     The
STANDARD
    BEARER
      A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





   "Although  the  fig  tree  shall  not
blossom, neither shall the fruit be in
the vines; the labor of the olive shall
fail, the fields shall yield no meat;. . .
   "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord...."
                                Habakkuk 317, 18
See "Joy in the God of Our
                          Salvation' ' - page 74



                                     Volume LX, No. 4, November 15,1983


74                                                                  THE   STANDARD  BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER
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MEDITATION

                            Joy in the God of Our Salvation
                                                                           Rev. H. Veldman


                     "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fiuit be in the vines; the labour  of
                 the olive shall fail, the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
                 there shall be no head in the stalls:
                     "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will joy in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk 3:17-18

  Thanksgiving Day! 0, give thanks unto the Lord,                                         the plenty we are enjoying, in spite of the inflation?
for He is good: His mercy endureth forever. Give                                          But, what must they do who are deprived of all this
thanks unto the Lord  - why, for what? Shall we                                           "good" and live in lands characterized by misery
give thanks for the peace which our country is  en-                                       and poverty?
joying, relatively speaking? Shall we give thanks for                                         Are we able to take this word of Habakkuk upon


                                           THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                                75



our lips, really and truthfully? Would we be able to      rejoice later. We must not separate the two verses
give thanks even if we lose everything? We would          of this text. We must surely read this scripture as
indeed be able, provided that we rejoice in the Lord      follows: "Although, notwithstanding that all this
and joy in the God of our salvation.                      shall occur, that I experience want and sorrow, I
             * * * * * * * * * *                          will nevertheless rejoice in the God of my salva-
                                                          tion." This joy of verse 18 must not be understood
  Wonderful contrast!                                     as occurring after the afflictions and troubles of
  The time of Habakkuk is unknown, although,              verse I7 have passed, but it must be understood as
generally speaking, we may say that he prophesied         occurring in the very midst of it.
as one of the last prophets before the Babylonian           And, secondly, this contrast is so wonderful be-
captivity. Verse 17 in this passage of Scripture          cause we read here of joy. The text does not refer,
speaks for itself. Habakkuk had spoken in verse 6         we must understand, to the attitude of a stoic. A
of chapter 1 of the coming of the Chaldeans, of           stoic is one who bears and endures suffering with-
Nebuchadnezzar: "For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans,       out revealing his own emotions, with bitterness of
that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march           heart and soul, who would reverse the situation  if.
through the breadth of the land, to possess the           at all possible. Neither does this Word of God refer
dwellingplaces that are not theirs." The sins of the      to one who does not rebel (at least outwardly), who
people of God which occasioned the coming of this         submits to his affliction and appears to bear it in all
mighty nation are set forth in this first chapter of      calmness and submission. And, of course, this text
the prophecy of Habakkuk, particularly in verse 4.        does not refer to a superficial indifference, that we
How God's covenant people had denied God's                must take the bitter with the sweet, and that these
covenant and His law! And now the Lord would              "ups and downs" will eventually balance out one
send the Chaldeans to Palestine. They were the rod        another.
of the Almighty. In this text we have a description         Here we read of joy in the midst of destruction
of the national destruction which this heathen na-        and trouble. Strong is the language of this text. First
tion would visit upon the land. How terrible would        of all, we read, "I will rejoice in the Lord." And
be the fury of these Chaldeans of whom we read in         then, to avoid all misunderstanding, he adds, "I
this first chapter! They will not spare the land;         will leap up for joy." Hence, the prophet leaves no
Canaan shall become a wilderness.                         doubt as to his meaning. To be sure, according to
  Applying this to the church of the New Dispensa-        Habakkuk  3:2 and 16, the prophet, when he heard
tion, perhaps someone may object that the condi-          of the terrible Word of God, was afraid, his belly
tions set forth in this Word of God do not apply to       trembled and his lips quivered at the voice of the
the church of God today. Do we not have peace and         Lord. Yet, also in verse 16 he speaks of resting in
tranquility, be it in the outward sense of the word?      the day of trouble. This surely does not refer to the
Do we not live in a land of plenty, enjoying even         rest of the grave. And then the prophet ascends the
the luxuries of this present time, although it is true    hill of faith, and he cries out, defiantly as it were,
that inflation has decreased the value of the dollar      Although the land shall become utterly desolate, re-
and that our crops have suffered somewhat this            duced, as it were, to a wilderness, nevertheless, in
year because of drought? However, if it be true that      spite of all this, yea in the very midst of it, I will re-
"peace and tranquility" are our lot, is it possible       joice; I will not merely endure all this misery,
that this may also be ascribed to the negligence on       simply "put up with it, " submit to it, but I will bear
our part, that we are not conducting ourselves as         it willingly and joyfully; in fact, I will leap for joy.
antithetically as we should? Do we oftentimes hide        When everything is destroyed, when grief and sor-
our light underneath a bushel? Persecution and af-        row enter my home, when affliction and pain are
fliction will surely be visited upon the church of        my lot, when all things appear to be against me,
God and His Christ in the future. Of this the Word        then, standing as it were in the very midst of all
of God speaks plainly and abundantly. Even so, the        these catastrophes, I will lift up myself above them,
question is pertinent: when we give thanks, why do        and I will cry out in joy and in song.
we give thanks, and for what? Are we spiritually             Do we know this wonderful Word of God? Do
able to say that should the Lord take all this plenty     we experience this amazing joy during this season?
and luxury from us, reduce us to absolute poverty,        What a tremendous contrast we have here! A pic-
we have really not lost anything?                         ture of utter desolation and ruin, and, in the midst
   What a tremendous, wonderful contrast we have          of it, a tremendous joy in the Lord!
here in this Word of God! On the one hand, we                           * * * * * * * * * *
must not weaken this Word of God. The text does
not mean that, although we now suffer want and               What a glorious reality we have here!
are in sorrow, conditions will change and we will            Notice the Object of this joy, which is also its


76                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER



content. First, we read of the God of my salvation.           deserving only everlasting condemnation. To us,
This salvation means literally "deliverance out of a          condemnable sinners, God is the unchangeable
strait, narrow confinement, into an open space,               God of our salvation, causing all our present afflic-
freedom." The word always has a twofold implica-              tion to work for us an exceeding and eternal weight
tion. Salvation is, first of all, redemption. Sin is guilt    of glory.
and guilt demands payment and punishment.                                      **********
Hence, to be saved means, first of all, that we are
redeemed, bought free out of the guilt of sin and               We shall rejoice in the Lord, the God of our sal-
also out of its power, so that this power of sin may          vation. What is its only possibility?
no longer reign in us. This, however, is but the                Indeed, this rejoicing is exceedingly difficult. It is
negative aspect of our salvation. Positively, salva-          so easy to glory in victory when we are not in-
tion means to be translated into an "open space,"             volved in any struggle. Many more such examples
into freedom, into the glorious sphere of God's               can be cited.
blessed covenant, that we enter into God's everlast-
ing tabernacle with man. And, what is its meaning               To rejoice in the Lord and leap for joy in the God
particularly in this text? We must remember that              of our salvation is possible only as in God. This is
Israel, the people of God, has become a plaything of          objectively true. If we are to glory in the God of our
the nations, especially of the Chaldeans. Hence,              salvation, if He shall be the content of our joy, then
this salvation for Israel refers to their deliverance         the first requirement is that we be in Him, as we
out of this Babylonian bondage, which deliverance,            read it in this text: I shall leap for joy IN the God of
typically, refers to our salvation, deliverance out of        my salvation. I must be rooted in the Lord. I must
sin and death and translation into the Lord's ever-           be spiritually engrafted into Christ; the Lord must
lasting covenant.                                             call me out of darkness into the light, out of death
                                                              into life. By nature we are earthly and sold under
      The God of my salvation! He is for Zion the God         sin. God must become my one and all. God must
of salvation. God, here, is the Triune God, the               become my God through the irresistible power of
Wholly Other, the Terrible God, the God worthy to             His Spirit. Only then will God be the content of my
be feared. And that He is the God of salvation
means that all salvation is of Him, eternally in His          joy.
counsel, and also in time, in Christ, and by His al-            This is also true subjectively. How often we
mighty and irresistible Spirit. Besides, He is the            cleave to the earth, the things that perish! Indeed,
God of my salvation. Do not omit this personal                we must become heavenly in our spiritual longing
emphasis. We may be ever so precise in all our dog-           and desire! We must reject the things that perish,
matical reasoning, and this is important, but it all          cleave unto the heavenly, look at the present in the
means nothing if we cannot claim this personal par-           light of the future, view all these afflictions in the
ticipation in the salvation of the Lord.                      light of the glory that shall follow. Consciously we
                                                              must stand in the God of our salvation. Always He,
      Secondly, this God of my salvation is also the          Jehovah, is and remains the God of our salvation.
Lord, Jehovah. Jehovah is the I AM, the Unchange-
able, in Himself and in relation to His people.
Whatever. our life's circumstances may be,
however great our misery and troubles, Jehovah re-
mains the same, unchanging in His love and mercy.
Shall a mother forsake her sucking child? This,                       The Standard Bearer
Isaiah writes, is possible. But Jehovah is ever the
same, never forsakes His own.                                         makes a thoughtful
  Hence, rejoicing in the Lord, in the God of our
salvation, we can rejoice even though, as in this
text, the land be reduced to a wilderness. Why can                         gift for the sick
we rejoice, leap for joy, when everything appears to
be against us, in the midst of sorrow, pain, and                           or shut-in. Give
misery? We rejoice in the God of our salvation. And
this means that He is saving us, always, not merely
in spite of all our affliction, but through them. Fact          The Standard Bearer
is, He is always for us the God of our salvation, al-
ways saving us, because He is Jehovah, always the
Unchangeable, always leading us through all things
unto His everlasting and heavenly covenant. To
this must be added that we are unworthy sinners,


                                                         THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                                                  77



EDITORIAL

             The R.E.S. and the World Council -
                                          No, No, No.  l . Yes?
                                                            Prof. H.C. Hoehsema


  About a year ago the Standard Bearer commented                          Concerning these recommendations we pointed
on a report concerning membership in the World                          out (Nov. 1, 1982 issue) that they do not constitute
Council of Churches which will be coming before                         the "final" stand which RES Nimes called for, but
the Reformed Ecumenical Synod in Chicago in                             that they leave the concrete issue of dual member-
1984. This comment was by way of a review of a                          ship in the RES and the WCC unresobed, and there-
Study Report entitled "Report to RES Chicago 1984                       fore, in effect  - if this is indeed a "final" decision
on Ecumenical Relations." The problem with                              - tolerate dual membership.
which this report deals is the problem of dual mem-                       Now, however, there are signs of a shift with
bership in the RES and the WCC, concretely the                          respect to the WCC.
problem of membership of the Reformed Churches
of the Netherlands (GKN) in both the World Coun-                          As most of you undoubtedly know, this past
cil and the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. For many                         summer the Sixth Assembly of the Word Council of
years the RES has faced this problem without re-                        Churches met in Vancouver, British Columbia. At
solving it, being fearful of losing one of its largest                  this assembly there were as many as eight Christian
member churches, the GKN. The report in ques-                           Reformed observers present. These men did not all
tion was supposed to resolve the problem finally.                       represent the CRC officially as visitors and official
And the resolution of the problem is urgent because                     observers. Two of them were denominational
there are churches which have already left the RES                      representatives, and others were present either as
because of it and because there is the threat of more                   individuals or as representatives of various organi-
churches leaving the RES. The RES Nimes decided                         zations within the CRC or in behalf of the CRC
"That the Synod determine that a final decision                         press. Among them was A. James Heynen, who re-
whether or not member churches of the RES may                           ported extensively in The Banner. Among them was
also be members of the WCC, must be made by the                         also Dr. Paul Schrotenboer, general secretary of the
RES 1984 and not delayed beyond that meeting."                          Reformed Ecumenical Synod. The latter joined in a
To this end, a Study Committee was appointed; and                       caucus of other evangelicals present as  observer-
this committee includes in its report ten recom-                        visitors in various capacities, and with that caucus
mendations. These recommendations essentially                           joined in a very favorable open letter concerning
maintain a position which the RES has long held,                        the WCC. The Banner (Sept. 12, `83, p. 18) reports as
namely, that membership in the World Council of                         follows in this connection:
Churches is principally wrong. To that extent we                              During   Week  One  some  of  the  evangelicals   got   to-
agree with the report. At the same time, however,                           gether.   Dr.  Paul  Schrotenboer,  executive  secretary  of
the Report waffles when it comes to the concrete                            the  Reformed  Ecumenical   Synod,   was   one   of  those
question of the  GKN's  membership, in the World                            who organized  the meeting.  During  the course of their
Council and proposes the following:                                         discussion   the  group   decided   to  write  an  open   letter.
     9.  That the RES, while  reaffirming  its advice  against              But before a draft  could  be adopted,  three men (Peter
   WCC  membership,  decides   not  to  terminate  the  RES                 Beyerhaus,  Germany;  Arthur  Johnston,  USA;   and
   membership  of  those   churches   now   holding   WCC                   Myung   Yuk  Kim,   Korea]   walked   out.  They  had  in-
   membership on that ground  alone.                                        sisted  on an attack against  the WCC which the others
                                                                            refused to join.
    10.  That  the  RBS  once  again  call  upon   the  RES
   churches   holding   membership  in  the  WCC  to  recon-                  In  the  end,  the  trio   of  critics  created  their  own
   sider   that  membership  in  the  light   of  the  above   re-          document claiming that  "the WCC is in danger  of be-
   commendations  and  the  entire  report  of  the  Study                  coming  a mouthpiece of false prophecy."
   Committee,  and  whatever  their  action  be  on  that                     Meanwhile,.   Schrotenboer   and  others   sounded   a
   question,  urge  them to clearly give evidence that they                 very  different  note.  They  wrote  an  open   letter  in
   are authentically Reformed both in faith and practice                    which they claimed  to have  seen "signs  of growth  and
   (Constitution  III, 1 and V, 2).                                         renewal"  at  this  Assembly.   The  letter  stopped   just


7 8                                                              THE   STANDARD  BEARER



        short  of a call for evangelicals  to get aboard  the WCC                 port,  although  also  in the report of the seven  others no
        bandwagon.   The letter decried  "the distortions   in the                position   will be taken about possible membership (of
        popular   evangelical   understanding"   of  the  Council                 the  CRC  in  the  WCC).  The  Synod   must  decide   on
        and  its  programs.   The  punchline:  "Hence,  we  feel                  this."
        pressed   to  declare   publicly  our   determination   to  be                  Dr.   Schrotenboer   retained  definite   reservations
        more actively involved  in all efforts seeking  the unity                 about  the  WCC.  "The  only  thing   is  that  I  -  together
        and renewal of the church."                                               with  other  evangelicals   -  see   positive  developments
           Schrotenboer  later admitted  he "wished  [the letter]                 at  this  Assembly.   And  then  I  say:  in  such  a  World
        were  a little less  laudatory,  a little  more critical."  But           Council I will try to work together,  strengthening  the
        he  added:  "I  had  no  trouble  signing   it."  Neither  did            good  that  I see."
        the  CRC's  official  observer,   Calvin   Seminary  profes-             Now Dr. Schrotenboer may say that "a brochure
        sor   Henry  Zwaanstra,   who   signed   the  letter  because         of the RES on this issue states that dual member-
        "it pretty well reflects my thinking."                                ship as such is not unacceptable." The fact of the
          By  August   10,  when  the  Assembly   adjourned,   the            matter is, however, that his very favorable assess-
        letter  drafted   by  Schrotenboer  and  others   had  netted         ment of the WCC, even to the extent of saying, "in
        several  hundred  signatures.  Orlando  Costas  pointed  to           such a World Council I will try to work together,
        the  growing   list  of  signees   and  said  of  the  "other let-    strengthening the good that I see," is an altogether
        ter"  (the  one  drafted   by  Beyerhaus  and  friends],
        "They  don't   speak   for  evangelicals.   They  represent           different position from that taken by the Study Re-
        nothing   more   than   that   they  came  to  a  meeting  and        port referred to in the beginning of this editorial. It
        walked  out."                                                         is true, of course, that the Study Report waffles
       This report by  The  Banner  is confirmed and                          when it comes to the concrete question of the
strengthened by a report in  Nederlands  Dagblad                              GKN's dual membership, thereby spoiling the re-
carried by  CZarion   (The Canadian Reformed Maga-                            port. Nevertheless, as to the issue itself, the Report
zine) in its October 21 issue (p. 442):                                       is certainly opposed to the WCC and offers an
                                                                              evaluation of the WCC which is quite different
          In  an  interview  with   Nederlands Dagblad  (August               from Dr. Schrotenboer's.
        10,  1983),   Dr.  P.  Schrotenboer,  secretary-general  of
        the  Reformed  Ecumenical   Synod   (RBS),  gave  a  very               I assume that as an official observer of the RES
        positive assessment  of the current course of the World               Dr. Schrotenboer will be reporting his evaluation of
        Council  of  Churches  (WCC),   evident   at  the  last   As-         the WCC-Vancouver to RES Chicago in 1984. If he
        sembly  at  Vancouver,  BC.  He  signed   the  declaration            reports there as he is reported to say in the quota-
        of the so-called  "radical evangelicals"  who  see  a place           tions just made, it seems to me that the RES will
        for  themselves  within  the  structures  of  the  World              have to choose between its Study Committee and
        Council.  Schrotenboer  said  that  past   criticism  on  the         its General Secretary. Further, if the RES believes
        WCC (e.g. that the WCC is only  concerned with social                 its General Secretary, it seems to me that it will fol-
        developments   and  is  not  interested  in  confessional             low his leadership and "try to work together in
        and  theological  matters)   no  longer   is  warranted.   He         such a World Council." That, of course, will mean
        cited  as  proof  the  report  of  the  WCC  on  Baptism,
        Eucharist and Ministry (BEM  Report].  "Also,  the Van-               the end of the RES. Furthermore, it will prove that
        couver  Assembly  had  much  more  attention  for  mis-               the GKN were right all along in cooperating with
        sion  than  previous assemblies. The Biblical witness is              the WCC - though perhaps a bit ahead of the rest
        more  strongly  felt here. These are  things   which must             of the RES. And in that case, the RES, when it bows
        give us joy, " said Schrotenboer.                                     out, should do so with apologies to the GKN for
          Schrotenboer   admitted   that   the  theology   of  the            having condemned the latter's position all these
        WCC  is  still   based   "`too  much  on  experience  and  not        years.
        enough   on  the  Scriptures"  but  nevertheless  felt  that            Meanwhile, when I read other reports concern-
        the  declaration   of  the  "radical   evangelicals"   was            ing the WCC-Vancouver, reports which are less
        timely.                                                               favorable than those which I found in  The Banner
          Asked  if his position would  have  consequences  for               and  Calvinist Contact,  I begin to wonder if an
        the matter of dual membership within the RES,  Schro-                 attempt is being made to sell the World Council to
        tenboer  answered,  "It's  too early   to tell.  I don't   want       both the RES and the CRC. In my opinion, the
        to say that dual membership in the WCC and RES will                   statement by that minority of evangelicals headed
        now   become   less   problematic.  But  you   know  that  a          by Peter Beyerhaus, for example, furnishes much
        brochure  of  the  RES  on  this  issue   states   that  dual         food for thought  - very much  - and is far more
        membership as such is not unacceptable."                              realistic than the statement of the so-called radical
          There were also eight  observers from the Christian                 evangelicals.
        Reformed  Church  at  the  Vancouver  Assembly.
        Schrotenboer  stated,.  "They do have  criticism, but also
        much appreciation for the Assembly.  Only one  of the                   Read The Standard Bearer
        eight  (observers)  will present a (negative)  minority re-


                                              THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                                79



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


                       Our Calling and Election (2)
                                                   Rev. H. Veldman


  We concluded our first article on this subject              men for thee and people for thy life." And in
with the observation that the infralapsarian concep-          Romans 9 we read that the Lord loved Jacob and
tion of the doctrine of Election cannot be main-              hated Esau before either did good or evil, that the
tained in the light of Scripture, and that the Lord           Lord is the Potter Who of the same lump makes one
sovereignly willed a people whom He would save                vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour,
in the way of sin and death through faith in Christ           and that He raised up Pharaoh in order to show His
Jesus unto everlasting glory and heavenly immor-              power in him. But, viewing this fallen human race
tality, provided that we understand that this way of          we simply say that God has elected, chosen out of it
sin and death through faith in Christ has been                His own. And, secondly, "election" has historical-
divinely and sovereignly willed and decreed.                  ly this result that, as a result of God's election, His
  We also remarked in our preceding article that              own are indeed separated from out of the world
the word election, as far as the word itself is con-          and are called to be God's own covenant people -
cerned, is infralapsarian. The word means, literal-           hence, God's election is nothing else than God's
ly, "to choose out of. " Does this not indicate that          sovereign choosing of us which has as its result that
the human race was there, and as fallen, when the             we are separated from the world; God's election is,
Lord elected, chose out His own? This is the view of          historically, therefore, always a "choosing out."
the infralapsarian, is it not? How, then, must this             The election of this Word of God is therefore that
word election be explained? The explanation is not            sovereign and eternal action of the Lord God
too difficult. We place ourselves, then, upon the             whereby He has positively willed a people, together
historical standpoint of the development of God's             with the equally sovereign and eternal rejection or
counsel. Scripture appears to be infralapsarian be-           reprobation of others. The apostle admonishes the
cause it treats God's counsel in the light of its fulfill-    church of God throughout the ages: "Give diligence
ment. When we build a house, what was decided                 to make your calling and election sure." Indeed, the
first is carried out last. We first decide to build a         doctrine of election presupposes the doctrine of
house. Then we decide the type of house we desire.            reprobation. Election implies that God has elected
Finally, we decide to buy a lot and lay the founda-           some,  not everybody. The Lord has not only sover-
tion. In the carrying out of this plan, however, the          eignly chosen and willed a people, but He has also
execution occurs in reverse order: the foundation is          sovereignly willed others who would be the objects
laid first and finally we live in the house. This is          of His wrath. This doctrine of reprobation is denied
also true of Scripture. First, God created the world;         almost universally today. And if you deny reproba-
then He also created man; man sins, the whole                 tion you cannot maintain election. Sovereignly the
human race falls into sin, and finally Christ comes           Lord loved Jacob and hated Esau. Incidentally,
to seek and to save that which was lost; then, at the         Scripture also uses other words to denote the doc-
end of time, we have the new heavens and the new              trine of election, words such as "to know, to love."
earth. Now, if we place ourselves, historically, in           For these elect the Lord has laid away a heavenly
the midst of this fallen human race, we say, with             glory, the blessing that they will walk with Him and
the Word of God, that God has elected, chosen out             have fellowship with Him in His eternal tabernacle,
of this human race His people. Does this neces-               everlastingly to walk in His light and to be clothed
sarily mean that thus it also was in God's eternal            with honor and glory. Some were ordained unto
counsel, that in God's counsel the human race ap-             that eternal glory, others unto eternal ruin and
pears as fallen and that the Lord chose out of this           damnation. Indeed, although our Confessions are
fallen human race? Indeed not! We read, do we not,            infralapsarian, clearly the sovereign character of
in Isaiah  43:3-4: "For I am the Lord thy God, the            Divine Predestination (election and reprobation) is
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for             set forth in the Canons, as in Article 6 and 7 of the
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou            first head of the Canons and in Article 15 of the
wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honour-             same first head. Indeed, make  your election sure,
able and I have loved thee: therefore will I give             writes the apostle. This implies that we do not rea-


80                                           THE   STANDARD  BEARER



son concerning this election as a cold, dogmatical         How absurd and terrible! The Lord has sovereignly
subject, but we are dealing here with the personal         willed to bestow upon us eternal life; and we shall
assurance of the fact that the Lord has separated us       repudiate it, silence it? It is the rock, the sole rock
from the world to form a part of that wonderful            of our salvation. To it we shall surely cling.
company whom God has loved from before the                   This election, now, we must make sure. Shall we
foundation of the world. Never shall we glory in           discard this doctrine? Shall we refuse to make it our
ourselves. Never shall we exalt ourselves above            own? Shall we fear to preach this truth, also and
those whom the Lord did not choose to be His own.          especially upon the mission field, because it will in-
That the Lord chose us was not because of any good         terfere with the saving of sinners? Has the eternal
in us. We are all by nature objects of wrath and           love of God ever prevented a single sinner from be-
children of disobedience. All the people of God can        ing saved? It is the love of God which alone saves
do  into all eternity is to thank the Lord upon            the sinner. Of course, in our preaching we must
bended knee for His sovereign mercy.                       adapt ourselves to the ability of an audience to un-
      Wonderful is the knowledge of this election, un-     derstand the message of the gospel. Of course! But,
speakably wonderful! This knowledge surely refers          shall we not concern ourselves with the doctrine of
to the calm, blessed certainty that I belong to the        election? Does not the apostle Peter refute this con-
people of God, that I shall therefore receive the          ception in this scripture when he exhorts us to put
glorious crown of victory at the end of my earthly         forth all diligence to make our election sure?
pilgrimage, the final victory over sin and death,          Hence, we must and shall concern ourselves with
over all the powers of darkness and hell. For God's        it. The Lord commands us to do this very thing.
election is Jehovah's unchangeable and eternal pur-
pose of love towards us. This election is in no sense        We must make sure our election. Does this mean
dependent upon our righteouness and good works,            that God's election of His people lies in the realm of
does not rest upon anything in us, is not based upon       uncertainties? We, now, must establish, make sure
the fact that we were holy and blameless, in order         that election. This is alone possible through our
that no flesh should boast. This election never rests      perseverance unto the end  - this is left to us.
upon man but only upon God. God's election is              Whether we are saved unto eternal life, also in
God's eternal purpose of love and mercy towards            God's counsel, is not definite until we are victors
us, not because we were holy, but that we should           and receive the crown. This, then, is why Peter
be holy, according to Ephesians  1:4. Therefore this       exhorts us to make our election sure. What an im-
election of God's people is as immovable as the            possible view! This would merely be an election,
mountains, as sure as the Lord God Himself, the            awaiting the end of the race, based upon foreseen
eternal, all-sufficient, unchangeable Rock of all the      faith and our perseverance. In other words, the
ages. And the knowledge of this election is the            Lord has elected but we determine that election.
knowledge that, before the world was, the Lord             This is surely not Reformed, but Arminian, which
God chose me, knew me, loved me, willed me to              teaches a conditional election, an election based
partake of His life, to be conformed unto the image        upon foreseen works. How comfortless is this view!
of His Son, and that in unspeakable and heavenly           It deprives us of all assurance, inasmuch as it pre-
glory. Therefore this also implies that we, knowing        sents this comfort as dependent upon the sinner.
to be elect in Christ, share in Christ's work, His suf-    This view, however, is also contrary to this Word of
                                                           God. It is surely not the idea of the apostle that we
fering and death, His atonement and glory, and that        make sure this election. How can we make sure
therefore nothing can separate us from His love,           God's election? How can we make sure and seal the
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.        Lord's decree? What the apostle means is that we
Indeed, it is the blessed assurance that from before
the foundation of the world an eternal and all-wise        make this election sure for ourselves. We must
                                                           stand fast in its knowledge. That knowledge must
God elected me in Christ unto eternal life, and that       stand fast in our consciousness. We must be per-
therefore, according to Romans  828, all things            sonally sure that the Lord has elected us, that we
must work together for my good. This knowledge             therefore do not stumble, believing today and not
of our election in Christ Jesus from before the foun-      believing tomorrow. Make this election sure for
dation of the world, not because of anything in me,
inasmuch as what we receive follows from that              ourselves.
eternal love of God, is surely the basis for our com-        Secondly, this scripture also overthrows the idea
fort, our strength in the battle, our courage amidst       that this making sure of our election is really vain
all danger, our patience in suffering, our endurance       and impossible. Is it not a vain effort to attain unto
to continue unto the very end. A cold doctrine? A          that assurance in this life? Is not this knowledge of
doctrine to be rejected as making men careless and         our election altogether too high and too wonderful?
profane? A doctrine to be silenced in the preaching?       Is it not ridiculous even to conceive of this, to enter-


                                              THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                                 81



tain its possibility? Will this the rather not be the         battle begins? Besides, are not the hidden things for
case, that we merely strive after that assurance,             our God? Must and may we concern ourselves with
that that much desired object will always escape us,          them? Moreoever, who, I ask you, concerns himself
even as the foot of the rainbow who would pursue              today with his election? Today the preaching is gen-
after it? Moreover, is not our election too deep a            erally Arminian. Besides, it is even stated that this
mystery, that we should concern ourselves with it?            doctrine of election tends to make men careless and
We cannot look into God's book of life. Is it not             profane. However, the apostle Peter in this Word of
better to control our curiosity; in fact, is it not really    God enjoins upon us to make our election sure. He
sinful and should we not be satisfied with but a              surely refutes the charge that this making sure of
stumbling to heaven's gates, always uncertain, ever           our election is really vain and impossible.
wavering, never sure that we shall receive the vic-             The Lord willing, we will continue with this dis-
tory? Besides, why fight and struggle for the crown           cussion in our following article upon this subject.
when we already know the outcome before the

IN HIS FEAR


                   God's Revelation In His Law (1.)
                                                  Rev. Ronald Hanko


  The matter of the Christian's relation to the law           purpose to point out that fundamental to our under-
has been a subject of debate in the church since the          standing of the law and its place in our lives is the
days of the apostle Paul. Both his Epistles to the            fact that God reveals Himself in His law. The basic
Romans and to the Galatians deal with this issue as           principle of the whole law is that it is the law of
it affected the Apostolic churches. Paul argues               God, not only or even especially in the sense that it
especially against those who desired to force the             is from Him, as it surely is, but in the sense that His
cruel bonds of legalism upon the New Testament                glory, His perfection, and His holiness shine forth
churches. Not only did they propose to bring the              in every precept of the law. In this and in following
churches back to the ceremonies and civil regula-             articles I hope to show how this principle applies in
tions of the Old Testament, but they also taught              connection with each of the Ten Commandments
that these things were necessary for salvation.               by showing what God reveals of Himself in each
  Such legalism is still to be found in the church. It        commandment. Then, too, we shall be able to un-
is found in its worst form in the Romish church               derstand how God's law teaches us to fear Him as
where sacrificial rites and priestly ceremonies are           we ought.
regarded as the heart of true religion and the only             This principle is implied in the common Hebrew
way of salvation. It is also found in Protestant              word for the law, the word "torah." The word
churches among those who find the essence of                  meaning "teaching" or "instruction." This is clear,
Christianity in regulations and rules, even among             for example, from Proverbs  1:8 where "instruc-
preachers who preach the law only as an endless               tion" and "law" are synonymous. This instruction
list of "dos" and "don'ts."                                   which the law gives is not an arbitrary code of mor-
  On the other hand, James and also Paul bring the            ality, but instruction in the very nature and being of
Word of God to bear upon those who maintain                   God Himself as the only foundation for morality
either in their teaching or in their practice that the        and right living. It is, to use the words of Scripture,
law has nothing any more to say to him who is justi-          instruction in "the praises of the Lord and His
fied in Christ Jesus by faith alone. Even today               strength" (Ps. 78:4).
among those in whom this attitude has taken deep                This principle is also clearly taught in Psalm 119.
root, any reaching or application of the law to the           It is found especially in the first section of the
Christian is strenuously resisted.                            Psalm because it is the most basic truth concerning
  Now, it is not my purpose to attempt to add any-            God's law, and the basis for all that David says in
thing to the volumes that have been written in ex-            that Psalm about the law. In harmony, therefore,
plaining, defending, or repudiating either the one            with the parallelism of these verses, we are remind-
or the other of these false doctrines. Rather it is my        ed that "keeping His testimonies" is the very same


82                                                           THE   STANDARD  BEARER



thing as "seeking Him with the whole heart" (vs. 2);                      Light and in Him is no darkness. We are light  in
or that "learning His righteous judgments" is no                          Him,  and therefore must be a separate people, for
different from  "puising Him  with uprightness of                         "what fellowship hath light with darkness?" (vs.
heart" (vs. 7). Later on, David returns to this                           14). As Peter says in another place, we must be
thought when he likens the teaching of God's                              holy, not according to any standards of our own,
statutes to God's making His face to shine upon His                       but as the Lord our God is holy (I Pet. 1:15, 16).
servants (vs. 135).                                                         We ought not forget either, in this regard, that
      It is, then, only because David understands this                    there was law before Sinai, not in the sense of a
principle that he can say, "I have rejoiced in the                        written code, but because God reveals Himself in
way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches"                         all of creation. Also that revelation of God is a law
(vs. 14). To rejoice in God's testimonies is to rejoice                   which governs the whole of man's existence. To
in the riches of God Himself. So also he speaks of                        know Him is to be under obligation to serve Him.
beholding wondrous things out of the law (vs. 18),                        God's law, then, is from the beginning and finds its
and testifies, "Thy statutes have been my song in                         truth and substance in the declaration of the
the house of my pilgrimage" (vs. 54). And when he                         heavens and all creation concerning His glory.
comforts himself with the knowledge of God's                                Paul makes it abundantly clear in Romans 1: 19-
judgments, it is clear that this comfort is found in                      25 that God's revelation of His power and divinity
God and nowhere else (vs. 52).                                            in the creation brings all mankind under the obliga-
  That same principle lies behind the teaching of                         tion to glorify Him as God and to be thankful. Fail-
our Belgic Confession in Article XXV:                                     ing to do so, man is left without excuse and be-
         We  believe,  that   the  ceremonies  and  figures   of  the     comes worthy of death. This is also proved by the
       law ceased  at the coming  of Christ,  and that  all of the        universal reign of death during the time from Adam
       shadows   are   accomplished;  so  that  the  use   of  them       to Moses. Without law there is no sin imputed, and
      must be abolished  among  Christians,  yet the truth and            without the imputation of sin death has no power
       substance  of them  remain with   us in  Jesus Christ,   in        over us, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses
      Whom they have  their completion.                                   (Rom.  5:13, 14). God's law, therefore, as a revela-
In order to see here this principle of which we are                       tion of His own glorious being was given first of all
speaking it is necessary to look-at several other im-                     in the things that are made and later engraved in
portant truths taught in this beautiful confession.                       tables of stone.
  First of all, we ought to note that the law itself is                     Because of sin, however, that revelation of God,
not abolished (cf. Matt.  5:17,  18), but rather that                     whether in creation or from Sinai, can only bring
"the truth and substance" of it remain with us.                           down wrath upon us. We are exposed in all our cor-
Only the ceremonies and figures of the law have                           ruption by the law, for the law, shining with the
ceased. These ceremonies and figures are a refer-                         glory and holiness of God, shows that we have
ence to all the civil and ceremonial regulations                          "come short of the glory of God" (Rom.  3:23). It is
which God used to teach Israel what is called here                        sin which kills us, and sin finds its power and op-
"the truth and substance" of the law. We no longer                        portunity in the law (Rom. 7: 10, 11).
need to be taught by these regulations since we                             Of utmost importance, therefore, is the
have the Spirit of the risen Christ as our great                          statement of our Confession that the truth and sub-
Teacher. These ceremonies and figures, then, must                         stance of the law remain with us  in Christ.  Apart
be abolished.                                                             from Him the law can only curse us and bring
  Yet, and in the second place, the truth and sub-                        death upon us, but in Christ that power of the law
stance of the law do remain. An example of this is                        is destroyed, for "Christ hath redeemed us from the
found in the law which forbade the Israelites to                          curse of the law, being made a curse for us: as it is
plow with an ox and an ass together (Deut. 22:lO).                        written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a
The law no longer forbids this, but the truth and                         tree" (Gal. 3:13).
substance of that commandment still remain with                             Nevertheless, in taking away the curse of the law
us in II Corinthians  6:14, "Be ye not unequally                          Christ did not take away the law itself. He only
yoked together with unbelievers." So it is with all                       changed our relationship to the law. Formerly the
the laws of the Old Testament.                                            law was our master through its power to curse and
  That truth and substance of the law is God's own                        destroy, but when that power is taken away
revelation of Himself in the law. That is true even                       through the suffering and death of our Lord the law
in connection with the passage from II Corinthians.                       becomes our servant and a means for our salvation.
That command to be separate from unbelievers is                             It is our servant especially in two ways. First of
not an arbitrary requirement, but finds its source in                     all, it is our servant with its power to reveal sin. The
the holiness and purity of God Himself. He is the                         law has not lost that power, only its power to curse


                                               THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                             83



when sin is revealed. Now, in revealing sin, it is a         coming. Already at Sinai, in pictures and types,
schoolmaster, and teacher to lead us to Christ. Al-          God showed Christ to His people, not only by re-
ways it reminds us through its revelation of God             minding them of the blood of the  passover lamb
that we cannot stand before Him in ourselves, and            and the water of baptism, but also by giving them
that knowledge drives us, not once, but again and            the law "in the hand of a mediator" (Gal.  3:19).
again all our life long to the cross. Understand, the        Moses as a mediator between God and the people,
law itself has no power to take away the burden of           was a type and shadow of Him Who was to come.
sin, but by grace its power is to lead us to Calvary         In Christ promised, therefore, Israel appears before
where burdens are lifted. This it did also for Israel.       God as washed and sanctified, to receive the law
  In the second place, the law serves as a guide in          not as a way of salvation, but that in holiness of life,
the way of gratitude. It organizes our life as those         she might glorify Her Saviour God. So also do we,
who are called out of darkness into light to show            the true Israel of God, receive the law from Him.
forth the Lord's praises. And it does that exactly be-          The law, then, teaches us to fear Him as we
cause it reveals the praises of Jehovah our Saviour.         ought, not with the terror of the ungodly, but with a
That was the purpose of the law-giving at Sinai.             holy awe and reverence that will not allow us to
Through the giving of the law Israel, redeemed by            glory in anything but in the cross of Christ; an awe
the blood of the passover lamb and the baptism of            which drives us to the cross for peace and pardon,
the Red Sea, eating daily the heavenly manna and             and which causes us to return from the cross with a
drinking of the Rock Who followed them, was or-              new resolve to live as children of the light for the
ganized as the people of Jehovah to worship Him              praise of Him Who delivered us out of darkness.
and to live before Him as the people of His care.            Thus the commandments become also for us, with
  For Israel as for us, the law could serve this pur-        their revelation of the majesty and holiness of God,
pose only through Christ and the promise of His               "our songs in the house of our pilgrimage."

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                          Missionary Methods (19)
                                                Prof. Robert D. Decker


  With this article we shall conclude our study of           group as soon as founded beginning to pay towards
the views of Dr. John L. Nevius. The "Nevius                 the circuit-helper's salary; even schools to receive
Method or Plan" to which the growth of the                   only partial subsidy, and no pastors of single con-
Presbyterian Mission in Korea has been attributed            gregations to be provided for by foreign funds.
may be summed as follows:                                       5) Systematic Bible-study for every believer
  1) Missionary personal evangelism through wide             under his group leader and circuit-helper;  an'd for
itineration. This means missionaries should not              every leader and helper in the Bible classes con-
remain in one group or congregation. They should             ducted by the missionaries.
preach the gospel from place to place and in as                 6) Strict discipline,          enforced by biblical
many places as possible. They should not become,             sanctions.
in effect, pastors of the mission churches.                     7) Co-operation and union with other bodies, or
  2) Self-propagation, with every believer a teach-          at least territorial division.
er of someone and a learner from someone else
better equipped than himself.                                   8) Non-interference in private lawsuits or any
                                                             such matter.
  3) Self-government, with every group under its
own chosen but unpaid leaders; circuits (several                9) General helpfulness on the part of the mis-
groups in a given region) under their own paid               sionaries, where possible, in the economic
helpers who will later give place to pastors; circuit        problems of the people.
meetings training the people for later district, pro-           (cf. Peter Beyerhaus, Henry Lefever,;  The  Re-
vincial, and national leadership.                            sponsible Church And The Foreign Mission; pp. 91,
  4) Self-support, with all places of worship (often         94
private homes) provided by the believers, each                  Of these Nevius and his followers would  con-


          84                                          THE   STANDARD  BEARER



          sider points 2, and more especially 4 and 5, to, be       were distributed throughout the land. This,
          the most important. Point 4 is usually regarded as        coupled with the fact that the Korean Christians
          the most characteristic of his method. Nevius him-        were literate, made the "Bible Class" system work.
          self was firmly convinced that financial support          Each believer received instruction from his leader.
          from the foreign .or home church of the missionary        The leaders and circuit-helpers were instructed by
          would endanger and inhibit the growth and devel-          the missionaries. We are told that "In 1890, the
          opment of the mission church. The development of          year in which Nevius visited Seoul, the Mission
          the native churches into autonomous congregations         started its first Bible-class there with seven mem-
          and an autonomous denomination with a sense of            bers. In the 1930's each of the 3,000 local congrega-
          responsibility toward its own calling to engage in        tions held an annual Bible-Study Course for which
          mission work would be hindered, not fostered, by          the members left their every-day occupations com-
          foreign subsidy. In other words, Nevius would             pletely, generally for a week. The missionaries
          have considered it very wrong for the Protestant          created a system by which the whole Korean
          Reformed Churches to train and pay the salaries of        Church, from the tiniest village congregation to the
          native pastors on some foreign mission field.             largest city church, studied the Bible. For many,
                It would be incorrect to imagine, however, that     this system culminated in theological training for
~         Nevius' concern was chiefly an economic one. He           the ministry." (Beyerhaus, Lefever; The Responsible
          saw the economic factor as an element of the spiri-       Church And The Foreign Mission, p. 94)
          tual life of the native church. The wrong kind of           A bit later the Mission expanded the work of the
          support, in his opinion, is bound to lead to spiritual    Bible classes by opening in all its stations self-sup-
          laxity and to what he called "rice Christians,"           porting Bible Institutes in which "humble  church-
          people who come to the church and who seek the            workers, men and women, `exhorters', deacons,
          ministry only for financial reasons. For this reason,     group-leaders, elders, assistants and Bible-women,
          over against the old policy of providing everything       could study for one or two months each winter, the
          (church buildings, salaries of full-time native           whole course taking from five to six years. In 1936
          pastors), Nevius outlined his own method which,           there were 4,509 men and women studying in these
          from an economic point of view, provided for self-        Bible Institutes . . . . In this way the Korean Church
          supporting churches from the moment of their in-          gained a whole army of lay assistants who shoul-
          ception.                                                  dered the main burden of parish work and evan-
     -          Apart from the support of the missionaries, the     gelism without over-burdening the Mission or the
          sending church was to provide funding for nothing.        young church financially or forcing the Church to
          The first Christians were not to be provided a            depend on the Government for subsidies. Only or-
          church building or a paid, native pastor. They were       dained ministers could administer the Sacraments,
          to meet in the home of one of their number. When          and after 1907 the number of these men grew
          they grew and became too numerous for meeting in          rapidly. Their Bible-knowledge was thorough, and
          homes they were to construct their own building at        as. a result they were gifted with spiritual insight
          their own expense. At this point the missionaries         and evangelistic zeal." (Beyerhaus, Lefever; pp. 94,
          would select certain capable and more advanced            95)
          members. These would exercise a certain amount              As we have pointed out in previous articles,
          of oversight on a voluntary basis. These would be         there certainly are commendable features in the
          trained, especially in the conduct of worship, by         "Nevius method," These ought to be incorporated
          the missionaries. If sufficient progress ensued, the      into our own mission thinking and practice. If un-
          groups would be organized into congregations, and         derstood biblically the three main tenets of this
          paid assistants would be appointed until such time        method  - self-government, self-support, and  self-
          as native pastors could be trained. The latter would      propagation  - are correct. The mission church
          then replace the missionaries. The final fruit would      ought to be instructed and led to the point where it
          be the establishment of an autonomous, self-sup-          is possible to ordain native pastors, elders, and dea-
          porting church.                                           cons. These ought to be independent of the church
                Following Nevius' advice (given in 1890) the        which sends the missionaries. The new church
          Presbyterian missionaries in Korea placed a high          must be self-propagating in the sense that it sends
          priority on Bible study, not only for the leaders but     out its own missionaries in obedience to the com-
          for every member of the church. From the very be-         mand of Christ. The mission church, we believe,
          ginning the missionaries, with the help of the Bible      ought to be from its very inception self-supporting.
          Societies of that day, devoted themselves to the          We ought to learn from the experience of the
          translation of the Scriptures. They printed the Bible     church of the past that it is wrong to build church
          in the older Korean script, which was easier to read      buildings for the converts. It is wrong to pay native
          than the Chinese characters. These translations           pastors. It is wrong to do these things, for the  rea-


                                             THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                                                       85



sons Dr. Nevius and others have stated. We are not           method." There is little, in fact almost no emphasis
saying  it  is wrong to manifest the benevolence of          at all, on the preaching of the Word, at least in the
Christ to those who are truly poor and in need. Ob-          initial stages of the work. The house groups are
viously there is a place for this on the mission field.      under an unordained, voluntary leader. The leaders
What we are saying, however, is that we must not             are under an unordained, paid helper. Only after
do for mission converts what Scripture commands              considerable development is the stage reached
them to do for themselves. This we firmly believe            where an ordained, native pastor takes over the
applies to the church in every nation. Each church           work. At this point, according to Nevius, the mis-
must be a manifestation of the Body of Jesus Christ          sionary must go elsewhere. The native church is
in its own time and place. Each congregation must            able to stand on its own. In this direction the
have its own officebearers. For its pastors each con-        church ought not go in its mission work. Preaching
gregation must provide.                                      must be the chief part of the work of the mission-
  The emphasis which Nevius placed upon Bible                ary. The New Testament is altogether clear on this
study, as well as the Bible Study Classes which              point. (Cf. I Cor. 1, Rom. 10,  et,  al. ) As the Lord
evolved from that in Korea, are commendable. Cer-            gives positive fruit upon the preaching, the mis-
tainly the missionary, in addition to his regular            sionary must seek out gifted men to be trained for
preaching, will have to devote himself to teaching           the office of preacher, as well as for the offices of
the converts from the Word of God. In fact, in the           elder and deacon. The church does not need
broader sense, we believe this to be a part of               leaders and helpers; it needs officebearers through
preaching. After the example of the apostle Paul the         whom Christ will cause His voice to be heard,
missionary must teach God's people "publicly, and            through whom Christ will rule and minister His
from house to house" (Acts  20:20-27).  To this be-          mercies. Out of that will flow Bible study, spiritual
longs the translating of Scripture into the native           growth. By that means the church will be gathered
language so that the converts are able to read and           out of the nations. When the last elect shall have
study the Scriptures. Great stress ought to be               been born and gathered into the Body of our Lord
placed on all of these matters.                              He will come again to make His church perfect in
                                                             the new heaven and earth. God's great and im-
  Aside from differences in unimportant detail or            measurable glory will radiate from His church for-
emphasis there is a major weakness in the "Nevius            ever.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS


                                    The Nicene Creed
                                                 Rev. James Slopsema


  Article 3: . , . Who for us men, and for our salvation,    perhaps a little more specific at this point. There we
came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the              read that Jesus was "conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. . . .       born of the Virgin Mary." The incarnation there-
  The  fundamental thought and concern of this               fore is to be explained by the miraculous operation
third article is that of the incarnation of Jesus            of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Christ. Jesus "was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of            That which was conceived in Mary and born from
the Virgin Mary." The word "incarnate" literally             her was not the result of the natural union of man
means "in the flesh." It is not a biblical term but a        and woman. It was rather the result of the direct
theological one. It indicates that the eternal Son of        operation of the Spirit of God in Mary. In short, it
God has come in the flesh. It means that God's Son           was a wonder of grace.
has taken upon Himself our flesh and become one                The fact of the virgin birth is more and more be-
of us.                                                       ing disputed today. Writes Geddes  MacGreggor in
  The incarnation of the Son of God has taken                his book, The Nicene Creed, page 57,
place only through the instrumentality of the Holy                    The  doctrine  of  the  Virgin   Birth  (that  is,  the  asser-
Spirit and the Virgin Mary. As. the Nicene Creed                 tion that Mary,  the mother of Jesus, conceived Him in
states it, Jesus Christ "was incarnate by the Holy               her  womb  without  any   human  male   cooperation)
Ghost of the Virgin Mary." The Apostles' Creed is                seems   to  those  who  account  themselves  "liberal"  in


86                                                           THE   STANDARD  BEARER



      their  approach   to  the  Christian   faith  a  peculiarly  in-    Bible, we are told, is full of such allegories.
      credible,  not to say ludicrous   notion and perhaps  the
      most   conspicuous  obstacle  to  an  acceptance   of  the             Secondly, it is pointed out that the virgin birth is
      traditional  Catholic views.  Embarrassment about this              not mentioned at all in the rest of the N.T. It is not
      doctrine,   however,   is  not  entirely  confined  to  "lib-       mentioned in the epistles. Nor do we find it in the
      erals"; many  thoughtful   "conservatives",  Roman                  book of Acts which records the missionary labors
      Catholic  and  Reformed,   Anglican   and  Lutheran,   feel         of the early church. In the book of Acts all
      ill at ease  with it.                                               emphasis is laid on the resurrection of Jesus; but no
   The view that is more and more accepted today                          mention is made of the virgin birth. This only con-
is that Jesus was simply the product of a natural                         firms therefore that the accounts in Matthew and
union between Joseph and Mary. His conception                             Luke concerning the virgin birth are to be under-
and birth were no different from that of any other.                       stood allegorically. If the early church had under-
Jesus had a human father just as any one else.                            stood these accounts as literal history, more empha-
There was nothing miraculous at all about His                             sis would have been placed on the fact of the virgin
birth.                                                                    birth in the rest of the N.T.
   To take such a position of course requires that                           Finally, it is pointed out- that the word translated
certain Bible passages be "explained away." Thus,                         "virgin" in most English translations of the Bible
for example, there is the well-known passage of                           does not mean virgin at all but simply "young
Isaiah  7:14 that foretells the birth of Jesus: "There-                   woman" or "maiden." The Hebrew word  betzdlah
fore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold,                      and the Greek word  parthenos  simply refer to an
a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and call His                     unmarried woman. Furthermore, we are told that
name Immanuel." Then there are the two very well                          in the O.T. times this did not imply virginity at all.
known gospel accounts of Jesus' birth. First, there                       In early Hebrew, as in other primitive societies,
is the account of Luke. In Luke 1:26-38 we have the                       girls were normally married very early, shortly
record of the appearance of the Angel to Mary and                         after puberty, so that the question of virginity did
the announcement that she shall mother the Christ-                        not arise at all. Hence, when Isaiah prophesied con-
child. In this account Mary is called a virgin (vs.                       cerning the birth of Christ, all he was saying was
27). And it becomes clear from the message of the                         that a young, unmarried woman would conceive
angel that as a virgin she should bring forth the                         and bear a son and call His name Immanuel.
Christ-child. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon                               In response to this we wish briefly to point out
thee, and the power of the highest shall over-                            several things.
shadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God"                        First, we must point out that the two gospel ac-
(vs. 35). Next we have the account in Matthew 1.                          counts of Jesus' birth are obviously not to be under-
According to this passage the word of the angel has                       stood allegorically. It is true that there are allegories
come true and Mary is great with child. Joseph has                        in the Bible. But all sound rules of interpretation
not been informed either by the angel or by Mary                          militate against understanding the gospel accounts
as to God's wonder work in her. All he can con-                           of Jesus' birth allegorically. They are so obviously
clude is adultery on the part of Mary. Hence, he                          intended to relate historical fact. If these two pas-
determines to put her away privately. But then the                        sages of Scripture are to be understood allegorical-
Angel appears to Joseph in a dream and reveals all.                       ly, then there is no passage of Scripture that we can
"Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that                       assume accurately relates to us simple historical
which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost" (vs.                      fact.
20). In this connection Matthew also cites Isaiah                           Secondly, it is quite obvious that Isaiah 7: 14 does
7:14 and finds in this event the fulfillment of this                      not simply foretell that a young, unmarried woman
particular prophecy (cf. vss. 22,23).                                     shall conceive and bear a son. This is evident from
                                                                          the fact that this conception and birth were to serve
  The response of those that deny the virgin birth                        as a sign in Israel. Notice what the prophet said,
is essentially threefold.                                                 "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign;
  First, it is pointed out that only two of the gospel                    Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and
accounts mention the virgin birth, Matthew and                            shall call His name Immanuel." The point here is
Luke. And these two accounts are obviously to be                          that to serve as a sign there must be something un-
understood allegorically. By this is meant that the                       usual about this conception and birth. It must par-
events recorded in these passages did not neces-                          take of the nature of the miraculous. But certainly
sarily take place as they are recorded. These                             this would not be the case if "virgin" is translated
"events," in other words, are not to be understood                        "young woman." There is nothing extraordinary in
literally but figuratively. They serve merely to                          that a young, unmarried woman should conceive
point us to some deeper truth and meaning. The                            and bring forth a son. This has happened repeated-


                                             THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                              87



ly throughout history. But there is something un-           birth do so because they have already denied the
usual if this young woman is a virgin. And this is          true divinity of Jesus Christ and therefore the idea
undoubtedly the idea of Isaiah. A virgin would con-         of the incarnation. Once you deny these, then, to
ceive and bear a son.                                       use the words of Geddes  MacGreggor whom we
  Finally, it is true that the virgin birth as such is      quoted earlier, the virgin birth is "incredible,"
not mentioned in the N.T. except in the birth ac-           "ludicrous," an "embarrassment," and a "con-
counts of Matthew and Luke. We must not fail to             spicuous obstacle. " It must at all costs be destroyed.
see however that the fact of the virgin birth, al-          For the virgin birth points to only one thing  - the
though not expressly mentioned, certainly is im-            incarnation. However, if, in turn, we by faith
plied throughout the N.T. It is implied in the truth        accept the simple teaching of the Bible concerning
of the incarnation which runs as a golden strand            the incarnation  - that Jesus is the eternal Son of
throughout the entire N.T. Scriptures. Time and             God come in the flesh - then the way is clear also
again, in many different passages, we are taught that       to accept the very clear teaching of the Bible con-
Jesus Christ is the Son of God come in the flesh.           cerning the virgin birth of Christ.
This in turn necessarily implies the virgin birth.            In the third article of the Nicene Creed the early
How else can you possibly explain the incarnation?          church confessed her faith in the incarnation and
In fact, the virgin birth and the incarnation of Jesus      virgin birth of Jesus Christ. She confessed that
are so inseparably connected that where the one is          Jesus "was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the
mentioned the other need not even be expressed!             Virgin Mary, and was made man." This confession
The one simply presupposes the other. And this is           simply followed from the truth she had confessed
undoubtedly the reason why in the N.T. the fact of          in the previous article  - that Jesus Christ is the
the virgin birth is not mentioned other than in the         eternal Son of God, very God of very God.
two gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke. Some                 This confession of the incarnation and the virgin
things are so obvious they need no more be men-             birth of Christ has also been the confession of the
tioned.                                                     true church of Christ down through the ages. He
  This in turn brings us to the central issue. The          who will not also make this his confession can not
real issue here is whether Jesus is the eternal Son of      claim to be a part of that church.
God or merely a man. Those who deny the virgin

GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH


                  Doctrine of Scripture: Introduction
                                               Rev. Thomas Miersma


  The early new dispensational church, following            Word. That written revelation of God is the touch-
the death of the last apostle, had received from God        stone of all her doctrine, faith, and life. It is the
His completed Word. The cornerstone of the                  standard of truth. How the church therefore views
church had been laid through the cross, in Christ as        that Word, her understanding of the way in which
our Redeemer and exalted Head. The Word of                  it is to be interpreted, and the value she places upon
Christ had been given unto His church, and the              it must necessarily shape the course of the history
foundation of the new dispensational church had             of doctrine. When the church has a low conception
been laid in the doctrine of the apostles. It is at this    of that Word and places her trust more in reason
point in time that we begin our study of the history        and in the philosophy of men, we can well expect
of doctrine, of the Spirit's guiding His church into        that not only will little development of the truth
all the truth.                                              take place, but that errors and heresy will enter the
                                                            church. The church's regard for Scripture and the
  It is our intention to begin that study with a con-       development of the truth go hand in hand. When
sideration of the church's doctrine of the Word, her        other standards of truth, whether traditions of men,
doctrine of Scripture. How the church of Jesus              decisions of councils, or the philosophy of the
Christ views that Word of God, how she confesses            world, are placed alongside the Scriptures or coor-
the truth of that Word, materially affects her devel-       dinated to them in authority, the truth declines in
opment and appropriation of the truth of that               the church.


88                                          THE   STANDARD  BEARER



      History repeatedly shows this to be the case. In    history of doctrine, heresy is often first and a cor-
the Middle Ages when the authority of tradition,          ruption of the church's doctrine of the Word often
church councils, and the pope supplanted the              follows upon its heels. This is necessarily so.
authority of Scripture, the church declined into          Heresy, to maintain itself in the church, cannot
error, so that the only remedy for the church was         abide a sound doctrine of Scripture or sound
reformation. When dead orthodoxy settled upon             principles of interpretation, lest it be exposed for
the Reformed churches after the Synod of Dordt in         what it is, a departure from the truth.
the seventeenth century, and human reason was               Nevertheless, there has always been in the mind
elevated to a place of authority alongside Scripture,     of the church, if not formally expressed, a doctrine
the Reformed churches also went through a period          of the Word of God which has guided the church in
of decline. This continued until the time of the          her study of the Scriptures. We often see the op-
secession from the state church in the Netherlands.       posite situation today. A church or denomination
So also is it in the Christian church-world today and     may indeed have in its creeds a formal expression
among Reformed churches in particular. Regard for         of the doctrine of Scripture, but it has little or
the Word of God has declined under the guise of a         nothing to do with what in practice is believed in
more enlightened approach to Scripture, an ap-            the church or with that which functions in the daily
proach which is not really new or enlightening, but       life of the people of God. Thus, while a formal ex-
rather a darkening of the church's appreciation of        pression concerning the doctrine of Scripture does
her sole doctrinal foundation. With this approach         not fully appear until the time of the Reformation,
errors multiply about us rapidly and pour into the        yet in the writings of the church fathers and in the
church. So much is this the case that on every side       actions of the church, one can yet discern and glean
we see Reformed churches departing from the rich          an implicit doctrine of the Word.
heritage of God's Word, and selling it for a mess of
warmed-over pottage.                                        It is particularly in the formative elements found
                                                          in the early church, as she struggled to understand
      In a very real sense of the word it may be said     that Word, that the seeds, both of truth and of
that the history of doctrine and the development of       error, were sown, which later bore fruit in the
the truth has always paralleled the church's under-       church's doctrine of the Word. That fruit led to the
standing of the doctrine of the Word of God. By the       darkness of the Middle Ages and to the rise of
grace of God this parallel is not absolute. There         apostolic tradition and of the clergy as the trustees
have always been men who have treasured that              and interpreters of that tradition. And the seeds of
Word of God, have studied it, and have brought the        truth bore fruit which led to a return to the Word of
truth to light and enriched it. This was true even in     God which began already with the pre-reformers
the darkest periods of the church's history. Yet          and came to formal expression in the creeds of the
even then this development went hand in hand              Reformation. These things we shall consider.
with a high personal regard for Scripture and care-
ful biblical exegesis.                                      It must not be thought, however, that the early
  A study of the development of the doctrine of           church with which we begin our study, merely pos-
Scripture and its formal expression may therefore         sessed the Word of God in its entirety, ready to
serve also to give to us an overview of the history of    hand. True, the revelation of God was complete
doctrine itself and the course and direction of that      and that Word had been given. But, for the early
history. We must not expect, however, that the            church, the Word of God was present in a scattered
church formally set forth a doctrine of the Word of       and fragmented form.
God early in her doctrinal development. The                 The Old Testament the church received as a
church began immediately to labor with that Word          completed entity in itself. However, there were
of God, receiving and confessing that Word in faith.      also in use in the early church certain apocryphal
It needed no formal declaration of the doctrine of        books. These books, which are mentioned in
the Scripture, nor was such a declaration possible.       Article 6 of our Confession of Faith, were also in
For that doctrine also must be developed from             use in Jesus' day in the-church of the old dispensa-
Scripture itself, which is its own interpreter. The       tion and passed into use also in the New Testament
need to make such a formal declaration arose as           church. There were other such books as well. The
errors crept into the church, errors of interpreta-       status of these books, their place and authority, if
tion, errors of doctrine. Instead the church oc-          any, had to be determined by the church. This
cupied itself first of all with the fundamental           process was not wholly complete, as Article 6 indi-
questions concerning the doctrine of God, Whose           cates, even up to the time of the Reformation, for
Word it was. Nor was it always the case that the          the Roman Catholic Church holds these books to be
doctrine of the Word of God was first corrupted           on a par with Scripture, while we as Reformed
and then heresy arose in the church. Rather, in the       churches, reject their authority.


                                             THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                              89



  Moreover, the New Testament church was pre-                mined what belonged to the Scriptures and what
dominantly Gentile in its makeup and had little              did not. Nor were copies of individual books read-
access to the Hebrew language of the Old Testa-              ily available. There were no printing presses; each
ment. Even among Jews living outside of Palestine,           book had to be copied by hand. There were other
Hebrew was little known. The result was that the             books and letters which also vied for a place in that
Old Testament was largely available only in transla-         New Testament, and the canonicity or inspiration
tions. The main translation in use was the Greek             of some books, and in particular some of the
version, called the Septuagint, which became the             smaller letters of the apostles, was not soon decided
Old Testament Bible of the New Testament church.             by the church.
This version varies in the quality of its translation,         The Spirit first had to lead the church into a
from what we would consider excellent to what we             recognition of the contents and scope of her heri-
would call a paraphrase, and at times a bad para-            tage of the Word of God. This process took time. It
phrase.                                                      began already in the lifetime of the apostles and
  As to the New Testament Scriptures, these had              continued after their death for several centuries.
not yet been gathered and collected into one whole.          The apostle Peter himself points us to the beginning
The letters of the apostles were written to various          of this process in II Peter  3:15, 16 when he writes,
churches and the original copies usually remained            "...even as our beloved brother Paul also according
with the churches to which they were written.                to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
While it is evident that some of them were soon              you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of
copied and circulated among the churches, indeed             these things; in which are some things hard to be
some almost immediately, yet by no means all of              understood, which they that are unlearned and un-
the books of the New Testament were in the hands             stable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures,
of every church at the time of the death of the              unto their own destruction." This process was con-
apostles. The church had to go through a period in           tinued until a general consensus of the church was
which, under the leading of the Spirit, it deter-            reached in approximately A.D. 350.

GUESTARTICLE


                                        Gad's Patience
                                               Rev. Robt. C. Harbach


  "And the Lord passed by before him and pro-                makrothumeoo, "to be strong-spirited," so as not to
claimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and                lose heart, "to be patient in bearing the  offences
gracious, Zongsuffering and abundant in goodness             and injuries of others; slow to anger, slow to pun-
and truth" (Ex. 34:6).                                       ish." The noun-form is makrothumia, "patience,
  The word Zongsuffering, found four times in the            endurance, steadfastness, perseverance,  longsuffer-
King James Old Testament, is the term there used             ing, forbearance" (Rom. 3:25). These terms, in both
for  patience. It is closely connected with and is a dis-    Testaments, denote "an attitude of God toward His
play of God's mercy; "and it may be observed that            people, whom in His sovereign mercy He is
wherever God is said to be longsuffering, He is              desirous to save" (Reformed Dogmatics, H. Hoekse-
represented as gracious, merciful, of great mercy            ma, 116).
and kindness" (Gill). This biblical fact ought to               In Luke 18:7 we read, "And shall not God avenge
warn us that "common grace" has not the support              His own elect, which (who) cry day and night unto
of Scripture, and it ought at least introduce us to the      Him, though He bear long with them?" On that last
principal truth that God's ethical attributes are in         clause, in the KJV, there are two different render-
Himself absolute and independent and, in their               ings of the original text, one with the verb
communicable form, always particular. The word               makrothumei (present indicative), and the other
in the Hebrew is erekh appayim and means, literal-           with makrothumoon (participial form). Both the
ly, "long of nostrils, " and sometimes is translated,        Englishman's Greek New Testament, Stephens,
"slow to anger" (Neh.  9:17; Ps.  145:8). (In anger,          1550 and the Majority Text of the Greek N.T., 1982,
the nostrils dilate and contract, alternately.) The          prefer the reading with the participle, which H.H.
New Testament verb-form for  Zongsuffering  is               says is "the correct reading." We then render the


90                                           THE   STANDARD  BEARER



clause, "and is He being longsuffering over them?"          delights in Himself and is eternally jealous for the
He will not long delay His help to them, for that           honor and glory of all His perfections.
would contradict the "speedily" of v. 8. He is being          Since this attribute is rooted in God's goodness
longsuffering (and that is a mercy) "over His peopZe        and mercy, it is an abuse and dishonor of it to take
(ital., RCH) conceived of as being objects of hatred        God's name in vain. This is exactly what we do
and persecution in  .the world" (H.H.). The idea is         when we use such expletives as "My goodness!"
that the Lord "is longsuffering toward us" (the "be-        (For there is none good but God; only He may say,
loved" of the II Pet. 3:9 context).                         My goodness!) In the nominal Christian community
  According to  Remans  9:22, God endures "with             we hear such exclamations as, Goodness! Gracious!
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to           (or Goodness-gracious!), or, as in the childish CB
destruction." It would be easy, but wrong, to inter-        highway jargon, "Mercy me!" The latter, supposed-
pret this to mean that Zongsuffering here denotes an        ly, is an acceptable conformity to an FCC regula-
attitude of God's favor toward the reprobate                tion against using profanity over the air, but never-
wicked. What the text says is that He endures the           theless a slur on the Cross, apart from which there
vessels of wrath (and their wickedness), doing so           is no mercy. Nor is there any mercy for blas-
with much longsuffering, or while He endures the            phemers. These are all profane abuses of God's
wicked (the tares), He experiences and reveals long-        patience and longsuffering. There was an ancient
suffering to His people. It is like a loving father wit-    form of swearing in the utterance, "s'truth!" (by
nessing His children being beaten by muggers. He            God's truth!). This is terrible! But the more modern
for a time endures their being painfully afflicted          jocular oaths are also a degradation of God's
(that they through a measure of suffering may learn         virtues, for they are His names. For one, there is,
to endure hardness) a Those wicked oppressors (cp.          "Holy cow!" In this Aaron's and Jeroboam's calves
the Egyptians) He endures and endures, until He             are parodied, or India's ubiquitous cow is trivially
must finally say, Enough is enough! and rescue His          raised to a farcical "holiness." It is just as bad to
own (cp. the Israelites) from their frightening beat-       say, "Holy smoke!"  - a genial but profane refer-
ings. Of course, all the while He endured those             ence either to the cloudy pillar of the tabernacle
violent enemies He was longsuffering over His chil-         (symbol of God's presence), or to the smoke
dren! (See also Reformed Dogmatics, H.H., first two         ascending from the altar of burnt offering and the
paragraphs, p. 121). God's waiting out the wicked is        altar of incense. Irish Catholics have an abusive
in order "that He might be gracious" (Isa. 30:18) to        way of cheerful profanity in, "Faith! and begorra!"
His people. Grace is both revealed only  in  Christ         (by God!). But God is jealous for His holy name
and only  to  those in Christ. This then of necessity       (Ezek.  39:25), and will not hold him guiltless who
goes for His longsuffering and patience (aspects of         takes His name in vain. Therefore, these and the
His grace). Jesus Christ, our faithful Savior, fully        like expressions must neither be heard nor toler-
satisfied for all our sins -to lay down the ground for      ated among us.
manifestations of His longsuffering. Then this                Patience  (hupomonee, "to remain under" longer)
mercy is not common, showered also on the                   and  Zongsuffering  are, for the most part, New Testa-
wicked, but is particular, experienced only by the          ment terms, and the former seems to refer to every
righteous. For "the longsuffering of God is (not            instance of occurrence to a sanctified human action
merely has a tendency to) salvation" (II Pet.  3:15).       and not to a divine attribute. Nevertheless, God
Then no comfort is there for the wicked that God            sets forth Himself as a pattern of aZZ longsuffering (I
endures them until He cannot stand them any                 Tim. 1:  16), and that means that in, whatever you
more.                                                       call it, patience or longsuffering, we are to be fol-
  The question remains as to whether this attribute         lowers of God as dear children. That means we
of longsuffering is apart from God's people and es-         ought to follow patience as exemplified in our
sentially in Him. There is reason to believe that this      Savior's life. The martyrs did, following the pattern
is the case. God is longsuffering in Himself. He is         of, "as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He
patient in His very nature. This does not make us           openeth not His mouth" (Isa.  53:7). When Christ
Patripassionists. God in His goodness, blessedness,         was led to slaughter, He was as quiet as a lamb.
and mercy is the eternally happy God, even though           Under the shearers He made not a sound. Pilate, in
passion, grief, and suffering are ascribed to Him.          exasperation, blurted, ' `Answerest Thou nothing?
Longsuffering, we see from the above Scriptures,            Behold how many things they witness against
springs from His truth, goodness, kindness, grace,          Thee!" Also before Herod  and Caiaphas He was not
and mercy, fountain virtues essential to Him. Long-         impatient because of the pain and shame suffered
suffering is an extension of these. Considered in           at their wicked hands. When taking a blow in the
God's essence, longsuffering is a facet of His im-          face, He never replied in language like, "God shall
mutable goodness according to which He loves and            smite thee, thou whited wall!" When spit defiled


                                            THE   STANDARD  BEARER                                             91



His face, He did not say, "For which of My many            have exploded in natural indignation. But He was
good works do you do this?" He did not speak, did          meek, silent, and patient to the end. The reprobate
not accuse His enemies to His Father. He could             Jews had eternally and irrevocably cursed them-
have called down twelve legions of angels on them.         selves with their awful cry, "His blood be upon us,
He could have cursed them in the name of the Lord          and our children!" But while His blood flowed
as Elisha did the apostate children of Bethel. But He      down from the Cross, He never said anything
came to bear the curse, and be made a curse for us.        against any one of us like, My blood be upon you
He could have struck all these world-rulers and            (to damn you)! Zipporah had said to Moses at sight
religious rulers with a plague so that they would          of her bleeding child, "Surely thou art a bloody
have been eaten of worms. As with Ananias and              husband to me!" But He never complained on the
Sapphira, He could have struck them dead on the            Cross of His Church, 0 My Spouse, at what a cost
spot! He could have made the hill of Calvary a             of blood! A Lamb shorn and stripped of everything,
belching volcano to swallow all the jesting, jeering       He cried, "I can tell all My bones! They look and
mob. But He was there on the Cross, not in power,          stare upon Me.1" Yet there was not a murmur at
but in weakness, and meekness (strength in con-            what we gave Him  - our cruel sins. Patience
trol). Power was there, but not on display except as       (hupomonee) He exerted in  unflinching endurance
used over Himself rather than against His enemies.         until He bore our sins away. This He did "for the
Omnipotence was there, but held in control by re-          joy that was set before Him, enduring the Cross,
deeming love to bear all the divine wrath aimed            despising the shame. " "Let us earnestly seek grace
against the sins of His people. There He suffered          to emulate this divine excellency. `Be ye therefore
trumped up charges, fraud, injustice, malice,              perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
shame, and murder, so much over which He could             perfect' (Matt. 5:48)." (A.W. Pink).

FROM HOLY WRIT


           Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers


Chapter IX                                                    "(2) His responsibility (Ex. 19:5, 6; Rom. 10:5)
  Dispensational-Premillennial teaching, which                "(3) His failure (II Kings 17:1, 7, 17, 19; Acts 2:22,
follows in the footsteps of the Scofield Bible                      23)
"notes," teaches "seven dispensations."                       "(4) His judgment (II Kings  17:1-7, 20;  25:1-11;
  We have thus far taken notice of the first four of                Luke 21:20-24)."
these so-called dispensations, in which God then              Now it ought to be kept in mind that the Scofield
deals from a different principle with man, as a            presentation of "law" is understood as a principle of
"means of testing." These four "dispensations"             testing.  It is each time a different manner of deal-
which we have studied are: the dispensation of "In-        ing with man as he is given a kind of "New begin-
nocence," of "Conscience," of "Human Govern-               ning." Exodus 19: l-4, according to Scofield, depicts
ment," of "Promise."                                       man's state at the beginning. Of course, in the
  Presently we come to our investigation of what           "notes" no exegesis is given at all. These are all
Scofield calls "the Fifth Dispensation": LAW.              mere statements, allegations with some appended
Writes Scofield, "This dispensation extends from           Scripture references.
Sinai to Calvary, from the Exodus to the Cross."
Writes Scofield, "The history of Israel in the                The principle of testing here is "law," just as the
wilderness is one long record of the violation of          period from Abraham till Sinai was the principle of
Law. The testing of the nation by law ended at the         testing of the promise to receive the inheritance of
Cross."                                                    the earthly land of Canaan. To substantiate this
                                                           position of "law" as a "testing device" of God,
  Furthermore, we read in the "notes"  (idem) the          reference is made to Romans  15:5, where we read,
following details.                                         "For Moses describeth (writes:  graphei,  in Greek)
  "( 1) Man's state at the beginning (Ex. 19: l-4)         the righteousness which is out of law: that the man


92                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



which doeth those things shall live by them." Paul               fulfilling the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and
is here quoting Moses from Leviticus  185: "Ye                   Jacob, of whom God is not ashamed to be called
shall therefore keep My statutes, and My judg-                   "their God" since He has prepared for them a city
ments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I               (Heb. 11:16).
am the LORD." The Westminster fathers refer as                      Briefly we should notice the following main
explanatory texts to Ezekiel 20: 11, 13, 21; Romans              points in Exodus 19: l-8:
10:5; Galatians  3:12. It is evident from these pas-
sages that here the LORD comes as the unchange-                     (1) That at this point in Israel's history they have
able JEHOVAH, the I AM THAT I AM.                                been already delivered from the cruel bondage of
                                                                 Egypt by the mighty saving hand of Jehovah. They
      Hence, these passages indicate not a new and dif-          had been saved pinpointedly in and through the
ferent principle of testing man, but refer to the new            tenth plague upon Egypt, which laid Pharaoh
and unchangeable ordinance of God to His cove-                   prostrate, and which culminated in his utter de-
nant people in Christ Jesus.                                     struction in the Red Sea. God had passed over Israel
      We will come to explain this more fully later.        s    with the angel of death in that awful night over
      At this point we merely are interested to demon-           Egypt land, and had said, "when I see the blood I
strate that it is fair and just to say that the "law" in         will pass over." And Moses had instituted the
Scofield's teaching is a  Zaw-principle,  as it stands           passover by faith (Heb.  11:28; Ex.  12:40-51). God
opposite to saving grace, excluding it; that in so               had fulfilled His covenant promise to Abraham
doing Scofield refuses to believe all the prophetic              spoken of in Genesis  15:8-18. Hence, Israel at the
Scriptures, as they find their perfect end in Christ,            foot of Mt. Sinai was not simply in a state and
the end of the law for righteousness to every one                condition of "Man's State of Beginning." They
who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek!                  stood in the covenant mercies as the firstborn sons
Does not Paul write in Galatians  3:12, "Now the                 of God (Num.  23:22;   24:8;  Hosea  11:l;  Matt.  2:15).
law is not out of faith, but the man which doeth                 God has called His firstborn out of Egypt land!
them shall live in them?"'                                          (2) That at this point Israel had been baptized
      It is good to understand an opponent's writings,           into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; already they
and that, too, rather thoroughly. We must, there-                had eaten of the manna of heaven, angel's food,
fore, also inquire into what Scofield calls man's                and they were under the divine pedagogy where
"responsibility" (see above). For this responsibility            they must learn that man does not live by bread
he refers to Exodus 195, 6. Does this beautiful and              alone, but by every word which proceeds from the
rich passage from the mouth of God Himself refer                 mouth of God. And these are covenant words of
to a work-righteousness whereby man may save                     Jehovah! They must walk in newness of life, in
himself, a certain law-principle? Read Exodus 19:1-              simple childlike faith (Ps.  78:22-25;  Ex.  16:15;  24:7,
6 from your own Bible. It is evident that this is the            8;  I Cor.  lO:l-13).
false teaching which Dispensationalists would                       (3) That Israel now receives the law of the ten
distill from this passage. But this is nothing less              commandments, as this word of God's covenant
than foisting their own opinion, private notion,                 comes directly, orally, from the mouth of the great,
upon the text which clearly does not sustain such                righteous, holy, and merciful Jehovah, Who will
false constructions. When Israel replies, "all that              shew His mercy in thousands of generations of
the LORD hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8a),  is it             those who love Him. And they hear: I am the Lord
a rightly dividing of the Word to jump at the con-               thy God, thy Redeemer; walk before Me in sincere
clusion that Israel is assenting to a mere law-prin-             and godly thankfulness (Ex. 20: lff.).
ciple, whereby the promise of God's grace to the
church of all ages is abrogated? To ask this question              We are of the settled and holy conviction that we
is to answer it.                                                 rightly divide the word of truth, as outlined above.
                                                                 And we therefore humbly submit that the Israel
      Far be that from us thus to teach!                         here addressed, and which answers to Jehovah, is
  The trouble with Scofield is that he has both an               the elect people of God, as they are destined to
erroneous interpretation of what he calls "Man's                 bring forth the Christ, the Seed, called out of Isaac
State In The Beginning" (Ex.  19:1-4)  and of man's              (Gen. 21:12; Rom. 9:7b).
"Responsibility" (Ex.  19:5, 6; Rom.  10:5).  Let us               When we look at the disobedience of the chil-
bear in mind that Exodus  19:1-4 does not at all                 dren of Israel for forty years in the wilderness, and
speak of "Man's State In The Beginning." The text                when we attempt to answer the soul-searching
does not speak of mankind, but refers to the new                 question as to the real character and nature of this
state of Israel in God's Covenant of grace. It speaks            "disobedience," we must not jump at hasty conclu-
of the wonderful place of Israel of God in the tender            sions. We must patiently listen to the Scriptures,
mercies and loving care of Jehovah God, as He is                 believing all of them. And then it is crystal clear


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     9 3



from Hebrews  3:19 that the Israel which did and                             holy vow before the face of God; they kept the vow
could not enter into the promised rest were those                            uttered as recorded in Exodus  19:8: "All that the
who apostatized from the living God, as revealed at                          LORD hath spoken we will do." These vowed and
Sinai, after being delivered by God's outstretched                           paid unto Jehovah, their God. These endured to the
hand out of Egypt, the house of Satan's cruel                                end.
bondage. They would not walk as those walked                                   The "failure" of Israel to keep the law was not
who were redeemed by the blood. They were those                              that the saints had only a small beginning of the
of  Massa and Meriba, those in the provocation in                            new obedience. These the Old Testament saints too
the desert. They could not enter because of their                            had, just as we. These were the sins and weak-
unbelief. God had sworn with an oath that they                               nesses of the people, for which God raised up
should not enter into His rest. They were not the                            merciful high priests, who bore the sins of the
true Israel of God (Num. 14:30; Heb. 3:18, 19). This                         people in the sacrificial offerings, particularly on
was true of all those whose carcasses fell in the                            the great Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:16; Heb. 2:17;
wilderness (Num. 14:22,23;  Ps. 106:26).                                     5:2;  7:27, 28;  9:7). No, this "failure" was the sin of
   It was not merely disobedience to some  "law-                             unbelief, which refuses to look for redemption in
principle," but it was the disobedience of stark un-                         the Blood, which speaks better things than Abel. It
belief, a falling away from the living God!                                  is the sin of those who "were once enlightened, and
  This we must keep in mind for our very life's                              have tasted of the heavenly gift" - have tasted of
sake!                                                                        the good word of God, and the powers of the world
                                                                             to come, and who have fallen away from the living
  The substructure of the law-giving is that Israel                          God in stark and hopeless unbelief. And their
in the way of faith and obedience of faith will                              carcasses fell wilderness . . . .
inherit the promise, while it is called "today." In
this way they will exhibit that they are a new crea-                           They vowed and did not pay unto Jehovah!
tion of God, a kingdom of priests. Ever there was                              Let us believe all of the Scriptures!
the remnant according to election of grace. These                                                                 (to be continued)
kept God's covenant, they faithfully fulfilled their
TRANSLATED TREASURES


                              A Pamphlet Concerning the
                               Reformation of the Church
                                                                   Dr. A. Kuyper


(In the preceding  paragraph  Kuyper  has talked  about reforma-             tion, the believer never faces the question if the
tion which comes about  through  a split  between a local congre-            once true church has perhaps unnoticed turned
gation   and  the  church  federation.   In  this  paragraph   he  speaks    into the false church. He sees that the government
of reformation by means  of a split between the individual  and              in his church is not according to the requirements
his own  congregation.)                                                      of God's Word and also that the manner of life is
58. Concerning Reformation By Means Of A Break                               not according to the balances of God's sanctuary,
      With the Existing Congregation.                                        even that the connection with other churches has
   The calling of Gods child is serious when he                              become unholy. But his church itself remains for
comes to a break with the existing organization of                           him always the church of Christ. He does not think
his church. This calling becomes still more serious                          of getting out.
if the matter comes to a break with the federation                              But in the third chapter of this pamphlet con-
in which that church is connected with other                                 cerning the deformation of the church, it became
churches. But yet incomparably more serious is the                           evident to us that corruption in Jesus' church can
Christian's calling if it comes to a break with the                          also proceed to the extreme of desecration. A
congregation itself.                                                         church which was once the church of Christ can
   Think of the fact that by a break with the organi-                        degenerate into the church of Antichrist, and thus
zation as well as by a break with the church federa-                         can continue to exist as the false church under a


94                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



deceptive appearance.                                     "This is a church of Satan which says that it is Re-
      The possibility of this appears in Jesus' own       formed, and it is not, but it lies." But it would also
words when He said that the synagogue of the Jews         be terrible if we went out through departure or
after His death on the cross, had degenerated into        separation from the church which was still a mani-
the synagogue of Satan. Thus the Lord wrote to the        festation of the body of Christ and thus condemn as
church of Philadelphia: "Behold, I will make them         a synagogue of Satan that which was still an organ
of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews        of the Holy Spirit.
and are not, but do lie."                                   Both sins are equally serious and it cannot be too
      The synagogue of the Jews was initially recog-      deeply impressed upon the hearts of God's people
nized by Jesus as the synagogue of Jehovah. Other-        that they must seek from the all-wise One light
wise He would not have gone up into its courts of         through prayer and entreaty in order to be pro-
prayer, and much less would He have brought His           tected from error and kept free from a false choice.
disciples into it. More yet, we know that Jesus Him-        At least a few symptoms come clearly to mind
self took a part in the service of these synagogues,      with which many children of God escape this seri-
and thus it is certain that these synagogues were         ous and earnest question, such as, externality, rash-
originally recognized by Jesus as the genuine             ness, thoughtlessness.
church of God. But by and after His crucifixion,
this changed. The synagogue fell under the  San-            Just as, alas, there are many who believe three
hedrin and did not oppose that Sanhedrin even             states of faith in the soul, many also judge in good
when the Sanhedrin, by condemning to death the            faith that three conditions of the church are think-
Son of God as a blasphemer, broke forever with the        able.
church of God. In relation to Christ, the synagogue         They imagine that a soul can be either dead or
had to build itself up or die. It did the last. When      living or concerned. In the same way they have the
the Sanhedrin passed sentence and the priests in-         idea that a church can be either true or false or
cited the people and the leaders of the people to         something in between.
cry: "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" and the women              Yet every instructed and initiated soul knows
to cry: "His blood be on us!" then the Spirit of the      better. It is definitely established for him on the
Lord sorrowfully went away from the church of the         ground of God's Word that every soul which is not
synagogue to allow Satan's spirit to enter. Thus the      dead is alive, and that every soul which is not yet
church of the Jews became a synagogue of Satan,           alive is entirely dead. In the same way appearances
or, what we would call a false church.                    of concern are entirely dead; but true concern al-
      This shows that a church in which we were born      ready means translation from death to life.
and in which we once found salvation and often re-          This also applies to the churches of our Lord.
ceived the seals of the covenant, can degenerate          What is not yet false is still the true church, and
into a false church. This dreadful truth now lays         what is no longer the true church is entirely the
upon God's children the duty to investigate, in con-      false. An in-between state does not exist. Also for
nection with the' deep, fall of the churches, prayer-     churches on earth a purgatory is unthinkable. Each
fully, sharply, and very closely, whether the             church is the true or already the false church. To
church in which they live is still the true church of     think of a mixture of true and false is absurd.
Christ or perhaps has gone over into the form of            This also condemns the rash act of many who
Satan's synagogue. This task is extremely painful         judge that they can, if they wish, come out, but
because there is so much at stake. If it is still the     who would rather stay in; and also of those who
true church, then a Christian may not separate            think that they can remain, but yet, coming out,
from it. But also, if it has become the synagogue of      nevertheless still support the rejected church as
Satan, then he may not a moment longer remain             half and half true even after their departure.
bound to it. He must get out.
      Thus one sees that the question of separating or      One of the two is true: if you see, taste, know
staying is in the absolute sense not a disputable         that your church has become a synagogue of Satan,
point concerning which one can argue for or               then you must get upon on your feet, go out over
against, or discuss according to mood or fancy, its       her threshhold, and shake off the dust of your feet
good and bad points; but rather that in times of          against her. But if you see, taste, and know that it
church decay each child of God comes in the               has not yet become a synagogue of Satan, then you
depths of his own soul before this most serious           must not send in a letter of separation but your obli-
question. He must carefully consider that in              gation is to remain in it.
answering it he is found faithful before his God. It        This makes it of deep concern for the children of
would be a fearful thing to continue to live in a         God that they be clearly instructed in the marks by
church of which Jesus witnessed to His apostles:          which they can distinguish what is still the true


                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              9 5



     church and what has already become the                                        This will become most evident if we show the
     synagogue of Satan. Because of this principle we                           proper way for a child of God to walk under such
     will venture in a modest way in the following para-                        circumstances.
     graphs to give our brothers and sisters some light                            If the reformation of the church is on the fore-
     on this question. Now, however, we will let the                            ground for a godly man, and not only the desire to
     question rest for a bit and proceed in this paragraph                      have for himself a desirable church, then such a
     on the assumption that a child of God is a member                          child of God, when his trouble with the church
     of a church which actually has become a false                              begins, will feel a sadness towards God over the
     church. Our purpose is to investigate further how                          miserable state into which his church has sunk.
     such a child of God must then participate in the                           That sad state of his church shall weigh on his soul
     work of reformation.                                                       as the judgment of God. He will be grieved because
        We purposely write how he must engage in the                            of the name of the Lord, and yet he will not com-
     work of reformation and not how he must walk                               plain and grumble, but will confess that God the
     out of the church.                                                         Lord is righteous in His judgment because the
        That last is an unspiritual conception of the mat-                      people of the Lord have earned this judgment three
     ter. It could be that the end is that he quite alone                       times over by their unfaithful deeds. Himself be-
     without any others leaves that false church. But he                        longing to that people of God and knowing his soul
     may not begin with this without great guilt and he                         as shut up in the small bundle of the living, he will
     may not formulate the question in this way without                         include himself in that guilt of his people before
     great lack of love.                                                        God. This comes about not in this way of reason-
                                                                                ing: the people are guilty, he is of that people, and
        To say: "I am walking out," is an egotistical, self-                    thus that guilt rests also upon him. No, it comes
     seeking thought. One cares for himself and shows                           about in the spiritual way of the conviction of sin.
     that he has no more heart for his brothers than for                        His own makeup will be a hindrance to him and his
     the church. Or, worse yet, by a lack of heart for his                      own unbelief and lovelessness and coolness for
     brothers and for the church, one runs the risk of                          heaven will be so fearfully bound on the soul that
     lacking a right heart for himself.                                         he will consider the Lord's deeds to be righteous
                                                                                even though there is no other reason for God's
                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                    judgment than his own sin.
        On November 26, 1983, the Lord willing, MR. AND MRS. PETER
     ROY WESTRA will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. As their                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     children and grandchildren, we would like to thank them for the years
     of love and covenant instruction they have given us. We thank the             The Men's Society of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of
     Lord for preserving them and pray that He will continue to bless them      Grand Rapids, Michigan, expresses its Christian sympathy to Mr. Joe
     in the years ahead.                                                        King in the death of his wife, JESSIE KING.

        "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth  en-        "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee, He
     dureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5)                                 shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." (Psalm  55:22)

     Art and Karen Flier               Gary and Jeralyn Westra                  J.  DeVries, Pres.
     Pete and Jan Westra               Bruce and Laura Westra
     Marlin and Sandy Westra           Janice Westra
     Ed and Verna Westra                  and 14 grandchildren                                        ANNOUNCEMENT
                                                                                   The Mission Committee has published a reprint of the booklet, The
                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                      Three  Forms of Unity.  Those who desire copies of this pamphlet for
                                                                                use in their catechism classes (price is 50C per copy) should contact:
       The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope Protestant Reformed                              Mr. Seymour Beiboer
     Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan takes this opportunity to express                         2 193 Clyde Park
     sincere sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Roger King, in the loss of his                            Wyoming, Ml 49509
     mother, MRS. JESSIE KING.                                                     Copies for mission or church extension work are available free
       "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."          from:
     (Psalm 116:  15)                                                                           Faith Prot. Ref. Evangelism Committee
                                                                                                c/o Mr. Gus Huber
     Prof. H. Hanko, Pres.                                                                      931 Village Lane
     Peggy Komphuis, Sec'y.                                                                     Jenison, Ml 49428

                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                            ANNOUNCEMENT
       The Ladies Aid Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church of
     Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns the loss of a faithful member, MRS.            Redlands  Hope Protestant Reformed Church will be celebrating
     JOE OOMKES, whom the Lord took to Glory on October 5, 1983. We             our 50th Anniversary and dedicating our new church building, D.V.,
     express our sympathy to her family and pray that the Lord will com-        on December 1 and 2, 1983. Rev. C. Hanko will be the speaker on
     fort and bless them with His Everlasting mercy.                            the first evening and on the second evening we will have a dinner and
                                                                                a program. Everyone is cordially invited to join us and celebrate God's
        "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1  :21)    faithfulness with us. Commemorative booklets will be available. If
     Mrs. Peter Decker, Pres.                                                   you are interested in a copy, please contact Edwin Gritters, 934
     Mrs. Gerard Bylsma, Sec'y.                                                 College Ave., Redlands,  Calif.  92373. Phone (714) 792-4923.



L

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





           9 6                                       .THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
/


                                    News From Our Churches
I                                                         November 1; 1983

             First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand                    Prof. Hoeksema gave a public lecture on October
           Rapids formed another trio of names for the Jamai-          27, on the theme "Reformation With A Return To
           can Mission Field: Revs. W. Bekkering, R.  Flikke-          True  Repentence."' Rev. Bekkering gave a public
           ma, and R. VanOverloop. At a special congregation-          lecture at Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church
           al meeting held after the evening service of October        November 4, on the theme "The Reformation and
           30, Rev. Bekkering was chosen to receive the call.          the Miracle of Christian Worship." A cassette re-
                                                                       cording of Prof. Hoeksema's address can be pur-
             Candidate Barry Gritters has been busy filling            chased for $3.00 by sending your request and pay-
     I     the pulpits of our local churches. He also led the          ment to Mr. Wes Koops, 8500 Ottogan, Holland,
           Young People's Fall Retreat at Camp Pendalouan              Michigan 49423.
           near Montague for two days. Our other Candidate,
           Ken Hanko, "has begun his work in Blue Bell,                   Since we are talking about cassettes, Southeast
           Pennsylvania. He and his family arrived there . . .         Protestant Reformed Church has "approximately
           and he will be conducting worship services for              300 taped sermons available for your personal use
           about two and a half months," according to the              in our tape library. These sermons are indexed by
           October 9, bulletin of Covenant Protestant Re-              text reference and name of minister." That
          - formed Church, New Jersey.                                 announcement appeared in their September 25
                                                                       bulletin.  Doon Protestant Reformed Church has
             A letter from Rev. Arie and Sherry den Hartog             also become involved in producing sermon tapes.
           found in a recent  Across the  AisZe  reads in part,        Their September 25 bulletin reads, "The Consistory
           "Two weeks ago we had a couple and a young                  has appointed a sermon tape committee responsi-
           brother here from Trengganu. They shared with us            ble for`taping, cataloging, and distributing sermon
           all the troubles and trials which they are facing in        tapes."
           the church in Trengganu, Malaysia. They also re-               The September 18 bulletin of Covenant Pro-
           quested the church here to help them. The first             testant Reformed Church read, "At the Building
           thing we are going to be doing to help them is to           Committee meeting last Friday, (they decided) to
           speak for their camp in November. I have been               proceed with work on the driveway and parking lot
           asked to speak there on three consecutive evenings          . . . . The approximate cost for this part of the work
           on the general theme `By The Word.' . . . I have            will be about $40,000, an amount which is less than
           been asked to speak on two evenings in connection           our original estimate." Redlands Protestant Re-
           with Reformation Day at the end of October. The             formed Church reports in its October 9 bulletin,
           theme for these messages will be `THE WORD OF               "The New Church Building is nearing comple-
           GOD AND THE REFORMATION.' . . . For the next                tion." And in its October 23, bulletin, "There will
           three Sundays I will be preaching a special series of       be a Congregational Meeting . . . to consider the
           messages at the  Toa  Payoh  Mission on Marriage.           financial needs of our new Church building. (an
           We are holding these special messages in connec-            est. $20,000 more will be needed to complete this
           tion with what has come to be known in Singapore            project.)"
           as `The Great Marriage Debate.' . . . It is a big
           debate on various questions on marriage and child-             Redlands is also celebrating a 50th Anniversary-
           rearing . . .  ." If you think that Rev. den Hartog is      Dedication on December 1  & 2. They are request-
           the only busy person in Singapore, the following            ing everyone to dig up any old pictures of churches,
           quote will change your mind, "Pastor Lau is just as         present or former members, pastors, Consistories,
           busy as I am. Usually the speaking engagements for          etc.
           the various meetings are pretty well divided                   I will conclude with an item I forgot to mention
           between the two Pastors. He is presently preparing          earlier. The address of Candidate Hanko is: 305
           for a series of messages for the December camp of           Benson Manor, Township Line, Washington Lane,
           the church."                                                Jenkintown, PA 19046.                             DH


