          The
     STANDARD
_,. BEARER
r         4 A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                \





       Today, popular "singers" as they
     are euphemistically called, and far
     too charitably,  - are an untalented,
     screaming mob not worth three min-
     utes of time to audition any one of
     them. They never sing anything
     holy; only mockeries, blasphemies,
     and filthiness.
                    See "God's HolinessII -page61



.                                         1 Volume LX, No. 3. November 1,1983 J


50                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER
                                 CONTENTS                                                                                ISSN 0362-4692
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      Holy Baptism Divinely Instituted. . . . . . . . . . . . i .50                  Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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 Editorial  -                                                                        D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
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      About Advertising and Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; .53                Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. James Slopse-
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MEDITATION  -

                      Holy Baptism Divinely Instituted
                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko


                    Ques. 69. How art thou admonished and assured by holy baptism that the one sacrifice of
                Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee?
                   Ans. Thus: that Christ appointed this external washing with water, adding thereto this
               promise, that I am as certainly washed by His blood and Spirit from all the pollution of my soul,
               that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the
               body is commonly washed away.
                   Ques. 70. What is it to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?
                   Ans. Xt is to receive of God the remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ's blood, which
               He shed for us by His sacrifice upon the cross; and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and
               sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die unto sin, and lead holy
               and unblamable lives.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       51



             Ques. 71. Where has Christ promised us, that He will as certainly wash us by His blood and
          Spirit, as we are washed with the water of baptism?
            Ans. In the institution of Baptism, which is thus expressed: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all
          nations, baptizing them in the name of the.Father,  and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," "he
          that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not; shall be damned." This
          promise is also repeated, where Scripture calls baptism the washing of regeneration, and the
          washing away  of sins.

  Holy Baptism is instituted by God for the                  ceived and born in sin, and therefore are children
strengthening of our faith in His promise. It is a           of wrath, in so much that we cannot enter into the
visible sign and seal of the promise of salvation            kingdom of God, except we are born again. This the
which Christ proclaims to us through the preaching           dipping in, or sprinkling with water teaches us,
of the Word. `Sitting in church on a Sunday morn-            whereby the impurity of our souls is signified"
ing, we hear the Form read by our pastor for the ad-         (Baptism Form).
ministration of baptism. Our thoughts are led back                Thus we are compelled to seek for our salvation
to God's promise to Abraham: "I will establish My            outside of ourselves. Salvation is solely and com-
covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after              pletely of the Lord! This is expressed most beauti-
thee in their generations for an everlasting cov-            fully in our Baptism Form by referring us to the fact
enant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after          that we are baptized into the name of the triune
thee" (Gen. 17:7).  We are reminded of the Old Test-         God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and thus
ament sign of this promise, the bloody sign of cir-          brought into the intimate life and covenant fellow-
cumcision. God appointed that every male child in            ship of God Himself. "The Father (Who is actually
Abraham's house, and later in Israel, had to be cir-         the triune God) establishes an eternal covenant of
cumcised. This pointed to the blood of atonement             grace with us, and adopts us as His children and
that was shed for the sins of God's people on the            heirs," as our Form for Holy Baptism expresses it.
cross. Therefore when the sacrifice for sin had been         This reminds us at once of God's, sovereign elec-
accomplished, sealed by the resurrection from the                                                              -.-.  -7  -
                                                             tion. For the promise comes to Abraham and  ms
dead, Christ instituted the sacrament of baptism to           seed. This seed, according to Galatians  3:16, is
replace circumcision. The apostles were sent out              Christ. God eternally establishes His covenant with
into all the world to preach the gospel and to bap-           His Son, appointing Him to be the Christ, our
tize those who believed, with the assurance that              Savior. This includes all the elect who are eternally
those who believe and are baptized are surely                 in Christ, as we read in verse 29 of Galatians 3,
saved. These apostles went out confidently preach-               "And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's
ing Christ crucified and risen, laying the sign of            seed, and heirs according to the promise." We were
baptism on those who believed and on their house-             in Christ when He came into our flesh, when He
holds. Through faith in Christ and His perfect sacri-         grovelled in the dust of Gethsemene, when He was
fice on the cross we assume our obligation to be              nailed to the cross and when He suffered torments
baptized and to baptize our children, at the same             of hell during the three hours of darkness, bearing
time counting it a privilege to carry the sign of             the wrath of God against our sins. We were so com-
God's covenant on our foreheads as long as we live,           pletely in Him as if we in our own bodies had
assured of the washing away of our sins through               brought that sacrifice for sin.
the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ.                              Our Baptism Form expresses that when it states,
  The very fact that we speak of the washing away                "And when we are baptized in the name of the Son
of our sins already suggests, to employ the language             (whereby we evidently must understand the Son as
of our Baptism Form, that we "loathe and humble               the Christ), the Son sealeth unto us, that He doth
ourselves before God."                                        wash us in His blood from all our sins, incorporat-
  Loathe ourselves. We do not readily do that. Our            ing us into the fellowship of His death and resurrec-
nature is inclined to esteem ourselves quite highly,          tion, so that we are freed from all our sins, and ac-
even better than others. Only when we realize the                counted righteous before God." Here again we are
"depravity of our souls," when we see how sin                 reminded of our union with Christ, being incorpor-
wrestles and fights within1 us, pollutes and corrupts            ated in the fellowship of His death and resurrec-
everything that we say and do, even such holy un-             tion. Particularly two important benefits of the
dertakings as our prayers, do we confess "0                   death of God's Son are mentioned: our justification
wretched man that I am." No external washing or                  and our sanctification. We are freed from the guilt
cleansing with the strongest soaps can remove our                of our sin and are accounted righteous before God,
guilty stain. For "we with our children are con-                 as if we never had had any sin. We are also assured


52                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



of the right to eternal life as sons and daughters in      do. I cannot, will not, serve you any more, but I'll
God's House. The second benefit is the washing             suppress you every time you assert yourselves."
away of our sins, the daily cleansing, as symbolized       This results in a putting on of the new man, a grow-
in the sprinkling with water. Just as we are exter-        ing in grace, which is also sometimes called a daily
nally washed with water, washing away the filthi-          conversion or growing in sanctification. We know
ness of the body, so we are certainly cleansed by          ourselves to be debtors to the Spirit (Rom. 8:12-14),
the blood and Spirit of Christ.                            to live after the Spirit. For it is the Spirit Who daily
      Our Catechism'mentions both, the blood and the       cleanses and sanctifies us, preparing us for the time
Spirit. Concerning-the benefit of the Spirit we read       when we shall appear without spot or blemish
in our Baptism Form, "In like manner, when we              among the assembly of the elect in life eternal.
are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost (where-           That still leaves the question, how about those
by we must certainly understand the Spirit of              who receive the outward sign of baptism without
Christ as He dwells in our hearts), the Holy Ghost         the assuring grace of the Spirit that applies all these
assures us, by this holy sacrament, that He will           benefits to our hearts? How can Christ declare over
dwell in us, and sanctify us to be members of              each of them through the sacrament, "I baptize
Christ, applying unto us, that which we have in            thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
Christ, namely, the washing away of our sins, and          of the Holy Spirit"? The answer to that is that bap-
the daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally     tism is a general sign of a particular promise. Just as
be presented without spot or wrinkle among the             the preaching of the Word is a general proclama-
assembly of the elect in life eternal." The Holy           tion of the particular promise, so also baptism is a
Spirit as Spirit of Christ in us bestows, first of all,    general sign of the particular promise of God. All
the washing of regeneration whereby we become              come under the preaching, all receive the sign
new creatures in Christ. This is most beautifully ex-      which they carry on their foreheads all their lives,
pressed in Romans  6:4: "Therefore we are buried           yet this promise is not sealed to their hearts by the
with Him. (Christ) by baptism into death; that like        indwelling Spirit of Christ. This was true even in  :
as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory         the old dispensation. We read in I Corinthians 10: l-
of the Father, even so we also should walk in new-         5 that "all our fathers were under the cloud, and all
ness of life." The figure is obvious. We are born in       passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto
trespasses and sins, strangers of the covenant of          Moses in the cloud and in the sea; . .  : But with
promise, in the midst of this present evil world. But      many of them God was not well pleased: for they
God draws us apart, separates us from the world by         were overthrown in the wilderness." There are
plunging us, as it were, into the death of Christ.         many who are instructed in the way that they
There we die unto sin, die unto the world. Baptism         should walk, and know it, but do not walk in that
is a picture of dying in Christ. But "by the glory of      way. They despise all that is holy, transgress God's
the Father," by the wonder of grace we are also            covenant, and thereby seal their own condemna-
raised again with Christ, raised from the dead with        tion.
the heavenly life of Christ in our hearts, as new            What a glorious privilege it is to belong to that
creatures in Christ. That places us in the covenant        people whose God is Jehovah, who hear the Word,
as members of the body of Christ, members of His           and by the power of the Spirit believe, embrace,
church.                                                    and rejoice in that Word. To them the sign of bap-
      The second benefit of the Spirit is that He will     tism is a seal of God's promise in their hearts, "I
continue to dwell in us, bestowing on us all that we       will be your GOD.1" Only eternity will unfold to us
have in Christ. In holy wonder the apostle Paul ex-        the riches of that promise. We now wear the uni-
claims in Ephesians  1:3, "Blessed be the God and          form of Jesus Christ, carry the ensign and banner of
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed          the truth of God's covenant, so that we know our-
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in      selves to be "admonished and obliged to a new
Christ." Our Advocate intercedes for us in the             obedience, namely, that we cleave to this one God,
heavens. In response to His prayers God bestows            Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that we trust in Him,
on Christ blessings from His  fumess. Christ, in           and love Him with all our hearts, with all our souls,
turn, bestows them upon us by His Spirit. More             with all our minds, and with all our strength; that
specifically, we can mention the blessings of "the         we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and
washing away of our sins and the daily renewal of          walk in a new and holy life," as our Baptism Form
our lives." Scripture speaks of the crucifying of the      expresses it.
old man. Crucifying the old man is a painful pro-            Thank God for instituting this holy sacrament for
cess that carries on all our lives. Our sinful inclina-    the strengthening of our faith! Yea, thank Him for
tions still try to govern our lives, and we are forced     that unspeakable gift, Christ Jesus, in Whom is all
to tell them, "you have no right to tell me what to        our salvation!


                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 53



EDITORIAL --


                         About Advertising and Fishing
                                                                       Prof. H.C. Hoeksema



                                                                                       For another, there would appear to be a pre-
                                                                                     sumption in the accompanying note that somehow
                                                                                     or other Reformed and Christian Reformed waters
                                                                                     are off limits for Protestant Reformed evangelism,
                                                                                     as well as that we have changed our mind about
                                                                                     evangelism, so that now we "are concerned to seek
                                                                                     the lost."
                                                                                       Now, in the first place, if The Banner was looking
                                                                                     for evidence of Protestant Reformed "fishing" in
                                                                                     Christian Reformed waters, it might have found
                                                                                     better evidence, I think. For during the past two
                                                                                     years a similar Canons Class has been conducted
                                                                                     right in the hallowed halls of the Calvin College
                                                                                     Fine Arts Center, and the class was advertised on
                                                                                     the Calvin campus. The college authorities  kindly
                                                                                     gave us the use of a fine classroom upon the request
                                                                                     of one of our students at the college. We appre-
      Hmmver,  as OUT  minister of evangelism notes in the accom&ying  article,      ciated this provision very much.
                   today Were are sigm  tkat tkey are concerned to seek tke lost.      In the second place, one wonders why this ad
Reproduced from  The  Banner,                                                        was considered fishing in Reformed and Christian
Oct. 3, 1983, p, 12.                                                                 Reformed waters. By the same token, I could con-
                                                                                     sider an advertisement by a Christian Reformed
  The reproduced advertisement and accompany-                                        church in the  Kentwood   Advance,  or even in the
ing note were inserted in an article by the Rev. Dirk                                Grand Rapids Press (as, for example, on the Satur-
J. Hart, minister of evangelism for the Christian Re-                                day "church" page) as fishing in Protestant Re-
formed Church;                                                                       formed waters. After all, there are plenty of Protes-
  Sometimes one hardly knows whether to laugh                                        tant Reformed people who read such Christian Re-
or to cry about things that are said about our                                       formed ads.
Protestant Reformed Churches and their activities.                                     Besides, in the third place, are Reformed and
The problem is created by the fact that there seems                                  Christian Reformed waters off limits for Protestant
to be something rather sillily desperate about an                                    Reformed evangelism? If so, by whose dictum? Let
insert of this kind. And what does one do in a case                                  me assure The Banner that our Protestant Reformed
like that  - laugh at the silliness, or cry about the                                Churches always have and still do consider it part
desperation?                                                                         of our mission calling (call it "evangelism" if you
  For one thing, someone connected with The                                          will) to call Christian Reformed people back to the
Banner must have made it his concern to save that                                    pure Reformed faith and away from the errors
Protestant Reformed ad, clipped from the  Kent-                                      which began in 1924 and which especially in recent
wood Advance, for a year.                                                            years have borne fruit in such gross errors as the
  For another, there is no reference in the ad to Re-                                denial of particular atonement and the denial of
formed and Christian Reformed church members;                                        predestination. Not by any means has our mission
but this is supposed to be evidence that "the                                        work been confined to Reformed and Christian Re-
Protestant Reformed churches still seemed to con-                                    formed people, but neither has it ignored and ex-
ceive of evangelism as a fishing expedition among                                    cluded them.
Reformed and Christian Reformed church mem-                                            In that connection, in the fourth place, The
bers" last year.                                                                     Banner must not leave the impression that there has


54                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



been a change in that regard and as though the                ly when we believe that they err seriously with
articles of Missionary Houck take a different posi-           respect to the Reformed truth and that their own
tion. The Rev. Houck may respond for himself, if              church is apparently no longer able and willing to
he so desires. But permit me to point out by means            instruct them in the Reformed faith? Is it not, be-
of a brief quotation that the Rev. Houck includes             sides, Biblical to go to the lost sheep of the house of
Reformed people in the scope of evangelism. He is             Israel? In that connection, I would also point out
writing (Volume 59, pp. 89, 90) about "Presenting             that in the light of recent decisions, trends, and
the Gospel to Strangers, " and he says the following:         writings in the Christian Reformed Church, some
"Sometimes the stranger is an unbeliever. Other               sound instruction in the Canons of Dordt`is not by
times he is a Christian, in need of further instruc-          any means the least need!
tion. He may even be someone who thinks that he is a          Postscript.  The article by the Rev. Hart contains
Reformed Christian. " (italics added)                         many errors about our Protestant Reformed
      In the fifth place,  Thti Banner  in the Rev. Hart's    Churches and evinces little acquaintance with our
article appears to be promoting "friendly evan-               mission or evangelism labors. I suggest that the
gelism." I ask: would it not be the height of  un-            Rev. Hart could profitably do a little more home-
friendliness  deliberately to exclude any Christian           work before he breaks into print about the PRC.
Reformed .members  from our evangelism, especial-

MY SHEEPHEAR MY VOICE -


                                 Our Order of Worship
                                                     Prof: H. Hanko


      By the order of worship we mean two things: 1)          ment was this: Israel must work six days in order to
Those elements which ought to be included in (or              enjoy a day of rest. That is, Israel could not receive
excluded from) the worship service; 2) In what                a day of rest until and unless she first labored for
order these elements ought to be arranged. Both of            six days. The seventh day came at the end of six
these we want to discuss in these articles.                   days and would be for the people a true rest only if
      But both these questions which arise in connec-         first they had worked faithfully for six days. I say
tion with the order of worship have to be answered            "faithfully," because not just work as such could
on the basis of a more fundamental question: What             bring them to a day of rest; it had to be faithful
is the nature of worship? What do the Scriptures              work which was performed in harmony with God's
call us to do when we are summoned to worship?                law and to His glory. If Israel worked in this way,
                                                              then they could also enjoy the true rest of the Sab-
      There are several ideas which we must consider          bath. But if they failed to work faithfully, then they
in this connection, although we do so briefly.                could not receive the Sabbath either.
      First of all, worship must be on the first day of          Their life in the land of Canaan was closely tied
the week.                                                     in with this idea of the law. Canaan was, after all,
      We do not want to enter into an argument here           the land of rest. And only by faithful labor in that
with Jews and Seventh Day Adventists. We shall                land, labor done according to the law of God and to
assume that the church, which celebrated the                  God's glory, could they also continue to enjoy the
Lord's Day from the beginning of the New Testa-               blessings of the land of rest.
ment, did so on the first day of the week.                      The difficulty was that they could not and did
      But this was not by choice. It was specifically         not do this. They corrupted and polluted the land
commanded by the Lord Himself. And in this com-               by introducing into it the idolatry and idolatrous
mand there lies one of the central ideas of worship.          practices of the heathen. And because they did not
      In the Old Testament, the law read: "Six days           labor in that land faithfully, famines and pesti-
shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the                 lences came upon the land, and the land was finally
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.. ..`I         taken away from them. That is why we read in II
It is clear from the exposition of the law given by           Chronicles  36:20, 21: "And them that had escaped
God Himself  th.at the, idea behind this  command-            from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where '


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               55



they were servants to him and his sons until the                question has importance; but "the hour  cometh,
reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfill the word             when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at
of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land            Jerusalem, worship the Father" (vs. 21). It is in this
had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay                context that Jesus speaks as He does about the most
desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and            basic principle of the worship of God.
ten years."                                                       There are several elements in this text which we
       This was true in all Israels life. It was spiritually    ought to notice.
impossible for the people to work six days faith-                 The word which is used here for "worship"
fully in order to enjoy the Sabbath. And the reason             means literally, "to bow the knee towards." There
is simply that Israel was, by nature, wicked. No                are other words in Scripture for worship, but this is
man can keep the law of God.                                    one of the key ones. It is, of course, a figurative
       So also in this respect, the law pointed ahead to        word which refers to the kneeling and bowing of a
Christ and was the schoolmaster to lead Israel to               subject before his king. This symbolic act is indica-
Christ  - to use Paul's expression in Galatians 3.              tive of the majesty and sovereignty of the king
Christ fulfilled the whole law for His people. He               which the subject acknowledges. It is an excellent
fulfilled it in such a way that the transgression of            word, therefore, to use for our worship of God. It
the law is `forgiven and the keeping of the law is              means that the character of our worship is such
earned for His people. Christ, because of His sacri-            that in worshiping Him we acknowledge and con-
fice and by the power of His Spirit, writes the law             fess His supreme and glorious majesty; that He
upon the hearts of His people so that they can keep             Jehovah is all-glorious, alone worthy of all praise
it.                                                             and adoration; that God is the supreme King, Lord
       This is beautifully expressed in the change of the.      of all, Who rules over all according to His good
Sabbath from the last day of the week to the first              pleasure; and that we confess this when we "wor-
day. It is no longer necessary for God's people to              ship."
work six days in order then only to enter into the                This, in turn, means two things. It means, first of
rest  - something forever impossible for them. But              all, that God alone determines how He ought to be
now Christ, by His cross and resurrection (on the               worshiped. And, secondly, it means that the most
first day of the week), gives them His rest which He            fundamental purpose of worship is to praise God.
earned for them at the very beginning of the week               This latter could bear a bit of emphasis. From a cer-
so that God's people can, by the power of this                  tain point of view, we have made worship  man-
graciously-given rest, work in their calling accord-            centered. We have done this by going to church
ing to Gods law and to His glory for the six days               and leaving church with the question in our
that follow. All their life to God's glory is rooted in         mouths: What benefit can I get out of going to
and is the fruit of grace.                                      church? We are concerned about ourselves and
       This means that the Lord's Day in which we wor-          what is of value to us. We even ask each other this
ship God is a day given to us by Christ in which He             question sometimes: Did you get anything out of
gives us the true rest of heaven by which we are                the sermon today? And elders sometimes set this
able to walk as His people in the world. The Lord's             question on the foreground when on family visita-
Day must be looked at from that point of view and               tion they ask: Are you blessed through the preach-
celebrated in that consciousness. Apart from this it            ing?
is impossible to keep Sabbath.                                    These questions may, of course, be asked. And
       In the second place, we have an important pas-           there ought to be spiritual blessing in the worship
sage in Scripture which defines the character of all            of God. But it is not the most important thing. The
true worship. I refer to Christ's words to the                  chief question is: Have we gone to church to praise
Samaritan woman: "God is a Spirit: and they that                and bless our God, Who alone is worthy of all
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in                   praise. Perhaps it is because we have become  so
truth" (John 4:24).                                             man-centered that worship services also become
       In His conversation with the Samaritan woman             man-centered. If we go to bless the Name of God,
the woman had turned the discussion to the proper               the blessing to us will come.
place to worship God: Mount Gerazim, where the                    Another striking feature of the word of Christ to
Samaritans worshiped God, or Mount Zion, where                  the Samaritan is the fact that Christ contrasts the
the Jews worshiped God. In answer to this question              worship of God in the Old Testament with that in
Jesus told her that the Jews were right: Jerusalem              the New. In the Old Testament, Israel had to go to
was the appointed place to worship God. Neverthe-               Jerusalem to worship. This was because the temple
less, Jesus told her, this will soon be an irrelevant           was there and it was only in the temple that God
question. While it is still the Old Testament, the              dwelt. To go to God one had to go to the temple.


56                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



There was no other place on earth.                            lations of the ancient church. Paul speaks in Colos-
  This temple was a picture of God dwelling in                sians of the fact that in Him dwells all the fulness of
covenant fellowship with His people - they dwelt              the Godhead bodily. But God's people also dwell in
under one roof. But it was a very poor form of cov-           Christ because they are the body of Christ, united
enant fellowship because the people could not                 to Him in the mystical union of faith. And so God
come very close to God. God was behind the veil               and God's people come together in Christ in closest
between the wings of the cherubim on the cover of             possible union. The doors and walls are broken
the ark. The people were in the outer court. And              down and God takes His wife into His own ever-
between God and His people was the veil, the altar            lasting arms in Jesus Christ.
of burnt offering, the stinking and burning carcass             But all that means that worship now is worship
of thousands of sheep and oxen, and the Aaronitic             in spirit and in truth - as Jesus expresses it.
priesthood. It was like a husband and wife living to-           The union of the elect with Christ by faith is
gether in one house, but on opposite sides of the             worked by the Spirit. And so we enter into the.
house in locked rooms, able to communicate to-                temple to worship God by the Spirit of Christ in our
gether only through servants who carry messages.              hearts.
All this was because the blood of atonement was
not yet shed.                                                   So we need not go to Mount Zion, to the old Jeru-
                                                              salem anymore. "Where two or three are gathered
  But Christ is the true temple. He is such because           together in My name," Jesus says, "there I will be
in Christ the perfect sacrifice for sin is made. And          in the midst of them."
through that sacrifice Christ becomes the temple of
the living God. God dwells in Christ because Christ             And so we must also worship God in "spirit and
is very God of very God - to use one of the formu-           in truth."

FEATUREARTICLE  -


                            Contending for the Faith
                                                    Rev. C. Hatiko


(Transcript of an address delivered at the annual             standard-bearer is "one who carries the standard of
meeting of the R.F.P.A., Sept. 22, 1983)                      a military unit." This standard, or banner, dis-
  The Standard Bearer, besides being a defender of            tinguishes that particular unit from the others, also
the truth, has always been a controversial paper.             from the enemy. For us this has meant opposing the
This is not strange, especially when we consider              heresies and errors that appear round about us, as
that it was born out of controversy. Although the             well as defending the truth that God has entrusted
Synod of 1924, which adopted the Three Points of              to us.
Common Grace, had decided that this entire matter               For this the  Standard Bearer  has often been
needed further study by the churches. The leaders,            severely criticized. We have been accused of think-
nevertheless, barred Rev. Herman Hoeksema and                 ing that we had a monopoly on the truth, or that
Rev. Henry Danhof from writing on this subject in             we considered ourselves the only true church in the
the church papers, the  Banner  and the  Wachter.             world. Even from our own circle objections have
Ironic as it may seem,the very persons who had                been raised that the paper is too doctrinal and fails
studied the subject of common grace most thor-                to discuss the problems of our times.
oughly were prevented  from proving their views                 The question arises whether we are wrong in
from the Scriptures before the members of the                 maintaining a controversial, doctrinal periodical.
Christian Reformed Church. It was exactly for that            Sound doctrine is at a premium, so that many in the
reason that the Reformed Free Publishing Associa-             churches are no longer interested in solid foods;
tion was formed and the Standard Bearer made its              many cannot understand a discussion of the Re-
appearance.                                                   formed truth and the five points of Calvinism. One
      Ever since that, from the very nature of the case,      sometimes wonders how many of our own people,
the Standard Bearer has been a controversial paper.           especially our young people, actually read the
This is even implied in the name that it bears. A             Standard Bearer. Entertainments, sports occupy the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  57



attention of many, so that no time is left for serious      the God of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Although
study or a diligent searching of the Scriptures. Does       this promise is ,proclaimed  to all who hear it, to all
this mean that we should give up our efforts?               to whom God directs the gospel, it is always a gen-
Should we give up our distinctiveness, surrender            eral proclamation of the particular promise. Only
ourselves to the compromising spirit of our times?          he who receives ears to hear can hear what the
That would certainly be contrary to our calling as          Spirit proclaims to the churches. It is the believer in
Protestant Reformed Churches, as well as contrary           Christ who by grace hears the Word,, embraces it,
to our calling as the church of Jesus Christ in the         cherishes it, and clings to it as the most precious
midst of this present evil world.                           truth, the revelation of the God of our salvation ad-
  Therefore I wish to speak to you from the Book            dressed to His people. It is this faith that lives in the
of Jude, the last part of verse 3, where we read: "It       hearts of the believers.
is needful for me to write you, and exhort you that           It is the faith that was once delivered unto the
ye should earnestly contend for the faith that was          saints. Jude had in mind particularly the Old Testa-
once delivered unto the fathers."                           ment in which the promise was revealed. We have
I. The Faith.                                               along with those Scriptures also the New Testa-
                                                            ment in which the promises are realized. For us the
  It may be well to mention that Jude, who wrote            faith delivered unto the saints includes the entire
this epistle, was likely a brother of Jesus. He simply      Scriptures. It is the truth that lived in the hearts of
refers to himself, not as an apostle, but as a brother      those who were sanctified in Christ, saints in Him.
of James. This James must have been well known              It is the truth as it has been preserved in our Con-
to the churches and was likely an elder in Jeru-            fessions. So many in our day speak disparagingly of
salem. Jude's letter is in many ways very similar to        the Confessions. They consider them outdated, fit
parts of the Second Epistle of Peter, so similar that       only for the people of that time, but no good any
some statements are almost alike. The reason for            more for our age of flux and change. Yet these Con-
this seems to be that, while Peter warned the               fessions are the expression of the truth of Scripture
churches of evils that would arise in the churches,         as it lives in the hearts of God's saints throughout
Jude points out that these evils were already evi-          the ages. They are timeless, even as Scripture is
dent. Therefore he found it needful to warn the             timeless.
churches and to spur them on to contend for the
faith once delivered to the fathers. If ever such a           On the basis of these Confessions our churches
warning and admonition is timely, it certainly is in        are privileged to maintain specifically three aspects
our day.                                                    of the truth over against the errors of our day. I
                                                            have in mind the truth of God's sovereign grace,
  The faith that is meant here, for which we must           the truth of the antithesis, and, last, but certainly
contend is not the subjective faith as believing, but       not least, the truth of God's covenant as the rela-
the objective truth of the Scriptures. We often             tionship of friendship between God and His people
speak of faith in that way. We speak of the Chris-          in Christ.
tian faith, or the Protestant faith, or of the faith of
our fathers that still lives on. It is the truth of the       II. Contending for the Faith.
Scriptures, the revelation of the God of our salva-           Contending is no popular concept in our present-
tion in Jesus Christ. It is the truth as it lives in the    day church world. There is an almost universal
hearts of the true believers, as these have main-           clamor for peace at any cost. The entire trend is
tained and defended it, even at the cost of their           toward ecumenicity. Various denominations seek
lives, throughout the ages.                                 to unite, regardless of doctrinal differences. One
  In Lord's Day 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism the           tends to ask, Why not, since there is very little
question is asked: "What is necessary for the Chris-        defence of the truth among them anyway? Even
tian to believe?" That refers, of course, to the con-       the Lutherans are putting forth efforts to take away
tent of our faith. The answer is given: "All that God       the breach that has separated them from the
has promised to us in His Word, and is summed up            Roman Catholics ever since Luther's strong stand
in our Apostolic Creed." Well may we stress a               against the Catholics in the days of the Reforma-
moment: All that God has  promised  in His Word.            tion. We can plainly see the false church preparing
That emphasis on the promise is important. God's            to unite with the beast of Revelation 13. All this is
Word is His promise, and that promise comes to the          done under the excuse that Christ pleads in the
heirs of salvation in Christ. That is what makes that       sacerdotal prayer that they may all be one.
Word very distinctive. It is not a general message, a         Considering also the growing laxity and spiritual
source of information for all mankind. From Gen-            complacency, along with the growing ignorance
esis to Revelation it is directed to God's people, pro-     concerning the truth of God's Word we can see that
claiming to them the sure, indubitable promise of           Gods people perish because of lack of knowledge.


58                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



All of this is the more reason for us to contend for        seems, that a good apple in a peck of rotten ones
the faith once delivered to the saints. The church is       will improve the bad ones. True, sound doctrine is
a militant church, the members are soldiers, who            also practical. It is the truth that makes us free. It is
are called to fight the battle of faith against all the     the solid food of the Scriptures whereby we grow
forces that attack the City of God. The believer            spiritually unto perfection.
must put on the whole armor of God to be able to            III. The Necessity.
stand in this evil day.                                       Jude writes, "It is needful to write and to exhort
      The word that Jude uses for "contending" means        you!" His Word is preserved in the Scriptures, be-
literally "to wrestle." This makes our contending           cause it applies today as well as then.
very personal. It involves each and every one of us.
No one can take the attitude that this is the respon-         The enemy against whom Jude warns is no dif-
sibility of the leaders of the congregation, or that he     ferent now from the enemy of his day. Jude could
or she is not capable of or inclined to fight. It in-       very well have written this in 1983.
volves every one.                                             He speaks, first, of the evil of turning the grace of
      Moreover, this personal involvement requires          God into lasciviousness. Churches have become
putting forth every effort and all our strength. In a       social centers. Many have their gymnasiums,
wrestling match strength is pitted against strength,        which are more often used, and by larger numbers,
skill against skill. It requires complete concentra-        than the church sanctuary. They have their  pot-
tion, our very best efforts. Since this is a spiritual      lucks, and other social events, often on Sunday.
contending we must rely on our God in prayer and            These are expected to keep up the zeal and interest
supplication.                                               in the church. In many churches the second service
                                                            on Sunday is not even held, and in many other
      Finally, in this wrestling match our own salva-       churches poorly attended. The argument is raised,
tion is at stake. True, we are fighting to maintain         where do we read in Scripture that we must have
the truth that has been passed on to us from former         two Sunday worship services. But where is the true
generations, but it still remains a fact that this truth    hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life, where the
is of personal importance for each of us. We must           longing to be in God's courts in the communion of
fight the good fight, we must be faithful even unto         saints, of which David speaks in Psalm 42 and in
death, in order to receive the crown. With the              Psalm 84?
apostle Paul we must be able to say at the end of
our lives, "I have fought a good fight, I have  fm-           Jude also speaks of denying the true Lord God
ished my course, I have kept the faith" (II Tim.            and Jesus Christ. That is certainly true when in the
4:7).                                                       Name of God topical preaching takes the place of
                                                            exposition of the Scriptures. Often a text is used,
      This must be a contending for the faith. The devil    yet not even interpreted, since the minister is not
is cunning in his attack on the Scriptures. There are       interested in declaring what God says, but what
many today who speak the language of the Scrip-             man says. Surely a God who is desirous, even
tures, even use the same terms that Scripture uses,         eager, to save all men, but cannot without their co-
but attach an entirely different meaning to them.           operation, is not the sovereign God of the Scrip-
Infallibility does not always mean verbal inspira-          tures. A Jesus who pleads and begs, who offers His
tion. There are those who speak of the Word of God          wares, but is unable to save unless we are willing,
"in the Scriptures," rather than the Scriptures             is not the Jesus who is the only, complete Savior,
being the Word of God. Some speak .of God's king-           according to the Scriptures.
dom, but they are looking for the kingdom to be
established here on earth. The Arminian likes to              It is needful that the Word of God remind us of
speak of salvation by grace, but still refers to a sal-     our calling to resist the evil one, to fight the good
vation that is dependent upon man. Faith and re-            fight, and to witness of the Name of our God with
generation from the lips of some have an entirely           divinely inspired zeal and confidence. So readily
different connotation than they have in the Word of         we take the attitude of Israel of old, "The people of
God. Far too often the glory of man is sought rather        the Lord are we." We are baptized, we attend the
than the glory of God.                                      public worship, we send our children to a Christian
                                                            school, and thereby we rest content of having done
      This contending for the faith is also often absent    our duty. In the meantime the church suffers be-
when people speak of "practical" preaching in dis-          cause of lack of knowledge. Those who profess to
tinction from "doctrinal" preaching.* Many today            be Christians are not able to resist the onslaughts of
seek a social gospel, world improvement, a better           evil round about us.
life without conversion and faith. The antithesis be-
tween church and world is no longer maintained,               The question is, what are we going to do about it?
but the church joins with the world, expecting, it          Shall we just sit back and let the leaders of the


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 59



church defend the truth? Shall we support this de-        grow strong in the power of God's might to resist all
fence by making use of the Standard Bearer, or shall      evil? Shall we make the contending for the faith our
we leave it unread? Shall we take the attitude, the       personal struggle, our personal calling? Then we
church doesn't need me, or shall we put forth every       need zeal, determination, born out of prayer, devo-
effort on our part to defend the truth according to       tion, and consecration to our God. May He grant it
our calling? Shall we allow ourselves to become           to us!
spiritually undernourished, or shall we seek to
TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE -


                         Our Calling and Election (1)
                                               Rev. H. Veldman


  The doctrine of election, it is claimed by those        knowledge, but a conscious, personal, and spiritual
who despise and reject this truth, makes men care-        knowledge of living fellowship, personally to grow
less, indifferent, and profane. This, of course, does     in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His
not and should not surprise us. This charge against       all-comprehensive, far-reaching, blessed signifi-
the truth of divine sovereign predestination is not       cance for God's people, to increase spiritually, not
new. The enemies of the truth have always op-             being unfruitful, but fruitful, growing spiritually
posed this doctrine. This charge has also been            in the personal knowledge of that Christ. And,
leveled against the truth of justification solely by      as is plain, this is practically the same as what
grace. In our Heidelberg Catechism, in Lord's Day         we read in verse 10, in connection with the making
24, Question 64, speaking of our righteousness be-        sure of our election, with this distinction, that Peter
fore God, as solely by grace, reads: "But doth not        in verse 10 directs our attention to this growth in
this doctrine make men careless and profane?" And         the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as further
the answer reads: "By no means: for it is impossible      assuring us of our election.
that those who are implanted into Christ by a true           However, between this tenth verse and the ad-
faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankful-         monitions as recorded in the verses 5-8, lies one
ness." It is not difficult to understand the rationale    link which receives all the emphasis here. Peter ad-
behind this accusation. If we are elect, sovereignly,     monishes the church of God of all ages: "Where-
not because of our works, then, it is claimed, it         fore the rather...  ." This receives here all the
makes no difference how we walk. Of course, this          emphasis. We must always give diligence to make
reasoning is utterly fallacious. An elect must walk       sure our calling and election; but verse 9 gives us a
in good works. And this is true because, although         reason why this must occur. The "rather" give dili-
we have not been elected because of good works,           gence, exert yourselves, in ever increasing
we have been elected  unto  good works. Election          measure, much more than if this were not the case!
and good works are, therefore, inseparable. It is         Why? Fact is, according to verse 9, he that lacketh
this truth which is also clearly emphasized in the        these things is blind, cannot see afar off, and hath
Word of God, recorded in II Peter 1:lO: "Wherefore        forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your         Having been purged from his old sins, but failing to
calling and election sure: for if ye do these things,     put forth all diligence to walk in sanctification, he
ye shall never fall."                                     will forget it, fail to walk consciously in his glorious
  The context of this Scripture is clear. "These          deliverance out of his sin and darkness, walk
things" refer to what we read in the verses 5-7. In       stumblingly in the midst of the world. Indeed,
these verses we are admonished to give all dili-          make your calling and election sure. Does the doc-
gence to add to our faith virtue, and to virtue           trine of election make men careless and profane?
knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temper-            Does this charge, often made by those who hate the
ance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness        truth of God's sovereign predestination (election
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness char-       and reprobation), have any ground whatever? How
ity, or love. Upon these things follows the fruitful-     this charge is refuted here by the apostle Peter! I be-
ness of verse 8 in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.       lieve it is pertinent to call attention to this particu-
This knowledge is not merely an intellectual, head        lar Word of God in two or three articles;


60                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



      We believe that the apostle Peter, in II Peter 1: 10,    that the Lord has elected us and called us? Is not
refers to God's eternal decree of election. It is true         this calling the almighty, efficacious, irresistible
that there are those who dispute this and who                  work of God, calling us out of darkness into His
`believe that the Word of God here refers to an elec-          marvelous light? And we must establish that, make
tion in time. The word election means literally: to            it sure? Besides, is not election an eternal decree of
choose out of, gather from among. According to this            the alone living God? And we must establish that?
interpretation, this word, then, does not refer to the         0, yes, the Arminians at the time of the Synod of
Lord's eternal decree (although it must be added               Dordt, 1618 to 1619, believed in an election upon
that they also believe in God's eternal decree of              foreseen works. According to them, man does
predestination. and have no intention of denying               establish, make sure his election. This, however,
this truth), but to that act of God in time whereby            we know is not Scriptural. According to the apostle
He gathers His people, thereby chooses them out of             Paul, in Ephesians  1:4, we have been chosen in
the world, causing His people, the children of Zion,           Him before the foundation of the world, not be-
to stand apart in the midst of the world. They base            cause we were holy (as the Arminians believed),
their interpretation upon the word calling and its             but that we should be holy. The apostle Peter is
position in this text. This calling, they say (and in          speaking here of making our calling and election
this they are certainly correct) is not to be viewed           sure  for ourselves,  in our consciousness. This ex-
merely as God's command unto repentance                        plains why the word calling precedes the word
through the preaching of the gospel, but as the ef-            election here. Whereas the calling follows from
ficacious, particular, saving calling of God. Hence,           God's election, inasmuch as He calls those whom
whereas we read: calling and election, and whereas             He has chosen, therefore we must know our calling
this election, therefore, follows upon this calling,           if we are to know our election; and because our
therefore this election must be understood as fol-             knowledge of our election is possible only through
lowing upon this calling, and this  .must refer to             our knowledge of our calling, therefore the word
God's actual selection of His people in time, gather-          calling appears here as preceding the word election.
ing them from among the peoples of the world. It               We therefore believe that Peter here is speaking of
needs no elucidation, I am sure, to show that this             our eternal election. But then it must also be plain
interpretation, in itself, is not necessarily wrong.           that calling and election are not coordinate here, as
      However, it is our conviction that this is not the       having the same significance. Our election is surely
correct interpretation of this Word of God. First of           the central thought here, and our calling must be
all, it is surely Scriptural that God's eternal election       viewed as a means  - we must make our calling
and the efficacious calling unto salvation are in-             sure, for ourselves, in order that we may make
separably connected. In Romans  8:28 we read of                sure, for ourselves, our election. We must stand
those who are the called according to His purpose.             consciously in our election, in our sovereign elec-
And in verses 29-30 of the same chapter we read:               tion of God. Let no man lead us astray from Scrip-
"For whom He did foreknow, He also did pre-                    ture's glorious doctrine of divine sovereign elec-
destinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,             tion.
that He might be the firstborn among many                        What is the doctrine of election? The word elec-
brethren. Moreoever whom He did predestinate,                  tion, as far as the word itself is concerned, is  in-
them He also called...." That we read here, there-             fralapsarian. The supralapsarian has the following
fore, of calling and election need not surprise us.            order: election, fall, creation. The infralapsarian
They surely belong together. That God's decree of              has this order: creation, permitting of the fall, elec-
election is meant here is also plain, we believe,              tion. We must bear in mind that we must  under-
from the text itself. It is said that because this call-       stand.this order as occurring within the counsel of
ing is mentioned first, and precedes election in the           God. According to the infralapsarian God has
text, we must therefore conceive of an election here           elected out of a fallen human race (reprobation is
that follows upon this calling. And, yet, this does            then presented as God's sovereign decree to leave
not necessarily follow, and it is not the idea of this         the sinner in his sin); according to the supralapsar-
Word of God. Peter is not speaking here of calling             ian Gods decree of election precedes the fall, and
and election as such, but that we must make them               the fall of man must serve the Lord's decree of pre-
sure. And what the apostle is actually saying is that          destination. Now it must certainly be conceded that
we must make them sure for ourselves. The apostle              the word election gives the preference to the  in-
is speaking here of our knowledge, our sureness,               fralapsarian view. Fact is, the word means literally:
our conscious assurance. He is not speaking of                 to choose out of. If, then, we bear in mind that the
making them sure as such. How, incidentally,                   whole human race is fallen, and that the Lord has
would that be possible? Shall we establish our                 elected, chosen out from among the children of
calling, our election? Shall we confirm make sure              men, then we can understand that the word  elec-


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   61



tion itself, is infralapsarian - God chose out of the          infralapsarian may contend that God has elected
human race, the human race as fallen.                          and reprobated out of a fallen human race, but the
   Against this view of the infralapsarian one can             question will persist: from whence this fallen
surely lodge very serious objections. And we do not            human race? It is surely Scriptural that the Lord,
hesitate to say that the infralapsarian will concede           also in His counsel, created the wicked for the day
this, and that Supralapsarianism was therefore                 of evil, and God's reprobation is not merely a per-
never condemned. The infralapsarian has no ex-                 mitting of sin and then a divine refusal to deliver
planation for the reality of sin. Of course, we al-            out of sin, but it is surely as positive as is the divine
ways, when speaking of God's sovereignty and sin,              decree of election. The Lord is sovereign. The Lord
are dealing with truths that transcend all human               alone is God. The Lord has sovereignly willed to
understanding. Nevertheless, the infralapsarian                glorify Himself. This God has willed centrally in
makes no attempt to come to any solution. He has               Christ Jesus. To reveal this glory the Lord has sov-
no explanation for sin, makes no effort to solve the           ereignly chosen a people and He willed to save
problem, simply begins with the reality of sin. We             them in the way of sin and grace. However, to
understand that he would avoid making God the                  reveal this glory, antithetically, the Lord willed,
Author of sin (the supralapsarian too, however,                sovereignly, the reprobate who must serve the
would avoid making God the Author of sin), and                 elect, so that the world exists for the sake of the
therefore he proceeds, in God's counsel, from the              children of God. Hence, God's Election of His
fact of sin. This, however, solves nothing. The Lord           people is that sovereign decree of the Lord, where-
God is surely sovereign, also over sin and evil - sin          by He willed a people who will serve Him in
is not an accident. God must remain God, also as               heavenly glory. This, we repeat, is God's sovereign
far as sin and the reprobate are concerned. The                decree.

GUESTARTICLE -


                                          God's Holiness
                                                  Rev. Robt. C. Harbach


   "Sing unto the Lord, 0 ye saints of His, and give           not hear!" (Amos 5:21-23). But the true church is a
thanks at the remembrance of  His  hoZiness"  (Ps.             congregation of "appointed singers unto the Lord
30:4).                                                         who should praise the beauty of holiness" (II
   Today, popular "singers," as they are euphemis-             Chron. 20:21), and "it is a good sign that we are in
tically called, and far too charitably, are an untal-          some measure partakers of His holiness, if we can
ented, screaming mob not worth three minutes of                heartily rejoice and give thanks at the remem-
time to audition any one of them. They never sing              brance of it" (M. Henry).
anything holy; only mockeries, blasphemies, and                  What is meant by  holiness?  The Funk and
filthiness. God's Word, here, commands men, not                Wagnalls Dictionary defines it as, "completeness of
the reprobate, but sanctified persons, saints, to sing         moral and spiritual purity, perfection and integrity;
in praise of God's holiness. Only saints are fit to            absolute moral purity; perfect sanctity: said of God.
sing the Psalms of holiness. Those who do not sing             `Holiness in the Creator is the total perfection of an
the Psalms, but other songs, necessarily those of              infinitely righteous intelligence.  HoZiness in  the
much lesser quality, cannot know to any depth                  creature is not mere moral perfection, but perfec-
what this text means. We are to sing and give                  tion of the created nature of moral agents  inspiri-
thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Holi-               tual union and fellowship with the infinite Crea-
ness is not the theme of the modern hit-parade of              tor.' - Hodge, Outlines of Theology. Transcendental-
song. This is not because worldly people are ignor-            ly august and venerable majesty; moral and spir-
ant of this virtue entirely, but because they despise          itual glory: said of God; `glorious  in holiness' (Ex.
it and are terrified at the contemplation of it. Of            15: 11).  `Holiness  in God cannot be  defined.in the
their worship (still to Baa1 and Ashtaroth) and song,          same terms in which hoZiness  in man or angel is de-
the Lord says, "I hate, I despise . . . I will not smell       fined, namely, as conformity to the moral law.'
. . . . I will not accept . . . neither will I regard . . .    Shedd,  Dogmatic Theology,  I, 362, 1889."
Take away from Me the noise of thy songs, for I will             In the Reformed Dogmatics of L. Berkhof  holi-


62                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



ness is said to come from a root meaning to separate.        Man has fallen so far from God that he cannot
It points to separation from sin. "In its original         imagine the meaning of the prayer, Hallowed be
sense" it "denotes that He is absolutely distinct          Thy name. For he continually dishonors the name
from all His creatures, and is exalted above them in       of God. View man over against Gods holiness and
infinite majesty. So understood the holiness of God        you see a person created in the divine image degen-
is one of His transcendental attributes, and is some-      erated into the image of the devil. The devil himself
times spoken of as His central and supreme attri-          is not more fallen from likeness to God than we are.
bute . . . if we may speak of one attribute of God as      That we are not fallen into the same pit with
being more central and fundamental than another,           apostate spirits is because our faithful Savior inter-
then the Scriptural emphasis on the holiness of God        vened and we fell on Him crucified for our sins.
would seem to justify the selection."                      Man lost the glory of his nature, namely, re-
       With the  Reformed Dogmatics  of H. Hoeksema, p.    semblance to God's holiness, and so lost the only
100, "we conclude that the holiness of God is that         means of glorifying God as Creator and of sanctify-
wonder of the divine nature according to which             ing Him in his heart as Redeemer.
God is absolute, infinite, eternal and ultimate              Holiness is a glorious perfection of Gods nature.
ethical perfection, Himself being the standard,            Hence, Scripture often styles Him the Holy One,
motive and purpose of all the activity of His per-         the Holy One of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel, and
sonal nature, so that He is eternally consecrated to       more often entitles Him HoZy than AZmighty. God is
Himself alone as the only Good."                           more set forth by this part of His dignity than by
                                                           any other. It is more affixed to His narne than any
       The wicked world diverts its mind from its          other. "You never find . . . `His mighty name,' or
miseries with raving gutter-songs, so expressing           `His wise name,' but His great name, and most of
their hatred for a holy God. Their god is an idol.         all, His holy name. This is His greatest title of
They have a god who is love and nothing but love.          honor" (Charnock). Sin is committed not against
`Like a woman who makes her own dress pattern,             "Almighty God," but against "the Holy One of
their god is patterned after their own designs. Take       Israel." Holiness "is the glory of the Godhead and
the gods of Greek mythology. They are the very op-         the glory of every attribute in the Godhead. His
posite of the perfect purity of the true God. None         power is the strength of His attributes and holiness
were known for the virtue of holiness. Purity was          is the beauty of them. His justice is a holy justice;
something deemed unworthy of the consideration             His wisdom a holy wisdom; His arm of power a
of a deity. But these idols of men succeed not in          holy arm (Ps.  98:l); His promise a holy promise
obliterating from their minds what conscience tells        (105:42)  . . . His name is holy (103: 1)" (Charnock).
them, that the God of gods is pure and holy. So they
say in their hearts, There is no God! - so claiming          Then what, in effect, is an affront to this doctrine
to be absolute atheists, owning no god at all. The         of God's holiness is the human invention of "com-
holy God Who hates sin is not the god of abortion-         mon grace. " This philosophy is an insult to the very
murderers (and murderesses), of homosexual and             nature of God, especially in the property of His
lesbian deviates, nor of feminists. These all hate the     holiness, since that virtue is the glory of every per-
God of Scripture, the church, Christians, and God's        fection of His being. God in His holy nature has an
holy commandments, the only standard of holiness           infinite and transcendent separation from the crea-
for doctrine and life. The God Who "is angry with          ture, but especially from the fallen creature, while
the wicked every day" (Ps. 7: ll), and Who "hates          at the same tirne He enjoys an exclusive separation
all workers of iniquity" (55) they refuse to believe       (dedication) unto Himself. His own absolute (in-
and gnash their teeth at Him. Their incessant, care-       communicable) holiness is the innate property of
less, profane, and censurable use of "hell" and            His being and the rule of all His actions, but "com-
"damn" reveals their utter contempt for the doc-           mon grace" makes God by nature common. It
trine of the everlasting punishment of impenitent          makes Him something other than God. It blunts
sinners in the Lake of Fire. God's detestation for         and blurs the sharp, clear, beautiful facets of His
the vile inhabitants of Sodom was such that He             holiness we see in His transcendental separateness,
destroyed not only those male sons of Belial, but          inaccessibility (I Tim. 6:  16), and inapproachabiity.
also the females and infants there (the latter at that     Also one of the root meanings of the Hebrew word
life-stage certainly incapable of Sodom's brand of         for holiness means "to shine" from which we get
wickedness), their cattle, homes, and all their pos-       the adjective "new." God's glory (holiness) always
sessions with fire from heaven. So that the place          has a new shine, a blazing splendor. So there can-
where their civic and social center once stood as          not possibly be  anythmg common about God's
 "the garden of the Lord" is today a desert salt-flat      grace (or any of His virtues). Still, "common grace"
and poisonous lake which kills all life flowing into       would, in effect, put God not in separation from
it.                                                        but in connection with the wicked world, so that


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 6 3



those who are in God then have a nice bridge over                God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Ps.
into the kingdom of this world and all it affords, its           22: 1). But on utterance of  that. infinite grief He
mad pleasures and ungodly, unbiblical science.                   answered His own question, "But Thou art holy"
"Common grace" is the very opposite of and                       (v. 3). God's holiness was the cause of Christ's
obliterative of sanctification and holiness of life  -           hellish agonies. The Cross reveals in inexorable
of both God's and the life of the saints. "Common               justice that all who commit sin are worthy of death.
grace" also stands in opposition to God's holy law,              So the Cross is gloriously illumined with the
which is a transcript of His nature, and therefore of            eternally new shine oiperfect  purity.
His inmmtable detestation of sin.                                  "Sing praises to God! Sing praises!  Sing praises
  Holiness is revealed in all its beauty and glory in            unto our King! Sing praises!" (Ps.  4T6). Why? Be-
the Cross of Christ. God's wrath against sin is                  cause "God reigneth over the heathen," sitting
demonstrated there far more than in the seven                    "upon the throne of His holiness" (v.  8), and be-
bowls of wrath poured out in judgment on the                     cause this will outfit us, armed against sin and
wicked world, or in the judgments on the fallen                  temptation. The heathen with their vile songs and
angels reserved in chains of darkness, or in the pre-            loose morals are in praise of idol-gods like to them-
sent and future torments of the damned. Could                    selves, full of lusts and adulteries. Even Plato
infinite holiness appear elsewhere lovelier than in              would have the wicked songs of his day eradicated
the vicarious sufferings of the Cross? On the Cross              from the state because they incited wickedness and
God turned His back on His Son (thus casting our                 riot in the people. Singing holy songs, those of
sins behind His back into the land of God's forget-              Scripture, we show that we entirely hate sin, with
fulness!), which caused Him to cry out of the                    not a speck of love for it. So may we consecrate our-
impenetrable, dark depths of divine desertion, "My               selves to the Holy One as the only good.

GUIDED INTO ALL THE TRUTH -


                            The Heritage of the Truth
                                                     Rev. Thomas Miersma


  With the penning of the last book of Holy Scrip-               That promise He had fulfilled. He had declared
tures, the written record of the revelation of God               unto them in John  14:26, "But the Comforter,
was finished. The work of the Spirit of Christ by                which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will
which "Holy men of God spake as they were                        send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and
moved by the Holy Ghost" was brought to a close.                 bring to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
God had given His church a complete and infallible               unto you." By the power of the Spirit poured out
Word to be the rule of faith and life. The Scriptures            upon the church, Christ had directed the writing of
in all their beauty and power, as the revelation of              the gospels, the letters and epistles of the apostles
God in Jesus Christ were given unto the church as                and had revealed unto the apostle John "things
her most precious heritage.                                      which must shortly come to pass."
  Our Lord in the Upper Room had promised His                      That Word of Christ, given by the Spirit of Christ
disciples that He would send unto them the Com-                  unto the prophets in the old dispensation and unto
forter, the Spirit of Truth, Who would reveal unto
them all things concerning Christ, and the wonder                the apostles in the new, forms one complete revela-
                                                                 tion of the living God in the face of Jesus Christ. It
of God's grace and salvation in Him. In John 16:13-              is the church's richest treasure, the Word of God,
15 we read,                                                      her heritage of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. It is
   Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will        an inexhaustible treasure of the gospel of our salva-
   guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Him-      tion, and the church shall never fully comprehend
   self; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He             the height and depth of that revelation. For it is the
   speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall          revelation of the triune God, Who transcends all
   glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shew it         our thought, Whose greatness and glory are im-
   unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine:
   therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall       measurable.
   shew it unto you.                                               That truth the church has always possessed,


64                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



from the day when God revealed unto Adam the                apostles the foundation of the church was laid upon
coming of One Who would crush the head of the               the cornerstone which is Jesus Christ. But that
serpent, even until now. Always the church has be-          truth, under the leading and guiding impulse of the
held the center of that truth and understood it in its      Spirit of Christ, had to be developed. Every age of
essence as the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus.            the church has stood upon the shoulders of those
But age by age God added to that Word, shed new             who have gone before. Every generation builds
light upon the promise until its fulfillment in Christ      upon the heritage of the truth which its forefathers
and the closing of the New Testament Scriptures.            were led to find in that Word of God. The early
Always the believing heart and mind of the child of         church set forth the great truths of the Trinity and
God has reflected upon that Word of God and                 of the person and natures of Christ. Upon that
sought to appropriate its riches and to bring forth         foundation was built the truth of sin and grace, and
out of that Word things old and new.                        of God's sovereign predestinating purpose by such
      With the close of the canon of the Scriptures, the    church fathers as Augustine. In the Middle Ages
history of doctrine properly begins. Until the com-         the truth of the atonement was clearly developed
pletion of the Scriptures the development of doc-           by Anselm, the doctrine of the church by Wycliffe?
trine was not fully possible, for God had yet more          Luther developed the truth of justification by faith.
light to shed upon the promise. The whole of the            Calvin, the greatest of the reformers, systematized
truth recorded in Scripture was not yet given. Fur-         and enriched the truth in the light of the principle
thermore, in the old dispensation the Spirit had not        of the sovereignty of God. Upon the foundation of
yet been poured out upon the church, and Gods               Calvin our forefathers at Dordt laid the foundations
revelation was given in types and in shadows of the         of Reformed doctrine and church government. We
reality which was to come. That history of doctrine         as Protestant Reformed people, have built upon that
which is the subject matter of this department of           heritage of the truth.
the  Standard Bearer  is the history of the church's          Behind all the history of doctrine and its develop-
struggle to appropriate the rich heritage of the            ment stands the providence of God, leading and
Word of God.                                                guiding His church into all the truth, ever and again
      The church has ever reflected upon that Word of       driving His people to His Word to discover its
God. She has sought to systematize the truth of that        riches and to discern ever more clearly the wonder
Word and to set forth in clarity its truths. This labor     of grace in Jesus Christ and the glory of our God.
has given rise to the creeds and confessions of the           That history has not always followed a straight
church, in which the church gives authoritative ex-         path; there are twists and turns in it. The history of
pression to what she believes to be the truth of that       doctrine is the history of a sinful people whose sins
Word. In that struggle to develop and give clear ex-        and weaknesses have also marred their understand-
pression to the truth which is her heritage, she has        ing of the Word of God. The church has often taken
been led by the Spirit of Christ which is the Spirit of     wrong turnings. The wisdom of men and the
truth. The promise of the Spirit of truth did not           philosophy of the world has always stood alongside
cease with the close of the Scriptures, for that Spirit     that development, tempting the church to depart
abides in the church. He is the inward principle by         from the straight path into error and heresy. In the
which the church lays hold of the objective Word            providence of God wicked men have also arisen in
of God in the Scriptures, understands that Word             the church, carnal men and false prophets who
and confesses it. For the Word of God is spiritual          have sought to subvert the church and to mar the
and must be spiritually discerned. The promise              purity of her doctrine. This too was under the
which Christ gave to His apostles, that the Spirit of       Lord's hand, that by these means the church might
truth would guide them into all the truth, is a             be driven to defend the truth, to develop it over
promise unto the church of all ages.                        against the lie. The calling of the church in every
  That truth the apostles and the early New Testa-          age is to contend for the faith once delivered to the
ment church did not understand in all its fulness.          saints.
As the prophets before them, the church of the new            That calling is also our calling as the church of
dispensation searched their own writings to under-          Jesus Christ. God has given us a rich heritage of the
stand the mind of the Spirit of Christ which spake          truth of His Word. That truth we are called to know
by them. We must not so conceive of it, as if in the        and defend. We must teach it to our children, in-
days of the apostles the whole of doctrine contained        structing them in that heritage that it might be com-
in the Scriptures was clearly understood in all its         mitted unto the generations that follow us. It we are
parts but then fell into darkness and ignorance.            to be faithful to fulfil that calling, we must know
Such was not the case. The church indeed pos-               our Reformed heritage, not only its doctrine, but
sessed the truth concerning Christ in its deepest           also its history and development. That history is
essence, believed and appropriated it. By the               rich and varied, intimately bound to the struggle to


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        65



     maintain the truth over against the lie. That strug-             give thanks unto God also for His work in the
     gle we are called to carry on. That truth we also are            church of the past. We must also take warning from
     called to develop and enrich as His people. We                   the errors of the church in the past and her struggle
     have not arrived. Our knowledge and understand-                  for the truth, that we do not become complacent or
     ing of the truth is greater than that of our fathers,            indifferent. Rather we labor with the Word in the
     but we have not yet attained unto perfect knowl-                 consciousness that the Spirit of Christ yet leads us
     edge. We are confronted by new errors which arise                into all truth.
     in the church with which we must battle, errors                    Such a purpose and calling transcends the limits
     which are not always new in themselves but are                   of one column in the  Standard Bearer.  It is the
     often old heresies, warmed over for a new age and                calling of the church, as a living organism in the
     presented in a new guise.                                        midst of the world, to maintain, defend, and de-
       If we are to fulfil our calling, therefore, we must            velop the truth in the life of the body of Christ. It is
     know and understand our heritage of the truth in                 the purpose of this department, however, to sketch
     its historical development. We must know also the                the history and development of doctrine in the
     history of the lie and the attacks upon that truth,              church of the past, to trace the doctrines which we
     the errors which the church in the past has made,                have received from our forefathers in their
     that by so doing, we may discern the truth from the              development. These `sketches will not be  exhaus'
     lie in the times in which God has placed us. To that             tive, for the history of the church is itself the his-
     end the study of the history of doctrine is a neces-             tory of the struggle for the truth of the Word of
     sity for the church of the present. We are to see the            God. It is hoped that they will enrich our apprecia-
     leading of the Spirit of Christ in His church of the             tion of the heritage of the truth which God has
     past, to know the men which He has used to devel-                given us.
     op that truth which is our heritage, that we might

     ALLAROUND  US-
     Rev. G. Van Baren


                              The Reformation Reviewed

       There are ongoing discussions between Roman                          Summarizing the new agreement, the theologians
     Catholics, Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox, and                        said, "We can and do confess together that our hope
     Lutherans. One gathers from reports that the men                     for salvation rests entirely on God's merciful action in
     involved in discussions find'fewer and fewer rea-                    Christ." The remaining differences, as well as the
     sons for remaining separate. Recently, reports have                  agreements, will be spelled out in a 21,000-word  joint
     appeared in newspapers and magazines describing                      statement to be issued this week. . . .
     basic accord between Lutheran and Roman Cath-                          . . . For Lutherans justification remains "the tem-
     olic theologians on the issue of "justification by                   plate, the pattern of how God and man relate. For
     faith." Time, Oct. 3, 1983, reports:                                 Catholics, it is one doctrine among many." More
                                                                          basic, the Catholics on the panel assured the Luther-
           In the distant past, theological disputes between              ans that they believed that good works alone could not
        Protestants and Roman Catholics were, quite literally,            bring salvation, while the Lutherans declared that
        matters of life and death. Tens of thousands of people            their emphasis upon faith and God's grace did not
        died during the devastating religious wars of the 16th            mean they rejected the importance of good works in
        and 17th centuries. Sharp differences remain on some              the life of a Christian.
        basic points of doctrine, but in recent years the
        churches have been working quietly to resolve these             The  Christian  News, Oct. 3, 1983, presents an
        old dogmatic quarrels. Last week a panel of 20 Luther-        editorial comment on the above accord. In it, the
        an and Catholic theologians, meeting in Milwaukee,            editor points out that the Roman Catholic Church
        announced that they had reached essential agreement           did not change its view of justification at all - and
        on the meaning of "justification," one of the key is-         the agreement worked out was with the aid of
        sues of the Protestant Reformation. The theologians           Lutheran theologians known for their liberalism.
        said the remaining points of difference about this doc-       Among other things, the editorial stated:
        trine were no longer reason to keep their churches
        apart. . . .                                 --                      . . . Note from the report that the Roman Catholic


L


66                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



       Church has never retracted the Canons and Decrees                     Confession.
       of the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent con-
       demned the Scriptural doctrine of justification. Vati-                  Reumann does not accept the Bible as God's in-
       can II reaffirmed everything Trent said about justifi-                spired and inerrant Word. He argued in the Novem-
       cation. The National Catholic Register article shows                  ber, 1969 Concordia Theological Monthly that the
       that when Rome says it accepts the doctrine of justifi-               New Testament is some sort of fallible patchwork put
       cation by faith, it includes charity (or works) in faith.             together by fallible men who even fabricated some of
                                                                             the things now included in the New Testament. He re-
         Actually Luther and the Church which excommuni-                     jects the Christian doctrine of Hell and the immortal-
       cated him were in far greater accord than true Luther-                ityofthesoul.. . .
       ans today are with the present Roman Catholic
       Church. . . .                                                        It appears, then, that an agreement has been
                                                                     worked out between  Ziberal  Lutherans and Roman
          . . . Protestant and Roman Catholic universalists do       Catholics which is supposed to be a basic resolution
       not accept the Scriptural doctrine of justification by        of the old differences concerning justification by
       faith alone regardless of all the orthodox sounding
       terminology they use.                                         faith. But the conservative Lutheran still insists that
                                                                     the differences remain - and in fact are greater to-
         CN has for many years shown that Dr. John                   day than at the time of the Reformation. Yet the
       Reumann, who appears to be the leading Lutheran               majority of churches seem  almost  eager to show
       spokesman on the Roman Catholic-Lutheran Dialogue
       Commission, is one of the most liberal Lutheran theo-         that they understand each other  - and can even
       logians in the U.S. What he means by justification is         perhaps unite together at some future date. Can
       not at all what Lutherans confess in the Augsburg             you imagine what Martin Luther would say?


                                             Tuitio'n Tax Credit

      The Presbyterian  Journal, Oct. 5, 1983, reports               any sort of new government assistance:
that President Reagan is being criticized for his                              The very fact that Bob Jones University is being re-
lukewarm support to tuition tax credits for students                         fused tax exempt status on the basis of its own policy
in non-public schools. Pressure is being applied                             of discrimination shows that the government has no
that this support become stronger. The report                                intention of acting as the Christian schools' benevo-
states:                                                                      lent friend. What awaits us in the future? Race quotas,
         According to Dr. James  Skillen,  executive director                women in the right places, or, worse yet, maybe we
                                                                             might end up turning our schools into a free-for-ah as
       of the Association for Public Justice (APJ) and a mem-                far as keeping non-Christians out. After all, a voucher
       ber of the group which met at the White House, Presi-                 or tax credit can be spent anywhere, and where gov-
       dent Reagan told them he now has a commitment                         ernment money follows, so also closely comes govern-
       from two senators, Robert Dole (R-Kan.) and Howard                    ment regulation.
       Baker  (R-Term.)  to bring Senate Biil 528 to a vote in
       the full Senate this fall. The corresponding measure in              Again, one is reminded of the dangers involved
       the house is HR-1730.                                         in any kind of governmental support. The tempta-
         Supporters of the bills say their effect will be to re-     tions are real: we pay taxes and have the right to
       duce tax revenues by about $800 million by 1985.              expect to get our "money's worth" also in the
       They claim that is less than one percent of the current       education of our children. But the Bob Jones Uni-
       public school budget of $108 billion, whiie private           versity case ought to cause us to beware. If the gov-
       schools educate 12 percent of all elementary and              ernment provides support and tax-relief, if we
       secondary children in the U.S.                                become increasingly dependent upon it, if we final-
         The President, who has supported such tax relief            ly believe we can not do without it - then too the
       for families using non-public schools since before his        government is in a position to deny such support
       1980 election, claimed his staff has had a difficult time     because we do not recognize the "rights" of homo-
       developing an adequate strategy for working with                   sexuals, or women-in-office, or the "rights" of
       Congress on the matter.                                       those of other religious beliefs.
         But critics have said the real problem was that the         I                                                                  I
       issue was too low on the White House priority list . . . .                    Take time to read
      A letter to the  Banner,  Oct. 10, 1983, expresses
the thought, seldom heard in Reformed circles any-                                The Standard Bearer
more, that there might be real danger of receiving


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                   6 7



                                  "Reformed" Thinking?

  From the man who  labelled "predestination" as                               and a fury of fire, which will consume the adversar-
"blasphemy" in the Refomred JoumaZ, a man who is                               ies" (Heb.  10:26-27). Nor should one, I think, tone
a member in the C.R.C., Thomas B. Talbott, pro-                                down the language here or try to soften this terrible
fessor of philosophy at Willamette University in                               image of "a fury of fire." Our God is a consuming fire
Salem, Oregon, come two other articles in the  Re-                             (Heb. 12:29), as George MacDonald never tired of re-
fomzed  JoumaZ, in part, a response to a certain John                          minding us, and the fires of hell are but the most ter-
Piper who sought to refute Talbott's original article.                         rible expression of the love of God. As a symbol of that
                                                                               which consumes all that is false within us (see Cor.
In June, 1983 issue, he writes:                                                3:16  [set]), the image of fire is one that permeates all
      There are really two parts to Piper's argument. He                       of Scripture and cannot be dispensed with. It repre-
   argues, first, that the proposition                                         sents not only the most terrible, but also the most ir-
      (P) God loves all men                                                    resistible form that God's purifying love can take. One
   is true only if                                                             way or another, Christ shall  defeat his enemies, and
      (Q) The final judgment is remedial or temporary                          his enemies  shall  in time gladly be defeated, and death
   is also true; and he argues, second, that there is no                       itself  shall  be consumed in the lake of fire.
   biblical warrant for believing  (QJ and therefore no                   One must simply note, (1) that denial of predes-
   biblical warrant for believing (P) either. Now I am pre-            tination inevitably leads to "unlimited" or uni-
   pared to accept the first part of this argument, though             versal atonement, denial of eternal hell, and uni-
   it too is controversial and often challenged. I am pre-             versal salvation - for that is what Talbott is teach-
   pared to concede, in other words, that  (P) entails                 ing.
    (Q) . . . . Accordingly, all those universalistic passages
   - call them prooftexts if you will - that people like                  (2) That Talbott and his opponent, Piper, though
   Piper struggle so hard to explain away are in fact,                 both within the same denomination, do not argue
   given Piper's own assumption that (P) entails (Q), a                on the basis of the Reformed Confessions. The Con-
   powerful reason for thinking that the final judgment                fessions represent the acknowledged confession of
   is either remedial or temporary or both. . . .                      a church of what Scripture truly teaches. It is the
  Again, Talbott argues thus in the issue of                           touchstone to determine whether one belongs with-
September, 1983:                                                       in one denomination. To argue only from Scripture
      . . . And Scripture does leave open the possibility, at          is to deny the confessional basis of a denomination.
   least, that a person may shut out the Spirit entirely.                 (3) How can a denomination or a magazine, both
   Then, perhaps, a person must simply bear that pun-                  presumably with the confessional basis of our
   ishment which is the inevitable consequence of his                  Three Forms of Unity, allow for such writings or
   sin: "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the                teachings in their midst? That is not a question of
   knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a                   "freedom," but is direct violation of one's confes-
   sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment,             sional basis.

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE -

                       Hebrews - Christ, the Author
                                      of a Better Covenant
                                                            Rev. J. Kortering


  In this letter, the author to the Hebrews (Jewish                    THE AUTHOR
Christians) sets forth Jesus as the true fulfillment of                   It is interesting to observe that the Pauline
the law and the old covenant. Though there was a                       authorship of the Hebrews is carefully disputed,
temptation to abandon faith in Him, this letter was                    and for lack of any convincing alternative is either
written to encourage all, especially Jews, to  con-                    accepted as tradition or left as an open question.
sider the true ministry of Jesus and what it means                     Our  Netherlands Confession,  Article IV boldly  as-
to their faith and future.                                             serts, "We believe the Holy Scriptures are  con-


68                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



tained in two books, namely the Old and New Test-          to the Gentiles and thought it wise to remain in the
ament, which are canonical, against which nothing          background when he wrote to the Jews, or that he
can be alleged. These are thus named in the Church         was a  persona non grata  with the Jews and he
of God. The books of the Old Testament are the five        thought his message would be better received if his
books of Moses . . . . Those of the New Testament          identity were not known. Both of these suggestions
are the four evangelists, . . . and the fourteen           are contradicted by Paul's method in his other
epistles of the apostle Paul, viz. the one to the          writings.
Romans . . . and one to the Hebrews."                        2. How could Hebrews  23 be applied to Paul,
      Looking back to the early years, subsequent to       "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salva-
the close of the apostolic age, the church fathers are     tion, which at the first began to be spoken by the
divided as to their estimation of the authorship of        Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that
,the Hebrews, see International Statidard Bible En-        heard Him?" In all his other writings he insists that
cyclopedia.  Generally,      the eastern churches,         he received his gospel directly from Christ (c.f. Gal.
especially in Alexandria, considered Paul to be the        l:llff, I Cor. 9:lff, 15:8ff).
author. Among them was Clement, `the most out-               3. The calm, balanced style of Greek is different
spoken. Origin agreed, though he qualified it by           from Paul's writings. Godet writes, "It is strange in-
suggesting, "God. alone knows." In the western             deed that he should have written in polished Greek
churches, the epistle remained anonymous until             to the Hebrews (who spoke Hebrew) while all his
the fifth century when the Pauline authorship was          life he had written to the  Hellens (who spoke
gradually accepted. Another tradition arose in             Greek) in a style abounding with rugged and bar-
Africa, suggesting that Barnabas was the author.           barous Hebraisms." The difference is between the
The Council of Hippo, A.D. 393, included in the            literary KOINE Greek and the vernacular KOINE
books of the Bible, "thirteen epistles of the apostle      Greek. One is not better than the other, only a dif-
Paul and one by the same to the Hebrews." The              ferent kind.
Council of Carthage, A.D. 419, mentioned, "The
fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul." The historian        4. Paul uses the title, "the Lord Jesus Christ"
Eusebius suggested that it was written by Paul in          with great frequency. The author to the Hebrews,
Hebrew and translated by Clement into Greek. The           on the contrary, prefers the simple, Jesus, or at
Reformers rejected Pauline authorship; Luther sug-         times, Jesus Christ.
gested Apollos and Calvin thought it might be                5. There is a different usage of  antitype and
Luke.  ,Actua.lly, theologians and scholars have           type, contrast Hebrews  9:24 and I Peter  3:21,
made many suggestions, even until the present              earthly vs. heavenly, shadow vs. reality. In Paul's
time.                                                      writing the antithesis is between faith and works,
      From the evidence of the epistle itself, we  con:    spirit and flesh, sin and grace.
elude the following about the author. He was a               6. The author of the Hebrews quotes all the Old
`Greek-speaking Jew. He was thoroughly familiar            Testament writings from the Septuagint version.
with the Old Testament Scripture, though he                Paul shows no such preference in his writings.
quoted from the Septuagint Bible (a Greek transla-
tion from Hebrew) and not from the Hebrew Bible              7. In Hebrews, a larger place is given to Christ's
itself. He knew the doctrinal teaching and worship         earthly ministry than in all Paul's writings put to-
of the Jews so thoroughly, it would seem he was not        gether.
a heathen convert to Christianity but brought up as          8. The characteristically Pauline phrase, "in
a Jew and followed Christ. His style of writing            Christ," does not occur in Hebrews.
Greek gives evidence of an excellent command of              9. There is a decidedly deficient amount of eth-
the* language both in vocabulary and diction. His          ical demands that are prominent in Paul's writings.
doctrinal emphasis reflects the centrality of the
ministry of Christ and its significance for salvation        10. Nowhere in Hebrews do we come into con-
and life, much as Paul would do.                           tact with the personality or experiences of Paul.
                                                           The few references in the last chapter are too vague
      Hendriksen in his New Testament Survey and Har-      to assist in this respect. Paul generally included
rison in his Introduction to the New Testament list the    such references.
reasons why we cannot accept the apostle Paul as
the author to the Hebrews. Here follows a                    It cannot be established who the author really is.
summary.                                                   THE OCCASION
      1. The epistle does not contain an address with        The Jewish converts remained a constant con-
designation of authorship which Paul does in all his       cern to the early New Testament church. The Jews
writings. A twofold reason is suggested: either Paul       outside the church constantly assailed the Christian
chose to be anonymous because he was the apostle           church, especially the Hebrew Christians following


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            69



Christ. Some of them within the church clung to         epistle was written for Jerusalem Jews, why not re-
the obsession that they had to keep the law and be      fer to the present temple and worship?
loyal to their fellow countrymen. They tried to           4. The use of the Septuagint (Greek Old Testa-
harmonize faith in Christ and the observance of the     ment) would distract the Jerusalem Hebrews who
law. This separated them from their fellow Gentile      knew Hebrew better than Greek. The Septuagint
Christians. They were usually best educated in the      would fit better the Hebrews in Rome.
Old Testament Scriptures, more-so than many Gen-
tile converts. They were needed in the church.            5. According to this letter, the Jews distin-
Christ had predicted the destruction of Jerusalem.      guished themselves by their almsgiving  (6:lO;
It would be a mortal blow to the Jews, it would end     10:34). The Jews in Jerusalem received alms be-
their national distinction and their common bond        cause of poverty, they did not give them.
in temple worship. Persecution from Rome was in-          6. Hebrews  512 informs us that these Jews did
creasing against all Christians, whether Jews or        not produce any teachers; the Jerusalem church
Gentiles. The converted Jews had to see their           had done that.
future life in Jesus Christ, without the law. There       7. The first to recognize this epistle were the
was a better covenant than that of Abraham or           Roman Christians; hence we conclude they were
Moses; it was now written in the blood of Christ,       the first to receive it.
the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. For
their salvation and the welfare of the church they        8. Timothy was well known in Rome, see
needed instruction in these great truths. The letter    Hebrews  13:23 and Philippians  l:l, and Colossians
was written to fill that need.                          1:l.
                                                          9. The Jews in Rome were called Hebrews just
TO WHOM WAS IT WRITTEN                                  as much as the Jerusalem Jews. Paul was from
  Having said it was written to Jewish converts, we     Tarsus, and he still called himself a Hebrew, II Cor-
have to be more specific. A dispute follows as to       inthians  11:22.
which group of Jews: were they in Jerusalem, in           The arguments seem to favor the Roman Hebrew
Rome, in Alexandria, or some other place?               Christians as the recipients of this letter.
  In favor of the Jerusalem Hebrew Christians we        THE DATE
find the following:                                        Since no reference is made in the letter to the
  1. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship         Hebrews to the destruction of the Temple at Jeru-
and influence. The Hebrew Christians there need-        salem, an argument that would have been cogent
ed this message more than any others.                   whether it was sent to the Jews at Jerusalem or
  2. The reference to the Old Testament types and       Rome, it is assumed that it was written prior to the
temple worship would fit the Jerusalem church bet-      destruction of the city in A.D. 70. How must we un-
ter than any other.                                     derstand the reference in Hebrews  13:23 to
  3. There were proportionally more Jewish Chris-       Timothy's imprisonment? "Know ye not that our
tians in Jerusalem than anywhere else.                  brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom if he
                                                        come shortly, I will see you." As best we know,
  4. They were able to grasp the message and            Timothy was imprisoned after Paul's death, during
warning about temple worship more than others,          the reign of Nero. Paul died in A.D. 67, hence an
since it was present in their midst.                    educated guess would place the date of authorship
  Arguments in favor of Roman Hebrew Christians         around A.D. 67-70.
are the following (Taken from Hendriksen, New
Testament Survey).                                      THE MESSAGE
  1. This would be the most natural interpretation         The author is led by the Holy Spirit to set forth
of Hebrews  13:24: "Those who came from Italy           Christ Jesus as the Mediator of the better covenant.
wish to be remembered to you." The original             When one reads this epistle, he cannot help but
Greek uses "from Italy," hence the idea is that they    conclude, how great is the Lord Jesus in His suffer-
left Italy and were with the author and now wish to     ing and death, but now much more in His resurrec-
return greetings to their former members in Rome.       tion and ascension into heaven. To cling to the law
                                                        of the old covenant brings one to defeat, it sets forth
  2. According to Hebrews  2:3 the readers seem         a priesthood that has passed away. Now we believe
not to have heard the Lord Himself preach. The          in Christ, God's priest-king whose covenant  abid-
Jerusalem church surely did, the Romans possibly        eth forever.
not.                                                      Well may we read this letter to be strengthened
  3. Before A.D. 70 the temple still stood. If the      in our faith in our Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ.


70                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



THE LORD GAVE THE WORD -


                            Missionary Methods (18)
                                                    Profi Robert D. Decker


      The Word of God lays down the principle that               and ministers must be ordained out of these
the ministers of the Gospel must be supported by                  churches to serve these churches. These churches
the churches which they serve. This principle was                must be: "self-supporting, self-extending, self-gov-
established already in the Old Testament era.                    erning" (The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church,
When God gave to Israel the land of Canaan as a                   Roland Allen, pp. 26ff). Native pastors are needed
type of the heavenly Canaan each tribe and each                  for the newly organized churches. And these native
family of each tribe was given an inheritance or                 pastors must be supported by the churches which
allotted portion of the land. This portion was                   they serve. Again, few would disagree. This very
typical of each family's eternal inheritance in glory.           plainly is the biblical principle. What applies to the
The tribe of Levi which served Israel as the priests              "home church" also applies to the mission church.
had no inheritance in the land, "for the Lord was
their inheritance" (Deut.  10:9).  For this reason the              But in the mission context the church is often
rest of Israel was admonished "not to forsake the                 faced with a vexing problem. What if the situation
Levite," but to support him (Deut.  14:27). The                   is such that the new church is so poor that it is
food of the Levite was supplied by the sacrifices of              unable to provide for the support of its pastor? This
Israel. He depended upon his brothers for shelter                 is often the case. Many mission churches, at least
and the rest of his earthly needs. Our Lord Jesus                 by our Western standards, are extremely primitive
Christ taught us the same when He sent the twelve                 and poor. Must these be expected to support min-
to preach to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.               isters? They barely are able to support themselves.
Among His instructions to them Jesus said, "Pro-                  Perhaps the most common answer to these ques-
vide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your                 tions is: let the sending denomination support the
purses, Nor script for your journey, neither two                  native pastors and missionaries. In this way the
coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the work-               work of the church can continue and grow. The
man is worthy of his meat" (Matthew  10:9, 10).                   native churches are unable to support their own
This principle is taught repeatedly in the Epistles.              pastors, hence, the home church must assume that
                                                                  responsibility. All of this seems sensible. After all,
The apostle Paul speaks of it at length in I Corin-               the church needs preachers and the preachers need
thians  9:1-23. In verse fourteen of this chapter the
apostle writes: "Even so hath the Lord ordained                   to be supported.
that they which preach the gospel should live of the                This is, however, the wrong answer. It is certain-
gospel" (cf. also: Phil. 4:14-18;  I Tim. 5:18).                  ly not the biblical answer, and for this very reason
      What this means is that the congregation to                 it is neither desirable nor practical. In fact, this
which the pastor ministers the Word of God is                     practice has caused considerable harm to the cause
bound by God to provide adequate support of the                   of Christ in the world. We do well to listen to a
pastor. The pastor must be free from "worldly                     seasoned missionary and professor (Presbyterian)
cares and avocations" in order to be able to devote               of a century ago, Dr. Kellogg, quoted by John L.
all of his time and effort to the work of the ministry.           Nevius: "This plan [that of organizing churches
With this principle few, if any of us, would dis-                 without pastors in the modern sense of that term]
agree. In the Reformed tradition, churches have al-               would also meet the vexations, and  - as it has
ways and do today provide for the material needs of               proved in some missions that we could name - the
their ministers and families. It is our contention                hitherto insoluble problem of the support of a
that this principle of Scripture must be universally              native pastor. The pecuniary question has been one
applied. It must be implemented also on the mis-                  of the main difficulties, thus far, in the establish-
sion fields. Missionaries are supported by the send-              ment of independent churches in our foreign mis-
ing churches. This is proper and no one would dis-                sion fields. It is plain that if a man be set apart to
agree. When churches are established as the fruit of              give his whole time to the pastoral care of a church,
missionary preaching, these churches must be                      he is rightfully entitled to a full support. But where
indigenous to their native land. Elders and deacons               is this to be raised? Most of these young churches


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               71: '

(this is 1879, R.D.D.) in India, China, and Africa are        claim upon his services, and to him a strong motive
very poor. Fix the stipend as low as we will, they            for the diligent and conscientious performance of
are not able to pay it. Shall the church in America           his duties. When the native pastor is supported by
or Europe supplement their contributions? This is             the Foreign Board the advantages growing out of
often done, and to the inexperienced might seem a             this mutual dependence between pastor and people
very simple and excellent solution of the difficulty;         are lost, and a  onesided and unnatural relation is
but in fact, with this arrangement, difficulties multiply.    introduced of people and pastor depending on for-
(emphasis mine, R.D.D.) For example, what shall               eign aid, which works evil rather than good"
be the salary? If, as has often been done, it is fixed        (Nevius, p. 64).
at a point much higher than the average income of               If, as had been shown, it is wrong from the point
the people, this works great mischief. It elevates            of view of both principle and practice for the send-
the pastor unduly above the average condition of              ing churches to support native pastors, how  must'
the people of his church. It degrades the ministry            the church labor in foreign fields where the be-
by making the pastorate an object of ambition to              lievers are very poor? Let it be said first that the
covetous and unworthy men. It makes the church,               goal of an indigenous  .church  ought never be
in many cases, despair, from the first, of reaching           abandoned. The converts need to be organized into
the position of self-support. A moderate salary they          a manifestation of the church of Christ in their own
might in time hope to be able to pay of themselves;           land and culture. They need elders and deacons
a high salary they, with good reason, look upon as            according to the requirements of Holy Scripture.
unattainable. We affirm, without fear of contradic-           They need pastors too, preachers of their own na-
tion, that no one thing has more effectively hin-             tionality and culture. Toward this goal the mission-
dered the development of independent, self-sus-               aries must labor. Converts must be taught the
taining native churches in many foreign fields, than          whole, counsel of God, And, that whole counsel of
the high salaries which, with mistaken wisdom, are            God includes their responsibility to support those
paid to many of the native pastors and helpers from           who minister to them in the name of Christ. They
the treasuries of the home churches. Shall we give            must be taught that "it is more blessed to give than
them a low salary? We shall not thereby escape                to receive," even if all they have to give is a
serious difficulty. Men educated even as pastors              widow's mite. Those converts who give evidence of
commonly are in heathen fields feel that they are             possessing gifts suitable for office in the church
justly entitled to more; and when they hear of the            must be trained so that in tirne they can be called
hundreds of thousands which the church at home                and ordained as elders, deacons, and ministers.
contributes for the support of the Gospel and which           Until such time as the group is prepared in every
are supposed to be at the disposal of the mission-            respect, prepared also to support its own minister
ary, they will not and generally do not take kindly           at least in part, it cannot be organized. The work of
to the refusal to pay at a high figure. In this way           the missionary would then continue. It may be pos-
alienations often occur between the foreign mis-              sible to organize a group which cannot afford to
sionary and his native helpers" (Dr. John L.                  support the minister completely. The apostle Paul,
Nevius, The Planting And Development OfMissionary             after all, was a tentmaker so as not to be a burden to
Churches,  pp. 66, 67). This quotation needs no               the churches. There is precedent in church history
further comment.                                              for this as well. But this is not ideal. The biblical
  Biblical principles are always the foundation of            principle is that congregations are bound to support
biblical practice. When the church functions ac-              their own pastors. In, no case ought this support
cording to the sound principles of the Word of God            come from the Foreign Mission Committee of the
it may expect the Lord's blessing. When the church            churches.
fails to implement sound biblical principles it
brings upon itself misery. Nevius makes a point
which illustrates this truth when he writes: "Here                The Standard Bearer
we meet with the important Scriptural principle
that teachers in the Church should look for help in
temporal matters to those whom they teach. Many                   makes a thoughtful
advantages spring from this relation of mutual de-
pendence. As the pastor gives his time and energies                          gift for the
to his people and watches for their souls as one who
shall give account, his people naturally accept from                       sick or shut-in.
him not only instruction but admonition and re-
proof. The fact that he depends upon them wholly
or in part for his support gives to them a reasonable

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





7i-                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

                                Report of Classis East
  Classis, East met in regular session on September          Haak; January 15: Van Baren.
14, 1983 at the Southeast Protestant Reformed                  The second item of business not routine was the
Church. With the exception of Kalamazoo, each                consideration and subsequent approval of a request
church was represented by two delegates. Rev. G.             by a consistory for the erasure of a baptized
Van Baren presided over this session.                        member.
  ,Two matters, other than routine business, oc-               In concluding remarks, Rev. R. Van  Overloop
cupied the attention of the Classis.  In the first place;    gave a brief report of the proceedings of  Classis
Classis  gave approval for the organization of a new         West held the week prior as well as a report of his
congregation in the Byron Center-Cutlerville area.           work in Birmingham and of his most recent work
This was in response to a renewed request by those           in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Rev. G.
brethren who had petitioned the May Classis  to or-          Lubbers also reminded  Classis  of the need to re-
ganize them. Hudsonville consistory was appointed            member Rev. Miersma in prayer as he considers
as committee of Classis  to implement this decision.         the call to work as missionary to Jamaica.
Classical appointments were granted this group
and are as follows: October 9: Joostens; October .16:          Expenses amounted to $343.00. Classis will meet
Flikkema; October 23: Haak; November 6: Van                  next on January 11,1984 at First Church.
Bar-en; November 13: Miersma; November 20:                                 Respectfully submitted,
Woudenberg; December  4; Bruinsma; December                                          Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk
11: De Vries; December 18: Joostens; January 8:

                          News From Our Churches
                                                   October 14, 1983

  The organizational meeting of the Byron Center               Rev. Houck's address is 1109 W. Rumble Road,
Protestant Reformed Church took place Thursday,              Modesto, CA 95350.
October 20, in the Byron Center Christian Junior               First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
High School. Prof. Hoeksema was the speaker. May             Rapids had this announcement in their September
God bless this new church.                                   18 bulletin: "Our missionary, Rev. Van  Overloop
  The consistory of Hope Protestant Reformed                 . . . reported to Classis  that his work in Birmingham
Church held a meeting on August 18 for all those             was slowly moving forward. Also, that while he
who'were interested in the organization of a church          was in South Holland, he was made aware of an in-
in the Grandville area. Since then a group of famil-         terested group in the Elk Grove area of Chicago."
ies has met for Sunday worship services in the                 The October 9 bulletin of First Church also read,
Grandville High School. It is the desire of these            "Candidate K. Hanko, his wife and family have left
families to organize in the near future.                     to labor in Blue Bell, Pa. for about two and one-half
   God has put a profound love for the Reformed              months. He is being sent by our Hope consistory at
truth in our hearts. That is evident when we con-            the request of the Mission Committee."
sider the many Reformation Day lectures that took               The Church Extension Committee of Southwest
place in October. South Holland Protestant Re-               Protestant Reformed Church is working on the idea
formed Church held two lectures. Rev. Engelsma               of "submitting informative items regarding our
spoke October 13, on "The Reformation and Love               services in the `church calendar' of the Saturday
of the Truth." Rev. Van  Overloop  spoke October             Grand Rapids Press, periodically placing brief doc-
27, on "The Reformation and Prayer." Remember                trinal statements along with information regarding
the Reformation Day Lecture to be held November              our church in the Advance Newspapers, and distri-
4, 8 P.M. at Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed                   buting Standard Bearers in some of the area homes
Church. Rev. Bekkering will be,the speaker.                  for the elderly."                                 DH


