         _ The
     STANDARD
          fEAR.ER
.          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                       Y





     II . . . If those clothe God with the garment
     of a tyrant, who refer the hardening of men
     even to His eternal counsel, we most certain-
     ly are not the originators of this doctrine. If
     they do God an injury who set His will above
     all other causes, Paul taught this doctrine
     long before us. Let these enemies of God,
     then, dispute the matter with the apostle."
                                                        John Calvin
     See "The Reincarnation of Pighius"
                                                          - page 269


.                                              Volume LIX, No. 12, March  15,1983  A


266                                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                        CONTENTS                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
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         Righteous in Christ Jesus . . . . ................ 266                                       Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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         The Reincarnation of Pighius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269                             John A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. JagXortermg,  Rev. George C. Lubbers,
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MEDITATION
                                             Righteous in Christ Jesus
                                                                                         Rev. C. Hanko
                       Ques. 59. But what doth it profit thee now that thou believest all this?
                       Ans. That I am righteous in Christ, before God, and am an heir of eternal life.
                       Ques. 60. How art thou righteous before God?
                       Ans. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that though my conscience accuse me, that I
                  have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still
                  inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God without any merit of mine, but only out of mere grace,
                  grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, even so,
                  as if I never had had, nor committed any sin; yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedi-
 .                 ence which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believ-
                   ing heart.
                       Ques.  61. Why sayest thou, that thou art righteous by faith only?
                       Ans. Not that I am acceptable to God, on account of the worthiness of my faith; but because
                  only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, is my righteousness before God; and
                   that I cannot receive and apply the same to myself any other way than by faith only.
                                                                                                                           Heid. Catechism. Lord's Day 23


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                           267



  What doth it profit thee?                                   Our conscience condemns us. That inner voice.
  Pause a moment and reflect. Let it be granted             of conscience which is enlightened and instructed
that this is not the foremost question in the mind of       by the Holy Spirit of Christ convicts us, on the basis
the believer. His chief concern is the glory of his         of. the Holy Scriptures, of sin and guilt.  ,My own
God. For whether we eat, or whether we drink, or            conscience accuses me that I have transgressed, not
whatever we do, we should do it all to the glory of         merely laws laid down by men, but the holy law of
God. Yet this in no wise minimizes the importance           the living God. I have defied God and trampled His
of the question that confronts us now, "what doth           law under my feet. I have not made myself guilty of
it profit thee that thou believest all this?"               transgressing only one command. I realize that
                                                            when the law is read to me on the Sabbath day, one
  Even this  .question  requires an answer of faith.        command condemns me much more than another.
According to our sinful nature we could very well           But when I search my heart I must admit that I
question the advantage of believing in Jesus Christ.        have transgressed all God's commands, even with-
There are times in our lives when we with Asaph of          out exception. Still worse, I have grossly trans-
Psalm 73 see the prosperity of the wicked and are           gressed them all. Even so I have not said enough.
set to wondering whether we have cleansed our               Honesty compels me to add that I have kept none
hands in vain. Measured in dollars and cents we ex-         of them. Besides my sins of commission, there are
perience the burden of school tuition, church bud-          also a multitude of sins of omission. For I have `not
gets, and other obligations that are involved in the        loved the Lord my God with my whole being in all
Christian walk of life. And then we have said               that I did, as I am called to do. Nor can I leave it at
nothing yet of the scorn and reproach that we must          that. If I should have the opportunity to live the
bear as cross bearers after our Lord.                       past over again, or if a promise were pressed from
  Yet would we for a single moment exchange our             me to keep God's law in the future, I would have to
faith for the service of sin? Not at all. Even these        admit that I can never of myself improve my way,
seeming disadvantages are, upon closer observa-             since the very inclination of my nature is only
tion, privileges, definite advantages that make all         toward all that is evil continually.
the sufferings of this present time more than worth-          I hang my head in shame, for even now as I stand
while. All the advantages of our faith in Christ far        before the judgment seat of God, who knows my
outweigh our sufferings, and work an exceeding              innermost thoughts and all my words and deeds, I
weight of glory.                                            stand condemned. I deserve only that He should
  "All this...."                                            pronounce upon me the death sentence: "Depart
  As believers in Christ Jesus we are confronted            from Me, thou worker of iniquity, into everlasting
with the specific question: "What doth it profit            torment of hell!"
thee that thou believest all this?" "All this" refers
back to all that we have confessed with the Heidel-           If Thou shouldst mark transgressions, 0 my
berger in the Lord's Days 7 to 22, in which our             God, who could stand? I least of all!
fathers discussed the Apostolic Creed. "All this"             "Notwithstanding...."                  2
therefore refers to what we confess concerning our            Yet the verdict is pronounced every day anew:
God and all His glorious, mighty works as the               Not guilty! No condemnation! Even more than that,
triune God of our salvation in Jesus Christ. He is          God declares me righteous in His holy sight! He re-
our Creator. He sends His Son to be our Savior              gards me as one who has never committed any evil
through the death of the cross, and exalts Him to           deed, nor had any inclination to sin. And, as if that
power and glory in the heavens, from whence He              were a small matter, He even declares that I have
gathers His church, brings His saints to glory with         kept all His commands in perfect obedience, so that
Him and grants us eternal life. We sum it all up in         I am worthy to be His son and the heir of His in-
the one confession, I believe in God. Thus the Cate-        heritance that is laid away in the heavens.
chism now confronts us with the personal ques-
tion: What does this your faith mean to you? And              Amazing wonder, that can only fill our souls with
lays upon our hearts and lips a most concise and            humble adoration. I am righteous in the sight of the
beautiful answer.                                           living God according to His own verdict in my
  That I am righteous.                                      heart. I can also appear before His judgment seat in
                                                            the great Day of days to receive of Him His own,
  Righteousness is that amazing gift of God where-          "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
by the guilty and damnworthy sinner is assured in           thou into the joys of thy Lord." God justifies the
his heart that he is free from guilt and worthy of the      ungodly.
adoption to sons and the right to eternal life.
  This places you and me right now before the tri-            Righteous in Christ.
bunal of God.                                                 We cannot be satisfied without asking how this is


268                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



possible? For God is not a man that He should lie,           His righteousness is imputed to us as if we never
nor does He regard the person of men. He is as righ-      had had nor committed any sin. Yea, as if we in our
teous as He is true. In answer to that question one       own bodies had merited the right to be sons of God
name stands out in Scripture and before our con-          and heirs of eternal life.
sciousness: the name Jesus, Who is the Christ. We            His holiness is imputed to us, so that we are
are righteous in Christ Jesus.                            saints in Christ Jesus, with the Spirit of God's Son
  Yet again the question demands an answer.               transforming us into the likeness of the image of
"How can God justify the guilty sinner in Christ?"        Christ, to bear the likeness of God in covenant fel-
  Here our Book of Instruction introduces us to a         lowship with Him eternally in His glory.
very important word that we must never forget, nor           It is all a free gift of God by imputation. Christ
allow anyone to take from  us:  the word  imputes.        atoned, I did not. He merited my salvation, not I.
"God imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righ-        Humbly I confess, I am righteous in Christ. In His
teousness and holiness of Christ.:' The reference of      cross I glory.
our Catechism is to Romans 4.                               Through faith.
  Imputes means to set to the account of someone,            We hasten to add, that we are justified by a true
especially to set to the account of someone that          faith in Jesus Christ. Not on account of our faith,
which he does not have. We lack righteousness             nor because we believe or have reached out a hand
completely, yet it is imputed to us as if it were our     to receive Christ. If faith were in any sense of the
very own. Briefly it comes down to this: God              word our work, then there would be a certain merit
imputes to Christ all our guilt and,, in turn, imputes    of ours which would deny the perfect merit of Jesus
to us the perfect righteousness of Christ. That is the    Christ. It is all of God, purely by grace, in no sense
amazing truth of Scripture and the blessed testi-         by the works of mere man.
mony of the Spirit in the hearts of believers. God so
completely justifies us that we can face the devil,          We become deeply aware of that as we daily
the whole wicked world and even our accusing              stand before the tribunal of our God with our con-
conscience with the challenge: It is God Who justi-       science accusing us, that we have kept none of His
fies. Who is the condemner? Romans 8:33,34.               commandments and can keep none of them as we
                                                          are in ourselves.
  We must ask, what is the juridical basis for this
verdict of righteousness? For God is just. He can-           God Himself unites us to Christ by a bond of liv-
not, may not, and does not allow the sin that is          ing faith, whereby we become members of His
committed against His Most High Majesty to go             body, living out of Him. As the body cannot exist
unpunished. The answer of Scripture is that the           without the head, nor the head without the body,
eternal basis rests in God Himself and in His Sover-      so Christ and we cannot exist apart from each
eign election. Take that away and the very basis for      other. I belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
our salvation no longer exists. God has chosen His           "We, then, being justified by faith, have peace
people in Christ from eternity, making them mem-          with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans
bers of Christ's body, flesh of His flesh and bone of     5:l).
His bone. Christ is our juridical Head. Therefore            In the midst of a world of sin and death we are
God can and does declare His people righteous on          kept by the power of God unto an inheritance, in-
the meritorious basis of the cross.                       corruptible and undefiled, preserved for us in the
  We can put it this way: God imputed to Christ all       heavens (I Peter 1:4, 5). Soli Deo Gloria!
our sins, charging those sins to His account and
holding Him responsible for them, as if He had
committed them. Christ was made sin for us, the
very embodiment, as it were, of our sins. He was                   The Standard Bearer
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. He was the perfect Substitute,
the Lamb for sinners slain. All His life long He suf-              makes a thoughtful
fered willingly and obediently under the wrath of
God. He suffered even torments of hell during the                           gift for the
three hours of darkness on the cross to atone for
our sins and to merit for us eternal life.                           sick or shut-in.
  His perfect satisfaction is imputed to us, as if we
in our own bodies had borne God's wrath, been
nailed to the cross, and suffered under the consum-
ing wrath of God in anguish of hell for our sins.


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                              269.



EDITORIAL

                         The Reincarnation .of Pighius
                                                        Profi H. C. Hoeksema



  On the cover of The Reformed TournaZ (Februarv.                   tellectually understand the doctrine of predestina-
1983) there appear in large lettersthe words, "A R&                 tion; he does, and he even quotes Calvin's Institutes
spectable Blasphemy? PREDESTINATION." The                           for a definition. Neither is the problem that Mr. Tal-
reference is to an article by Thomas Talbott en-                    bott does not want reprobation only; he deliberate-
titled, "On predestination, reprobation, and the                    ly includes all of predestination, although an analy-
love of God" with the sub-title, "a polemic." Mr.                   sis of his article will show that his hateful darts are
Talbott is a professor of philosophy at Willamette                  aimed primarily at reprobation-but has not history
University, Salem, Oregon, and in his article identi-               demonstrated a pattern of attacking sovereign elec-
fies himself as a member of the Christian Reformed                  tion by attempting to make the doctrine of predesti-
Church. To him it is not a question whether pre-                    nation hateful by attacking reprobation? Nor is the
destination is a respectable blasphemy, as is the                   problem that Mr. Talbott misconstrues the doctrine
query on the cover, but a fact. His entire article is a             of reprobation as such; he even recognizes in Her-
blatant and blasphemous (I use the term advisedly.)                 man Hoeksema a consistent exponent of this doc-
attack on the doctrine of predestination. He states                 trine. For he writes, p. 13: "If, God forbid, there are
the main thrust of his article rather adequately in                 such unfortunate persons, if there are some who
the opening paragraph:                                              are not elect, it immediately follows that they are
   My concern in this article is with a form of theological         not an object of God's eternal love; and one Re-
   blasphemy, the Reformed doctrines of predestination              formed theologian who has seen this quite clearly is
   and reprobation; and here I use the term "blasphe-               Herman Hoeksema, who forthrightly admits that
   my" in a very exact sense. The Reformed doctrine of              the non-elect are an object of God's `eternal hatred.'
   predestination-with or without its corollary, the doc-           Nor is it possible in any way to soften this implica-
   trine of reprobation-is a form of blasphemy in this              tion."
   sense: those who accept the doctrine inevitably attri-              No, the simple fact is, as is plainly stated in the
   bute Satanic qualities to God; they inevitably confuse           opening paragraph (quoted above) that the writer
   the Father in heaven, Whose essence is perfect love,
   with the Devil himself. Rut it is also a  respectable  form      characterizes the Reformed doctrine of predestina-
   of blasphemy in that, as is well known, this doctrine            tion as blasphemy, as ascribing "Satanic qualities to
   can be found in many of the confessional statements              God," and as confusing the Father in heaven with
   associated with the Protestant Reformation and re-               the Devil himself.
   mains part of the official doctrine of many mainline                I have no intention, at this point, of entering into
   churches, including my own church, the Christian Re-             Mr. Talbott's arguments, except to point out:
   formed Church. That this should be so is, for me, one
   of the great mysteries of church history-though no                1) That there is nothing new in his attack. It is
   greater, perhaps, than the mystery of why the Jews,              nothing but a variation of the old argument-as old
   during New Testament times, should have found it so              as the apostle Paul himself-that sovereign predes-
   difficult to believe that God's grace also extends to the        tination is an immoral doctrine. This argument has
   Gentiles. It seems that a kind of exclusiveness in the-          assumed various forms, as, for instance, that
   ology, the temptation to believe that God's grace ex-            predestination makes God the author of sin, or that
   tends to us but not to  them,  to Jews but not to Gentiles,      the doctrine of predestination makes men careless
   to Christians but not to non-Christians, is one of the           and profane. Mr. Talbott's argument is obviously a
   more intractable forms that original sin takes in our            variation of this same age-old attack.
   lives. Indeed, as I shall argue, the Reformed doctrine
   of predestination is an expression of human rebel-               2) The entire argumentation of Mr. Talbott is  ra-
   liousness; for it is simply not possible, not psychologi-        tionalistic,  that is, proceeds from sinful human
   cally possible, not even logically possible, to love God         reason, rather than Scripture. He never mentions or
   with all one's heart, to love one's neighbor as oneself,         explains the passages of Scripture which plainly
   and simultaneously to believe the Reformed doctrine              teach predestination. He never approaches the
   of predestination.                                               whole question from a Scriptural point of view,
  The problem is not that Mr. Talbott does not in-                  never attempts a Scriptural argument. As  he'him-


270                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



self states, love of God and the neighbor are psy-                   ly and the eternal judgment of the reprobate, I have
chologically and logically impossible if one believes                considered it my duty to prevent this contagion from
the Reformed doctrine of predestination.                             spreading farther, by collecting and summarily refut-
                                                                    ing those frivolous objections by which such men de-
3) Mr. Talbott's argumentation is all the more                      lude themselves and others. Among these characters
shocking-horrifying, in fact-because a) it is bru-                  there started forth, in Italy, a certain one, Georgius, a
tally blunt; b) it comes from one who, according to                 Sicilian-an ignorant man indeed, and more worthy of
his own confession as a Christian Reformed mem-                     contempt than public notice in any form, were it not
ber, is supposed to believe and confess the truth of                that a notoriety, obtained by fraud and imposture, has
sovereign predestination. If the doctrine of predes-                given him considerable power to do mischief.. . .
tination has supposed friends like Talbott, it surely              In the next paragraph of his treatise Calvin fur-
needs no enemies.                                                ther introduces his opponents:
                            *: * * * *                                I propose, now, to enter into the sacred battle with
  In the title of this editorial I refer to this as the re-         Pighius and George, the Sicilian, a pair of unclean
incarnation of Albertus Pighius.                                    beasts (Lev. xi. 3) by no means badly matched. For
  Who was Pighius?                                                  though I confess that in some things they differ, yet,
                                                                    in hatching enormities of error, in adulterating the
  To be truthful he is a skeleton in the Dutch                      Scripture with wicked and revelling audacity, in a
closet! His full name is Albertus Pighius van Kam-                  proud contempt of truth, in forward impudence, and
pen. Yes, he was a native of Kampen in the Nether-                  in brazen loquacity, the most perfect likeness and
lands. He was a Roman Catholic theologian and a                     sameness will be found to exist between them. Except
friend of more than one pope, as also a fierce foe of               that Pighius, by inflating the muddy bombast of his
the Reformation and especially of Calvin. In his                    magniloquence, carries himself with greater boast and
book concerning man's free will he not only sought                  pomp; while the other fellow borrows the boots by
                                                                    which he elevates himself from his invented revela-
to establish the free will of man, but also attacked                tion. And though both of them, at their commence-
violently the doctrine of sovereign predestination.                 ment, agree in their attempt to overthrow predestina-
It was in part against Pighius that John Calvin                     tion, yet they afterwards differ in the figments which
wrote his "Treatise of the Eternal Predestination of                they advance. An invention of them both is, that it lies
God," at one time published, with his "Treatise on                  in each one's own liberty, whether he will become a
the Secret Providence of God," under the title                      partaker of the grace of adoption or not; and that it
Calvin's CaZvinism. But let Calvin himself furnish a                does not depend on the counsel and decree of God
description:                                                        who are elect and who are reprobate; but that each
                                                                    one determines for himself the one state or the other
       Nine years have now elapsed since  Albertus   Pig-           by his own will, and with respect to the fact that some
   hius,  the Campanian, a man of evidently phrensied               believe the Gospel, while others remain in unbelief;
   audacity, attempted, at the same time, and in the                that this difference does not arise from the free elec-
   same book, to establisb the  free-will  of man, and to           tion of God, nor from His secret counsel, but from the
   subvert the secret counsel of God, by which He                   will of each individual.
   chooses some to salvation and appoints others to eter-
   nal destruction. But as he attacked me by name, that            I could fill the Standard Bearer with appropriate
   he might stab, through my side, holy and sound doc-           quotations from this treatise of Calvin, but let one
   trine, I have deemed it necessary to curb the sacrile-        more pertinent quotation suffice:
   gious madness of the man. At that time, however, be-               But Pighius and his fellows are not hereby satisfied.
   ing distracted by various engagements, I could not               For, pretending a great concern for the honour of God,
   embrace, in one short space of time, the discussion of           they bark at us, as imputing to Him a cruelty utterly
   both subjects; but having published my thoughts upon             foreign to His nature. (This is precisely what Mr. Tal-
   the former, I promised to consider, when an opportu-             bott does in the course of his argumentation, remem-
   nity should be given, the doctrine of  predestination.           ber! HCH) Pighius denies that he has any contest with
   Shortly after my book on free-will appeared, Pighius             God. What cause, or whose cause is it, then, that Paul
   died. And that I might not insult a dead dog, I turned           maintains? After he had adopted the above  axiom-
   my attention to other serious matters. And from that             that God hardens whom He will and has mercy on
   time till now I have always found plenty to do. More-            whom He will-he subjoins the supposed taunt of a
   over, as I had already copiously treated of this great           wicked reasoner: `Why doth He yet find fault? For
   point of doctrine, and had set it forth clearly, and con-        who hath resisted His will?' (Rom. ix. 19) He meets
   firmed it by solid testimonies of Scripture, this new la-        such blasphemy as this by simply setting against it the
   bour upon it did not seem so absolutely necessary, but           power of God. If those clothe God with the garment of
   that it might safely be suffered to rest for a time.             a tyrant, who refer the hardening of men even to His
       But since, at the present day, certain maddened and          eternal counsel, we most certainly are not the origina-
   exulting spirits strive, after the example of Pighius,           tors of this doctrine. If they do God an injury who set
   with all their might to destroy all that is contained in         His will above all other causes, Paul taught this doc-
   the Scriptures concerning the free election of the god-          trine long before us. Let these enemies of God, then,


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                271



    dispute the matter with the apostle. For I maintain           publisher, editors, contributing editors," etc.  The
    nothing, in the present discussion, but what I declare        Standard  Bearer carries a similar disclaimer. Never-
    is taught by him. About these barking dogs, however,          theless, The Reformed Journal calls itself "a periodi-
    I would not be very anxious. I am the rather moved            cal of Reformed comment and opinion." And while
    with an anxiety about some otherwise good men,                such a disclaimer as mentioned above has its place
    who, while they fear lest they should ascribe to God
    anything unworthy of His goodness, really seem to be          and  ,function, it surely cannot be used as cover for
    horror-struck at that which He declares, by the apos-         (not a critical letter or statement of opinion) a full-
    tle, concerning Himself.                                      fledged article which is placed by the Editors and
  Principally, this article in the  Reformed  JoumaZ              Editor-in-Chief, but which is diametrically and very
represents the reincarnation of the Pighius whom                  obviously contradictory of the stated character of
Calvin refutes in the treatise from which these                   the magazine.
quotations are taken.                                               Do the editors accept this responsibility? And I
                           *****                                  have in mind especially such men as Harry R. Boer
                                                                  and James Daane, men who are known for their
  But it should not be overlooked that  The Re-                   open opposition to the Reformed doctrine of repro-
formed Journal is the mid-wife at the occasion of this            bation.
journalistic reincarnation of Pighius.                              If not, then let them openly repudiate Mr.  Tal-
  I am well aware of the fact that its masthead                   bott's article; and let them apologize for publishing
carries a disclaimer to the effect that "The publica-             an article so obviously inimical to the Reformed
tion of comments, opinions, or advertising herein                 faith, and that, too, in the name of "Reformed com-
does not imply agreement or endorsement by the                    ment and opinion."

THEDAYOFSHADOWS


                                An Extravagant Funeral
                                                       Rev. John A. Heys


  Having blessed his twelve sons, having gathered                 is more, we need the purifying power of death to be
his feet into the bed, and having stretched himself               delivered completely and forever from the old man
out in a relaxed position upon the bed, Jacob gave                of sin. As Jesus told us, "Blessed are the pure in
up the ghost, and was gathered with his fathers.                  heart: for they shall see God." And it is death that
Thus the matter is presented to us in the last verse              delivers our hearts from all that is impure; for we
of Genesis 49.                                                    leave the old man of sin behind in the grave, and
  There is nothing strange about all this. His death              for the first time in our lives have a heart that is
was not unexpected. For that matter no death is                   pure in more than principle. And therefore we
really unexpected. We may not expect it in the                    must expect death also in the sense that we look
exact way in which it comes. We may not expect it                 eagerly forward to this moment when the new man
to come in the place where it occurs. The exact day               in Christ, of whom John declares in I John 3:9 that
and hour may take us by surprise. But actually we                 he doth not and cannot sin, because he is born of
should not say that a person's death is unexpected.               God, is freed from the old man who does and can
In Hebrews  927 we read, "And as it is appointed                  do nothing but sin. That deliverance Jacob had.
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."               And that deliverance God gives to all His children
And how can it be otherwise? We are, as well as                   through His servant that we call death.
David was, "shapen in iniquity" and conceived in                    Now the whole passage that speaks of Jacob's
sin, as Psalm  51:5 teaches us. "There is none that               death and burial has two elements that are stressed
doeth good, no not one," Psalm  14:3 declares. And                by Moses in the account. First of all, there is the
Paul speaks the truth when he says in Romans 6:23,                fact that the sorrow, the mourning over Jacob's
"The wages of sin is death." We can and must                      death, revolves around Joseph. And I do not simply
expect death. By nature we deserve it.                            mean that only of Joseph is it said that he fell on Ja-
  And as children of God we need it. For flesh and                cob's face and wept upon him and kissed him. Ths
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. What                  is true. The other eleven brothers are excluded en-


272                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



tirely from this notice of the sorrow that followed       embalm a body in order to keep it with you is not
Jacob's death. But note that verse 7 of chapter 50        according to the Scriptures. We are taught to sow it
speaks again of Joseph going to bury his father. In-      in the ground as a seed with the hope of a glorious
deed, verse 8 does speak of Joseph and his brethren       harvest.
and his father's house. The eleven brothers most            But note for a moment the extravagant funeral
assuredly went along to Canaan with their father's        arrangements and procession. The details reveal
body to bury it. But again in verse 10 it is men-         an extravagant funeral arrangement. We read in
tioned only of Joseph that he made a mourning by          Genesis 50:8 of "the house of Joseph and his breth-
the threshingfloor of Atad,  which is beyond Jordan.      ren, and his father's house." This.is understandable
It is not until we come to verse 12 that we read that     and to be expected. But then in verse 7 it had al-
"his sons did unto him according as he commanded          ready been stated that "all the servants of Pharaoh,
them." Before this, all the emphasis falls on Joseph.     the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land
  Now it is true that Joseph, although he was not         of Egypt" went along to Canaan to bury Jacob.
the oldest son among the twelve sons that God gave        What is more, in verse 9 we read that there went up
Jacob, was a political leader in Egypt and did have       with Joseph "both chariots and horsemen; and it
authority over his brothers. The dream was still in       was a very great company."
force as far as its meaning is concerned that they          The time of deep mourning likewise was over an
must bow down before him. And Joseph it is who            unusually.extended period of time. There were the
must approach Pharaoh through his servants to get         forty days of mourning during the embalming. This
permission to go to Canaan and to bury his father         was followed by several days of travelling to Ca-
there. Yet that first verse in the chapter that speaks    naan. At the threshingfloor of  Atad there was
only of Joseph showing his love for his father and        another period of seven days. And we read that
deep sorrow at his death; and excludes even one           "there they mourned with a great and very sore
word about the other sons-who were all there and          lamentation." That makes at least, and most likely
had just heard the blessings pronounced by their          more than, fifty days of deep mourning.
father-when it would have taken little effort on
Moses' part to change it from Joseph to Jacob's             Now remember that this is the burial of an aged,
sons, is revealing to say the least.                      feeble little-known stranger who was the father of a
  I do not at all mean to imply that the other sons       group of shepherds. To be sure, he was the father of
did not feel the loss. It may not be said that they       the man next to the king of Egypt. And that means
had no love for their father. It was Judah, way back      that it was out of respect for Joseph, rather than for
in chapter 44, who made such a passionate plea for        Jacob who had died, that explains this large com-
his father and showed deep concern for him. We            pany that travelled to Canaan for the burying. The
cannot picture him here by his dead father as one         Egyptians did not feel the loss, and would not miss
unmoved and cold about it. Certainly Benjamin,            Jacob, who had been quite far removed from them
who was so dear to his father's heart, especially         in the land of Goshen. It was not love for this man,
after Joseph had been sold into Egypt, never              who came out of Canaan with all his family to es-
showed any of the cruelty that the other brothers         cape the ravages of the famine, that explains their
did when they lied to their father about Joseph. But      presence. They were ordered by the king to accom-
it is evident that no one was touched as deeply as        pany the bereaved family. And yet the Canaanites,
Joseph. In a situation such as this his political         in verse 11, because of the presence of these elders
power over his brothers did not give him the right        and those chariots and horsemen called it "a
to bar them from doing as he did. And deep love           grievous mourning to the Egyptians." It was for-
would disregard all this. Yet we do not read of one       mality and outward show, not true sympathy and
of them doing so.                                         loving concern.
  It is quite plain that the other brothers did not         Do we need all that? Do we need unbelievers at
love their father as deeply as Joseph did. And the        our funerals? What can they add that counts? Can
ten or more years of separation from his father,          they bring us true comfort? They come not with the
because they occurred in the way that they did,           Word of God which alone has comfort for the be-
namely, by his forced separation from a father he         reaved. Will they come with the Word of God that
loved dearly, may account for this.                       speaks of His Son being (as we read in Romans 4:25
  But the other element is the extravagant funeral        in the Greek) raised on account of our justification?
arrangements and procession to the burial spot.           Will they point us to God's promises and the truth
The embalming in this instance was quite neces-           Paul expresses in Philippians  1:21, that to die, for
sary. Since they had to make a long journey               the believer, is gain?
through an extremely hot climate, the body could            And did it have to be with such a display of pomp
not be taken without the embalming. Otherwise to          and outward show that Jacob's request, that


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 273



stemmed from faith in God's promises, should be             bringing conviction that the departed believing
carried out in this way? Would Jacob have wanted            loved one is in heavenly glory. And though fifty
it? He did not ask for anything like that. He only re-      days-and even fifty weeks-after the separation,
quested being buried in the land of  .promise.  Be-         he may still shed tears, the Word of God will have
sides, all these unbelievers could only pour salt into      taken hold of him so that he speaks with more em-
the wounds, and touch the flesh of the bereaved             phasis upon the departed believer's gain than his
who felt, the loss, by saying that it was too bad that      own loss.
it happened, and by expressing sympathy for a loss,           But once again let us note that by God's appoint-
and leave it there. There would be no mentioning            ment the chaff serves the wheat. It pleases God to
of Jacob being gathered unto his brethren in heav-          use the wicked for the good of His church. As the
enly glory.                                                 dead body of Jacob entered the promised land with
  The chariots and horsemen in a sense were the             the help of unbelievers, to whom God gave no
least extravagant part of the whole funeral proces-         promises of blessings, and who would die in their
sion. Protection along the way may have seemed              sins, so through men who were grinding their teeth
necessary. Yet Jacob and his family came without            in anger, God brought His Son to the cross to open
it. For God is our refuge and our strength, a very          the way for our dead bodies to leave the grave and
present help in time of need. And He.showed this,           enter the heavenly Canaan in the day of Christ's re-
not only when Jacob came with his whole unarmed             turn. As the dead body of Jacob, the elect child of
family, but also some 400 years later when He               God, was furthered in its crossing of the literal Jor-
brought about two million people, descendants of            dan to enter the typical heaven with the help of
Jacob, out of Egypt and into Canaan along the same          spiritual Esaus, so our dead bodies will be brought
route that this funeral procession took. This proces-       over the Jordan of death and the grave into the
sion was prophetic.                                         coming kingdom of heaven with the help of bitter
  But all that weeping and deep mourning over a             enemies. For although the unbelievers are striving
period of fifty days; did that stem from faith? For         to bring forth the kingdom of the Antichrist, they
the unbeliever who has no hope, and has no prom-            are being used to prepare the way for the Christ to
ises from God, there is room for weeping until he           return, when all the believers will enjoy the resur-
dies. For the believer there is joyful reassurance of       rection of their bodies and heavenly glory with
a reunion before the throne of God, and a  peace-           body and soul.

MYSHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter to Timothy

                                       March 15, 1983       that a truly Christ-centered sermon is a sermon
Dear Timothy,                                               which begins and ends with God. I will never for-
  In my last letter to you I began to discuss with          get that near the beginning of my ministry an old
you what a truly Christ-centered sermon actually            elder, a veteran of many fierce and bitter battles for
is. You will recall, I think, that I mentioned, first of    the faith, said to me: "Dominee, if you want to
all, that a Christ-centered sermon was one which            preach sermons that, are really Reformed then you
had as its pulsebeat the perfect and efficacious            must always preach so that God is everything and
atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. This            man is nothing." (I wonder if it is still true today that
truth must not be tacked on the sermon somewhere            elders take it upon themselves to speak to their
-perhaps at  ,the very end; nor must it be men-             ministers about these things. I had elders like that. I
tioned from time to time in the sermon. It must be          look back upon them with deep thanksgiving to
the truth from which the whole sermon flows. It             God.) A truly Christ-centered sermon is a God-cen-
must be the heartbeat of the sermon. It must be a           tered sermon, because Christ is the revelation of
truth woven into the very fabric of the whole ser-          God Who is the God of our salvation.
mon.                                                          All of this I talked about last time.
  I also mentioned that this truth in turn implies            There is another element, though in a Christ-cen-


274                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



tered sermon that I want to discuss with you in this         saves  His  peopZe  from sin. How important this is.
letter. This is perhaps a bit more difficult to ex-          Never for a moment must the gospel ever leave the
press, but it is of critical importance and badly            impression, either by direct statement or by impli-
needs saying. A truly Christ-centered sermon is an           cation, that the promises of the gospel are to all who
Antithetical  sermon. This means several things.             hear the preaching. Never must the gospel come in
   If a sermon is truly antithetical, then, first of all,    such a way that the people who hear are left with
it has as an integral part of it the truth of election       the idea that the gospel is a statement of God's love
and reprobation. One almost feels compelled to               for all, God's longing to have all come to Christ,
hasten to add that this does not mean that the               God's purpose and desire to save all. The gospel is
truths of election and reprobation have to be specif-        always a very particular promise which God makes
ically mentioned in every sermon, much less that             only to a select number of people. If there is to be
they must be explained and developed. That, of               truly Christ-centered preaching, the preaching
course, is neither desirable nor possible. But once          must always have this truth as an integral part of it.
again: just as Christ Himself as Savior is woven into          It is true, of course, that the gospel preached does
the very fabric of the sermon, so must the truths of         not always specifically refer to God's people as
sovereign predestination be implicit in every                God's elect. The Scriptures do not do this either.
sermon which is truly Christ-centered.                       Oftentimes the Scriptures speak of God's elect
   It is not so easy, I suppose, to demonstrate exact-       people by using their  spirituaZ  names: weary and
ly how this must take place, for how this is done in-        .heavy  laden, thirsty, those who believe, those who
volves a minister's style, rhetorical method,  homi-         call upon the name of the Lord, etc. As you know,
letical approach, and such like things; and these            oftentimes the texts which use these expressions
differ from minister to minister. But, if we look at it      are appealed to in support of the fact that the prom-
from a negative point of view, a sermon which                ises of the gospel are meant for all. But this is not
lacks this emphasis is a sermon which is so broad            the case. Scripture often addresses God's people by
and general in its address that it could refer to any        their spiritual names or characteristics-and does
one, either in the audience or in the whole world. A         this because the preaching is always worked in the
sermon always has an address, you know. What the             consciousness of God's people by the Holy Spirit
minister says is not simply speaking to the wind;            through Whose sovereign efficacy the internal call
yelling at the skies; a vague and undefined address          is irresistibly effected. By the operation of the
which makes a sermon preachable almost                       Spirit, the truth of the gospel is reflected in the very
anywhere. It must have an address. It is certainly           consciousness of God's saints.
true that, in part, the address is very broad and              But even while Scripture often addresses God's
general, as the gospel is preached "promiscuous-             people by their spiritual characteristics-and the
ly"; the general address of the gospel is the com-           preaching ought to do the same-it is also clear that
mand which comes to all men who hear the gospel              Scripture ascribes even these spiritual characteris-
to repent of sin and believe in Christ. But this com-        tics to the work of grace by the Spirit only in the
mand of the gospel can never be the sole content of          hearts of the elect.
the gospel. It is not all that the gospel has to say. It
is not even the main thing which the gospel has to             Especially under the influence of Puritan preach-
say. The gospel is "good news." A command or de-             ing, many teach that there are certain spiritual
mand to repent of sin can hardly be called good              characteristics which are a general fruit of the
news. The command of the gospel is not in itself the         preaching, but which are not a part of salvation.
content of the gospel. That is why our Canons in II,         When a sinner, unregenerated, hears the gospel
                                                             preached, so it is said, that gospel has a certain ef:
5 connect inescapably this command of the gospel
with the proclamation of the promise: "This prom-            feet upon him: he comes under the conviction of
                                                             sin, realizes how great a sinner he is, is tormented
ise, together with the command to repent and be-             by the consciousness of sin and guilt, even longs to
lieve, ought to be published promiscuously. . . ."           a certain extent to be delivered from this misery,
  It is also true that when the gospel is publicly           sometimes even lifts up his tortured soul to God in
preached, Christ Jesus as the only Savior is set forth       prayer. All this is an effect of the gospel apart from
and proclaimed in the gospel so that all who hear,           regeneration; in fact, a person who experiences all
hear also Christ proclaimed as the only Savior from          these things may eventually not be regenerated at
sin.                                                         all, but go lost. In the light of this conception of the
  But it is here where we come to the nub of the             preaching, many have spoken of a general address
matter. For when I say that a truly Christ-centered          of the gospel to these suffering and struggling souls
sermon is also a sermon which has as its heartbeat           which speaks of God's love, the sufficiency of the
sovereign election and reprobation, this means that          cross, God's desire to see them escape from their
Christ is proclaimed in the sermon as the One Who            troubles and find salvation and happiness in Christ.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                           275



But this is contrary to Scripture and our Confes-         the spiritual perspective of the whole sermon. If it
sions. The Canons of Dort specifically brand this as      is not; the sermon is not Christ-centered.
Arminianism and a doctrine to be rejected by those          <This truth of sovereign grace is the truth that all
who hold to the Reformed faith: "The Synod rejects        salvation is worked by God through Christ and by
the errors of those who teach: That the unregener-        the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. And because
ate man is not really nor utterly dead in sin, nor        this is true, this grace is a grace of God shown only
destitute of all powers unto spiritual good, but that     to the eZect.
he can yet hunger and thirst after righteousness
and life, and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and         But, it ought to be clear by now that all this also
broken spirit, which is pleasing to God. For these        implies that the preaching must set forth these
are contrary to the express testimony of Scripture.       truths overagainst false doctrine and the lie. This
`Ye were dead through trespasses and sins,' Eph.          too is antithetical preaching. A minister must not
2: 1, 5; and: `Every imagination of the thought of his    shy away from exposing error, warning against
heart are only evil continually,' Gen. 6:5; 821.          false doctrine, instructing the people of God of the
                                                          truth of Scripture specifically as it stands opposed
  "Moreover, to hunger and thirst after deliver-          to all the lies. He must do this sharply, clearly, pre-
ance from misery, and after life, and to offer unto       cisely, and in such a way that the people of God are
God the sacrifice of a broken spirit, is peculiar to      told that their salvation and blessedness lies only in
the regenerate and those that are called blessed, Ps.     the truth-that the lie is a trap to ensnare the un-
51:lO; Mt. 5:6."                                          wary and rob them of the joy of salvation.
  Overagainst such a, position, therefore, the              Always the defense of the faith lies here at this
preaching must always be antithetical, i.e., must be      point. One of my colleagues in Seminary men-
addressed in such a way that the promises of the          tioned to me just the other day that it is after all
gospel are directed to God's people alone.                only rarely in all the history of the church that the
  These points bring up another point which is im-        church has held firmly and consistently the truths
portant in understanding what antithetical preach-        of sovereign grace. Even after major battles have
ing is. When the doctrines of election and reproba-       been fought and won in defense of this truth, soon
tion form the warp and woof of the preaching, then        once again the very truth for which the church
it also follows that preaching always emphasizes          struggled begins to slip away. How true this is. But
that salvation is all of grace and of grace alone.        without it there cannot be Christ-centered preach-
This, too, must be not only explicit in every ser-        ing.
mon, but must be the starting point, the approach,          Now I must close. In another letter we can give
the fundamental perspective of every sermon.              some concrete instances of Christ-centered preach-
Never must this be left to the imagination; never         ing-from different parts of Scripture.
must the minister say that he did not talk about this                                  Fraternally in Christ,
because, after all, it is presupposed; never must he
simply assume that the congregation will under-                                        H. Hanko
stand that he certainly believes in this. It must be

GUESTARTICLE


                                                 Barren

  I am a barren woman. A barren woman nearly              Your sympathy will do me no good. Neither will it
past the age where I must forever give up the hope        dispel my barrenness. I do not need nor do I want
of bringing forth God's covenant seed and the joy of      your sympathy, because this is the way God, in His
ever holding in my arms my very own baby. Barren          infinite wisdom, has chosen for me and my dear
-a word full of emptiness. Empty arms, empty              husband to walk. Why then? For two reasons. Per-
home, empty heart. Barren-a lonely word, full of          haps it may be some help to the couple who has just
longing for what can never be. For several years          received the devastating news that they can never
now I have been thinking of writing an article on         be parents. That they (especially the wife) may
this subject. Why? Certainly not for sympathy.            know that others have lived with emptiness; not


276                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



just stoically lived with it but joyfully. Yes, as im-    the events of this life.
possible as it seems, joyfully lived with it, giving      . I would like to offer some advice for the barren
thanks to God daily that He is directing your- life,      women of our denomination. Advice I wish I had
and not you. This joy does not come easily nor            had when I was younger. Do not stay home from
quickly, but it is a peaceful sort of joy that comes      church on a Sunday when there is to be baptism. I
through much prayer and time, through the work-           know it is hard to listen to sermons on the wonder-
ing of God's Spirit. I would not have believed this       ful privilege of mothers to devote their time to the
myself not so very long ago. The other reason? That       high calling of bringing forth and raising God's
you to whom God has given the wonderful privi-            covenant seed. I know it is hard to sing Psalter
lege of raising His covenant seed may understand          #360,  the 3rd verse: "Joyful children, sons and
your sisters for whom God has given a different           daughters, shall about thy table meet. Olive plants
path to walk and so that you may more intelligently       in strength and beauty, full of hope. and promise
pray for their needs.                                     sweet." This is not easy for you, but do not stay at
  The first reaction to the news of your doctor that      home. Instead, pray for grace to rejoice with the
you and your husband can never be parents is one          parents and the church that a new soul has been
of disbelief. (Things like this do not happen to you,     added to God's church. Pray also for the parents, es-
they happen to other people.) Then as each month          pecially if they already have a large family and this
goes by and you see that you-are not pregnant this        new child may not be quite so welcome as the first
month, nor the next, nor the next, then comes self-       one. Do not sinfully think only of your own empty
pity and a sort of helpless rebellion which can very      arms. This is the Devil's way of causing us to sin
easily, and often does, turn into bitterness which        against the tenth commandment. "I can't do this,"
eats away at the container in which it is  stored-        you say. Then you have not yet discovered the
you. Worse than this, it is sinful rebellion against      power of God's grace. Pray for His grace that will
none other than God.                                      allow you to rejoice and not weep. It took me many
  The thing that the Christian barren woman has           years to change my prayer from, "Give me a child
that the worldly one does not have is some place to       also" to "Help me to rejoice with these parents."
go with her bitter sorrow. We can go to our loving        When my prayer changed, so did my attitude.
heavenly Father and lay it at His feet. And we do           May I add a note here to our ministers. Please
this, but our problem is that when we finish pray-        remember the barren woman in your congregation
ing we do not leave our burden there. We sinfully         who, after listening to all that the Lord has with-
pick it up again. Instead of humbly praying, "Lord,       held from her (and no doubt, we who do not have
behold thy handmaid. Do unto me what seemeth              children tend to see only the joys of motherhood
good in Thy sight," the cry of Rachel to Jacob is         and not the many sorrows and trying times in the
wrung from our souls, "Give me children or else I         raising of a family) may sinfully be feeling very
die." And when heaven seems impervious to this            sorry indeed for herself. I have often felt the need
plea we ask, "Why?" Oh, my sister, be careful of          of more than the brief exhortation added to the end
this question. Perhaps the reason for your childless-     of the sermon that if the Lord has not given us the
ness will be harder to live with than living without      covenant seed to raise we must be content knowing
children. Do not press this question too far, or the      that God does all things well. I know this and I take
Lord may show you why and you will wish you               my comfort from this; for without this I do not be-
never knew. You will wish'that you had had the            lieve I could carry this burden. My heart also goes
faith to accept God's answer to Paul, "My grace is        out to the single women at this time. Try to make
sufficient for thee." We have been taught from            your sermon as meaningful for us as for the parents
childhood to trust in God, for He directs our feet        of the congregation.
only in the paths that are good for us. This is  .a11
easily done when God's paths are paths that we              There are the times that are hard for the couple
ourselves would choose, but, oh, so hard when             without children, such as the hours between
God's path is just the opposite from what we want.        supper and bedtime. With children, there does not
Now is the time to put our faith into practice. We        seem to be enough time, but without children there
must learn to trust His way, knowing that He              is much time that hangs heavy. But we may not
knows the end from the beginning and the very             waste these hours. We must use them wisely. God
best way for us to reach that end by keeping obsta-       has given us this "extra" time. We can use it to pre-
cles from our path that may cause us to stumble.          pare for Society and for the Sabbath. We can use it
How having children could possibly cause me to            to develop the talents God has given us. So often we
stumble I do not know. But I know that God                tend to think of talents as only being artistic or
knows, and His wisdom is far above mine, which            musical, but God has given other talents as well.
only sees one day at a time, not my life as a whole,      The wonderful talent of comforting the sick and
nor the place for which I am being fitted in glory by     troubled in the church. We who do not have  chil-


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                              277



dren have the time to do this, and we may not            : Holidays do not have to be dreaded because you
waste this talent. The talent of cooking and baking      do not have a family to celebrate with. Invite other
we so often think we cannot use to its full, because     families to celebrate with you. Again, it is some-
who will eat all the things we cook and bake? How        times better to ask more than one family so the chil-
about families in the church in which the mother is      dren have others to play with.
sick? I don't mean only from a hospital stay. The flu      One thing a husband without children feels more
can keep a mother from preparing good meals, and         strongly than his wife is that this branch of the
I am sure that a meal and perhaps prepared lunches       covenant seed ends with him. There is no one to
for husband and children to take to work and             carry on the family name in the church. We must
school the next day would be welcome. Let it be          trust God's wisdom in this matter also. He is the
known that it would be a joy and a privilege for you     One Who builds His church. My husband and I did
if mothers would feel free to call on you in times of    not adopt children. This did not seem to be the way
sickness.                                                the Lord had for us. I have talked to couples who
  Are you good with children even though the             have adopted children, and they have been very
Lord did not give you any of your own? How about         happy that they have done so. Their adopted chil-
offering to babysit so that the parents may attend       dren have given them much joy, but some have
Society?                                                 also caused them terrible heartaches. But this is
  Often times the barren couple's life is made more      true of natural children also. I highly recommend
barren still because they are not included in much       adoption if, after prayer, it seems that the Lord has
of the social life of the church. They do not have       someone else's child or children for you to raise.
children in school, and so do not attend PTA, nor        Bear in mind that this can often be more difficult
do they know much about what the school's activi-        than raising your own natural child, simply be-
ties are and so do not have much to contribute to        cause of heredity. The experts tell us that the way a
the conversation on this and other child-related         child develops is due 85% to heredity and 15% to
subjects which make up much of the life of the           environment. Yet I believe that God uses this
couple with a family. There is something you can         means to bring His covenant seed into the church.
do about this. Join the Mother's Circle of your            The barren couple has one thing that the couple
school. You may not be a mother, but you are in-         with children do not have. We have the time and
terested in the school, and they are always ready to     opportunity really to get to know each other. We
welcome new members to help with their projects.         have the opportunity to do things together and to
This will give you something in common with the          find joy in one another's company. Often one hears
parents and will help you to feel you are not so         of the couples with children who, during the
much of an outsider. Offer to teach Sunday School,       children's growing years, grow apart-she busying
or perhaps return to college and become a teacher        herself with the children, he busying himself in his
in one of our Christian Schools. I know of one           job; and when the children are grown and out of
woman who did this; and she has told me that even        the house the husband and wife find themselves
though this was the farthest thing from her mind         with nothing in common. It is my belief that the
when she was younger, she has always been glad           barren couple come to love each other more than
that the Lord opened this door for her. She has          couples with children simply because of the time
come to know and love many children, and, much           they have alone together. As I said before, this time
to her surprise, they have returned her love. It has     should be used wisely. It must not be wasted in
also made her life more like the lives of her friends    self-pity or in selfish pursuit of pleasure or wealth.
in the church. She now has PTA to attend when            There are opportunities God opens for us: perhaps
they do and can talk with friends about the same         the opportunity of traveling and seeing the marvel-
things they do. Of, if you think you cannot teach,       ous wonders of His beautiful creation, perhaps the
offer to drive the school bus. This also gives you       opportunity to help financially in Kingdom work.
more in common with your friends.                          As I said at the beginning, a barren woman can
  Do not become irritated when you invite friends        lead a life filled with joy when she lives out of the
to visit and they say, "You come here. It is much        knowledge that God's blessing does indeed rest
easier for you to come here. You do not have to lug      upon her and her husband, remembering always
any kids along." Tell them that you like to visit in     God's promise in Isaiah 41:10, "I am thy God: I will
their home, but that you like to entertain in your       strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee." The secret is
own home as well. Buy some toys and books and            in those last four words. Then we can say with the
have a place for the children to play. Sometimes it      Psalmist, "The lines have fallen unto me in places
goes better when you ask more than one family at a       large and fair. A goodly heritage is mine, marked
time. The children then have each other to play          out with gracious care." Yes, with God's gracious
with.                                                    care-graciously keeping us on the path He has so


278                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



wisely chosen for us. Do not sinfully long for the              in this instance I exercised my editor's power to respect the
otherpath of your own choosing, for He has  care-               wish of the author not to include her name. The reason was not
fully marked out this one for us in His love and wis-           that she or I wished to kindle your curiosity and have you en-
dom which is far above ours.                                    gage in a guessng game. That will be futile. The writer's ex-
                                         Name Withheld          pressed wish was that every minister consider the possibility
[Editor's note. The article submitted was not anonymous, but    that the author is a barren woman in his own congregation.]

SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                                  Tlhe Days of Noah (3)
                                                   Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma



  Last installment we considered that in the days               in our day after money and all the luxuries and
of Noah the mighty and noble men of this wicked                 pleasures it can buy. So much is it the order of the
world had developed God's good creation in the                  day that even God's children, without sometimes
service of sin and Satan. The world, had developed              even realizing it, fall into the same pattern. How
greatly in her technology and industry; in fact, civ-           often we find those, even within the church of
ilization had reached the very height of its develop-           Christ, constantly discussing new and better ways
ment.  Jabal, Jubal, and Tubalcain, the wicked sons             of increasing their wealth. Sometimes it even be-
of evil Lamech, had made it their aim and goal to               comes so bad that they begin to judge one's Chris-
make this world useful for themselves, and useful               tianity on the basis of how many dollars and cents
in such a way that they might fulfill their own lusts           one, is worth. In fact, such a craving in the church
and passions. Their purpose in life was not to sub-             after the accumulation of earthly wealth often sees
due the earth in the service of God but rather to set           the causes of the kingdom of Christ suffer. Surely,
up an earthly kingdom without God where man                     the world about us has gone crazy over the al-
reigned supreme. So it was that their wicked                    mighty dollar and all of the conveniences and ex-
descendants became the geniuses of entertainment,               tras in life that dollar can bring.
industry, and technology.
  Does this advancement in entertainment and                       Along with this craze of the modern day world,
technology of Noah's day sound familiar? It should.             and hand in hand with it, is the extreme longing to
Remember Jesus' words in Matthew 24:37, "But as                 indulge in all the earthly sensual pleasures that this
the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son            world affords. Remember, Jubal was the "father of
of man be." The events of Noah's day are even now               all such as handle the harp and organ." He and his
unfolding before our eyes, including that develop-              descendants had taken God's wonderful creation of
ment in worldly arts and industry.                              music and utilized that also in the service of sin and
                                                                Satan. They composed the notes and added the
  If you recall, Jabal was the "father of all such as           words which resulted in the lustful strains of sin
dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle." He was             and immorality. That was true in the days of Noah,
the beginning of those that accumulate unto them-               and such also will be true of the days prior to
selves the treasures of this world. He and his spiri-           Christ's coming! And it is too! The Apostle Paul
tual descendants were those characterized by the                tells Timothy in II Timothy 3:1-4, "This know also,
love of money, and who were, `therefore,  high-                 that in the last days perilous times shall come, for
minded, trusting in their uncertain riches and                  men shall be. . . lovers of pleasures more than
laying up in store for themselves wealth and pres-              lovers of God." It can hardly go without saying that
tige upon earth. They cared not for God's kingdom               we live in a "pleasure-mad" and a "fun-crazy"
but instead they fell into temptation and a snare,              world. That reveals itself, first of all, in the very
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which                   music we hear as it flows forth from the modern
drown men in destruction and perdition (see I                   day "harp and organ." Just quickly turn the tuner
Timothy 6:9-19).                                                of our car radios or stereos and we find that the vast
  Is it not true that this is exactly what we find              majority of stations that the tuning needle touches
transpiring about us today too? You and I live in the           blast out the distorted and corrupted "music" of
midst of a materialistic world. There is a mad dash             this world. We hear music that delights in  rebel-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               279



lion, drugs, sex, and blasphemy against God and           down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men
His Word. We hear of murder, adultery, and Satan          and deceiveth them that dwell on. the earth by
worship; and that, not only in the acid rock and          means of those miracles which he had power to do
punk music of the day, but also in the more accept-       in the sight of the beast" (Rev.  13:13-14); surely,
ed country music of the day. Even the distorted and       this beast is already making his appearance in the
twisted notes of music support such lustful and im-       world today!
moral thoughts.                                             The point is, of course, that all of this is an indi-
  But neither does the entertainment craze begun          cation to God's children who are waiting' and
by Jubal stop with music. There are those places          watching for Christ's return that Christ is coming
that thrive in the night hours, the theaters and bars     quickly and will soon appear on the clouds of
and discos. The world sets up its movie stars and         heaven. As witnesses of all that is transpiring about
celebrities as gods and worships them. Gossip             us in this world we are called to be sober and
papers have become a thriving enterprise. And all         watch. That means we must beware lest we fall
this has its effect upon the church too. The love of      into the same snare and temptation of the wicked
God and His Word has grown cold, to be replaced           and lose sight of our goal, the kingdom of God and
by a love of pleasure. Many in the church of Christ,      its righteousness.
if not indulging in the blatant corruption which we         So it was that, because of the amalgamation of
have just mentioned, nevertheless live to see how         the church and the world, mighty men of old were
much fun they can get out of life. They become            born, men of renown. And these mighty men de-
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. No          veloped the world in civilization. They monopo-
doubt in our day there is a repeat of the same crav-      lized God's creation and subdued it in the service of
ings and desires that characterized the world of          Satan. Furthermore, we learn in Genesis  6:11-13
Noah's day! The last days are upon us!                    the outcome of all this: "The earth was corrupt be-
  Finally, we must not  forget`Tubalcain  and his         fore God, and the earth was filled with violence.
spiritual descendants. Tubalcain was an "instructor       And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was
of every artificer in brass and iron." He and his de-     corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon
scendants were the giants of industry and technol-        earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh
ogy. They labored to develop the natural products         is come before Me, for the earth is filled with vio-
of God's creation to suit their own needs and com-        lence through them; and behold, I will destroy
forts. They did not attempt to serve God by means         them with the earth." Because ungodly men devel-
of the great knowledge and skill God had given            oped their riches, entertainment, and technology
them, but they rather attempted to create a world         with the purpose of serving themselves and not
of technology where they could become their own           God the world became utterly corrupt and filled
gods.                                                     with violence. Noah's day was a time of abounding
  Is it possible for the godly man of today to be         lawlessness! And the underlying reason for this was
blinded to the similarity of Noah's day with ours?        the total depravity of mankind. In Genesis  6:5 we
Surely not! Just look at the great advances in tech-      read, "And God saw that the wickedness of man
nology today. Man has conquered the sea and air           was great in the earth, and that every imagination
and space. By the touch of a few buttons we can           of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continual-
talk to someone on the opposite side of the earth.        ly."
Or, if we wish, in a matter of hours we can sit next        To understand this development of the world in
to them and visit them. Think of the nuclear threat       Noah's day it is necessary that we consider for a
to the world; so far advanced has man become in           moment the fall of man into sin. Prior to the fall
his knowledge that he can destroy himself with            Adam was formed after the image of God. "The
only the push of several buttons. Observe the great       Canons of Dordtrecht" in the Third and Fourth
strides man has made in medicine and surgery.             Heads of Doctrine, Article  1  describe for us what
Who ever heard, thirty years ago, of organ trans-         was true of Adam in the state of perfection: "His
plants or mechanical hearts! Who ever thought of          understanding was adorned with a true and saving
staying alive by means of a steady diet of pills! Take    knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things;
note of the many little conveniences we now have:         his heart and will were upright; all his affections
from potbelly stoves to microwaves, from horse            pure; and the whole man was holy." Surely, the de-
and buggy to computerized automobiles with re-            scription given us here of Adam before the fall is
clining seats, from a quiet night spent around the        the exact opposite of the description of man given
Monopoly board to the excitement of Pat-Man and           in Genesis  6:5. This sudden change of man's heart
Space Invaders. And all of this in a matter of a few      can be ascribed to the fall of Adam into sin. In the
years time! Surely the beast out of the earth which       fall Adam "forfeited these excellent gifts"
"doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come         described for us in the "Canons" and instead


280                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



became corrupt in all the imaginations of his heart.        possessed in Paradise before .the fall. But in Noah's
And since Adam was the father of the whole                  day these elect became fewer and fewer; there re-
human race, all men in him were born dead in                mained only a small remnant of those in whom
trespasses and sin. The description of man given us         God had worked salvation from the depravity of
in Genesis  6:5 "that every imagination of the              sin. As for the rest of mankind, God had given them
thought of his heart was only evil continually," was        over unto a depraved mind. Now the prediluvian
true of every fallen man born out of the loins of           world had become densely populated with them. It
Adam. Now, we also learn from. Scripture that out           was upon this reprobate world that God looked
of this entire mass of fallen depraved men God, by          and, "behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had cor-
His grace, has saved unto Himself a people in               rupted his way upon the earth."
Christ. In these people, whom He has chosen from              Next time, the Lord willing, we will consider
eternity, God works, delivering them from this              how this corruption of the' world resulted in a
spiritual bondage of sin. To them has been restored         society filled with violence and lawlessness.
the image of God with all the excellent gifts Adam

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE


         I Timothy m Advice for Office Bearers
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering


  We now begin our study of the three letters              procedure was from Macedonia to Asia (Acts 20:4-
which Paul wrote between his two imprisonments             6), and Timothy did not remain in Ephesus. Demas
in Rome. They are called "Pastoral Epistles" be-           had deserted Paul (II Tim. 4:10), whereas the Prison
cause they were written to two individuals who             Epistles included him among the group at Rome
functioned as pastors, namely Timothy and Titus.           (Philemon 24). Titus was left in Crete (Titus  15)
While Paul wrote these letters to these men, he also       and then went to Dalmatia (II Tim. 4;  lo), but on
intended that the letters should be read to the            none of the journeys in Acts did Paul go to Crete,
churches, hence they are instructive for the church        nor did he have Titus with him when he finally did
of all ages. The order in which they were written is       go there during the voyage to Rome. Mark was in
I Timothy, Titus, and II Timothy. The first of them        Asia  (4:ll) where Paul had recommended him in
deals especially with the institution of the church,       one of the Asian letters (Col. 4: 10). Luke was still
including the labors of the office bearers, the min-       with him (II Tim. 4:  ll), Tychicus had gone on his
isters, elders, and deacons.                               errand to Ephesus  (4:12).  Paul himself had visited
                                                           Ephesus (I Tim.  1:3), Crete (Titus  1:5), Nicopolis
THE HISTORICAL SETTING                                     (3:12),  Corinth (II Tim.  4:20), Miletus  (4:20),-and
  If we examine the three Pastoral Epistles from           Troas (4: 11), and was presently located in Rome
the point of view of the places and travels referred       (1:17).  He was in prison  (1:16) and was quite sure
to in them, we soon learn that they deal with a time       that the end of his life was not far away  (4:6, 7).
in Paul's life quite different from the events record-     Altogether the situation was very different from
ed in the Prison Epistles, which coincided with the        that described'by the Prison Epistles."
events recorded in the Book of Acts:                          The question then arises, to what time in Paul's
  To illustrate this point, we quote from the book,        life  .do the Pastoral Epistles refer? The answer is
New Testament  Survey  by Tenney. "The chronologi-         given this way: Paul wrote the Prison Epistles
cal relations of the Pastorals to the Prison Epistles      during his first imprisonment in Rome. After this
seem clear from their reference to Paul's compan-          period of time, Paul was released for approximately
ions. Many of these are identical with those of the        two or three years during which he travelled exten-
Prison Epistles, but are located in places which           sively and wrote these three Pastoral Epistles. He
show that they had left Paul's immediate vicinity.         was once again captured and confined to a prison
Timothy had been left at Ephesus while Paul was            for a brief time after which he was beheaded.
en route to Macedonia (I Tim. 1:3), whereas on the            Hendriksen, in his BibZe Survey, suggests the fol-
last trip that Timothy took with Paul the order of         lowing chronology in the life of Paul.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                            281



   1. Immediately after his release, Paul sends          have written the letter some time around A.D. 65.
Timothy to Philippi with this good news (Philippi-         It is interesting to note that the Pauline author-
ans 2: 19-23).                                           ship has been and is today questioned not only
  2. Paul himself started  o'n his journey toward        from the liberal higher critics, but also from conser-
Asia Minor, and on the way to that destination he        vative quarters. It has not gained acceptance,
leaves Titus on the Island of Crete to bring to com-     nevertheless they do make considerable noise.
pletion the organization of the churches which had         You may ask, what possible arguments can be
been established on that island (cf. Acts 2: 11 and      produced to question the authorship of Paul? Let's
Titus  1:15).                                            briefly review the line of thinking, outlined in Har-
  3. The apostle arrives at Ephesus, travels on          rison's New Testament Introduction. 1. Certain his-
until he reaches Colosse just as he had intended to      torical data cannot be fitted into Paul's labors prior
do (Philemon 22) and returns to Ephesus.                 to his journey to Rome-e.g., he left Trophimus at
  4. At Ephesus he is joined by Timothy, who             Miletus (II Tim. 4:20) and he left books and cloak at
brings news from the congregation of Philippi (see       Troas (II Tim. 4:  13), which cannot be harmonized
1 above). Paul asks Timothy to remain at Ephesus,        with his journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20). 2. Paul em-
which was in need of his ministry (I Tim. 1:3,4).        phasized in his other letters that the Lord would
  5. Paul himself goes to Macedonia, just as he had      soon return. Here the author stresses the need for
planned (Phil.  2:24; I Tim.  1:3). He expects to re-    organizational unity in the church, as if the church
turn to Ephesus at a later date (I Tim.  4:13). From     will continue for a long time. 3. The style and lan-
Macedonia he writes two epistles which resemble          guage of these letters is different from Paul's writ-
each other very closely: I Timothy and Titus (This       ings. Here they point out style of argument, differ
is just a possibility. There are many who think that     ence of vocabulary, etc. 4. It is suggested that the
Titus was written a little later, and from Ephesus).     doctrinal emphasis is different from Paul's. Many
                                                         great themes of Paul are omitted here and the
  6. The apostle journeys to Nicopolis (in Epirus),      author deals with a heresy, Gnosticism, which did
located on the east coast of the Ionian Sea. Here he     not arise in the early church until the second cen-
spends the winter and is joined by Titus, Titus 3:12.    tury.
  7. Paul (and Titus?) journeys to Spain, Romans           What do these critics suggest? Two possibilities:
15:24.                                                   one is that Paul wrote certain fragments and some-
  8. Having returned to Asia Minor (see 5 above),        one else filled in the details; the other is that some
he leaves Trophimus sick at Miletus, south of Ephe-      other writer took Paul's name for himself in order
sus (II Tim. 4:20).                                      to have the prestige and authority of the apostle.
                                                         Such a person lived during the second century and
  9. At Troas he visits  Carpus, at whose house he       thereby allowed for its inclusion in the canon of the
leaves his cloak (II Tim. 4: 13). He is rearrested.      Bible.
Cruel Nero was reigning. This was the monster of           The answer to this is obvious. First, we accept
iniquity who murdered his step-brother, his own          divine inspiration which attributes authorship to
mother, his wife Oc-tavia, his tutor Seneca, and         Paul: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the com-
many others. Christianity had become a forbidden         mandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus
religion. Accordingly, sometime between A.D. 65          Christ, which is our hope; unto Timothy, my own
and 68 the apostle was again made a prisoner,            son in the faith" (I Timothy  l:l, 2). Secondly, we
probably at Troas.                                       have the testimony of the early church fathers.
   10. By way of Corinth, where Erastus remaiped         Quotations of these Pastoral Epistles as being writ-
(Rom. 16:23; II Tim. 4:20), Paul is brought to Rome.     ten by Paul appear in the early writings of Iranaeus,
His second imprisonment was severe and brief (II         Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria. The same is
Tim.  1:16, 17;  2:9). He was. condemned to death        true of Polycarp and Clement of Rome. Besides
and beheaded on the Ostian Way, about three miles        this, the Holy Spirit led the early church to include
outside of the capital. Just before he died he wrote     these books in the canon of inspired Scripture, and
II Timothy, death already staring him in the face.       our Reformed confessions ascribe them to Paul
His shout of triumph was, "For I am already being        (Netherland's Confession Article 4).
offered, and the time of my departure is come" (II       THE OCCASION
Tim. 4:6).                                                 When Paul left Timothy behind at Ephesus, in
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE                                      order that he might continue the work in that con-
  Following the above chronology, Paul was re-           gregation, and Paul went on into Macedonia, two
leased from his Roman prison between A.D. 64 and         things must have given rise to his writing Timothy
67. Allowing time to travel to Macedonia, he must        this letter.


282                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  First, Paul was Timothy's spiritual father. He             4. He was delegated to the Jerusalem conference
knew Timothy needed encouragement to face the              and accompanied Paul to the city (Acts  20:4).
difficulties that were in the church of Ephesus.            5. Timothy was with Paul in Rome during his
Since Paul could not return immediately (I Timothy         first imprisonment (Col. 1:l and Philemon 1).
3:14 and I Tim. 4:3), the letter had to suffice for the
time being.                                                  6. After Paul was released from prison, Timothy
                                                           stayed in Ephesus while Paul went into Macedonia.
  Let's review some things that contributed to the
close working relationship that Paul and Timothy             7. He probably joined Paul at Rome during his
enjoyed.                                                   second imprisonment (II Tim. 4: 11,2 1).
  1. Timothy was born in Lystra of a Jewish                  This indicates that there must have been a won-
mother and a Greek father. He was taught the Holy          derful working relationship between Paul and
Scripture from his youth by both his mother and            Timothy. Now that Paul realized he might not be
grandmother (II Tim. 1:5 and II Tim. 3: 15).               able to assist Timothy much longer, he committed
                                                           to writing advice for young Timothy and through
  2. Upon the recommendation of the church at              him to the church of all ages.
Lystra, Paul took Timothy along on his second mis-
sionary journey. Timothy became Paul's student               Secondly, the circumstances in the church at
and was thereby groomed for the ministry (Acts             Ephesus demanded attention, and Timothy had to
16:1-3).                                                   be encouraged to deal with them. From the epistle
                                                           itself (I Tim. 1:4, 6, 7, 20 and 6:20), we take note of
  3. Timothy assisted Paul  in. the ministry in            doctrinal errors that were there. Timothy needed
Macedonia, Achaia, and Ephesus, for three years            personal encouragement for he tended to be timid
(Acts 19).                                                 (II Tim.  1:6, 7) and even suffered physical discom-
                                                           fort (I Tim. 5:23).

GUESTARTKLE


                         The Use of Our Creeds (II)
                                                  Rev. R. Hanho


  In discussing some of the different ways in              the creeds we attempted to show that the creeds, in
which our creeds can be used we have attempted to          setting before us the work of the church of the past,
show how the creeds can and must be the living             have a place in guiding the affairs and settling the
confession of the church as she draws her life out of      disputes that arise in the church. When we spoke of
the Word of God. In pointing out these various uses        an apologetic use we meant that the creeds are very
of the creeds we have made no claim to be exhaus-          well adapted to be used in the defense of the faith
tive, but have simply tried to distinguish some of         over against all errors of false doctrine and godless
the more important ways in which we maintain our           living that creep in.
Reformed heritage as it is given us in the creeds.
Cur purpose in doing this has been to encourage              These first three uses have to do, more or less,
the use of the creeds, since we believe that the only      with the organization and institution of the church.
alternative is ecclesiastical chaos.                       In the remainder of this article we want to show
                                                           how the creeds also have a place in the worship and
  So far we have distinguished three ways in               personal life of the church and her members. In
which the creeds can be used: the constitutional,          this connection we distinguish five ways in which
the juridical, and the apologetic uses. In speaking of     the.creeds can be used: the liturgical, homiletical,
the constitutional use of the creeds we referred to        catechetical, pastoral, and devotional uses of the
the fact that the church of Jesus Christ in her creeds     creeds. As we look at these different uses we will
confesses her faith in the Word of God over against        see that to some degree they overlap one another.
all those who do not believe as she does, and thus
separates herself from them. By doing so she also            When we speak of a liturgical use of our creeds
establishes a basis of unity with all those who are of     then we refer to the fact that they are used in the
like faith. In connection with the juridical use of        public worship of the church. In this way the  con-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              283



fession of the church becomes an act of worship as          Good use can also be made of the creeds in
the church stands before her God. When we recite          preaching by regular reference to them. The creeds
the Apostles' Creed., either in unison or together in     are helpful in many respects when used in this
our hearts, then, as part of our worship, we are con-     way: they show the biblical foundation of the doc-
fessing our faith in God Triune as the God of all our     trines that are taught in the church; they set forth
salvation. And the Apostles' Creed, both because of       the truth very clearly against the errors which are
its conciseness, and because it is a personal confes-     so prevalent in the church and against which the
sion written in the first person, is especially well      saints must be warned; and very often they give
adapted to this use.                                      sound practical and personal application of the
  There are, however, also other "Forms" which            Word of God. Such practical application is found
are used in the worship of the church in connection       again and again in the Heidelberg Catechism,
with the sacraments, the ordination of office-bear-       which asks many questions such as that  of, Lord's
ers, etc. These forms are also creeds in that the         Day XXIII: "But what doth it profit thee now that
church uses them to make confession of faith con-         thou believest all this?"
cerning the ordinances  .which Christ has estab-            But just as the creeds are used for instruction in
lished and instituted in the church. In connection        the preaching, so they can also be used for instruc-
with the administration of the sacraments, for            tion and study in the Bible Classes, Catechism
example, the forms which are read with the sacra-         classes, and other similar activities of the church.
ments are the church's confession that she desires        This use of the creeds. we can call the catechetical
and intends to administer the sacraments in har-          use. Especially important here is the instruction of
mony with the command of Christ in the Scrip-             the children of the church, and our creeds are ad-
tures. Another example is our form for the ordina-        mirably suited to bring this instruction. Some
tion of elders and deacons. This form reminds us at       creeds, such as our Heidelberg Catechism and its
the very beginning that it is "a short declaration        Compendium, were written in question and
from the Word of God concerning the institution           answer form especially for the purpose of instruct-
and the office of elders and deacons."                    ing new converts and the children of the covenant
  The Scriptural warrant for the liturgical use of        and ought to be so used.
creeds is first of all the testimony of the Word that
we are to confess our faith before men always and           The advantage of using the creeds in instruction
everywhere. We have already looked at some of             is their systematic form. When the truth is taught
these passages. There are also, however, certain          systematically it is most easily grasped and remem-
parts of Scripture which seem to be liturgical state-     bered. This is also in harmony with the truth of the
ments that were used in the public worship of the         covenant with its obligations and responsibilities as
early church, such as I Timothy 3: 16. Here Paul in-      taught in Psalm  7&l-8,  ,and Genesis  l&17-19. In
troduces a beautiful statement of faith with a word       this way each generation receives the truth as an in-
which means "by confession" (translated "without          heritance from the church of the past and is more
controversy" in the KJV), indicating that this con-       aware of the abiding unity of the church of all ages.
fession was well known and often used in the              It is the great curse of the church today that she de-
church.                                                   liberately severs all connection with the church of
                                                          the past, and thus also from the Spirit Who works
  Closely connected with this liturgical use of the       in the church. Through this use of the creeds the
creeds is the homiletical use. By this we refer to the    church comes to understand the confession of the
use of the creeds in the preaching. We have already       Psalmist in Psalm  16:6; "The lines are fallen unto
seen as part of the juridical use of creeds that they     me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heri-
stand in the church  ,as regulators and guides for        tage."
sound and faithful exposition of God's Word. But
the creeds ought not only stand behind the preach-          Somewhat different is the pastoral use of the
ing, they ought also to be part of the preaching. In      creeds and confessions of the church. Here, of
Reformed circles there is a long standing tradition       course, we mean to say that the creeds can be used
of preaching from the Heidelberg Catechism or the         in the pastoral work of the office-bearers; that of
Westminster Catechism. This is never done, of             comforting and helping those who are in distress,
course, apart from the Scriptures, but has great ad-      admonishing the wayward, and strengthening and
vantage in that the people of God receive regular         encouraging all the saints. That the creeds can be
and systematic instruction in the principle doc-          used in this way certainly shows that the charge
trines of Scripture. Thus the believers are firmly es-    that the creeds-are cold and barren expositions of
tablished in the faith, are equipped with the wis-        doctrine is absolutely groundless. Those who say
dom of salvation and furnished unto every good            such things only show that they are completely ig-
work.                                                     norant of the content of the Reformed creeds.


284                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  There are `endless examples that could be given           use of the creeds. The creeds also have a place in
in this regard. We mention here just a few to illus-        the personal, spiritual life of the members of the
trate the point. In the Canons there is a very beauti-      church. There are many examples of this that can
ful application of the doctrine of election to those        be given. The Heidelberg Catechism, for example,
who lack assurance, in the first Head of Doctrine,          in its exposition of the Lord's Prayer certainly gives
article 16. The Belgic Confession very properly ex-         to each of us both help and encouragement for
plains the calling of believers with regard to the          prayer and ought to be read often by us. The article
church in Article 28, something which is often mis-         in the Belgic Confession on the sacraments, and the
understood and a source of trouble in the church.           Form for the Administration of the Lord's Supper
Then there is the peerless explanation of the office        can very properly and profitably be used and read
of believers in Lord's Day XII of the Heidelberg            by way of preparation and self-examination before
Catechism, which begins with the soul-searching             coming to the Lord's table. These are only exam-
question, "Why art thou called a Christian?" In the         ples, but they show that the creeds do have a place
Westminster Confession of Faith we have an expla-           in private meditation and study of the Word, in
nation of the Christian's calling with respect to reli-     family devotions, and in preparation for all the dif-
gious worship and the Sabbath Day that is un-               ferent spiritual activities in which we are called to
equaled in any other Reformed creed (chapter 21).           take part.
And so one could go on picking examples almost at                  All this is meant to show, however, not only that
random. But the point is that the office-bearers of         our creeds can be used in all the life of the church,
the church are well advised to use our creeds in            but that they  must  be used. A church which does
their work, both by way of preparation for the              not use her creeds is a church without creeds, and a
work, and in the actual work of feeding the flock,          church without creeds has gone far on the road that
warning the unruly, comforting the feebleminded,            ends in ecclesiastical chaos. Let us remember our
supporting the weak, and labouring diligently               heritage both in word and deed and not be ashamed
among the sheep of Jesus Christ (I Thessalonians            of it, for it is "a goodly heritage . . . marked out
5:12-14).                                                   with gracious care" (The PsaZter, number 27, stanza
  Finally, there is what we may call a devotional           5).
FROM HOLY WRIT


                       Believing All the Scriptures
                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers


                     Chapter V                              manipulate with the terms: Gospel, Covenant, Dis-
The "seven dispensations" of Scofield's Bible               pensation, Church, kingdom and other related con-
  Have you ever heard, my dear reader, of Dr. C. I.         cepts which deal with the salvation of the "Israel of
Scofield? Do you know that he added certain "ex-            God," the church in the world. And the method
planatory notes," which must serve as interpreta-           employed by Dr. Scofield is that, instead of writing
tion and guide in reading the King James Version of         his notes in a separate Commentary, he places his
the Scriptures? Did you know too that this Bible has        notes in key positions in the Bible, so that his
been instrumental in leading thousands and                  readers will read the Bible through the spectacles of
hundred thousands in the error of  Dispensational-          Dr. Scofield. (Compare Dr. L. Boetner's THE MIL-
ism? Whether you know this or not it will serve you         LENNIUM, pages 369-373.)
well as a believer of all the prophetic Scriptures to              We desire the reader to keep in mind that we are
read what I and many others before me have said to          not interested in giving a history of Dr. Scofield's
refute this error of "dispensationalism" with the           work, dating about from 1843, (which incidentally
sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.                       is a time when such heresies as Christian Science,
  The Scofield Bible was first published in 1909,           Mormonism, and Seventh Day Aventism appeared)
some seventy years ago. And its influence for evil          but we are interested in some of the basic teaching
has been very great, as an evil leaven in the body of       and constructions, which are today the structural
the truth of the gospel. Scofield and his assistants        teachings of Dispensationalism in America.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               285



  We have another interest, a more pinpointed in-          Old Testament Jewish nation, and in their teach-
terest.                                                    ing that this earthly temple will be rebuilt in the
  Our interest centers on the question whether the         time of the future "Millennium"  for' a restored
presentation of Dispensational  Premillennialists          earthly Israelitish Commonwealth, do they teach
squares with the pattern of sound doctrine which is        the pure doctrine of the Gospel of grace, and of jus-
unto godliness, as revealed in all the prophetic writ-     tification? Is this teaching not an evil leaven that
ings, as these are in turn interpreted infallibly by       leavens the entire lump of the truth in Christ?
Christ and by His Spirit in the holy Apostles.               We believe it is an evil leaven.
  Such is our interest. To this task we have set our-        We believe that here we touch on the crux of the
selves. And therefore we ask the question: does            whole matter. It is not a building on the only foun-
Dispensationalism really teach the pattern of sound        dation which is laid, and besides which no other
doctrine that the church is the temple of the living       foundation can be laid, which we find in the teach-
God, the dwelling-place of God by the Spirit, and          ing of Dispensationalism, with its "seven dispensa-
that His temple is the "true temple" (Heb.  8:2)?          tions."
Does Dispensationalism teach that both Jew and               It is asserted by Dispensationalists that when one
Greek have the same right to enter into this temple        rejects their brand of "literal interpretation" of the
as reborn children of God, belonging to Christ, and        Scriptures, there is but one option left, namely, that
therefore are both Abraham's seed (Gal.  3:26-29)?         we fall into what they denominate as being "alle-
When Dr.  Scofield advocates the "seven dispensa-          gorization" of the Word, a certain erroneous "spiri-
tions," and likewise teaches that there are "seven         tualizing" of it. When one teaches that the Old
covenants" and differentiates in such a way that he        Testament tabernacle was not a "true tabernacle"
virtually teaches that there is not one only Gospel,       but was only a type and picture of it, and that the
but that there are "four gospels," is that rightly         transactions in the sacrifices were parabolic figures
dividing the Word of truth? You must know that             of the real sacrifice at Calvary, that is "spiritualiz-
the text in II Timothy  2:15 has been made by  Dis-        ing" it. I ask in all candor: what of it? Does not
pensationalists a veritable slogan. They prate as          Scripture itself speak of putting spiritual things
such who rightly divide the word of truth when             with spiritual (I Cor. 2:13, 14)?
they divide the history of the world into "seven dis-
pensations." It is averred that we who do not thus           When dispensationalists speak of "literal inter-
interpret the Scriptures do not rightly divide the         pretation" they apply this their "hermeneutic"
truth. And, incidentally, since the days of John N.        especially to those prophecies which speak of
Darby, the outstanding leader of the "Plymouth             "Israel, "Judah," "temple," "David," etc. Literal
Brethren," a man who labored about 1830, it has            Israel means historic, Old Testament Israel, while
been affirmed that now the new light and new and           to speak of the church as "Israel" is not speaking
proper insight was afforded by the Spirit to the           literally. The term Israel is used, however, by the
church; things which had been hid from the faith-          Holy Spirit, in Galatians 6:16! to denominate to.the
ful spouse of Christ for well-nigh nineteen centur-        church. "Israel," there, is the spiritual name of the
ies after Christ, now suddenly were revealed!              church, the true descendants of Father Jacob, as he
                                                           received his new name at the brook Jabbok (Gen.
  Now we are given the burden to show that this            32:24-32). That is the entire point of the Holy Spirit
"new light" is not any new light at all, but that it is    in Romans 2:28 and 29 and in Romans 9:6b where
a preaching contrary to the pattern of sound doc-          we read, "For they are not all Israel which are of
trine, as this is the warp and woof of all the pro-        Israel"!
phetic Scriptures, fulfilled in Christ's death and           We will, therefore, not be stampeded into retreat
resurrection.                                              by the bald and repeated assertions that we are
  And so we repeat the question: Does  dispensa-           using the "allegorizing"  .method of interpretation
tionalism really cling to Christ, the Head over all        when we say that according to Scripture the true
things in heaven and on earth, in the eternal Com-         Israel refers to both Jew and Greek, as they are re-
monwealth of Israel (Eph.  2:14,  15)? Do  Dispensa-       born saints, born from the power of the promise,
tionalists, in the very structural truths which they       and, therefore, are free-born sons of Sarah. Any
teach, teach the full counsel of God concerning the        literal interpretation which is used to deny that
purpose of God with the earthly Canaan, earthly            "Israel" in the Old Testament was not the Jewish
temple in relationship to the "better country"             nation  per  se, but that it referred to the believing
(Heb.  11:16)  and of the earthly temple which             Seed of Abraham is set in the service of Satan's lie
"Moses pitched" in relationship to the "perfect            (John  8:38, 39). Such literal interpreters contradict
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man"?           Jesus' word, and reject the truth which makes men
In their insistence that "Israel" only refers to the       free (John 8:32-34).


286                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



  In the light of the foregoing we can now pass                 ployed only by the Holy Spirit through Paul. The
judgment  `on the attempt to teach "seven cove-                 term is in the English virtually the Latin translation
nants, " "seven dispensations," and "four gospels."             of the Greek term  oikonomiu.   The Latin term as
  We will for the time being limit ourselves to the             given in the  Vulgate  translation is,  dispensatione.
question of Scofield's "seven dispensations." These             Paul speaks of this "dispensation" in Ephesians
are included in the "Explanatory Notes" in the                  1:lO; 3:2; Colossians 1:25. In each of these passages
Bible going by his name. Now, it is really a  sacri-            Paul speaks of the peculiar office which God gave
ligious thing to speak of any man's Bible. God for-             him in connection with the preaching of the Gospel
bid that any should call the Bible by my name. But              to the Gentiles, as a fulfilment of the promises
we will quote it in quotation marks.                            made to the father. He must according to this dis-
                                                                pensation of the grace be a preacher in all the world
  The "seven dispensations" of which  Scofield                  under heaven (Col. 1:23).  This is the dispensation of
speaks are the following: Dispensation of "Inno-                the time that fills all other periods of time before in
cence" (Gen.  1:28); of "Conscience" (Gen.  3:23); of           the Old Testament Dispensation. Hence, it is called
"Human Government" (Gen.  8:20-11:9);  of                       the "dispensation of the fulness of times." This is
"Promise" (Gen. 12:l); of "Law" (Ex.  19:8); of                 the time in which, through Christ's glorification at
"Grace" (John 1:17);  of "Kingdom" (Eph. 1:lO).                 God's right hand, all things are now placed under
  Let it be understood that these dispensations are             one Head: Christ (Eph.  1:9, 10,  ll)! This is made
really a new and essentially different way of God's             known according to the mystery of God's will. And
dealing with man, each time as a means of "trial,"              in Ephesians  3:2 the term is used in connection
wherein man must live up to certain conditions.                 with the ministry of Paul, which is such that the
Thus the dispensation of "Law" has no "Grace" in                Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and of the same body
it, and the Dispensation of "Grace" has no "Law"                with, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ
in it. Grace was, according to this view, not re-               Jesus through the Gospel (Eph.  .3:6). This is the
vealed under the time of the shadows and types in               mystery spoken of by Jesus in John  10:16: "And
the Old Testament tabernacle. Should grace be re-               other sheep I have which are not of this fold
vealed in the time of the "law" then the Law would              (stable); them also I must bring and they shall be
not be a law, and the dispensation of law would not             (become = geneesetui) one flock and one Shepherd."
be a distinct "dispensation," a time and peculiar               In passing we would remark that this reference
method of God in dealing with men. This "dispen-                from John  lo:16 precludes and excludes the teach-
sation" extends from the time of Israel at Sinai till           ing and contention of some Dispensationalists, that
Calvary, from Exodus to the Cross.                              theirs is a "Gospel of Paul" in distinction from the
  Now this manipulating with the term "dispensa-                Gospel of Jesus. There is but one gospel: the  glad-
tion" is far from correct, neither is it innocent; it is        tidings that the promises of God,  al the promises,
a plain contradiction of the plain and explicit teach-          are yea in Christ, and in Him Amen to the glory of
ing of Scripture on this point. This term is em-                G o d .             (will be continued)



                                               Book Reviews

COMMEtiTARY  ON GALATIANS,  by F. F.                                of the historical, linguistic, textual, and critical con-
Bruce; Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982; 305 pp., no                   text. Such thorough exegetical work lies at the heart of
price given. (Reviewed by Prof. E-1. Hanko)                         these commentaries, with general comments on sec-
                                                                    tions and sub-sections being followed by a detailed
  This book is part of the New International Greek                  verse-by-verse treatment of the text.
Testament Commentary, edited by I. Howard
Marshall and W. Ward Gasque. The following                            An important aim of the authors is to interact with
                                                                    the most significant results of the New Testament re-
quote from the jacket will give some idea of the goal               search published in recent articles and monographs.
of the editors in this commentary series.                           This serves as a background for their own contribu-
       This new commentary series is established on the             tions to the ongoing effort to explore in greater depth
   presuppositions that the theological character of the            the meaning of the biblical text.
   New Testament documents calls for exegesis which is                The texton  which these commentaries are based is
   sensitive to theological themes as well as to the details        the 1973 UBS Greek New Testament, edited by Kurt


. .
                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          2 8 7


                                                                                    I  ;  `J

        Aland  and others. While engaging the major questions          by Eerdmans in 1961. *Baker Book House has now
        of text and interpretation at the appropriate level of         republished them in a neat and attractive little
        scholarship, the authors will bear in mind the needs of        paperback.
        the beginning student of Greek as well as the pastor or
        layperson who may have studied the language at some               As the titles suggest, this book contains the
        time but does not now use it on a regular basis.               stories of the origin of our Heidelberg Catechism
       It is difficult to evaluate a commentary properly               and our Belgic Confession. The stories are histori-
  in a short review of this sort. There is no doubt                    cally accurate and interestingly told. The book is
  about it that F. F. Bruce, who has published many                    easy reading for a winter's evening.
 works in the field of New Testament studies, is cer-                     Our teenagers could profitably read a book like
 tainly one of the great scholars of modern times.                     this, either in connection with their catechism
  His commentary reflects his great abilities and his                  classes or their church history courses at school.
 wide knowledge in the field.                                          And I mean they could read it not as a "must"
       The commentary is, on the whole, an excellent                   assignment and a burden, but they could read it
  one. It is based on sound principles of exegesis and                 with interest and fascination and at the same time
 is thorough in its exposition of the text. Anyone                     be instructed.
 who contemplates preaching on the book of  Gala-                         Recommended.
 tians or who is preparing to lead a Bible-study
 group in this epistle could profit immensely from                     IN RETROSPECT:                     REMEMBRANCE OF
 the book. It is almost a necessary addition to one's                  THINGS PAST,  F.F. Bruce; Wm. B. Eerdmans
 library on this important book of Scripture.                          Publ. Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich. 319 pp., cloth,
       There are certain characteristics of the book                   $13.95. [Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema]
 which ought to-be mentioned in a review. It is not                       This is a very interesting autobiographical
 a commentary for those who have not had some                          account by this well-known English New Testa-
 training in the original Greek,. The commentary is                    ment scholar. As the dust jacket informs us, this
 directly from the Greek, contains textual notes, and                  book is actually "a rewritten version of 24 remini-
 refers extensively to the rest of the Greek New                       scent articles by F.F. Bruce published over a  two-
 Testament.                                                            year period in  The Witness,  a British magazine
       One weakness of the book in my estimation was                   addressed largely to members of the Plymouth
 its lack of homiletical application. It might be                      Brethren." I must confess I was surprised to learn
 answered that this is not included in the book be-                    from this book that the author is a member of the
 cause the purpose of the series of commentaries is                    Open Brethren.
 not primarily to aid in sermon making. Neverthe-                         The book is, of course, not a contribution in the
 less, this is so completely lacking that there is al-                 areas of theology or New Testament scholarship. It
 most no treatment of the importance and relevance                     is rather in the nature of a "human interest" work.
 of this Word of God to the whole New Testament                        I found it very interesting, however; and it is
 Church including the Church of today.                                 helpful in understanding Dr. Bruce's writings to
       One doctrinal weakness which struck me was its                  know "where he comes from." Recommended.
 insufficient emphasis on the juridical relation
 between Christ and His people in the central truth
 of the book: justification by faith in Christ apart                                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 from the works of the law.
       There is some historical and literary criticism,                   On March 27, 1983, our parents, MR. AND MRS. JOHN  HOKS-
 but of a more "conservative" kind.                                    BERGEN will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, the Lord will-
                                                                       ing.
       The book is a valuable addition to a pastor's                      We, their children, are thankful to our heavenly Father for blessing
 library.                                                              us with our God-fearing parents. And we thank them for their love
                                                                       and covenant instruction in God's ways. We pray that God will
                                                                       always be near them and bless them in the years to come.
 THREE MEN CAME TO HEIDELBERG AND                                         "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
 GLORIOUS HERETIC: THE STORY OF                                        them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children"
 GUIDO DE BRES;  Thea B. Van Halsema; Baker                            (Psalm  103:17).
 Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 134 pp. (pa-                                                           Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Hoksbergen
 per), $3.95 [Reviewed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema]                                                      Julie and Jonathan
                                                                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Gary Westra
       The two sections of this book were originally                                                 Jeffrey and Glenda
 published separately, the first by the Christian Re-                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Hoksbergen
 formed Publishing House in 1963, and the second                                                            Jacelyn Hoksbergen


  THE STANDARD BEARER _ __. ~_~--. -~ ~~---~~ _                                            S E C O N D   C L A S S
       P.O. Box 6064                                                                     POSTAGE PAID AT              IL'
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                .        _`:..
                                                                     :                 GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.




288                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


                         News From Our Churches
                                  February  15,1983       formed Church-KLOV (1570 AM), 10 A.M., Sun-
  As most of us know, an individual who desires to         day; Randolph Protestant Reformed  Church-
partake of the Lord's Supper usually has his or her       WLKE  (1170),   8:30 A.M., Sunday; First Protestant
name read at the beginning of the celebration of the      Reformed Church in Grand Rapids-WJBL (94.5
Lord's Supper. The Consistory of Southwest Prot-          FM),  200 P.M. Sunday, WFUR (1570 AM), 4:00
estant Reformed Church has adopted a different             P.M., Sunday, and WJBL (94.5 FM),  12:30 P.M.,
procedure: " `All requests for permission to partake      Tuesday. There are a few more stations in addition
of the Lord's Supper must be made one week prior          to these that the Reformed Witness Hour broad-
to the celebration of the Lord's Supper and the            casts over.
name shall be announced from the pulpit at the                   Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church spon-
preparatory service.' This gives the congregation          sors its own radio broadcast called Saturday Even-
opportunity to make objection if necessary and give       ing Meditations over WJBL (94.5 FM), at 9 P.M.
the requesting participants opportunity to partake        The Meditations are taped copies of previous
in preparatory."                                           Sunday sermons. I am going to quote a response to
  Southwest Protestant Reformed Church has "dis-          this broadcast, taken from the January 2, 1983 bul-
trict elders" where two elders are assigned to part       letin. " `Letting you know that I listen to your ser-
of the congregation who live in a certain geographi-       mon every Saturday nite on WJBL, I and also two of
cal location. There are three geographical areas           my widowed sisters.. . .who each live in their own
served by six district elders.                             home or trailer also listen to you. The older sister
                                                           and I are Christian Reformed. The younger sister is
  Southwest Church also has started organizing             Reformed Church of America.... We all look for-
Sunday evening discussion groups. Other of our             ward to your preaching as solid Calvinistic Preach-
churches also have Sunday evening Bible discus-            ing, and we thank you for it. . ..I was young when
sion groups. Hope Protestant Reformed Church in           your church separated.. . . I did not understand the
Walker has discussion groups that meet once a              split and because I was younger, didn't concern
month from October to May. These meetings are              myself very much.... The thing that concerns me
very profitable for those who attend, and they             and Christianity is that we are saved by Grace (and
serve to unite the body of Christ together.                Grace alone) not by works. . ..I A listener from Zee-
  By now many of us have noticed the changes in            land."
the sermon pamphlets of the Reformed Witness                     "Rev. Joostens and deacon Dan Pastoor and their
Hour. The reason, for these changes is to improve          wives left for the Jamaican field at 7 A.M. last
the print quality of the pamphlets so that they are        Thursday (February  lath)." Rev. Flikkema and
more readable. In the past, the pamphlets were             Rev. Miersma will follow Rev. Joostens so that their
mimeographed. Now they are typeset. I have heard           times will not overlap. May God bless this field of
several older members of our congregations remark          labor in His vineyard with abundant fruit.
about their being able to read the new pamphlets a
lot more easily. The cover was also changed in                   If you were thousands of miles away from home
order to give the pamphlet a more attractive ap-           you would want to receive letters from your
pearance. These changes are costly, almost three           friends. South Holland Protestant  Ref.ormed
times as much as a mimeographed copy, but these            Church put this announcement in their bulletin of
changes are for the benefit of those who read them.        January 23: "Mr. Michael Soh, a member of our sis-
                                                           ter, church in Singapore, is a student at Southern
  It is good to see from the church bulletins that         Illinois University. His address is 504 South  Raw-
frequent collections are taken for the Reformed            lings, Apt. 44, Carbondale, IL., 62901. His birthday
Witness Hour. Although some stations have been             is May 27...." Perhaps Mr. Michael Soh would ap-
dropped, the cost of the other stations continues to       preciate letters from his friends not so far away.
rise. I have gathered the following station names,
frequencies, and times from our various church                   The next issue will inform you about the "Tape
bulletins: Hull Protestant Church-KDCR (88.5               Room" and about the forbidden use of lottery.
FM),  6:15 P.M., Sunday; Loveland Protestant  Re-                                                            DH


