churches and our many publications.
second question is, "Life presents all of us with         While I am talking about Prof. H.C. Hoeksema, I
many difficult questions. These questions need            will add the fact that his Canons Class that met at
answers before God and man. Many people do not            Cutlerville Christian School now meets at Byron
know the clear teaching of the Bible as it relates to     Center Library every Wednesday.
their questions. We do not profess to have all the.
answers by any means. But we will work and study            Loveland Protestant Reformed Church will be
to try to help you find the answers." The congrega-       celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary as a congre-
tion is encouraged to submit questions that they          gation very soon. The church is taking donations
would like to see treated. This is an interesting way     for this celebration. Loveland was organized in
to have the congregation involved with witnessing         1958 with seventeen famililes. Now there are thir-
to the truth.                                             ty-nine families. The consistory has decided to
  The Canadian Government has allowed Rev.                increase its size by one elder and one deacon for a
Tom Miersma to begin his labors in Edmonton               total of four elders and three deacons. This increase
before his papers are approved. That means Tom            in office-bearers will help to facilitate the work of
and Jan Miersma have been in Canada for a month           both the elders and the deacons.
and a half now. I wonder if their papers are ap-            God is making it known to us that He continues
proved by now.                                            to use us in the proclamation of His word. I will end
  Rev. Heys is now laboring in the Wellington area        with this quote from Spurgeon, as it appeared in
of New Zealand. Wellington is on the "north island        Holland's bulletin: "The way to grow strong in
in distinction from Christchurch which is on the          Christ is to become weak in yourself. God pours no
south island" according to Holland's bulletin. Rev.       power into man's heart till man's power is all
and Mrs. Heys plan on being in this area for up to        poured out. The Christian's life is one of daily de-
six months. Their address is 16 Camellia Terrace,         pendence on the grace and strength of God."
Maungaraki, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.                                                                       DH


