          T h e
     STANDARD
          BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     . . . If the Lord in His grace `has preserved the
     truth in our midst, is there not an ever in-
     creasing urgency that we preach this gospel,
     also outside of our churches to others.. .?
     Woe unto us if we are complacent and care-
     less in the face of this great urgency. Woe
     unto us if we care only about our own salva-
     tion and our own churches.. . .
                         See "In His Fear" - page 322




\                                              Volume LIX, No. 14, April 15, 1983  -


314                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


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                                 CONTENTS                                                                                 ISSN 03624692
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       Rahab's Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . .314    Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                      Department Editors: Rev. Wayne Bekkering, Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald
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                                                                                      kema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hanko,  Mr. David Harbach, Rev.
       Synodof1982-Critique  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..317                John A. Heys, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jai.Kortermg,  Rev. George C. Lubbers,
                                                                                      Rev. Rodney Miersma, Rev.  Marinus SC  ipper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                      Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
  Contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 9 Bditotid Ofice: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION

                                                            Rahab's Faith
                                                                       Rev. H. Veldman


                     "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justifisd by works, when she had received the
                messengers, and had sent them out another way?'                                                                                  James 2:25


  Likewise also Rahab, likewise as Abraham-yet,                                          that she was justified. And her sin is mentioned
how different! Is not Abraham the father of believ-                                      here to emphasize the need and also the blessed
ers, who reveals the power of faith? And Rahab is,                                      power of justification.
we read here, a harlot. Why does James choose the
example of Rahab? His choice of Abraham is easily                                              Likewise also Rahab-as far as James' line of rea-
understandable. But why Rahab? However, he is                                            soning is concerned, the cases of Abraham and
speaking of justification. And justification  presup-                                    Rahab are exact parallels. Fact is, both exhibited an
poses sin. Hence, the choice of Rahab emphasizes                                        active faith. Their faith was not merely intellectual.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               315



The devils also believe, and they shudder. The faith      what right does she have to this escape? What right
of Abraham and Rahab was real, spiritual-it pro-          can she have to the inheritance of Israel? She is
duced works. Besides, let us never forget: both,          darkness and by nature wholly condemnable. Yet,
Abraham and Rahab, were justified, not by works,          Rahab chooses against Jericho and for Israel, the
but out of works, works of faith.                         kingdom of Jehovah. We read in Hebrews  11:31
  Rahab-who is she?                                       that "by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with
                                                          them that believed not." By faith, therefore, she be-
  She was a citizen of Jericho. Jericho, from a           lieved in God, in the forgiveness of sin, in the fact
natural point of view may be called the gateway           that she was righteous before God and that, there-
into Canaan. It was an impregnable stronghold.            fore, God would save her when unbelieving Jericho
Moreover, Jericho was a worldly city, and it repre-       perished by the wrath of God. And by faith she for-
sents, symbolizes the world in the account of             sook her ways of sin.
Joshua. Sin held complete sway in it. Its king and
inhabitants had heard of Jehovah, Israel's God, and         How is this possible?
His exploits. Yet, we read that "now Jericho was            We are all acquainted with Joshua's sending of
straitly shut up because of the children of Israel".      the two spies to spy out the land secretly. These
In other words, Jericho was fully determined to re-       spies, however, must also visit Rahab and learn
sist Israel, maintain itself over against Israel and      from her that the Lord had already begun to fight
Israel's God, present a united front over against         for Israel. Rahab received them, that is, received
them. Jericho lived the life of this world, of sin and    them as her guests, and, according to Hebrews 11,
darkness, and would vainly attempt to resist and          received them in peace, that is, not as their enemy
frustrate the advance of the Lord of hosts. .             but as their friend. And then we should note the re-
  Rahab was a citizen of this Jericho.                    markable words in Joshua 2:9-13.
  It is important that this be noted. Fact is, she was      What does this mean? Notice what she tells these
justified out of works. Through her works she es-         spies in Joshua 2. What had happened? These mes-
caped the judgment of God upon the wicked city.           sengers of Israel had found refuge underneath her
Jericho was damned, cast into hell. But to escape         roof, had proclaimed to her the truth of Israel and
this judgment she must be justified, justified            of Israel's God, had instructed her in her own sin
according to the righteousness of God, redeemed           and had proclaimed to her the word of salvation.
from sin and become an heir of eternal life.              They had told her of Israel's priority among the na-
                                                          tions, of Israel's God, that He is the Lord, Jehovah,
  This is emphasized in the text when we read that        holy and good and righteous, Who will never acquit
she is a harlot. We must not minimize this expres-        the guilty or free the ungodly. And they had also
sion. Some have attempted to spiritualize it. How-        told her of what would befall Jericho, of the signifi-
ever, she was a harlot; Scripture never "softpedals"      cance of that destruction, and that none would be
things. Think of Scripture's mention of the sins of       saved but all would perish everlastingly.
the elect: Noah, Abraham, David,  Asa, Hezekiah.
This does not necessarily mean that she was still a         And Rahab had believed their gospel of
harlot at'the time of her deliverance. But she had        salvation. And now we also understand the token
been a harlot. She had been a woman who had               she requests and receives, the token of the scarlet
given her body for the filthy and adulterous seeking      thread or cord which must be suspended out of her
of the flesh, a vile and filthy heathen. James men-       window. Rahab understood this token. It had been
tions this purposely. We read that she was justified.     explained to her. It was red, it spoke of her own sin,
And justification implies forgiveness. This was her       but also of the blood that should come, the blood in
sin.                                                      which she placed all her hope and confidence.
                                                                              **********
  Rahab believed-she believed what?
                                                            Rahab's faith was active.
   Rahab must choose between the host of Israel
and Jericho. She must choose between Israel, the            This receives the emphasis throughout this con-
people of the Lord, and Jericho, the kingdom of           text in James 2. James is not- contrasting faith and
darkness and of this world. Humanly speaking, she         good works. But he is contrasting a dead faith and a
will surely choose Jericho. First, is not Jericho im-     living faith. Faith, a living faith, always manifests
pregnable? How can Israel ever take this mighty           itself in works.
stronghold? Secondly, does not Rahab belong to the          Faith always assumes a definite, antithetical
city? She is a harlot. She therefore lived the life of    stand over against the world. Of course! Faith is the
this city. She loved Jericho and the life of Jericho.     living, spiritual bond which unites us with God in
How can she choose for Jehovah Whom she hates             Christ Jesus. To believe means to live out of Christ,
and over against Jericho which she loves? Besides,        to trust in God through Christ alone, to trust that all


316                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



our life and expectation is from Him. Then we trust        sympathy for Israel's cause. Rahab, from the view-
in the invisible God, also invisible in the sense that     point of Jericho, was a traitor. Yet, she walked in
He does things  which'He  alone can do and which           faith.
are humanly impossible. Then we will and shall
take our stand over against the world which is                What does this say to us? No man can serve two
always hostile toward God and His Christ. In God,          masters. We cannot serve God and Mammon,
then, we trust. From Him alone we expect all our           Christ and Belial. It is either-or. Of course! By
help. In His way we will walk. Faith means that we         nature we are citizens, legally and spiritually, of
live out of Christ and, therefore, demands an anti-        Jericho, of the world. Let us not compromise here.
thetical walk in the midst of the world.                   Let us not attempt to straddle the fence between
                                                           Israel and Jericho, between Jerusalem and Athens,
  Rahab believed.                                          between heaven and the world. Let us not deceive
  First of all, she believed in that which was only        ourselves so that we believe we can have one foot
divinely possible and- humanly impossible. She             in. Jericho and the other in Israel. By faith, how-
believed that Jericho, impregnable, would fall. She        ever, we are united with God in Christ. Now we
believed  in  God. She believed in the God Who             live out of Christ. And the activity of this faith is
raises the dead. Notice how, subsequently, her             always antithetical. God's cause will be our cause;
faith was tested. Notice what happened after the           His people will be our people. Believing in God and
messengers left her and Jericho finally falls. Proba-      in Christ means that we shall walk out of that faith.
bly a few weeks elapsed. However, Rahab                    Our position may appear to be hopeless. The world
believed, believed that she was righteous, and sus-        is stronger than we. All we have is God and His
pended the scarlet cord from her window, placed            Word. Indeed, we may be courting disaster. How-
her trust in God alone, that her deliverance would         ever, nothing may deter us; faith is a living power;
come only from God, the Jehovah of Israel.                 it demands complete obedience.
                                                             Rahab was justified.
  Secondly, Rahab's faith was such that it placed
her in grave peril in the city of Jericho. On the one         Indeed, she was not justified by works. She was
hand, she was a marked woman. She had been a               justified only because of the blood of Christ. She
harlot, and she lived upon the wall. Rahab was,            was justified  out  of works. She was justified
therefore, well known. Her house had been acces-           through faith as the means through which the righ-
sible to many. And now she was no longer a harlot.         teousness of God in Christ was imputed to her, and
What a change had come over her! She had                   in the way of works, because works are the fruit of
become, spiritually, a stranger in that wicked city,       faith and in the way of works is faith made perfect
had turned her back upon it. But in so doing she           and complete.
had surely become a marked woman, one who
already was well known because of her previous               Hence, she was justified out of works. What
conduct and now because of what she had become.            would have happened had she not believed unto
Principally she had already become a traitor to Jeri-      the end, had she not repented of her evil walk, had
cho's cause and had already cast her lot with hated        she not cast in her lot with Israel, had chosen to re-
Israel. On the other hand, Rahab's position was all        main with the destiny of Jericho? She would have
the more dangerous because Israel even now lay             been destroyed. So is it not plain that in the way of
outside the gates. The king had commanded that             works Rahab-received the blessedness of justifica-
none might leave the city. That her house was              tion? By faith she received the spies and befriended
closely watched is evident from the fact that her ad- 0 them. By faith she hid them and was instructed by
mittance of the two spies was known to the king.           them, suspended the scarlet cord from her window,
Rahab lied to the messengers of the king. Was this         escaped the destruction of Jericho, became a part of
wrong? Scripture, however, does not mention this           Israel, partook of Israel's life and sacrifices. In fact,
incident again, does not condemn it, and has en-           she is incorporated into the royal line and becomes
rolled Rahab among the heroes of faith of Hebrews          a mother of the Christ.
11. In the meantime she was not afraid of the king.          We, too, must walk in faith, live out of the life of
She had chosen against Jericho and for Israel. She         Christ. And we, too, will experience the blessed-
shall indeed defend these messengers of Joshua and         ness of justification, because faith is the fruit of the
seek their safe return to the Captain of Israel's host.    grace of God within us, and therefore, the evidence
Do not minimize this action of Rahab. Do not say           that Christ died also for us.
that she after all sought herself, to save herself in
the way of lying and deceit. She is a heroine of             This assurance we will taste already in this life.
faith. And although the city of Jericho is filled with       And we will also taste the assurance of our
fear, she will show sympathy to anyone who shows           eternal justification.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         317



EDITORIAL

                               Synod of 1982 - Critique
                                                   Prof. H. C. Hoeksema



  Some months ago, after having written about last             noted that the only one of the five items listed
year's Synod, I promised also to write a few things            above which came directly from the Mission
of a critical nature in connection with that broadest          Committee is that concerning the budget. The
gathering of our churches. As so often happens in              reason why this budget proposal was late was the
the life of an editor, there arose in the meantime             fact that obviously the Mission Committee could
other items which demanded editorial attention                 not prepare a proposed budget without taking into
and which made it impossible for me immediately                account the information involved in the other four
to carry out my intention to write more about our              reports and recommendations. The Mission Com-
last Synod. I now fulfill that promise, however, in            mittee, it should be noted, speaks rather euphemis-
the hope that future synodical meetings may profit.            tically of "circumstances beyond our control." The
  My chief item of criticism concerns the mass of              simple fact is that the consistories involved were
material which dealt with important matters and                tardy in reporting to the Mission Committee.
which was thrown on Synod's table  and treated                   What happened to this material at Synod's
when Synod convened. This material did not                     meetings?
appear in the published Agenda. None of the dele-
gates so much as knew of it prior to the time Synod              If you consult the Acts of Synod, you will dis-
convened. None of the consistories or individual               cover that all of this material was simply received
officebearers knew of this material. No one had the            and treated by Synod as though it were ordinary
opportunity to reflect on it. No consistory or classis         Agenda material. The question of the propriety and
had the opportunity to express an opinion about it             legality of treating it was not even dealt with by
or to file a protest about any proposal. It was simply         Synod. Neither the advisory committee nor the
put on Synod's table and handed out to the dele-               Synod itself faced the question of the legality. They
gates at the iad minute.                                       did not face the question whether this was indeed a
                                                               "supplemental report." Neither did they face the
  The material involved was as follows, and I                  question whether this material was legally before
quote from the Mission Committee's cover letter,               Synod under our adopted rules. It is not that the
received by the Stated Clerk on May 26, 1982:                  question was not raised and that this point was not
     The Mission Committee herewith submits the fol-           brought to Synod's attention; but it was brought by
   lowing supplemental material, which could not be in-        an advisor, who, of course, cannot make motions;
   cluded with our original report due to circumstances        and the question was answered by the president,
   beyond our control.                                         who, however, was not ruling on a point of order.
     We offer to this Synod the following additional ma-       This explains why nothing appears in the Acts of
   terial for your consideration.                              Synod about the entire matter, and why it appears
     1) Report and recommendation re our Birmingham,           in the Acts as though all of this material was ordi-
        Ala. mission field.                                    nary Agenda material.
     2) Report and recommendation re our Jamaican                What is involved here?
        mission field.                                           First of all, it should be pointed out that there is
     3) Report and recommendation re our Monroe-Mt.            indeed a provision in our Rules of Synod which
        Vernon, Wash. mission field.                           allows for supplemental reports. This is found in
     4) Additional recommendation re Bradenton.                Article 8 of the Rules of Synod, entitled "Reports":
     5) Budget.                                                     1. The reports of all committees, special and stand-
  In addition, in connection with the Jamaica item                ing, shall be included in the Agenda, so that all
there were two lengthy reports from the emissaries                churches may be duly informed.
to Jamaica, Revs. Lubbers and Heys, reports which                   2. Standing committees may make supplemental
were certainly germane to the Jamaica proposals in                reports of matters arising after the deadline for the
this supplementary material. It should also be                    Agenda. Such reports, however, shall be distributed in


     318                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



            mimeographed form to all members of Synod at the            Agenda must be dealt with by Synod before its ad-
            opening session, and the committee concerned shall          journment.
            be responsible for this.                                  It is this rule which was simply ignored by the
        Now it may be granted, first of all, that this rule         Synod of 1982 in spite of the fact that it was called
     indeed makes provision for the possibility of sup-             to their attention. You may be sure that no one
     plemental reports. However, in the second place, it            thought for a moment that the proposals included
     should be noted that the rule does not define what             in the supplemental report were not important;
     is meant by "supplemental." In the third place, in             everyone knew that these proposals involved the
     this particular case it is, to say the least, highly           very continuation of our home missions work in the
     questionable whether the material involved could               coming year. The simple fact is that in spite of this
     properly be called "supplemental." To me,                      knowledge that the proposals were important, the
     supplemental implies that the main body of the re-             Synod went blithely on, without so much as facing
I    port is already in existence, but that something               the question of legality.
     must be added at a later time. And in this sense, it is          I would have you notice that the rule furnishes a
     entirely appropriate that there be supplemental                very important reason, a reason which goes to the
     reports. Such supplemental reports would not in-               very heart of our presbyterian-synodical system,
     clude entirely new items, which are not even                   namely, that consistories and classes must have op-
     touched on in the main report. But they might in-              portunity for previous deliberation on proposals of
     clude new facts, new information, additional                   importance. This is their sacred right under our sys-
     grounds, or even a change in recommendations be-               tem of church government. It must not be
     cause of new light. To use a simple illustration,              trampled, and it can only be trampled with grave
     there might be in a main report a recommendation,
     let us say, concerning salary of a missionary. In the          risk to the fundamentals of our Reformed system. I
                                                                    submit that if Synods act in this fashion, excluding
I    meantime, facts come to light which show that be-              consistories and classes from a voice in important
     cause of circumstances or because of inflation the             matters, then consistories have every right to
     recommended salary is not adequate. In such an in-             ignore such decisions and to consider them null
     stance a supplemental report with new light and a              and void!
     new recommendation would be entirely proper.
     The matter proper is already on the Agenda; the                  But there is another very obvious reason. That
     supplemental report does not change that fact, but             reason concerns the delegates themselves. None of
     helps Synod deal with it properly. In this case                the delegates had the opportunity during the busy
     under discussion, however, the simple fact is that             sessions of Synod for calm study and reflection on
     the items included in the supplemental report were             the important matters included in that alleged sup-
     not included in any form in the main report. Be-               plementary report. And there were indeed major
     sides, the items of the supplemental report together           proposals in the report, as, for example, the pro-
     constituted by far the largest part of the Mission             posal concerning Jamaica, with its  $50,000.00
     Committee Report, as well as the most important                price-tag! And the subsequent discussion showed,
     and most difficult part of the report. I submit that it        too, I believe, that Synod was not ready to face
     is rather silly to call a report supplemental when             some of these issues and to make calm, mature,
     that report is larger, more important, and more dif-           well-founded decisions.
     ficult than the original report.                                 What, then, should be done?
       But this is not all.                                           In the first place, the very first question which an
                                                                    advisory committee ought to face is the question of
       The ,Rules of Synod themselves explicitly forbid a           the legality of the material on which they must give
     Synod to do what our 1982 Synod did. There is a                advice. This pertains to all material, but especially
     much more important rule of Synod which certain-               to material about which there might be some ques-
     ly takes precedence over Rule 8, which is after all            tion. And the very first item of advice should be
     only a simple procedural rule. Article 5 of the Rules          concerning the legality of material. Whether that
     of Synod concerns "Matters Legally Before The                  advice is to treat or not to treat the material is not
     Synod." This is obviously a fundamental rule: it               the issue; the committee must bring advice on the
     concerns the question what may and what may not                matter. In that way it will also automatically insure
     properly be treated by Synod. And under Part B,                Synod's dealing with this question.
     "Rules," we find that the second rule reads:                     In the second place, Synod should have rebuked
             2. No proposals of importance shall be presented to    those responsible for tardy reports and admonished
        Synod that have not appeared on the agenda, so that         them that if the work of Christ the King is to receive
        Consistories and Classes may have opportunity for           its due attention, there must be order in the
        previous deliberation. All matters appearing in the         churches and there must be timely reports. We


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               319



have agreed together as churches to live under our         standing committees. In some instances new
Church Order and its appended regulations; let us          constitutions have been published in separate  leaf-
live up to that agreement. It is obligatory! And it is     lets. In others, things are buried in past Acts of
salutary!                                                  Synod. Besides, it is already several years ago that
  My second item of critique I will mention                the project of a new Church Order Book was  ini-
briefly. It is high time that our new Church Order         tiated. It was reported at last Synod that the book
book be published. There have been numerous                was ready for publishing. Why can we not have it
changes in regulations and in constitutions of             at once?


                                        Contribution

  For the past three years the Standard Bearer has         a place for that in the Christian walk of life, though
come to our address. Invariably, unlike the many           one realizes that it should avoid the tangles of legal-
other periodicals received, it is read from cover to       isms that can so easily slip in. The tension is ever
cover. Why is that? Perhaps the.first  reason is that      present for the Christian to avoid the extremes of
its writers take the Bible as truly being the Word of      self-righteous Pharisaism on one hand and of
God, avoiding all the theological gobbledygook too         worldliness on.the other. I was not impressed when
often found in Reformed circles which severely             my own Synod spent too many hours on the mat-
qualifies the Word. Because we live in serious             ters of pleasure (dancing) we Christians should en-
times, as the series of articles, "Signs of the Times,"    joy. The time of a major body should be spent on
in the Standard Bearer disclose, the articles are seri-    things of more serious consideration.
ous. Well they should, for the Christian life and            The series of articles entitled "Signs of the
one's eternal destiny are not matters of light             Times" in the Standard Bearer reassures me there is
import.                                                    a branch of ,the Reformed Church that takes escha-
  Then, too, I appreciate the fact that the Standard       tology seriously. I neither read nor hear much
Beaver makes a clear defense for the Reformed faith        about the second coming of our Lord in my own de-
and confessions as we both, whether Protestant Re-         nomination. Has our  ,enriched affluent life style
formed or Christian Reformed, were taught in yes-          made us too comfortable in this world of sin?
teryear. As a member of the Christian Reformed               Perhaps what hurts most is that I know there are
Church, I see my denomination being torn at the            so many ministers my age or older (I am sixty) in
seams. It is sad to see leaders questioning the doc-       the denomination who are solidly grounded in the
trines of election and reprobation within  the,Re-         Reformed faith who, cling to the convenience of si-
formed fold. It hurts to see pastors pushing for           lence rather than make a bold stand for the faith of
women in the threefold offices of the church. One          our fathers. Retirement should not atrophy into
wonders what might occur to our denomination               prudential silence.
when there are ministers that question the  histo-
ricity of Adam. The seeds of doubt and questioning           So, may the Standard Bearer continue to do what
are being sown now, but what will their sprouts of         it does so well now. You are not only a blessing to
unrest and dispute bode later for the church?              your own membership but to others as well.
   It is good to see that the Standard Bearer stands                                            Yours sincerely,
for the antithetical stance of the Christian. There is                                         John H. Sietsema


      The Standard Bearer
    makes a thoughtful gift
       for many occasions.


320                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                  Letter to TimothvL

                                         April 15, 1983    Christ, the Substitute for His people. The land of
Dear Timothy,                                              Egypt where Israel served as slaves of Pharaoh was
                                                           a picture of the bondage of sin in which we all are
  In past letters we have talked at some length            held. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 10 that the Rock
about what precisely constitutes a "Christ-cen-            from which the water flowed in the wilderness was
tered" sermon. I want to give some particular illus-
trations of this in this letter, so that you may see       Christ. The land of Canaan, a land flowing with
                                                           milk and honey, which-Israel inherited was a pic-
how these ideas we have discussed can be put into
practice.                                                  ture of heaven. Israel's conquest of Canaan by the
                                                           power of God (remember how we sing: "They
  As you know, there are many different kinds of           gained not the land by the edge of the sword. . .")
material in Scripture. There are not only differen-        was a picture of the victory over all our enemies
ces between the Old and New Testaments, but                which God gives to us by faith in Christ. And so we
there are also differences between various kinds of        could go on.
material. There are historical books, poetical books
(not only the Psalms, but also parts of the historical       But one can also use the "exemplary-historical"
                                                           method of treating Old Testament history. Paul
books and prophetic books), prophecies, epistolary         gives us the ground for doing this in I Corinthians
books, and what is sometimes called wisdom books           10:6,11: "Nowthese things were our examples. . . .
(which would include especially Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes). Each kind of book presents a some-          Now all these things happened unto them for en-
what different problem, although -all are certainly a      samples: and they are written for our admonition,
part of that one Scripture which contains the writ-        upon whom the ends of the world are come."
                                                           When we treat Old Testament history from this
ten record of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.       viewpoint, then we stress the fact in our sermons
  I cannot, of course, give detailed examples of all       that the life and experiences of the people of God in
these different types of books, nor many examples          the Old Testament were given to them and record-
from each type; but some illustrations would               ed in Scripture that we might learn from them how
perhaps be of some assistance to you.                      to walk as the people of God in the midst of the
  It is, I think-if I may speak from my own experi-        world. The Scriptures not only show us our walk,
ence-sometimes difficult to preach on historical           but illustrate that copiously from countless exam-
material and still have a Christ-centered sermon.          ples of the saints. And these examples are indeed a
But if one remembers that the history of Scripture         rich source of instruction for us.
can be treated from two different viewpoints, our            Any and every part of the Old Testament can be
understanding of how this is possible will also be         treated either from the redemptive-historical view-
clearer. We all know that history, especially that of      point or from the exemplary-historical viewpoint.
the Old Testament, can be treated either from a            The former is true because the whole Old Testa-
"redemptive-historical" viewpoint or from an "ex-          ment is the progressive development of the types
emplary-historical" viewpoint. If one treats an            and shadows which pointed ahead to Christ. Even
historical passage from the viewpoint of redemp-           if one does not always find specific  types  in the
tive history, then one emphasizes how history in           technical sense of that word, as is the case, e.g., of
the Old Testament was part of the dispensation of          Joseph, yet all the history of the Old Testament be-
types or shadows which pointed ahead to the reali-         longs to that progressive development; and
ties of salvation in Christ. God gave His people           preaching from the redemptive-historical view-
types and pictures of Christ and the great work of         point requires that one find the particular place
salvation in the history which that people lived and       which any event occupies in that development. But
experienced. The Bible makes this very clear The           all of the Old Testament is also given for our exam-
ram which was caught in the thicket when Abra-             ples upon whom the end of the ages has come. And
ham offered up his son Isaac was a picture of              so we have these two possibilities, or even a combi-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  321



nation of the two in our preaching.                          becomes little more than a handbook of moral con-
  But the point that I want to make now is that              duct-and etiquette. Christ is always the wisdom of
whatever approach is used, the sermon must be                the whole book.
Christ-centered. If one treats the appropriate                  The Psalms are the same. It is true-and anyone
passages from the redemptive-historical viewpoint,           knows that-that the Psalms arise out of historical
then there is very little problem, for the history it-       circumstances in the life of the Psalmist. And if it is
self points ahead to Christ and one can hardly miss          possible to determine these historical circumstan-
"Christ" in preaching on such material. It is, e.g.,         ces, it is also important that the minister, in'preach-
impossible to imagine how one could preach on the            ing on the Psalms, make this clear. The Psalms
manna with which God fed His people in the                   have certainly been such a treasured part of the
wilderness without preaching also about Christ               meditations of the people of God in every age be-
Who is the Bread of life (see John 6). The redemp-           cause they, taken together, form a kind of spiritual
tive-historical approach, by definition, means               biography of every saint. But the fact, nevertheless,
Christ. But when one takes the exemplary-histori-            remains that the Psalms are all, without exception,
cal approach, the same must be true. Scripture               Messianic. There are sometimes efforts made to
holds up the life of the people of God as a life of          distinguish between the so-called Messianic Psalms
faith-faith in the promise. It is true that there are        and the Psalms which are not Messianic; but this
also negative examples. When Paul, in I Corinthi-            cannot be done. Christ is singing in these Psalms-
ans 10, says that all things were written for our en-        in all of them. This is so true that there are passages
samples, he is referring to the unbelief which char-         in the New Testament which literally state this.
acterized a large segment of the nation. And he is           Just today we were discussing in school the passage
telling the saints of the New Dispensation that they         in  .Hebrews   10:5-7: "Wherefore when he  cometh
must not be like that. But whether positive or nega-         into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou
tive, it is a life of faith which is held up as the          wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in
example for us to follow. And this means two                 burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had
things. It means, first of all, that that life of faith      no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume
which characterized the Old Testament saints was             of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0
a faith in the promise of God. And that promise is,          God." Once again it struck me that the author of
in one word, Christ. All that they did which was             this epistle literally states that Christ said these
pleasing in the sight of God was rooted in faith in          words. There are many such quotations from the
God's promise that He would send Christ. Without             Psalms in the New Testament. And when you read
this emphasis the whole point of the Old Testament           them, you discover that the words of the Psalm
is missed. But it means,, in the second place, that          quoted by Christ really only fit in His mouth-not
the saints walked by faith because the power of the          really and in the fullest sense of the word, in the
promise was already worked within them. No more              `mouth of the Old Testament Psalmist. Think for
than the saints of the New Dispensation did they             example of the first verse of Psalm 22. Who else
have faith of themselves; then too, it was the gift of       could really say these words but Christ? This is
God. Already the salvation which God promised in             even true of those `Psalms where the Psalmist
Christ was given to them on the strength of the              speaks of his sins-and they are many. Undoubted-
promise, by virtue of the certainty of the promise           ly, here too, Christ is speaking-speaking of the
and because they already tasted the firstfruits of the       burden of sin and guilt which He bore for His
promise-if I may put it that way. And so all their           people and the agony of the wrath of God which He
godly life was a life which they lived because the           endured because of it. In fact, it is not an exaggera-
Christ Who was yet to come was the strength of               tion to say that neither the Psalmist nor we could
their hope and calling.                                      ever sing these Psalms if it were not for the fact that
  But what is true of historical material is also true       Christ sang them first of all. All this surely must be
of what we sometimes call "wisdom" material.                 made explicit in a sermon if a sermon is truly to be
.After  all, it cannot be forgotten that the central         Christ-centered.
chapter in the book of Proverbs, and therefore the             The same is true of prophecy. We all know that a
key to the whole book, is chapter 8. And there is            great deal of prophecy points directly ahead to
clearly stated that the wisdom of which the whole            Christ, and it is clear on the surface that it is impos-
book speaks is, after all, Christ. Of Whom else can          sible to preach on such prophecies without
it be said, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning          preaching about Christ. But this is not true of all
of His way before His works of old. I was set up             prophecy. There are many prophecies which are
from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the            directed to the historical situation in which Israel
earth was. . ." (vss. 22ff.)? If this point is ignored in    found herself and which have no specific and ex-
preaching on the book of Proverbs, then the book             plicit reference to Christ. Certainly this is true, e.g.,


                                                            _-
322                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of the prophecy which Isaiah spoke  fo--Hezekiah            events of which the prophets spoke were historical
when he told Hezekiah that his life would be pro-           events which belonged to (or touched upon-as in
longed. (By the way, there are also prophecies which        the case of the prophecies against Syria, Assyria,
refer only to Christ without any immediate histor-          Babylon, etc., e.g.) the history of  Israel They must
ical reference. I refer, e.g., to the prophecy made to      therefore be also treated as we would treat history,
King Ahaz in Isaiah 7: 14: "Behold the Lord Himself         of which I have spoken above.
shall give you a sign.. . .' ' And there are prophecies           I had hoped to complete this discussion in this
which have both an historical and a future-prophet-         letter, but now see that there is still more to say
ic reference. But this by the way). Nevertheless,           which cannot be included here. And so. . . one
even those prophecies which have only an histori-           more letter.
cal reference must be treated in such a way that the
sermon is Christ-centered. And this will surely be                                            Fraternally, in Christ,
the case when it is understood that the historical                                             H. Hanko
IN HIS FEAR


                  Should We Expand the Mission
                Endeavors of our Denomination
                                               Rev. Arie den Hartog



  Are we as a denomination faithful to the great            members of our church, whether in our own
commission of our Lord Jesus Christ to preach the           country or in other lands. In order to be faithful to
gospel to all nations? What a glorious and wonder-         the great commission of the Lord we must always be
ful commission that is! It is through the preaching         diligently and zealously preaching the gospel out-
of the gospel that the Lord is pleased to gather and        side of our own churches. It is through this means
defend and preserve His church in all ages and all         that the Lord adds to His church also from without
places. It is through the preaching of the gospel that      such as must be saved.
men are called from darkness into the marvellous                  Let us stand back and take a look at the efforts of
light of everlasting salvation. Above all it is through     our denomination. We are a small denomination.
the preaching of the gospel that the glorious praises       Our resources are very limited. We cannot be com-
of the Lord our God are declared throughout the            pared with the large denominations that are able to
earth. Surely if we are truly a Reformed church that       sponsor hundreds of missionaries. The Lord does
seeks the glory of God in all things we will be            not require this of us either. The fulfilling of the
greatly concerned about being faithful to the great        great commission is done by the church through all
commission.                                                ages and in all places. We are surely not alone in
  With the above question we want to address our-          this great task and calling. The Lord has given us a
selvesspecifically to the matter of the preaching of       small name and place in the church world and in
the gospel on the mission field. It is certainly true      His kingdom. According to that place we must
that the great commission, properly understood,            labor faithfully. But consider that presently our
involves all the work of the preaching of the gospel.      churches have only one active home mission field
It includes the preaching that is done from Lords          and one active foreign mission field. It is difficult to
Day to Lord's Day in our established churches. It          make valid comparisons with other denominations.
includes all the labors which the church performs          Surely we as churches do many things as a denomi-
to defend and preserve the truth of God. The Lord          nation by the grace of God which normally are
has blessed our churches with faithfulness in many         done by much larger denominations, such as sup-
aspects of the fulfillment of the great commission in      port our own Seminary and our own Christian
our midst. We praise His name for this. We want            schools. Taking all of this into account however,
now however to address specifically the calling that       should we not and could we not be doing much
we as churches have to preach the gospel outside of        more in the area of missions? I believe we should.
our own communion to people other than the                        We thank the Lord for His blessings upon the


                                            THE STANDARD-BEARER                                              323



work of our churches here in Singapore. This ought         that in `many places the gospel of humanism and
to be of great encouragement for our churches that         socialism and Arminianism, which is no gospel at
the Lord would use us in such a wonderful way.             all, has been preached. As apostasy increases, there
Surely the Lord does not need men for the gather-          are fewer and fewer churches who hold to and
ing of His church. The work of missions is not de-         preach the true gospel. If the Lord in His grace has
pendent upon the great efforts and achievements of         preserved the truth in our midst, is there not an
men. The Lord sovereignly gathers His church.              ever increasing urgency that we preach this gospel,
That He should even use us as churches we must             also outside of our churches to others and even
count as a great honor and blessing. If a church           unto all places where the Lord will send us? Woe
does not prove faithful in the work of missions,           unto us if we are complacent and careless in the
then the Lord will raise up another. We have seen          face of this great urgency. Woe unto us if we care
how the Lord has been pleased to use us here in            only about our own salvation and our own
Singapore. We rejoice greatly in this. But this also       churches and will not declare the glorious gospel
should spur us on to get moreinvolved in the work          which the Lord has given to us unto all the world.
of missions than we have in the history of our de-           The Lord has also given us in recent years objec-
nomination. We must move on to greater faithful-           tive reason to look towards fields of labor outside of
ness and devotion unto our Lord. We ought to be            our own churches. In the past we have had to strug-
ready to spend and be spent for the cause of the           gle with doctrinal heresies both within and without
preaching of the gospel also to others. We ought to        our denomination. We have had to spend much of
be ready to make great sacrifices and offerings of         our resources in doing this. The Lord in His grace
ourselves. We ought to labor to the absolutely full        has in the process of this struggle made us a strong
extent of our resources and ability. In light of the       church doctrinally and united us together upon the
small mission program that we have I believe that          true Reformed Faith. Though there will never come
we have not yet done that.                                 a time when we will be able to lay down the
  That the need for doing mission work is urgent is        weapons of our warfare and no longer need to be
obvious. The words of our Lord that the harvest is         on guard against false doctrine, at least not in the
truly plenteous but the laborers are few is certainly      history of this present world, yet when we have
true today. It is true that the great sign of the ages,    peace in our own midst we are able to use our re-
the sign of the preaching of the gospel unto all           sources for the preaching of the gospel on the
nations, the great sign of the imminent return of          mission field. Furthermore, we can take advantage
our Lord, is evident as never before in the history of     of our unity and doctrinal strength to do the work
the world. Yet it is also true that as long as our Lord    of missions. We ought to be earnestly desirous to
tarries His church must continue faithfully to carry       communicate .a11 that the Lord has given to us also
out His great commission. There are still places           to others. Furthermore, for the first time in the
where the gospel must be preached. There are still         history of our denomination we have now enough
those who are ordained unto eternal life that must         ministers to fill all of our own pulpits. This is a
be saved. Surely, if we diligently look over the           wonderful blessing of the Lord. But this ought not
world and even our own country, how many places            to be an occasion for us to rest at ease and call and
there are where the gospel must be preached. Even          support no more preachers of the gospel. In the
in the Far East alone where we are laboring there          past we were hampered in our ability to send out
are many areas that could be investigated. There           missionaries because of the shortage of ordained
are still places where the gospel has never been           men. Now for the first time we have enough men to
preached and people who have never before heard            send out. What reason to expand significantly our
the gospel. The Far East alone would be a far larger       mission endeavors!
field of labor than our churches could possibly              There are a number of things that must be true of
serve. Let us not say that we need not do missions         our churches in order to expand the work of mis-
because all have already heard the gospel and there        sions in our midst. First of all, we must be a truly
are no mission fields where we can send mission-           mission-minded church. By that I do not mean that
aries. Consider that in many places where the gos-         we must neglect all of our other calling as churches
pel has been preached, the gospel which has been           and give everything so to speak to missions, as
preached is very corrupted and even false. The             some churches foolishly do. Missions is not the
Lord in His wonderful providence has given to our          only calling of the church, though it is a very
churches the blessed and glorious Reformed Faith           important calling. We must as churches become
which we are convinced is the true gospel, the             truly zealous and earnest for the work of missions,
gospel of salvation by the sovereign grace and             both in our local congregations and abroad. We
mercy of the Lord alone. Consider how few places           must make the work of missions the great burden
in the world have heard such a gospel. Consider            of our prayers continually. We must have a great


324                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



desire in our midst that others besides our own         sions in our denomination we need a continual
numbers come to hear of the glorious and blessed        supply of ordained ministers. We believe that the
gospel of salvation. As imitators of our Lord Jesus     preaching of the Word is central in all the work of
Christ we must be filled with compassion for the        the church. For this we need ministers. We must by
lost souls of men, willing even to lay down our very    no means become slack in calling and encouraging
lives that others might hear the gospel and be          young men from our churches to give themselves to
saved. We must learn as members of the church to        the full-time ministry of the gospel of Christ Jesus.
communicate the gospel to others in a living and        We must continue to pray for reapers in the Lord's
personal manner. Missions is the work of the whole      harvest.
church of Jesus Christ, and not just of a few mini-       The work of missions is also a very expensive
sters or missionaries. As members of the church we      work. If we are to expand our missions we must be
need to get directly involved in the work of            ready also to give sacrificially for this cause. Surely
missions. As Reformed churches we have done             the Lord has given to us great abundance so that we
well in emphasizing the centrality of the official      have great potential to give. We were especially
preaching of the gospel by ordained men in all the      struck by the great wealth of Americans when we
work of the church. I would not want to detract         travelled around on our recent furlough. How
from that one iota. But have we done as well in em-     much more we as Americans have than most of the
phasizing the great importance of the involvement       rest of the world. Also the members of our church-
of the members of the church in the office of all       es do not lag behind other Americans in the beauti-
believers in the work of missions? We need              ful cars, palatial homes, large and prosperous farms
members who will get themselves involved in start-      that they have. The Lord has given us all these
ing Bible studies and supporting the preaching of       things. If we would truly give sacrificially for the
the Word in places other than our own church. We        cause of missions, being ready even to forego some
need members of the church who are willing to           of our luxuries, we could come up with very large
make large sacrifices, such as perhaps leaving their    sums of money for the work of the preaching of the
own congregations to start new churches, and            gospel; Surely our earnest desire to publish the
maybe even moving to other areas of the country to      glorious praises of our God and our great desire for
start new churches. I do not believe that we will       the salvation of men ought to make us to be ready
ever become a truly mission-minded church until         even to sell all that we have if necessary. I am not
the members of our denomination see their calling.      suggesting that it is necessary for us all to sell all
We need the members of our churches to have a           that we have, but only that it is necessary for us all
profound appreciation for the Reformed Faith
which the Lord has given to us and to give a zealous    to make large sacrifices for the Lord's sake.
testimony of the Reformed Faith in their lives and        In order to expand the work of missions we need
with their mouths to their neighbors. We need           also to search more actively for new mission fields.
members of the church who will invite relatives,        Much of the burden of doing this falls upon our
friends, and neighbors to come to church with           mission committees. I would not suggest that the
them. We must understand that very few people           brethren on these committees are not laboring
will come to our churches by means of mere news-        hard. From direct experience I know better than
paper and radio advertisements. They need to be         that. Perhaps we need to expand our mission com-
invited personally. Those who come to mission           mittees to do the necessary work of investigating
stations need to be supported and encouraged by         fields. We need to do much more in terms of going
our own members. We are expecting too much of           to fields and preaching on fields and doing prelimi-
people when we think that even before they come         nary investigatory work. There are cases in which
under the strong conviction of the Reformed Faith       we as a church will receive a Macedonian Call to
through the hearing of the preaching and                come to a certain field. It is questionable however
instruction, they will make the necessary sacrifices    whether that is the only basis to work in a given
and suffer persecution and reproach from the            field and to investigate a certain field. Surely the
world without the support of strong and zealous         apostle Paul did not remain in Antioch. He went
members of our churches. We need  Priscillas and        out on, missionary journeys preaching the Word
Aquilas for the mission field, unordained people        where the Lord directed and establishing churches
that will devote large amounts of time and energy       where people were gathered around that preaching
to supporting the work of missions in a given place.    of the Word. Our labors in Singapore did not begin
I believe that often our mission fields have strug-     with a Macedonian Call, unless we want very much
gled so hard because the minister or missionary on      to stretch the idea of a Macedonian Call. In reality
the field is expected to labor so much alone.           our labors in Singapore started simply through two
                                                        of our ministers first coming to Singapore and
  In order to expand significantly the work of mis-     preaching. Though it was not planned or expected,


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                             325



by the providence of the Lord there were those who       developments. Surely we believe that the progress
came to hear the preaching, and over the process of      of the work of missions is under the sovereign con-
time showed more and more appreciation for that          trol and direction of the Lord. This does not
preaching through contact with our churches. Then        however. preclude the necessity of our actively
our churches convinced them of the need and              searching for mission fields and thereby searching
benefit of having a missionary here and they were        His will.
persuaded to call a missionary of our churches. I          May the Lord bless our churches that we may be
believe we need to do much more in investigating         more faithful in our calling, for the glory of His
fields and looking for fields of labor. How quickly a    name and the increase of His church and the salva-
year goes by and no recommendations for a new            tion of those ordained to eternal life.
field come to our Synod and we cannot move on in
the work of missions. Years go by without any new
TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


                     God's Providence and Sin (4-j
                                               Rev. H. Veldman



  We concluded our last article by calling attention     providence and sin must be understood in relation
to the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between         to one another is this question: what is freedom?
the providence of God and sin, between the holi-         We must never confuse freedom as held before us
ness and the righteousness of God. That the Lord is      in the Word of God with moral sovereignty, that we
absolutely sovereign and that therefore the reality      control and determine our eternal destiny. This is
of sin must be understood as having been willed by       the error of the Pelagian and also of the Arminian.
the alone sovereign God is surely Scriptural. Of this    Pelagianism denies the organic connection between
there cannot possibly be any doubt. His counsel,         Adam and the human race. It is individualistic.
we read in Isaiah  46:10, shall stand and the Lord       Whereas the Reformed truth emphasizes that we
will do all His good pleasure. The crucifixion of our    act as we act because of what we are, the Pelagian
Lord, that heinous deed by wicked hand, occurred         would have us believe that we are and become
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of          what we will to be. The sinner is inherently good
God, according to Acts  223. On the other hand,          and becomes evil because he wills and chooses it.
however, God is holy and righteous and sin must          Of course, he stands here before the insoluble mys-
be viewed as wholly foreign to the Lord. Passages        tery (insoluble as far as he is concerned) that  the
such as Job  34:lO and Habakkuk  1:13 speak for          whole human race is evil and that only a few are
themselves. God is light and there is no darkness in     saved. If it be true that every man is inherently
Him. And, our God is surely a consuming fire. And        good and is able to choose the good as well as the
so the question is surely pertinent: how is it to be     evil, why is it that more do not choose the good
harmonized with our God, Who never beholds ini-          and why is it that more are not saved? The Pelagian
quity, that sin is nevertheless never to be explained    simply explains the responsibility of man as his free
as independent of Jehovah, Who has formed the            will. When speaking of the sinner's free will, he un-
wicked, mind you, the wicked, unto the day of evil?      derstands it to mean that man must be free to
Indeed, we must surely say something about this.         choose between good and evil in the sense that he is
And we can say something about it. To be sure, we        able to choose either of the two. To deny this,
cannot fathom this mystery, understand it intellec-      according to the Pelagian, implies that man's re-
tually. And neither do we propose to offer such an       sponsibility is denied. He would maintain that the
explanation. But we can say something about it.          Lord cannot hold the sinner responsible for his
And this we can do because Scripture leads us in         wickedness unless that sinner be able to choose the
this. And we must take God at His Word, and this         good which he rejects. Now we must certainly
refers to all of His Word.                               maintain that man always chooses between good
  In close connection with the question how God's        and evil, and that he is also free in that choice. He


326                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



never chooses sin because he is forced to do so; the       deliberations which man has before his conscious-
sinner always sins freely. This, however, does not         ness and from which he must choose. And notice
imply that that sinner is able to choose the good as       that the answer of the tongue, his decisive choice, is
well as the evil. Today it is no longer understood         from the Lord. The Lord alone determines our
that one can be responsible for his action without         course of action. The same thought is expressed in
being able to choose the good. If, we understand,          verse 9 where we read: "A man's heart deviseth his
the responsiblity of the sinner must mean that he is       way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Or, as we
able to choose both, the good and the evil, then           read in Proverbs  21:l:  "The king's heart is in the
there is simply no responsibility, inasmuch as the         hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turneth it
Scriptures plainly teach that it is impossible for him     whithersoever He will." We must bear in mind
to choose the good.                                        here the power of an eastern monarch as he held
  This Pelagian conception of man's freedom, that          absolute sway over the life and death of his sub-
he is able to choose both, the good and the evil, is       jects. Note that his heart, the deepest fountain of
surely impossible. How impossible this view is in          his spiritual life is controlled by the Lord to do only
the light of Scripture! The fact remains that, ac-         what and as He wills. And this same truth is also
cording, to the Word of God, not man determines            held before us in chapter  19:21:  "There are many
his course of action, but the Lord. This is a Scrip-       devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel
tural truth so clearly stated in the Word of God as to     of the Lord, that shall stand." To this we may add
tolerate no contradiction. We are born dead in sins        that throughout the Word of God the same truth is
and in trespasses, and the flesh cannot desire the         always held before us. Permit me again to quote
things which are of the Spirit. Clearly and emphati-       Isaiah  46:lO: "Declaring the end from the begin-
cally the apostle writes in Romans 8:6-8: "For to be       ning, and from ancient times the things that are not
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually            yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind          do all My pleasure." Does not Isaiah, in chapter 45,
is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law    speak of Cyrus as His anointed, His servant, and
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are       does he not mention him centuries before the ap-
in the flesh cannot please God." We understand, of         pearance of this heathen, idolatrous Persian mon-
course, that the carnal mind here refers to the            arch upon the stage of history, declaring in verse 4:
natural man. I do not determine the action of my           "For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine
heart, but my heart determines all my action.              elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have
Throughout Scripture we have the repeated refuta-          surnamed thee, though thou has not known. Me"?
tion of all Pelagianism. The Pelagian claims that he       Let the critics of infallible inspiration explain this
is and becomes what he wills to be. The Scriptures,        phenomenon! Indeed, all of Scripture condemns
however, teach that a corrupt tree brings forth cor-       the proud and vain heresy of Pelagianism. I say: the
rupt fruit. The tree does not become corrupt               proud heresy of Pelagianism. Always man seeks to
because of its fruit, but the fruit is corrupt because     maintain himself. Always he will claim to be able to
of the tree. The fruit does not determine the tree,        be what he wills to be. Always he will deny that he
but the tree determines the fruit. An apple tree, for      can never of himself seek the kingdom of God and
example, does not become an apple tree because of          of heaven and the things that are above! And, yet,
the apples, but the apples appear because it is an         Pelagianism is everywhere condemned in Holy
apple tree. Indeed, throughout the Word of God we          Writ. Are we not conceived and born dead in sins
have the repeated refutation of all Pelagianism.           and in trespasses? How, I ask you, can this dead
Every thought and every desire, every emotion of           sinner ever choose the things of God and of His
the soul, every action of the will is controlled and       kingdom, the kingdom of heaven? Can the deaf
directed by God so that there is no action within me       hear because he wills to hear? Can the blind see be-
which is independent of the Lord. This is surely           cause he wills to see? Can the dead live because he
taught everywhere in the Word of God. Are not all          chooses to live? Now we can understand the Word
the hairs of our head counted, and does not the            of God as recorded in John  14:17: "Even the Spirit
Lord clothe every lily of the field? It is particularly    of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because
in the book of Proverbs that we have this truth            it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye
stated clearly, although the apostle writes empha-         know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be
tically in the ninth chapter of his epistle to the         in you." Indeed, the world cannot receive Him. We
Romans that God is the Potter and that man is the          do not read that they not receive Him, however true
clay. We read in Proverbs  16:l:   "The preparations       this may be. Of course, the wicked world does not
of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue,         receive Him. They always reject Him. But we read
is from the Lord." When the man of God speaks              here in this Word of God that they cannot receive
here of the preparations of the heart he refers to the     Him. To receive Him is for them an impossibility. .


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            327



Why? The Pelagian maintains that they can receive          any man. " Indeed, the Lord is far from evil. Even
Him and do not possess Him because they refuse to          as a moth is immediately consumed when contact-
receive Him. And the Arminian concurs. The world           ing the light, so the Lord lives eternally in the light,
cannot receive Him because they see Him not and            is Himself light, and no sin or sinner can live or
know Him not. The world does not know Him, has             stand before Him. And, yet, God is free in the abso-
never experienced Him, So, to receive Him one              lute sense of the word. This surely cannot mean
must first be received of Him, experience Him as           that the Lord is able to choose the evil as well as the
dwelling in his heart. He must first enter into our        good. That He is free means that He unhindered
hearts.                                                    and unmolested wills and maintains Himself. And
  That true freedom is not to be understood in the         we must bear in mind that the Lord's freedom
Pelagian and Arminian sense of the word is there-          surely determines our freedom. This is not freedom
fore abundantly clear from the Word of God. To             that I can do whatever I please. It is surely not the
this, however, we may add the following. God is            desire of the bird to be in the water, as well as in the
free in the absolute sense of the word. Will anyone        air or of the fish to be in the air as well as in the
attempt to refute this? He cannot do evil. Wicked-         water. And, spiritually, it is surely not the desire of
ness is surely far from Him. Need we quote Scrip-          the reborn child of God  .to be Lord himself. This
ture in support of this? We read in Habakkuk 1:13:         was Adam's sin, to be equal with God, and the
"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and           result was that he plunged himself and all mankind
canst not look on iniquity." That the Lord cannot          into sin and became the object of the curse of God.
look on iniquity does not mean that He does not see        The sinner has the power to choose both, the evil
it, is not aware of it. But it does mean that He           and also the good? Indeed, the child of God looks
cannot look upon it in the sense that it in any sense      forward to the day when he shall inherit everlasting
appeals to Him. The apostle John writes in the first       life and glory. Why? Because in that day he will no
chapter of his first epistle that God is light and that    longer be able to do evil and choose iniquity. How
in Him is no darkness at all. And to this he adds in       he longs to be delivered! How in this life he is
verse 6: "If we say that we have fellowship with           plagued by sin and evil, that he cannot perform the
Him, and walk in darkness we lie, and do not the           good he wills and that he commits the evil he hates.
truth." And in James 1:13 we read: "Let no man say         Then, in everlasting glory he will be free, perfectly
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God           free. Free also to do evil? No! Then sin will have
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He           become for him everlastingly impossible.

ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren



                                 Our Only Comfort?


  Several months ago there was a very sad "acci-           cerned with that report, but rather with a response
dent" in Grand Rapids. Three young men, present            to it - and an answer by the editor of that paper. A
or past students of Calvin College, were killed in an      reader wrote:
auto accident. The lives of three young men were
suddenly snuffed out. Of course, such an "acci-                  When I pulled my C.C. out of our mailbox this
dent" strongly affects families, friends, and even a          week, the top headline immediately jumped out at
whole community.                                               me: "Cruel accident takes lives of three young men."
                                                               It disturbed me because I would expect to find that
  Since two of these young men had Canadian                    kind of a line in the Star or the Sun, but certainly not
roots and were well-known there, the  Calvinist Con-          in CC.
tact  contained an account of the accident (without              In the obituary column I found the same event de-
all of the details presented in the Grand Rapids'              scribed this way: Our heavenly Father, all wise and all
Press) in its February 4, 1983 issue. I am not con-           merciful, called to His eternal home.. . .


328                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



          Though death is alien to us, though the passing of         What does the Sovereignty of God mean to the Re-
       promising young men grips us deeply, our grief                formed Christian? Can Sovereignty mean that God
       should not be for those young men, but'for their loved        "permits" certain things to happen that He does
       ones who grieve. How is it possible to refer to the           not really "cause" or even "wish to happen"? What
       deeds of our wise and merciful God as a cruel acci-           does such a view do to the truth of God's provi-
       dent?. . .                                                    dence? Does He, or does He not, govern all things
  The editor gives answer in a brief note under the                  that take place?
heading: ,"God is not the author of accidents":                        What does this view do for the "comfort" of a
          Most of the time we do not reply to letters. But there     Christian; If "fate" or "chance" or even man's
       are times that an editor should reply to a letter. This is    sinfulness controls events, what a discouragement
       such a time, in my opinion,, because not to answer            life itself would become! What must I think of my
       would leave some misunderstanding and allow a view
       of death and suffering to continue in our circles that is     God-Who presumably does not want these things
       not helpful.                                                  to happen, yet permits them to be? One can resort
                                                                     to a claim of "mystery," but the fact is that this pre-
          The title "Cruel accident takes lives of three young       sents not mystery but contradiction.
       men" was not a carelessly .tossed  off headline nor are
       we trying to be sensationalistic. The news struck us            Trouble is, the editor who would remove "a view
       hard, as it did others, I am sure. The accident seemed        of death and suffering .  .: in our circles that is not
       so cruel. Quite often in a similar accident several will      helpful, " is seeking to remove a view that is Re-
       survive, but not this time. All three young men were          formed, confessional, and Scriptural. Reformed
       killed.                                                       writers make clear that theirs is not the view which
          We took care not to call the accident a tragedy.           the editor of C.C. proposes. Calvin writes exten-
       There is no room for tragedy in the life of Christians.       sively on providence in his Institifes. A study of this
       It was a short news item that we felt should be run be-       in his book is instructive. I quote just a small por-
       cause it is our task to inform the Reformed communi-          tion:
       ty. We could have run it a week earlier. But because
       we did not want to treat it like a "hot" item, we kept it              If any one falls into the hands of robbers, or meets
       over for a week. On reflection, we should perhaps                 with wild beasts; if by a sudden storm he is ship-
       have given it a less prominent place.                             wrecked on the ocean; if he is killed by the fall of a
                                                                         house or a  tree;.if  another, wandering through deserts,
          But my main concern is with the idea in the letter of          finds relief for his penury, or, after having been tossed
       . . . that the accident can somehow be tied in with the           about by the waves, reaches the port, and escapes, as
       deeds of our God. Not for a moment should we think                it were, but a hair's-breadth from death, -carnal rea-
       that God caused that accident. He did not want those              son will ascribe all these occurrences, both prosper-
       three young men to die. In His infinite mercy He can              ous and adverse, to fortune. But whoever has been
       turn evil to our profit, call the young men to Him in             taught from the mouth of Christ, that the hairs of his
       His eternal home and comfort the parents and the                  head are all numbered, will seek further for a cause,
       community. But the accident is and remains a cruel                and conclude that all events are governed by the se-
       accident which God does not.wish to happen to any-                cret counsel of God. And respecting things inanimate,
       one. It is our collective and individual sinfulness that          it must be admitted, that, though they are all naturally
       has brought suffering into this world. Our loving God             endued with their peculiar properties, yet they exert
       did not cause it.                                                 not their power, any further than as they are directed
          That God allows such an accident to happen is a                by the present hand of God. They are, therefore, no
       mystery before which we, like Job, should bow in rev-             other than instruments into which God infuses as
       erence.                                                           much efficacy as He pleases, bending and turning
  My concern is the statement of the editor, "In                         them to any actions, according to His will.
my opinion, . . . not to answer would leave some                       Later Calvin writes, in connection with a quote
misunderstanding and allow a view of death and                       from Augustine:
suffering to continue in our circles that is not help-
ful." And again he shows what he has in mind by                               He (Augustine) certainly does not suppose God to
                                                                         remain an idle spectator, determining to permit any-
stating, "Not for a moment should we think that                          thing; there is an intervention of actual volition, if I
God caused that accident. He did not want those                          may be allowed the expression, which otherwise
three young men to die.... The accident is and                           could never be considered as a cause.
remains a cruel accident which God does not wish                       L. Berkhof, in his Systematic Theology, insists on
to happen to anyone.... Our loving God did not                       the same thing in describing the idea of "govern-
cause it."                                                           ment" within the concept of providence (cf. p.
  Some troubling questions arise when a                              176).
"Calvinist" editor makes the above claims. Who is                      But the editor of the C.C. will have to correct our
in control of events-"accidents" or otherwise?                       Reformed confessions too. We read, for instance, in


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               329



the first Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism,                        the wicked then? (see Gen.  7:4). Did God simply
that Jesus "so preserves me that without the will                        "permit'! but not desire, the destruction of Sodom
of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my                       (see Gen. 18:17)? Did God permit Joseph to be sold
head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my                     into Egypt, or did He sovereignly direct that (Gen.
salvation.. . . " Later, in Lord's Day 10, we read con-                  50:20)? Did not God say to David, after his sin with
cerning providence that it is "the almighty and                          Bathsheba, "Behold, I will raise up evil against thee
everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it                          out of thine own house.. . ." (II Sam. 12: 1 l)? And did
were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven,                         not Shimei curse fleeing David because God said to
earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass,                       hirn, "Curse David' (II Sam. 16:10)? Or there is the
rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat                        oft-quoted words of Christ, found in Matthew
and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,                      10:29-30, "Are not two sparrows sold for a far-thing?
yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His                      And one of them shall not fall on the ground with-
fatherly hand. ' '                                                       out your Father (by "permission" or by "sovereign
  The Netherlands Confession`states also in Article                      will"?). But the very hairs of your head are all num-
13,                                                                     bered."
                                                                            Obviously, the editor of C.C. has a lot of correct-
         We believe that the same God, after He had created
       all things, did not forsake them, or give them up to for-         ing to do of views he considers "not helpful." For
       tune or chance, but tha% He rules  and  governs them ac-          me, I prefer and cling to the old Scriptural, Re-
       cording to His holy will, so that nothing happens in              formed, confessional truth that God is  Sovereign-
       this world  without His appointment..  . . This doctrine af-      and in.His sovereignty He controls and governs all
       fords us unspeakable consolation, since we are taught             things, even cars that are involved in "accidents."
       thereby that  nothing can befall us by chance,  but by the        Though through tears the child of God can confess,.
       direction  of our most gracious and heavenly Father;              not that "My God didn't really want it to happen,"
       Who watches over us with a paternal care, keeping all             but that "My God so governs all things that even
       creatures so under His power, that not a hair of our              my light affliction worketh for me a far more ex-
       head (for they are all numbered) nor a sparrow, can               ceeding and eternal weight of glory" (II Cor. 4:17).
       fall to the ground, without the will of our Father.. . .          T h o u g h   I   c a n   n o t   a l w a y s   u n d e r s t a n d ,   I
   But what does Scripture itself teach? Did God                         acknowledge His wisdom in directing all things
simply "permit" it to rain on the earth in the days                      which befall me too. Any other statement destroys
of Noah, and did God not want the destruction of                         the Christian's comfort.





                                  The Gospel according to ?



  Many enjoy reading cartoons and comics. Some                         _ Commies for Jesus"; 1 p.m.  - "El Salvador Semi-
are atrocious, some are very blasphemous and                             nar"; 2             p.m.  - "Understanding                   Nuclear
surely harmful spiritually. Yet some strike close to                     Holocaust"; 3 p.m. "Getting Tough, With Mos-
home and emphasize in simple form a very impor-                          cow. ' ' In the corner, a little character declares:
tant point. The Grand Rapids' Press,  March 29,                          "Now we'll all sing, `Onward Christian Military
1983, had one such editorial cartoon. It pictured the                    Advisers.' " The point was well-made. Paul's con-
congregation being welcomed by the pastor at the                         fession, "I determined not to know any  thing
church door. On the bulletin board outside of the                        among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified"
church were listed the topics for the day: 10 a.m.  -                    (I Cor. 2:2) seems to be hardly the position of most
"Nuclear Arms Workshop"; 11 a.m.  - "Examining                           churches today.
the National Defense"; Noon  - "Stop the Godless


330                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                               A Pilgrim's Perspective (IV)
                                                              Rev. R. Flikkema



         Concerning these articles that I have been writing             dicated, is certainly not the same as that of a
       in this rubric there seems to be a bit of clarification          farmer's life. Not that I am complaining, you
       necessary. People have asked me, for example, "Are               understand. I am certainly thankful that I have the
       your parents really dead?' or "Who is this friend of             work that I do. God has been good to me in provid-
       yours that had that terminal illness?"  I am thankful to         ing this means to take care of the needs of my
       inform the reader that  my  parents are very much
       alive! But the parents of a man named "Pilgrim                   family. But it is not quite the same.
       Watcher" are not, and possibly it is true in the reader's           I work from seven o'clock in the morning until
       life that your parents are not either.                           about three or four in the afternoon. The factory
         You see, these articles and the events or persons              gives me about a half-hour to eat my lunch. But
       that they describe, though written by the undersigned,           from the moment that I walk into the factory, I feel
       are not intended to present the events that have hap-            like I am in another world: a world that militates
       pened in my life as such; nor are they intended to de-           against what I consider my life as a pilgrim and a
       scribe persons that I know or have met as such. Some             stranger to be. Gone is the peace and serenity! It is
       are. But some are not. Rather, they are the events that          replaced by the incessant roar of motors and clang-
       have happened and the persons that have been met by              ing of machines. I say "Good morning" to the men
       Pilgrim Watcher in whom the reader may to a greater              with whom I work. I wonder about that expression
       or lesser extent see himself. Hopefully we all, includ-          "good morning." Yes, the morning is good. Every
       ing myself, will see ourselves at least somewhat re-
       flected in Pilgrim Watcher and by that be better                 morning that God gives is a good morning. But
       equipped to walk with him as a pilgrim and with him              when I say to my fellow workers, "Good morning,"
       watch for the signs of our Lords coming.                         do they really understand what I mean by that?
                                                                        That it is a good morning because the God of my
  Ny name is Pilgrim Watcher. As I wrote earlier,                       salvation made it such, and that I experience the
my parents gave me that name when I was born. I                         fact that it is a good morning by consciously relying
sometimes think about my early childhood. My                            upon the goodness of God to keep me and guide me
parents lived on a farm. There is something nice                        through the morning? The answer is clear to me.
about a farmer's life, that is, a Christian farmer's                    They do not! They do not mean the same thing
life. A Christian farmer lives close to his God. He                     about that expression that I do. And I wonder too
knows that he is entirely dependent upon God for                        about that expression as to the intent behind it. If
all things-for rain and sunshine to grow his crops.                     my intent behind that expression is merely formal
Not that a Christian factory worker is not depen-                       then maybe it is not so bad. But if my intent is to
dent on his God. I do not mean to imply that. Cer-                      wish them a good morning, then it is wrong. How
tainly a Christian factory worker is also dependent                     can I wish something upon the wicked that they
on his God. But what I mean is that a Christian                         can not and do not experience?
farmer is constantly reminded by the very nature of
his occupation just how much he is dependent on                            And it is obvious that they do not experience the
his God. There is another thing that is nice about a                    goodness-of God in their hearts. Yes, they are given
Christian farmer's life-the serenity and peace that                     good things by God. Not in His grace, you under-
he experiences! And, in that connection, the fact                       stand. There is no grace of God for the wicked.
that he can go off by himself in the field and be                       Only God's wrath. But they are given good things,
alone with his God, apart from the blatant sinful-                      nevertheless. However, they who are given good
ness and foolish talking and corruption of the                          things by God, are not thankful for them. They
wicked.                                                                 complain! They are always grumbling and com-
                                                                        plaining about this or that or the next thing. Their
  I miss that! I did not take over the farm when my                     wages are not high enough, or the working condi-
father died but moved to the city. I took up my                         tions are not good enough. The hours are too short
labors working in a factory, which, as I already in-                    or the hours are too long. They do not obey the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                331



Word of God when it says in Ephesians  5:20,                 face of God to tell them this. But it seemed to have
"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and            no positive effect on them. And when I pray before
the Father  .m the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."           my meal or read a portion of the Bible, the negative
And too, they do not use the good things that God            effect that my words had on them really becomes
gives them to the honor and glory of God. They               evident, for they look at me as though I am strange.
hold those things under in unrighteousness. They               Yes, I am strange, am I not? That thought strikes
consider the things that God gives them to be their          home. I am different from all the rest. Not by
own. Instead of singing, "All that I am I owe to             nature of course. By nature I am no different than
thee," they live by the motto, "All that I am I owe          they are. By nature I too am not thankful. I too
to me." They squander the things that they are               compiain and grumble. And what is true of me by
given. They squander their paycheck on gambling              nature, I too see so much of in my life. Sometimes I
and alcohol and all kinds of other foolish things.           do complain and grumble, and my attitude con-
They squander their time and talents by not using            cerning the good things that God has given me is
their time and talents to the best of their ability.         not at all as it should be. I am ashamed of myself! I
They are thieves! Robbers they are of the good               pray for forgiveness and grace. Forgiveness for all
things that God has given .to them. God says also in         the many sins and weaknesses that are such a part
Ephesians 5, "See then that ye walk circumspectly,           of my life. Grace to serve and love my God and
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time be-            walk as the child of light that God has made me ac-
cause the days are evil." But they do not do that.           cording to the riches of His grace. I am reminded of
They are fools. Fools who say in their heart there is        the Word of God, "Be ye therefore followers of
no God. A wise man never says that. A wise man               God, as dear children; and walk in love"; and, "For
who really experiences the goodness of God in his            ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light
heart always acknowledges from his heart that God            in the Lord: walk as children of light."
is and that from the hand of God all good things
flow.                                                          That is my calling. I am light! By nature dark-
                                                             ness, but by grace and through Jesus Christ, light!
  This bothers me. I weary of all this grumbling             That makes me different from all the rest. Then in
and complaining, this squandering of time, this              that light I must walk. I must walk as a pilgrim. A
mockery of the God of all glory and goodness.                pilgrim is a person who has no abiding place here.
Sometimes I am more weary at the end of the day              He walks in the midst of a world which is a dry and
from observing all of this than I am from working            thirsty land in which no water is. He can find no
on the assembly line. And it is especially this bold         place in the midst of the world, as I could find no
mockery of God that wearies me. Man is called to             place in the midst of the factory, where he can be in
do one thing in life, namely, live his life to the           the absolute sense of the word separated from this
honor and glory of God. He is to reflect that in             wicked world. Even if he finds such a place, he still
every facet of his life, certainly in his speech. The        carries with him his own sinful flesh. But he is a pil-
Bible says also in Ephesians 5, "But fornication,            grim nevertheless. As a pilgrim he walks. As a
and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be          stranger he walks! He is not a part of this world. He
once named among you, as becometh saints;                    is in it, but not of it, as God says, "Be not ye there-
neither  filthiness,  nor  foolish talking,  nor jesting,    fore  ,partakers  with them." Rather, he is a part of
which are not convenient: but rather giving of               the blessed fellowship and friendship of the light of
thanks." But filthy-and foolish is their language. It        the ever blessed God.
makes me cringe to listen to that day in and day
out. It goes contrary to the very depths of my being            This comforts me. Yes, I am strange, but if I may
and existence.                                               put it that way,  comfortingly  strange, for God has
                                                             graciously made me that. He has fashioned me unto
  And where do I go to escape all of this? 1. really         Himself. His grace and love He makes me share.
can not escape. Even at lunch hour when I try to             And that -is comfort. With that comfort I labor in
separate myself from all this, I am confronted with          my everyday life. It strengthens me to persevere,
it. I try to find some isolated part of the factory to       knowing that when the day comes to an end I can
eat my lunch: some place where I can pray quietly            go home. And even more, when my life comes to an
and meditate upon spiritual things. But such places          end I can really go home to heaven where my home
are almost nonexistent, and I sometimes long for             is, to walk as a child of light forever.
the open fields that my father and I used to walk.
Always I am within hearing of their foolish talking.
And they who know that I do not like it, seem to                            Read and Study
talk even in such a way that I do hear it. Yes, I have               The Standard Bearer
told them on many occasions that their talking is
wrong. That I feel was simply my duty before the


332                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



GUESTARTICLE


           God's Sovereign Love For His People.
                                              Rev. Steven R. Houck





  "God is love." When properly understood, these             For the Scriptures teach us that there is only one
words of the apostle John are of great comfort to the     love of God and that love is always a saving,
people of God. For that God is love means that God        redemptive love. God saves His people both in the
is the God of our salvation. John tells us, "In this      old dispensation and in the new, always because
was manifested the love of God toward us, because         He loves us. "The Lord did not set His love upon
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world,       you, nor choose you, because ye were more in
that we might live through Him" (I Jn. 4:9). God is       number than any people; for ye were the fewest of
love in and of Himself. His very essence is love. But     all people: But because the Lord loved you, and be-
that great love He has also shown to us. God mani-        cause He would keep the oath which He had sworn
fested His love to us by sending Christ to die for us     unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out
in order that we might have eternal life. It is in His    with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the
love that God saves us through Christ. In fact, we        house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king
can even say that it is the love of God that saves        of Egypt'! (Deut.  7:7  & 8). The sovereign cause of
us-saves us just as much as does the grace of God.        Israel's redemption was God's love for them. In
For God's sovereign love is the source and cause of       Hosea  11:l we find that same connection between
all that belongs to our salvation. Without that love,     love and redemption. "When Israel was a child,
there could be no salvation.                              then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt."
  How sad, therefore, that this love of God is so         God loved His son, and because of that love, He
trampled under foot today. For man, in his quest to       called him out of the bondage of Egypt. In fact, the
make himself King, has so gutted the true meaning         love of God for His people is so strong that He saves
of God's love that he has made it nothing more than       us even at the expense of others. He says, "Since
a weak, impotent emotion that can not even                thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been
accomplish what it wishes. For they tell us that          honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I
God loves everyone. We hear this, not only from           give men for thee, and people for thy life" (Isa.
those who have historically been Arminian, but            43:4). God's love for us is of such a nature that it
even from many who call themselves Reformed. To           will destroy others (Egypt, Ethiopia, Seba-Isa. 43:3)
say that God does not love everyone is to incur the       in order that it might deliver us. For God's love
wrath of just about everyone.                             does not merely wish for our salvation; it actually
                                                          accomplishes our salvation.
  But to say that God loves all is to make the love
of God ineffectual and vain. For then God's love is         Thus we can go all the way back to our eternal
so weak that it can not even save its objects. God        election and find behind that blessed decree of
loves all, but not all are saved. In fact, some who       God, His everlasting love for us. We were chosen to
are loved by God are even now in the everlasting          salvation because God loved us. If we read  Ephe-
torment of hell. What kind of love is that? How can       sians  1:5 the way many would have us, then we
that possibly be the love of God? If I love my son, I     have there a direct statement to that effect. We
do all in my power to keep him from harm and dan-         read, "In love having predestinated us unto the
ger. Surely if the Sovereign God loves someone, He        adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself,
not only wills to save him, but He is able to and He      according to the good pleasure of His will." God
does save him. The love of God is a sovereign love        predestinated us unto the adoption of children in
that always accomplishes what it wants, even over         the sphere of His great love for us. Election is the
against the rebellious objections of wicked men. If       choice of love. The same idea is found  ,in Romans
God loves you, then God saves you.                        8:29: "For whom He did foreknow, He also did pre-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               333


destinate to be conformed to the imgage of His              Scriptures make it clear that God loves us only and
Son...." Here the word "foreknow" has in it the             always in Christ. Thus we read, "And the grace of
idea of love (see Amos 3:2). Those whom God fore-           our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and
knew in love He also predestinated unto salvation           love which is in Christ Jesus" (I Tim.  1:14). God
in Christ. God's love always wants our salvation            loves us always because we are united to Christ. He
and therefore it determines to bring us to that salva-      does not love us as we are according to the flesh.
tion.                                                       For we are sinners. But He loves us as those who,
  God's love, however, does much more than sim-             from all eternity, belong to Christ. He even loves us
ply will our salvation. That love sees to it that we        with. the very same love with which He loves
are actually saved. In fact the apostle Paul makes it       Christ. Jesus Himself teaches that in John 17:  `I...
clear that Gods love for us is the cause of our re-         and that the world may know that Thou hast sent
generation. He says, "But God, Who is rich in mer-          Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me....
cy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even          And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us to-            declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved
gether with Christ" (Eph.  2:4  & 5). We by nature          Me may be in them, and I in them" (vs. 23  & 26).
are dead in sin. We have no spiritual life whatso-          The love with which God loves us is no less than
ever. But God quickens us; He makes us alive. And           the very love He showers upon His only begotten
He does that, according to the apostle, on account          Son, Jesus Christ. For we are one with Christ. We
of His great love with which He loved us. Just as           are His body. We partake of all His blessings, in-
surely as we are chosen in the sphere of God's love,        cluding God's love. There can be no love of God for
so too that love is the cause of our spiritual birth        anyone outside of Christ. Such a thing is utterly im-
into the kingdom and family of God. The apostle             possible. For love is the bond of perfectness. Unless
John confirms this by telling us that we are sons of        God sees you, from all eternity, as righteous in
God on account of God's love. "Behold what                  Christ He has no love for you.
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us               That idea is confirmed by the fact that the love of
that we should be called the sons of God" (I Jn.            God can be found only at the cross. Even the ever-
3: 1). If you want to see the kind of love with which       lasting love of God that elected us unto salvation, is
God loves us, then consider the fact that it is God's       a love that is founded upon the cross. For it is at the
love that makes us His sons. We who by nature are           cross that Christ shed His blood for the remission of
the children of wrath, are called the sons of God be-       our sins. It is only in the cross that we are lovable.
cause God loves us and out of that love makes us            Thus we often find the idea of love and the cross to-
His children.                                               gether in the Scriptures. "But God commendeth
  That is a very powerful and wonderful love-not            His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin-
something weak and ineffectual; always wishing              ners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8,). The cross is the
but never able to bring it to pass. It is a sovereign       grand display of God's great love for us. It tells us
love that saves its objects. It is the cause of all our     more about the love of God than does anything
salvation from election to our final glorification. In      else. Jesus says, "Greater love hath no man than
the words of the apostle, "We are more than con-            this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"
querors through Him that loved us" (Rom.  8:37).            (Jn.  15:13). And that is exactly what God did. In
The God Who chose us and regenerated us contin-             Christ He laid down His life for us. That is the
ues to work within us until finally He has brought          greatest love. There is no love anywhere that can
us to our eternal glory. Then we shall be more than         match what God has done for us. John says, "Here-
conquerors in a most blessed and perfect way. And           in is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved
all because He loved us. No wonder we read in II            us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
Thessalonians  2:16  & 17, "Now our Lord Jesus              sins" (Jn. 4:lO).
Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which               All this can only mean that God's love is a sover-
hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting conso-         eign love that is limited to God's elect people only.
lation and good hope -through grace, comfort your           For the scope of God's love can be no greater than
hearts...." For the love of God, the sovereign saving       the scope of the cross. If the cross is the great dis-
love of God, is surely a very comforting love and a         play of God's love, then only those who are com-
love that gives us good hope.                               prehended in the death of Christ have anything of
  The sovereign character of God's love is demon-           the love of God. The Scriptures teach us that Christ
strated even more when we consider the relation-            died only for His people (Eph.  5:25, Jn.  1O:ll).
ship of that to Christ and the cross. After all, if love    Therefore we must conclude that God loves only
is the sovereign cause of our salvation then it must        His people. All others have no part in the cross and
be very closely connected to Christ and His death.          the righteousness of Jesus Christ and therefore
And indeed it is. For in the first place, the               have nothing of God's love. Thus we read, "The


3       3     4                               THE STANDARD BEARER



Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him           pose of God's love is surely accomplished. We can
that loveth violence His soul hateth" (Ps. 11:5).           make the same confident confession as the apostle
     No, God's love is not weak. It is not impotent. It     when he declares, "For I am persuaded, that
does not wish for what it can not have. It is sover-        neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali-
eign, all-powerful, and therefore particular. When          ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
God loves a man, He does not leave him in hell. But         come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
He blesses him with every spiritual blessing in             creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
Christ Jesus. He redeems him from destruction. For          of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom.
God's love sent forth His only begotten Son to die          8:38-39).
on the cross that we might have life. And that pur-


                                         Book Reviews


THE NEW  TESThAENT  STUDENT AND HIS                         headed approach to the so-called textual question, a
FIELD,  John H. Skilton, Gen'l Editor; Presbyterian         question on which some have tended recently to
and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg,              take radical and untenable positions. J. P. Versteeg
N.J. 310 pp., $9.95 (paper); reviewed by Prof. H. C.        ("Old Testament Citations In The Gospel
Hoeksema                                                    According to Matthew"), Thomas L. Wilkinson
     This is Volume 5 of a series of books under the        ("The Man Of Lawlessness in II Thessalonians"),
same title. The general editor is Dr. John H. Skilton,      and Robert H. Countess ("Thank God For The
professor emeritus of the New Testament depart-             Genitive!") also contribute articles which drew my
ment at Westminster Seminary. This is not a book            interest.
by one author on one subject, but a collection of es-
says and articles by many different writers. Neither        HOW TO HANDLE TROUBLE,  Jay E. Adams;
is it a book for general readership; it is intended for     Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.,  Phil-
New Testament scholars and students and is in sev-          lipsburg, N.J.; 60 pp., $1.95 (paper); reviewed by
eral instances highly technical in nature. Most of          Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
the articles are on a wide range of New Testament             Dr. Adams is well-known for his theories and ap-
subjects-on text, archaeology, discourse analysis,          proach in Christian counselling, and he has written
tradition criticism, etc. Some of the articles go be-       many book in this field. I have no doubt that he has
yond the New Testament field proper.                        made a significant contribution in this area. Neither
     As might be expected of a volume of this kind,         do I doubt, however, that this area of a pastor's
the quality and value of the essays differ widely,          work has tended to be much over-emphasized, fre-
due to the wide variety of subjects treated and even        quently at the expense of quality preaching, which
more due to the wide variety of writers.                    is, after all, the chief and all-important work of a
                                                            pastor. Perhaps Jay Adams' books have contributed
     A general impression which I received in connec-       to this over-emphasis by virtue of their sheer num-
tion with several of the essays is that there is far too    bers.
much attention given (and respect paid?) to the the-
ories and fruits of higher critics and higher criti-          This little book is, as its title suggests, a "how to"
cism. This reviewer is singularly uninterested -in          book. I have always been of the opinion that such
these matters, afraid of the tendency mentioned,            "how to" books are the least helpful and the least
and of the opinion that the believing New Testa-            valuable in the work of pastoral care. It is much
ment scholar can spend his time and effort on far           more important for a pastor to understand Biblical
better matters which will also be of concern and in-        and Reformed principles and methods. All kinds of
terest and profit to the church as well as to the New       manuals and "How to" books will never teach a
Testament student.  =                                       man to be a pastor. Neither will they be of actual
                                                            practical help, for the simple reason that every
     This is not to say that there are not some worth-      "case" is an individual case and must be dealt with
while essays in this volume. I found the first essay,       as such.
written by Dr. Skilton himself, on "The New Testa-
ment Text Today," to be a rather sane and level-              Not of great value.


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                 `3 3 5





                                              YOU ARE-INVITED. . .
                                           To the Annual Spring Lecture
                                           To be held, the Lord willing, at
First Protestant'Reformed  Church, Corner Franklin and Fuller,
                                                Grand Rapids, Michigan
                                     The Speaker - Rev. M. Joostens
              The Theme - -"The Churches' Calling in Missions"
                                 Thursday, May 5,1983 - 8:OO P.M.
                      Plan now to attend - and bring your friends.
         .The Lecture .Committee  of the Protestant Reformed Churches
                                                                                             The Lecture Committee

                                                                                      SCHOLARSHIP FUND APPLICATIONS
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                The Scholarship Fund Committee is taking applications for future
   The Consistory.of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,           teachers/ministers for the 1983-84 school year. If you are interested
Michigan, expresses its sincere sympathy to its brother officebearer,         please contact Michael Lotterman, 1382 Su-Lew Dr., Walker, MI
Elder John Bodbyl in the passing of his father, JOHN BODBYL.                  49504, for application forms. An essay of 300 words or more is re-
   "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis-        quired on the topic `The Calling of the Minister (or) Teacher in the
solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,              face of Philosophy and Vain Deceit (Cal. 2:8).' Deadline for applica-
eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5: 1).                                       tions to be received is June 1, 1983.
                                                 Rev. G. van Baren,  Pres.                                  NOTICE!!!
                                                 P. Schut, Clerk                 Classis East will meet in regular session on May 11, 1983 at the
                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                       Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be treated must
                                                                              be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at least three weeks prior to the
   On April 1, 1983, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND MRS.               convening of this session.
GERALD CNOSSEN celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary.                                                                     Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk
   We, their children, thank our Heavenly Father for them and the
Christian love and guidance that has been ours as their children.                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   We pray that God will be with them in their future years together.            The Adult Bible Society of the Protestant Reformed Church of
   "He hath remembered His covenant forever, the Word which He                Doon, Iowa, takes this opportunity to express their sincere sympa-
commanded to a thousand generations" (Psalm 105:8).                           thies to one of their fellow members, Mrs. Don Aardema, on the
their children and grandchildren                                              death of her father, MR. JAKE MANTEL.
   Michael and Helen Cnossen                Bret and Debra Dykstra               Our prayer is that God may be her comfort in her sorrow and we
         Cynthia                                 Nathan                       rejoice with her in remembering that "precious in the sight of the Lord
         Michael                                 Amanda                       is the death of His saints" (Psalm 116: 15).
         Audra                                   Alisha                                                                           Rev. M. Kamps, Pres.
   Mark Cnossen                             Beth Anne Cnossen                                                                     Barb Hunter, Secy.




                                           Report of Classis West

                                                     March 15, 1983           1983.  Classis welcomed Rev. T. Miersma (Edmon-
   Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Church-                            ton), Rev. J. Smith (Edgerton), and Elder 0. Gaastra
es met in South Holland, Illinois on March 2 and 3,                           (Redlands) as first-time delegates to Classis. Rev. R.


  THE $TANDARD  BEARER
       P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506    -~ - `~-~~~~~~~~~--~-





336                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




Moore led  Classis  in opening devotions. He spoke            Classis  also treated several appeals of members
to the delegates on Matthew 51-5: "Judge not, that          against decisions of consistories. It turned back two
ye be not judged," etc.                                     appeals either because the deadline of  Classis  was
  Rev. Slopsema was president of this Classis.              not met or because the matter was not finished in
                                                            the minor assembly (Article 30 of the Church
  The Reading Sermon Committee (Edgerton Con-               Order).  Classis entered into two appeals and ren-
sistory) reported that our reading sermons are being        dered its judgment.
used by a Reformed church outside of our denomi-
nation and by the Protestant Reformed Fellowship              Classis approved the subsidy requests for 1984 of
of New Zealand, and asked for more, new reading             Edgerton, Edmonton, Houston, Isabel, and Pella, in
sermons. Each minister in the West is to write at           the amount of $71,051. It also approved Edmon-
least one reading sermon a year, due at the Septem-         ton's request for additional subsidy in 1983 in the
ber  Classis.  The Taped Sermon Committee (South            amount of $2,580.  Classis  approved Lynden's re-
Holland Council) suggested that the churches keep           quest for release from $1,364 in synodical assess-
the  casettes that they receive and that  Classis  be       ments in 1982, according to the synodical rule that
billed for them. This was adopted.                          assessments may be adjusted if a congregation loses
                                                            10% or more of her families.
  The Church Visitors reported on their visit of all
the churches of the West in the past year. They em-           Results of the elections were the following:
phasized the work of the elders, this time.  Classis          - Classical Committee:
thanked them (Rev. J. Kortering and Rev. G.  Lan-               1) Rev. R. Cammenga for a three year term.
ting) for their labor and gave them the mandate, "to           2) Rev. J. Smith for a two year term, to fill the
give special attention to the discussion of the pas-               unexpired term of Rev. J. Slopsema who re-
tor's salary with the various consistories this year.              signed at this Classis.
Grounds: A. It appears to us that some of our con-            - Delegates ad examina:
gregations are balancing their budgets at the                   1)  Primus: Rev. J. Slopsema.
expense of the pastor's salary. B. In our judgment,            2) Secundi: Rev. W. Bekkering for a three year
some of the pastors' salaries are quite low."                      term; Rev. R. Moore for a two year term, to
  Classis treated several overtures. It disapproved                fill the unexpired term of Rev. J. Slopsema.
an overture of Hull "that Article 2 of the Domestic           - Church Visitors: Rev. J. Kortering and Rev. G.
Mission Committee, entitled `Constituency,' be al-             Lanting.
tered so that the constituency of this synodical
committee be placed once again exclusively in Clas-           -  Primi minister delegates to Synod: Bekkering,
sis East." It adopted the overture of Redlands "that           Engelsma, Kamps, Kortering.
the meeting of Synod be changed from June 1 to                - Secundi minister delegates to Synod:  Cam-
June 8, 1983," on the ground that the early date                menga, Koole, Lanting, Slopsema.
conflicts with the school term in Redlands and pos-           -  Primi elder delegates to Synod: E. Bruinsma
sibly other areas. Classis  sent this overture on to the        (Loveland), W. Buys (Edgerton), L. Regnerus
calling church of Synod, 1983.                                 (South Holland), M. Smits (South Holland).
  Trinity, Houston overtured "that  Classis  West             - Secundi elder delegates to Synod: J. den Hartog
advise the Synod of the Protestant Reformed                    (Lynden), R. Ezinga (Loveland), A. Hendriks
Churches, meeting at Hope Church (G.R.), June,                 (Edger-ton), P. Meulenberg (Houston).
1983, to instruct the calling church for the Jamai-
can Mission Field to call a missionary and to begin           Classis  adjourned at midnight on Thursday even-
working in Jamaica as soon as possible." Classis  de-       ing, having decided to meet next in Edger-ton, Min-
cided that the overture was not legally before Clas-        nesota on September 7, 1983, the Lord willing.
sis, because the requirement of Article 46 of the                            Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
Church Order had not been met.                                               Classis  West


