           The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
c           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                  .





     .  .  . Words fail us to attempt to describe inti-

     mate covenant fellowship                        God,               in
     mansions that we have not built, eating of
     bounties we have not prepared, filled with a
     blessedness we could never merit! Then we
     shall understand what it means that in Christ
     we share the fulness of divine glory. Then,
     and then only will we begin to fathom the
     wonder of grace, the realization of the prom-
     ise: I will be your GOD!
     see "Baptism, A Sign of God's Covenant"
                                                         - page  170


                                          Volume LX, No. 8, January  15,1984  J


170                                                              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.
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                                                                                      Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Baptism, A Sign of God's Covenant . . . . . . . . . . .170                     Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                                      D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
  Editorial -                                                                         Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
                                                                                      Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Ma&us  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
       The Calling of our Protestant Reformed                                         ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
          Churches to be Specific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173            Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema       '
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MEDITATION

                     Baptism, A Sign of God's Covenant
                                                                          Rev. C. Hanko

               Ques. 72. Is then the external baptism with water the washing away of sin itself?
               Ans. Not at all; for the blood ofJesus Christ only, and the Holy Ghost cleanse us from all sin.
               Ques. 73. Why then doth the Holy Ghost call baptism "the washing of regeneration," and `the
               washing away of our sins"?
               Ans. God speaks thus not without great cause, to wit, not only thereby to teach us, that as the
               filth of the body is purged away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and Spirit of
              Jesus Christ, but especially that by this divine pledge and sign He may assure us, that we are
               spiritually cleansed from our sins as really, as we are externally washed with water.
                                                                                                            Heid. Catechism, Lord's Day 27

  What does your baptism mean to you and mine                                               Our baptism assures us that our sins are washed
to me?                                                                                  away by the blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ.  Bap-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               171



tism itself cannot wash away sins. The mere fact           His own life, yet in complete harmony and unity of
that we are baptized does not save us. Nothing, ab-        thinking, willing, speaking;and  working. This com-
solutely nothing can save us from our sins but the         munion of life is so complete that God needs no one
blood and Spirit of Jesus Christ. Our fathers never        and nothing to add to His blessedness, no more
grow weary in these Lord's Days that deal with             than the sun at noonday needs the light of a candle
baptism to emphasize. this most important truth            to add to its brilliance.
and to engrave it upon our hearts.                           Yet in His eternal good pleasure God wills to re-
  How does baptism assure us of the washing                veal His covenant life outside of Himself, not only
away of our sins by the blood and Spirit of Jesus          by telling us about it, but privileging us to share in
Christ?                                                    that blessedness. God has chosen the Son, Who is
  Baptism confirms the promise of the Holy Scrip-          the revelation of all the fulness of the Godhead, to
tures, that we have the right to the forgiveness of        be the Christ, the chief Servant over all God's
sins and to eternal life through the sacrifice of our      works and affairs. To Him God gives a people,
Savior on the cross, so that we are buried with            chosen from before the foundations of the earth, to
Christ in Baptism and raised again unto newness of         share in the glorious blessedness of His covenant
life within God's covenant as members of His               fellowship, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
church.                                                    This people is a harmonious whole, an organic
                                                           unity, described to us as the Body of Christ, in
  How can baptism assure us of these riches of sal-        which all the members have their own place and
vation?                                                    function in their own capacity. Christ and His
  The Holy Spirit, Who never works apart from              people are eternally one, so that Christ cannot exist
means, works this grace in us, giving us eyes to see       without His people, nor His people without Him,
and hearts to realize that we are conceived and            no more than the head can exist apart from the
born in sin, and therefore subject to all misery, yea,     body or the body apart from the head. When God
to condemnation itself, yet that God has established       establishes His covenant with Christ, His people
an eternal covenant with us, assuring us that He is        are included as inseparable members of His Body
our God and that we are His people forever. Only           (Gal. 3:16,29).
those who have the Spirit of Christ in their hearts           The Establishment.
can have that assurance.                                      Even as the covenant originates in God, so also
  God's Covenant.                                          the establishment is from beginning to end the
  One of the richest, most beautiful and basic             work of God. This was evident already in paradise.
truths of Scripture is the truth of God's covenant,        During the six days of creation God prepared a
which permeates the entire revelation of the God of        home for the highest of all the earthly creatures,
our salvation throughout the Scriptures from Gene-         man, who would dwell, as it were, in God's house
sis to Revelation. On every page of Holy Writ our          in the garden. God made Adam in His own image
covenant God speaks to us as Jehovah, the Al-              and likeness, so that He could know God, be de-
mighty, Unchangeable I AM, Who establishes an              voted to God, and serve God in love. He was lord
eternal relationship of friendship between Himself         over all that he surveyed, and head of the human
and His people in Christ Jesus. God's covenant is          race that would be born from him. What an amaze-
uniquely His covenant in its origin, in its establish-     ment ,must  have flooded Adam's soul as he opened
ment, and in its realization, even as all things are of    his eyes and looked round about him in the midst
Him, and through Him, and unto Him, to Whom be             of all God's handiwork! He heard creation's song in
the glory, world without end.                              the rushing waters, in the whisperings of the wind,
                                                           in the rustlings of the trees, and in the chorus of the
  Its Origin.                                              great variety of birds. He saw the broad expanse of
  God's covenant originates in God Himself, even           the heavens with the brightness of the sun by day
in His eternal, glorious Being as God above all,           and the splendor of the moon and myriads of stars
blessed forever. He lives His own covenant life of         at night. He beheld the majesty of the hills, the
intimate fellowship as the triune God, Father, Son,        beauty of the trees and flowers, and the many kinds
and Holy Spirit. The Father continuously generates         of animals, each a distinct creation, grazing or rest-
the Son in His very likeness, even as the Son contin-      ing in the garden. Well may he have gasped, in awe-
uously draws His life from the Father. The Father          some wonder: My God, how great Thou art! A
breathes forth the Holy Spirit upon the Son, and the       single desire filled his soul, and that was to devote
Son breathes forth the Holy Spirit upon the Father,        himself with all the creatures in loving devotion to
so that Father and Son meet in the Spirit, Who pro-        his God. His joy knew no bounds when at the close
ceeds from both. Thus there is an intimate com-            of the day God came to walk and talk with him as
munion of life among the three persons. Each lives         his sovereign Friend. Added to all that, God gave to


     172                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



     Adam a wife, Eve,  Iwho was flesh of his flesh and       ing in Judah, and thus to David, to end in the virgin
     bone of his bone, united with him in the bond of         Mary -and the Christ. When Israel was in  Lhe
     holy matrimony, in which they experienced the            wilderness God led them by the cloudy pillar, fed
     most intimate communion with their God, reflect-         them with manna, and gave them to drink water
     ing His love and His fellowship in their lives.          from the rock, all of which represented Christ
       Yet Adam was fallible and fell into sin. He fell       among them. God dwelled among them in the tab-
     away from God by establishing an alliance with           ernacle that stood in the midst of the camp. When
     God's adversary, the devil. He was guilty of breach      they were settled in the land of Canaan, Solomon
     of covenant, transgression of God's command,             was privileged to build God's House, where they
     even unfaithfulness and rebellion. This sin              had access to God through the bloody sacrifice and
     deserved everlasting condemnation in torments of         through the priest, both of which pointed to the
     divine wrath, separation from God. Yet God's pur-        promised Savior.
     pose was not foiled. Paradise was, after all, but an       In the fulness of time God sent His Son into the
     earthly replica of the heavenly Paradise to come.        flesh to share our life with us, yet in perfect holi-
     God keeps covenant forever, so that Adam, so to          ness. The apostle John could say that they saw
     speak, fell into the waiting arms of Christ. While       Him, our Light and Life, with their very eyes, heard
     Adam and Eve cowered in fearful trembling, God           Him with their ears, and touched Him with their
     came, sought them out, and after impressing upon         hands. He allowed Himself to be led as a lamb to
     them the horrible guilt of their sin assured them of     the slaughter, laying down His life for those given
     the riches of His mercy in preparing for them a          to Him by the Father. As the lion of Judah's tribe
     Savior. This Redeemer would be flesh of their flesh      the mighty Conqueror descended into Satan's
     and bone of their bone, yet destined to be exalted       realm, took captivity captive, and marched trium-
     higher than the heavens. In fact, God Himself            phantly through death and the grave into the high-
     would come in the likeness of sinful flesh, born of a    est heavens, where He was given all power in
     virgin, to deliver them from the powers and domin-       heaven and on earth. From heaven He sends to us
     ion of sin to bring them to glory. Jehovah, as  Im-      the Spirit of adoption, God in us, giving us the adop-
     manuel, God with us, would exalt man to heavenly         tion to sons and making us sons in God's House, re-
     perfection and glory by the washing away of sins         newed in true knowledge, righteousness, and holi-
     by His blood and Spirit.                                 ness to devote ourselves to covenant fellowship to
       This is the promise of the gospel, the glad tidings    our God in intimate love.
     that were proclaimed to Adam's descendants as             The Final Realization.
     they stood by the altar and `saw the smoke of the          The final realization of God's covenant awaits us
     burning sacrifice ascend to heaven before the face       in the new creation. How shall one express a life
     of God. Through faith in the promised Seed they          that radiates infinite perfection  - holiness, righ-
     had peace with God, intimate communion of life as        teousness, truth, grace, love abounding? Words fail
     God's friend-servants, and a foretaste of eternal        us to attempt to describe intimate covenant fellow-
     life. God gathered His own out of the ever increas-      ship with God, living in mansions that we have not
     ing human race, so that we can distinctly follow the     built, eating of bounties we have not prepared,
     line from  A.dam through Abel, Seth, and Noah to         filled with a blessedness we could never merit!
     Shem and Abraham. Enoch and Noah walked with             Then we shall understand what it means that in
     God. Abraham was called the friend of God. To            Christ we share the fulness of divine glory. Then,
     him was given the peculiar distinction that he was       and then only will we begin to fathom the wonder
     called the father of all believers. God appeared to      of grace, the realization of the promise: I will be
     him in a vision of slain animals (Gen. 15), showing      your GOD!
     to Abraham that He would die as the sacrifice for
     sin, in order that Abraham and his spiritual seed          That will be glory, glory unspeakable, filled with
     might experience an everlasting covenant with            perfect knowledge, complete devotion, everlasting-
     their God. He came to His covenant friend in the         ly serving God with our whole being in worship
     person of the Angel of Jehovah with two angels to        and adoration of His glorious NAME.
     sit with him, to eat with him, to commune with him
     as He assured Sarah of the birth of the wonder child
     Isaac (Gen. 18)  - all of which was accompanied                    The Standard Bearer
     with the promise, "I will establish Me and thee and               makes a thoughtful gift
     thy seed after thee in their generations for an ever-
I    lasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy                for the sick or shut-in.
     seed after thee" (Gen.  17:7). The covenant life
     plainly continued through Isaac and Jacob,  center-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               173



EDITORIAL                            "

       The Calling of our Protestant Reformed
                            Churches to be Specific
                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema


  Again a few issues have intervened since we last         realistically to speak of reconciliation and of re-
wrote on this subject (cf. Oct. 15, 1983 issue). Per-      union. In fact, that very idea of reunion was pro-
mit me, therefore, briefly to establish the connec-        posed and discussed as late as 1939, at the occasion
tion with what we have previously written.                 of the first visit of Dr. Klaas Schilder to this
  In connection with our calling to be specific, i.e.,     country. Today such reunion, realistically speak-
our calling to give expression in clear, pointed, un-      ing, would be impossible - even if it were sought.
ambiguous, exact, and antithetical language to our         The differences and the degree of difference in al-
distinctive Protestant Reformed position, we have          most every area of ecclesiastical life have become
been calling attention to the main lines of that dis-      too great to make such organic union possible; we
tinctive Protestant Reformed position. Historically,       have grown farther and farther apart. Now this is
our position stands inseparably connected with the         not merely due to the fact that our mother church
origin of our denomination in 1924, that is, it stands     has departed farther and farther along the course
connected with the entire common grace contro-             chosen in 1924. It is also due to the fact that we as
versy. It is in distinction from the errors of the         Protestant Reformed Churches have developed
Three Points of 1924 that we maintain and pro-             positively along the lines of the fundamental course
claim the truth of sovereign and particular grace.         set in 1924. We have not changed fundamentally,
This position we briefly outlined in our previous          but we have developed. Think of the vast~amount of
article.                                                   distinctively Protestant Reformed literature which
                                                           has been produced over the years. Think of the
  But we have not stood still since 1924. It is not a      some sixty volumes of the  Standard Bearer.  True,
static position which we as churches occupy. There         there has in the nature of the case been much
has been development during the half century               polemics. But, in the first place, it is simply a fact
since our churches came into existence.                    that there never is and never has been positive de-
  This is true, first of all, quite in general. Any de-    velopment of the truth without polemics. This is
nomination  develops  as far as its doctrinal and          simply due to the fact that no church lives in a
ethical position is concerned; and that development        vacuum, and due to the fact that the truth is de-
is naturally along the lines of the fundamental posi-      veloped antitheticaZZy. And in the second place, any-
tion it has taken and the fundamental course it has        one who turns to those volumes of our magazine
chosen. No church or group of churches stands              will discover a gold mine of positive exposition of
still. As long as they continue to hold to their funda-    the truth of Scripture and the Confessions. Think of
mental position  - whether that position be                the fact, too, that especially in more recent years
doctrinally sound and confessional and Scriptural,         there has been produced in our churches a distinc-
or whether that position be the opposite  - there          tive Protestant Reformed literature in the form of
will be movement, development. Such is life. It is         dozens of books and brochures and pamphlets.
impossible to stand still. Secondly, this has been         Think, too, of the fact that our Protestant Reformed
true of us as Protestant Reformed Churches. It has         Seminary has over the years developed and is still
also been true of our mother church, the Christian         developing its own instructional materials in vir-
Reformed denomination. When you compare                    tually every branch of theology. No, we have not
where we stand today, A.D. 1984, as over against           stood still - not by any means!
where we stood in relation to one another sixty              In the third place, I refer specifically to the fact
years ago, the difference is appalling. Then, sixty        that there has been development on the part of our
years ago, we both stood at the beginning of our           Protestant Reformed Churches in the whole area of
separate ecclesiastical paths; and the differences,        the truth concerning God's covenant with believers
while significant and fundamental already at that          and their seed and, in connection with this, in the
time, did not appear nearly as wide then as they do        area of the truth concerning the promise as being
today. At that time it would have been possible            absolutely unconditional.


174                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  Also this development did not simply drop out of        this was stated later in the Declaration of Principles
the sky, so to speak; but it stood connected with our     - that the promise is not general, but particular;
history.                                                  that it is not an objective bequest to all children of
  Nor, on the other hand, did this history suddenly       believing parents which is dependent for its realiza-
begin circa 1950-53, at the time of our differences       tion on its acceptance by those children, but that it
with the Liberated Churches of the Netherlands,           is an oath of God that He will infallibly lead all the
differences which became internalized in our own          elect unto salvation and eternal glory through faith.
denomination and which led ultimately to the              It was in that situation that our Protestant Re-
schism of the De Wolf group.                              formed Churches maintained from their beginning
                                                          that all the covenant blessings are for the elect
  The fact of the matter is that our distinctive posi-    alone; that God's promise is unconditionally for
tion with respect to the covenant as the relation of      them only; that the promise of God bestows the
friendship between God and His elect people in            objective right of salvation not upon all the children
Christ Jesus, our distinctive position with respect to    that are born under the historical dispensation of
the promise of God being absolutely unconditional,        the covenant, that is, not upon all that are baptized,
and our distinctive position with respect to the en-      but only upon the spiritual seed.
tire organic idea of believers and their seed came to
development in close connection with our distinc-           True, this position came under attack when the
tive position over against the errors of 1924. It had     Liberated Churches of the Netherlands virtually
been developed many years before there was such           adopted the position of Prof. Heyns and when they
a thing as the Liberated Churches and their theolog-      sought contact with us and affiliation with us in
ical position.                                            Canada circa 1950. True, this position began to be
                                                          denied by some of our own men at that time, by
  How did this come about?                                some who wanted to "cater" to the Liberated.
  The whole idea of a general, conditional promise        True, the controversy came to a head in a certain
to all the children of believing parents had been         respect in connection with the statements of De
promoted for years and years in the Christian Re-         Wolf which were condemned (on the basis of Scrip-
formed Church, already prior to 1924, by Prof. W.         ture and the Confessions!) as literally heretical.
Heyns, the man who may be termed the father of            True, too, our position was articulated in the
the First Point of 1924 and its general, well-meant       Declaration of Principles which was adopted as a
offer. Already in his own student days the late Rev.      form for the organization of prospective churches
Herman Hoeksema had been exposed to this teach-           (not as a fourth form of unity, as some alleged).
ing  - though already at that time he could not             But this position and this development of the
agree with it. But the point I am now making is,          truth took place already long before the contro-
first, that due to the influence of Prof. Heyns the       versy of 1953. In 1953 that fundamental position,
whole ministry of the Christian Reformed Church           under the stress of controversy, was brought into
for some two decades was infected with this cov-          clearer focus and was articulated.
enant view of Heyns. At the same time we must re-
member that this idea of Heyns was but an aspect            And it still belongs - let us never forget it - to
of the broader idea of the general, well-meant offer      our fundamental and distinctive position as Protes-
in the preaching of .the gospel to all who hear that      tant Reformed Churches.
preaching. It is the application of that same funda-        Without that fundamental position as I have
mental idea to the specific area of the covenant and      briefly outlined it in this and preceding editorials
baptism and to the children of believers.                 on this subject, we have no right of existence as
  At the same time, it must be remembered that            churches. Without it we are fundamentally like
there was another current idea of the covenant and        many, many other churches. Some may be more
of baptism in Reformed churches, the idea of pre-         conservative, some less. That is merely a difference
supposed regeneration, the view promoted by Dr.           of degree, not of fundamental principle.
Abraham Kuyper.                                             But remember: with that fundamentally distinc-
  It was in that situation that our Protestant Re-        tive Protestant Reformed position goes not only the
formed Churches developed their position. They            right and the possibility of being  specific,  but the
could accept neither position  - precisely because        caZZing!
both involved a denial of the particularity of grace        More on this later.
and of the promise. It was in that situation that the
idea of the covenant as the relation of friendship
between God and His elect people in Christ Jesus             Read the Standard Bearer.
was developed. It was in that situation that our
Protestant Reformed Churches maintained  - and


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              175



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH


                  The Development of Tradition
                                       and the Word
                                                Rev. T. Miersma


  The apostolic fathers, as we have seen, did not         member that the canon of the New Testament, its
have a formal doctrine of the Word of God or of           scope and full authority as Scripture had not yet
inspiration.    Rather they     had an intuitive          been determined. The church was still struggling to
understanding that the Scriptures were the one uni-       understand the heritage of the Word which God
fied and authoritative revelation of God by the           had given her. Moreover the apostolic stamp given
apostles and prophets We must also remember               to this tradition made it highly prized by the
that for the apostolic fathers, the teaching and          church, and this became more and more the case as
preaching of the apostles was a matter of living          the era of the apostles receded into the past and as
memory in the church. It is understandable there-         those who had personally known the apostles
fore that along with Scripture, the canon of which        passed away.
had not yet been determined, they would place a             At the same time the church did not possess her
high value upon that which they had heard directly        heritage of the Word in peace and security. Even in
from the apostles. Polycarp in particular had been        the days of the apostles heretics had arisen in the
taught directly by the apostle John. The result was       church who sought to undermine its foundation
that in the early church a sharp distinction was not      and to corrupt the truth. These attacks continued.
made between the writings and teachings of the            In particular, the church was plagued in the cen-
apostles. The reminiscences of those who had ac-          turies following the apostles by those who sought to
tually heard the apostles were eagerly sought by the      unite Christianity with paganism and with apostate
church. Stories concerning them, their labors, and        Judaism. These heretics took various forms. Those
their deaths as martyrs were eagerly listened to. So      who sought to bring the law into the church again,
also news concerning other believers who had suf-         and to reduce Christianity to a form of phariseeism,
fered and laid down their lives for the faith was         repudiated the apostle Paul altogether as being a
news which was eagerly sought in this era of severe       false apostle. Those of a more pagan bent tended to
persecution.                                              disregard the Old Testament and tried to combine
  The result was that a body of tradition and             pagan ideas and philosophy with the writings of the
stories began to develop in the church, some in oral      apostles.
and some in written form. A similar attitude pre-           These heretics varied in their sophistication and
vailed concerning the teachings of Christ. The            form, but they are generally called  Gnostics be-
apostles' reminiscences of the Lord, received by          cause of a common thread which runs through all
their disciples and hearers, were treasured by the        of them. That thread is the appeal to a special secret
church. One individual in particular, Papias,             knowledge or tradition which they alone taught
bishop of a church in Phrygia in the first half of the    and through which one could obtain salvation. The
second century, endeavored to record these remi-          church was called to defend itself from these at-
niscences. He himself may have been a disciple of         tacks. Moreover the church was called also to
the apostle John, but he also sought out the elders       defend itself against pure paganism, Greek philos-
of other churches who had heard the apostles. The         ophy; and Oriental mysticism. The Jews also chal-
result was five books of which only fragments sur-        lenged the church's right and claim to the Old Tes-
vive in other writers, in which many of these say-        tament as a Christian book. The result was that the
ings, reminiscences, and oral traditions were re-         church had to battle for the truth on many fronts at
corded.                                                   once.
  While this oral and written tradition was not ac-         Men arose in the church to do battle with these
corded the status and authority of Scripture by the       attacks upon the church. They are called apologists
early church, neither was it clearly distinguished        because of the. polemical character of their writ-
from it, particularly from the New Testament writ-        ings. They include such men as Irenaeus, a pupil of
ings of the apostles. This is understandable if we re-    Polycarp, and Justin Martyr. These men met the


176                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



challenges of the Jews and of pagan philosophy           ture. and which were not, particularly the New
head-on, but the attacks of the Gnostics were more       Testament books. These books not only had to be
difficult to counter as they also in varying degrees     discerned but also had to be defended over against
appealed to the writings of the apostles or to false     false writings and false gospels. This defense was
writings which were attributed to other apostles or      crucial, for these heretics denied the Scriptural
other saints from the Old Testament. These false or      character and authority of many of the books of our
apochryphal books included a wide variety of ma-         present Bible and substituted others in their place.
terial, from a gospel attributed to the apostle            Thirdly, however, in this struggle, the appeal to
Thomas to abridged versions of various New Testa-        apostolic teaching and tradition which was made,
m e n t   b o o k s .                                    tended to reinforce the development alongside the
   The Gnostic  Marcion may serve. as an example         Scriptures of a body of written and oral tradition of
here as he is best known. He rejected the Old Testa-     the apostles and to give it some authority. Thus
ment as the Word of God and recognized as Scrip-         what began as reminiscences and stories of interest
ture only the Gospel of Luke, edited and con-            to the church became a significant part of the
densed, and the writings of the apostle Paul, also       church's heritage alongside the Scriptures. From
edited to suit his purposes.                             these seeds was later to develop, particularly in the
  Against such men the apologists tended to take a       Middle Ages, the idea of an apostolic tradition en-
twofold approach. First of all they refuted them on      trusted to the church and standing alongside Scrip-
the basis of the Old Testament and on the basis of       ture, a tradition which was finally elevated in the
the writings of the apostles. But secondly, they also    Middle Ages to a place superior to that of Scripture.
began to appeal to the apostolic tradition of the        To this tradition was added in the process of time
church. This latter appeal was made on the basis         the interpretations of Scripture by the church
that those churches which had been established by        fathers and apologists themselves, as being rooted
the apostles were also the ones who alone could          in, the historic teaching of the apostles and arising
claim to know fully the traditions and true writings     out of it. This idea did not present itself full grown,
of the apostles, while these' various sects could        but the roots of it manifested themselves already in
make no such claim. Moreover, only such churches         the early church and in the writings of the apolo-
could properly lay claim to being the successors of      gists. This significant development of a body of
the apostles' teachings and therefore the proper ex-     tradition in the church and its parallel relation to
pounders of it. The church, they said, stood as one      Scripture as a source of authority was ultimately to
in its teaching throughout the world, whereas these      undermine the authority of Scripture itself and to
heretics differed from one another and could not         place the church and her traditions above the
make such a claim.                                       authoritative' Word of God. Eventually the church  I
                                                         would become so bound by tradition that it, and
  This defense of the faith by the apologists and the    not Scripture, became the rule of faith and life in
church, and the need for it, yielded certain results.    the church. The progress of this development was
In the first place, it drove the church to search the    not rapid. It originated in circumstances in which
Word and'to  develop the truth of the Word of God        the church was fighting for her existence in the face
in its doctrine and teaching. It gave impetus to the     of persecution and heresy.
development of statements of doctrine such as the
Apostles' Creed, and it stimulated the church to a         Through that struggle, in spite of her weak-
study of the Scriptures.                                 nesses, the church was led to set forth, define, and
                                                         defend the extent of the Word of God and under the
  In the second place, it forced the church to begin.    guidance of the Spirit to begin to gather and form
to wrestle with the question of what exactly consti-     the writings of the apostles into the New Testament
tuted the Scriptures. The church began to confront       Scriptures.
the question as to which books were inspired Scrip-
IN HIS FEAR

                                God Is One (continued)
                                              Rev. RonaZd Hanko


  The truth that God is One is the cornerstone of        our search for God's revelation of Himself in His
the First CommandmenU:  thus far we have come in         law. Remembering this principle, we are also able


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                177



to understand that idolatry in any form is an act of       Lord, our God is one Lord." From this principle
gross rebellion against God. Never does the idol-          flows forth both the positive and negative require-
atrous practice of the heathen reflect a search for        ments of the First Commandment.  -The positive
God as the One, True God; rather, as Paul tells us in      command comes first: "And thou shalt love the
Romans 1, it is always a refusal to worship God as         Lord thy God with all thine ,heart,  and with all thy
He reveals Himself in His creation. By this refusal        soul, and with all thy might . . . . Thou shalt fear the
the truth concerning the Only God is changed into          Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him, and shalt swear
a deliberate and malicious lie.                            by His name" (verses 5 and 13). That which is for-
  This principle that God is One has several differ-       bidden follows: "Ye shall not go after other gods, of
ent aspects. It means, first of all, that God is indeed    the gods of the people which are round about you"
the Only God and the True God. He is not one God           (verse 14).
among many, but He alone is God and there  isno              God taught this truth, that He is the only God, to
other god beside Him. It is this teaching that has         Israel in many different ways. He taught them not
made the Christian fai-th so offensive among men.          only through His Word as we read it in such pas-
The religions of this world-may claim priority for         sages as Deuteronomy 6, but He gave them one
their gods, but at the very least they are always          place and one manner of worship all through the
willing to recognize the existence of the gods of          Old Testament, that Israel might never forget that
others. Our own Constitution takes somewhat this           her God was the One God. Even today He reveals
same neutral position when it guarantees freedom           that to us when He teaches us that there is but one
of religion, thus implicitly recognizing the "equal-       Name given under heaven by which we may be
ity" of all religions. Over against this, Christianity     saved and but one way to come to the Father. He is
has insisted that the gods of the heathen without ex-      One God.
ception are idols and that there is no God but               We ought also to take special note of the positive
Jehovah, and that therefore the Christian religion is      instruction in Deuteronomy 6. Here we see very
the only true religion and the only way of salvation.      clearly that although the First Commandment itself
This has been, then, one of the reasons why Chris-         is negative, nevertheless obedience is also positive.
tianity has been universally despised and perse-           It is simply not enough to refrain from idolatry and
cuted.                                                     to have no other gods, but we must have Him as
  Also implied in this truth are the simplicity and        our God with all our heart and soul and strength.
sovereignty of God. God's simplicity (cf. the Belgic       We must have Him as our God by loving, fearing,
Confession, Art. I) means that all of God's attri-         and serving Him.
butes and works are in perfect harmony with one
another and with the perfection of His own being.            That this positive requirement is first and fore-
There is no contradiction or division in Him. His          most, is also clear from Deuteronomy 6. The First
justice and His mercy, for example are never at            Commandment is expressed negatively, not be-
odds with one another in His work of salvation. He         cause the negative is more important, but because
is One in Himself. His sovereignty is the crown of         the law's first purpose is to teach us our sin and
                                                           misery.
both these other truths. Because He is the Only
God, He is also the "blessed and  0nl.y Potentate,"          In one word, the positive requirement of the
the only sovereign King and Lord. And because He           First Commandment is "worship." In using that
is perfect and complete in Himself, so that all His        word, however, we immediately face the danger of
attributes, works, and will are in perfect unity and       thinking of worship as something tucked away into
harmony, He is perfect also in dominion and                some small corner of our life and reserved for Sab-
power. This is implied in Deuteronomy  6:4, where          bath observance, or for a few hours of private medi-
God not only teaches His people that He is One, but        tations during each day. Deuteronomy 6 makes it
that He is One Lord.                                       clear that this "worshipping" of the One True God
                                                           is something for all of our life. He requires that we
  These other aspects of God's Oneness, however,
do not stand on the foreground in the First Com-           love, fear, and serve Him not only with our heart
mandment. They are the principles that lie behind          and soul, but with all our might - in other words,
other of the Commandments, notably the Fifth and           with the strength of our physical life as we exert
the Tenth. Here, in the First Commandment, the             ourselves in all the duties and responsibilities that
important truth is that He is the Only, True God.          God has given. We must worship Him when we sit
                                                           in our houses, when we walk by the way, when we
  The connection between the First Command-                lie down, and when we arise. This Commandment
ment and this truth that God is One is made in             concerning God's worship is to be bound to our
Deuteronomy 6:4-15. The positive principle of the          hands while we work and is to rule all the use of
First Commandment is verse 4: "Hear, 0 Israel: the         our eyes as "frontlets." It is to be the first thing we


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



remember when we return to our homes and the               tivity, to forget to praise Him and know Him, to
last thing of which we are reminded as we leave,           seek or trust in anything else besides Him, though
just as though it is written in large letters on the       ever so little, is an much idolatry as the worst of the
door and on the gate.                                      practices of the heathen.
   There is a whole commentary on the First Com-              This Commandment, then, serves the purpose
mandment to be found in chapters 43 through 45 of          for which it was given. By revealing God in all His
the prophecy of Isaiah. The principle of the First         glory as the only God and Saviour, it uncovers the
Commandment, that God is the Only, true God is             depth of our depravity and shows that our whole
repeated no fewer than eight times in chapter 43           life is full of idolatry. We are no different from
and the first eight verses of chapter 44 (43:3, 10, 11,    Israel who worshipped on every high hill and
12, 13, 15,44:6, 8). In verses 9-20 of chapter 44 this     under every green tree in the promised land. In
fundamental truth is contrasted with the foolish-          seeking and loving the things of this world we sacri-
ness of idolatry, all summed up in verse 20: "He           fice even our children to these idols, as Israel did to
feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him         Moloch. Possessions, children, families, work and
aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is        wealth, power and honour, all can and do become
there not a lie in my right hand?" Then in the last        our idols whenever we love them, trust in them, or
verses of chapter 44 and in chapter 45 this great          seek them next to or beside the One, True God.
principle is repeated another seven times to drive it      This Commandment uncovers our sin in all its
home to the hearts of God's people for their eternal       filthiness, We are shown to be those who have
comfort and salvation  (44:24,  45:5, 6, 14, 18, 21,       turned aside to our own ways and gone astray from
22).                                                       God, saying in our hearts, as the fool, though we
  This all-important truth about God becomes,              `may not dare to say it openly, that there is no God.
then, the basis for all the instructions, admonitions,     In all our own works our idolatrous practices reveal
and warnings that are found in these chapters. Be-         our idolatrous hearts and both heart and works are
cause He alone is the Lord, Israel's God  (43:3),          laid bare by this Word of God.
Israel is commanded not to be afraid  (43:1,  5), but         Nevertheless, in teaching God's people their sin
to glorify God (verse  7), to know Him and believe         - and indeed, they are the only ones who can and
Him (verse  lo), to witness concerning Him (verse          will understand what this Commandment teaches
12), to praise Him (verse 21), to call upon Him and        - the First Commandment is their schoolmaster to
honor Him (verses 22,  23), and to remember Him            bring them to Christ. It does this first of all by
(verse 26). Again in chapter 44 Jacob and Israel are       teaching them that, as the worst of idolaters, they
commanded to remember and return to the Lord               have no hope apart from God's great grace. Then
Who formed them (verses 21, 22). In chapter 45             too the law shows them what Christ has done in
God instructs them concerning the necessity of             bringing that grace. He has born all the wrath of
knowing Him (verse 6), of looking to Him, bowing           God against those who worship aught but Him, and
before Him, and swearing only by His Name                  in so doing has nailed our idolatrous nature to His
(verses 22, 23). They must confess that they have          cross and crucified through His suffering and death
all things from Him (verse  24), and glory in Him          its continual enmity against God. Above and
forever (verse 25). All of these things come down to       beyond that, He has rendered to God on their be-
the one great requirement of the First Command-            half a new and perfect obedience to the First Com-
ment, that we have Jehovah to be our God and that          mandment. He did that when only 12 years old by
we worship and serve Him alone in every walk and           putting His Father's business before all other things
way of life.                                               in His life. When He faced Satan in the wilderness
  To fail in any of these things is as much idolatry       He refused to receive the Kingdoms of the world
as any of the grosser forms of sin against this First      with all their glory in any way which conflicted
Commandment, such as the worship of heathen                with the truth that God alone must be worshipped
gods, sorcery, fortune-telling, superstition, prayers      and served. In His agony in Gethsemanae, when
to saints or angels. As much as superstition denies        the bloody sweat was pressed out of His body, He
that God is the One Lord Who controls all the cir-         loved, feared, worshipped and glorified God, when
cumstances of our life, by so much does our failure        He said, "Thy will be done." And finally when He
to seek and expect all good from Him alone do the          laid down His life and when the weight of God's
same. Just as much as sorcery and fortune-telling          wrath pressed upon Him all the torments of Hell,
deny Him by seeking the help of other powers be-           He made it all an act of perfect worship and adora-
side Him, by so much does our failure to trust in          tion, for even then it was, "My God, My God . . . . "
Him alone and to submit to Him with humility and             He had no other God but Jehovah that we might
patience do exactly the same. To forget Him at any         have no other. He reveals in all His work the One,
time, to fall short of His glory and honor in any ac-      True God beside Whom there is no God or Saviour,


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              179



and through Him our obedience to the First  Com-            our heart and soul and mind and strength. The
mandment becomes a daily confession that                    thankful confession of our mouth and of our life is
Jehovah alone is God. It cannot be otherwise, for           that, "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride
He has revealed Himself in Christ as the One God,           upon horses, neither will we say any more to the
our Saviour. In thankfulness we confess that there          work of our hands, Ye are our Gods: for in Thee
is none like Him by renouncing and forsaking our            Alone the fatherless findeth mercy" (Hos.  14:3),
idols and by serving and worshipping Him with all           Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord.

STRENGTH OF YOUTH


                                      Why Go Twice?
                                                Rev. Ron Cammenga


  An ominous question! One that parents and                 good reasons for doing what we do, besides mere
elders grieve to hear. But a question, it seems, that       habit and tradition.
is more and more being asked, especially by the               But this question can also be asked in a bad way.
young people: "Why do we have to go to church               It can be asked in such a way that we are not
twice? Once is good enough."                                genuinely interested in the reasons for going to
  Often the asking of this question is not the first        church twice, but are expressing that we see no
indication that all is not well in the life of the young    need for attending both worship services of the
person who asks the question. There have been in-           church. Then the question really expresses that
dications of problems before this. Likely this ques-        we've made up our minds that this is unnecessary
tion has been preceded by another question: "Why            for us ourselves, and we are serving notice that
do I have to keep going to catechism? I've had all          from now on we do not intend to be present at the
that stuff before."                                         second worship service.
  It hardly needs to be pointed out that more and             I believe that there are good reasons why we
more' the second worship service is being aban-             ought to go to church twice, reasons which warrant
doned. Those churches which still have a second             this long-standing practice among us. Even though
Sunday service are often plagued with the problem           there is no specific commandment to this effect in
of "oncers." This is true even in churches of Re-           the Bible, the teaching of Scripture throughout cer-
formed persuasion. The preacher dutifully mounts            tainly stands behind this practice.
the pulpit to lead a congregation in worship that is
half the size of the congregation before whom he               One obvious reason why we ought to go to
stood in the morning. Especially noticeably absent          church twice on Sunday is that this is what the
are the younger members of the church.                      church itself, through the office of elder, requires
                                                            of us. We are not on our own in the church, every
  It must be admitted that the threat to the second         man doing as he pleases. But there is authority in
worship service is a real threat in our own circles.        the church, the authority of the office of elder. And
We ourselves, and especially our young people, are          we are called to be in submission to that authority.
influenced by this trend in the churches today. Per-        With regard to the rule of the elders, as is the case
haps it is the case even that our friends and               wherever we confront authority, we are called to
acquaintances only go to church once. They ask:             obey unless the obedience that is required of us is
"Why do you have to go to church twice?" And we             plainly contrary to the Word of God. Even if we
begin asking ourselves: "Yes, why DO I have to go           might not personally agree with or like what is de-
to church twice? Where does the Bible say, `Thou            manded of us, we must submit. This is simply a
shalt go to church twice on Sunday?' "                      fundamental principle of the fifth commandment
  Why go to church twice? This question can, of             of the law of God. We read in Hebrews  13:17, in
course, be asked in a good way. Then the intent of          connection with the office of elder: "Obey them
the question is to understand the reasons that lie          that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves:
behind this practice which we have. It's always             for they watch for your souls, as they that must
good to know why we do what we do, to be able to            give account, that they may do it with joy, and not
give reasons for our behavior. There ought to be            with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."


180                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



  Now, obviously, the requirement that we be in          does not look good to us, so when the Bread and
church twice on Sunday is not in itself an unbiblical    Water of Life are undesirable to us, something is
requirement. The elders do not call us to behavior       wrong, terribly wrong, spiritually. This is our salva-
that is expressly contrary to the Word of God. Rec-      tion! This is the means of grace! This is hearing the
ognizing their authority over us, therefore, we          Word of Christ the Savior, Whom we ought to love
willingly obey. At the same time, we understand          and Whose voice ought to be sweet to us!
that by our obedience we are really obeying Christ              It's Christ's Word that is heard in church. We
Himself Who is pleased to rule us through the            ought to think about that. Christ says to us, "I have
office of elder.                                         something to say to you." Do you dare, do you
  But why do the elders require of us attendance at      really dare to say to Christ, "No thanks. What I
two worship services on Sunday? What reasons lie         heard this morning is all I care to hear"? But this is
behind their insisting on the continuance of this        exactly what you do if you absent yourself from the
practice in the church? Why does the church itself       second service.
insist on this?                                                 There are, of course, other good reasons for our
  The church that insists on two worship services a      faithfully attending the second worship service of
Sunday understands a couple of things. First, she is     the church. An important reason is that by our ab-
sensitive to the requirement of the fourth com-          sence from the worship services we are refusing the
mandment that the WHOLE Lord's Day be devoted            fellowship of the saints. By skipping church we not
to God and the things of His kingdom. Let's be           only sin against God, but we sin against our fellow
honest  - what lies behind the movement to get           believers. Our attending church is an exercise of
away from two worship services? The desire to use        the communion of the saints. At church there is the
the Sabbath Day for other things than the worship        strengthening of the bond between the believers
of God, either publicly or privately. It's the men-      themselves. By staying away we reveal very clearly
tality of putting my time in at church and then I can    the value we place on the communion of the saints.
be off to the beach, or golf course, or whatever else           Keeping ourselves from the worship services we
appeals to me. Young people who are convinced            are also failing in our obligation to support the
that still today God requires the whole day (it's the    causes of God's kingdom. Collections are taken at
Lord's Day, don't forget] are not likely to be asking    the worship services. These are not incidental to,
the question: "Why must I go to church again?"           but an important aspect of our worship. It is the
  The church that continues to hold two worship          responsibility, as well as the privilege, of every be-
services also understands that at the heart of our       liever to support financially the causes of God's
observance of the Lord's Day, the main thing is the      kingdom. By not being present at the worship ser-
preaching of the Word of God. The church of Jesus        vices, and thus not contributing in the collections
Christ has the highest estimation of the preaching       that are taken, we fail in this aspect of our calling as
of the Word. Apart from the preaching, in deliber-       members of God's church. In the Old Testament
ate separation from the preaching, there is no pos-      the children of Israel were guilty of this very thing.
sibility of proper Sabbath observance. Indeed,           God's Word to them is a word of sharp rebuke:
apart from the preaching there is no possibility of      "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But
living the Christian life at all. The Scriptures make    ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes
plain in places like Romans  10:13-17 and I Corin-       and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye
thians  1:17, 18 that the child of God is saved, both    have robbed Me, even this whole nation" (Mal. 3:8,
initially and continually, by the preaching of the       9).
Word of God.                                                    What about those churches that have abandoned
                                                         the second worship service? What about those
  Because she has this estimation of the preaching       churches where, although a second service is con-
of the Word, because she understands the vital           ducted, the building is only half full? Isn't the loss
place of the preaching in the life of God's people,      of the seconcl worship service only one more symp-
the church holds two preaching services a Lord's         tom of the great spiritual plague unto death which
Day. The young person who understands this im-           has pervaded the churches today? Is it not simply
portance of the preaching understands this impor-        one more indication that the churches are not really
tance by his own experience, sees to it that he is in    interested in the worship of God, the Word of God,
attendance when the Word is preached.                    and the knowledge of the truth of God? Isn't it
There is something radically wrong when we               really only another indication of the apathy and in-
have no interest in going to church. There is some-      difference towards spiritual things that abounds
thing radically wrong when we begin to think that        today and which Scripture tells us is one of the out-
once to church on Sunday is good enough. Just as         standing signs of the end of the world? Isn't this
something is radically wrong when earthly food           exactly an aspect of the lack of love for the truth,


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                181



which Paul says in II Thessalonians  2:10-12   is the          that: "and so much the more, as ye see the day ap-
main reason to account for the rise to power of the            p r o a c h i n g . "
Antichrist? And isn't it the case that behind the                 Let the word of the prophet Isaiah decide the
abandoning of the second worship service lurks the             issue: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
devil of worldliness and pleasure-madness?                     from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call
  Already in the early history of the New Testa-               the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honour-
ment church there were those who had begun to                  able; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own
neglect the worship services. These the writer of              ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts, "And let us                thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in
consider one another to provoke unto love and to               the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high
good works: not forsaking the assembling of our-               places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage
selves together, as the manner of some is; but ex-             of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath
horting one another: and so much the more, as ye               spoken it" (Is. 58:13, 14).
see the day approaching" (Heb.  10:24, 25). Notice
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS


                                    The Nicene Creed
                                                   Rev. James Slopsema


Article 4:  He was crucified  for  us under Pontius               We may ask at this point, to what degree did the
           Pilate; and suffered and was buried.                early church understand the meaning and signifi-
  In the previous article of this creed the early              cance of the cross?
church confessed that the Son of God was in-                      The true meaning of the cross was certainly ap-
carnated for us men and for our salvation. Now in              prehended by the early church. She certainly un-
Article 4 the church proceeded to show how the                 derstood that at the cross Christ died for our sins
Son incarnate accomplishes this salvation of man.              and that His death was a sacrifice for sin. The
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He               church fathers at this time spoke in terms of
suffered and was buried.                                       redemption, satisfaction for sin, and reconciliation.
  The suffering of Jesus Christ and His crucifixion            Perhaps Athanasius, the great defender of the true
under Pontius Pilate belong together. For it was               deity of Christ, had the clearest understanding of
especially at the cross that our Lord suffered.                the cross. He spoke of death as being the punish-
                                                               ment of God upon man's sin. And man is under the
  The suffering of Christ on the cross forms the               condemnation of sin on account of his sin. How-
heart of the gospel. This suffering was certainly one          ever, said Athanasius, it is not fitting that God allow
of the main themes of the O.T. Scriptures. So much             the creation to perish. Consequently, the divine
was this the case that on two occasions after His
resurrection our Lord demonstrated to His disciples            Word of God took upon Himself our nature that He
                                                               might redeem us from sin. This redemption He ac-
from the O.T. Scriptures that His suffering had                complished on the cross as He bore the punishment
been clearly prophesied. This He showed to the                 of sin. Certainly the early church was not without
two travelers on the way to  Emmaus (Luke 24:25-               some understanding of the cross of Christ.
27) and to several of His disciples by the sea of
Galilee (Luke  24:45, 46). In like manner both Paul               However, it is also true that in many ways the
and Peter in their preaching to the Jews repeatedly            early church had only a vague understanding of
demonstrated from the  0l.T. Scriptures the suffer-            these things. A study of the early church fathers
ings of Christ (cf. Acts  3:18;  17:2, 3). In turn Paul        will reveal that in many instances they used the
himself acknowledged in his epistles that he                   terminology of the Bible concerning Christ's suffer-
preached only one thing: Jesus Christ and Him cru-             ing and death without fully understanding its impli-
cified (cf. I Cor.  1:23,  2:2). The suffering and cruci-      cation. In addition to this, the early church fathers
fixion of Christ therefore form the very heart of the          sometimes espoused erroneous ideas concerning
gospel. And in harmony with that the early church              the atonement of Christ. There were some, for
confessed her faith in the cross of Christ.                    example, who claimed that the blood of martyrs


182                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



also atoned for sin in a measure. Then there was the        In this connection it is interesting to note that the
idea held by some that the death of Christ served as      early church in this 4th article of the Nicene creed
a ransom for sin not to God but to Satan. The idea        makes mention of the fact that Christ was crucified
here was that Satan held man under his dominion           "under Pontius Pilate." The Heidelberg Catechism
and would release man from the bonds of sin only          in Q. 38 makes a special point of this. There the
if a ransom was paid to him. This Christ did              Catechism teaches that to free us from the severe
through His suffering and death on the cross. The         judgment of God it was necessary for Christ to be
satisfaction of the cross therefore was not to God        condemned by a temporal judge. For that reason
but to Satan. However, in spite of these ideas that       He suffered "under Pontius Pilate." The early
surfaced in the writings of some in the early             church evidently attached no such significance to
church, it is nevertheless true that in the main the      this phrase in her early creed. According to Augus-
early church did sense the true significance of the       tine the only significance of the phrase "under
cross. Even here she had the truth, if only in seed       Pontius Pilate" was to establish the date of the cru-
form.                                                     cifixion. And this is in harmony with the original
  And beyond this it was really impossible for the        Greek in which the Nicene creed was written. The
church at this time to go. Before she could grow in       phrase "under Pontius Pilate" has the idea of "in
her understanding of the cross it was necessary that      the time of Pontius Pilate" and not "under the juris-
she first develop in other areas of the truth. For        diction of Pontius Pilate" as the Catechism inter-
example, it was necessary to understand Who               prets it.
Christ really is. Is He truly God? Is He merely a           In this 4th article the early church also men-
man? Is He some combination of this, or some              tioned Christ's burial.
other kind of creature? The answer to these ques-           It is rather difficult to ascertain the significance
tions certainly has a direct bearing on the nature        the church at this time placed on Christ's burial.
and purpose of Christ's suffering on the cross. And
these questions were answered, by the councils of           According to the church father Rufinus (A.D.
Nicea and Constantinople, which authored the              330-410), who wrote a commentary of the Apostles'
Nicene creed, as well as by the council -of               creed, the burial of Christ implied Christ's  descen-
Chalcedon (A.D. 425).                                     sion into hell. The doctrine of Christ's descension
                                                          into hell is found already in the  synodical declara-
  However, this was not  enouih. To come to un-           tions of Sirmium, Nice, and Constantinople  (A.D..
derstand the cross as a sacrifice for sin the church      359-360). This expression eventually found its way
also had to understand the nature of man's sin and        into the Apostles' Creed. By Christ's descension
of the fall. What is the relation between the fall and    into hell  the. early church meant a literal, bodily
the sinfulness of man today? Just what happened to        descent into hell after His death and before His
man at the fall? How sinful is man? What is the           resurrection. By hell the early church meant not
nature of sin? These questions were answered by           the place of torment but the part of Sheol where the
Augustine in the 5th century as he opposed the            souls of the O.T. saints were retained until the
heretic Pelagius.                                         coming of Christ. According to this idea, the souls
  Once these questions were settled it was possible       of the O.T. saints could not be glorified at death.
to grapple with the true meaning of the cross. And        This is because Christ had not come as yet and
this was done especially by the great theologian          redeemed them from the power of sin and death.
Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury, at the end          Consequently, at death the souls of the O.T. saints
of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th         departed to a part of Sheol where they knew
century. In his book  Cur  Deus Homo  (Why God            neither suffering nor glory. And there they waited
Became Man) Anselm not only showed the need for           for the coming of the Christ. Hence, after His death
the incarnation of Christ but also developed very         Christ personally descended into this part of Sheol
beautifully the doctrine of the atonement. But it         to release the souls of the O.T. saints and bring
was especially the Reformers of the great Protestant      them to Paradise. This doctrine certainly is not bib-
Reformation who developed the meaning of the              lical. Nor is it likely that the church had this in
cross. This they did especially as they developed         mind when she confessed in this 4th article that
the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone     Christ was buried.
over against the Roman Catholic error of justifica-         It is more likely that the early church inserted
tion by works. This richer and fuller development         this confession of Christ's burial to bear witness to
of the truth of Christ's suffering and crucifixion are    the death of Christ. Christ not only suffered on the
embodied in our Reformed creeds (cf. especially           cross; He also died the physical death. And to His
Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Days 15, 16; Belgic          death the burial of Christ bears witness. The grave
Confession, Articles 20,' 21; Canons of Dordt,            is the place of the dead. Christ was buried because
Second Head of Doctrine).                                 He died.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  183



       The death of Christ was really denied by both           fession concerning Christ's burial was not included
     Arius and Appolinarius. We have already seen              in the original creed as adopted by the Council of
     some of the heresies of Arius, who denied that            Nicea in 325 but was added by the Council of Con-
     Jesus is truly God. On the question of Christ's           stantinople in 381. Secondly, it was at the Council
     divinity Appolinarius was orthodox. However,              of Constantinople that both Arius and Appolinarius
     both Arius. and Appolinarius denied that Christ           were condemned. You will recall that the views of
     possessed a complete human nature. They both              Arius were condemned by  Nicea in 325, but re-
     maintained that Christ possessed a human body             vived. They were not finally condemned until Con-
     but not a human soul. The Word (Logos) took the           stantinople in 381. During the interval between
     place of the human soul. And here Arius and               these two councils the errors of Appolinarius arose,
     Appolinarius differed. Arius maintained that the          only to be condemned by Constantinople. It would
     Logos is created of the Father and therefore not          certainly appear therefore that this confession con-
     truly divine. Appolinarius on the other hand ac-          cerning Christ's burial was added to condemn the
     knowledged that the Logos is truly divine, co-equal       error of these two heretics and to assert the death of
     and eternal with the Father. However, they both           Christ on the cross.
     made the mistake of denying that Christ has a com-          And this confession is very important. As our
     plete human nature. And this in turn made it im-          Catechism points out in Q. 40 it was necessary for
     possible for them to maintain the real death of           Christ to humble Himself even unto death. This
     Christ. For death involves the separation of body         was necessary because satisfaction for sin can be
     and soul. But without a human soul, physical death        made in no other way than by the death of the Son
     is impossible. Hence, the burial of Christ, which         of God.
     testifies of His death, certainly condemned both the
     views of Arius and Appolinarius.                            We confess therefore with the church of all ages
                                                               that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate and was
       And it would appear that this confession on             crucified. And to establish that His suffering was
     Christ's burial was inserted in the Nicene Creed          complete and perfect, involving even death, we al-
     especially to condemn these two heretics. That is         so confess that He was buried (cf. Heidelberg Cate-
     evident from especially two things. First, this  con-     chism, Q. 41).

     THE LORD GAVE THE WORD


                              Missionary Methods (2 1)
                                                 Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                               (The Views of Henry Venn)

       The missionary methods of Henry Venn, Secre-              As we noted in the previous article Venn's views,
     tary of the Church Missionary Society (Anglican) in       revolutionary in his times, contain much which is
     the mid-nineteenth century, may be summed                 commendable and from which we may learn. His
     as follows: 1) Converts are to be organized into          methodology is complete in that it follows the de-
     groups called "Christian Companies"; 2) As these          velopment of the church through from the gather-
     companies mature they are to be transformed into          ing of the first converts to its final manifestation, a
     churches. This stage is reached when the mission-         denomination      or federation       of autonomous
     aries determine that the group or company is able         churches. The ideas of self-support, self-govern-
     to support financially a native pastor; 3) The final      ment, and self-extension are also worthy goals, pro-
     phase is reached when groups of these "Native             vided they be understood in the biblical sense. In
     Pastorates" meet together regularly in a District         addition, it should be noted that according to Venn
     Conference. At this point the native churches             it is the mission and not the native church which
     should be completely self-supporting, self-govern-        decides when each of these three steps are to take
     ing, and self-extending or propagating. When this         place. Finally, advancement from the first stage
     stage or level is reached the "euthanasia of the mis-     (Christian Companies) to the second (Native Pastor-
     sion" has taken place. The missionaries take leave        ates)  is based on the criterion of self-support.
     of the native churches to engage in mission work in         In spite of his warning against "missionary pater-
     "regions beyond" as Venn put it.                          nalism" there are weaknesses and problems with
I


184                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



Venn's methods. He saw, for example, self-govern-           aries after all are the teachers; the converts are the
ment as a long-term goal. Before this level of eccles-      pupils; the missionaries are the preachers; the con-
iastical development can be reached, leaders have           verts are the hearers. In addition, other forms of
to be thoroughly trained and tested. Only after they        care and assistance (benevolence) come from the
have proved themselves are they to be ordained.             church sending the missionaries. The situation is
The problem is that during this period of the train-        aggravated in those instances where the mission
ing and testing of future officebearers the mission is      provides a large percentage of the financial support
in charge of the companies and native pastorates.           of the developing church or churches. If circum-
Two questions arise: 1) Where is the biblical justifi-      stances such as these continue for any length of
cation for a mission as an institution to stand over        time, two serious problems develop: 1) the converts
and next to the church? 2) Does not this practice           become too dependent upon the mission, and 2) the
promote the kind of "missionary paternalism"                mission becomes introverted, concerned with it-
which Venn himself so vigorously opposed?                   self, so that continued evangelism and growth of
  Answers to these questions do not come easily.            the church are stymied. Once more, a solution to
With the first question one would be inclined to            this problem is not easily found.
agree that there is no justification in the Bible for a       The Rev.  Willem  Berends, a missionary of the
kind of mission institution which stands `over and          Christian Reformed Church to Nigeria, proposes an
next to the church. One finds nothing of the kind in        interesting answer: "The Biblical answer is that
the New Testament. On the other hand, `the Bible            missionaries should take on the initial supervision
certainly lays great emphasis on the necessity of           of the new churches as representatives of these
sound instruction of converts. And, especially must         churches, and not as representatives of a mission.
future or potential officebearers be thoroughly in-         They should be members of the churches they
structed in the truth and in godliness. A young             serve, representing the church offices by virtue of
preacher of a young church is admonished by the             their recognition and ordination by the sending
Apostle: "Lay hand suddenly on no man . . .  " ,(I          church. As core members of the new churches they
Timothy 5:22). This same preacher is taught that an         are to gather Christ's people around themselves,
elder (bishop) is to be "Not a novice, lest being           admitting new members to the fellowship through
lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation          baptism upon a confession of faith. They are to
of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report           preach the Word, both outside and inside the
of them which are without; lest he fall into                church. They are to administer the Lord's Supper,
reproach and the snare of the devil" (I Timothy 3:6,        and to apply discipline where it is needed. They are
7). Concerning deacons, among other qualifications          to  supervise.the  ministry of the church as it is car-
Scripture says they must " . . . first be proved . . . "    ried out by all its members, both in service and in
(I Timothy 3: 10). The same is required of a teaching       proclamation.
elder, the minister of the Word. They must be able            "In this way the new churches will be fully self-
to teach others (II Timothy  2:2). They are called to       governing from their beginning. The first office
study the Scriptures so as to be able to interpret          bearers may not be indigenous in terms of race and
them correctly (II Timothy 2: 15). Still more as spiri-     culture, but they will belong to the church. And as
tual leaders of the church, the ministers must lead         the church grows and develops even its leadership
exemplary lives (I Timothy  4:13-16;  Philippians           will become more and more indigenous as the local
3:17-21). Properly to train such leaders takes time.        people begin to participate. Those, who after train-
Circumstances on the field would certainly have a           ing and testing are ordained to office, will become
bearing on how much time this would take. Are the           co-workers with the missionaries, equal in rank
converts literate and rather civilized or are they il-      and standing" (The Indigenous Principle In Refomed
literate and rather primitive? On one field all this        Mission Strategy With Special Reference To The Niger-
might require a relatively brief period of time while       ian Mission Of The Christian Reformed Church,
on other, fields it might take years. In either case,       Thesis for the Master of Theology degree, West-
however, the goal of an indigenous church must              minster Seminary, copy available at the Christian
not be lost.                                                Reformed Board of World Missions, Grand Rapids,
  With reference to the second question (cf.                pp. 87, 88).
above), concerning "missionary paternalism," it is            What  Berends writes certainly has merit. What
our firm conviction that the danger of this kind of         he wishes to avoid, viz. missionary paternalism,
relationship developing between the missionaries            certainly must be avoided. But some of the
and the converts is real. The missionaries become           problems remain. Is  Berends proposing that the
the caring fathers and the converts remain indefin-         missionaries hold some kind of dual church mem-
itely the dependent children. This is almost a natur-       bership: membership in the newly organized mis-
al consequence on the mission field. The  mission-          sion church while maintaining their ministerial


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            185



status in the sending church? To whom then are the         Once  this,level has been reached we agree with
missionaries accountable for their preaching, doc-       Berends when he writes: "This Biblical pattern
trine, and walk of life? There is no indication that     fully recognizes the responsibility of all church
the apostle Paul, who was sent by the Holy Spirit        members in terms of self-propagation. All members
through the church at Antioch, became a member           will participate in the ministry of the church. This
of any of the churches he organized. Would not the       will not just be a matter of evangelism, but a full
danger exist that the missionary become an auto-         ministry of service and proclamation. This ministry
crat in the young church? Is there any indication in     will grow as the Spirit equips the church through
the New Testament that a group may be instituted         the gifts bestowed on its members. Bible studies
as a church without having elders and deacons who        like those proposed by Nevius, would ensure a
meet the requirements for those offices set forth in     Spirit-filled and mature congregation, able to min-
Scripture? We think not.                                 ister not only to one another, but also to those out-
  It would be better and proper that the missionary      side the church.
preach and teach without hastily organizing a              "Self-support would also be a natural develop-
church. When by means of the preaching and               ment. This could mean that the local people would
teaching suitable candidates for office emerge,          contribute to the support of the missionaries. But as
these must be instructed in the duties and calling of    Paul pointed out, this is not essential, and it must
the office of elder and that of deacon. Assuming         not become a burden to the people. What is essen-
that the group has reached an acceptable level of        tial is that they should learn to participate in sup-
understanding of the Scriptures and the creeds of        porting the total ministry of the church. This may
the church they can be properly organized as an in-      include participating in the building of church
digenous church. Provision must also be made for         buildings and other facilities, contributing to the
the instruction and preparation  .of native pastors.     wages of new church workers, and providing what
These native pastors would indeed become co-             is necessary for the ministry of mercy"  (The In-
workers with the *missionaries, "equal in rank and       digenous Principle . . . , pp. 88, 89).
standing." At this point, in fact, the missionaries        We shall continue these studies, D.V., with an
ought to leave the care of the-church in the hands of    examination of the views of Rufus Anderson, an
the native pastor and his fellow elders and deacons.     American contemporary of Henry Venn.
Just how long all this might take is a question that
can be answered only on the mission field itself.
ALLAROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren


                                          N o w :   1 9 8 4

  Many have been awaiting 1984 with some degree          those who contend, with some degree of justifica-
of trepidation. A novel was written a number of          tion, that the very people who insist on separation
years ago about this date. It was a story of a nation    of church and state in many areas, still insist that
under total domination by government (Big                the church (school) collect the taxes for the state.
Brother). The story itself reminded one even of the
account found in Revelation 13: the two beasts              The same publication quotes a more disturbing
                                                         development from the  Religious Liberty Amendment.
which arose, from land and sea to dominate all           I quote part of that quotation:
creatures. There are those today who debate
whether this version of 1984 is really here. Some in-          U.S. District Court Judge George Hart ruled July 8
dications of what 1984 brings are pointed out in             in Washington, D.C. that the Internal Revenue Ser-
Perspectives in Covenant Education. The editor, Miss         vice must impose racial rules on Christian Schools. At
Agatha Lubbers, points out that new government               the present time, his order applies only to the private
laws require church and school to withhold social            and religious schools in Mississippi because of a pri-
security taxes from teachers' and ministers' sala-           vate school racial discrimination case originating
                                                             there in 1969. Obviously, a U.S. federal court judge
ries. The church or school are required to withhold          cannot establish a federal court ruling that applies to
6.7% of the employee's salary, and must in addi-             one state only. His decree for Mississippi will, in short
tion, pay 7% of the employee's salary. There are             order, become the law in every state. Judge Hart has


186                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



       ordered the IRS to impose stiff affirmative action              Will you please pray for Baptist Academy? I mean
       guidelines on Christian schools that have come into            earnestly pray!
       existence or have increased in their student enroll-              Currently, the Academy is being challenged by the
       ments from the time the public schools began racial             Michigan Civil Rights Department - initiated by the
       desegregation - a time frame that may be different in        A.C.L.U., over "illegal" questions on our employ-
       each area of the country. Judge Hart's affirmative ac-         ment applications.
       tion guidelines would generally not apply to those
       Christian schools established prior to the mid-fifties            We have been ordered to remove from our applica-
       which have not increased in enrollment since that               tion forms all questions regarding Christian exper-
       time  - a rare Christian school indeed. Judge Hart has,         ience and Christian standards.
       in effect, decreed that all Christian schools that have           It is now illegal, they say, for us to use "religion" as
       come into existence since public school desegregation           a qualification of employment. Technically, we may
       are presumed "guilty" of racial discrimination. The             neither solicit information on an application form, nor
       "guilty" Christian school may have a clear non-racial           may we legally ask those questions in an interview.. . .
       discrimination policy but this alone is not adequate.             . . . I am asking every one of our 5,300 friends who
       The new affirmative action guidelines will establish a          will be receiving this letter to join with me in earnest
       government formula for racially balancing the student           prayer for God's wisdom and direction.
       body, the faculty, the school board  and/or  church
       board. Failure to comply will mean the loss of  tax-              Our board will be prayerfully and carefully chart-
       exemption. Contributions will no longer be tax-de-              ing the course that we believe God would have us take
       ductible. If the school is under corporate auspices of a        in the near future.
       church (80% of our schools are church sponsored), the             I am sure you will agree with me that when the
       entire church will lose its tax-exemption. This is a            A.C.L.U. or the Civil Rights Department begins to en-
       very serious matter. It is also a serious matter for in-        croach upon our philosophy, the very reason for our
       dependent religious schools.                                    existence is being threatened! . . . .
         Judge Hart is ignoring the religious liberty implica-       I wrote to the Baptist Academy for further infor-
       tions in his ruling. The Green vs. Regan case as it is      mation. They sent a copy of the letter they received
       called, makes no distinction between private schools        from the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. In
       and religious ministry schools . . . .                      part, the letter stated:
  If the above is strictly applied, it-means that we                     I have recently reviewed your Employment Appli-
too lose tax exemption for our schools - and likely                    cation. There are several questions which are unlaw-
for our churches as well. To retain tax exemption                      ful under Michigan Law and must be removed. Specif-
under this ruling one would have to receive teach-                     ically, they are all inquiries into a person's marital
ers, students, and board members (a certain propor-                    status: Item II on your application entitled "Christian
tion) who were not of Reformed confession  - as                        Experience" as well as "Employee-Board Standard of
long as they were black. One might even have to                        Excellence for Grand Rapids Baptist Academy."
pay their tuition in order to entice these to come:                      Further you need to eliminate inquiry into an appli-
part of the "stiff affirmative action" demanded.                       cant's military service record and ask if a person has
While we have never, to the best of my knowledge,                      had experience in the Armed Forces of the United
refused students, teachers, or board members on                        States or in a State Militia or whether they have served
the basis of color, we are emphatically discrimina-                    a particular branch of the United States Army, Navy,
tory with respect to religion  - and, after all, what                  Air Force, etc.
else would one expect of a church or Christian                           Please submit a revised copy of your application to
school? To deny one the right to maintain religious                    me by July 25,1983  . . . .
convictions in church or school when it comes to a                    In a personal letter which accompanied the infor-
"desegregation" of races, would be a horrible re-                  mation, the writer stated:
striction of one's religious freedom in this country.                    Finally, I would like to add that at this time we are
  The above might mean the loss of tax-exemption                       not crusading for a letter writing campaign to our
if one maintains principle. But the attack against                     legislators. We are simply asking God to intervene for
Christian schools has come from another angle as                       us at this time by either causing the men to back down
well. Perhaps the attack is simply instigated by an                    or by giving us direction as to what court action we
overly zealous state bureaucrat (perhaps not), yet it                  should be taking. I am grateful to God for a Christian
indicates what may well shortly come upon all                          attorney who is of reputable character who has of-
Christian schools and churches. This is not simply                     fered to defend us free of charge, all the way to the
a question of tax-exemption, but of obeying the                        Supreme Court if need be. . . .
laws  - or being shut down, fined, or imprisoned.                     So - what is 1984 to bring? Are we ready to face
The Grand Rapids (Mi.) Baptist Academy recently                    the financial consequences of maintaining prin-
(Nov. 28, 1983) sent a letter to its supporters in                 ciple over against government restrictions? Will we
which it stated:                                                   be able to bear the financial burden of loss of tax


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               187



exemption? Will some of us be fined or imprisoned                  and by the grace of our God, we will stand in the
for not following the directions of "Civil Rights                  face of all opposition.
Commissions"? 1984 will be a challenging year  -


                                Troubles in Canada too

  Not only does 1984 mark possible important de-                            Mr. Harro Van Brummelen, Curriculum Coordina-
velopments in this land, but in Canada too the                         tor of the BC Christian schools, writes in The Linh that
Christian schools face their problems. In British                      trying to compare how Christian schools fare in public
Columbia, where Christian schools are funded in                        exams is like trying to judge a pear on how closely it
part by the government, the government is placing                      resembles an apple. "History has shown, especially in
added and objectionable restrictions on the schools.                   The Netherlands, that writing government exams
Calvinist Contact,  Nov. 11, 1983, writes:                             erodes the uniqueness of Christian schools," he writes.
                                                                            "If the government lays the track, the Christian
     The Society of Christian Schools has taken a firm                 school "train" can only follow its direction. . . . "
   stand on the matter of government exams for grade
   12S.                                                                     . . . If the matter cannot be resolved, and Christian
                                                                       schools do not have their students write the public
     In response to the insistence by the provincial gov-              exams, the schools may be reclassified by the govern-
   ernment that all grade 12s must write government                    ment as group 1 schools at the grade 12 or possibly
   examinations next June the society has begun to ex-                 also grade 11 level. That means they have lost their
   plain to its constituent schools why it is that Christian           funding at these levels and the family tuition may rise
   schools need to hold on to their freedom to determine               by $300.
   their own curriculum. It has said to the Minister of
   Education, Mr. Heinrich, that it would be unfair to                It is just another instance where government
   ask their students to write the government exams                funding results in increased government control
   since their programs differ from public school pro-             and direction.
   grams.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                  Our Order of Worship
                                                          Prof: H. Hanko

  We are now, after several introductory articles,                 ture. We may not allow ourselves to become legal-
to enter into the various elements of our worship in               istic in these matters, but must preserve the free-
God's house.                                                       dom which Scripture itself gives to us.
  Before we do this, however, I want to remind                        The underlying principle which must, therefore,
you that the Scriptures, while laying down funda-                  govern our determination of the order of worship is
mental principles of worship, nevertheless allow                   the principle of the edification of the congregation.
for a great deal of freedom in various elements                    Depending upon the circumstances in which a con-
which go to form our order of worship. The Scrip-                  gregation finds itself, each congregation must,
tures do not, in every instance, specify exactly what              under the direction of the Consistory, decide for it-
elements ought to be included in the worship ser-                  self its order of worship. It must decide this on the
vices and what elements ought not be included.                     basis of the principle of what can best serve the edi-
The Scriptures do not give us the  order  in which                 fication of the congregation as the congregation
various elements must follow upon each other. The                  comes together to worship God. While, in a certain
Scriptures do not, in every case, specify how each                 sense, this is a subjective judgment, it must be re-
element must be carried out. There is, e.g., freedom               membered that it is (and ought to be) the judgment
in the use of different benedictions found in Scrip-               of the sanctified consciences of God's people.


188                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  It is because there is liberty in these matters that     and the congregation is reminded of this when the
in this article and the following articles, I will be      Consistory meets together before the service and
giving my own personal judgment in some matters.           comes in together. In the second place, this  be-
I do this to provoke the members of the church of          comes increasingly important as our modern
Christ to discuss these matters among themselves           culture loses all sense of the proper relationships of
so that whatever may be the order of worship               authority and obedience  - also in the church of
which a congregation follows, it is an order of wor-       Christ. Christ has placed our officebearers over the
ship which the congregation  intelligentzy   follows.      congregation in positions of authority. Scripture is
The saints ought to know what they are doing when          clear on this. The Consistory occupies, therefore, a
they worship and why they do things in their wor-          special place in the worship service and in the con-
ship services the way they do. You may not, there-         gregation, and this special place is underscored by
fore, always agree; but at least know  why you  do         the separate meeting of the Consistory before the
not agree.                                                 service, by their entrance with the minister, and by
  One final remark. The worship services are               their sitting together. In the third place, meeting to-
under the direction and control of the Consistory.         gether before the service gives the Consistory  op-
For that reason, the order of worship and any sub-         portunity to pray before the service. This practice,
sequent changes ought to be determined and made            still followed in our congregations, is not of ancient
by the Consistory itself. This does not, however,          origin. It began during the time of the Afscheiding of
preclude the possibility of the Consistory  submit-        1834 when our fathers were persecuted by the gov-
ting changes to the congregation for its approval or       ernment for separation from the State Church and
disapproval. There is no reason why the  congrega-         the worship services were often interrupted either
tion cannot be actively engaged in these determina-        by soldiers or hoodlums who tried to prevent the
tions, as long as the Consistory retains control, i.e.,    services from continuing in  Afscheiding  Churches.
as long as the Consistory considers carefully any          The Consistory prayed together before the service
changes before they are submitted and proposes             to ask God's blessing upon the congregation so that
specific changes to be made.                               the congregation could meet without harassment,
                                                           interruption, and intervention of wicked men. Nev-
  Turning then to the order of worship itself, there       ertheless, it is a good thing that those who are in
are various actions which take place before the            charge of the worship service meet together before
worship services actually begin. There are three of        the service to ask God's blessing upon the gathering
them which we purpose to discuss in this article:          of the congregation, even though now we do not
the meeting of the Consistory before the service;          face these persecutions.
the prayer of the individual members before the
service; and the organ playing which serves as a             It is perhaps not superfluous to add here that the
prelude to the service. We will discuss each in turn.      prayers of the various Consistory members before
                                                           the service ought to reflect this. Sometimes prayers
  It is becoming increasingly common today to de-          are altogether too long. Those praying bring all the
part from the practice of having the Consistory            general and particular needs of the congregation
meet separately before the service. There are, of          and its members before the throne of grace, includ-
course, denominations in which this has never              ing also petitions for the whole of Christendom.
been done, but it is a tradition within Reformed           This is not necessary. A short and simple prayer
Churches. In many instances these latter churches          asking God's blessing upon the minister and the
no longer do this. The elders and deacons come in          congregation is enough.
just as the rest of the congregation and sit with their
families. In some of our churches, although the              Not only does the Consistory pray before the ser-
Consistory meets together before the service either        vice, but it is generally customary among us that
the deacons alone or both the elders and deacons sit       the confessing believers also pray when they enter
with their families during the worship service, each       the sanctuary. There are a few remarks which can
officebearer finding his own family when he comes          also be made in this connection.
with the minister into the congregation.                     In the first place, you will notice that I mentioned
  There is no rule of Scripture which must be  fol-        that the custom is for confessing believers to pray. I
lowed here and each congregation may decide this           have never been able to understand why this is
on its own. We, however, favor the meeting of the          done, i.e., why these prayers are limited to con-
Consistory before the service. The reasons are the         fessing believers. We believe, as I wrote in my last
following. In the first place, this practice empha-        article, that our children must also gather together
sizes the fact that the Consistory is in charge of the     with their families to worship. They with us are in-
service and under its direction. It is through the         cluded in the covenant of grace, and they with us
offices that Christ is present in the congregation,        can confidently expect God's blessing upon them as


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  189



they too worship. Why is it then that we practice                 house on the Sabbath, there are times when I need
the custom of telling our children to pray only after             special time to pray, to cast away the cares of life, to
they have made confession of faith? There is no rea-              put from my mind problems which may have risen
son for this. Also our children, when they become                 in the early hours of the Sabbath Day, to put myself
old enough to pray themselves, ought to be told to                into a spiritual frame of mind and heart to worship
pray before the service. They will have to be  in-                properly. It is extraordinarily annoying then, when
strutted  in why to pray and what to pray, but that               I have not yet finished praying and the organ tells
they should pray is an obvious fact.                              me, "Time's up. Quit praying."
  In the second place, there is a difference of                     In the light of these considerations, it is best, I
opinion among us whether the people of God                        think, that God's people bring their prayers to
should pray as soon as they are seated in their                   God's throne when they enter the pew. There are
pews, or whether the whole congregation should                    always distractions if we allow ourselves to be  in-
pray together after the Consistory has taken its seat             fluenced by them, and the ushers can see to it that
and the minister has entered the pulpit. If the latter            people praying are not disturbed by others entering
practice is followed, the minister usually summons                the pew.
the congregation to communal silent prayer which                    While it is certainly true that these prayers are
is brought to a conclusion by the organist playing,               the individual prayers of  the.believer  as he, before
"Hear Our Prayer, 0 Lord."                                        God's face, seeks to enter the proper mood for wor-
  The arguments which are made in favor of the                    ship, the child of God ought not to forget that these
latter practice are: 1) This communal prayer is an                prayers also ought to be for his pastor who must
expression of the communion of the saints. 2) It                  bring the Word in that service, for his officebearers
avoids disturbances in our prayers by others enter-               under whose direction he worships, for his family
ing the auditorium or even waiting to enter the pew               which sits with him, and for the saints who are
where we are sitting.                                             gathered with him and who join with him in the
  The arguments against this practice are: 1) It                  communion of the people of God.
makes these prayers a part of the worship service                   These prayers too often become mere custom or
proper which they are not intended to be. This                    habit. But from my own experience, I can testify
argument seems to be somewhat weighty. 2) It                      that they are very important and ought not to be
limits the time of prayer by means of an arbitrarily              taken lightly.
determined point of stopping. This argument also                    Next time, the Lord willing, we will discuss the
carries some weight. When I come into the Lord's                  organ prelude to the worship service.

TRANSLATED TREASURES


                   A Pamphlet on the Reformation
                                             of the Church                                T
                                                         Dr. A. Kuyper


(Kuyper has begun discussing what is actually involved when       "He gives grace to the humble." And the reforma-
an individual breaks with his own church. He emphasizes           tion of the-church  shall in this way begin where it
strongly the spiritual frame of mind which a person must          always must begin, with the reformation of one's
possess if he is to engage in church reformation. He has dis-     own heart and life.
cussed this already in the last article which appeared, and he      A new conversion to the living God and a renew-
continues that discussion now.)                                   al of the covenant with the God of our comfort for
  Also here one's spiritual point of departure must               ourselves and others are the proof that our thirst for
be the personal trembling of the soul over one's                  church reformation does not proceed from the
own sin, and dismay concerning the guilt of the                   opinion that we are better than others, but, on the
people of the Lord.                                               contrary, from the deep conviction that our guilt
   This dismay shall of itself result in an inflowing             above all invokes the judgment of God.
of more grace and spiritual awakening because,                      From such personal reformation, reformation


190                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



proceeds to one's own household. "But as for me             But even so, the work of reformation is not at an
and my house, we will serve the Lord."                    end.
  And just as a circle on the water spreads out in          Good, let it be, that the church in which you
widening circles, so also that reforming movement         were born and baptized has now become, accord-
spreads out of itself in the yet wider circle of the      ing to your firm conviction, the synagogue of Satan.
communal church.                                          But where is then the true church?
  As much as in him lies, he shall not rebuke that          Surely you must not remain by yourself.
church from a lofty position, but rather with a             Unless it appears that no church of Christ can be
penetrating earnestness, and admonish and pray as         manifested in your locality, you must seek that
if God through him beseeched, "Be reconciled to           church. And if it is not there, you must attempt, if it
God!" If the Lord gives him the ability, then he          be with God's help, to bring it to manifestation.
shall himself bring the matters to his consistory in
which the love for the Lord's name must be ac-              Three possibilities follow from this.
knowledged. He himself, not out of pride, but out           You find in your locale another church which
of a quiet subjection to God's Word, must refuse to       does not imitate the marks of the true church, but
do what is not good before God, and do what must          shows them in her life. Then your calling would be
be done according to God's Word, even if men at-          to entreat the brethren of that church that they
tempt to prevent him. If this brings reviling, if this    would take you and your family into their fellow-
causes him suffering, he will willingly bear that re-     ship after public confession of your faith.
viling, "Joyful that he is considered worthy to             You do not find such a church in your locale.
suffer reviling for Christ's sake." And if it finally     Then you would be obligated, along with those who
comes to the point that he cannot find in the public      are as equally convinced as you are, to institute the
worship of his church the administration of the           church of God in your locale on the basis of your
means of grace for himself and his family, he shall       common confession.
then weigh if perhaps the sickness of the church is
only a temporary faltering, in which case, by him-          Finally, if this seems impossible in the long run,
self, setting the hand to the plow, he must attempt       then you must seek the occasion to move elsewhere
to restore the church as a grieving church. And           to a place where the church of Christ exists.
finally, where all these means are exhausted by             And if each of these three is impossible so that
every attempt for a milder reformation, and it be-        you must stay where you are and are forced to live
comes very evident that he only arouses- hate             without a church, then it is your calling to manifest
against God's name and His Word, he shall have to         more strongly your own house-church so that the
decide the question, if God the Lord will give him        administration of the means of grace may be re-
the light to see clearly whether his church has in-       stored to you from God as a result of your humble
deed become the synagogue of Satan.                       prayer.
  And then if he must answer that question, along           But now place over against this way of the godly
the way not of argument and reasoning, but of             the steep path of superficial members, and see
penance and personal conversion, alas, with a ter-        what a chasm yawns between them. You hear them
rible yes, then it speaks for itself that a letter of     in shrill words shriek concerning errors in the
separation must be sent and the break has taken           abuse of the church, but without any recognition of
place.                                                    God's judgment in this and without appreciating
  This does not mean, however, that one's depar-          God's chastising hand. This zeal has no dejection of
ture has completed the task of reformation.               the soul and eliminates all consciousness of one's
                                                          own guilt. It takes on much more the character of a
  He who suffers shipwreck and saves himself              proud censure of others and is far from penance
without caring about his fellows who are ship-            and conversion. There is then no spiritual discern-
wrecked shall be guilty of hard-heartedness. We           ment, but a spiritual judging. Not out of the pres-
must draw from the image of Him according to              sure of the soul nor with a bleeding heart, but with
Whose image we are renewed, not  hard-hearted-            excitement, in recklessness and over-eagerness,
ness but tender love and inner mercy.                     one breaks the bond with his own church by means
  When one departs he carries the obligation to           of a coldly-worded letter. He goes about this en-
                                                          tirely without prayer and sincerity and with un-
persuade also his brothers to depart. Going through       believable lightheartedness. The coat had become
the flames, the fireman sometimes saves from the          too soiled; see, he lays it off and slips a new coat on
flames a child or a woman strange to him. That,           the members. .
children of God, is the humiliating example in
which your holy calling is indicated.                       ,This is not said to pass judgment on anyone's


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          191



transfer to another church. Only the One Who               And it is true that the ejection of a minister of the
knows the hearts judges. Even the best man has to          Lord and also the ejection of an elect can be an ejec-
reproach himself all too strongly for lighthearted-        tion of Christ, but certainly this is not absolutely so.
ness in reformational work and is not in a position        At least the consistory of our church can remain
to judge others. He who puts his hand in his own           outside the controversy and only the church federa-
bosom has enough with his own leprosy. But what            tion can be guilty.
must be emphasized is the twofold emphasis which              Therefore it appears to us that one who is thus
can bring to separation, and of which the one is           ejected by a higher gathering, 1) has to wait to see
equally as praiseworthy and costly as the other            whether his own consistory lends itself to the
merits censure and blame.                                  execution of the sentence. If it does not and it per-
                                                           mits me to remain in the joy of the administration
  It still belongs*to  &is  iarairaih to describe the      of the means of grace without taking my name from
particular instances which can lead to a breaking of       its book or giving publicity to the matter, I can still
the connection between a church and one's self.            continue to live as if there was no mention of ejec-
  Four instances must be mentioned here.                   tion. 2) If his own consistory executes the sentence
                                                           on him then he ought to rally the like-minded with
  1) Not a common member but a minister of the             him and set up an aggrieved church with them. 3)
Word feels compelled to reject his church as the           And only when he is prevented from fulfilling his
false church.                                              office may he proceed to reject his church and
  A twofold particular obligation follows from             establish a new church.
such a conviction. First of all, a minister has the ob-       With this we conclude our discussion of a  con-
ligation to warn the faithful from the pulpit and to       sistory directly cutting off a member.
take them along with him. Secondly, he has the ob-            Fourthly, a minister of the Word may be set out-
ligation to seek the ministry of the Word elsewhere        side his office and outside his membership by the
in a true church or in his own locale to bring to          ecclesiastical power, not for bad conduct, but be-
manifestation a new church structure. The minister         cause of his maintenance of God's Word. '
must not bury his talent, and his ordination re-              Also in that case it is not immediately settled that
mains unharmed  - even when the church which               the church to which this minister of the Word be-
has ordained him has changed into a false syna-            longs has become a synagogue of Satan. It may be
gogue of Satan.                                            that a hostile higher church government passed this
  2) Not a brother but a sister considers that she         sentence without one's own church consenting to
must leave her church which has become a syna-             it. And it could also be that one's own church, en-
gogue of Satan.                                            snared by wrong but legal ideas, or also out of fear,
  It follows from her peculiar position as a woman         leaves him in the lurch. But it does not by any
that she may not take leadership in the matter, and        means follow that his own church would have cast
must restrict herself to warning in private, and           him out. It can be turned into a synagogue of Satan,
must depart the church by herself.                         but this does not follow of itself from his deposi-
  3) One is excommunicated from one's own ec-              tion. Therefore we are of the opinion that such an
clesiastical fellowship.                                   ejected minister must still continue with the
  It can happen, e.g., that the Synod of the State         preaching of the Word in the church if possible. But
Church now or in the future, by a final sentence,          if this is not possible, then he must continue out-
cuts me off and denies me my church membership.            side the church. Then he, in case his consistory
In the meantime it is by no means settled that the         withdraws from this ministry, has to establish an
church of Amsterdam in which I live and to which I         aggrieved church. And if this also is prevented, he
belong has become a synagogue of Satan.                    has to seek a ministry of the Word elsewhere or
  Just because an ecclesiastical body of the church        lead out the faithful and form a new church.
federation casts me out, my church in which I live                                       NOTICE!!!
need not cease to be the true church.                         Beverly Christian School is in need of two elementary school
  It is of the utmost importance to consider this          teachers for the 1984-l 985 school year. You must be willing to
                                                           work in an urban setting with minority students and you must be
point.                                                     heartily committed to the Reformed faith. Please write to: Beverly
  Nothing provokes us more quickly to an unjust            Christian School, 345 S. Woods Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90022, or
judgment concerning the state of our own churches          phone (213) 267-l 635.
than to be ejected from the denomination. In such a                            ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
moment one can hardly imagine anything else than             The mailing address of the Byron Center Protestant Reformed
that the church which ejected me is a synagogue of         Church is:    Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                         c/o Sid Miedema
Satan. And yet it becomes a synagogue of Satan not                       8589 Homrich
because it ejects us, but because it ejects Christ.                      Byron Center, Ml 49315


  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                            S E C O N D   C L A S S
       P-0. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                    POSTAGE PAID  AAT
                                                                                               GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.




                                                     -~

                                                                              -~  5_1--A-
                                                                                          ?
192                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                - -


                            News From Our Churches
                                               December  29,1983
  First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand                others cost money. May we remember this church
Rapids has changed the end of their worship ser-           extension work as we give freely according as the
vice. The December 18, 1983 bulletin reads, "The           Lord has prospered us."
consistory has decided to return to the practice of           Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church put this
shaking the pastor's hand on the platform -after           notice in their December 11,  ,1983  bulletin: "For
each service. This should help those in the rear of        the time being the special offering on the third Sun-
`the auditorium to know when the approbation of            day of each month will be for the Activities Com-
the sermon is finished so that the congregation may        mittee so as to cover the expenses of the radio
begin its exit."                                           broadcast." They sponsor a broadcast called the
  According to the December 25 bulletin of First           "Christian Dialog" which is on every Monday,
Protestant Reformed Church, "Professor Decker              Tuesday, and Wednesday, at 11:30 a.m., on WKPR.
has received the call  tot `Come over and help us'            The Reformed Witness Hour is still typesetting
from our Byron Center Congregation." And at the            its radio sermons. Instead of printing these ser-
New Year's Eve service at First Church it was an-          mons, they are now being produced on a high
nounced that Rev. Van  Overloop  had declined, the         quality mimeograph stencil at considerably less ex-
call to serve as missionary to Jamaica.                    pense. You should see the March through April
  The Evangelism Committee of South Holland                sermons coming out soon.
Protestant Reformed Church has printed another                In Hope Protestant Reformed Church's bulletin
pamphlet and included a brief description of its           of December 25, this appeared: "The Reformed
contents. Their December 11, 1983 bulletin reads,          Witness Committee has a need for old  Standard
"Our Evangelism Committee has published a new              Bearers, Beacon Lights  and Sunday School papers to
pamphlet, `Try the Spirits (A Reformed Look at             send to Africa. Please give them to Mr. Jacob
Pentecostalism).' Pentecostalism, or the charis-           K u i p e r . "
matic movement, is one of the most significant and            Covenant Protestant Reformed Church received
popular departures from the Faith in Protestantism,        this letter from Covenant Christian School of  Lyn-
in the last hundred years. Our pamphlet answers,           den, Washington:  " . . . We as a board wish to
from Scripture, Pentecostalism's appeals to Scrip-         convey our appreciation for the monetary gift from
ture for its basic teachings (Holy Spirit Baptism and      Covenant Protestant Reformed Church. You can be
tongues-speaking). It shows the fundamental oppo-          assured the gift is needed and will be put to good
sition between Pentecostalism and the Reformed             use . . . . We are located in the heart of the  dairy-
Faith. It ends with a brief, description of family,        land only a few miles from . . . Lynden. Classes are
friends, and acquaintances who are tempted by              held in what was once a building used as a meeting
Pentecostalism . . . . "                                   place for the `Grange' . . . . We are in our sixth year
  Sometimes a bulletin announcement has to wait            of existence and have a total enrollment of 54 stu-
a couple of months before there is room to use it.         dents, 38 of which are elementary and 16 in the
First Protestant Reformed Church of Holland,               high school. . . . "
Michigan put this announcement in their October               I will end with a quote from Newsletter No. 5 of
30, 1983 bulletin:  " . . . Our monthly collection for     the Randolph Protestant Reformed School Society.
the Evangelism Fund . . . is rumiing very low since        "And here too there must be agreement with the
our monthly offerings have not covered the                 church and home. What confusion for the child if
expenses. The Evangelism Committee buys nine               he is taught one thing in the home and church but
subscriptions to the Standard Bearer which they dis-       another thing in the school! . . . What confusion if
tribute to people outside our church who are inter-        the school contradicts what the child learns in the
ested in the truth. They also buy tapes and mail re-       home and church to be the proper way of serving
cordings of our worship service to those who ask           God, of living antithetically in the world, of pray-
for them and place a weekly advertisement in the           ing! . . . Above all we must have unity among the
Holland SENTINEL. These projects as well as                church, home and school."                                 DH


