     STANDARD
          BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





            SPECIAL ISSUE
           Perseverance of the Saints
       The believer is secure, absolutely secure,
     not in the flesh, but in the power of grace
     and by the testimony of the Spirit, Who wit-
     nesses with our spirit that we are children of
     God. Doubt is not praiseworthy, but carnal.
     See "Carnal Security and Doubt"
                                                       - page 118



.                                         Volume LX, No. 5, December I,1983 -


98                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                               THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                  CONTENTS .                                                                            ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                               Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
      Meditation  -                                                                                 Secon dClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                    Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
         Who Shall Separate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98    Department Editors:  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev.  Arie den  Hartog,  Prof. Robert
                                                                                    D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
      Editorials -                                                                  Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A.  Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                    Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma,  Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. James Slopse-
                                                                                    ma, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
         About This Issue ...........................101
         The Fifth Point of Calvinism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .              Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATIQN

                                               Who Shall Separate?
                                                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema

                     Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
                 or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the
                 day long; we are accounted as sheep  for  the slaughter. Nay in all these things we are more than
                 conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
                 angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor
                 depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
                 Christ Jesus our Lord.                                                                                                 Rom. 8:35-39


      The final question and its answer!                                              to separate us from the love of God which is in
      Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?. . .                             Christ Jesus our Lord!
I am persuaded that no created thing shall be able                                        If this also is true, then, indeed, no one and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                             99



nothing can be against us!                                Lord, but we are more than victors!
  Our would-be accusers are silenced. Eagerly they          Even the enemy must work together for our sal-
appear in the courtroom of the Judge of heaven and        vation!
earth, Who surely will do right; gladly they would          I am persuaded! . . . .
bring their indictments against the elect to prove
their damnable state; but shamefacedly they                                 *      *    *    *    *
sneaked away, for they found that it is God that jus-       Separation is impossible!
tifieth! Who then, shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect?                                             From what?
  Gladly they would sit on the judgment-seat                From the love of Christ! From the love of God in
themselves in order to bring a verdict of condemna-       Christ Jesus our Lord!
tion against the people of God. But they found that         And these two are one. The love of Christ is the
the judgment-seat was occupied by Him that was            love of God. For, the love of God was manifested in
anointed thereunto from before the foundation of          the love of Christ, Who died for us on the accursed
the world! Christ, the one that died and was raised       tree. And emphatically the love of Christ and the
again from the dead, Who also is the advocate of all      love of God to us are meant, not our love to God in
whom the Father gave Him and maketh interces-             Christ.
sion for them, is sitting on the right hand of God          Who shall separate us?
and is become the sole Judge in all the universe.
Where, then, is the condemner?. . . .                       The question, then, is not: who shall be able to
                                                          extinguish the flame of the love of God in Christ in
  Yet, one question remaineth.                            our hearts; even though in the final sense this is
  Evident it is that Christ loves us, that God loves      also impossible, because our love of God is but a
us in Christ, that there is no condemnation for us.       flame kindled by His love of us. Neither does the
  But will someone, perhaps, be able to separate us       question refer to the possibility of the fire of the
from the power of that love?                              love of Christ being quenched, although it is true,
                                                          that the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord is
  Suppose that an infuriated mob took me before           eternal and immutable. Still less is it the meaning of
the judge in a worldly court, loudly accusing me of       the question: who shall deprive us of the blessed
murder of which I am innocent, and insisting upon         feeling, consciousness, assurance that God loves us
my condemnation; suppose that the accusations             in Christ; this, indeed, is possible at times, though
against me were found to be without ground so that        He never forsakes us and always leads us back into
the accusers dropped off; suppose the judge passed        the sweet fellowship of His friendship and favor.
a verdict of not guilty and that I am set at liberty;
but suppose that the furious and howling mob of             But the question is: who shall separate us from
my hostile accusers are congregated before the door       the power of that love?
of the courtroom, still demanding my death and              Who is able to intervene, so to force himself be-
eager to lay hands on me, themselves to become my         tween that love of God in Christ and us that its
executioners; then the question arises immediately:       power can no longer reach us, that we are cut off
will that mob be able to separate me from the             from its saving help?
power of the judge that acquitted me?                       The subject of this entire chapter, this trium-
  God loves me and justifies me, the accusers are         phant song of faith, is the absolute security of be-
silenced!                                                 lievers in Christ with a view to their eternal salva-
  Christ loves me and is the sole Judge, with all         tion and incorruptible glory. And this salvation is
power in heaven and on earth; there is no one to          accomplished to the end by the love of God in
condemn me!                                               Christ Jesus. On its saving power all depends.
                                                          Without it believers are lost. By that love they are
  But I must still be in the hostile world!               justified and no one is able to bring any charge
  My enemies are waiting!                                 against the elect of God. Because of that love they
  And the final question must be faced: Shall any-        are secure in the hour of judgment and no one can
one be able to separate me from the love that justi-      appear as their condemner. Forensically their sal-
fied me?                                                  vation is established. But will that same love of God
                                                          be able to save us to the end? Are there, then, in the
  But the question is a challenge!                        world no powers that can separate us from its sav-
  And the answer more than a denial!                      ing strength?
  For, not only shall no created thing be able to           Just as a shipwrecked sailor, who found a place
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our      of temporary safety on the rock in the midst of the


100                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



tempestuous sea, might ask, whether the raging              the world narrow, socially, economically, political-
billows will not separate him from the rock of his          ly, so that they can neither buy nor sell, unless they
salvation, so the question is whether anything is           bear the mark of the beast, so that they have no
able to separate us from the power of the love of           room to breathe. That power would have God's
God.                                                        people go in hunger and nakedness, in physical
  Or, just as a beleaguered city feels itself secure        want of every kind. It would leave the church no
and able to sustain a long siege as long as it is not       place of safety, make her position perilous
separated from the source of its food supply, so the        wherever she may turn, persecuting her with the
Christian is safe as long as he is not cut off from the     mighty sword.
love of God in Christ Jesus his Lord.                         Do not remark that this picture is overdrawn!
  Or, even as the vanguard of an army is in danger            A real picture it is of the position of the Church
of annihilation if, pressing forward too recklessly         in the world!
into hostile territory, it becomes separated from the         To impress us with the reality of this perilous
main army, so God's people would be overwhelmed             position we are referred to the song of the Church
by hostile powers, powers of death and destruction,         in the old dispensation, when, after the captivity, it
if ever they would be found in circumstances                became the victim of the worlds furious hatred, so
where the power of Christ's love could not reach            that without exaggeration, inspired, indeed, by the
them.                                                       Spirit of Christ, it could exclaim: For Thy sake we
  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?            are killed all the livelong day; the world regards us
  Who shall cut us off from the main and only               as sheep for the slaughter; never a moment are we
source of our salvation?                                    safe against its fury. Such was the position of the
                                                            Church then; such is her position in the world
  But the question is a challenge.                          principally always, for even as they hated Christ
  And the answer is: no one!                                that loves them, so they will hate them that are be-
  I am persuaded! . . . .                                   loved of Him. Such will be the position of the
                                                            Church at the time of the end, when Antichrist will
                        *    *    *    *    *               pour the last vials of his furious hatred upon the
  Audacious challenge!                                      people of Christ. And do we not hear the rumblings
                                                            of that final thunder even now? . . . .
  For, many, indeed, are the powers of darkness               The end of all things is near!
that would appear to be able to effect this separa-
tion!                                                         Be ye, therefore, sober and watch unto prayer!
  And quite consciously, too, the challenge is flung          And be not unequally yoked together with the
in the face of these hostile and mighty powers!             unbeliever!
  Who?. . . .                                                 But even so, be of good cheer! For, who shall
                                                            separate us, who shall even then, in the midst of
  The apostle is thinking of these powers as a per-         tribulation and distress, when hunger and naked-
son. For, though in the enumeration of the evil             ness must be suffered for Christ's sake, when peril
forces he mentions chiefly conditions, states, cir-         and sword would kill us all the livelong day, cut us
cumstances, yet he puts the challenging question in         off from the source of our salvation, the saving
that personal form: Who shall separate us from the          power of the love of God in Christ. Jesus?
love of Christ? And with good reason. Are not the
principalities and powers, with Satan as their                Nothing!
prince and chief, the agents that cause all these             No created thing, in heaven, earth, or hell!
states, conditions, circumstances to come upon the            No trouble or distress you may meet in life, no
Church for the very purpose of separating her for-          darkness of the shadow of death; no hunger or
ever from the love of God in Christ Jesus and to            nakedness, no pain or sorrow, no tribulation or
destroy her? . . . .                                        anguish, not even death itself shall be able to sepa-
  The apostle is thinking of the sufferings for             rate us from that wondrous love! No angels, no evil
Christ's sake, as is evident from the quotation from        spirits, not even all the host of them with the devil
Psalm 44: For Thy sake we are killed all the day            as their chief; no principalities and powers, no
long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter;          mighty Caesars or wicked kings, no Nebuchadnez-
as is evident, too, from the terms: persecution,            zars or Antiochuses or Neros, no Hitlers or  Mus-
sword! And it is the hostile world-power that in-           solinis or Stalins, with all their sword-power, are
flicts this suffering, that breathes this destruction       able to prevent that power of Christ's love from
against the people of God. It causes tribulation and        reaching us with its saving arm. Nothing there is in
distress, making the place of the people of God in          time or space, nothing there is in the present,


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                101



nothing can ever arise in the future; nothing there         sufferings of this present time.
is in the heights of heaven and no power there is in           Nothing can separate us!
the depth of hell, that is strong enough to cut us off
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord . . . .          But how is this glorying, this blessed assurance
                                                            possible? How can we be sure that nothing can
   Was anything forgotten in this enumeration? . . . .      separate us from the love of God?
   Well, then, let this set your hearts finally at rest:       Emphatically because it is the love of God on
nor any other creature!                                     which everything, on which all depends, not on our
   No created thing!                                        love, neither on the cooperation of. His love and
   Not they, not the enemies, not the angels or prin-       ours, but on His love alone! Not, indeed, as if it
cipalities or powers, not tribulation or distress or        matters not whether or not we love God; but on our
hunger or nakedness or peril or sword, not any              love nothing depends, not even that love itself! We
creature in the present or in the future in the             love Him only because He loved us first. And His
heights or in the depths can have the victory! We           love is eternal, sovereign, unchangeable. Nothing
triumph!                                                    can quench that love. In that love He made all
                                                            things. In that love He governs all things, even the
   Not they but we conquer!                                 powers of darkness, even tribulation and distress
   Already we are conquerors!                               and nakedness and hunger and peril and sword,
   Nay, more than conquerors are we!                        even death itself. And that love is omnipotent. It
                                                            never fails! . . . .
   A worldly victor may glory in his triumph after
he has fought the battle; we have the victory while            Who, then, can separate us from that love of
the battle is still raging. We triumph while we fight;      God!
we glory in the victory even when apparently we               And that love was manifested!
are overwhelmed. The enemy cannot even touch                   For it is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!
us. The outcome is never uncertain!                            Christ loved us! He loved us in a very definite act
   More than victors are we!                                of love. He loved us on the accursed tree. On that
   An earthly battle may be won but not without             tree He took our sins upon Himself to bear them
more or less severe losses on the part of the victor.       away forever. On that cross He fought the battle
We lose nothing in the battle!                              alone, in our behalf, and was victorious . . . .
   Yea, even the enemy must help us, in spite of              For, He arose!
himself, to attain to the final victory and glory!            He overcame the world. He is victor over sin and
   More than conquerors!                                    death!
                  *      *    *    *    *                     Look, then, on that love! It is the love of God in
   Blessed assurance!                                       Christ Jesus our Lord!
   For I am persuaded!                                        Look on that cross and triumph!
   Thus the apostle glorifies, victorious on the              More than conquerors through Him that loved
heights of faith; and thus this part of the Word of         us!
our God would have us glory in the midst of the               Who shall separate us?

EDITORIALS
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


                                        About This Issue

  This is our first special issue of the current  vol-      Five Points of Calvinism  - designated by the
ume-year, and it is the last one devoted to the  so-        mnemonic T-U-L-I-P - and the order which we are
called Five Points of Calvinism. It is devoted in its       following, that of the Canons of Dordrecht,  coin-
entirety to the subject of the Perseverance of the          tide: in both, the doctrine of the Perseverance of
Saints.                                                     the Saints is fifth. That brings up an interesting
  Again in this instance the popular order of the           question. What does the P in T-U-L-I-P stand for?


102                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



Does it stand for Perseverance of the Saints? Or           out God's work of preservation: the former is the
does it stand for Preservation of the Saints? The dif-     fruit of the latter. If God did not persevere in His
ference is not an essential one, but one of view-          work of grace, we would not persevere to the end.
point. The end is the same in both instances: the          And while our Canons speak of Perseverance in the
saints, i.e., the elect, cannot and do not finally fall    title of the Fifth Head of Doctrine, they make it
away but are saved unto all eternity. If we speak of       abundantly clear in the articles of this chapter that
the perseverance of the saints, we look at the matter      it is sovereign grace alone which preserves us to the
from the viewpoint of the activity of the saints:          end.
either they persevere unto the end, or they fall from        In the main we have followed the outline of our
grace. If we speak of the preservation of the saints,      Canons for the material of this special issue. There
then we look at the matter from the viewpoint of           is a reason for this. The Fifth Head of Doctrine  -
the work of God's grace: the grace which effectual-        and perhaps this is subjective on my part - is prob-
ly drew us out of the darkness of sin and death and        ably the most beautiful, the most thorough, the
made us alive in Christ continues to operate in us to      most  conforting, and the most pastoral chapter of
the very end. He Who began a good work in us will          the Canons. In my opinion it would be very diffi-
perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians       cult to improve on it. It is instructive both as to the
1:6.                                                       Doctrine of Perseverance as such and as to the Doc-
  Probably the question as to the meaning of the P         trine of the Assurance of Perseverance, a subject
cannot be settled.  Our Canons speak of "Persever-         close to the heart of any child of God.
ance." This, however, is not determinative: for in           For the meditation in this issue we have chosen
the Canons the reference to perseverance has its           an appropriate reprint from the pen of the late Rev.
historical occasion in the Arminians' denial of per-       Herman Hoeksema, taken from Volume XIV.
severance. And I have not found it possible to trace
the origin and early usage of the mnemonic T-U-L-            In behalf of the Staff's committee, I hereby ex-
I-P and to discover whether it refers to Preservation      press sincere thanks to all who contributed to this
or Perseverance. And while in a sense the question         special issue.
is merely academic, we must nevertheless remem-              We hope that you, our readers, will profit.
ber that there is no perseverance of the saints with-


                     The Fifth Point of Calvinism

  We must not imagine that the doctrine of the per-                Of this preservation of the elect to salvation, and of
severance of the saints and of the assurance of that          their perseverance in the faith, true believers for
perseverance was a new doctrine established by the            themselves may and do obtain assurance according to
Synod of Dordrecht in  1618-`19. It was not. The              the measure of their faith, whereby they arrive at the
doctrine of perseverance was not new for the                  certain persuasion, that they ever will continue true
church in general, nor was it new to our Reformed             and living members of the church; and that they ex-
                                                              perience forgiveness of sins, and will at last inherit
creeds and for our Reformed churches. I need only              eternal lie.
remind you of the fact that this doctrine finds ex-
pression in a most beautiful context in that jewel of        What happened at Dordrecht was that under the
our Heidelberg Catechism, Question and Answer              impetus of the Arminian denial of the perseverance
54, concerning the holy, catholic church. The 54th         of the saints the church came under the necessity of
Answer concludes with the well-known words,                defending that truth and of spelling it out thorough-
"...and that I am and forever shall remain, a living       ly and carefully in the light of Scripture. The result,
member thereof." There, in just a few words, you           as I have already suggested, is an unexcelled
have both the doctrine of perseverance and the doc-        exposition of this doctrine. Never has it been im-
trine of the assurance of perseverance. And the            proved upon. Even that later confessional docu-
fathers of Dordt were well aware of this, and thus         ment, the Westminster Confession of Faith, does
aware of the fact that the Arminians militated             not improve upon the statement of the Canons, but
against the adopted confession, as is plain from           rather plainly borrows from it.
their reference to Question and Answer 54 in                 The Arminians flatly deny the truth of persever-
Article 9 of the Fifth Head of Doctrine:                   ance. We must remember this. Arminianism has no


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              103



doctrine of perseverance whatsoever. It is, of                     of perseverance on the part of the Arminians when
course, correct to say that the Arminians make per-                they drew up their five articles in Gouda in 1610,
severance dependent upon free will  - correct as                   therefore, it is certain that by 1618, when the Synod
far as it goes. But we must remember that by this                  of Dordrecht convened, this doubt had been dis-
limitation they destroy the doctrine of perseverance.              pelled; and the Arminians had come down on the
A perseverance which depends on free will is no                    wrong side as far as the doctrine of perseverance is
perseverance. And that this is correct can be easily               concerned. About this there can be no question.
documented. It is true that at the conclusion of the                  But in the providence of God it was this Armin-
Fifth Article of the Remonstrance the Arminians                    ian heresy which became the occasion for the
try to leave the impression only that they are in                  church to draw up a most beautiful and clear and
doubt about the doctrine of perseverance. For they                 comforting confession of this precious truth. What
say: "But whether they are capable, through negli-                 a beautifully clear and concise statement of the
gence, of forsaking again the first beginnings of                  truth, for example, is found in Article 8 of Canons
their life in Christ, of again returning to this present           V! Notice:
evil world, of turning away from the holy doctrine
which was delivered them, of losing a good con-                             Thus, it is not in consequence of their own merits,
science, of becoming devoid of grace, that must be                     or strength, but of God's free mercy, that they do not
more particularly determined out of the Holy Scrip-                    totally fall from faith and grace, nor continue and
ture, before we ourselves can teach it with the full                   perish finally in their  back&dings;  which, with
                                                                       respect to themselves, is not only possible, but would
persuasion of our minds." This leaves the impres-                      undoubtedly happen; but with respect to God, it is
sion of honest doubt and questionings, but no more                     utterly impossible, since His counsel cannot be
than that. However, in the rest of their fifth article                 changed, nor His promise fail, neither can the call ac-
they already destroy the doctrine of perseverance,                     cording to His purpose be revoked, nor the merit, in-
though in a very sneaky way. But eight years later,                    tercession and preservation of Christ be rendered in-
at the time of the Synod of Dordt, the Arminians                       effectual, nor the sealing of the Holy Spirit be frustrat-
very bluntly denied the doctrine of perseverance                       ed or obliterated.
when they were required by the Synod to submit in                     When you read this article carefully, you will dis-
writing their opinion concerning this doctrine. Let                 cover that in this brief statement is embodied at the
me quote just three of the Arminians' propositions                  same time a correct statement of the relationship
to make this clear:                                                 between this Fifth Point of Calvinism and the other
    1. The perseverance of believers in the faith is not the        four. The perseverance of the saints is rooted in
    outworking of an absolute decree by which God is                eternal and sovereign election. It has its ground in
    said to have chosen particular persons, not circum-             definite atonement. It has its necessity in our
    scribed by any condition of obedience.                          depravity. It has its principle in effectual calling,
    3. True believers can fall from true faith and fall into        the calling that cannot be revoked.
    such sins as cannot be consistent with true and justify-          This means that there is no such thing as a Four
    ing faith; and not only can this happen, but it also not        Point Calvinist - one who holds to all the doctrines
    infrequently occurs.                                            of grace with the exception of perseverance. If you
   4. True believers can through their own fault fall into          deny the perseverance of the saints, you necessar-
    horrible sins and blasphemies, persevere and die in             ily deny the previous four points. From this point of
    the same: and accordingly they can finally fall away            view the doctrine of perseverance might be termed
    and go lost.                                                    the keystone: all the doctrines of grace stand or fall
  If there was any honest doubt about the doctrine                  with this doctrine.


                     Preservation and Perseverance
                                                           Prof H. Hanko


      The carnal mind is unable to comprehend this doc-                and heretics oppose it; but the spouse of Christ hath
   trine of the perseverance of the saints, and the  cer-              always most tenderly loved and constantly defended
   tainty thereof; which God hath most abundantly  re-                 it, as an inestimable treasure; and God, against Whom
   vealed  in His Word, for the glory of His name, and the             neither counsel nor strength can prevail, will dispose
    consolation of pious souls, and which He impresses                 her to continue this conduct to the end. Now, to this
   upon the hearts of the faithful. Satan abhors it; the               one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be honor and
   world ridicules it; the ignorant and hypocrite abuse,               glory, forever. AMEN.


104                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is in this beautiful way that our Canons con-          The truth of preservation is firmly grounded in
clude their treatment of "the fifth point of Calvin-      the sovereignty of grace. It is this which brings up
ism," the perseverance of the saints. The wicked          two very important questions: 1) What is the rela-
not only do not understand it, but they also oppose       tion between preservation and perseverance? 2)
it; but the bride of Christ loves it tenderly and de-     How is the perseverance of the saints to be ex-
fends it as a priceless treasure. God will see to it      plained in the light of the fact that believers fall into
that this bride of Christ continues such conduct          sin?
unto the very end, so that all honor and glory may          The latter of these two questions needs to be dis-
be to Him alone.                                          cussed first of all.
  Generally speaking, a distinction must be made            The truth of preservation means, very simply,
between the preservation of the saints and the per-       that God preserves the work of grace in the hearts
severance  of the saints. The former of these two         of His people; that once they are saved, they con-
terms looks at this doctrine from the viewpoint of        tinue saved into all eternity - no matter what hap-
God's work of grace in the hearts of His people; the      pens to them; that once a Christian, always a Chris-
latter looks at the whole subject from the viewpoint      tian; that God will perfect the good work which He
of the life of believers in the world. God preserves      has begun in the hearts of His people. It is impos-
His people; they persevere.                               sible for a regenerated believer ever to be anything
  This doctrine is no longer widely believed in our       else but that.
day. Although it was the object of bitter attack dur-       Yet this truth does not preclude the very real fact
ing the time of the Arminian controversy, our             that a believer falls into sin. This is an obvious fact
fathers at Dort very emphatically set forth its truth     which almost needs no proof. Both Scripture and
in beautiful words in the fifth chapter of the            our own experience testify that this is indeed the
Canons. But it seems sometimes as if the  Armin-          case. Scripture records the terrible falls of David
ians, defeated at Dort, nevertheless won the day. It      and Peter  - both of which are specifically men-
is difficult to find, even in Reformed circles, people    tioned also in the Canons and which are described
who maintain in all its power the truth of the            as lamentable falls. Never does Scripture nor our
preservation of the saints. I have even met  "three-      experience in any way minimize the terrible char-
point Calvinists," people who profess to believe the      acter of these falls. They are dreadful beyond
doctrines of Calvinism, with the exception of limit-      description and may not, in any way, be mini-
ed atonement and the perseverance of the saints.          mized.
  Many objections have been brought against this            Nor does the truth of preservation deny that sin,
doctrine by the Arminians over the years. Butler, in      just because it is so serious, takes away from the
his "Theology," sums them up: 1) There are many           child of God the consciousness of his salvation. The
texts which admonish men to be steadfast and              Scriptures make clear that, when the child of God
faithful, all of which imply the possibility that they    walks in sin, he loses the consciousness of being a
will not; 2) There are texts which explicitly teach a     child of God. He no longer experiences the love and
falling away, such as Hebrews  6:4-6; 3) Experience       favor of God. The assurance of his salvation is
itself shows that people who once profess faith nev-      gone. He experiences only God's wrath and dis-
ertheless fall away; 4) The doctrine makes men            pleasure. His way is filled with turmoil and trouble,
careless and profane  - makes believers fall into         with grief and spiritual distress  - "While I kept
carnal security so that they say: once a believer, al-    guilty silence, my strength was spent with grief.
ways a believer - live though I will.                     Thy hand was heavy on me; my soul found no
  Nevertheless, all these objections against the          relief"; so we sing in Psalter No. 83. In this state of
doctrine of preservation are based upon the funda-        spiritual trouble, he may even lose the ability to
mental error of the Arminian that he bases ali of sal-    pray, the spiritual interest in the things of God and
vation upon the free will of man. Not only does           of His Word, concern for the church and the
man, by his free will, decide to accept Christ as his     preaching. In fact, he may wander far away, so that
personal Savior so that only then can salvation be        he even loses contact with the church and the fel-
begun in him, but the continual salvation of the one      lowship of the saints for a time. He walks in the
who has accepted Christ depends upon this                 world and seems to have perfect contentment in
constant obedience and faithfulness, which is also        the paths of sin. All these things can certainly hap-
rooted in his free will. A man may, in fact, fall away    pen. Preservation does not preclude all these pos-
and be restored many times before he finally              sibilities.
arrives in glory. Or, much worse, a man may be               Nevertheless, preservation means that God con-
once a Christian, but through his falling, arrive,        tinues His work of grace even when all these things
after all, in hell.                                       happen.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                105



  Here, too, we must be careful. We are not speak-         to repentance and confession. He restores them
ing here of an elect child of God who has not been         again to Himself.
brought to the faith as yet. There are elect, though         Fourthly, (and here we really come to the very
unregenerated, people of God who through the gos-          heart of the truth), God maintains His work of grace
pel are brought to faith and conversion in adult life.     in their hearts. That is, the life of regeneration re-
This is especially true on the mission field, as it was    mains within them. They continue to be united to
true with, e.g., the Philippian  jailor. Prior to their    Christ by the bond of faith. The principle of salva-
regeneration and conversion, these people surely           tion remains. Even though they have lost the con-
walk in all the sins of the wicked. The truth of           sciousness of this salvation, of faith, and of the life
preservation does not, as such, refer to them - un-        of Christ, God maintains it and continues to per-
til such a time as God begins His work within their        form His work.
hearts.
  Nor are we speaking here of those who outward-             This is very clear from Scripture. No one is able,
ly confess their faith, seem for a time to be faithful     Jesus says, to pluck His sheep out of His hand or
and true members of the church, walk in the com-           out of His Father's hand (John  10:27-30). Tri-
pany of the people of God; but then, after a time,         umphantly Paul shouts that nothing can separate us
depart. We cannot, of course, tell the difference be-      from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom.
tween such a person and the child of God who,              8:35-39). John solemnly writes: "Whosoever is born
after walking for a time in sin, returns again  - at       of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in
least, not until he returns. Of these former the           him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God"
apostle John speaks in I John 219: "They went out          (I John 3:9).
from us, but they were not of us; for if they had            Finally, the truth of preservation means that,
been of us, they would no doubt have continued             even though the child of God falls into sin, God will
with us: but they went out, that they might be             restore him again through the way of repentance
made manifest that they were not all of us."               and confession. God will bring him back to the full
  We are speaking of those in whom God has                 riches of the joy of salvation through the conscious-
begun His work of grace. These are always pre-             ness of the forgiveness of sin. And, doing this, God
served by the power of Almighty God, even when             will preserve His own unto final salvation and
they fall into sin.                                        glory. This last, too, is important. Preservation
                                                           means that we are kept by God safely into all eter-
  We may very well ask the question at this point:         nity. To be in heaven does not mean that we then
What precisely is meant by preservation? especially        suddenly become independent of God's grace and
in the light of the lamentable falls of God's people.      are able to stand on our own strength. Forever and
  There are several elements which ought to be             ever in glory, though now without the possibility of
mentioned in this connection.                              sinning again, we are kept and preserved by the
  In the first place, it is evident that they always       power of the grace of our God.
remain  elect.  Election is an eternal and unchange-         We have not the space to enter into all the Scrip-
able decree of God according to which God sover-           tural proof for this beautiful doctrine. But we refer
eignly, out of mere grace, determines who are His          the interested reader, in addition to the passages
and who are not.                                           mentioned above, to such texts as John  6:37-40,
  Secondly, they always remain those for whom              Philippians  1:6, I Peter  1:4, 5, Ephesians  1:13, 14,
Christ died. And it must be remembered that they           II Thessalonians 3:3, II Timothy 1:12.
are those who objectively have been redeemed by              Scripture also speaks oftentimes of the ground of
the blood of Christ, for whom satisfaction for sin         preservation. We cannot go into this in detail, but a
has been made, and for whom salvation has been             few points are worth noting. As we have already in-
graciously merited.                                        dicated, election itself is the most fundamental
  Thirdly, it follows for this, that they are always       ground. Jesus alludes to this in John 10:26-30 when
and unchangeably the objects of God's love and             He speaks of the fact that His people are His sheep-
favor. This is true even in their deepest falls.           a name reserved for the elect, and He tells His
Though they experience God's wrath and displea-            audience that they are given Him of the Father. No
sure, this does not alter the fact that even God's         one can pluck them out of His hand or out of the
wrath upon them and His hot displeasure are mani-          Father's hand.
festations of His love. When God sends them                  Secondly, the ground for preservation is the per-
trouble and distress, grief and sorrow; when His           fect work of Christ in which He actually accom-
hand is heavy on them; even then they are loved by         plished satisfaction and atonement for the sins of
God. And the distress He sends them is evidence of         His people. To deny preservation is to deny the
His love, for through these means He brings them           efficacy of the cross. Those for whom Christ died


106                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



can go lost? Utterly impossible!                            action. " And this we do not do. We sin constantly.
  Thirdly, Christ's intercessory prayer is part of          We sin greatly. We sin in such a way that we deny
this ground. Jesus Himself speaks of this when He           the Lord, walk in the paths of the world, and depart
says to Peter that Satan desired to have Peter to sift      from the precepts of the Most High. If perseverance
him as wheat. "But," says the Lord, "I have prayed          is taken in its absolute sense, then the fact is that
for you that your faith fail not." And that prayer is       we do not persevere at all.
surely heard because it is rooted in the cross of             But there are a couple of points which must be
Christ.                                                     remembered nevertheless. In the first place, the
  Finally, that preservation is grounded in the ab-         admonitions which Scripture uses to enjoin us to
solute sovereign rule of God over all. When Jesus,          persevere are not without use and purpose. They
in the classic passage on which this truth is based,        call us to persevere, and they are the very means
assures His people that no one can pluck them out           which God uses to continue us in the way of per-
of His hand or out of His Father's hand, he really          severance. Through constant admonition God
speaks of what is, from the point of view of our            keeps us faithful to Himself. This is because His
earthly existence, an extremely precarious position         work of preservation is never apart from, a viola-
in which the people of God stand. They are sur-             tion of, our own rational and moral nature. In the
rounded by enemies - in this world and from hell            second place, perseverance is, with us, a matter of
- who are bent in pulling God's people out of               the  principle of a holy life. Though we fall into sin
God's hand. These enemies are much, much                    and depart from the ways of God in many and
stronger than the believer and they come with great         lamentable falls, nevertheless we do, in principle,
power and irresistible might to accomplish their            persevere. And that is evident from the fact that
purpose. And the child of God is so weak in himself         we, though often weak and sinful, confess our sins,
because he finds that his greatest enemy is his own         flee to the cross, cast ourselves upon the mercy of
evil and corrupt flesh which agrees with devils,            Christ and seek again renewed strength to walk in
sides with the world, and is always trying to jump          God's way. There is a principle of perseverance
out of the hand of Christ. He has every reason,             within us that is real and true.
from the viewpoint of this life, to be terrified. But,        And so we come to the point. Our perseverance
Jesus says, My Father is greater than all! God rules.       is not our work in distinction from God's work,
He rules even over all the wicked so that nothing           isolated from it, independent of it. It is not as if here
can happen to them without God's will. The Angel            at last we come to what we can do. Perseverance
of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear            and preservation are linked together as effect and
Him. The enemies are in the control of Almighty             cause. Our perseverance is the effect of God's
God. No temptation can come upon us but what we             causal work of preservation. We must persevere in
shall be able to bear, and God will provide a way of        working out our own salvation in fear and trem-
escape. What great comfort.                                 bling, but we do this because it is God Who works
  There is then one more aspect to this question            within us both the willing and the doing of His good
which we must face: What is the relation between            pleasure (Phil. 2: 12, 13).
preservation and perseverance? God preserves, we              It is indeed exactly to teach us this total reliance
persevere. God keeps us safe, we continue in the            upon Him that God sometimes allows us to fall into
way of salvation. What is the relation?                     sin. We think, in our pride, as Peter did, that we
  That we are called to persevere cannot be doubt-          can stand in our own strength. And sometimes, just
ed. There are literally dozens of texts which prove         to teach us that we cannot, God lets us stand in our
this. The apostle John writes: "We know that                own strength  - and always we fall. We cannot
whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is        stand for a moment. We cannot persevere ever
begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked            without the sovereign grace of God Who works
one toucheth him not" (I John  5:X3). Jude ad-              both the willing and the doing of our perseverance.
monishes the church: "Keep yourselves in the love             It is in the doctrine of preservation also that God
of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus             receives all the glory. In his better days, Berkouwer
Christ unto eternal life" (vs. 21). In His letter to the    wrote a book on "Faith and Perseverance." In this
church of Smyrna the Lord writes: "Be thou faith-           book he writes:
ful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of
life" (Rev. 2110).  And so we could go on.                        Has the Church given a true and reliable answer to
                                                                anxiety as it reveals itself in our threatened human
  In a certain sense of the word, it can surely be              lives? Whoever gives an affirmative answer to this
said that we do nof really persevere; that our salva-           question will do well to reflect conscientiously on this
tion is due only to God's preservation. That is, per-,          doctrine and to understand that here it is not the pride
severance means "steady persistence in a course of              and self-esteem of man which have pierced the gloom


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               107



   of anxiety and uncertainty, but rather, according to         ly in Q. & A. 54:
   the deepest intention of the Church, the doctrine of
   perseverance of the saints is a song of praise to Gods             What believest thou concerning the "holy catholic
   faithfulness and grace. The saying is applicable here,           church" of Christ?
   if anywhere, that in doctrine a song of praise sounds              That the Son of God from the beginning to the end
   forth. Not for a moment may we forget what the faith-            of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to Him-
   fulness of God means. Only in terms of that supposi-             self by His Spirit and word, out of the whole human
   tion can one speak meaningfully of faith and persever-           race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in
   ance (p. 14).                                                    true faith; and that I am and for ever shall remain, a liv-
  Our Heidelberg Catechism puts it very beautiful-                  ing member thereof.




                                    How Can I Be Sure?
                                                   Prof; Robert D. Decker

  That is the question. How can I be sure that I am              My Father which gave them Me, is greater than all;
and  forever  shaZ2  remain  a living member of the              and no man is able to pluck them out of My
church of our Lord Jesus Christ? From what source               Father's hand" (John  10:27-29). Once again, there
does this assurance come? This question has                     can be no mistake about the Lord's meaning. The
troubled not a few of God's people over the years.              sheep given Him by His Father (eternal election of
From one point of view this question ought not                  grace) for whom Jesus lays down His life and takes
have in the past and ought not now trouble the be-              it again (limited atonement, John  10:15-18) cannot
liever. The Bible, God's holy and infallible Word,              go lost. They shall never perish because no one is
does answer the question clearly and beautifully.               able to pluck them out of the hands of Jesus and His
From another point of view, well might we be                    Father. This precious truth is beautifully empha-
troubled by this question, for without the assur-               sized in the Epistles as well. We are begotten again
ance of salvation and of the fact that we shall be              into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
preserved by God to everlasting life and glory we               Christ from the dead, "to an inheritance incor-
have nothing! Lacking the conviction that we shall              ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
be raised up from the dead in and by the power of               reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the
Christ's resurrection, the Scripture says,  ". .  .your         power of God through faith unto salvation ready to
faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they               be revealed in the last time" (I Peter 1:3-5). This is a
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished...we             very powerful statement. The inheritance, which is
are of all men most miserable" [I Corinthians                   salvation in its final manifestation in the glory of
15:17-19). It is crucial for our spiritual health and           the new heaven and earth, is reserved for God's
well-being that we know the answer to the ques-                 people. And the saints are kept (guarded, R.D.D.)
tion: "How can I be sure?"                                      by the power of Almighty God through faith. It is,
  Of the fact that Holy Scripture teaches the                   therefore, abundantly evident from God's Word
preservation and perseverance of the elect in Christ            that God preserves His elect in Christ to everlasting
there can be no doubt. In His sermon on the Bread               life and glory. By this preserving grace of God the
of Life Jesus said, "All that the Father giveth Me              saints persevere to the end. It is utterly impossible
shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will              that even one of that multitude which no man can
in no wise cast  out....No  man can come unto Me,               number should fail to attain the glory which God
except the Father which hath sent Me draw him:                  has prepared for His people.
and I will raise him up at the last day.. ..Verily,                But the question remains: "How can I be sure?"
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me hath            How is it possible for me to know that I am one of
everlasting life" (John  6:39, 44, 47). Plainly our             the sheep of Christ? By what means can I know that
Lord teaches that believers have everlasting life               I shall be raised up at the last day? How can I be
now, and they shall be raised up at the last day. In            assured that God has begotten me again to that
opposition to the Pharisees Jesus stressed the same             living hope by Christ's resurrection? How can I be
truth with these words: "My sheep hear My voice,                certain that the inheritance is reserved for me and
and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give                 that God will guard me by His almighty and sover-
unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,            eign power? That, indeed, is the question.
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.                   This assurance does not come "by any peculiar


108                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



revelation contrary to, or independent of the Word         me in Christ. I must believe that Christ died for my
of God" (Canons, V, 10). There are those who look          sins and was raised again on account of my justifi-
for their assurance in some kind of religious exper-       cation. I must be assured of the fact that Christ  .is
ience. They believe that God will speak to them in         coming again to receive me unto Himself in
some mysterious way and thus assure them of their          Father's House of many mansions. This means the
salvation. Until they have this conversion-exper-          Holy Spirit must witness with our spirits that we
ience they have no assurance at all. They remain           are the children of God, "and if children, then
quite convinced that they are lost. They may hear          heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so
the gospel preached Sunday after Sunday, but they          be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also
        "It's not true for me." They live in doubt and     glorified together" (Romans 8:16, 17).
iE:r, even terror at the prospect of dying and meet-         At this point many go astray. This faith, they
ing their Lord. Although Pentecostalism is in many         claim, is man's work. Man believes or exercises
respects very different, its doctrine of. "Holy Spirit     faith and God then gives him salvation and its as-
Baptism" teaches that the Holy Spirit works in-            surance. Or it is taught that faith is the condition
dependently of the Word of God. These and all              which we must fulfill in order to receive the
such mystical notions concerning the source of our         promise of God. If that be the case (and it is not!)
assurance are seriously wrong and extremely harm-          there can be no assurance for us. Our salvation
ful.                                                       then would in the last analysis depend on our-
   How can I be sure? God Himself must tell us.            selves. This is contrary to all Scripture.
Our assurance must come from God and never                   Faith, just as is true of all the blessings of salva-
from anything in us. God must tell us that we are          tion is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-10). Initially
His children, elect in Christ, redeemed by His cross       God gives us faith when He regenerates us (John 3;
and resurrection. God must assure us that we are           I Peter  1:3). This faith is brought to conscious ex-
and forever shall remain living members of His             pression by means of the preaching of the Word
church, The fathers of Dordt stated this truth             (Romans  10:13-17). By means of the preaching of
beautifully when they wrote: "This assurance.. .           the Word by one called of God through His church
springs from faith in God's promises, which He has         we hear the voice of Christ, believe on Him, call
most abundantly revealed in His Word for our com-          upon His name, and we are saved. Faith comes by
fort" (Canons V, 10). Those promises are really one        hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In this
promise, viz., the sworn oath of God that He will          way the Spirit of Christ witnesses with our spirits
lead all of His elect in Christ to everlasting life and    that we are the children of God. The fruit of this
glory. Those promises are revealed from various            grace of God is that we walk in those good works
points of view in Scripture. But they all are compre-      which God has before ordained that we should
hended in the one, unspeakably rich promise of             walk in them (Ephesians  2:lO). When we walk in
God, His oath that He will surely preserve His be-         sin, when we are indifferent to the Word of God,
loved in Christ. Out of the promise of God we have         we lose immediately the assurance of salvation. But
"strong consolation" (cf. Hebrews 6: 13-20).               when by the grace of the Holy Spirit we are sorry
   How can I be sure? Where do we find the                 for our sins and earnestly fight against them we are
promises of God? In God's Word. God does not               assured in our hearts that we are and forever shall
speak to us directly any more. We no longer have           remain living members of God's church.
prophets and apostles who say to us, "Thus saith             All this has at least two very serious implications.
the Lord." But we do have by His grace God's               First, we must receive the Word of God as it is.
Word preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures.              God's Word, Holy Scripture, is inspired and, there-
These Holy Scriptures are the inspired, infallible         fore, infallible, i.e., without error. While it was
Word of God. In them God reveals the riches of His         given through the instrumentality of "holy men of
promise to His elect in Christ Jesus. God tells us         God" it is not the word of man (II Peter  1:20, 21).
who are the heirs of the promise. God gives in the         Nor is Scripture partly the word of men and partly
Scriptures His own divine guarantee that neither           the word of God. Scripture is not the record of the
the inheritance nor the heirs shall perish (cf. I Peter    religious experiences of its various authors. From
1:4, 5). Apart from the Word of God, therefore, we         beginning to end it is God's Word (II Timothy 3:16,
have no knowledge of the promise of God. Without           17). To deny this truth is to destroy the believer's
the knowledge of the promise of God we have no             assurance. To the degree that one corrupts the
assurance of our salvation.                                Word of God with the false doctrines of men he
   The question remains: how can I know that               loses his assurance. Still more, the divinely inspired
God's promise is for me? How can I be sure? For            Word of God must be faithfully preached! The
that we need faith. By faith we receive the promise        Scriptures must be expounded and applied to the
of God personally. I must believe that God chose           lives of God's people in the world. Preachers must


                                           THE. STANDARD BEARER                                                    109



not proclaim their own or some other person's                again for us and will surely preserve  us,unto ever-
opinion. God's own Word must be preached! And,               lasting life and glory. In this.way I can be sure. I am
God's people must faithfully attend the worship              sure! Praise be to God for the Wonder which He
services of the church. In this way we hear Christ           has performed for us and in us through Jesus Christ
and are assured in our hearts that He died and arose         our Lord.




        Perseverance and the Sins of the Saints
                                                  Rev. Ronald Hanko


  In I Peter  1:5 the doctrine of perseverance is not           Secure, unmoved, I shall remain, with Him
only clearly proved, but it is set forth as a great                at my right hand.
multiplication of God's grace and peace to His                                   (Psalter #28, stanzas 1 and 2)
saints. In verse 3 the Apostle Peter speaks of our
election according to the Father's foreknowledge             For each saint it is "mercy multiplied" exactly be-
and shows how this grace of God in election is               cause he finds that it keeps him, a poor, weak,
sealed to us and becomes ours through the sancti-            wandering sheep, in the way of eternal salvation.
fying work of the Holy Spirit as He leads us to per-           The two words which we use in teaching this
fect peace in the way of blood-sprinkled obedience.          doctrine, the words "perseverance" and "preserva-
This revelation of grace and peace, already great,           tion," both imply that the life of the people of God
must be and will be multiplied unto us, Peter says,          in this world is not easy  - that they must walk
through the abundant mercy of the God and Father             amid many dangers and great threats to their new
of our Lord Jesus Christ.                                    life. That too is their experience. On the one side
  Peter tells us how it is multiplied in the following       Satan roars against them as a lion to devour and
verses when he reminds us that this work of grace            destroy them. On the other side the world beckons
and peace involves the giving of a new life, the             with endless pleasures and allurements, and threat-
resurrection-life of Jesus Christ, which bears with it       ens with persecution those that will not heed its
the hope of an everlasting and imperishable inheri-          call. Through it all each saint must keep to the nar-
tance. But even this grace is further multiplied in          row way of life.
that through grace the inheritance is kept incor-              Nevertheless, it is not in these things that the
ruptible and undefiled for us, and also in that we           saints find the greatest danger, but in that both
are kept by the power of that grace of God for our           Satan and the world have a strong ally in their own
inheritance. That preserving power of God which              flesh. That is the reason why Paul in Romans 7 does
guarantees our perseverance unto the inheritance             not cry to be delivered from Satan or from the
is, therefore, the crown of Gods work of grace in            wicked, but from the "body of this death," for
this life and a great multiplication of grace through        when he is delivered from the body of death then
which we enjoy abundant peace.                               too there shall no longer be any danger from Satan
  This is also the experience of the child of God.           or from the wicked world and its lusts. The flesh
God's grace is not only magnified and multiplied,            continues to serve the law of sin even after God be-
but magnified  unto him  when he experiences that            gins His work in us and remains an outpost for all
electing, justifying, and sanctifying grace as a             the attacks of the kingdom of darkness.
power revealed in the midst of all his sins and                And if any child of God is inclined to underesti-
temptations as they rise against him throughout his          mate these dangers, he will soon learn that he fights
life. In perseverance each saint so experiences              not against flesh and blood but against princi-
God's grace and its saving power that he learns to           palities and powers and spiritual wickedness (Eph.
sing even in the darkest hours praises to God:               6: 12). These powers are very great, and always it is
   When in the night I meditate on mercies                   his experience that these powers are too great for
      multiplied,                                            him to face in his own strength. He finds himself
   My grateful heart inspires my tongue to                   like Gideon with 300 men and a few lanterns fight-
      bless the Lord, my guide.                              ing against all the host of Midian. But even then the
   Forever in my thought the Lord before my                  greatest danger is the traitor that he finds, as it
      face shall stand;                                      were, within his own camp.


110                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



  Our Canons also teach this:                              should glory in His presence" (I Cor. 1:29).
         By reason of these remains of indwelling            It is at this point that our definition of a "saint" is
       sin, and the temptations of sin and of the          critical, for it is saints who persevere. The  Armin-
       world, those who are converted could not            ian always says that the saint is one who makes
       persevere in a state of grace, if left to their     himself to differ by his works, especially by the
       own strength. Head V, Article 3.                    work of "accepting Jesus." His perseverance as a
Notice just two things in this connection: (1) that        saint also depends, then, on his continued accep-
the great enemy is the remnant of indwelling sin,          tance of Jesus all through his Christian life. He, de-
described in the previous articles as "the body of         pending on himself, has no hope of perseverance
sin" and the "infirmity of the flesh," and (2) that        and no assurance of an inheritance.
because of this "enemy within" even the redeemed             Our Canons, for this reason, begin their discus-
and converted saint cannot stand for a moment if           sion of "The perseverance of the Saints" by care-
left to himself.                                           fully defining a saint as one "whom God calls, ac-
  Perseverance, then, does not mean that all the           cording to His purpose, to the communion of His
dangers to our Christian life are removed, but that        Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates by the
we walk safely through all these dangers and re-           Holy Spirit, (and) delivers also from the dominion
ceive the inheritance which the Lord has promised.         and slavery of sin in this life" (Canons V, Article 1),
Even more, it means that we triumph over all these         and, we might add, to whom God gives the gift of
enemies, and finally have the victory even over our        faith. Only then does the "saint" have the assur-
own sinful nature when we lay ourselves down               ance that He who has begun a good work in him,
upon our last bed. But we taste that blessed victory       will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phi.
already in this life when we resist the devil, when        1:6).
we come out from and are separate from the world,            Nevertheless, even though the saints are de-
and especially when we "keep under" our flesh              livered from the dominion and slavery of sin, they
and bring it into subjection (I Cor.  9:27) while we       are not delivered "altogether from the body of sin,
walk in sanctification of life.                            and from the infirmities of the flesh, so long as they
  We do this by grace alone, and that grace is al-         continue in the world" (Head V, Article 1). Even as
ways revealed in contrast to our weakness and in-          a saint he still has his old sinful nature, as old as
ability and for Gods glory. That contrast is estab-        Adam, and therein lies his great need for Gods pre-
lished in the conclusion of the Article from the           serving grace. Only by that grace can he persevere.
Canons which we quoted above. Having spoken of
our inability to persevere in our own strength, the          This preserving grace of God is revealed to us in
fathers say:                                               many different ways. It is revealed already when
                                                           God first teaches us our sins. This knowledge of
       . . . But God is faithful, who having con-          sin, as the Canons point out furnishes us
       ferred grace, mercifully confirms, and pow-
       erfully preserves them therein, even to the             . . . with constant matter for humiliation be-
                                                               fore God, and flying for refuge to Christ cru-
       end.                                                    cified; and for mortifying the flesh more and
A beautiful illustration of this faithfulness and pre-         more by the Spirit of prayer, and by holy ex-
serving grace is found in Paul's two Epistles to the           ercises of piety; and for pressing forward to
Corinthians. That Church was troubled by many                  the goal of perfection, till at length delivered
evils all arising out of the sins of her members  -            from this body of death, (we) are brought to
sects, divisions, fornication, lack of discipline,             reign with the Lamb of God in heaven. Head
heresy, profaning of the Lord's Supper  - sins                 V, Article 2.
which threatened the very existence of the Church
and the salvation of her members. If ever there was        It was a holy horror of sin which caused Jabez to
a troubled Church, it was the Church of Corinth,           persevere in prayer, and through prayer to obtain
and yet it was there that God revealed His faithful-       from God the grace which was necessary to pre-
ness. The theme of the whole first Epistle is found        serve him in his inheritance for ever (I Chron.
already in chapter 1; "God is faithful . . .  ." (verse    4:lO).
9). In His faithfulness God preserved His Church             That grace of God is also revealed when God
and the saints in Corinth so that Paul could confess       gives us the means of grace, the preaching of the
in his second Epistle, "Our hope of you is steadfast,      Gospel, and teaches us to use them (Cf. Canons V,
knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings,        Article 14). Having these means of grace we have
so shall ye be also of the consolation" (II Cor. 1:7).     the "whole  armour of God" and are able to stand
Nor may we forget that God revealed His faithful-          against all the wiles of Satan and all the fiery darts
ness in that sinful congregation "that no flesh            of the wicked (Eph. 6:11-18).


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         111



  That grace is also revealed when we are in the                         .  .  . they highly offend God, incur a deadly
midst of temptations and not just as we face them.                      guilt, grieve the Holy Spirit, interrupt the
In temptation we have the assurance that God is in                      exercise of faith, very grievously wound
sovereign control even of these things and that He                      their consciences, and sometimes lose the
in grace determines both the kind and the measure                       sense of God's favor for a time (as David
of temptation and always provides a way of escape                       confesses of himself in Psalm 32).
in temptation as we are taught in I Corinthians                                                      Canons V, Article 5.
10:13.  It is this sovereign determination of all the                But even these things God uses in wonderful and
circumstances of temptation that also makes it im-                   mysterious ways to restore them to the way of re-
possible for us to blame God for our falls, even                     pentance and to teach them to be faithful and to
though it is He that sends temptation as we confess                  persevere in a new and holy life. God chastises us
when we pray, "Lead us not into temptation." How                     with these whips that we may forevermore be par-
can we blame Him Who always provides a way of                        takers of His holiness in the new Jerusalem (Heb.
escape and Who will not suffer us to be tempted                      12:6-11).   All things including our sins and falls
above that we are able?                                              work together for our good by God's preserving
  Nor are the falls of God's people into temptation                  grace and according to His eternal love.
to be blamed to the failure of God's grace. Persever-                  What comfort to know that all our steps are
ance does not mean we are preserved from falls,                      "ordered by the Lord" - even when we wander.
but from "falling away." Though God's saints feel                    Then we have the assurance that though we fall,
the chastening hand of God in their falls, they                      we shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord also
never lose their salvation for God always preserves                  then upholds us with His hand (Ps. 37:23,24). Thus
in them the incorruptible seed of their new life and                 we sing:
always restores them again. This is beautifully il-
lustrated in the lives of Abraham, of Lot, of David,                    In doubt and temptation I rest, Lord, in
of Peter, and of many others of God's saints both in                          Thee;
the Old and New Testaments.                                             My hand is in Thy hand, Thou carest for me;
                                                                        My flesh and heart falter, but God is my
  But the wonder of it is, that even in their falls
God's grace is working to keep them for their in-                             stay,
                                                                        The strength of my spirit, my portion for
heritance. By their  backslidings they suffer griev-                          aye.
ously for                                                                                (Psalter  #202, stanzas 1 and 2).




             Perseverance and the Sin unto Death
                                                           Rev. H. Veldman


  The expression "sin and death" occurs in our                          sin unto death and having forbidden to pray for them,
Canons, in the fifth head. In Article 6 of the positive                 immediately adds to this in verse 18: "We know that
section we read, and we quote:                                          whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not [meaning a
                                                                        sin of that character), but he that is begotten of God
      But God, Who is rich in mercy, according to His un-               keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not,"
   changeable purpose of election, does not wholly with-                I John 5:18.
   draw the Holy Spirit from His own people, even in
   their melancholy falls; nor suffers them to proceed so              We will notice that our fathers, in V, B, 4, speak-
   far as to lose the grace of adoption, and forfeit the state       ing of this "sin unto death," identify it with the sin
   of justification, or to commit the sin unto death; nor            against the Holy Spirit. And this is undoubtedly
   does He permit them to be totally deserted, and to                correct. We read in Mark  3:28-29: "Verily I say
   plunge themselves into everlasting destruction.                   unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of
  And in the fourth article of the rejection of errors               men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall
(V, B, 4) we read, and we quote:                                     blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the
      Who teach: That true believers and regenerate can              Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger
   sin the sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit. Since          of eternal damnation." The same expression we
   the same Apostle John, after having spoken in the fifth           read in Matthew  12:31, 32. In I John 5:16 we read:
    chapter of his first epistle, vss. 16 and 17, of those who       "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not


112                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life      which are brought forth and which receive blessing
for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto     from God. These, we understand, are the people of
death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." And in    God. But in verse 8 he speaks of thorns and briers
Hebrews 6:4-6 we read: "For it is impossible for          which are rejected, are nigh unto cursing, whose
those who were once enlightened, and have tasted          end is to be burned. Mind you, their end is to be
of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of          burned; they are surely the reprobates. Thorns and
the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of          briers never become herbs, even as tares are never
God, and the powers of the world to come, If they         wheat and wolves never become sheep. Secondly,
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repen-          although we read that they were once enlightened,
tance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of       had tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made par-
God afresh, and put Him to an open shame."                takers of the Holy Ghost, this must be understood,
  In the subject assigned to me in this special issue     not in the spiritual sense of the word, but in the in-
of our  Standard Bearer,  Perseverance and the Sin        tellectual, natural sense of the word. How true it is
unto Death, the question is of the utmost im-             that the reprobate will and does speak of the
portance: what is the relation between this per-          wonders of the heavenly gift! He will concede the
severance and the sin unto death? Can this sin unto       wonders and glories of the heavenly Jerusalem, the
death ever frustrate or thwart the perseverance of        City that has foundations. Thirdly, when we read
the saints? This is the position of the Arminians. It     that they cannot be renewed again unto repentance,
is true that in the fifth point of the Remonstrance       this surely implies that they had once been re-
they declare that they are not ready to give a defi-      newed unto repentance. The word "again" empha-
nite answer to this question. This, however, is only      sizes this. We read that they cannot be renewed
camouflage. We understand, of course, that any            again unto repentance. But this does not mean that
conception that is rooted in the free will of the sin-    they had actually and spiritually been renewed
ner cannot believe in the certain perseverance of         unto repentance, had been regenerated by the
the saints. Besides, the Arminian surely does not         Lord. Besides, that they cannot be renewed again
believe in this truth.                                    unto repentance does not mean that this re-
                                                          pentance lies beyond the power of God's grace and
  The Arminian, we understand, and this is surely         Spirit, that the heart of this sinner has become so
understandable, is very fond of quoting Hebrews           hard and obdurate that even the power of the grace
6:4-6. In this Scripture, already quoted in this          and Spirit of God is unable to break it. This, we un-
article, the inspired writer speaks of those who          derstand, cannot possibly be the meaning of this
have been once enlightened, have been made par-           Word of God. Of course, when we read that they
takers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good         cannot be renewed again unto repentance, the
Word of God and the powers of the world to come;          meaning is that the Lord cannot renew them again
and he declares of them that, if they shall fall away,    unto repentance, inasmuch as it is only the Lord
they cannot be renewed again unto repentance. Of          Who renews unto repentance. However, the Holy
course, he does not endorse fully this particular         Spirit does not operate this way; the elect do not
Word of God. He does call attention to what we            serve the manifestation of sin in the highest, the
read here, namely, that they fall away. But he            extreme sense of the word, its greatest manifesta-
surely does not endorse what follows in this text,        tion  - this is reserved for the reprobate. The elect,
namely, that they cannot be renewed again unto re-        we must understand, serve to reveal the power and
pentance. He will surely maintain that, even as           the glory of the grace of God. Hence, that they had
through his free will he can fall away or out of          been renewed once unto repentance means that
grace, so he can also through his free will return        this had been their confession. They had once con-
into the grace of God. He will surely maintain that       fessed that the Lord had renewed them, had called
if it be true that the saint can fall from or out of      them out of darkness into His marvellous light.
grace and therefore not persevere even until the          Having fallen away, having repudiated their con-
end, so it must also be true that he can always re-       fession, means that they cannot be renewed unto
turn into the grace of God should he will to do so.       repentance again. This is not the Lord's mode of
But does not this Scripture speak of those who were       operation.
made partakers of the Holy Ghost and that they fall
away? Does not this Word of God, therefore, speak           The sin unto death or against the Holy Spirit oc-
of a falling away of saints? We can understand why        curs, we understand, only in the sphere of God's
he is so fond of quoting this particular Scripture.       covenant. It occurs only by those who, according to
                                                          their confession, had once been renewed unto re-
  How terribly wrong he is! In the first place, the
holy writer is not referring here to the elect but to     pentance.
the reprobate. This appears from what we read in            Can the sin unto death ever thwart the persever-
the verses 7 and 8. In verse 7 he speaks of herbs         ance of the saints? Or, can an elect, regenerated


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         113



child of God ever commit the sin unto death? In-                melancholy falls into sin. Our fathers speak of this
deed not! We read in I John  3:9: "Whosoever is                 in Canons, in V, A, 6. It is certainly true that a child
born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed  re-              of God may at times even wonder whether he is
maineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is                guilty of this sin. Children of God can sin very
born of God." This, we understand, does not mean                grievously. The Word of God speaks of these inci-
that the child of God never sins. Paul writes in                dents. This merely establishes the truthfulness of
Romans  7:19: "For the good that I would I do not:              the Word of God. The world may cover up the sins
but the evil which I would not, that I do." And in I            and shortcomings of its heroes in their history
John  1:8 we read: "If we say that we have no sin,              books. This is not true of Scripture. Of this, David
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."              is a glaring example. He committed premeditated
The meaning of this latter passage is that if at any            murder when, having committed adultery with
moment we say that we are not sinning, we deceive               Bathsheba, he murdered her husband, Uriah the
ourselves, and the truth is not in us, that is, we are          Hittite. Nevertheless, a child of God cannot commit
not being led by the truth. Hence, when we read in             the sin unto death. Are we sorry for the sins we
I John 3:9 that a child of God cannot sin because he            commit, confess them before the face of our God?
is born of God, the meaning is that which is born of            Do we seek and implore His mercy? Then we have
God cannot sin. That seed, wrought in us by the                 not committed this sin. A sinner cannot experience
Lord, is perfect. And if the child of God, born of              sorrow for a sin unto death. Confessing our sins, we
God, cannot sin, then, of course, he cannot sin the             will surely experience forgiveness. However, there
sin against the Holy Ghost. And this certainly                  is no forgiveness of the sin against the Holy Spirit.
implies that the perseverance of the saints is sure;           And this means that there is no true sorrow for this
the child of God cannot fall away or out of grace.              sin. Hence, we may surely know whether we have
  We need not in this article discuss the sin unto              committed the sin unto death.
death, the sin against the Holy Spirit. Besides, this             The perseverance of the saints is sure. We may
is a difficult passage. Does this sin unto death refer          commit sin and we often do. There is never a
to the sin whereby one in full consciousness sins               moment when we are not sinning, according to I
against the fullest manifestation of the truth? Of             John 1:s. We do proceed stumblingly to Zion's top,
course, every sinner does not commit this sin. Inci-            to the city that has foundations. Sin will plague and
dentally, this sin is committed only within the                 torment us throughout our earthly pilgrimage. But
sphere of God's covenant. According to Hebrews                  we shall persevere. And we shall persevere because
10:29, this sinner treads under foot the Son of God             we shall be preserved. Believing in the Lord Jesus
and counts the blood of the covenant, which sanc-               Christ, by God's almighty grace, we `are assured
tifies, an unholy thing. And this occurs, of course,            that the work which God has once begun by His
only in the sphere of the covenant. However, we                 grace will surely be finished. That work is rooted in
need not discuss this sin in this article, although we          God's unchangeable election, rests upon the
may say that every sin that is not confessed leads to           perfect sacrifice of Christ upon the cross of Cal-
death. Of importance is the truth that the child of             vary, and is being completed in us by the Spirit of
God does not commit this sin. And he may certain-               God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. His work knows
ly know that he does not commit this sin. 0, it is              of no repentance; it will be finished in the day of
true that a child of God may experience                         our Lord Jesus Christ.



                Perseverance and Hebrews 6:4-8
                                                       Rev. C. Hanko


  In defence of the error of the falling away of the               again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to them-
saints reference is made to the Scripture passage in               selves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open
Hebrews 6:4-S, which reads as follows:                             shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that
                                                                   cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for
     "For it is impossible for those who were once en-             them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from
   lightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and            God; But that which beareth thorns and briers is re-
   were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have                 jected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be
   tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the              burned."
   world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them


114                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is not hard to see that those who are seeking        for the faith they profess. Or they may even be dis-
proof from Scripture for maintaining that a saint         illusioned by the imperfections of the saints, or
can fall from grace would appeal to this passage.         have had trouble with one or more of the members
The text actually speaks of falling away. Besides         of the church. In any case, they make an  about-
that, from the description of those who fall away         face, leave the church, and heap reproaches on the
one might draw the conclusion that they were once         church, upon Christ, and upon God.
a part of the church of Jesus Christ, children of God       Those were "once enlightened." They knew
and heirs of salvation. We read that they "were           sound doctrine and even had a thorough under-
once enlightened," which would then refer to re-          standing of the truth, so that they could ardently
generation. They "tasted of the heavenly gift,"           defend it. This knowledge, however, was purely in-
which would apply to such benefits as conversion,         tellectual and might be called an "historical faith."
faith, justification, and sanctification. They "were      The word for "enlightened" in the original does not
made partakers of the Holy Ghost." What else              always refer to regeneration, as some would main-
could that refer to, one might ask, but the presence      tain. See for example such passages as John  1:9,
of the Holy Spirit in their hearts? They "have tasted     Ephesians 3:9.
of the good Word of God, " which would mean that
they enjoyed the preaching of the Word, were edi-         They "have tasted of the heavenly gift." They
fied and enriched with the blessings of salvation.        professed repentance for sin, faith in Christ Jesus as
And, finally, it is mentioned that they were par-         their Savior, the assurance of forgiveness of sin,
takers of the "powers of the world to come," that         and the grace to walk a godly life. In one word, they
is, they would rejoice in the hope of everlasting life    professed to be partakers of Christ and all His bene-
with Christ in glory. And, if this is still not con-      fits, and did so with great enthusiasm. They were
vincing, these defenders of the falling away of           like the stony hearts in Jesus' parable of the Sower,
saints will refer you to the fact that the text speaks    "where they had not much depth of earth." Of
of "renewing again," which, they say, would be            whom Jesus says, `"he heareth the word, and soon
quite impossible if there had not been a first re-        receiveth it. Yet hath he no root in himself, but
newing.                                                   dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecu-
                                                          tion ariseth because of the word, by and by he is of-
  One basic error of these opponents of the truth of
the perseverance of the saints is that they ignore        fended" (Matthew  13:5, 20, 21). This is commonly
                                                          referred to as "temporary faith."
the fact that all Scripture speaks of their preserva-
tion. This would not be difficult to prove, but it is       Of these individuals it is also said that they
hardly necessary in this article. A fundamental rule      "were partakers of the Holy Ghost." This cannot
is that Scripture must be interpreted in the light of     possibly refer to the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the
all the Scriptures, so that it is a serious error to      Comforter, Whom Christ sends into the hearts of
isolate this passage from the rest of the Word of         His people, for this Spirit never departs, but abides
God. Moreover, although this particular text ob-          with us forever (John 14: 16; I John 3:24). If this did
viously refers to a complete break with the church        refer to the Comforter, we would surely expect that
and rejection of all that is holy, the word that is       this would appear at the beginning of this series, as
used in the original for "falling away" can well be       the very first work of grace in the heart of the sin-
translated as "to depart from the right path," "to        ner. Reference is made here to the gift of the Holy
wander." No one would dare to say that anyone             Spirit which came upon the church by the laying on
who falls into sin, becomes delinquent for a time,        of the hands of the apostles, whereby the members
can never be restored. Especially those who quote         of the church prophesied, performed miracles, and
this passage to defend the conditional promise of         spoke in tongues. Unbelievers among the saints
salvation to every baptized child certainly would         also received these gifts, just as Judas had special
not want to conclude that the child who does not          powers given to him when he went out with the
"accept the proferred promise" by the time that he        other disciples to preach and to teach. Scripture
is 18 or 20 years old is, therefore, hopelessly lost      says of them that, "They went out from us, because
forever.                                                  they were not of us."
  The text plainly teaches that there are indivi-           Of these individuals it is added that they "have
duals who either are born in the church or enter it       tasted the good Word of God." They listened at-
later in life, who for a time show a highly emotional     tentively when the Word was preached, talked
excitement or enthusiasm about salvation, who             about it afterward, even enthusiastically. One is re-
profess to be children of God and heirs of eternal        minded of the parable of the Wedding Feast of the
life, but whose enthusiasm soon lags, possibly be-        King's Son, at which a man appears not wearing a
cause they are confronted with persecution for the        wedding garment, and is cast out. It must be that he
faith, possibly because they must make sacrifices         was attracted to the idea of being guest at a


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               1 1 5



wedding feast with all its luxuries and pleasures,        to come to repentance; for no man can come to the
especially when that wedding is given by the king         Father ever, unless the Father draw him. But it
in honor of his son. But he felt that he was worthy       does mean that any effort on the part of the church
to come as he was. His clothing was sufficiently          or of any individual member will prove absolutely
neat and attractive to qualify him to be a guest in       useless in trying to make them see the error of their
the royal palace. He was enthusiastic about sitting       ways. They have become so completely hardened,
at the feast and enjoying its bounties, but purely for    that any attempt to change them meets with bitter
his own satisfaction. In other words, he did not          opposition.
come with a broken and a contrite heart to seek his         The prophet Isaiah refers to individuals of this
salvation only in Christ and His righteousness. The       kind in his 6th chapter, which is quoted by Jesus in
Word of God is  glad tidings  that proclaim to him        connection with the teaching of parables: "And in
who receives it blessedness, peace, and joy un-           them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which
speakable and full of glory. Gods promises are rich       saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not under-
and glorious, beyond our comprehension. Even the          stand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not per-
unbeliever must admit that. At death even he likes        ceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and
to have eulogies spoken over his casket and hopes         their ears dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
to have a joy hereafter.                                  closed, lest at any time they should see with their
  These same individuals could taste of "the power        eyes, and hear with their ears, and should under-
of the world to come." This tasting is again purely       stand with their hearts, and I should heal them"
external, intellectual, or emotional. What a number       (Matthew 13:14, 15).
of songs are sung with strong feeling about the             That this is the meaning of this passage is evident
beauties and glories of heaven, even by unbe-             from the verses 7 and 8, which follow. There the
lievers. When the oratorio "Messiah" is sung by an        figure is used of two fields, which receive the same
unbelieving opera singer, the singer can make a           rains that fall upon them. As a result, the field that
strong impression by his or her beautiful voice, per-     is sown with good seed produces a good crop, pleas-
fect enunciation, and proper expression of the            ing to the husbandman. But the field that is sown
music. A person can enthusiastically speak of the         with bad seed produces nothing but thorns and
coming of the Lord, the blessedness of the saints in      briers, fit only to be burned. The good field is the
the life to come, and the glory of the new creation,      heart that is regenerated by the Holy Spirit and has
without having any desire to join the saints in sing-     the life of Christ implanted in it. When the Word is
ing everlasting praises to God and His Christ.            preached, that heart brings forth fruits of re-
  The text is speaking, therefore, of people who          pentance, conscious faith, righteousness and holi-
profess to have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit       ness. The bad field is the unregenerate heart that is
and incorporated into the Body of Christ. To all out-     filled with evil. The plants that sprout forth are
ward appearances they are saints in Christ Jesus.         only evil continuously. They may appear for a time
They are accepted as such by the members of the           to be the same as the products of the good soil, but
church. They may hold some prominent position in          as they ripen they prove to be only thorns and
the congregation, even as deacon, or elder, or min-       briers, evil works that bring God's righteous judg-
ister of the Word. Yet they fall away. They break         ment upon them unto everlasting condemnation in
completely with the church, become blasphemers            hell.
of God and of His Christ, mock with sound doc-              This only confirms the truth of the eternal secur-
trine, and speak evil of the people of God, even to       ity of the saints. For God Who begins a good work
the extent that they heap reproach and shame upon         in His people will surely finish it even unto ever-
the church. Their former exuberance now turns to          lasting life with Him in glory.
vehement opposition to all that is holy. They join,
as it were, the angry mob that crucified the Lord of
glory, putting Him to open shame. They do this to
themselves, judging and declaring themselves un-
worthy of eternal life, worthy only of Gods                              Take time to
righteous condemnation in hell, where they are
eternally beaten with double stripes (Acts  10:39;                 read and study the
Heb.  10:29).
  The result is that it is impossible to renew them
unto repentance. This does not mean that God can-                  Standard Bearer
not renew them, as if they were beyond the reach
of Almighty God. Nothing is impossible with God.
Nor does it mean that it is now impossible for them


116                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


       Perseverance in the Face of Temptation
                                               Rev. James Slopsema


  As Reformed believers we confess the truth of            the radio and TV, in books and magazines as well as
God's preservation and our perseverance. By God's          in the daily newspaper. These views are even pro-
preservation we mean that God will certainly pre-          claimed from many a pulpit. These teachings lead
serve us in the salvation we have in Jesus Christ.         to a complete denial of God and the way of salva-
He will not allow any power, whether in heaven or          tion. In other words, they lead straight to hell. And
on earth or even in hell, to rob us of that which we       that's where many are being led today. This is be-
have in Christ. By perseverance we mean that, in           cause these doctrines of man are so appealing to the
the power of Gods preserving grace, we will in-            flesh.
deed persevere in the way of our salvation. In other         The Devil also tempts the child of God through
words, we will remain faithful to God, if needs be         the treasures and pleasures of the world. The world
even unto death, and thus receive the crown of life.       today has much pleasure to offer. Some of this
  In this present article we wish to discuss this          pleasure is the pleasure of sin. Society is character-
truth in the context of temptation. According to           ized today by immorality and debauchery. In fact
Ephesians  516, the days in which we live are evil.        these are openly and proudly flaunted. We are con-
That is, they are dangerous, perilous. They are this       fronted with them daily. And this sinful pleasure is
because of the great temptation we face. Every day         very appealing to our flesh. They present us with
of our life we are surrounded by temptation, all of        great temptation. How difficult it often is to deny
which is designed to lead us into sin and destruc-         our flesh which is excited to lust by these carnal
tion. Every child of God knows what these tempta-          pleasures!
tions are. He knows their power and how irresist-            However, not all pleasures of the world are of
ible they can sometimes be. He also knows his own          themselves sinful. Think of all the conveniences
weakness in the face of these temptations. And he          that man has today because of recent inventions
often wonders whether he will be able to persevere         and advancements in technology. And consider all
in the future.                                             the exciting things the world has made it possible to
  Temptation is a tool in the hand of the Devil de-        do. It is possible today to live very comfortably and
signed to lead God's people to their destruction.          easy. Nor is this in itself wrong. And that kind of
Satan is the archenemy of God and His people. His          life is very appealing to us. It certainly appeals to
one purpose is to frustrate the purpose of God by          the flesh. And we can have these things too. The
leading the elect of God to their eternal ruin in hell.    world gladly offers these things to us. The only
And the Devil knows full well how this may be ac-          thing it will cost us is our salvation. That's the price
complished. It is the way of sin. The Devil knows          the world sets for its treasures and pleasures. Re-
the Word of God better than we do. The wages of            main faithful to God and His Word and the world
sin is death (Romans 6:23). And so to lead us to our       will deny you access to its pleasures. It will not
eternal ruin the Devil tempts us to sin.                   allow you a job or the profession needed to attain
                                                           these things. Quite a different story it is, however,
  The Devil uses especially the wicked world to            if you are willing to sacrifice your principles and
tempt us. The world are those who have with us             your God. How tempting this can sometimes be.
fallen into sin and depravity but who have not been
redeemed and sanctified with us in Christ. They are          Then there is persecution. The world may at
those who are still under the spiritual dominion           times hide behind a facade of toleration and co-
and control of Satan. It is especially through this        existence. But ultimately the world has no room for
world that Satan tempts us.                                the church. The world hates the way of God and
                                                           actively opposes it. We can see this in a number of
  The Devil tempts us to sin in especially three dif-      ways today. This is evident from the attitude of the
ferent ways.                                               world toward those in the church that still cling to
  First, there are the vain philosophies and false         the traditional and biblical mores. How stupid and
doctrines of men. By this we mean the doctrines            narrow-minded! Evident this is too from the move
and attitudes of man that stand in direct opposition       to ban any semblance of the Christian religion from
to the teaching of the Bible. What the world today         the public school system or from any institution
has to say about God, marriage, sex, the role of the       somehow affiliated with or supported by the gov-
woman, family life, and a host of other subjects           ernment. This is also evident from the fact that the
stands diametrically opposed to the teachings of the       child of God is ostracized by the world when he re-
Bible. You are confronted with these views over            fuses to conform to the world. Walk with the world


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              117



and the world will embrace you. Walk the way of            and be faithful even unto death so as to receive the
God and the world ultimately has no room for you.          crown of life?
This is not pleasant. What a temptation to conform           We have this assurance: "God is faithful, Who
to the world that we may be accepted and em-               will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are
braced by the world!                                       able; but will with the temptation also make a way
  As history rushes towards the end of time, these         to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (I Cor.
temptations will not lessen but increase. This will        10:13).
simply follow the natural course of the develop-             Notice, God is faithful. We are often unfaithful;
ment of the world. As time marches on, the world           but God is faithful. That means that God always
will continue to develop in technology. This in turn       keeps His promises. The promises in this instance
will give impetus to further growth in sin and wick-       are the promises of God to preserve us in the face of
edness. And this will mean greater temptation for          temptation. To those promises God is faithful.
the saints of God. Immorality and debauchery will            In His faithfulness God will not allow us to be
increase. There will be development in the vain            tempted above what we are able to bear. He will al-
philosophies of man. And the world will become             ways make us a way to escape. This of course does
less and less tolerant of the church.                      not mean that God will never allow us to fall to
  This will all culminate in the Antichrist. In the        temptation. God certainly allows and even wills
days of the Antichrist temptation will abound for          this. However, God will never allow us to be led
the child of God, the likes of which we have never         away completely by temptation so that we lose our
seen. That temptation will center in the great tribu-      salvation and fall from grace. It may be that we fall
lation that the Antichrist will instigate against the      into temptation and are led astray for a time. But
church. In those days the faithful child of God will       God will always bring us back in the way of
not be able to buy or sell. He will see his children       repentance.
starve before his eyes. He will be hunted down as            God preserves us in the face of temptation in
an animal. And there will be no place to hide.             especially two ways.
Hideous will be the torments laid upon the faithful
in those days. However, if the child of God is will-         First, God limits and controls the temptations
ing to forsake his God and his Savior, all this perse-     that beset us. It is true of course that God does not
cution will cease. In turn he will be given all the        tempt us. According to James 1:13, "God can not be
treasures and pleasures of the world, which in             tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man."
those days shall be great indeed. Certainly the time       Nevertheless, temptation is under God's sovereign
of the Antichrist will be evil. So dangerous will they     control. This is because the devil and the powers of
be that our Lord warned us in Matthew 24:22, "Ex-          darkness are under His control. The devil and the
cept those days should be shortened, there should          wicked world can do no more than what God wills
no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days     them to do. Without the will of God they can not
shall be shortened."                                       present before the child of God so much as one
                                                           temptation. And God so controls the temptations of
  Those days of the Antichrist are not all that far        the world and the devil that we are never tempted
off. It is not our purpose in this article to speculate    above what we are able to endure. It may be that
on how near we are to the end of time. However,            the temptations we face are very severe. It may
every discerning child of God who takes seriously          even be that they sweep us away for a time. But
the admonition of Scripture to watch knows that            God will never allow the powers of darkness to
the end is near. The signs of the times all point to       sweep us completely away. This is true not only
the fact that all things are ready for the Antichrist,     now. This will also be true in the great day of tribu-
yea, will soon demand the Antichrist. It is very well      lation.
possible that we and our children will live to see the       But in the second place, God does not allow us to
Antichrist.                                                be tempted above what we are able, by supporting
  And every child of God who has contemplated              us in His grace. In and of ourselves we are totally
these things has asked whether he will be able to          helpless to withstand temptation. Facing tempta-
stand in that evil day. Many will fall away, we are        tion in our own strength we would be led astray by
told. Will we be able to stand? How can we be so           the smallest temptation. To persevere in the face of
sure in light of the fact that we can scarcely stand       temptation we need the grace of God and the
now in the face of temptation? If we can scarcely          strength of Jesus Christ. And God in His faithful-
stand the wiles of the devil now, how will we be           ness will provide us grace sufficient to overcome all
able to do so in the great day of temptation? And          temptation. This grace will come to us as we need
what of our children? What assurances do we have           it. The greater the temptation we face, the greater
that we and our children will be able to persevere         will be God's grace to uphold us to overcome and


118                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



be victorious. This will also be true in the great day       power of grace only in connection with the means
of tribulation.                                              of grace: the preaching of the Word, the sacra-
  And so we have the promise of God to preserve              ments, prayer, Bible study, the fellowship of the
us even in the face of the worst temptation. This is         saints. When these are properly used by us, we are
certainly to comfort us and give us confidence for           strengthened in Christ to overcome all temptation.
the future.                                                  Let us therefore make good use of these God-given
                                                             means day by day that we may have grace to per-
  But this also implies a calling. The calling is that       severe. And by making this a daily practice now,
day by day we fight against temptation in our life in        we are preparing ourselves to meet the onslaughts
the power of grace. And let us remember that the             of the Devil in the darker days that are sure to
grace of God is not automatic. We receive the                come.



                          Carnal Security and Doubt
                                                Rev. Thomas Miersma


  The truth that God in His sovereign grace keeps            works carefully, and to live in holiness. But certain-
His people and causes them to persevere in grace             ty and assurance would lead only to carnal security
and salvation, makes the salvation of the people of          and licentiousness.
God absolutely certain. Jesus Himself rejoices in              In doing this, the Arminians obscured their true
this, declaring in John  10:27, 28, "My sheep hear           charge with words which sounded fair and sensi-
My voice and I know them, and they follow Me:                ble, even reasonable. But their charge speaks with
And I give unto them eternal  lie; and they shall            the wisdom of men, for at its root it is an attack
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out           upon the grace and holiness of God, for it charges
of My Father's hand." The power of that preserv-             the preserving and assuring grace of God with pro-
ing grace and the certainty of perseverance bears            ducing in the life of the child of God, not the fruit of
fruit in the life of the child of God. The sheep of          righteousness, but of sin and indifference. It is
Christ follow Him, and He leads and guides them in           nothing more than the charge against salvation by
paths of righteousness and holiness. Therefore the           grace alone, the charge, "Let us sin that grace may
Apostle John in his First Epistle writes of the power        abound," brought in a new guise. The Scriptures
of that grace of God in us, that we, being assured           are quick to answer that charge. We read in
that we are the sons of God, and having the certain-         Romans  6:1, 2, "What shall we say then? Shall we
ty of eternal life, manifest that hope in a life of sanc-    continue in sin, that grace may abound? God for-
tification and a godly walk. "And every man that             bid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any
hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He          longer therein.7" The grace of preservation and as-
is pure" (I John 3:3).                                       surance cannot work carnal security or licentious-
  It is not surprising therefore that the Arminians,         ness. God's grace is the grace of a holy God, and the
who deny the sovereign grace of God, should deny             Scriptures teach that assurance and hope in the life
the truth of God's preserving grace and of the               of the believer are the spiritual means by which
saints' perseverance. Nor is it surprising that they         God works sanctification in us. Nor does the Lord
should make the believer's assurance and certainty           ever allow His people to sit in spiritual com-
an object of their attack upon God's grace. The              placency or to rest securely in the flesh, but He
challenge which they brought against this truth is           even -humbles our pride and renews us to  repen:
subtle in its evil. For they charged that the certainty      tance, One need only read the account of David's
that one would persevere in grace, the doctrine of           sin with Bathsheba to see that this is indeed the
God's sovereign preservation of His elect and the            case. It is when the believer walks in sin and pride
believer's assurance of salvation, must invariably           that he loses the conscious assurance of God's favor
lead to a profane walk of life. Would not the be-            and grace.
liever who had no doubts become careless, com-                 Our Reformed fathers at the Synod of Dordt
placent about his life and walk, since he was cer-           were not slow to respond to this heinous charge of
tain to persevere and since God would preserve               the Arminians. Nor did they concede one ounce of
him, no matter what? How much better to doubt                truth to it. In Canons V, Rejection of Errors VI, they
one's salvation. Such doubt would serve to spur the          emphatically reject the error of those who teach
believer on to walk in obedience, to maintain good               that the doctrine of the certainty of  per-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              119



    severance and of salvation from its own                 these writings. Nor is a healthy experientialism
    character and nature is a cause of indolence            wrong, for indeed the whole of the Heidelberg
    and is injurious to godliness, good morals,             Catechism is written from that perspective. Yet
    prayers and other holy exercises, but that on           there were certain errors which came with these in-
    the contrary it is praiseworthy to doubt.               fluences. The Puritans were weak in their doctrine
They point to Scripture and the lives of the saints to      of the covenant. They had been greatly influenced
show the falsehood of this charge.                          by Anabaptist ideas of a pure church on earth, a
  Over against this falsehood they take the position        church of believers only. The Puritans began to
that doubt in the life of the child of God is "carnal"      teach a conditional covenant, sometimes called the
(Canons V, A.1 1). While they recognize that be-            half-way covenant, that while one was outwardly
lievers  ". ..in due time, though in various degrees        and formally a member of the church by baptism,
and in different measures, attain the assurance of          true participation in the covenant of grace required
this their eternal and unchangeable election,.  .."         an inward revelation and experience of assurance,
(Canons I, A.12) yet they deny absolutely the con-          rather than a growth in assurance as our Canons
clusion that the Arminians draw (cf. Canons I,              teach. The result was that one was called over to
A. 13; V, A. 12, 13). It is assurance and hope, the cer-    look within himself for signs of grace, to examine
tainty of perseverance which are the spiritual in-          himself, to doubt his salvation. Conversion, regen-
centive to the child of God in his life and walk, the       eration, and assurance of faith became a  hard-
means by which God quickens faith into activity in          fought spiritual struggle with definite steps, even-
thankfulness and gratitude.                                 tually fixed in a certain order, culminating in a
                                                            moment of revelation and conversion. This exper-
  Indeed it is the Arminian error which leads to            ience became the condition unto salvation which a
dead works, for doubt leaves the child of God in            man was to seek, through prayer and hearing of the
misery and without thankfulness. Moreover, it pro-          Word, and by the power of a preparatory or com-
duces not godliness but phariseeism, an outward             mon grace. One can very easily see the Anabaptist
keeping of Gods commandments out of a desire to             influence in such thought, for the Anabaptist needs
persevere by one's own efforts and works, out of a          such an experience in order to practice "believer's
fear, not of God, but of punishment. It is the un-          only baptism." The effect among the Puritans was
believing pharisee who stands carnally secure,              that baptism was seen as bringing one only half-
secure in his own works and self-righteousness.             way into the covenant, and in order that those who
The child of God is secure in grace, not in the flesh.      had not had the experience of assurance or conver-
  It is therefore to be deplored that this Arminian         sion might yet have their children baptized, profes-
error crept back into the Reformed churches not             sion of faith became only formal, a mere intellec-
long after the Synod of Dordt and continues today.          tual assent to the truth. This same doctrine entered
It entered the Reformed church during a time of             the Dutch churches through the writings of the
spiritual decline and dead orthodoxy. The Re-               Puritans and it became pious and praiseworthy to
formed Church in the Netherlands was a state                doubt one's salvation and assurance. Thus assur-
church. Moreover it was socially acceptable and             ance came to be sought not outside oneself in Christ
profitable to be a member of that church. The re-           and His Word, but inwardly, by seeking to discern
sult was that there were many in the church who             the marks of Christian experience, rather than the
were there for carnal reasons. Nor could discipline         marks of a Christian. The necessary consequence
be properly exercised in the church because of state        of this was that many could not go to the Lord's
interference. Believers in the church were justly           Supper, lest they eat and drink judgment to them-
frustrated with the spiritual deadness of the church        selves. That which God had ordained for the com-
and in the preaching, often by heretics who could           fort and quickening of the assurance of His people
not be removed. Rationalism, the exaltation of              (Canons V, A.14) became an impossibility for
human reason over revelation, also entered the              many. The preaching of a well-meant offer also de-
church. The result, by way of reaction, was that            veloped in this connection, in which the people of
Spener's German pietism, which emphasized in-               God were called to struggle to lay hold of God's
ward experiential religion, swept over the churches         grace. Sinners were earnestly invited to seek the ex-
of the Netherlands.                                         perience of conversion and assurance, to plead
  In addition to this a similar situation had pre-          with the Lord for more grace.
vailed in the state church in England, and the writ-          This basically Heynsian conception of the cove-
ings of the Puritans who struggled with the same            nant still survives in many Reformed churches to-
problems there, found ready acceptance in the               day, particularly those that in practice follow the
Netherlands. These too taught an inward experien-           Arminian teaching that it is praiseworthy to doubt,
tialism. There is much that is good and profitable in       and which are suspicious of assurance, deeming it

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





1 2 0                                                   THE  STANDARD BEARER



carnal security. It is noteworthy that Canons V, Re-                     worthy, but carnal. There are indeed marks of a
jection of Errors V regard assurance based on                            child of God, and we can know them, but we do so
special revelation or experience as also being                           in the way of clinging to the promises of God and
Arminian and Papist.                                                     by looking, not within ourselves, but to the Word of
   The believer is secure, absolutely secure, not in                     God and the cross of Christ, fighting the battle of
the flesh, but in the power of grace and by the testi-                   faith and walking in daily conversion with a child-
mony of the Spirit, Who witnesses with our spirit                        like faith. For He is faithful Who promised, and His
that we are children of God. Doubt is not  praise-                       Word can never be broken.


              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY'                                                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   The Council of Faith Protestant Reformed Church expresses its            The Men's Society of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church
sincere sympathy to its fellow office bearer, Eider David Dykstra and    takes this opportunity to express its sincere sympathy to our presi-
family in the passing of his mother.                                     dent, Mr.  Phillip Lotterman, in the loss of his father-in-law, MR.
   "Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me        MELVIN WIERSMA.
to glory." (Psalm 73:24)                                                    "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright; and their inheritance
Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma, Pres.                                           shall be forever." (Psalm 37:lB)
Harvey Holstege, Vice Clerk
                                                                                                        NOTICE!
                                                                            Classis East will meet in regular session on January 11, 1984 at
              RESOLUTION OF SYlihPATHY                                   the First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids. Material to be
   The Martha Ladies Aid Society of the Hull Protestant Reformed         treated at this meeting must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at
Church expresses their Christian sympathy to their fellow member,        least three weeks prior to the convening of the meeting.
Mrs. Egbert Gritters in the recent death of her father, MR. BERT                                                    Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk
BRANDS.
   We commend her and her family to the care of our Heavenly
Father for the comfort and sustaining grace that only He can provide.                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.
Mrs. Nellie Brummel, Sec'y.                                                 The Council of Faith Protestant Reformed Church expresses its
                                                                         sincere sympathy to its brother office bearer, Elder Robert Noorman
                                                                         `and family in the passing of his father-in-law, MELVIN WIERSMA.
                                                                            "My flesh and heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     and my portion forever." (Psalm 83:26)
   The Adult Bible Society of the Faith Protestant Reformed Church       Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma, Pres.
of Jenison, Michigan, expresses its sincere Christian sympathy to Mr.    Harvey Holstege, Vice Clerk
and Mrs. David Dykstra and family in the death of his mother, MRS.
CORNELIUS DYKSTRA.
   May our God comfort the bereaved family through His Word.
   "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
Thee: because he trusteth in Thee." (Isaiah 26:3)                              The Standard Bearer
Rev. W. Bruinsma, Pres.
Mrs. June Van Den Top, Sec'y.                                                    makes a thoughtful
               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                  gift for the sick
   The Adult Bible Society of the Faith Protestant Reformed Church
(Jenison, MI) wishes to express their Christian sympathy to Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Noorman and family in the death of her father, MR.
MELVIN WIERSMA.                                                                       or shut-in.. Give
   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
(Psalm 1 16:5)                                                              The Standard Bearer
Rev. W. Bruinsma, Pres.
Mrs. June Van Den Top, Sec'y.


