      77x3
SiYiAhDARD
     BEAf?Ef?                                                         `.
       A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE




.  .  . We must always insist upon the great im-

portance of doctrine, we must preach doc-
trine faithfully in our church and we as indi-
vidual Christians must always be earnest and
zealous to learn sound doctrine. . . . But it is
equally im.portant that proper and distinctive
Christian living flow from our doctrine. .  ,I .
Putting this very simply, all men must know
that we are Reformed Christians because of
the reflection of this in our daily lives.
See "The Practical Implications of
                               Calvinism' ' - page 373


                                           Volume LIX, No. 16, May 15,1983 J


362                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER
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       Highly Exalted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .362     Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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                                                                                      Rev. Rodney. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus SCLipper, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
          Churches to be Specific (2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365             Gise  J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION _

                                                           Highly Exalted
                                                                       Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


                     Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
                 name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
                 earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
                 Lord, to the glory of God the Father.                                                                           -Philippians 2:9-l  1


  The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ on the for-                                     another place in God's universe, the highest
tieth day after the resurrection was surely a local                                      heaven, in order to sit at the right hand of God and
ascension. Christ departed from one place in the                                         to rule supreme over all things in His church and in
universe, the earth, never to return in that  per-                                       the world. And it is necessary, too, to emphasize
sonal, visible, bodily sense until He comes again to                                     this "local" aspect of the ascension over against all
judge the quick and the dead. And He went to                                             who would deny it and reduce it to some kind of


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                363



change of condition. Christ indeed ascended into          denial we may have the perfect confidence that
heaven; and if He did not, then there is no such          God will exalt us. This cannot possibly fail: for God
thing as the ascension.                                   Himself is concerned in it.
  But the ascension is much more than a change of           And if you would know that this is true, then
place. It represents in the very real sense of the        look to Jesus and to what God has done to Jesus
word an advance in the state of exaltation. We are        Christ. He has already highly exalted Him, Him
accustomed to refer to Christ's ascension as the          Who is our Head, to Whom we belong, Whose
second of four steps in the state of exaltation; and      mind is in us! And we shall be exalted with Him!
indeed it is that. And as such it represents progress,      Have this mind in you, the mind of Christ!
advance. Christ not only was raised and arose from
the dead; but He was exalted further in His ascen-                                 *****
sion. The ascension means that our Lord Jesus                What an amazing exaltation!
Christ became very, very, very great!                        First of all, consider for a moment from what
  God highly exalted Him!                                 depth this exaltation took place. The starting-point
  We have-no, we  belong  to-an unimaginably              was the depth of the cross. That was the lowest
great Christ! There are not sufficient superlatives to    stage of Christ's self-humiliation: "He humbled
describe His greatness! He has a name, the name,          Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
above every name. At His name every knee in all           death of the cross." From that point His exaltation
the universe must bowl And every tongue in all the        occurred. And understand well what this means. It
universe must confess the LORD JESUS CHRIST!              means that He had no name left, neither divine
                                                          name nor human name, except a negative name:
                           *****                          Cast away!
  Do not overlook the fact that the purpose of the           And then consider to what height Christ was
Word of God here is a practical one: "Let this mind       exalted. God hath highly exalted Him, lifted Him
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Ap-           up to an amazing height! And that amazing height is
parently the text here no longer is speaking of the       indicated by the expression "a name above every
mind of Christ and of what Christ did in that mind,       name.. ' ' Actually we should read: "the  na:me above
but rather of the mind of God and of what God did         every name." For it lies in the nature of the case
to Christ: He highly exalted Him. `Yet, as the word       that Christ's is a unique name: after all, there can
"wherefore" indicates, the two are inseparably            be but one name that is above every name. And
connected as cause and effect, as ground and act.         then remember that a name in the Scriptural sense
Hence, with Christ and His mind the matter stood          of the term is not an empty word, involving a mean-
thus, that He humbled Himself, completely empty-          ingless honor. But that name which Christ received
ing Himself, having taken the form of a servant,          denotes His place and position in relation to all
being made in the likeness of men, and being found        creatures. And that name is: LORD! Lord He is, in
in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself even              relation to all creatures in heaven, in relation to an-
unto death, yea, the death of the cross. And, though      gels and principalities and powers. Lord He is, in
being in the form of God, He never considered the         relation to all creatures on earth, in relation to men
robbery of being equal with God. And in all this,         and beasts and all things, in relation to land and
His deepest motive was obedience, obedience in the        seas, in relation to storm and tempest, in relation to
love of God! Yet, through all this there was also in      earthquake and volcano, and in relation to all the
the mind of Christ the perfect trust that God would       plans and activities and aspirations and strivings
justify Him, and there was in the mind of Christ the      and movements of them all. Lord He is, even over
hope of the joy that was set before Him. And in this      the spiritual powers of darkness: the devil and his
Christ was not put to shame: God highly exalted           host! Nothing is excluded from that  ILordship.
Him!                                                      ,Nothing  rivals that Lordship. Nothing is next to or
  Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ         equal to or even approaching equality with that
Jesus!                                                    Lordship. God hath highly exalted Him. He is abso-
                                                          lute Lord!
  In the cause of God's covenant the mind of
Christ must be actively in us and be manifest in us.        Amazing exaltation!
This is possible, of course, only because by grace          God gave Him a name. And the emphasis here is
the mind of Christ is in us principally; otherwise we     upon the fact that this is altogether different from
could never manifest it. And by that mind we must         our giving of a name. When God gives a name, that
be willing and ready that self, the big capital  I,       person is what God calls him. And when God gave
should be completely negated and denied and               to Jesus Christ the name LORD, this means that
should submerge. But in that humiliation and  self-       God made Him actual Lord. God gave to Christ the


364                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



authotify,  the prerogative, to reign. And God gave        are all united in Him, and shall say: Jesus Christ is
Him the power to maintain and execute and wield            L O R D !
that authority of His Lordship. Christ became                                      *****
through this high exaltation exceedingly beautiful
and glorious, majestic and strong in all the vast cre-       To the glory of the Father!
ation!                                                       What is the glory`of God? It is the radiation, the
  What an amazing Lord!                                    shining forth of all the infinite perfections of His
                       **c***                              Godhead. And this glory of God the Father is at
                                                           stake in Jesus' exaltation. The exaltation of Jesus
  Under the overwhelming influence of that name            Christ, this means, is theoZogicaZZy  necessary.
all shall bend the knee and worship. When the
apostle writes that "in (not: "at") the name of Jesus        Indeed, you can and must consider His exalta-
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall con-           tion from a soteriological viewpoint, from the view-
fess," that is not the same as if he had written "in       point of our salvation. Christ had come to save His
thename Jesus." No, the reference is to the same           brethren, the elect, and to remove their guilt and
name asmentioned in the preceding, the name God            deliver them from the power of sin and death and
gave Him, the name LORD. And to bend the knee              give them eternal life. And even from that view-
in  the name is not the same as to bend the knee at        point Christ's exaltation, by way of His humilia-
the name: it means under the overwhelming influ-           tion, was necessary. It was necessary that He
ence of that name which God gave Christ. Such is           should die for our sins. But it was also necessary
the tremendous impact of that name LORD!                   that He should be raised for our justification. And it
                                                           was equally necessary that He should be clothed
  Universally He shall be worshipped. To bend the          with all authority and power and that He should be-
knee is an act of reverence and fear. It is an act of      come the quickening Spirit-all in order to bring
worship such as belongs to God only. And to con-           about our actual salvation, our actual deliverance
fess with the mouth implies praise and adoration.          from sin and death, our actual participation in all
The content of that praise and adoration is: "Jesus        the blessings of salvation.
Christ is LORD!"                                             But in the ultimate sense of the word, Christ's
  This worship, moreover, shall be universal: every        exaltation, His being made LORD, must serve the
knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. And        purpose of the glory of God the Father.
then the apostle goes on and specifies: of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the            You see, the question is: who is Lord? Who is the
earth. There shall be no exception. Universally He         Lord and the Heir of all things among God's crea-
shall be acknowledged!                                     tures and in His creation? God's answer is: I am
                                                           Lord-Sovereign, and My servant is Lord under Me,
  The reference here is to the conscious, rational         over all things. Thus it was with Adam in Paradise
creature. Some have tried to explain the text as re-       the First: He was God's Ring-Servant, to rule over
ferring to all creation, rational and dumb. Yet the        all things in the earthly creation in the name of and
expressions "bend the knee" and "confess with the          in the service of God. The devil's answer is: I am
tongue" are too definite to permit this interpreta-        sovereign, and my servant shall be Lord in the
tion: they refer to actions of the conscious, rational     world. And the ultimate attempt of the devil to
creature. Hence, even though it is true that through       maintain his answer-an attempt, however, that
the rational creatures alZ creation shall worship and      shall be utterly frustrated-shall be Antichrist in his
confess Him as LORD, this is not the reference             final manifestation. He shall say, "I am Lord, and
here. The emphasis is rather on the fact that univer-      every knee must bow before me!"
saZZy the rational creatures shall worship.                   But God's answer must and shall stand! He
  But they shall not all worship in the same way. In       anointed His Ring upon His holy hill of Zion, His
the expression "under the earth" I find a reference        Servant, His Son, to become obedient in all things,
to the creatures in hell, in outer darkness, to' devils    even unto the death of the cross. And even as His
and damned men. They shall be compelled to wor-            Anointed Servant was obedient unto the death of
ship Him-they who once damned Him and blas-                the cross, therefore God hath highly exalted Him.
phemed His name! But they shall worship not in
love and obedience. On the contrary, in over-                Jesus is LORD! To the glory of God the Father!
whelming fear they shall acknowledge: Jesus is
LORD! The reference to creatures in heaven and on
earth, on the other hand, refers to the angels and                       Read and Study
the redeemed church. They confess Him now                               The Standard Bearer
already with  bended knee; And they shall confess
Him forever and ever, in love and delight, as they


                                                                                                                        --.

                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             365



EDITORIAL


                    The Calling of Our Protestant
           Reformed Churches. to.be Specific (2)                                                                  .'
                                              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


  What does it mean to be specific?                       fectly true in itself. But it is a statement to which
  Rather than spell this out in a formal. definition,     any Arminian could also subscribe. The statement
let me use the method of concrete'illustration.           is ambiguous. It is open to a double interpretation.
                                                          It could mean: all who believe are elect, because
  I could say: it is 1 P.M. on my timepiece. In that      faith is the condition of election. If I want to be
case you receive no information-unless you                specific, and therefore unambiguous, I will say:
happen to know that Grandville, Michigan is in the        "All who believe are elect, because faithis the sure
Eastern Time Zone-whether I mean 1 P.M. East-             fruit of sovereign election."
ern Daylight Time, or 1 P.M. in New Zealand, or 1
P.M. in London. Furthermore, you have no idea               This is what I have in mind with that term specif-
whether by "timepiece" I am referring to a sun-dial       ic  when I content that our Protestant Reformed
in my back yard or to a clock in my house or to my        Churches have a calling to be specific.'
wristwatch. I can become more specific and say: "It         We may ask the question: in what sense are we
is 1 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time on my clock." Even        called to be specific?
then you have no information as to which of nine
different clocks in my house I mean. But if I specify       If our age has been characterized by anything,
by saying, "It is 1 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time on         ecclesiastically speaking, it has been  cha.racterized
the Seiko International Clock on the shelf in my of-      by the ecumenical movement. Whether that ecu-
fice," then you receive specific information.             menism has taken the form of specific attempts on
                                                          the part of various churches toward organic unity-
  Another example. The term "Christian Church"            and there have been and still are many such at-
is very general; under its umbrella may be included       tempts-or whether it has taken the form of at-
Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Roman Catholics,         tempting to associate with one another in organiza-
and many others. More specific is the name "Re-           tions such as the World Council of Churches, the
formed." And if I want to be very specific, I will        striving has been toward unity and toward a united
say "Protestant Reformed."                                front and united action, the latter  especiallly in the
  Specific language involves the use of words             sphere of the social and political. The appeal has
which express the truth exactly, which define the         been that churches must set aside their differences
truth distinctively, which distinguish it and set it      in creed and doctrine and must present a common
off from the lie, which set it forth clearly and un-      front. And this striving has been under the banner
mistakably.                                               of the beautiful ideal, `"That they all may be one!"
  To use another illustration, when one wishes to           But the unity which has been the goal of so many
condemn the sin of unionism, he can speak of the          is a false unity. In its broadest aspects it would
danger of association with the world. That is             unite moderns and orthodox, would deny the blood
general and therefore vague. No one actually              of Christ and all the fundamentals of the Christian
knows what he means, because his thought is hid-          faith. In its more limited aspect it would bring to-
den in his words rather than expressed. To be spe-        gether into one camp all kinds of creeds-Armini-
cific means to be clear and to the point.                 ans, Baptists, Calvinists,  Premillennials   and  Amil-
  Further, to be specific means that one expresses        lennials.
himself in language which is not ambiguous. If one          But we must remember that the strength of the
is to be specific, his language must not be open to a     church is the truth of the Word of  G.od. That
double interpretation, so that his meaning is left to     strength does not lie in outward unity; it does not
the hearer. Specific language is language which has       lie in large numbers; it does not lie in an outward
a single meaning. Thus, for example, I might say:         show of power. But the definite truth of the Word
"All who believe are elect." That statement is per-       of God is the strength of the church. Only that defi-


366                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   .`-



nite truth of the Word of God may be the basis of             close to one another. Presently several planes will
union. For Christ alone is the unity of the church.           travel down the taxiway toward the same runway.
                                                                     . .                               -     _.     a
   Hence, my answer is, in the first place, that we           Sometimes nme or ten planes may  be lined  up,
are called to be specific in distinction from all             waiting for the opportunity to take off. As their
modernism and the modernistic church. And by                  turns come, they all take off, one after the other,
modernism I mean that entire ecclesiastical move-             down the same runway. And when they are first in
ment which still refers to itself as church, but              the air, they may all initially have the same flight
denies all the fundamental truths of the Christian            pattern. It might almost seem to an uninitiated ob-
faith. It denies that the Bible is the inspired and in-       server that it makes no difference which one of
fallible Word of God. It denies the vicarious atone-          those many planes he boards. And yet it makes a
ment of our Lord Jesus Christ. It denies Christ's             world of difference. One plane turns toward Los
Godhead. It denies His incarnation. It denies His             Angeles, another toward New York City, another
resurrection. It denies His second coming. There              toward Montreal, and still another toward Miami.
are hundreds and thousands of such churches                   So it is with the church. The divergence in doctrine
today, churches where it has become impossible to             and confession and preaching may seem almost in-
hear the Word of the Gospel proclaimed any                    significantly small at first. Someone will surely de-
longer.                                                       scribe it as theological hairsplitting initially. Yet in
                                                              the course of history and development, that initial-
   Now it may seem that there is no need of em-               ly small divergence ends in a radical and funda-
phasizing that our Protestant Reformed Churches               mental difference. Be warned! Be specific! For very
must be specific in distinction from these liberal,           rarely, if ever, has such a divergence turned out to
modernistic churches. After all, they represent the           be a small one in the course of history and its con-
false church, and that, too, very obviously. And              comitant development in doctrine.
they represent the spirit of Antichrist. After all, we
are as divergent from them as east is from west, as              In the second place, there is something inherent-
black from white. There is no danger that we would            ly attractive to the flesh in being big, in being in the
ever feel at home with them and their message, nor            news, in having a voice in the affairs of men, in
they with us.                                                 "counting" in this world. Besides, there is some-
                                                              thing inherently appealing to the flesh especially in
   And yet, upon second thought, such emphasis                programs which these large churches have, pro-
may not prove to be completely unnecessary after              grams for political justice, programs for the
all.                                                          elimination of various kinds of discrimination, pro-
   For, in the first place, do not overlook the fact          grams for social improvement, for feeding the hun-
that this process of becoming modernistic did not             gry, etc. It can  almost  make you feel guilty when
happen overnight. It is indeed a process. There was           your church is not engaged in such a program, es-
a time in history-relatively speaking, not so very            pecially when it comes to such a matter as world
long ago-when these huge modernistic churches                 relief and the feeding of the hungry and the medical
were orthodox, even strictly Calvinistic. And they            care of the deprived nations. In fact, more than one
did not simply jump directly out of the camp of Cal-          so-called evangelical church has tried to enter the
vinism into the camp of rank modernism. That took             competition and to engage in what are commonly
place gradually, little by little. And by the way, if         referred to as social gospel projects. There is a
you study church history, you will discover that the          temptation here to be less than distinctive and to
beginnings of this modernism were in Arminianism              imitate. But again: remember where all these move-
and in the fact that these churches began to let go of        ments have their roots, that is, in an initially small
the distinctives of the Reformed faith. Have you              compromise or departure from the truth of the
ever been at a large international airport? All the           Word of God.
planes of a given airline-let us say United Air-                 We must take care, therefore, to be specific, even
lines-have their loading ramps in the same area,              to be specifically specific!
from the same corridor. They are together, very

             .Know the standard and follow it.
                      Read The Standard Bearer.


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          367



ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Buren


                              &huller's "Confessions"

  Dr. Robert Schuller, well-known minister of the                    the Canons of Dort (a doctrinal standard in the RCA)
Crystal Cathedral in California and speaker on                       out of which evolved a "federal theology" which
"Hour of Power" program on television, recently                      Schuller considers "poisonous."
took issue with a critic who wrote in the Christian                    "I do not believe I have rejected hell as a theological
News. This critic pointed out the serious errors of                  concept whatsoever," Schuller continued. "I'm giving
Schuller's new book, Self-Esteem: the New Reforrna-                  an interpretation of it...."
tion. Of interest in Schuller's answer is not so much              So Schuller rejects the Canons of Dort. He did ___
his objection to his critic, but what he says concern-           not even say whether he did the same with the
ing his own confessions. In the issue of February                Heidelberg Catechism and the Netherlands Confes-
21, 1983, he writes:                                             sion. Publicly Schuller states his position. It points
      "I want you to know that in my denomination, The           out the sad state of affairs that within a denomina-
   Reformed Church in America, I subscribe whole-                tion one of the official creeds can be openly re-
   heartedly and without reservation to the Apostle's            nounced. Yet Schuller remains an  honlored  man
   Creed, Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed."  Schul-           within the Reformed Churches. It is one more clear
   ler explained, however, that he did not subscribe to          indication of open apostasy in these last days.



                                             Christian Unitv

  Church union, not so very long ago, was the de-                   ing from doctrinal indifference, or from the worldly
sire of denominations relatively "close" in doctrin-                desire to be numerically strong.
al views. Then, many advocated union between all                       A second reason why I prefer to speak of Christian
Christian churches-and such is the goal still of                    Unity rather than church union only is the fact that
many today. But more recently, church union is                      theological trends today, geared as they are to the ten-
considered necessary between all such who                           ents of comparative religion, are beginning to view
worship "one God." Of this, Dr. Marten H. Woud-                     the ecumenical question increasingly in terms of a
stra wrote in the Outlook, April 10, 1983:                          union that should rightly also include the Jews, and
                                                                    possibly other "monotheists." A Jewish rabbi in
     Christian unity, as those who live by the gospels              Grand Rapids, Michigan, in an article recently pub-
   and the Reformed confessions know, is also church                lished, quoted the Roman Catholic theologian Hans
   unity. Christians are duty bound to "join themselves             Kung to the effect that no ecumenical gathering today
   to the true church" as the Belgic Confession states.             would be complete without the Jews also being pres-
   John Calvin, though fighting the church of Rome with             ent. This is not an isolated voice. There is a kind of
   its claim to being the "mother church," nevertheless             ecumenicity that knows no bounds. It will not rest un-
   kept speaking of the church as our "mother." Calvin              til all people of good will sing in the mighty chorus of
   also stated in a letter to archbishop Thomas Cranmer             the brotherhood of love, never mind the unique claims
   of Canterbury that he would gladly cross "ten seas" if           of Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life.
   such could further the cause of unity between Re-               In  Christian News,  March 28, 1983, there is a
   formed believers which Cranmer desired. Though,               similar shocking proposition set forth by a profes-
   therefore, I am speaking of church union matters..., I
   nevertheless retain the words "Christian unity" in my         sor at the Free University:
   title. This serves at least a twofold purpose. It helps us          Professor Dirk Mulder of the Free University of
   to remember that no church union is of any signifi-              Amsterdam made this statement at a national meeting
   cance if Christian unity is not thereby furthered.               here of  Interreligion  which seeks to promote mutual
   There are, I would like to suggest, church unions                understanding among all religions and sects. "Islam,
   which do not further this cause. These are unions aris-          Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, every religion


368                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



       has its own unique answers. But the point is that peo-         -    L       other in the one God Who binds us together;"
       ple learn, however convinced they are of their own                         To paraphrase a well-known slogan, "You've
       faith, not to feel superior. We must not think that                      come a long way, ecumenism!" Obviously, within
       others who believe differently will be eternally lost."                  even Reformed circles, some consider Christ to be
         "It is our task," said Prof. Mulder, "to realize God's                 irrelevant to salvation. May God give His church
       purpose with humanity. In all the differences and                        the steadfastness to repudiate emphatically all such
       problems that occur in dialogue between Islam and                        apostasy.
       Christianity, we need to understand and tolerate each


                                             The Creation Days
                                                                                                  L





  It is not often, these days, that we read of those                               creation-and more time would only make the prob-
who really believe in the literal Genesis account of                               lem worse.
creation. Either one believes in evolution, or a "the-                            Dr. Parker continues by pointing out some of the
istic" evolution-but only a fool, it seems, still be-                           fallacies of the evolutionary theory:
lieves in a literal creation within the framework of
six literal days. Still, there are those, and it seems                                But what about the fossils and the sedimentary stra-
                                                                                   ta that blanket the earth? These are the result of pro-
increasingly so, who do teach a literal creation                                   cess, but not creative process. Would there be time
week. An interesting article on the subject is pre-                                since the Fall for these monumental fossil-bearing de-
sented in the OutZoo/?., April, 1983. It was written by                            posits to form?
Dr. Gary Parker, formerly a teacher at Dordt Col-                                     Thanks to decades of indoctrination in evolution
lege, and presently at San Diego's Institute for                                   only, most people just assume it takes millions of
Creation Research and head of the Biology Depart-                                  years to form fossils and rock layers. Just the opposite
ment at Christian Heritage College. Here are some                                  is true. It is not even possible to form fossils slowly
of the things he has to say:                                                       and gradually. Even evolutionary textbooks point out
                                                                                   that most fossils are the remains of plants and animals
         Sadly, .  ..Exodus  20: 11 has become, for too many                       buried rapidly under a heavy load of water-borne
       "twentieth century" Christians, the most  embaras-                          sediment (i.e., flood conditions). If Grand Canyon had
       sing verse in the Bible. At our own Calvin College, for                     formed slowly and gradually, it would look nothing
       example, we have Professors Davis Young and George                          like it does today, and the same is true of coal seams
       Marsden  zealously writing and even testifying in                           and oil deposits.... Great age makes it  difficult,  not
       court to discredit Christians who believe-and who                           easy, to understand many geological features of our
       put into practice their belief-that God simply said                         earth....
       what He meant and meant what He said in both Gene-
       sis 1 and Exodus 20.                                                           . ..It is sadly ironic that just as some Christians are
                                                                                   beginning a loud and public attack on fellow Chris-
         Nearly all who oppose accepting the Sabbath com-                          tians who take the Biblical account of the Flood as
       mandment with child-like (not childish) faith have                          well as the creation days historically, non-Christian
       some reason  outside  of  the Bible  for wanting to stretch                 geologists are beginning to recognize the overwhelm-
       out the length of the creation days. Many members of                        ing evidence of continental and global catastrophism...
       the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA),  for example,
       believe that God used evolutionary processes to bring                          .  ..In a college textbook written by an evolutionist
       into being a succession of life forms, including man's                      for evolutionists,  (The Science of Evolution,  Macmillan,
       body ("theistic evolution"). But evolution as a process                    1977, pp.  80-84),  William Stansfield reviews about a
       is based on  accidental  changes in heredity called muta-                   dozen major indicators of the earths age. Concerning
       tions and on the continual death of the less fit in the                     the amounts of water and lava released from volca-
       constant struggle for survival. These processes don't                       noes, helium in the atmosphere, uranium salts in the
       create; they corrupt, becoming a part of our world                          ocean, meteoritic dust in the crust, and meteorites in
       only after the Fall (Gen.  3:14-19;  Rom.  8:18-21). Al-                    the sedimentary strata, etc., Stansfield says that crea-
       lowing more time for accident and death (the evolu-                         tionists submit evidence of a young earth-and he re-
       tionary processes of mutation and the struggle for sur-                     sponds neither by ridicule nor by refutation but by ad-
       vival) would only increase our genetic burden of birth                      mitting creationists have made several scientifically
       defects and disease. The Nobel prize-winning bio-                           valid points that pose real problems for the old earth
       chemist, Jaques Monod, himself an outspoken atheist,                        view!
       once expressed his surprise that any Christian would                           Radioactivity used in age dating? Stansfield-in that
       believe that God would use such a "cruel, wasteful,                         college textbook by an evolutionist for evolutionists-
       and inefficient process" as evolution as His means of                       first describes the host of assumptions that must be


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                               377



          the Father, of Whom are all things, and one Lord,          the basis of His claim to be the Christ, the Jews .
          Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things.                      condemned Him and crucified Him. The Jews
            This truth, that there is only one Lord, Jesus           claimed to look for the Christ, but refused to ac-
          Christ, the early church sought to confess in this         knowledge Jesus as the Christ. This rejection of
          second article of the.Nicene creed.                        Jesus as the Christ by the Jews as a whole continues
                                                                     down to this day. Over against this unbelief of a
            There are several elements to this truth.                people who were once God's chosen people, the
            First, mention is made of Jesus. The name Jesus          early church sought to confess that Jesus is the
          is the personal name of the son of Mary. It was the        Christ of God. And to the unbelieving Jew who may
          name He received when He was circumcised on                still be engrafted again into the tree of God's
          the eighth day. It was the name He was called as He        covenant (Romans 11) it is the calling of the church
          grew up in Nazareth of Galilee and worked in the           also today to confess that Jesus is Christ.
          carpenter shop of His father Joseph. The name                But the early church also sought to proclaim
          Jesus means Jehovah salvation. These are simply            Jesus as the Christ to the unbelieving Gentile
          historical facts which no one can challenge and no         world. Man in general lies under the curse of God.
          one has ever felt compelled to challenge either.           As a result his portion here below is one (of trouble
          What follows however has been the source of wide-          and sorrow. These miseries of man are great. And
          spread dispute and controversy among men.                  consequently man is looking for deliverance from
            For in the second place we have the name Christ.         his woe. He looks for a Christ. And many christs
I         Christ means Anointed or Anointed One. This is a           have emerged throughout history. But they are all
          title rather than a personal name. It is a title which     false christs. This is only as Jesus  Himslelf  said it
          the Scriptures reserve for the One Whom God will           would be: "Take heed that no man deceive you.
          send from heaven to save man from his woe and              For many shall come in My name, saying, I am
          misery. The title itself indicates that one is anointed    Christ; and shall deceive many" (Matt.  24:4, 5).
          by God for this work of salvation. This anointing          These false christs come with false  cl.aims and
          implies two elements. There is first the element of        promises. They are not able to deliver man from his
          divine appointment. The one to Whom this title be-         woe and misery. And this is primarily  thle case be-
          longs has been eternally appointed by God to be the        cause their salvation is based on the works of man.
          Savior of man. The second element is that of quali-        It was over against these false christs that appeared
          fication. The Christ has also been qualified by God        even at the time of the early church that she sought
          in every way to carry out the work of salvation.           in her creed to confess Jesus as the Christ of God.
            In this second article of her creed the early            And the church that is faithful to God today also
          church confessed that Jesus is this Christ of God. In      makes this her confession.
          harmony with her confession that there is but one            Finally, we have the name Lord. In this second
          God, she acknowledged that there is but one Christ         article of the Nicene Creed the early church also
          sent from God to man. And this Christ is Jesus of          confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. This certainly is
          Nazareth.                                                  the teaching of the Scriptures. This is especially
            This confession of the church is based solidly on        taught in Philippians 2:9-11, "Wherefore God also
          the Bible. It was the firm conviction of Jesus' own        hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name
          disciples that He was the Christ. Jesus once asked         which is above every name: that at the name of
          His disciples, "But whom say ye that I am?" And            Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
          Peter answering for the rest replied, "Thou art the        and things in earth, and things under the earth; and
          Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:15, 16).      that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
          Jesus Himself acknowledged before the Sanhedrin            is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
          at His trial that He is the Christ, the Son of God           Implied in this and other passages of Holly Writ is
     .    (Matt. 26:63, 64). And so do all the inspired writers      not only the fact of Jesus' Lordship but also the
          of the New Testament Scriptures recognize Him as           nature of that Lordship. The title of Lord is one
          the Christ of God. This is evidenced among other           which has been conferred upon Jesus Christ by
          things by the simple fact that He is repeatedly re-        God. This title was given to Jesus upon His ascen-
          ferred to in the New Testament as Jesus Christ.            sion into heaven. It is a title He earned through His
            This truth the early church sought to confess first      perfect suffering and death on the cross. Ilmplied in
          over against the unbelieving Jews. From the very           this title is the authority to rule on the behalf of
          beginning of His ministry here on earth the vast           God. Upon Christ's exaltation to heaven God the
          majority of the Jews, who historically were God's          Father clothed Him with all power and authority so
          covenant people and Jesus' own countrymen, re-             that He rules over all of God's creation. This rule
          fused to believe that He was the Christ of God. On         He exercises not for Himself. For He is Lord under


378                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



God. Hence, He rules all things for the glory of God       alone is Lord. Him only did she honor, love, and
and on God's behalf.                                       obey.
  In this second article of her creed the early              This confession must also be made by the church
church also confessed that Jesus is the  onZy Lord.        of God today. We have seen that idol gods exist
Notice, she confessed faith in one Lord Jesus Christ.      even today. They do not appear in the crude form
  The heathendom that still flourished at the time         they took years ago. They are not idols of stone and
of the Nicene creed acknowledged many lords. As            wood and precious metals. Nevertheless, idol gods
we saw earlier they recognized all of their idol gods      still exist today. Whatever man places his trust in,
as lords who ruled them. Before these idol lords           other than the living God, is an idol god. From this
they bowed. When these idol gods spoke, as they            viewpoint anything can be an idol: money,
did through their priests, the people trembled in          pleasure, the approval of men, power, influence,
fear. The wishes of these idols were to the people as      insurance, etc. And there are many such gods
commands. And to appease these lords the people            today. But the striking thing is that these gods are
humbly obeyed.                                             also lords. They tend to rule those who serve them.
                                                           They make terrible and exacting demands. Take for
  Over against this the early church confessed that        example one who makes money his god. He will
Jesus alone is Lord. All the lords of the heathen are      find that his money-god demands that he sacrifice
nothing. They do not rule. Neither are they to be          many things before he may have what his god has
feared. There is only one Who rules. He is Jesus           to offer. He may have to sacrifice his family, his
Christ Who on the behalf of God rules over all. As         honesty, his reputation, his health, and above all
Lord He demands obedience to the law of God.               his relationship to God and to Christ. This latter is
And that law He strictly enforces by rewarding the         always the case. No matter what idol god a man
well-doer with His blessing and by punishing the           will serve, it always requires that he turn from the
evil-doer with destruction.                                living God and refuse to bow the knee to Christ. In
  Acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, the early            this context it is the calling of the church today to
church also confessed here her allegiance to Him           proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. He alone is Lord.
alone. Before His Word alone she bowed. The word           Before Him and Him alone we must bow. This the
of the idol lords of the heathen which contradict          church must confess not only in word but also in
the Word of Christ, she did not honor. Jesus Christ        actual deed.

TAKING HEED i-0 THE DOCTRINE                                                   '


                        God's Providence and Sin (6)
                                                 Rev. H. Veldman




  The subject of God's Providence and Sin places             This is a mystery. However, we must bear in
us before an unfathomable mystery. This we readi-          mind that Pelagianism and Arminianism also con-
ly concede and confess. And we have no intention           front us with an enigma. If man be essentially good,
of comprehending and understanding this mystery.           as the Pelagian would have us believe, if he is able
On the one hand, man is a free-responsible being.          to be what he wills to be, why is it then that sin and
He performs iniquity because he loves it. He is un-        iniquity are so general? Why do not more men
molested in his sinning, is never forced or coerced.       choose the good? And if the sinner, being essential-
Besides, he never wills or desires anything else           ly good, be able to choose for and accept Christ,
than sin, does not rest until and unless he commits        why, then, are not more men saved? We must re-
evil, is a slave of iniquity, but always a very willing    member that, whatever view one may embrace,
slave. He is always free, only however in this moral       God remains the living God. Him we cannot
sense of the word. He is never sovereignly free. On        change. We, then, may distort and corrupt His
the other hand, God is the living God. He alone is         Word, may make a caricature of the living God,
God. We cannot afford to lose this truth. If we lose       change Him to please our own carnal desires, but
this truth we lose God. And, losing God, we lose all.      God remains the same. He remains God. And, al-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               379



though it is true that the Pelagian and Arminian           therefore, not the mystery involved here. Neither is
may accuse the Reformed man of being influenced            this the mystery that man is responsible. This is
by logic in his thinking, and declare that we must         scriptural; The Word of God teaches very explicitly
take God at His Word, it is simply a fact that it is       that we must give account of all we have done in
pure nonsense to believe that the Lord would have          the body whether it be good or bad. We must all
all men be saved, and must be satisfied with the sal-      appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to re-
vation of but a few. And this nonsense is directly in      ceive the things done in our bodies, as we read in II
conflict with the scriptures which teach us that the       Corinthians  5:lO.. Besides, this truth is also experi-
Lord performs all His good pleasure and that no            enced by every man. He knows that the Lord is the
man can resist His will. Indeed, no man can come           Judge of all the earth. He knows that he is responsi-
to Christ except the Father draw him; and when the         ble, is held accountable for all his activity. He
Father draws, the sinner must come. To have salva-         knows that he must serve and .love the living God,
tion depend upon the free will of a sinner is con-         and that he must answer for whatever he has done.
trary to Holy Writ and it is a denial of the truth that    He knows that he sins willingly and voluntarily. He
God alone is the living God.                               knows that he is never forced or coerced to perform
  But, let us return to the mystery. A mystery, we         evil, that he commits evil because he loves that evil.
must understand, is not a contradiction, as, for           He can, therefore, never charge the Lord with in-
example, that black is white and white is black, and       justice when the Judge of all the earth holds him
that we must believe both. It is claimed, then, that       strictly accountable. Hence, the mystery here does
God loves and hates the same man at the same               not lie in the sovereignty of the Lord as such and/or
time, attempts to save him and at the same time            in the responsibility of the sinner. Both truths are
causes His gospel to be a savor unto death,' thereby       clearly set forth in the Word of God. And neither of
making it impossible for him to be saved. This is          these truths is in conflict with our natural under-
not a mystery, but it is nonsense. And it is impossi-      standing. We can accept and endorse both truths.
ble to believe both, because the one is simply a           We have no difficulty with them as such.
denial of the other. A mystery, however, is                  Herein, however, lies the mystery: how a holy
something that transcends our human understand-            God causes sin to be and man remains responsible.
ing. The question is, therefore, what is here the          This is the mystery: how can the holy God work all
mystery? Now the mystery involved here is surely           things and not be the author of sin. The mystery is
not the truth that God is the living God. He per-          not that God realizes His counsel, also as far as sin
forms all His good pleasure. This we confess and           is concerned, but how He realizes this counsel.
must confess without any reservation. He is the            That Jehovah hates sin and, therefore, can never be
sovereign, willing Origin and Cause of all things,         the author of evil, Himself in agreement with it, but
also of all the spiritual deeds of man. It is He alone     nevertheless causes sin to occur in such a way that
Who turns man's heart whithersoever He wills,              man is morally free, loving iniquity and committing
Who carries out in minutest details the counsel of         evil unhindered but always as the object of his own
His own will, Who is the divine Ruler, carrying out        choice, without ever being able to choose the good,
His eternal counsel, through Whom are all things           we acknowledge to be the mystery. This is held be-
which include every curse word, every evil                 fore us in a passage we have quoted before in these
thought, even into the minutest details. This, I           articles, Acts 2:23,:  "Him, being delivered by the de-
repeat, is not as such the mystery. This does not          terminate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye
mean that we are able to fathom the thought that           have taken and by wicked hands have  crucified
God is the living God. The truth, however, that            and slain. ' ' Indeed, they took Him and by wicked
God is the living God is not in conflict with our          hands slew Him. Thus it is also eternally in the in-
natural understanding. Let us, for example, refer          scrutable counsel of the Lord. Those wicked hands
here to the resurrection of the dead. We cannot            belong to the sinner. That the sinner is responsible
fathom this wonder-work of the Lord. We cannot             for his sins, committing them freely and wilfully, is
understand how the dead rise whose bodies have             plain. This is also his personal experience. But how
returned to the dust. We cannot understand how             the Lord works this fact, Himself far from all sin, is
each soul will be reunited with its own body. How-         something we do not understand and cannot ex-
ever, although we cannot comprehend this amazing           plain. And we do not and must not attempt to
work of God, yet it is not in conflict with my             fathom this mystery. But, and this, too, is according
natural understanding that the almighty God is able        to Scripture: unfathomably deep are all the
to raise the dead. He is the almighty God, the living      thoughts of the Lord; His ways are ever higher than
God Who controls life and death. And neither is it         our ways; He transcends whatever we will ever
in conflict with our natural mind that the living          know and can know.
God is in absolute control of all things. This is,           This truth must be maintained. The sovereignty


380                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of God and the responsibility of the sinner are not         shadow of the cross. Hence, the gospel always
in conflict with each other. And the same applies to        comes to the sinner with the divine command to
the sovereignty of God and the general preaching of         repent and believe. This does not mean that the
the gospel. The one demands the other. Indeed, we           gospel is a well-meaning offer of salvation, that the
are not hyper-Calvinists. Hyper-Calvinism is that           Lord desires to save all men, head for head. But it
presentation of the truth which stresses certain as-        does mean that God, the alone sovereign and living
pects of Calvinism, such as double predestination,          God, demands of man, His creature, to serve and
election and reprobation, utter and complete                love Him. Because I am a responsible creature, a
depravity of the sinner, the particular character of        moral-rational being, conversion, faith, hope and
the cross of Calvary, the irresistible power of the         love, although worked by God, are deeds of man.
grace of God. However, it ignores and negates the           The wicked surely have no right to walk in ways of
general preaching of the gospel to others besides           sin, and it remains their calling, how impossible it
the elect, the general command of God to the sinner         may be for him to fulfill it, to love the Lord and to
that he must repent and believe. This view is               praise His Name. This calling of the sinner is not
hyper-calvinistic, super-calvinistic, stressing and         rooted in his ability to choose the evil and the good,
emphasizing the sovereignty and the work of the             but it is founded in the fact that man is creature,
Lord while ignoring and negating the activity of            creature created by the living God, and that, there-
man. Our churches have been accused of being hy-            fore, it is his calling to forsake his evil way and to
per-calvinistic. Indeed, also in 1953 this accusation       turn unto the Lord. Indeed, we are not  hyper-cal-
was directed at us. We were accused during the              vinistic. We do not negate or ignore our calling to
split of 1953 that we are not doing justice to the          preach the gospel to elect and reprobate alike. We
truth of man's responsibility. Of course, this charge       surely believe in the general proclamation of a par-
has always been hurled at those who would                   ticular gospel. Indeed, the gospel is always particu-
maintain the Reformed conception of the truth.              lar in its content; it is never general. It is surely not
This simply means that, being accused of this, we           true that every sinner who hears the-proclamation
find ourselves in good company. However, we are             of the gospel can say that the Lord loves him. Only
not hyper-calvinistic. Indeed, the gospel is never          God's people believe and turn from their evil way
proclaimed but the wicked are always commanded              unto the Lord. The gospel is, therefore, good news;
of God to repent of their sin and turn themselves           it is primarily the proclamation of the promise in
unto the Lord. It is not the will of God that His           the light of God's love and faithfulness in the midst
gospel must be proclaimed exclusively to the elect          of our sin and death. God's providence and sin
-besides, how utterly impossible this would be!             means that the Lord is absolutely sovereign, hates
That God is the living God and absolutely sovereign         all sin and evil, and, although having willed sin and
surely implies the divine command to repent and             always executing His counsel sovereignly, does this
believe. That God is the living God means that He           in such a way that the sinner is the author of his
loves Himself and is wholly dedicated to Himself.           own sin and evil. But everything is strictly under
The Lord, we read in Ezekiel 33: 11, has no delight         God's divine and absolute control.
in the death of the wicked. He has no delight in this          Indeed, what a wonderful and comforting truth
death, the way of death, which is the way of sin.           this is! How comfortless is any presentation of the
This refers to the Lord's ethical delight, that where-      gospel which in any way denies or attacks the abso-
in He delights. The Lord hates sin, does not delight        lute sovereignty of our God! To this, however, we
in the way of sin. His wrath abides upon sin and            call your attention in our following and concluding
iniquity. Herein is His delight that the sinner con-        article.
fesses his sin, turns from evil, seeks salvation in the

BIBLE STUDYGUIDE

                  II Timothy, Counsel for Pastors
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering

  This is the second of the three Pastoral Epistles.        will not repeat these details here.
The order in which they were written is I Timothy,
Titus, and II Timothy. Since we considered the his-         THE OCCASION
torical setting in connection with I Timothy, we               Let us summarize briefly, what influenced the


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     381



     apostle Paul to write this letter. After Paul was re-        duce a number of them as if they were commonly
     leased from his first imprisonment at Rome in A.D.           employed in the oral teaching of the church (I Tim.
     64, he travelled extensively until A.D. 67, when he          1:15;  3:l;  4:9; II Tirn.  2:1-11;  Titus  3:8). The phrase
     was taken captive and returned to Rome. His cap-             `sound doctrine' occurs frequently also (I Tim.
     ture probably took place at Troas where  Carpus              1:lO;  6:3; II Tim.  1:13;  4:3; Titus  1:9;  2:l;  2:8). The
     lived and at whose home he left his cloak (II Tim.           word `sound' means literally `healthful' and is usu-
     4:13). He was taken to Rome by way of Corinth                ally connected with good works as well as with cor-
     where Erastus remained (II Tim.  4:20). Upon                 rect principles. Creed and life are never divorced in
     arrival, he was placed in prison (II Tim. 1: 8).             the Bible."
       The second imprisonment was more severe than                 In addition to this, Paul also sets forth the impor-
     his first. When he appeared for his first hearing be-        tance of the pastor's labors. In doing this he pointed
     fore Nero, he was alone, no companion accompa-               out to Timothy the following: he was called to
     nied him (II Tim. 4:7). Later Luke and some others           preach (II Tim. 1:8,9); he must be willing to fight as
     joined him. Alexander the Coppersmith, a Jew in              a soldier (II Tim. 2:30); he must be a good example
     Ephesus, mentioned in Acts  19:33 and II Timothy             (II Tim.  2:21, 22); he must give himself wholly to
     4: 17, probably took part in his arrest (see II Tim.         the work, especially by thoroughly studying the
     4:11, 21). This led Paul to express his conviction           Word of God [II Tim.  2:15;  3:lO;  3:14-17); he sum-
     that he would not survive the winter (II Tim. 4:21)          marizes this in the all encompassing command to
     and that death was imminent (II Tim. 4:6).                   preach the Word, be instant in season and out of
       While Paul was awaiting death, two reasons                 season (II Tim. 4: l-6).
     prompted him to write this letter to his beloved               Such exhortations all pastors do well to study and
     Timothy. First, he realized that the situation in the        heed.
     church, with its increasing apostasy and opposi-             BRIEF OUTLINE
     tion, required diligent and dedicated pastors. He
     saw that Timothy was to fill  a, critical need in the          1. Salutation (1: 1, 2). Here Paul, the apostle, ad-
     church, and this letter was his instruction to this          dresses his letter to Timothy, "my dearly beloved
     young preacher. Along this line, we see this letter is       son," and expresses the apostolic blessing.
     of special significance to pastors of all generations          2. Paul longs to see Timothy (1:3-5).  He prays for
     who must carry on this great task of preaching the           him  (1:3)  and expresses joy in Timothy being a
     gospel. The second reason was Paul's desire to have          faithful servant, making good use of his spiritual
     Timothy present with him in Rome. He mentioned               upbringing by his mother and grandmother (1:4,5).
     this toward the close of the letter (II Tim. 4:9-12). In       3. Rather than being ashamed of Paul's impris-
     addition, Timothy could also take along his cloak            onment, Timothy is exhorted to carry on the work
     and the books with the parchments (II Tim.  4:13).           of the ministry, even if some forsake him  (1:6-18).
     This indicates that Paul desired to instruct Timothy         He must stir up the gift which God gave him by the
     in person as well as by letter. Whether Timothy did          Spirit of power (1:6, 7). Even though Paul is in pris-
     arrive in Rome prior to Paul's execution cannot be           on, the reason that they must not be ashamed of
     established. Paul was beheaded in A.D. 68, so this           that is that Christ, Who called them to preach, will
     letter was written toward the end of A.D. 67.                give them the victory through the resurrection (1:8-
     THE MESSAGE                                                  12). Timothy must hold fast sound words and by
       In view of the increasing amount. of opposition            the presence of the Holy Ghost keep the truth (1:13,
     and doctrinal error attacking the church, Paul em-           14). Those who forsook Paul at Ephesus, Phygellus
     phasized the need for doctrinal purity. This is true         and Hermogenes, must not deter them in the work,
     with all these pastoral epistles. According to               for others like Onesiphorus were a great help to
     Tenney, New Testament Survey  page 342, we quote,            him both in Ephesus and in Rome. He assures
     "Because of this menace, there is a greater stress on        Timothy that the Lord will reward him (1: 15-18).
     formulated creed in the Pastorals than in the earlier          4. Timothy must perform the labors of the
     writings. The specific doctrinal formulas in Titus,          ministry even though it will be difficult  (2:1-26). It
     the injunction to `hold the pattern of sound words           is important for him to commit the truth to faithful
     which thou has heard from me' (II Tim. 1: 13), and           men who can teach others (2: 1, 2). He is to be a
     the frequent sentences of creedal form (I Tim. 1:14;         good soldier of Jesus Christ, giving all his energy to
     2:3-5;  3:16; 4:lO; II Tim.  1:lO; 2:8; 3:16) impress the    the work (2:3-7).  This will include suffering, as Paul
     reader that the Pastorals were written to a church           experienced it now in prison in Rome. Even then,
     that was beginning to put its faith into articulate          he must be encouraged by the glorious victory
     terms. Such  creedal expressions were current, for           which is in Christ Jesus (2:8-13). He cautions Timo-
.    the formula, `Faithful is the saying!' is used to intro-     thy not to strive over words or vain babblings (as


382                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Hymenaeus and Philetus) but study to be a good              difference on the first missionary journey  (4:9). He
workman who teaches the truth to others. He may             specifically mentions the need for his cloak, books,
be assured that the Lord, Who knows His own; will           and parchments  (4:13).  He warns Timothy to be
preserve the faithful  (2:14-19). He then gives             careful of Alexander the Coppersmith (4: 14, 15). He
Timothy guidance in how to deal with people. Tim-           refers to his hearing before Nero, how he stood
othy must remember that, as in a house there are            alone, but God was with him  (4:16, 17). He is as-
different kinds of vessels, some of gold, others of         sured that God will soon take him home (4: 18).
earth, so in the church. In dealing with people, he           9. Closing salutations and farewell  (4:19-22). He
must be sure that he is himself pure and he should          salutes the house of Priscilla and Aquila, and Onesi-
avoid unnecessary debate. Also he is to be gentle,          phorus  (4:19). He informs Timothy that Erastus
apt to teach, and take time to teach his opponents,         stayed .at Corinth, Trophimus at Miletus, sick
for it may be God's will to convert them (2:20-26).         (4:20).Af ina re
                                                                          1 quest for Timothy, that he come be-
  5. Paul continues to instruct Timothy, warning            fore winter (4:21).  He mentions a few of his friends
him that he must expect difficult days, but God will        at Rome who send greetings: Eubulus, Prudens,
see him through  (3:1-17).  He calls the times, "the        Limus, and Claudia  (4:21). The final parting bless-
last days." Men will be lovers of themselves and            ing is given (4:22).
very wicked, especially in their sinful dealing with        QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
each other as human beings, disobedient to par-
ents, without natural affection, traitors. They will          1. Review the circumstances in the life of Paul
also be wicked against God and His people, blas-            that made him ask for Timothy to come to him in
phemers, despisers of them that are good, possess-          Rome.
ing a form of godliness, but denying the power.               2. Cite all the instances in this letter in which
Yes, they will appear to be wise, ever learning, but        Paul instructs Timothy concerning his labors as a
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.           pastor.
Yet, they shall not triumph, their folly shall be             3. Show from this letter that the principal task of
known  (3:1-9).  Paul then directs Timothy's atten-         every minister is to busy himself in the Word of
tion to himself. Timothy should consider Paul as an         God. Why is this important?
example of a good minister, in doctrine, manner of
life, patience, persecution. Yes, even persecution,           4. Give examples from this letter that prove that
for evil men will wax worse and worse. The                  the instruction given to Timothy is just as timely for
answer: continue in the things learned, that is, in         pastors today.
the Scriptures. They are reliable, for they were              5: Why does Paul warn Timothy against foolish
given by inspiration and profitable for doctrine, re-       debate  (2:16;  2:23). How do we apply this to our
proof, correction, for instruction in righteousness         day?
that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished               6. Opposition is normal and to be expected.
unto all good works (3: 10-17).                             Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses (3:8), Paul ex-
  6. Paul gives details of the pastor's labors (4: l-5).    perienced it  (1:14;  2:9;  2:17, 18;  3:8, 12, 13;  4:4, 5).
He charges Timothy that he preach the Word. This            Explain why this is true and how are we to deal
includes reproving, rebuking, and exhorting  (4:1,          with it?
2). He must also deal with heresy, for some will go           7. Reflect upon Paul's farewell testimony (4:6-8).
after teachers with itching ears and turn after fables      Why can a child of God face martyrdom in such
(4:3, 4). He must instead do the work of an evan-           serenity?
gelist and endure affliction (4:5).
  7. Paul's last testimony to Timothy  (4:6-8).  Paul
expresses his confidence that he is about to die and
he is ready (4:6). He summarizes his life's ministry
as follows: he fought a good fight and he finished                  The Standard Bearer
the course, hence there is laid up for him the crown
of righteousness (4:7, 8).                                    makes a thoughtful gift
  8. Paul's final requests  (4:9-19). He asks
Timothy to come to him at Rome, the reason being
that most of his friends are gone. Demas forsook                    for  many occasions.
him,  Crescens went to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia,
Tychicus was sent to Ephesus, only Luke remained
(4:9-12).  He asks Timothy to take Mark along, an
indication of a complete reconciliation after their


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                   383



                                                  . Book Review

THE LANGUAGE OF CANAAN AND THE                                             ical vocabulary will ultimately destroy our lan-
GRAMMAR OF FEMINISM, by Vernard Eller;                                     guage and the meaning of Scripture. Because the
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982; 56 pp., $2.95                               book involves an analysis of language structure, it
(paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                      is somewhat difficult to read in places; but the
   In this brief book Eller argues with considerable                       point which the author Is making is important and
humor and on the basis of an analysis of language                          needs very much to be made in opposition to these
that all attempts which are being made to take the                         foolish notions of feminists.
"sexist" language out of Scripture and our theolog-
                                                                                            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                             NOTICE!!!                                        On May 24, 1983, the Lord willing, our beloved parents and
                                                                           grandparents, MR. AND MRS. ADRIAN ALPHENAAR, will celebrate
   Loveland will be celebrating its 25th anniversary as a Protestant       their 50th wedding anniversary.
Reformed Church, the Lord willing, on June 22 and 23, 1983. All are           We, their children and grandchildren, are thankful to our Heavenly
cordially invited to come and celebrate God's faithfulness with us.        Father for them and for the years of Christian leadership He has given
We have invited our former ministers to participate in the celebration.    us through them.
Rev. David Engelsma will speak for us the first evening, and the
second evening there will be a supper and a slide program. Com-               "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is
memorative booklets at the cost of $2.00 each. If you would like a         round about His people from henceforth even forever." (Psalm
copy, please contact Mr. Ray Ezinga, 1518 East 57th St., Loveland,         125:2)
CO 80573. Phone (303) 667-5720.                                                                        Arthur and Laura Alphenaar
                                                                                                       Muriel and Henry Kiel
                                                                                                       Kenneth and Joyce Alphenaar
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                     Grandchildren and Great-grandchildren .
  The Martha Society of the Doon Protestant Reformed Church ex-
tends its sincere Christian sympathy to one of our members, Mrs.
Don Aardema and family, in the recent death of her father, MR. JAKE                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
MANTEL.                                                                       On May 27, 1983, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.
   May our covenant God comfort them by His Word and Spirit.               MAYNARD VEENSTRA, will celebrate their 50th wedding anni-
   "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at         versary.
the latter day upon the earth." (Job 19:25)                                   We, their children, thank our Heavenly Father for giving us God-
Rev. M. Kamps, Pres.                                                       fearing parents who have brought us up in the fear of the Lord. It is
Mrs. Peter Van Den Top, Sec'y.                                             our prayer that they may continue to enjoy the blessings of our cov-
                                                                           enant God.
                                                                              "And we know that all things work  together for good to them that
                                                                           love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."
                     TEACHER NEEDED!!!                                     (Romans 8:28)
   Covenant Christian School of Lynden, WA is in need of a teacher                              Jay Veenstra
with a background of Language Arts and Social Studies, with assign-                              Ira and Mary Veenstra
ments in Junior-Senior High School Grades for the `83-`84 School                                Arie and Ann Griffioen
Year.                                                                                            Helen Veenstra
   Contact H.W. Kuiper, Administrafor, at his home - Phone (206)                                Gerrit and June Van Den Top
354-2592, or the School  - Phone (206) 354-5436, or write to:                                    Gerald and Clara Van Den Top
Covenant Christian School, 9088 Northwoods Road, Lynden, WA                                      Hazel Besselsen
98264.                                                                                           Merle and Kay Veenstra
                                                                                                    30 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren
                                                    John Meyer, Sec'y.


                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                              On May 27, 1983, the Lord has cared for and blessed our parents,
   The children of MR. AND MRS. JOHN DEN HARTOG are happy to               MR. AND MRS. ALBERT KARSEMEYER, with 35 years of marriage.
announce the 40th anniversary celebration of their parents on May          We, their children, are thankful that the Lord has given us parents
13,  1983.                                                                 who have educated and directed us through His Word. We pray that
  We thank God for His faithfulness through the years and pray that        they may continue to receive God's blessing in the years which lie
He will continue to bless them in their future years together.             ahead.
                                       Jack and Chris den Hartog                                                     Jerry and Pat Schipper
                                       Janny and Herman Molenkamp                                                         Becky, Jason, Jeremy
                                       Mary and John Vanden Toorn                                                   Ed and Jeanne Karsemeyer
                                       Rev. Arie and Sherry den Hartog                                                    Shaun, Renae
                                       Kobi and John Battjes                                                         Greg and Elaine Engelsma
                                       Orta and Tom Craft                                                                 Chad, Shannon, Valerie
                                       Jim and Jill den Hartog                                                       Alan and Carol Karsemeyer
                                       Bertha and Daryl Rachinski                                                         Clint, Kirk, Ronda


   THE STANDARD BEARER
          P.O. Box 6064                                                                  SECOND CLASS
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                            POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                     GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.




                                                                                            s
384                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                                  News From Our Churches
                                                 April 30, 1983

   Hull Protestant Reformed Church has made a              and a few more at the Bible Classes that are being
change in the conclusion of their worship service.         conducted. Letters have been sent out to others
"After the singing of the- last  Psalfer  number will     who might be interested informing them of both
follow the pronouncement of the benediction and            the Bible Classes and the worship services (in
fhen the singing of the closing doxology. While the        Ripon,  California, D.H.) The group that is now
doxology is being sung, the pastor will come to the       meeting together hoped to begin worshipping in a
consistory's bench, shake hands with the  consis-          Congregational Church this Sunday. May God bless
tory members, the elders filing to the back of             these labours."
church, the deacons to the front. The consistory in-         Rev. C. Hanko's address is 25956 South Austin,
troduces this change for the following reasons: 1)         Ripon, CA 95366; phone: 209-599-4757.
This makes the significance of the hand-shaking
ceremony more prominent in the worship service;               Southeast Protestant Reformed Church has a
2) This will give the pastor and elders more oppor-        good use for back issues of Standard Bearers. "The
tunity to greet any visitors, 3) This will better          Evangelism Society asks the congregation to save
enable the elders to supervise attendance at the           your back issues of the Standard Bearer so that they
worship services."'                                        may be distributed to area rest homes. A box will be
                                                           in the kitchen for your donations." Perhaps other
   Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of                  of our people can contribute to this worthwhile
Wyckoff, New Jersey, has changed  its collection           endeavor.
schedule. "At the last Consistory meeting the Con-
sistory decided to change the collection schedule             Loveland Protestant Reformed Church is plan-
adding a second Benevolent Fund collection every           ning their Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. If you have
month (on the evening of the fourth Sunday of each         old pictures of the church or slides that you would
month), and adding a collection for one of our             be willing to lend, please give them to Robert
Protestant Reformed Schools. The grounds for the           Brands. They will be returned. Maybe someone
second matter are  (1) Lord's Day XXXVIII which            could supply me Mr. Brand's address.
speaks of the support of the schools as part of our          According to Covenant's bulletin of April  24th,
Sabbath duties and (2) in light of future responsibil-     "sixteen families from the Byron Center, Michigan
ities of our own this will accustom us to support          area (south of Grand Rapids) are asking Classis East
C h r i s t i a n   e d u c a t i o n .                   to be organized as a new congregation."
   The Council of South Holland Protestant Re-                Keep in mind June 15, 16, 17, and 18 for the
formed Church "has granted the request" of "sev-           Protestant Reformed Mission Emphasis Week that
eral families on the West side of Chicago...to send        will include speeches, panels, discussions, and ac-
the pastor to meet with them on a regular basis to         tivities.
lead them in the study of the Word." Rev.                     The Reformed Witness Hour is broadcasting on a
Engelsma will meet with them at least twice a              new station in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The call letters
month.                                                     are WCKK. The program is also heard over WKPR
   In South Holland's April 24th bulletin, this an-       in Kalamazoo. The Reformed Witness Hour has
nouncement appeared: "Remember to spread the              also begun printing four sermons per booklet.
word about our Spring Lecture. On Monday, May             These changes mentioned, plus the increase in
16, Rev. S. Houck will speak on `The History of the       broadcast rates, mean that your support is urgently
King James Bible.' "                                       needed so that the Reformed Witness Hour may
                                                           continue to broadcast God's Word over the air-
   From Covenant's bulletin of April  24th, there's       waves. Let us continue to remember this cause of
this: "Rev. Hanko has written that there have been         God's kingdom in prayer and offerings.
seven people at the worship service last Sunday                                                            DH


