                 The
     STANDARD
c - BEARER
                  A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                  .





       .    .    . Does           world condemn? Does Satan
     plague us with his evil whisperings? Do our
     own consciences rob us of peace, of hope? By
     faith we must tell the world - and Satan -
     and even our own consciences: Be quiet . . . .
     I have Christ! I belong to Him!
                      See "If God Be For Us" --page 458





c                                               Volume LIX, No. 20, September 1,1983 -


                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                                      ISSN 03624692
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                                                                                                                                                                     opsema, Rev.
     The Pot Calling the Kettle Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461                       Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
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MEDITATION

                                                        If God Be For Us
                                                                           Profi H. Hanko


                   "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that
               condemneth?lt  is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand
               of God, Who also maketh intercession for us. "                                                                             Romans 8:33,34


  Our salvation is complete and perfect! And this is                                         also called: and whom He called, them, He also
true because all our salvation is the work of God!                                           justified: and whom He justified, them He  also
  This great truth the apostle has set forth in that                                         glorified."
well-known passage which has sometimes been                                                      As the apostle contemplates this glorious truth,
called, "the golden chain of our salvation." "For                                            he asks a series of questions, questions which echo
whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. .                                            in the hearts of the people of God who ponder this
. . Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He                                               truth with him. What shall we say to these things?


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                459



The answer is obvious and clear: If God be for us,        And if we try to plead that we do, after all, pray, go
who'can be against us? But then more questions:           to church, give to the poor, he is quick to respond
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?      that our prayers are usually mere empty words,
Who is he that condemneth? Who shall separate us          that our worship is often lip service, that we give to
from the love of Christ? And, finally, triumphantly:      the poor grudgingly and to be seen of men. How
"I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to sepa-       our consciences can themselves accuse us! How we
rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ          can be robbed of whatever peace and comfort there
Jesus our Lord."                                          is by the incessant reminder of our evils which we
  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's           constantly commit.
elect?                                                      These accusations are not empty words either.
  It would seem to the beleaguered child of God in        We have only to take a cursory look at our lives to
this world that everyone is always condemning.            see that whatever charges may be brought against
The wicked world in which he lives condemns him           us, they are usually true.
constantly. This is not surprising. This same world         We have fallen in Adam our head. And we must
condemned Christ - He Who had never commit-               understand that this involves a state of guilt before
ted any sin, but went about preaching and doing           God. Before the tribunal of God's justice we are
good. They condemned Him to death though He               guilty - guilty for what Adam did; and therefore
had done no wrong. And He Himself warned His              worthy of hell. But we are ourselves sinners as
people that even as the world hated Him, so also          well. We are born in iniquity and come into the
they would hate us. And so it has been throughout         world with a sinful nature in which is no good
all time. The prophets were killed; the people of         thing. This very nature is God's punishment upon
God were hunted as wild dogs upon mountains;              us for our involvement in Adam's sin. It is the just
Paul himself experienced the condemnation of the          sentence of God's condemnation. And the result is
world; the church has been condemned throughout           that we multiply our guilt every moment until it is a
history. Always charges are brought that the people       mountain so high that it reaches to the heavens.
of God oppose all that the world stands for, that
they never fit in with the world, that they march to        God condemns us! That is the worst of all. God
a different drumbeat, that they are misfits in his-       cannot tolerate sin, for He is holy. He cannot wink
                                                          at sin, overlook it, act as if it does not exist. We may
tory. And so their place becomes narrower as time         try to dodge the frightening implications of this, but
goes on and as the world casts out those who con-         ultimately this is impossible, for we know that God
fess the name of God. Even the apostle, a few ver-        is God, holy and righteous in His own perfect
ses later in the chapter, complains, "For Thy sake        being. He must condemn sin and punish it in His
we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as       wrath. He would not be God if He did anything less
sheep for the slaughter." We might surely respond         than this.
to the apostle's question: "Why, Paul, how can you
ask such a question? All men bring charges against          And so we lie under the penalty of sin, for death
us and condemns us? What can you possibly                 is our lot. Every step nearer the grave is God's
mean?"                                                    Word of judgment upon the sinner. And when the
                                                          grave swallows us up and opens the way into hell,
  But this is not the whole story. Behind the             it is only because God punishes the sinner.
wicked world stands Satan himself and his host of
foul demons `who also bring their charges against           What possibly can Paul mean when he dares to
God's people and condemn them. He is even called          stand in the midst of the world and shout the chal-
in Scripture, the accuser of the brethren. In the Old     lenge: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of
Dispensation he even had the brazen audacity to           God's elect? Who is he that condemneth?" We are
come into heaven with his charges. He brought evil        almost inclined to wonder a bit whether Paul
charges against Job and he disputed with Michael          knows the stark reality of life.
over the body of Moses, claiming that Moses had no          Yet the apostle means exactly what he says.
right to be in glory. At every opportunity he stirs up      You must understand, of course, that these ques-
the world to hurl accusations against those who are       tions which the apostle asks are really rhetorical
faithful to God.                                          questions; i.e., they are questions which have no
  But perhaps worst of all, Satan brings his charges      answers  - need no answers; and they need no
and accusations against us in the forum of our own        answers because the answers are so obvious. Who
consciences. He never ceases to remind us that we         shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who
are sinners, and he tries in a frenzy to rob us of all    is he that condemneth? Why, no one; no one at all;
our hope and comfort. He reminds us that we are           It is impossible.
no better than others, that we sin in all that we do.       Can you understand, people of God, the tremen-


460                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



dous power of these questions? Standing in this             which God put in Balaam's mouth? You can find
present world, surrounded by the enemy, plagued             them in Numbers 2321. Read them and rejoice.
by Satan, burdened with a condemning conscience,            "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath
dying a bit every day, the believer confidently             he seen perverseness in Israel." Imagine. That
shouts for all to hear: No one, ever, can lay any-          wicked and rebellious people. God sees no iniquity
thing to the charge of God's elect. It is impossible.       in Jacob. That is the meaning of justification.
It can never happen. Let anyone come forward                  Finally, God causes the truth of justification to be
with his accusations if he can. Who anywhere, both          preached throughout the world. He wants
now and forever, in this world and before the judg-         everyone in this world to know that whatever the
ment seat of Christ, can possibly bring any charges?        world itself may do and whatever Satan may say,
None! It cannot be done.                                    He never sees any sin in His people. He causes this
  What can be the reason for this?                          to be proclaimed for all to hear, and when Christ
  Fundamentally, the reason is in that simple state-        comes again, He will announce this as the final ver-
ment: It is God that justifies.                             dict of history upon all His elect.
  There are a few truths which are implied in this.           But how can this be? How can God declare a
                                                            wicked sinner without sin?
  In the first place, other than verses 29, 30 of this
same chapter, this is the only passage in Scripture           We have to know this. How can it be, in the light
which directly connects election and justification.         of the righteousness of God, that we are declared
Whatever, for the moment, justification may mean,           righteous? We have to know this so that we can
it is rooted in the sovereign decree of eternal and         make this bold challenge of the apostle our own.
unchangeable election. It is, after all, against God's      God is holy. He cannot overlook sin. Yet he de-
elect that no one can bring charges.                        clares us to be without sin. How is it possible?
  Secondly, the reference both here and in verse 30           The apostle gives his answer. It is Christ that
is to the truth of eternal justification. In the history    died! That is the answer.
of the post-Reformation church there has been con-            Christ's death was not an ordinary death, for He
siderable controversy, in years gone by, over the           died in our place. He died in our place because all
question whether justification is eternal or                our guilt and sin were put upon Him so that He be-
temporal. We need not be detained here by this              came guilty for us. He assumed responsibility for
question. Scripture is clear that justification is an       our guilt and took it all away by His suffering. He
eternal reality. In God's counsel, before the founda-       went to hell while He hung on the cross so that
tion of the world, God's elect people stand before          when He died, all the debt of sin was paid for.
Him as justified. They are never anything else but a          But that is not all. He arose again. Never would
justified people.                                           our righteousness be accomplished if He had re-
  `In the third place, this means that before God the       mained in the grave. But when God raised Christ,
elect are seen by God as without any sin whatso-            God put the seal of divine approval upon Christ's
ever, as completely free from guilt, as innocent en-        work. He was delivered for our offenses, and was
tirely, as worthy of God's richest blessing. Can you        raised again for our justification.
imagine this?                                                 Now He is in heaven. He rules at God's right
  Perhaps the way to understand this the best is to         hand over all our enemies and over all who con-
consider the evil plot of wicked Balak and Balaam.          demn us. He rules to bring us eternal salvation and
Balak, king of Moab, was frightened by Israel and           He gives to us all the blessings which He has earned
knew that he could not withstand Israel's armies.           for us by His Spirit in our hearts.
He understood, in his pagan unbelief, that this was           And in heaven He prays for us. Not once in a
because God fought for Israel. The way to defeat            while does He pray, but every moment, bringing
Israel therefore was to persuade God to abandon             our needs before the face of God, perfecting our
and curse Israel. To accomplish this evil goal, he          prayers, holding before the Father His blood as the
hired a wicked prophet of Jehovah to curse Israel.          perfect covering for our sins.
Balaam was his name. You know the history. After
one attempt failed, Balak took Balaam to a height             And so there is a firm ground for this verdict of
overlooking the camp where Balaam could see only            God that we are innocent, a ground which we ap-
the outer edges of the camp where the mixed multi-          propriate by faith. By faith we lay hold on Christ
tude lived. This was that wretched multitude                and make Him our own. And by faith we know
which was the cause of all Israel's rebellion - and         then that our righteousness is perfect and complete.
grief. It was Israel at its worst. Surely here Balaam         So we can make this daring and seemingly im-
would be permitted to curse. What were the words            possible challenge our own. Does the world con-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             461



demn? Does Satan plague us with his evil whisper-                 or at your own works. Do not try to build your hope
ings? Do our own consciences rob us of peace, of                  of salvation upon what you have done. Do not
hope? By faith we must tell the world - and Satan                 plead your cause by your life of goodness. This will
- and even our own consciences: be quiet. I know                  only make your poor and troubled consciences
that what you say is true. Oh, how well, I know it.               toss about on the stormy seas of doubt and despair.
But be quiet. I have Christ! I .belong to Him! Now                But look to Christ. In Him is all your salvation for
then. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's               time and for ternity.
elect?                                                            (Editor's note: Prof. Hanko graciously consented to write the
  Put your trust in Christ. Do not look at yourself               meditation for this issue as substitute for Rev. M. Schipper.)

EDITORIAL


                      The Pot Calling the Kettle Black
                                                      Prof: H. C. Hoeksema


  Thus I would characterize the recently published                     namically alive in the prudential mind of the church.
book by Dr. Harry R. Boer,  The  ,Doctrine of                          No Christian Reformed minister or professor dares to
Reprobation in the Christian Reformed                                  write about election with the open assertion that there
Church (Eerdmans,  Grand Rapids, Mich.; paper,                         is no such thing as reprobation. None dares to repudi-
86 pp., $4.50).        .,                                              ate the doctrine. None dares to say that it impugns
                                                                       God's holiness, love, sincerity, and redemptive con-
  As anyone acquainted with recent developments                        cern for the whole of humankind. When the Reverend
with respect to this doctrine in the Christian Re-                     Harold Dekker, Professor of Missions at Calvin Theo-
formed Church would expect, Boer's book is blunt-                      logical Seminary, clearly implied just this in the  Re-
ly critical of the treatment which his gravamen                       fomzed Journal in December 1962 and February 1963,
against Canons I, 6 and 15 received, of the decision                   he unleashed a storm that did not blow itself out until
taken by Synod, and of. the Christian Reformed                         a  synodical  decision in 1967, which settled nothing,
stance with respect to the Formula of Subscription.                    gave all concerned to understand that the doctrine of
But with respect to the two main propositions of                       reprobation sets limits not only to the efficacy of the
Boer's book, I would characterize it as a plain case                   gospel but also to Christian Reformed freedom of
of the pot accusing the kettle of being black.                        theological expression.
  To summarize the thrust of Boer's book I can do                        In 1977 I submitted to the synod of the CRC an offi-
no better than to make the following rather lengthy                    cial objection to the doctrine of reprobation, challeng-
quotation from the preface in which Boer explains                      ing its validity. My aim was to show that the Scrip-
                                                                       tures that are officially adduced to establish the teach-
"Why This Book Was Written":                                          ing of reprobation in the Canons of Dort do not in fact
          The Form of Subscription, the signing of which is            do so; further, I requested that therefore the doctrine
   incumbent on all office-bearers in the Christian Re-               be "exscinded from or become a non-binding part of
   formed Church and all professors of Calvin College                 the creeds of the Christian Reformed Church." The
   and Seminary, includes the affirmation that the teach-              synod appointed a nine-man study committee to eval-
   ings of the creeds "do fully agree with the Word of                uate the objection and report to the Synod of 1980.
   God." Those who sign the Forms thus commit them-                      This book tells the story of the theological argumen-
   selves "diligently to teach and faithfully to defend'              tation and the ecclesiastical procedures that led to the
   the doctrine of reprobation. In actuality, no teaching             unqualified rejection of my petition by the Synod of
   in the credal panoply of doctrines is more ignored,                 1980 and the reaffirmation of that rejection by the
   suppressed, and enveloped in silence, disregard, and                Synod of 1981. The story that I have to relate is not an
   neglect than this doctrine. Why, then, should we be                edifying one. In adopting without reservation the re-
   disturbed about its existence? Why not write it off as             port of the three-year study committee and commend-
    an antiquated piece of rationalistic theology long since          ing it to the churches as an "elucidation" of the teach-
    left behind?                                                      ing of the Canons on election and reprobation, the
          We can make no greater mistake than to view the             synod attributed meanings to this teaching that are
   role of reprobation in Christian Reformed theological              theologically wholly alien to that carefully crafted
   and religious thinkmg in this way. While not active in              creed. In the synod&l  position reprobation ceases to
   theological expression and pastoral practice, it is  dy-           have it own decretal status and becomes instead an


4 6 2                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



   "aspect" or "facet" of the decree of election. There             theology or otherwise, I invite you to apply your keen-
  appears to be no  correction  between God's eternal               est thought and analysis to it, for the subject is large
  decree to pass some people by with his grace and the              and needs the counsel of the wise as well as the under-
  punishment of eternal death that will be pronounced               standing of the unsophisticated.
  upon them in the last judgment. Crucial statements in               The doctrine of reprobation, openly incriminated
  Canons I 15 [the classic statement of reprobation) re-            from 1977 to 1980, was quickly and furtively vindica-
  ceive either no attention or distorted attention in the           ted by an uncomprehending synod and then, by gen-
  report. The far-reaching significance of the literary             eral consent, reconsigned to the limbo of disregard as
  structure of Canons I 6 and I 15 is wholly ignored.               the favorite Christian Reformed  manner of "confess-
  The report finds the decree of election, on which the             ing" it. Since we choose so to "hold" the doctrine, be-
  whole of its theological case rests, a very imperfect             lief in which is alleged to bless the pious with "un-
  doctrine at best. At the close of its argumentation, by           speakable consolation," we cannot but  `ask whether
  an undeniably clear implication it concedes the cen-              this state of affairs may be permitted to continue.
  tral thrust of the objection to reprobation. In the
  course of these expositions God is made the "deficient           There are in Boer's book two main propositions
  cause of unbelief"-in contradiction of the Canon's             which are closely related.
  clear statement that God is "in no wise" the cause of            The first is that in connection with his gravarnen
  unbelief. Quite appropriately, in the pastoral section         against the doctrine of reprobation as taught by the
  of the report the reprobation is in two headings print-        Canons, the Synod of the Christian Reformed
  ed as "Reprobation" whereas election in two corre-
  sponding headings is printed Election-without quota-           Church reinterpreted the doctrine of reprobation in
  tion marks. And last, but certainly not least, the tradi-      order to rid itself of Boer's gravamen while it never-
  tional basis for the doctrine of reprobation is declared       theless allowed the Canons to stand unchanged. In
  invalid, and in its place has become a new scriptural          connection wth this first proposition Boer sharply
  substratum for a doctrine of "limited election."               criticizes the Study Report on his gravamen (and
    The questionable character of the study committee            along with it the synodical decision). His criticism
  report is fully paralleled by the impropriety of the           centers on such things as: 1) The fact that the Study
  manner in which the synod acted upon it. Eight weeks           Report agrees almost completely with Boer's criti-
  after the report appeared in the Agenda the Synod of           cism of the Scriptural grounds for reprobation ad-
  1980 adopted it. Yet the church as a whole had no ink-         duced by the Canons. 2) The fact that the Study
  ling of what it contained, nor had the members of              Report mistranslates Canons I, 15, thus limiting
  synod seen it before the long and complex document             God's decree and His good pleasure solely to the
  appeared in the Agenda. Chapter 4 sets forth in some           element of preterition in reprobation. 3) The fact
  detail not only the impropriety but the crass illegality       that the Study Report places the term reprobation in
  of this action, and also the highly peculiar endorse-          quotation marks. 4) The fact that the Study Report
  ment of this procedure by the Synod of 1981.                   and the synodical decision reduce the doctrine of
    It is, I believe, by no means without significance           reprobation to "limited election."
  that as of this writing (December 1982) no meaningful
  exposition of or commentary on the new Christian Re-             Now with most of Boer's criticism in this regard I
  formed teaching on reprobation has appeared in pub-            agree. I will not rehash that criticism at this time;
  lic print. The historic silence and evasiveness with re-       the reader may recall that at the time when Boer's
  spect to the incriminated doctrine remains in full ef-         gravamen was under discussion I criticized the
  fect. This, for a denomination that claims to have a           Study Report in many of the same respects as Boer
  particularly insightful understanding of the "full             does in his book.
  counsel of God," is not a matter of praise.                      My point is that this is a case of the pot calling
    Consistories, classes, and synods are the appointed          the kettle black. Why?
  stewards of the creeds of the church. But they are
  stewards of them, not owners who may or may not let              Because Boer (the pot) accuses the Study Report,
  the church, the true owner, know how they have                 the Synods of 1980 and 1981, and his denomination
  changed their meaning. This book is therefore written          (the kettle) of not believing and confessing the doc-
  for the church. It is written for the theologically un-        trine of reprobation as maintained by the Canons of
  schooled laity as well as for ministers and professors.        Dordrecht.
  The creeds belong to the church as a body of believers,
  and the Bible was not written for academics but for              The accusation is surely correct.
  that same body of the faithful. Therefore theology as            The moral right to make the accusation,
  reflection on the faith that the church confesses must         however, is lacking. Why? Because the pot is as
  address that same body. If you who have this book in           black as the kettle: they both deny the Reformed
  hand are of clear mind, cherish the well-being of              doctrine of reprobation.
  Christ's church, and have appropriated its pastoral in-
  struction, you should be able to read it with under-             Meanwhile, I was happy to note-though this is
  standing. If you who have this book in hand are                not the thrust of Boer's book-that Dr. Boer frankly
  learned in theology as a minister or as a professor of         admits that "The true relationship between them


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              463



(i.e. the decree of reprobation and the unfeigned            But again, this is a case of the pot (Boer) accusing
call of the gospel-the latter understood, of course,       the kettle (the CRC) of being black. And the pot has
as the free offer of 1924) can only be described as        no moral right to make the accusation: for it is as
one of flat contradiction. "If this were Boer's thesis,    black as the kettle. Did not Dr. Boer himself violate
his book would have been profitable!                       the Formula of Subscription by disagreeing, in writ-
  The second main proposition of Boer's book is an         ing, with the doctrine of reprobation as early as
accusation against his church and his fellow office-       1965? Did he not violate the Formula of Subscrip-
bearers that they are all violating the Formula of         tion again when he published his objections to the
Subscription. This accusation rests upon the ground        doctrine of reprobation before he ever presented a
(undoubtedly factual) that no one is willing to main-      gravamen to the Christian Reformed Synod of
tain and to teach the doctrine of reprobation as           1977? And is he not violating the Formula of
maintained by the Canons of Dordrecht. "The doc-           Subscription by his on-going refusal cheerfully to
trine of reprobation, openly incriminated from             submit to the judgment of synod, as that Formula
1977 to 1980, was quickly and furtively vindicated         requires?
by an uncomprehending synod and then, by                     Does this, perhaps, also date back to 1924, when
general consent, reconsigned to the limbo of disre-        the Formula of Subscription was unjustly used to
gard as the favorite Christian Reformed manner of          oust ministers and elders who had in no sense of
`confessing' it."                                          the word violated that formula?
  Again, Boer's accusation is undoubtedly correct.

THE DAY OF SI!ADOWS


                     A Comforting Pinpoint of Light
                                                Rev. John A. Heys


  If we take the position, and we should, that the         tion. It is all that which He reveals of Himself unto
introductory words of the book of Esther, namely,          us. A man may make a name for himself. It may be
"Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus,"            a good name. It may be a bad name. God makes no
are God's word to us that the events recorded in the       name for Himself but reveals what His name is. He
book are fact and not fiction, and that all the inci-      IS His name and eternally was that name. He is
dents in the book happened in the history of this          Elohim, the Almighty One, and Jehovah the I AM,
world, we will be able to say with the psalmist in         the Self-sufficient One, the Sovereign One, the Un-
Psalm 75: 1, "Unto Thee, 0 God, do we give thanks,         changeable One, the Ever-Faithful Covenant God.
unto Thee do we give thanks: for that Thy .name is         And all this, and more, He reveals of Himself in His
near Thy wondrous works declare."                          works, and in His Word which records some of
  On the other hand, if we consider the interesting        these works.
story that unfolds in the book as nothing more than          When, however, I stated last time that God's
a story with a spiritual lesson in it, we cannot say       name is to be found in this book of Esther-which
that God's name is near in the things written in the       many deny-1 did not mean that it appears in the
book, and that His wondrous works declare that             sense of Psalm 75: 1. I meant that the name Jeho-
name, For then the book does not speak of God's            vah, His personal name, can be found literally in
works and of a real, wonderful deliverance.                the book. For in Esther 2:6 we read of those "which
  Indeed, a superb story is told in the book. Every-       had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah,
thing fits so perfectly. The right turn of events          whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had
happens just at the right time. It does read like a        carried away." And that name Jeconiah means
story book. It all runs so smoothly, too smoothly it       Jehovah is establishing. Strikingly enough, he is
seems, and too good to be true. Yet it is a true story     sometimes called Jehoiachin, which also means
and one that does declare God's name in the won-           Jehovah is establishing. The only difference is that
derful works of God recorded in the book.                  the element of God's name Jehovah appears in the
                                                           first part of Jehoiachin in the Jeho, while it appears
  Now God's name, we may say, is His self-revela-          in the last part in Jeconiah, in the iah, which is a


464                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



contraction of the name Jehovah. Thus also we find       counsel. In that counsel God decreed that a king
in Psalm 68:4 that the psalinist exhorts, "Sing unto     with this name would reign at the time of the cap-
the Lord, sing praises to His name: extol Him that       tivity, and that the secondary author of this book
rideth upon the heavens by His name JAH, and             would make mention of him when reporting of the
rejoice before Him." In that context JAH can be no       captivity. Understand that a king on the throne at
one but Jehovah. And in the name Jeconiah the last       that time with a name like Rehoboam, Asa, Ahaz,
three letters can refer only to Jehovah. And so, in      Manasseh, or Amon, all names without God's name
the name Jeconiah, God's name does appear in this        in them, and all kings of Judah, would mean that if
book as surely as it appears in other books and          his name were recorded here in Esther 2:6 there
names as in Isaiah, which means Jehovah is helper;       would be no name of God found in the whole book.
Jeremiah, which means Jehovah is high; Elijah            God saw to it that there was a reference to Himself
which means My God is Jehovah; Elisha, which             in the book, in a unique way for a very significant
means Jehovah is Saviour and many such names             reason. We, therefore, should not say that the name
ending in iah. And we may be sure that the Jews in       of God does not appear in the book. Instead we
the day of shadows, including Esther and Morde-          should say, for that is true, NO ONE in the book
cai, recognized Jehovah's name in these names            uses the narne of God to speak to Him or of Him.
ending in iah. And so as surely as we and our            There were some golden opportunities to use His
children recognize the name of God literally in such     name. There were times that demanded the use of
names (to mention only one of a whole series) as         His name to call upon Him in prayer and supplica-
Godskind, a name found in the Wellington, New            tion as well as to render praise and thanksgiving.
Zealand phone book, and no doubt in many other           Instead there is the silence of the cemetery. And
phone books across the world, and is a translation       though unbelievers will not confess God, He sees to
of the German name Gotteskind-the "i" in kind            it that His presence is made known, and that for the
being short like in "kin," not long as in "kine"-        good of His church as well as for His own glory.
and means God's child; and as surely as we and our
children recognize His Son's name in such names            And, really, what mockery that Jews in the day
as Christchurch, Christian, and Christmas, so            of shadows gave their children names that included
surely the Jews recognized it in Jeconiah. We often      God's name when they themselves refused to
give it little or no thought, but God's Son's name is    confess Him. Why give your children names that
clearly there. And God's name Jehovah is clearly in      reminded them of the God you want to forget? Why
this book of Esther in that name Jeconiah.               promote and hand down to your children the name
  Now Jeconiah came from a long line of godless          of the God Whom you will not recognize or con-
kings in Judah. His father was Jehoiakim, whose          fess?
name also means Jehovah is establishing. His               But consider that although it seems like such a
grandfather was Jehoahaz, and of both his father         little and insignificant matter in the whole book to
and grandfather it is stated in Scripture that they      have God's name mentioned in the last part of a
did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.        man's name, and thus only in passing, we have
There was one king who served God after the refor-       here the very message of the book: Jehovah is es-
mation in Hezekiah's day, namely, Josiah, but            tablishing our salvation! He, Jehovah, appears here
among Jeconiah's forebears were also wicked Ma-          as only a pinpoint of light in some very dark clouds.
nasseh and his son Amon. And Jeconiah's name did         But that little pinpoint of light breaking through
not need to be included in Esther 2:6 to tell us why     these dark clouds assures us that_b-ehind all that
Judah was-sent into captivity. Long before his reign     happens, as recorded in this book: is the God of our
we read in II Rings 23:26,27 after the good reign of     salvation. He is behind it all, and through it all is es-
Josiah, "Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from        tablishing our salvation and preparing the way for
the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His         our everlasting glory.
anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the        The element in Jeconiah's name that can be
provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him              translated as establishing, is translated 86 times in
withal. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also      the Old Testament, as preparing. In fact it is trans-
out of My sight, as I have removed Israel." From         lated that way more often than establishing. God is
that point of view his name could have been left out     preparing our salvation, and is using wicked, un-
of Esther 2:6. God-as it were-slipped it in to leave     believing persons to do so.
a witness of Himself, but also to tell us something        Consider those dark clouds. There is a godless
which in a moment I will make plain.                     king reigning over one hundred and twenty-seven
  What is more, the inclusion of his name that           provinces, and that includes every spot on this
includes God's name belongs to the matter we con-        earth where the royal seed of David lives, and out
sidered last time. All things come out of God's          of which the Christ must come, if there is to be any


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              465



salvation for us-. There is the king's right hand man,      sured .that He decreed the minutest detail in our
Haman,  who has his heart set on killing all the Jews       lives and in the events in this history of this world.
in the realm. These are perilous times!                     His Son declares, "Behold I come quickly; and My
  Then there is that gross apostasy among the Jews          reward is with Me to give every man according as
who will not use God's name because they do not             His work shall be" (Revelation 22:12). And it is
believe in Him. It is not only dark for the church, it      only because we do not know all the details of what
is dark in that which still calls itself church. And        He must do to appear on the clouds of heaven, we
though there was a remnant of believers in Jeru-            are in danger of accusing Him of slowing down.
salem and Judea at this time, the books of Ezra, and        Nothing is further from the truth. One of those de-
of Nehemiah especially, reveal apostasy and gross           tails is that the measure of iniquity must be full (I
wickedness. And we need that pinpoint of light to           Thessalonians 2:16 and II Thessalonians 2:1-4). As
assure us that all is well. God is still on the throne      that measure is today being filled at a record pace,
and is constantly establishing His church and pre-          remember that God has not been dethroned, and in
paring her salvation.                                       ALL things is preparing our salvation.
  One thing is sure, however. Even though men                 Find comfort in that truth, and in the truth that
will not confess God and will not be faithful wit-          this book was not only written and included in the
nesses of Him, He is there and remains faithful to          canon of the Scriptures, but that it has been pre-
His promise and causes to come to pass all that             served.for us today-in spite of a host of enemies
which He in His Son promised to His church.                 who desire to destroy it and us-in the end of the
                                                            ages. Many there are, not simply one Haman,  who
  No matter, also today, what calamity strikes the          would destroy the church and all the true doctrines
church, He is there using that calamity for the good        of the Scriptures. If we do not go along with them,
of His church. The calamity, the woe, the events            they are out to get us. If we do not join them and
that hurt and cut deeply into the flesh were not ac-        give women equality in the offices in God's church,
cidents. They did not occur because He was look-            we will be accused of discrimination and our
ing the other way. They were not due to a loss of           church doors will be closed, if indeed the churches
control for the moment. These troubles all come             themselves are not taken away and given to those
out of His counsel and are sent in mercy and grace.         who will teach man's philosophies. All is being pre-
Always, as is so evident in this book, God is es-           pared to silence us and all who hold to the truth of
tablishing His church. Salvation is being prepared          the Word of God.
and will be prepared through all the dark days
ahead. And we had better be very careful not to                But read Esther 2:6 thus for your comfort, "Who
take the position that we know better than He does          had been carried away from Jerusalem with the
what it takes to establish His church and to prepare        captivity which had been carried away because Je-
a full and free and everlasting salvation.                  hovah was preparing salvation and establishing His
                                                            church." And remember that truth in the days
  And we ought to train ourselves to see Him in             when the Antichrist will not let you buy or sell, in
"little" things as well as in big things, and rest as-      order to silence you and get rid of the church.

IN HIS FEAR

                             The Distinctive Traits
                             of the Godly Home (II)
                                               Pastor Arie Den Hartog


  The Christian home must be characterized by a             All through the ages men have lived in wicked
certain orderliness and discipline. God Himself in          tyranny over their wives. Especially recently the
His Word has set forth the order that should char-          godless woman's liberation movement has sought
acterize the godly home. There is first of all the          to overthrow the order of God for the home. Never-
order of the relationship of husband and wife in            theless in the Christian home it must be different.
that home. Many are the forces of the devil and of          There the husband is still the head of the wife and
the ungodly world that seek to destroy this order.          over the family. In the Christian home the husband


466                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



does not use this position to abuse and mistreat his        a great sin in the sight of God. The permissiveness
wife and to gain his own wicked and selfish ends or         of the world in the rearing of children does not
to boast in his own strength and glory. The husband         characterize the true godly home. There is
in the Christian home rules over his wife in love           discipline in that home, discipline that is firm and
and for her good. He rules her to lead and guide her        has as its goal the correction of the children and the
in the way of God's righteousness and truth. The            leading of them in the way of righteousness and
husband is the head of the wife to nourish her and          obedience. This is love. Whom the father loveth he
keep her, to protect her and provide for her in love.       chasteneth and correcteth. Greater love is this than
The wife in this home is not rebellious and self-           all the world's foolish and evil philosophy of
seeking. She submits to her husband for the Lord's          leaving a child to develop on its own. In the Chris-
sake. She is selfless and gives her self to serve her       tian home it is known that children are conceived
husband and family in love. This is a beautiful and         and born in sin. If left to go their own way they will
blessed order. It serves for the good of the whole          most certainly go into the way of great sin and
family and the glory of the name of God. In this            wickedness. It is clearly understood that real
God-ordained order both the husband and wife are            genuine concern for children in the godly home
able to realize all of their potential, using all the       means admonition and discipline. In the home of
gifts which the Lord has given. Both the husband            the godly, children are taught that indeed discipline
and wife find satisfaction and fulfillment in this          is love and. concern. They grow up really to appre-
order. There is no need for either to seek to "liber-       ciate this. They grow up to live an ordered and dis-
ate" themselves from this order. There is no better         ciplined life according to the Word of God.
order. The world's order in which the vain notion             The godly Christian home is characterized by
of a democracy between husband and wife is                  spiritual-mindedness. By this we mean two things.
sought is more blessed neither for the husband nor          By spiritual-mindedness we mean holiness and
for the wife.                                               separation from the world and all of its evil lusts.
  The order of the godly home is also that the home         By spiritual-mindedness we mean what is the oppo-
is the place for the woman. In that home she brings         site from worldliness and carnality. Because of this
forth children according to the command of God.             spiritual-mindedness the evil corruption and the
The order of God for the godly woman is to be a             abomination of the world is kept out of the godly
keeper of the home. She is to keep the home for her         home. The book shelves of this home are not filled
husband and her children. She is to devote her life         with the filthy, dirty, immoral books of the world
to this. She is to use all .the gifts that God has given    but with wholesome and genuinely Christian
to her unto this end. This too is a beautiful and           books. The ungodly beat of rock music and strains
blessed aspect of the godly home. In this order the         of the world's music are not heard in this home.
wife and mother finds her glory in the sight of God.        Rather one hears the singing of psalms and hymns
The mother does not find glory in forsaking her             and spiritual songs of praise and thanks unto the
home for a career in the world. Doing this she dis-         Lord. If there is a television at all in the Christian
rupts the God-ordained order of the home, she               home it is very seldom on because it is known that
leaves her children to fend for themselves, to go un-       much of the programing that is shown on it is an
restrained and undisciplined and uncared for. This          abomination in the sight of God, filled with the
will have terrible consequences for the godly Chris-        wickedness of violence, adultery, and murder.
tian home. The godly home is the home where                 Such things cannot serve for the edification and en-
mother is faithful to her calling and loves her hus-        tertainment of the true Christian. Furthermore, as
band and her children and serves them. She does             the world adds its new inventions to the television
not care for what the world may call glorious and           it only increases in becoming an instrument for the
what the world may despise. She knows that all              propagation of the great evil and abomination of the
that matters is her standing with God. How differ-          world. I am thinking for example of the advent of
ent the home of the godly is in this respect. How           the videotape machine. It now has become possible
many homes are losing their true Christian charac-          for the world to watch a wider range of wicked and
ter because wives and mothers think it more re-             evil movies in the privacy of their own home where
warding and more glorious to be out in the world.           it is thought that none will see and know. But God
How foolish and sinful these women are and what             sees and knows and judges. The Christian home
disorder and confusion they will bring to their             must be far from all of these things. This becomes
homes.                                                      increasingly more urgent as we approach nearer to
  The order of the Christian home involves the              the end of the world.
proper discipline of children. Children in that home          The godly home is not a place where one finds
are taught to honor their parents for the Lord's            riotous living, drunkenness, gambling, and wild
sake. Children there are taught that disobedience is        parties. In times gone by, these things were con-


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               467



sidered by most Reformed Christians to be great          Lord for all of life. Routinely the whole family
evils. Today many Reformed Christians open their         gathers together at that altar. The father of the
homes to this awful worldliness and seek somehow         Christian family is there heard to lead the whole
to excuse themselves from the holiness and separa-       family in prayer. The prayers that are heard there
tion which the Lord requires of His people.              are not mere ritual repetitions of stock phrases. The
  The godly home is spirtually-minded also in the        prayers that are heard there are sincere and
sense that materialism does not reign there. It is       genuine and proceed from the heart. The family is
possible that one can find much difference from          prayed for specifically by name. All the affairs of
one home to the next as far as the amount of earthly     the home are prayed for day by day. No significant
possessions each has. Neither is this wrong. It is       decision is made in the godly home until it is first
certainly in the providence of God that some of us       committed to the Lord in prayer. It is through the
are more wealthy than others. The home of the            constant prayers at this altar that the Christian
godly however is not a place where material things,      family is seen to get all of its spiritual strength and
the riches of this world, are worshipped and sought      blessing from the Lord.
as an end in themselves. The family in the Chris-          Sins are dealt with in the Christian home. They
tian home is not ruled by greed and lust and covet-      are not just ignored or left to stand. It is clearly un-
ousness. Material things in that home, whether           derstood in the Christian home that all sin is awful.
there are few or many are always seen as being of        It is awful first of all because it is committed against
only secondary importance. If the Lord in His prov-      the holy and righteous God of heaven and earth. It
idence gives much material wealth to the Chris-          has most dreadful consequences because it brings
tian home then the Lord is humbly thanked and            upon the home the displeasure of the Lord and sep-
there is an earnest desire and purpose to use all ma-    arates the Christian family from the blessings and
terial wealth only in the service of the Lord and for    fellowship of the Lord. Therefore sin is confessed
His glory. If on the other hand the Lord gives only      in deep and sincere repentance before God. Sin in
few material possessions to the godly home, then         the Christian home is daily brought in prayer to the
there is contentment and satisfaction with what-         cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of the sins
ever the Lord has given. Perhaps one of the best         of the Christian home are brought there. They are
tests of whether materialism is present in a home is     brought there specifically and repeatedly until for-
how much that home is willing to give and sacrifice      giveness and cleansing have been found. There are
for the church and kingdom of God.                       times in the Christian home when one hears weep-
  In the center of the godly home stands the altar       ing because of the awfulness of sin. There are also
of the Lord. We are very much struck in Singapore        times when one hears rejoicing because of the bles-
by the heathen homes here, how the altars to the         sedness of forgiveness and righteousness in Christ.
heathen idols occupy the center and the absolutely         Sin is also dealt with in the Christian home when
most prominent place in those homes. The most ob-        it involves the members of the home with each
vious thing of the pagan home is that it is a home of    other. In the home of the ungodly, sin is allowed to
pagan worship. How much more ought it to be true         stand. It is allowed to increase more and more.
that the most obvious thing of the Christian home        Such refusal to deal with sin brings bitterness, divi-
should be that it is the place where the only true       sion, and hatred in the home. That increases more
God of heaven and earth and His Son Jesus Christ is      and more until it ends in divorces and broken
worshipped. The altar in the Christian home is           homes and all kinds of terrible misery and judg-
spiritual, for the God Who is worshipped there is        ment. When members of the Christian home sin
Spirit and Truth. The altar in the Christian home is     against each other they confess their sins one to
the place where the family gathers for the worship       another, they forgive one another. Reconciliation is
of God and the praise of His wonderful and blessed       brought about and peace again reigns. Children in
name. The altar of the Christian home is where           the Christian home are taught also to confess their
many prayers are offered as sacrifices of praise         sins to each other and before God. By nature,
unto the Lord. The Christian home is a place where       children are prone often to quarrel with one
one hears many songs exalting the name of the Lord       another. Parents in the godly home repeatedly ad-
and giving thanks unto Him. Morning by morning,          monish their children concerning the sin of this and
prayers of thanks are heard in that home for the         exhort them to confess their sins to each other and
newness of God's mercy, for life and breath and          before God.
health which are all known to be the gracious gifts        The godly home is a place where the Word of
of God. At that same altar of the Lord many sup-         God is obeyed. The Word of God is read in that
plications are made for the grace and blessing of the    home regularly. All the affairs of that home are or-
Lord, for it is understood in the godly home that we     dered according to that Word of God. This too
are absolutely dependent upon that grace of the          makes the home of the godly so entirely different


466                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



from the homes of the world where there is rebel-           greatest of earthly wants are endured in the Chris-
lion against God and a continual ignoring of the de-        tian home. For it is known there that God works all
mands of the Word of God. The Word of God is                things for good for them that love God. It is known
very really the standard and rule of the godly home.        there also that this life on earth is temporary and
Daily wisdom and guidance are sought from the               there is a hope and expectation of the glory and
Word of God. How beautifully this is described in           blessedness of the life to come. Therefore the Chris-
Deuteronomy 6:7-9: "And thou shalt teach them               tian family can endure the present sorrows, know-
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them        ing that they are but for a moment and that they all
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou             work towards bringing us to glory.
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and             Finally, the Christian home is characterized by
when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a         joy. There is first of all a joy in the Lord. God is
sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets        known in all of His goodness and blessedness in
between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them               that home. His wonderful salvation has been exper-
upon'the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Out         ienced in that home and its final and perfect realiza-
of the Word of God the family reads of the wonders          tion in heaven is looked for. This is the source of
of the Lord, of His glorious and blessed attributes,        the great joy of the Christian home. Therefore one
of the great and mighty deeds that He did in the            often hears singing of joyous songs of praise and
days of old, of His unchangeable faithfulness to His        thanks unto the Lord in that home. The godly home
covenant and especially of His wonderful works of           is the place of joy also because there is great joy
salvation in Jesus Christ.  All of this causes the          when God's people by His grace faithfully perform
Christian home to put its trust and hope in God.            their calling. There is great joy when children who
  The godly home is characterized by trust in the           have been faithfully instructed by their parents
Lord. This trust is especially evident when troubles        grow up to fear and love the Lord. Much could be
and trials come to the Christian home. It is evident        said about this too but our space is running out.
when there is sickness and death in the Christian           There is no better way to conclude the discussion
home. None of this brings despair to the Christian          about this aspect of the Christian home than by
home. The Christian home is where the Lord the              quoting the beautiful versification  of Psalm 128
Almighty God is. He is the eternal refuge of that           that we have in our Psdter. "Blest the man that
home and under that home are the everlasting arms           fears Jehovah, walking ever in His ways; By thy toil
of the' Lord. This is known in the Christian home           thou shalt be prospered and be happy all thy days.
and therefore there is peace and security there.            In thy wife thou shalt have gladness, she shall fill
  The godly home is characterized by contentment            thy home with good, happy in her loving service
with the Lord. One does not hear there complaining          and the joys of motherhood. Joyful children, sons
and murmuring against the Lord. One does not find           and daughters, shall about thy table meet, olive
there dissatisfaction with the troubles and trials of       plants, in strength and beauty, full of hope and
life. Even the most severe of hardships and the             promise sweet."
GUESTARTICLES


                             Separation or Isolation
                                              Pastor Wayne Bekkering


  The calling of the child of God to live a holy and        but not easy. Let us consider this subject, following
a spiritually separate life is very difficult. There are    the division mentioned above, first looking at the
the extremes on either side that must be avoided.           extremes, and then considering the way of our
On the one hand there is the extreme of living along        calling.
with the world in its lusts. On the other hand there          The extreme of living along with the world in its
is the extreme of seeking to flee the world in the          lust is a very attractive way. Let's be honest about
physical and local sense of the word. After we have         it. But can we justify such a course? The Word of
identified the two extremes we still have the rugged        God is very clear: "Love not the world, neither the
and toilsome way in which most of our battles are           things that are in the world. If any man love the
fought. The way to which God calls us is blessed,           world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   469



that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the       self far enough away from the influences and temp-
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the     tations of the world, that one can escape them.
Father, but is of the world" (I John 2:15-16);  "Be ye     There are many variations of the world-flight men-
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for         tality, yet all of them hold the possiblity of escaping
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrigh-            sin and temptation through isolation. Others may
teousness? And what communion hath light with              not seek to escape sin through isolation yet are
darkness? Wherefore come out from among them,              seeking an easy and simple way to a holy life. The
and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not          hard fact is that there is no easy way to holiness.
the unclean thing, and I will receive .you" (II Cor.         In the Middle Ages and before, there were the
6:14 & 17); "And be not conformed to this world            monasteries and other places of seclusion. These
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your              were vain attempts to flee the world and achieve a
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and             higher holiness. The experiences that Martin
acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:2).         Luther records of his time in monasteries shows the
  One may say that all this is true, but don't we          futility of that way of life in the pursuit of holiness.
have a calling to let our lights shine, and to be wit-       Later came the various Anabaptistic world-flight
nesses of God in the world. We ought to be strong          movements such as the Amish, Hutterites, Men-
enough to stand against the temptations of the             nonites, and others. These movements have con-
world. A true and wise soldier of Christ, however,         tinued up until the present with little modification
will not reason that way. A true and wise soldier          of their basic presuppositions.
knows himself and the enemy. He knows that even
the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small       The fundamental flaw in all these systems is a
beginning of the new obedience. He therefore               wrong view of sin. Sin is viewed by the isolationists
prays for God's help in temptation because he              as being in the outward act almost exclusively.
knows that he is so weak in himself that he cannot         They fail to understand the effect of the fall and of
stand for a moment. He will not pretend to be wiser        sin upon the very nature of man. What Martin
than God Who has prepared a place for His people           Luther came to realize in the monastery was that
so that they can be in the world without being of          the world was in him.
the world. That God-ordained place for His people            We must emphasize that the way of holiness for
is Zion, the church. There is the safety of God's          God's church in the world is not in isolation. Jesus,
people. That is the camp of the saints; the place          in John 17 prays not that the church be taken out of
from which God's people wage war against the ene-          the world, but that God would keep her from the
my. A true and wise soldier does not believe him-          evil one. It is clearly God's will that the church be
self so strong that he can leave the camp of God's         in the world, but not of the world. This truth em-
people and go right into the camp of the enemy to          phasizes the spiritual character of the church's
fight against them. What would happen to such a            separation from the world. The antithetical differ-
soldier? Quickly he would be overtaken and be              ence between the church and the world is not local
bound in the enemies' camp. Then what would be-            and physical, but spiritual.
come of his boast of strength and of his light and           The way of spiritual separation rather than isola-
witness?                                                   tion must be chosen as the way of working out holi-
  A true and wise soldier of Christ will soon learn        ness for God's people. Isolationism is an attempt to
how important the church is to him in the spiritual        achieve holiness by human strength and therefore
battle. It is for him food for his soul. It is the re-     carries with it a false sense of security. It engenders
pository of all the spiritual armament that. he needs.     a "holier than thou" attitude toward all others. Iso-
The church is the source of his strength both from         lationism takes what truth it has and buries it. It
the defensive and the offensive point of view. If the      tends therefore to be negative, defensive, and criti-
Christian soldier forgets this or becomes enamored         cal. Because isolationism has not the proper under-
with his own strength, immediately .he is in a very        standing of God's truth, it becomes fearful to move
weak and vulnerable position. When I am strong             forward with the truth. Thus its vigor withers and
(in myself), then am I weak is the converse of what        becomes unhealthy and unproductive. It is as salt
God's Word teaches in II Corinthians 12: 10.               that has lost its savor and is thenceforth good for
  The opposite extreme of living along with the            nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot
world in its lusts is world-flight, in a local and phy-    of men.
sical sense of the word. World-flight is the attempt         On the other hand, spiritual separation finds its
to achieve a holy life by isolating oneself from the       strength in God; and although it is not ignorant of
world. For the child of God there is a strong              the power of the enemy, yet it has true security.
attraction to such an idea. The principle behind the       Spiritual separation has a realistic view of itself be-
"isolation for holiness" idea is that if one puts him-     fore God and man and conducts itself in a humble


470                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



manner before all. Understanding the great                 that we should follow the way of isolation, but the
treasure of truth God has given, spiritual separation      way of spiritual separation. All of the virtues listed
holds up that truth for all to see. Spiritual separa-      as the way to follow are eminently spiritual. In fact,
tion is open and undefensive because it trusts the         they are nearly identical to the fruit of the Spirit
power of the truth to silence its enemies. Because         listed in Galatians 5.
spiritual separation is grounded in the Word it has a        The reason why we must approach the battle in
lively optimism in the promised victory in Jesus           the way of spiritual separation and not isolation is
Christ. Since spiritual separation has its roots in the    threefold. First we have the enemy within us
truth, it continues to grow and be healthy, and            through the old man of sin in our evil natures. We
therefore flourishes in the fruit of the spirit which      cannot flee the world in the local and physical
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good-      sense of the word, for wherever we go we carry a
ness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal. 5:22-          world of iniquity within us. Secondly, our enemy is
23).                                                       not physical and local. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, for
  One may raise the point that the Bible in many           we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
places commands the child of God to flee sin. I            principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
grant that it is so. God says, "flee fornication" (I       the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked-
Cor. 6:18); "flee from idolatry" (I Cor. 10:14); "0        ness in high places. Thirdly, the weapons that we
man of God, flee these things," i.e., many foolish         use are not physical and local. "For though we
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction          walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for
and perdition (I Tim. 6:ll); and "flee also youthful       the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
lusts" (II Tim. 2:22).                                     mighty through God to the pulling down of
  Do these commands of God disprove our empha-             strongholds" (II Cor. 10:3-4). The implication here
sis that the character of the church's separation          is that if our weapons are carnal then we are weak
from the world is spiritual and not local? Not at all.     and can never gain the victory. But the victory in
If you look at these passages in their context you         this warfare is ours, as Ephesians  6:lO and 13
will see that the flight commanded is spiritual and        shows us. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
not local. I Timothy 6: 11 is a good example to make       Lord, and in the power of His might. Wherefore
the point. "But thou, 0 man of God, flee these             take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye
things, and follow after righteousness, godliness,         may be able to withstand in the evil day, and
faith, love, patience, meekness." God doesn't say          having done all, to stand."


                                          The Promise
                                                Rev. Steven Houck


  While the Arminian boasts in the fact that he               This fact is very beautifully set forth for us in the
"asked Christ into his heart" and he "promised to          Scriptural doctrine of the covenant, and more parti-
give his life to God," the Scriptures teach us that        cularly in the promise of the covenant. Our hope of
salvation is not the result of man's will and works,       salvation is not based upon something that we say
but it is the gift of the sovereign grace of God alone     or promise. It is based upon the promise of-God.  We
(Eph. 2:8-g). If we are to boast, therefore, we must       with the apostle Paul can rejoice in "the hope of the
boast not in what we have done, but in what God            promise made of God unto our fathers" (Acts 26:6),
has done for us and in us. "He that glorieth, let him      for God has indeed made a most blessed promise.
glory in the Lord" (I Cor. 2:31). God alone is our         He has made a promise to all of His elect people,
Savior.                                                    the church of all ages. A promise so rich and abun-
                                                           dant that it encompasses every aspect of our salva-
  This becomes even more evident when we con-              tion from beginning to end. There is absolutely
sider the fact that we can do nothing to save our-         nothing left for us to do. God has promised to do aZZ
selves. We are sinners who are "`dead in our tres-         that is necessary to redeem us from destruction and
passes and sins" (Eph. 2:l). Our very wills are held       give to us everlasting salvation. So wonderful is this
in bondage to sin, so that we can not even choose          covenant promise in all of its parts, that the apostle
God apart from His grace (John 8:34, 44). If we are        Peter refers to it in the plural and speaks of "prom-
to be saved, it must come from God. God's saving           ises" that are "exceeding great and precious" (II
grace is our only comfort and hope.                        Pet. 1:4).


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               471



  That the promise is indeed "exceeding great and         a Savior to pay the price of our sins. We need a Sub-
precious" can be seen very easily from the Holy           stitute to bear the wrath of Almighty God on our
Scriptures. They are filled from cover to cover with      behalf. That Savior, God Himself promised to pro-
the promise of God as it is progressively revealed in     vide in His own Son, Jesus Christ. The apostle
all of its details and implications.                      made reference to that fact when he preached at
  Consider the promise, first of all, as it was given     Antioch. He said, "Of this man's seed (David's)
to our father Abraham, for here we find the very es-      hath God according to His promise raised unto Israel
sence of the promise. God said to Abraham, "And I         a Savior, Jesus" (Acts 13:23). God Himself raised up
will establish My covenant between Me and thee            Jesus as the Savior of Israel, His elect people, and
and thy seed after thee in their generations for an       He did that according to His promise. The covenant
everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to       promise is the promise of Christ.
thy seed afler thee" (Gen. 17:7). God promised Abra-        Thus we see that throughout the old dispensation
ham that He would be his God and the God of his           Christ was promised as the One Who would come
seed. Is that not a blessed promise? This is the          in the name of God to deliver His people. The very
promise that God will be our Covenant God. The            first promise, the one God gave to Adam and Eve
promise that He, as our God, will be our Friend and       after the fall, was the promise of Christ. He is the
that we, as His people, will be His friends. He will      promised Seed of the woman Who bruised the head
be our God, not as He is the God of all, as their         of the serpent on the cross (Gen. 3: 15). He is the
Creator, but in a very special way. We will have a        Seed of Abraham in Whom all the nations of the
relationship of friendship and fellowship with Him.       earth are blessed (Gal. 3:8, 16). He is the promised
He is not our enemy. He does not seek to destroy          Son of David Who sits on David's throne and reigns
us. He is not filled with wrath and indignation           over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:32-33).  He
against us. Rather, He is filled with love for us. He     is the Branch spoken of by the prophet Isaiah,
knows us and loves us as His own peculiar people,         "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
chosen by Him before the world was. God takes us          Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots"
up into His own blessed covenant life, that we in a       (Isa. 11:l). He is the promised "Redeemer" Who
creaturely way may partake of that life. This             "shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from
promise is the promise that God will establish His        transgression in Jacob" (Isa. 59:20).
covenant of friendship with us.                             As the Redeemer, He is the One of Whom it was
  That this promise is intended, not only for Abra-       promised, "He is despised and rejected of men; a
ham, but also for the new dispensational saint is         Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.. . .
clear from the fact that the apostle Paul applies this    Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor-
promise to us. Quoting the Old Testament he says,         rows.... But He was wounded for our transgres-
"as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in      sions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chas-
them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My       tisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His
people.... And I will receive you, and will be a          stripes we are healed. " (Isa. 53:3-5).  When God prom-
Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and              ised Christ the Redeemer, He promised the cross
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (II Cor. 6:17-        and the shed blood which redeems us from our sins.
18). This is substantially the same promise that God        Oh yes, God has promised us the Savior. He has
made to Abraham. Yet, after having written these          promised not only His death, but also His resurrec-
words the apostle says to the Corinthian believers,       tion from the dead and His exaltation to the highest
"Having therefore these promises.. ." (7: 1). He          heaven (Acts 13:32-33).  In fact, God has even prom-
applies  these promises  to new dispensational saints.    ised that He is coming again to give to us the per-
They had these promises and so do we today. The           fection and fulness of the promised salvation.
promise of God is fundamentally the same in every         When the scoffers asked, "Where is the promise of
age.                                                      His coming?" the apostle Peter could answer, "The
  It must be seen, moreover, that in this one             Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some
promise God has promised to us all that belongs to        men count slackness... but the day of the Lord wiZZ
salvation. There are many aspects to that promise,        come  as a thief in the night" (II Pet.  3:4, 9, 10).
but they are all encompassed in this one fundamen-        Christ is coming again. We can have that blessed
tal promise - God will be our God and we His              hope, because God has promised.
people. This one promise implies all others.                But there is more. For if God merely promised to
  It is no surprise, then, that the promise of the        accomplish for us an objective salvation on the
covenant includes also the promise of Christ as the       cross and then left it up to us to appropriate that
Savior. Because we are sinners, God can not be our        salvation by our own works, we would still be with-
God and we His people apart from Christ. We need          out hope. Such, however, is not the case, for the


472                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



promise is so great and precious that it also encom-       talk with Him, who serve Him and worship Him,
passes the application of salvation to our hearts.         who know Him and love Him forever.
The promise of the covenant is also the promise of           The promise, however, does not leave us at this
the HoZy Spirit.                                           point either, for it carries us all the way to final
  It is impossible to speak of the promise of Christ       glory. Thus the apostle writes that we have the
without also speaking of the promise of the Holy           "promise of Zife that now is, and of that which is to
Spirit. As the apostle says, "Christ hath redeemed         come" (I Tim. 4:8). We, according to the promise,
us from the curse of the law... that the blessing of       have eternal life. In fact, it was promised to us in
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus           eternity. The apostle speaks of the "hope of eternal
Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit    life, which God, that can not lie, promised before
through faith" (Gal. 3:13-14).  Christ received the        the world began" (Titus 1:2). We have that blessed
promised Spirit after His death and resurrection           eternal life in principle now and we will have it in
(Acts 2:33) and He poured forth that Spirit as His         all its fulness in glory. God has promised to raise us
own Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, upon His church in       from the dead even as He did our Lord (Acts 26:6-
accordance with the promise (Acts  2:39). Thus             8). Indeed, we shall not remain in the grave. Death
through the promised Spirit He applies all of the          has lost its sting. We shall not rot in the corruption
work of the cross to His people.                           of our sins. For we are heirs of the world. We have
  In the promise of the Holy Spirit we have the            been called of God that we might "receive the
promise of regeneration and conversion. Thus God           promise  of  eternaZ  inheritance  (Heb.  9:15).  We, in
promised through the prophet Isaiah, "For I will           hope, are waiting for that promised day of the Lord
pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods            when the end of all things shall come and we shall
upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit (Holy           stand with our Savior and be like Him. As the apos-
Spirit - S.H.) upon thy seed, and My blessing upon         tle Peter says, "Nevertheless  we, according to His
thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among         promise,  look for new heavens and new earth
the grass, as willows by the water courses" (Isa.          wherein dwelleth righteousness" (II Pet. 3:13).
44:3-4).  The giving of the Holy Spirit is like the          Surely then, our salvation is not dependent upon
pouring forth of water upon a dry land. He brings          our wills, our works, our words, and our promises to
life out of death, He makes the dead desert-like           God. It is not what we have said that counts. The
sinner to be as a beautiful lush green garden. This        all-important thing is that God has promised it. For if
figure is very similar to the one Jesus used when He       God promises to be our God, if God promises to
spoke of Spirit-wrought regeneration. He said, "But        save us through Jesus Christ in the power of His
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give          Spirit, if God promises to give us eternal life and an
him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give    inheritance in glory, then He wiZZ do it. Therefore,
him shall be in him a well of water springing up           we by the power of the promise must be like our
into everlasting life" (John 4: 14).                       father Abraham, of whom it is written, "He stag-
  It is, however, in the prophecy of Ezekiel that we       gered not at the promise of God through unbelief;
see very vividly that the promise is a promise of          but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And
faith, repentance, and eve11 obedience. God promises,      being fully persuaded that, what He had promised,
"And I will give them one heart, and I will put a          He was able also to perform" (Rom.  4:20-21).
new spirit within you; and I will take the stony           Indeed, we children of the promise have a blessed
heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart      hope, for our Covenant God is faithful. What He
of flesh: that they may waZk in My statutes and keep       has promised, He will perform.
Mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My
people, and I will be their God" (Ezek. 11:19-2OJ.
Here God promises that in the giving of His Spirit,
He also gives to us all that we need to comply with             The Standard Bearer
the demands of the gospel. For when He gives us
"an heart of flesh," when He regenerates us by the
mighty working of the Spirit of Christ, He gives to             makes a thoughtful
us also repentance and faith, so that we walk in His
statutes. Faith and repentance, then, are not                             gift for the
"Man's part" in salvation. No, we have no part in
that great work. The promise of God is that He con-                  sick or.shut-in.
verts US so that we comply with the demand of the
gospel. He makes' us obedient servants who keep
His ordinances. He, by the power of the promise,
makes us to be His people who walk with Him and


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 473



                          The Adoption of Sons (1)
                                               Rev. Ronald Hanko

  The word "adoption" is a word which is used              connection with our adoption is that the use of the
only five times in Scripture and all five times in the     word adoption to describe our salvation is not a
New Testament. Nevertheless, the concept is found          figure of speech. Sometimes our salvation is de-
throughout the Old and New Testaments and is a             scribed with figures of speech, as in John 15:1-8
very important and comforting part of the gospel of        where the figure of a vine and its branches is used.
God's grace. Adam himself is called the son of God         Adoption is a reality. If it were only a figure of
in Luke 3:38, and though perhaps his sonship  dif-         speech, the most that could be said of us is that we
fers in some respects from ours, it is still a sonship     are Zike children of God; but John says, "Beloved,
by virtue of adoption. So too, one of the most com-        now are we the sons of God . . " (I John 3:2). So
mon names given to the saints in Scripture, and            much is this true that the earthly adoption which
which implies the truth of adoption, is the name           we practice in this life is only a very faint picture of
"children of God" or "sons of God."                        the glorious spiritual reality and falls far short of it.
  In spite of its importance in Scripture, however,        This too we shall see as we look at the testimony of
this truth of adoption tends to be somewhat                God's Word concerning our sonship and adoption.
neglected. In most Dogmatics textbooks, for exam-            In the spiritual reality of adoption there are four
ple, it is treated in connection with the truth of         steps or stages distinguished by Scripture and each
justification as one of the benefits of justification,     of these can be compared with the earthly shadow.
and though this may be the proper place to speak of        Scripture speaks of election as part of our adoption,
it, it receives there at best a very cursory treatment.    first of all. Then the work of Christ on the cross in
Even in our creeds adoption is only mentioned              the second place and the work of the Spirit of Christ
twice, once in connection with the divinity of our         in the third place belong to our adoption. Lastly,
Lord Jesus in Lord's Day XIII of the Heidelberg            there is a final glorious revelation of the sons of
Catechism, where Christ's Sonship  is distinguished        God in the judgment day. We may say then that our
from ours, and once in Canons V, 6 where, in con-          adoption is predestinated from eternity, prepared
nection with the truth of perseverance, we are as-         in Christ, possessed through the Spirit, and perfect-
sured that even in our falls God does not suffer us        ed in heavenly glory. In election is the eternal
to lose the grace of adoption. Besides these two           reality of our adoption. The work of Christ provides
there are only some indirect references to our son-        the legal basis for sonship,  and that  sonship we
ship in the creeds and nowhere is this truth devel-        have a right to in Christ is applied to us by the Spirit
oped there. Thus this article.                             of adoption. Finally our adoption is realized per-
  There are two things that must be emphasized in          fectly and revealed gloriously in heaven. Those are
our development of this truth. First of all we must        the four aspects of our adoption of which Scripture
remember that Scripture uses the truth of adoption         speaks.
to make clear to us that our salvation is all of grace.      The grace of God in adoption is revealed first of
Adoption must be gracious or it is not adoption.           all, then, in our election. There are two passages of
Lords Day XIII connects grace and adoption when            Scripture which are important here: Ephesians 1:3-
it speaks of the fact that in distinction from Christ      6 and Romans 8:28-30.  In verse 4 of Ephesians 1
Who is the eternal and natural Son of God, we are          Paul speaks of our election, that God has "chosen
"children adopted of God, by grace, for His sake."         us in Him (in Christ) before the foundations of the
It is here too that Adam's sonship  is somewhat dif-       world, that we should be holy and without blame
ferent from ours. He was first of all a son of God by      before Him." In verse 5 he tells us that there is
virtue of his being created in the image of God. For       something even more basic and fundamental than
us, adoption takes on a new meaning, since we are          our election, and that is the love of God which
born in this world children of the devil (John 8:44),      marks us out (predestinates us) for  sonship. In
"strangers from the covenants of promise, having           other words, election is God's sovereign choice of
no hope, and without God in the world" (Eph.               some in Christ to be His sons and daughters; but
2:12). This grace of adoption is also prophetically        behind this choice lies God's decree that He shall
revealed in Hosea 1:lO where the prophet tells the         have many sons in His house and that His only be-
church "that in the place where it was said unto           gotten Son shall be the firstborn among many
them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said         brethren. When Paul says, "In love having predes-
unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God."             tinated us . . . " that love of which he speaks is the
   The second thing that we must bear in mind in           love of God the Father  according to which  He


4 7 4                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



chooses us from all eternity to be His children.          choose the child that loves them the most. All the
   Paul emphasizes the wonder of this in various          children there are strangers. Their. love and their
ways. We must remember first that Paul is                 choice is first. And as that love which they bestow
speaking to common ordinary people, fathers,              and the choice they make is free, so also with our
mothers, and children, artisans and workers, even         adoption. The child does not choose his parents,
slaves, and to them he says, "God has marked you          but he is chosen even before he can say "my
out for sonship  from all eternity." And what is even     father" or "my mother." So God chooses us to be
more amazing is that he says this to those whom he        His sons and daughters without any regard for
describes in chapter 2 as "children of wrath." From       what we are or what we will be, in sovereign free-
every point of view it is a wonder of grace. It is "in    dom. Thus it is that the glory of the riches of God's
Christ." There is no reason at all in us that we          grace is revealed. An adopted child has no right to
should be the sons of God except that in Christ the       the love and care of his parents before he is
good pleasure of His will, is revealed. It is an amaz-    adopted. There is no blood tie which he can claim
ing wonder in that God takes such as we are and           as a basis for asserting his right to a place in their
chooses us to dwell in the closest possible relation-     home. He is given those rights by the goodness and
ship with Him; as Paul says, "He has predestinated        good will of those who adopt him. God's children
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to       are also without any rights or privileges, not only as
Himself" so that we may dwell with Him, the living        fallen creatures, but simply as creatures. Adam,
God, forever.                                             even in the state of innocence, had not any right to
                                                          God's favor and love. His relationship with the
  This same truth is presented in Romans 8:28-30.         living God was a gift of grace from God and even
Here too Paul teaches that God's purpose to make          when he did all that was required of him he was
His Son the Firstborn among many brethren lies be-        still an unprofitable servant in God's sight-he had
hind even our election. The foreknowledge of              not earned anything, neither the right to dwell with
which Paul speaks in verse 29 is the same as the          God as God's son (cf. Luke 17:lO). In the basic
love of God in Ephesians l-a love of a Father for         character of election, in its freedom, and in its
His children. That love is the deepest reason for our     glorious character the spiritual reality and the
election. Our adoption begins, therefore, with            earthly shadow agree.
God's eternal and unchangeable love and with the
choice that proceeds forth from that love.                  Nevertheless, the earthly shadow falls short of
                                                          the reality. When we adopt children then our
  Paul also makes it very clear here that our adop-       choice is not completely free. We are limited in our
tion is no afterthought in God's work. Adoption is        choice to the number of children at the agency to
not a repair work to restore that which we lost in        which we go, and even there we are attracted to
Adam. It is not a new plan which God made when            one child and not another by something we see in
Adam fell, but our adoption in Christ and the set-        that child. Again, having made our choice and
ting forth of Christ as the Firstborn in the house of     taken the child as our own we may be disappoint-
God is His eternal and unchangeable purpose.              ed. God's choice is completely free in that He
From all eternity He determined to lead us to son-        chooses us before we are born, before we have
ship through the deep way of the fall and sin and         done good or evil, nor is He limited to what is avail-
grace. This is also taught  in  Colossians  1:15-18,      able, but sovereignly He determines to create His
where the Apostle teaches that Christ is before all       children in Christ and by the Spirit of Christ, and to
things as the Firstborn and as the Head of the body,      create them in such a way that He is never disap-
the church. The fall and sin, then, are part of God's     pointed in them, but forever delights in them.
plan to lead many sons to glory through Christ the
Firstborn, and all for the glory of His Name.               This grace of God in adoption, then, reaches
                                                          back into eternity and is a marvellous revelation of
  This electing love of God can be compared to the        the amazing wonder of God's goodness to us.
earthly adoption that we know. To make this com-          Understanding this, we exclaim with the apostle
parison will help us see the grace of God in our          John: "Behold, what manner of love the Father
adoption and will show us how much more                   hath bestowed on us that we should be called the
glorious the heavenly reality is.                         sons of God" from before the foundations of the
  Just as in our adoption God's love and God's            world (I John 3:la).
choosing are first, so it is in the earthly picture.
Scripture's testimony is that "We love Him,
because He first loved us" (I John 4: 19). The earthly                Read and Study
picture reflects that. When parents adopt a child,                The Standard Bearer
the very first thing they do is go to the adoption
agency to choose a child for their own. They do not


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         4 7 5



STKENGTH OF YOUTH

                                    Our Approach to the
                                  Problem of Alcohol (3)
                                                     Rev. Ron Cammenga


  Last time we listed the "Twelve Steps" of Alco-                  to the success of most men and women who have
holics Anonymous. The "Twelve Steps" contain                       achieved sobriety in A.A. To many members, this
A.A.`s basic approach to recovery from alcoholism.                 Higher Power is a personal God, to whom they turn
Without going into great detail, we have serious ob-               for help in achieving and maintaining sobriety. (p. 10).
jections to A.A., objections which make it impossi-             In Hope For the Ckldren ofAlcoholics we read:
ble for us to recommend the' use, especially the ex-                  We don't have to get hung up on God, or imagine
tended use, of A.A. What are these objections?                     Him as a Person. If we can't think of the "Higher
  First of all, we object to the view that A.A. takes              Power" as God, we can interpret this step as realizing
of alcoholism, a view that does not regard alcohol-                we don't know everything and other people can help
ism as sin. In the "Twelve Steps" alcoholism is                    us. The group can be our higher power. If we keep an
called many things. It is referred to as something                 open mind and really listen for new ways to handle
                                                                   our problems, we will find we won't have to be alone.
that makes the alcoholic's life unmanageable, as
taking away the alcoholic's sanity, as bringing in-                (P*  131.
jury to others, as a defect of character and a short-             For the most part, A.A. does not attempt specifi-
coming. But the "Twelve Steps" come short of de-                cally to define God, or this so-called "Higher
scribing alcoholism as sin against God.                         Power." His identity is left indefinite. In the
                                                                "Twelve Steps," after "God" is usually added the
  This failure to view alcoholism as sinful shows               phrase "as we understand Him." Yet, in a way,
itself in all of the A.A. books and pamphlets. In a             A.A. does in fact define its god. From all the A.A.
pamphlet entitled, "A Clergyman Asks About                      literature it's very clear that the god of A.A. is not
A.A.", this question is asked: "Does A.A. regard                the Sovereign God of Scripture and the Reformed
alcoholism as a sin?" The answer is given:                      faith, but a weak, helpless, beggar-god who is de-
      As a fellowship, A.A. is committed to no theological      pendent upon man. He is the ,kind of God that we
    concept of alcoholism. A.A. members may be said to          conceive Him to be. He is the god of the univer-
    be concerned more with handling the problem of alco-        salist who loves all men and desires to make all
    holism than with defining it. Within the Society, there     men happy and secure. And above all, He is a god
    is, of course, complete freedom for the individual to       who does not have a Son, Jesus Christ, who saves
    express his own viewpoints on this question. Most           men from their sins. Never does A.A. speak of Jesus
    members regard alcoholism as an  ilhress  that cannot       Christ. Because of this false, unbiblical teaching
    be cured but  can be arrested by alcoholics who hon-        concerning God, we disapprove of A.A.
    estly attempt to practice the Twelve Suggested Steps
    in all their affairs.                                         Thirdly, we object to A.A.`s view of man, which
Very obviously, A.A. refuses to regard alcoholism               is essentially a Pelagian and Arminian view of man,
as sinful. A.A. refuses to take a biblical view of              teaching that a man is saved by his own efforts and
alcoholism, and rather than regard alcoholism as                his own will-power. In the book One  Day, At A
sin against God, regard alcoholism as an illness for            Time, the alcoholic reader is reminded, "I am the
which the alcoholic cannot ultimately be held ac-               master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul,"
countable.                                                      and, "God helps those who help themselves." This
  Secondly, the God presented by A.A., the                      Pelagian-Arminian view of man comes out in the
"Higher-Power" whose help the alcoholic is to                   "Twelve Steps," especially in Step #3: "Made a de-
seek, is definitely not the God of the Scriptures and           cision to turn our will and our lives over to the care
of the Reformed faith. A.A. does profess belief in a            of God, as we understood Him."
god. In several of the "Twelve Steps" mention is                  Ultimately, A.A. puts the cause for deliverance
made of God and of "God, as understand Him." In                 from alcoholism, not in the sovereign, saving grace
"A Clergyman Asks About A.A." we read:                          of God, but in the power and efforts of the alcoholic
       Reliance upon a Higher  Power is, however, central       himself. Alcoholism is a terrible thing, but not so


476                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



terrible that man cannot save himself. Ultimately,           We mustn't be concerned only with his alcoholism,
the alcoholic is his own savior. On account of this          but with what lies behind his alcoholism.
very clear denial of man's total depravity and salva-            This doesn't mean that there is no place for a
tion by grace alone, we cannot recommend A.A.                treatment center for alcoholics. I believe that there
  Besides, in the fourth place, we are concerned             is such a place, even an important place. But I
about the fellowships and associations struck up             believe that their use should primarily be for what
through A.A. All different kinds of men and women            is technically called "detoxification," that is, for
attend the A.A. group sessions. Many are agnostics,          getting the alcoholic sober and free from his physi-
atheists, and humanists. Not only are they not Re-           cal dependency on the alcohol. He must be "dried
formed, but they are outright godless and unbeliev-          up," after all, before you can bring him God's
ing. Attendance at these meetings, we believe, en-           Word and before he's in a condition to receive in-
courages fellowship with unbelievers. These                  struction from God's Word. In my own mind, I've
meetings are for encouragement and for mutual                thought of it like this: Suppose a promiscuous forni-
support. How is this possible if the majority of an          cator, a whoremonger, comes to me for help. As a
A.A. group are not children of God? It is the                pastor and as a Christian, I'm called to help that
testimony of more than one of our ministers that at-         man. But the help that I give the man is spiritual
tendance at A.A. meetings, especially by young               help, instruction out of the Word of God concern-
men and women, was a means to wean these                     ing a holy life. But for this man's venereal disease, I
people away from the church, so that they even-              send him to the doctor. As a minister I can't treat
tually left the church. Because we are concerned             his venereal disease, and it's not even my calling.
with fellowship with unbelievers, we cannot                  For that aspect of the problem he needs a doctor.
recommend the use of A.A.                                    The same applies, I think, to alcoholism. This sin,
Our Approach to the Alcoholic                                too, has consequences in our physical life. For
                                                             those consequences the help of a treatment center
  We cannot use the approach of A.A., we feel. But           may legitimately be sought. But for what is the root
what, then, must be our approach? Will we                    of the problem, the sin problem, what is needed is
approach the alcoholic? Or will we abandon him?
We must approach him.                                        the Word of God. And since it is the church which
                                                             preaches and teaches the Word of God, the place
  Our basic approach must proceed from our insis-            where we must seek help for alcoholism is in the
tence that alcoholism is sin. Oh, this brings out the        church.
urgency of our need to reach out and help the alco-
holic. Don't you see: alcoholism is sin. That means             We must bring to the alcoholic the Word of God,
that the alcoholic is on the road to hell. He needs          the whole Word of God. First, we must bring to the
our help desperately! We MUST make an approach               alcoholic the Word of God concerning his sin. We
to the alcoholic! The officebearers must, the pastor         mustn't be afraid to confront him with his guilt. For
and the elders. So must the members of the congre-           God exactly uses the conviction of the guilt of our
gation. We're not always so ready to do that. We             sins to bring us to repentance. Secondly, we must
                                                             speak to him the Word of God concerning God's
hear about someone's alcoholism and our first re-
action is that we have contempt for the brother, we          grace in Jesus Christ for the repentant sinner. We
                                                             must speak to him of the blood of Jesus which is
put him at arm's length, and deliberately avoid him          able to cover any and all sin. And finally, we must
and his family. But this is wrong. Just ask yourself:        bring to him the Word of God concerning a thank-
Where would I be if the Lord took this kind of atti-         ful, holy life.
tude toward me on account of my sins? We must
approach the alcoholic.                                         In this way our approach will be an approach
                                                             that brings about reconciliation between the
  In our approach to the alcoholic, we must not
only recognize that alcoholism is itself sinful, but         alcoholic and God, as well as between the alcoholic
we must recognize that usually alcoholism is                 and the church. The church must receive the
caused by other sins. Usually other sins lead to the         repentant alcoholic with open arms. It's a shame, a
sin of alcoholism. The alcoholic is filled with fear,        dirty shame on us that the recovered alcoholic has
anxiety, is unable to cope with the responsibilities         to go to A.A. for fellowship and encouragement be-
                                                             cause he can't find it in the church. We must be the
and pressures of life. For some reason the alcoholic         kind of people who receive the repentant alcoholic
is unable or unwilling to face the realities of his life.    and who stand ready to assist him and encourage
He cannot handle life. And so he turns to alcohol,           him in his life-long struggle against this besetting
the bottle becomes his "enabler," his god. Basical-
ly, the sin lies behind his alcoholism in his refusal        Sill.
to trust in God. This deeper sin is especially the sin          Let it be emphasized that our approach to the
we must address in our approach to the alcoholic.            alcoholic must be a humble approach. We must


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            4 7 7



  never approach the alcoholic with a holier than           often are driven to despair because of the problems
  thou attitude. But we must approach him humbly.           and trials of life. What causes him to turn to al-
  That means that we must approach him in the con-          cohol, causes us to turn to other things. We know
  sciousness that we ourselves are sinners, the chief       his siti in our own experience. Because we do, we
  of sinners. His sin is not foreign to us. The apostle     approach the alcoholic humbly. We don't point the
  points this out to us in I Peter 4:3: "For the time       finger at him, but together with him we go to the
  past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the       cross and with him beseech forgiveness in the
  will of the Gentiles, when WE walked in lascivious-       blood of Christ. We may be confident that this ap-
  ness, lusts, excess of wine, kevellings, banquetings,     proach will be blessed by God. James puts it like
  and abominable idolatries." We are given to excess        this in James 5:19, 20: "Brethren, if any of you do
  of wine. This is our nature, too. And if you don't        err from the truth, and one convert him; let him
  know that about yourself, you don't know the de-          know, that he which converteth the sinner from'
  pravity of your nature. The alcoholic's sin is our        the error of his way shall save a soul from death,
  sin. We too are those who do not trust in God, who        and shall hide a multitude of sins."


                                         Book Reviews

  THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH, A Reformed                       and the church's study of that revelation under the
  Perspective on its Historical Development, by M.          guiding influence of the Spirit of Truth, by which
  Eugene Osterhaven; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing             study she learns and confesses the doctrine of
  Co., 1982; 248 pp., $11.95 (paper). (Reviewed by          Scripture on the other hand. Osterhaven blurs this
  Prof. H. Hanko)                                           distinction. He repeatedly speaks of the Scriptures
    The church of our Lord Jesus Christ lives in an         as the confession of the church in the same way in
  inseparable relation to the church of the past; and       which we confess the truth throughout the ages.
  this relation is especially characterized by her doc-     While Osterhaven would not, I think, deny that, at
  trinal unity with the church of past ages. For this       least in some sense, Scripture is the record of God's
  reason there is a great need for a book on the Re-        revelation, he suggests the higher liberal view of
  formed perspective of doctrinal development. It           Scripture, sometimes called, "Gemeinde TheoZogie"
  was therefore with eagerness that I picked up Os-         which makes Scripture nothing else than the
  terhaven's latest publication. And there is no doubt      church's confession of God. This is serious. He
  about it that the book provided many hours of en-         writes, for example:
  joyable and instructive reading. It is surely to be            The doctrine of the Trinity as such is not found in
  recommended to God's people who are interested               the New Testament. But the conviction which gave
  in the question of how doctrine developed in the             rise to that doctrine lies behind the New Testament in
  church over the ages. Especially his lengthy discus-         the experience of the people; and the New Testament
  sion of the Reformation (which takes up almost half          is the record of that experience, a record which en-
I the book) is scholarly and worthwhile.                       abled the early church in its struggles over the faith to
                                                               work out, state and embrace the doctrine of the Trini-
    Yet the book left me troubled. It took a bit to            ty just as the New Testament record presupposes the
  understand why, but there are, I think, especially           belief (p. 37).
  three reasons why the book is not really "a                 Secondly, although Osterhaven devotes nearly
  Reformed perspective."                                    half of the book to a study of the Reformation and
    The first error is a failure to distinguish clearly     discusses many doctrines of the Reformers, he does
  between the Scriptures and the  object  of the            not mention the truths of God's absolute sovereign-
  church's theological reflection and the source of her     ty, predestination, sovereign grace, and the doc-
  doctrine, and the development of doctrine itself.         trines which have become known as "Calvinism"
  Osterhaven repeatedly characterizes the Scriptures        as not only being taught by the Reformers but as
  themselves as being a part of the history of doctrine.    being an essential (if not the essential) aspect of
  While this is, in a certain sense, true-if one speaks     their teachings. Strangely he finds the chief contri-
  of the progressive nature of revelation-it neverthe-      bution of Calvin to the development of doctrine in
  less remains a fact that there is the sharpest of dis-    Calvin's teaching concerning "order and the Holy
  tinctions between Scripture as the infallible record      Spirit" (p. 163). What a strange and unhistorical
  of God's revelation to His church on the one hand,        treatment of Calvin. One can hardly say that this is


 478     '                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



then a "Reformed" perspective on the history of             more important concept than this one-the whole
doctrine.                                                   "system" of thought is based upon it. Yet one looks
   In connection with this, and in the face of much         in vain in this book for a clear and precise defini-
evidence to the contrary, Osterhaven denies that            tion of virhat Runner means by the Word of God.
Augustine taught double predestination (p. 79).               Perhaps the main thought of the whole book is
Polman in his book, "The Doctrine of Predestiha-            summed up by Runner himself when in his conclu-
tion in Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin" has clearly        sion to his first series of lectures he says:
shown that this is not true.                                         But when you have seen the nature of God's
  Finally, in the last three chapters, dealing with            THESIS and of the variety of human ANTITHESES
the Post-Reformation period, Osterhaven charac-                there can be no hesitation as to the course we must
terizes this age as an age of the development of "Ex-              pursue. No  synthesis;  not even in the form of the emas-
periential Christianity," and of the idea of the king-             culated message: Jesus saves. But a "seeing" from out
dom of heaven-which idea is taken mainly from                  of the religious Center of how the lines of reformation-
men who laid the foundation for the social gospel              al activity are to be drawn throughout the length and
(Pannenberg, e.g.); and finds the relevance of the             breadth of God's creation, to bring our subjective life
doctrine of the church today in that kind of social            integrally  into conformity with the Law of creation,
emphasis. This all can hardly be characterized as              the creation-ordinances. That is the Message of God's
Reformed, much less as a correct evaluation of the             Kingdom of  Righteousness!  (p. 110)
development of doctrine in the modern age.                   It is, undoubtedly, with a view to Runner's view
                                                           of the Word of God that in this quotation Runner
THE RELATION OF THE BIBLE TO LEARN-                        speaks of the "Law of creation" rather than the law
ING, by H, Evan Runner; Paideia Press, Jordan Sta-         of God and that he capitalizes the word "Law." The
tion, Ontario, 1982; 195 pp. (paper). (Reviewed by         Word of God in Dooyeweerdian thought is not only
Prof. H. Hanko)                                            the Scriptures, but is especially the creation Word
   In 1959 and 1960, Dr. Runner presented a series         or Creation Law; and this "Word" is the basis for
of lectures in Unionville, Ontario, sponsored by the       all Christian endeavor outside the church. Here is
Association for the Advancement of Christian               the fundamental flaw.
Scholarship, which operates the Institute for Chris-          It is for this reason also that, while the title of the
tian Studies. These lectures were printed in book          book speaks of the relation of the Bible to learning,
form and this book is the fifth revised edition. The       there is almost no discussion of this idea at all.
book has become the "Bible" of the entire A.A.C.S.         While certain Scriptural passages are mentioned
movement, which has had such great influence in            from time to time, the teachings of Scripture are
Canada, the United States, and even in some                never related to learning. The title of the book is de-
foreign countries.                                         ceptive.
  It is not necessary in this book review to criticize       Along with this, it is striking that there is almost
the A.A.C.S. movement; the interested reader can           no mention in the whole book of sin and its effect
find extensive criticism in various earlier articles in    upon man and upon the creation. One would
the Standard Bearer. But this book lays down the           almost think, from reading the book, that sin did
philosophical (the philosophy of Dooyeweerd and            not exist: that man is unaffected by sin and that the
Vollenhoven) foundation of the movement. The               creation is really not under the curse. But this too,
book is therefore necessary reading for all who            is understandable in the light of A.A.C.S. philoso-
wish to understand the. philosophy which under-            PhY.
girds the "Toronto School."                                  That does not mean that some of the emphases of
  I use the word, "understand" reluctantly,                Runner are not worthtihile. Runner repeatedly and
because this book is not easy to understand. This is       forcibly warns against the rampant humanism of
not due only to its philosophical emphasis, but also       our day, stresses correctly the power of the antithe-
the fact that key concepts of the book are never           sis in all intellectual endeavor and pleads for a truly
clearly defined. The criticism has been leveled            "reformational" starting point in all our work in
against the thinkers of the Toronto School by others       the kingdom of Christ. If only Runner had a truly
(also in. the Christian Reformed Church) that pre-         biblical conception of what the kingdom of Christ
cise definition of concepts is a great lack among          really is according to Scripture.... "My kingdom,"
these thinkers; this book bears out the legitimacy of      Jesus says, "is not of this world."
that criticism.
  While this is true of many different concepts in                        Take time to read
the book, it is strikingly true of the concept, "the                   The Standard Bearer
Word of God." I doubt whether there is any one


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER





                                     N~TI~EOFANNUALMEETING
                                                                  of the
              REFORMEDFREEPUBLIS~HINGASSOCIATION
                                                      to be held at the
           SOUTHWESTPROTESTANTREFORMEDCHURCH
                                     on September 22, at 8:OO P.M.
          Rev.  .C. Hanko will speak on the subject  - "CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH." Three
          Board members are to be chosen from the following nominations: Tom Bodbyl, Leonard
          Holstege, Charles Kalsbeek, Dave Kamps, Henry Kamps, Robert Pastoor.  ALL  members
          are urged to attend!


                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   On September 4, 1983, the Lord willing, MR. AND MRS. HENRY
VANDER VENNEN will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.                The Ladies Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church expres-
We, their children and grandchildren, give thanks to our Lord in          ses its Christian sympathy to Mrs. Maynard Veenstra, Mrs. Jacob
heaven for God-fearing parents, and the Christian instruction and         Kuiper, Mrs. Henry Velthouse and Mrs. Richard Bloem in the death of
guidance He has provided through them.                                    their mother, MRS. ISSAC KORHORN, at the age of 98 years.
   "Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established          "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints" (Psalm
the earth, and it abideth" (Psalm 119:90).                                116:15).
John and Linda Van Uffelen
     Dan, Lora and Geff                                                                               NOTICE!!!
Daryl and Sharon Kuiper                                                     The Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches
     Kristin and Katie                                                    announces its coming CONVOCATION to be held, the Lord willing, at
Cindy Vander Vennen                                                       Southwest Protestant Reformed Church, Wednesday, September 7,
Kathy Vander Vennen                                                       1983, at 8:00 P.M. Prof. Robert Decker will bring the convocation
                                                                          address. All our people are urged to attend. (Refreshments.)
                              NOTICE!!!                                                  CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF
  The telephone number of Mr. Seymour Beiboer, Secretary of the                            COVENANT EDUCATION
Catechism Book Distribution Committee, has been changed to (6 16)
247-6640.                                                                   You are invited to help celebrate 15 years of history at Covenant
                                                                          Christian High School on Saturday, October 8, 1983. The activities
                                                                          will begin in the early afternoon with games for the young people and
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    children. A light supper will be served followed by an early evening
                                                                          program. If you are interested in.participating in the Alumni Choir and
  The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Faith Protestant Reformed Church        Band numbers, call Mr. Vern Huber, (6161-669-9863 or the school,
expresses its sincere Christian sympathy to Gary and Marilyn Reit-        (6161-453-5048. Those not able to attend may get a copy of a com-
sma in the death of her father, MR. PETER REITSMA.                        memorative booklet being prepared, by contacting the school, 1401
  "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us    Ferndale  S.W., Grand Rapids, MI 49504. A special invitation is ex-
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (II Corinthians        tended to all our 580 alumni to use this happy occasion to fellowship
4:17).                                                                    together and to renew their friendship. Ours is a "-goodly heritage
                                                                          marked out with a gracious care."
                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

  On September 4, 1983, the Lord willing, our beloved parents, MR.
AND MRS. JACK VAN DYKE, will celebrate their 25th wedding anni-
versary. We, their children and grandchildren, are thankful to our
Heavenly Father for the years they have had together and for the              Know the standard
years we have had with them.
  "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon                      and follow it.
them that fear Him, and His riahteousness unto children's children"
                                -
(Psalm 103:7).
Sheri Van Dyke                                                            1 The Staizdard Bearer
Dave and Nancy Van Baren
     Melissa and Brenda
Julie Van Dyke
Jim Van Dyke

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


                                                  -._  -~~_                     ._  _  -.


480                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                         News From Our Churches
                                                  July 18, 1983

  The ministers of our congregations held a confer-            In regards to the group seeking organization in
ence at the Spring Valley Campgrounds near                 the Byron Center area, I have this information
Bloomingdale during the month of June. Professor           taken from Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
H. Hanko spoke on the subject, "Sanctification and         Church's bulletin of July 10, 1983: "The consistory
Our Nature."                                               at its last meeting decided, at the request of a
  There are a couple of decisions that Synod made          number of Hudsonville's families, to begin official
that were not detailed in the last issue. First Church     preaching services at Byron Center beginning
was instructed to proceed in calling a missionary to       Sunday, August 7. The meetings will be held in the
Jamaica and to send a retired minister or another          Byron Center Christian Jr. High School." If you
minister to assist him full-time or for from six to        know of any other people who have expressed
nine months out of the year. In addition, approval         interest in this endeavor, please encourage them to
was granted to the Committee of Contact to send as         attend these services. The Correspondence Com-
observers two of its members to the Synod of the           mittee is confident that a new Protestant Reformed
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America              Church will become a reality in this area.
in Beaver Falls, PA. the week of June 25. One of               Redlands Protestant Reformed Church has ex-
their members attended part of our  Synodical              tended a call to Rev. S. Houck to serve as home mis-
meeting as an observer. As a last remark, remem-           sionary in Ripon, California.
ber that next year's Synod is scheduled to meet in             Concerning the educational scene, I have these
Hull on June 1'31984.                                      two statements from Southwest's bulletin. "A
  Loveland Protestant Reformed Church has made             special society meeting of the Hope School Society
a change in their communion service. Their bulle-          will be held on July 25 at 8 p.m. Two proposals will
tin of July 3, 1983 reads in part, "This morning we        be considered at this meeting. These proposals are:
join one another at the table of our Lord Jesus            (1) to approve of roof repairs, and, (2) the method of
Christ. May the great Ring of the church feed us           final payment on the land contract in Hudsonville."
with this heavenly bread and wine. Beginning at            "The society for Protestant Reformed Special Edu-
this communion service, we will eat the bread and          cation is having a public meeting August 6 at Spring
drink the wine in unison (together at the same             Grove Park in Jamestown, at 4 p.m. There will be
time). The reason for this change is that it will help     guest speakers, activities for special children, and a
us express the unity which we have as  God's,              covered dish supper. We encourage members of
people both with our Lord and with one another as          the society and all friends to attend. For more de-
we eat and drink together. The bread and wine will         tails contact F. Haney at 457-4408." The Board for
be distributed and you are asked to hold it in your        Protestant Reformed Special Education says in
hand or if need be place the wine glass in the holder      their newsletter, "Being members of the covenant,
provided, until we are exhorted to take, eat and           handicapped children need God-centered
drink in remembrance of Him.. . ."                         education. With the Lords blessing, it will become
  South Holland's bulletin of June 19, 1983 had            a reality. We ask for your support, both prayerfully
this to say about another decision made by Synod:          and financially."
"South Holland's overture to include the Trinitari-            Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of
an creeds in our Psalter was adopted." The Trini-          Wyckoff, New Jersey carried this information in
tarian creeds are the Apostles' Creed, Nicene              their June 26th bulletin, "If anyone is interested in
Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The Nicene                receiving `The Reformed Witness' a two page
Creed settled the question of the nature of Christ,        Scripture study put out by our sister congregations
whereas the Athanasian Creed established the doc-          in Doon and Hull, Iowa, the address is Box lS.l,
trine of the Trinity. Both creeds spoke out against        Doon, Iowa, 51235."
Arianism.                                                                                                DH


