          The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
I              A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . We may well all ask ourselves, when was

     the last time I actually invited someone to
     come to church with me? If we have  .not
     done that for a long time we should be
     ashamed of ourselves. This type of mission
     work in our own churches is not just an op-
     tion, or something nice and wonderful, it is
     our calling and obligation as servants of the
     Lord.         ..`.
     See "Servants of the Lord in His Church"
                                                       _.       -page 379


4                                                  Vo'lume LX, No. 16,  May  15,  1964  -


362                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER
                                  CONTENTS                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
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       The Lord's Chosen Possession . . . . . . . . . . . .  .  . 362                   Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                        Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den &rtog, Prof. Robert
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       A CRC Split? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    .  .  . 365    Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                        ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
  Correspondence and Reply-
       A Belated but Necessary Reply . . . . . . . . . . .  .  . 366                    Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION


                              The Lord's Chosen Possession
                                                                          Rev. H. Veldman


                    "For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himselc and Israel for His peculiar treasure."
                                                                                                                                          -Psalm 135:4


  "Indeed, praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Name                                          75:5. Then it means: to make a show, and it is used
of the Lord." With these words the psalmist begins                                         to refer to an external appearance. The wicked,
this one hundred thirty-fifth psalm. The word                                              then, are vain, puffed up, proud, insolent, glorying
' `praise' ' means fundamentally: to be clear,                                             in one's own appearance. The Lord, of course, is
brilliant. This word also appears in Scripture with                                        not glorious in vain; He is truly worthy of all our
reference to the wicked, as in Psalm  56;  73:3; and                                       acknowledgment and adoration. To praise the Lord


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                363



means that we acknowledge, proclaim the glory              heaven. He measures the waters with His fist and
and greatness of our God. Indeed, according to             the heavens with a span; He weighs the heavens
verse 3, the Lord is good, and to sing praise unto         and the hills in the balances and, altogether, they
His Name is pleasant.                                      are less than a particle of dust. Besides, He is also
  Indeed, praise the Lord, "for the Lord hath              the Sustainer of all things. In Him all creatures
chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His              move and live and have their being, also constant-
peculiar possession." Give praise unto the Lord, ex-       ly. And He never abdicated or relinquished His
tol His greatness - hath the Lord not chosen you,          throne. He, therefore, continues to be the sole
0 Jacob and Israel, unto or for Himself, His own           Possessor of all things. Is it not an amazing thing
glory? Is He not the Lord Who does all things,             that we should be His possession and peculiar
alone, for His own Name's sake, that we may be to          treasure and possession when all things are His?
the praise of His glory? Well may we note what we          Secondly, what an amazing truth this is when we
read in the verses 6-12 in this one hundred  thirty-       consider who and what is the Lord's own posses-
fifth psalm, and also in the verses 15-18. And, all        sion! Not only is it true that not all are His peculiar
these wonderful works of our God reach their               treasure. But we must bear in mind that it is not
climax in the cross, the wondrous cross of Jesus           even true that the largest part of the world, or that
Christ, our Lord. And do not all these amazing             the mightiest and noblest and richest of our race,
works of our God, including Calvary, find their            belong unto Him. Imagine: Jacob-Israel is His
source and eternal beginning in God's sovereign            peculiar treasure! Indeed, the Lord did not choose
election? Indeed, the Lord has chosen Jacob unto           the rich and the noble and the powerful of this
Himself, and Israel for His peculiar possession or         world. We read in Deuteronomy 7:7: "The Lord did
treasure.                                                  not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because
                     * * * * * * * * * *                   ye were more in number than any people; for ye
                                                           were the fewest of all people." Is this not applicable
  Jacob-Israel!                                            to the church throughout the ages? Is not the
  Concerning this Old Testament patriarch we can           church always a little flock, according to Luke
be brief. He is Jacob, and this name means  "heel-         12:32: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's
holder." He, Jacob, Esau's twin brother, holds his         good pleasure to give you the kingdom"? Hence, is
brother's heel at the time of his birth, striving as it    this all that the Lord could choose and gather to be
were to be born first. Jacob is he who struggles with      His own peculiar treasure? Does this not speak of
Esau for the birthright blessing. However, for a           poverty with respect to the Most High? Why did
long time, prior to Peniel, he struggles in his own        not the Lord, even in that covenant sense, choose to
strength, resorts to his own cunning and ingenuity.        make all things and all men His possession? What
At Peniel, the brook Jabbok, he becomes Israel,            an amazing phenomenon! Is this all that is His, this
"Prince of God." Here, at Peniel, he struggles with        J a c o b - I s r a e l ?
the Lord. Here he becomes a cripple; but he learns            Jacob-Israel is the Lord's chosen possession. The
to struggle in the strength of his God. Now, as he is      psalmist declares in verse 22: "Ye that stand in the
about to confront Esau, coming with four hundred           house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our
men, he crosses the Jabbok. The sun, we read,              God." Hence, Jacob-Israel is God's possession in
arose; and we believe that it also arose in.his own        the sense that they are His own  - they constitute
soul. He now will face Esau as Israel, the prince of       His House  - there He chooses to dwell. Of them
God, in the strength of his faithful covenant God.         He declares that they are His people in a wonderful
                                                           sense of the word. Around them He has drawn the
  Also the people of God throughout the ages bear          cord of His fellowship; there He has set up His
this name. It is obvious from the verses 1,2 and 12        Name, His revelation in all the glory of His grace.
that. the psalmist speaks of this people, the church       He lives with them, dwells with them, gives them
of God; Jacob-Israel is therefore God's covenant
people throughout the ages, the people who strug-          His love and mercy, is their God and they are His
                                                           people in that unspeakably blessed sense of the
gle in the cause of God's covenant in the strength of
the Lord.                                                  word. Of them He declares: "They are My people.
                                                           To them I reveal Myself in all the glory of My love
  Jacob-Israel, God's own peculiar possession and          and grace." And, as far as the far more numerous
treasure!                                                  wicked are concerned, them I use unto the
  How utterly amazing! In the first place, is not          everlasting salvation of My own, to reveal that My
everything the Lord's? He is the Creator of all            love is sovereignly particular and that I am surely
things. He spoke creatively and it was; He brought         mighty to save.              * * * * * * * * * *
forth the entire universe through the word of His
power, gave being to the number of the host of                Indeed, the Lord is wholly sovereign.


364                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



   This truth is denied by the Arminians who would         It is certainly not recorded in the Word of God for
revolve all salvation around the free will of the sin-     her sake. She has passed on into everlasting glory;
 ner. The word "chosen" in this text means: to ap-         .she does not need this revelation as recorded in
prove, choose, select. Selection as such can mean          Scripture. This is recorded here in the Word of God
that one chooses something; he prefers it to               for our sake. But why is this recorded? This is
 something or someone else because of its or his           recorded to emphasize the absolute sovereignty of
superior qualities. This is the Arminian conception        our God, that He does as He pleases, willing that
 of election: a selection by God based upon foreseen       the elder shall serve the younger, in order that the
faith or works. And how common, how prevalent              purpose of God according to election might stand.
this view is in our church world today!                    When presently these twin sons of Isaac and Rebec-
   We give thanks to God that this view is utterly         ca are born and grow up, Isaac and Rebecca, judg-
impossible. It is literally denied in Deuteronomy          ing them in the light of and according to their
4:37; 7:6, 7; 9:5; and in Ephesians 1:4. To quote on-      behavior, could conceivably conclude that Esau
ly the last passage, we read: "According as He hath        had been rejected, reprobated by God because of
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the              his sin. Did he not reveal himself as profane? Did
world, that we should be holy and without blame            he not reveal himself as unworthy of the birthright
before Him in love." We do not read that we were           blessing? Did he not sell this birthright blessing for
chosen because we were holy and without blame              a dish of pottage? Then the Lord would have hated
before Him in love, but that we should be holy.            Esau because he had done evil; and this would be
Hence, our holiness is not the basis for our election      contrary to the Word of God as recorded in Romans
but its purpose and fruit. Moreover, what is there         9:12-13. However, Isaac and Rebecca must under-
in God's people, in you and in me, which could             stand and the church of God throughout the ages
possibly serve as an inducement for God to select          must understand that God is sovereign, also in the
us? Was Jacob, the conniving and plotting Jacob, so        decree.of  election and reprobation, that it is God's
preeminently and outstandingly pious? Besides,             sovereignty that the elder shall serve the younger,
this Arminian heresy is also denied in this text. Do       that Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated
we not read that God chose us unto, or for HimseZf!        before either did good or evil. Indeed, the purpose
And this surely means that He elected us, chose us         according to election must stand. And this election
for His own Name's sake, His own glory, to glorify         is rooted in the absolute sovereignty of our God.
and magnify Himself. And did He select us because            Hence, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, praise
we were outstanding or better, because there was           the Name of the Lord, not because of any goodness
some good in us? Indeed, He chose us to focus at-          in us, but because He hath chosen Jacob unto
tention, not upon us but solely upon Himself. Final-       Himself, unto His own glory, and Israel for His
ly, this is also denied in the verses 1 and 3. In these    peculiar treasure or possession. Of Him and
verses we are exhorted to praise the Lord, to sing         through Him and unto Him are all things; to Him
praises unto His Name, for it is pleasant. Indeed,         be all the glory, now and forevermore.
we must proclaim His praises, not our own. The
Lord does all things for His own Name's sake. And
this surely applies to the salvation of His people.
  To be sure, the Lord's choosing of us, His people,           The Standard Bearer
is absolutely sovereign. This is surely exemplified
in the scriptural presentation of Jacob. We read in          makes a thoughtful gift
Romans  9:12-13:  :"It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated." According to                 for the sick or shut-in.
Genesis  25:21-23, Rebecca conceived and the
children struggled together within her. She did not
understand this activity within her. She said, "If it
be so, why am I thus?" This activity within her                  Remember a friend
must have been an amazing phenomenon and she
probably discussed it with her husband, Isaac. She                today with a gift of
thereupon inquired of the Lord. And the Lord in-
formed her that the elder shall serve the younger.             The Standard Bearer.
However, why is this incident recorded in Holy
Writ? Of course, the Lord revealed this to Rebecca
for Rebecca's sake. This we understand. But, why
is this recorded upon the pages of the Word of God?


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               365



EDITORIAL



                                         A CRC Split?
                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema



  In recent weeks more than once the subject has            However, I will refrain from putting on the cloak of
arisen of the possibility of a division, a split, in the    a prognosticator.
Christian Reformed Church. I have seen it men-                Neither do I intend in this editorial to discuss the
tioned in more than one of the papers which cir-            issue as such. The issue is indeed a very serious
culate among Christian Reformed people. More                one. Involved is not only the immediate issue of
than once this subject arose in connection with a           opening the office of deacon to women. Also in-
proposed meeting in the Chicago area which has              volved, in my opinion, is the issue of opening all ec-
been advertised, for example, in The OutZook (April,        clesiastical offices to women. In other words, if this
`84, p. 15) as a "Conference of Concerned CRC               year the office of deacon would be opened to
Office-bearers Adhering to the Biblical and Historic        women in the CRC, it would be only a matter of
Reformed View of Ecclesiastical Office." From the           time before the offices of ruling elder and teaching
latter reference it is clear,  .too, that the issue over    elder (minister) would also be opened to women. In
which a possible split might come, and either               fact, this is precisely what some in the CRC are
should or should not come, is the issue of women in         already pressing for and even to some extent prac-
ecclesiastical office. This issue is supposed to be         ticing. But there is an even more important issue in-
decided by the 1984 Synod of the Christian Reform-          volved. In this respect I agree with a recent state-
ed Church in June.                                          ment by Editor Kuyvenhoven in The Banner when
  As of this writing, the conference mentioned              he pointed out that the underlying issue was one of
above has not yet been held; it is scheduled for May        hermeneutics. Basically, the issue at stake is that of
4. Neither have I as yet had the opportunity to             one's view of Scripture, one's view of the question
study the reports about this matter which will be           whether Scripture is "time-bound" in its
on the agenda of the CRC Synod. It has been                 statements about the place of women (among other
reported that the Study Committee will present a            things) in the church and with respect to the of-
divided report, with the majority advising that the         fices.
office of deacon be open to women.                            Neither will I venture to predict whether there
  Now it is not my intention to try to predict what         might be a split of either small or large proportions
the coming synod will decide on this matter,                if .the coming synod would take a firm decision in
though there seems to be considerable pressure for          favor of opening the offices, or even simply the of-
the synod to decide this matter, after many years of        fice of deacon, to women. Frankly, I am rather
hesitation, with finality, and though there also            skeptical. For one reason, I believe the basic issue
seems, judging from various writings, to be con-            was decided years ago when Report  36/44 was
siderable pressure for the synod to "cross the              adopted; and it seems as though almost everyone,
Rubicon" and to open at least the-office of deacon          including some of whom better things were ex-
to women. At the same time, however, some voices            pected, is able to live with Report  36/44. Besides,
have been raised in favor of postponing the matter          there have been too many other crucial issues in
again, in order to allow time to educate the CRC            the past-the Dekker Case in 1967, for ex-
membership and to prepare them for this major               ample-with respect to which the threatened (or
change. Synods have been known to vacillate when            promised?) opposition disappeared like the morn-
it comes to crucial issues; and it is not impossible, I     ing mist when once a  synodical  decision was
believe, that if the coming CRC synod should see            reached. But, once again: I will not predict. Such a
signs of potential trouble down the road, it might          prediction would be idle speculation; and, besides,
take measures to avoid a head-to-head conflict.             I might be proved wrong.


366                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



   However, I do wish to say that in my opinion a            Nevertheless, I believe a division in the CRC
CRC split on this issue would be regrettable.              about this issue at this point in history would be
   Why do I say this?                                      regrettable.
   Certainly, I do not say it because the issue itself       Why?
is not sufficiently important. It is indeed important.       In the first place, because such a split would be
I could not. and would not belong to a church which        over an issue which does not belong to the very
allowed women in office. And when I say this, I am         genius of the Reformed faith, does not belong to the
not referring merely to a local congregation, but to       peculiarly Reformed distinctives. Once again, let
a denomination. For it must be emphasized that             me stress that the issue is an important one; and no
one does not escape his responsibility by belonging
                                                 . .       truly Reformed man can tolerate the position
to a congregation which does not tolerate what is          which is being advocated. When the battle
practiced in sister congregations and that, too, with      becomes one about women in office, or even about
the approval of the churches in common as                  the doctrine of Holy Scripture, then you are getting
gathered in synod. I fear that for too long there          back to what the writer to the Hebrews calls "first
have been those who soothed their consciences              principles," from which a church long ago should
with respect to various issues in this way. To open        have gone on "unto perfection." In the second
the offices to women is wrong because it is contrary       place, if a separation would take place over this
to Scripture. It may not be tolerated. And, in fact, it    issue, it would be entirely possible-unless more
should not have been tolerated in the CRC even             took place-that the final product of such a separa-
temporarily. And when I take into account the              tion would be two groups of which neither would
broader issue of the view of Scripture and the             be genuinely Reformed. It would be regrettable-in
hermeneutical method that is involved here, then I         my opinion, not even worthwhile-to split over this
am even more convinced that the issue is indeed of         issue when the heresy of general atonement and
crucial importance. It is not for lack of importance,      the heresy of the denial of sovereign reprobation,
therefore, that I say that in my opinion a split over      for example, are not only tolerated but also official-
this issue would be regrettable.                           ly approved. And that leads me to a third point in
   Nor do I say this because in general I feel that a      this connection, namely, that such a split would be
split is always regrettable. From a certain point of       regrettable because it would not involve genuine and
view, of course, there is always something regret-         total reformation. It would be a partial-very par-
table about a split. And I think I know whereof I          tial, in fact-measure. But genuine reformation is in
speak both from study of history and from personal         its very nature total. It involves a wholehearted and
experience. I would not wish the pain and the              complete return to the truth. Reformation is not
anguish, the trouble and sorrow, the conflict and          like shopping in a supermarket, so that you choose
bitterness of a split on anyone. But if a split in-        this issue and reject that issue, take a stand on this
volves  reformation,  genuine reformation, then it is      truth but not on that truth.
not only not regrettable, but also mandatory and             For these reasons I would deem such a division
commendable, as well as salutary and even joyful           regrettable. I would also deem it "too little and too
and spiritually refreshing.                                late." And, frankly, though I make no predictions, I
                                                           have little expectation of it.

CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY


                      A Belated but Necessary Reply

[Editor's Note: This reply of the Rev. Heys is in          dard Bearer,  and in the first articles of a series on
response to comment by Mr. Jacobson in the March           the book of Esther-is one thing. It is quite a  dif-
15 issue, p. 2731.                                         ferent thing when the accuser charges the one who
  To reject the interpretation of a particular             wrote these articles with writing `below the  stan-
passage of Holy Writ, one that appeared in the  Stan-      dard of the Standard Bearer" and of missing a point


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              367



no Calvinist should overlook. This is especially true       (is) being played out in the behavior of Esther and
when the accuser does not give his own interpreta-          Mordecai in ways we would not expect, in deeds
tion with undeniable proof from the Scriptures that         we would not expect that grace to produce, and for
it is the correct interpretation. Such actions call for     purposes we do not expect." But does the brother
a reply which is necessary lest silence be                  mean to say that God's  grace  produces the sinful
misconstrued to mean agreement and a guilty con-            deeds of these two, and that it makes them behave
science and lest as much as one  Standard Bearer            as sinfully as they did? God's grace makes His elect,
reader is misled by this public charge sent not to          believing children refuse and fail to use His name,
the writer of the articles but to the Standard Bearer.      to confess Him, to worship Him openly? Is that a
This reply is belated because at the moment the ac-         point no Calvinist should overlook? James tells us
cused is in New Zealand working for our churches,           that faith without works is dead. And now I am
so that hundreds if not thousands of  Standard              running ahead of my series, but can the brother
Bearer  readers knew the unfounded, unproven                show me and our readers from this book or
charges at least two weeks before the accused did.          anywhere from Scripture that Esther and Mordecai
And even with airmail it will come long after the           confessed their sins, and that they gave ONE word
charge appeared.                                            of thanks to God for the enlargement and
  In a letter to the Editor-In-Chief of the Standard        deliverance? THAT is what God's sovereign grace
Bearer  Mr. Warren Jacobson states unequivocally            produces. Those behavioral patterns we will
that I "missed the forest for the trees" and also           always find in those who receive God's grace.
missed a point that no  ,Calvinist  should overlook.        Everywhere in Scripture where an elect's sins are
Now I know full well what that expression about             made known to us there is evidence given of repen-
the forest and trees means. But I find it difficult to      tance and  .thankfulness. 0, we did not expect
understand what the brother means by it. I can on-          anything like that of that thief on the cross. Minutes
ly wish that he had waited with his criticisms until        before he became the recipient of that grace he too
the whole series had been published, so that  he            railed ,on Christ. But grace brought a beautiful con-
would have the whole forest before him instead of           fession before he died. In two articles, if my
the few trees of the early articles in the series. I can    memory does not fail me, I ask those readers who
only wish that he had waited until he read the two          want to maintain that Esther and Mordecai were
articles which I wrote this past week-the week of           elect, believing children of God to give me one
March 25, 1984-and  which will not appear in print          word, one deed that even suggests of faith.
until July or August, since I have four or five ar-           A Calvinist must not confuse God's grace with
ticles at the printer that come before these two. The       His providence. That providence serves the grace,
one is entitled "Human Craftiness and Divine                but they are very distinct in what they produce but
Faithfulness" and the other "The Enemy Beginning            also as far as in whom they work. When we accuse
to Fall." He just might have realized then that I do        others of missing the forest for the trees we had bet-
see the forest, and that as a Calvinist. For in them I      ter be sure the forest we have in mind is not a
draw the picture all the way to the second coming           mirage that is then a forest of man's imagination,
of Christ and the blessedness of God's people in the        and/or that it is the forest that at the moment must
new Jerusalem. And I can only wonder how                    be looked at, and which God wants us to see in this
carefully he read the first two articles entitled           passage of Holy Writ as being on the foreground.
"Our Sure Salvation'" and "A Comforting Pinpoint              A Calvinist lets Scripture speak and does not try
of Light". In these, as well, the whole picture of the
salvation of God's people is set forth, and that            to say something for Scripture. Scripture deliberate-
before I even begin to speak of Esther and                  ly shows these children of Abraham making ab-
Mordecai.                                                   solutely no use of God's name. And grace always
                                                            produces this use in fear and reverence. That is not
  I am at a great disadvantage in that I am 10,000          unexpected! in those born again in that grace. A
miles away from my files and must answer to a               Calvinist sees the chaff in God's providence serving
great extent from memory. But although the                  the wheat. That is the picture in the book of Esther.
brother fears that I missed the point of "God's             That forest I had before me in every article.
sovereign grace being played out in behavioral pat-
terns in people which we might never expect, in               The brother is entitled to his opinion provided it
ways which we might never suspect, to bring to              is in harmony with Scripture. And he owes our
pass purposes which we might never expect," I fear          readers his proof that Esther and Mordecai pro-
that he has not come out with his basic criticism of        duced any behavioral patterns that Scripture pre-
my articles because he wants to defend Esther and           sents as the work of God's grace. Paul says that we
Mordecai as elect, believing children of God. Then          are saved by grace. Now that salvation is not merely
his statement really means, "God's sovereign grace          from hell fire and the punishment we deserve, A


368                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Calvinist always stresses the point which we may           must show where that life ever came to manifesta-
never overlook, namely, that we are also saved             tion anywhere in the lives of Esther and Mordecai.
from the love and power of sin and receive, as we          He must show where Scripture shows this of them.
read in I John 3:9, a life that cannot sin. The brother                                             Rev. Heys
MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                              Our Order of Worship
                                                  Prof. H. Hanko




  In our last article on the order of worship we           (Rom.  1O:lO). When the church comes together in
discussed the question of the reading of the law in        worship  - when in a worship service we have an
the worship service. Usually, within our Protestant        earthly manifestation of the body of Christ-then
Reformed Churches, the law is read in the morning          nothing could be more in keeping with this
worship service and the Apostles' Creed is read in         characteristic of the church than that she together
the afternoon or evening service. In this article we       confesses her faith.
shall discuss the reading of the Apostles' Creed.            Apparently, the church of Jesus Christ has felt
                                                           this very deeply. It is possible that there are to be
  There are several aspects to this question which         found in Scripture early creedal formulations of the
need to be discussed, all of which are worth some          truth which were used by the church already at the
thought and consideration. We shall treat these dif-       time of the apostles. We have one instance of this in
ferent aspects separately.                                 I Timothy  3:16: "And without controversy great is
  While, as we have noticed before, there are              the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the
several parts of our order of worship which are ex-        flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached
pressly commanded in Scripture, this is not true of        unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
the reading of the Apostles' Creed  - or of any            received up into glory." Many scholars take the
other creed for that matter. Quite obviously, this         position that Paul speaks here of a confession
would hardly be expected. At the time in which             which was used in the early church to give verbal
Scripture was written there were as yet no creeds to       testimony to'the  faith which the church believed. It
be used in the worship services; the creeds were           is quite possible that this is indeed the case.
formulations of the truth of Scripture which arose            However that may be, it is clear that the
in the church through the work of the Spirit of            Apostles' Creed was used by the church already as
Truth Whom Christ had promised on the eve of His           early as the ninth century; it was used extensively
suffering and death on the cross. Reading of the           in the church from that time on; and this practice
creed in the worship service, therefore, belongs to        was -taken over by the Reformers, although in some
the area of Christian liberty. It is not a violation of    instances it was used along with the Nicene Creed.
Scripture to omit it.                                      It has been used ever since in many churches of the
  Nevertheless, the idea itself is wholly Biblical.        Reformation.
This is clear when we understand, in the first place         The Apostles' Creed is ideal for liturgical use in
that the unity of the church of Christ is a unity of       the worship services. It is sufficiently brief  - it is
faith:  "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in    difficult to imagine how any of the creeds of the
the bond of peace. There is one body, and one              Reformation, as long as they are, could be used for
Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your call-    confession of faith within the worship service. It is
ing: one Lord,  one faith,  one baptism. .  ." (Eph.       a creed which contains all the basic doctrines of the
4:3-5). And in the second place, this is evident           Christian faith. So much, in fact, is this true that the
when we consider that this faith which unites the          Heidelberg Catechism bases a large part of its in-
church must come to verbal expression: "For with           struction in the truth on this Apostles' Creed and
the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and            expounds it as a way of expounding the truth of
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."         Scripture.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              369



  It is in this connection that it might be well to        deny these truths with their heart. Sometimes even
discuss briefly the use of other creeds for liturgical     talk is made of giving the words of the creed a
purposes. In some of our churches it is becoming           meaning other than the historical meaning which
increasingly common to read, in the place of the           the church has always given to it. Sometimes peo-
Apostles' Creed, either the Nicene Creed, the              ple speak of reciting the creed "with tongue in
Athanasian Creed, or the Chalcedonian Creed.               cheek." But in this way they bring the judgment of
While there cannot be anything wrong with this             God upon them. The creed still belongs to the
practice as such, it ought to be obvious that each of      church of Christ and it will remain her possession
these creeds is very limited in its doctrinal con-         as long as the world continues.
tents. The Nicene Creed deals chiefly with the doc-          What place ought the confession of the Apostles'
trine of the trinity and the divinity of our Lord Jesus    Creed to occupy in the liturgy? There have been
Christ; the Chalcedonian creed deals almost ex-            various opinions on this. For example,  Lasco  put
clusively with the relation between the human and          the speaking of the creed in the liturgy after confes-
the divine natures of Christ in the one Person of the      sion of sin and absolution as an expression of praise
Son of God; and the Athanasian Creed is a broader          to God for His grace in the forgiveness of sins. It
expression of the two doctrines contained in the           ought to be apparent from this that no firm rule can
Nicene Creed and in the Chalcedonian Creed. The            be made concerning this matter. Generally speak-
Apostles' Creed has none of the limitations, but in-       ing, it seems appropriate that the speaking of the
cludes all the basic doctrines of the Christian doc-       creed ought to come as near to the beginning of the
trines of the Christian faith.                             service as possible. It seems appropriate that very
  The Apostles' Creed is also a truly ecumenical           near the beginning of her worship, the church con-
creed. There is a good ecumenicity and there is a          fess together her unity of faith  - her unity in her
bad ecumenicity. The latter is that practiced in our       own fellowship; her unity with the denomination
day which seeks to unite the church world on the           of which she is a part; her unity with the church
basis of the lowest doctrinal common denominator.          throughout the world, and her unity with the
The former is the true union of the one, holy,             church of Christ throughout the ages. But I say
Catholic Church of Jesus Christ. It is sometimes           again, no firm rules can be made about this. (It is a
forgotten by us that we are a church which stands          point worth talking about sometime, that the whole
in true union with all the church of Christ in the         of the liturgy ought to have unity, harmony, pro-
past - the church which has now gone to glory to           gression, and beauty to it. Perhaps this can be
join the company of just men made perfect; and we          discussed in some future article.)
are one with the church of Christ which is found,            Finally, the question has sometimes been raised
even at the present time, throughout the world,            whether the creed ought to be recited in unison by
gathered from every nation and tribe and tongue.           the whole congregation, or whether it ought to be
The Apostles' Creed, because of its early origin, is       read by the minister, while the congregation speaks
the possession of the whole church of Christ               these words of the confession in her heart. If the
throughout the world. It was formulated at about           latter practice is followed, the minister usually in-
the time that the church began her great mission           troduces the creed with the words: "Let us make
enterprise, and it is a creed which the church has         confession of our faith, each one saying in his
carried with her throughout the entire world. So it        heart. . .  ." There is, however, some good ground
has become the possession of the whole church.             for favoring the speaking of the creed by the whole
Wherever the church of Christ gathers, this creed is       congregation. Earlier in the article, I referred to
confessed. It is in this way that the creed is a bond      Romans  1O:lO where explicit mention is made of
which unites God's people everywhere in the one            the fact that those who are saved both believe in
unity of the faith. It would be well if we were more       their hearts and confess with their mouths. While, of
conscious of this in our Sabbath worship services          course, the text has wider application than the
when we confess these truths together.                     speaking of the Apostles' Creed in the worship ser-
  All of this is not to say, of course, that there are     vice, it nevertheless makes a point of emphasizing
not many in the world who confess this creed as            that confession with the mouth is important and
well as we, but who do not belong to the church of         necessary to salvation. Further, our Communion
Christ. This stands to reason. Just as there are many      Forms includes the creed in the prayer which is
who outwardly claim to stand on the basis of our           made after the didactic part of the creed is read and
Three Forms of Unity, but who in fact deny the             before the Lord's Supper itself is celebrated. Ap-
truths set forth in them, so also it is true that this     parently the authors of the form wanted this part of
happens with the Apostles' Creed. But this ought           the prayer to be spoken aloud by all, for they in-
not to deter us from its use. They may confess with        troduce this section of the prayer with the words:
their mouth what is said in this creed while they          "Strengthen us also by this Holy Supper in the


370                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



catholic undoubted Christian faith, whereof we                             the reading or speaking of the creed that we hardly
make confession with our mouths  and hearts,                               know what we are doing, we ought nevertheless
saying. . . ." And then follow the words of the                            understand its importance in the liturgy of the wor-
Apostles' Creed.                                                           ship service and truly make this a part of our wor-
   Once again, while we become so accustomed to                            ship of Jehovah our God.                                       .

ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren




                                Is This Christ's Suffering?


   With some hesitation I continue to comment on                           representative of her "gospel," it is neither Re-
the installation of the Rev. Marchiene Rienstra at                         formed nor Scriptural. She says this of the suffering
Hope Reformed Church at Holland, Michigan. I                               of Christ:
hesitate because an end must come in condemning                                  The suffering of Christ is central to our common
this kind of wrong which so many wish to embrace                               reflection during Lent. That suffering did not end
openly anyway. Those who would receive women                                   when Christ cried "It is finished" on the cross. For
into the offices within the church remain of the                               what happened on the cross is a sign to us of the
same mind still.                                                               awesome reality of the suffering of God for us through
                                                                               all time.
   Yet, it becomes apparent that when one will                                   Because of the union of Christ with all humanity
distort Scripture to allow for one wrong, it becomes                           through his incarnation (the word made flesh), he
easy to distort other Scriptural truths as well. It                            continues to suffer in all of our suffering. When
might be profitable for us to recognize this-and in                            children starve to death, Christ suffers the pangs of
the concrete instance of Marchiene Rienstra. In                                starvation in and with them. When the elderly are for-
order that she be installed into the office of the                             saken and alone in their need, Christ suffers the pain
ministry, those passages of Scripture which forbid                             of abandonment in and with them. When people in-
woman the right to speak in the church (based on                               flict terrible violence on each other in the name of
the creation ordinance and the law of God) must be                             justice and freedom, or for no good reason, Christ suf-
r e l e g a t e d   t o   t h e   "t r a s h   h e a p "   o f   "time-        fers the anguish of wounding and death in and with
conditioned" instruction. In spite of the ob-                                  them.
                                                                                 This both comforts us, who are united to Christ in
vious truth, the claim must be made that these                                 our baptism and by faith, because we know that
passages apply to Paul's day-but not to ours.                                  whatever happens, nothing can ever separate us from
Women might not serve in the ministry 2000 years                               Christ and his love. But it is also a terrible judgment
ago because of the cultural situation then, but today                          on the human race. For whenever one precious per-
the times have changed. Paul's word no longer ap-                              son suffers needlessly, because of the greed,
plies.                                                                         carelessness or cruelty of another, it is Christ who is
   But when one does this sort of thing to Scripture,                          being attacked. For he is especially with those who are
                                                                               in great need and suffer in any way.
the infallible Word of God, he (she) can do the same
with other important passages of Scripture. This                                 The suffering of Christ, therefore, faces us with the
became very clear in an article which recently ap-                             awful fact that when we do or threaten violence
peared in the HoZZaazd Sentinel, written by the Rev.                           against others, justifying it by calling them our
                                                                               enemies because they live under a different govern-
Marchiene Rienstra in  ,celebration of the Lent                                ment or political and economic system, or because
season. Her remarks concern the suffering of                                   they believe and think differently than we do, we are
Christ-but what she has to say of this is both                                 doing and threatening violence against Christ, who
shocking and contrary to the teachings of Scripture                            embraces all human beings in loving forgiveness as
itself. I can not know what she might say within the                           the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the
church from the pulpit, but if this article is                                 whole world.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                           371



     To take away the sins of the whole world is to           Pet. 3:lS). Christ indeed suffers long with His peo-
   reconcile everyone to God and to each other-and this       ple  while they are on the earth-but the cross is
   means loving unity between all people. The church is       atonement whereby He would deliver us from sin
   called to be a sign of this unity which God so greatly     a n d   d e a t h .
   desires for all humahity  that he gave his only son....
  One might wonder if this is the Theology (or                   Finally, though there is a reference to "sin," one
Christology presented from the pulpit at Hope                 can well ask the question: What is meant by that
Reformed Church in Holland. One would hope that               term in the article? Rienstra states: "To take away
it is not the Theology taught at Calvin Seminary.             the sins of the whole world is to reconcile everyone
                                                              to God and to each other...." First, there is taught
  Notice: Christ's incarnation is made to be a                the idea that Christ's death is for every single in-
"union. . ..with all humanity." The question might            dividual-elect and reprobate alike. That is
well be asked: What does that really mean? Did                something entirely foreign to Scripture and
Christ really assume our human nature? What is a              Reformed confessions. Secondly, what is stated
union "with all humanity"? Does Christ, then, in              surely appears to teach a universal salvation.
His suffering and death represent all humanity? Is            Though now there is the struggle to attain unity,
He then too united with the antichrist? Is He united          still Christ has reconciled everyone to God and to
with the reprobate? Is He united with those who re-           each other. Finally, the description of "reconcilia-
main in their sins?                                           tion" does not appear to involve the removal of
  Sad too is the presentation that Christ's suffering         original and actual sin committed against God.
is representative of the suffering which is His when          Rather, it is that which seeks "loving unity be-
people on this earth suffer. The suffering on the             tween all people." Such presentation can not give
cross is not presented as atonement, as payment for           assurance of salvation and glory, nor can it possibly
sin before God-but as an act of One  Who- shows               be of comfort then to God's people.
His concern for the suffering of all peoples. Does               But I began by insisting that error breeds error.
the suffering on  ,the cross mean that "when                  First, there is denial of the clear teachings of Scrip-
children starve to death, Christ suffers the pangs of         ture on "women in office." Then there is an
starvation in and with them?" How much more                   ecumenism which can even include Jewish rabbis.
glorious is the testimony of Scripture: "For Christ           Now there is a false presentation of the cross itself.
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the un-        Surely one can not tamper with Scripture with im-
just, that He might bring us unto God, being put to           punity.
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I





                      The P.C.A. Invites the O.P.C.


  The Presbyterian Church in America has now of-                 But now the invitation was re-issued. The final
ficially invited the Orthodox Presbyterian Church              presbytery of the PCA took its vote-and it was the
to join in organic union. A few years ago an attempt           deciding vote in connection with the invitation. Ex-
was made to do this, but it failed in a rather embar-          actly  3/4 of the presbyteries voted to issue the in-
rassing manner. Then, the assemblies (our:synod)               vitation. Now it remains to be seen what the OPC
of both bodies agreed to this receive and join pro-            will do. Many in the latter denomination are strong-
cedure. But the various presbyteries (our:classis)             ly opposed to union. Still, the last time the majority
had to approve-in the PCA by a  3/4 majority and               indicated their approval. The Presbyterian /ournaZ,
in the OPC by a Z/3 majority. The OPC presbyteries             April 4, 1984, reports that the "OPC is still eager to
provided the necessary approval-only to learn that             celebrate its 50th anniversary as a denomination in
the PCA presbyteries did not approve the invitation            1986. Even if it accepts the PCA invitation, it may
by the necessary  3/4 majority.                                wait a year or two to make that celebration possi-
                                                               ble."


372                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



   When to Support-and,When  to Oppose-
                                          Union Membership


  Interesting, it is, to observe how that denomina-                       1908, the Methodist Church-a forerunner of the
tions long involved in certain social activism will                       United Methodist Church-issued a statement
advocate a cause-until they become personally  in-                        upholding the right of workers to organize. United
volved. Some of the more liberal denominations of                         Methodists supported California farm workers in
our land have pushed for organization of the                              1976 and employees of the formerly antiunion J.P.
workers. These churches have fought for the                               Stevens Company in 1980.
"right" of the worker to organize. But now some of                              But when denominational employees are involved,
their own employees are seeking to organize-and                           the support seems to falter. In 1982, employees of the
that does not meet with approval of the same                              church's General Board of Global Ministries, with
denominations. Christianity Today, March 2, 1984,                         headquarters in New York City, voted 133 to 88 to
                                                                          join the United Auto Workers Union. However, their
reports:                                                                  attempts to negotiate a contract with improved wages
         United Methodist and Roman Catholic leaders are                  and benefits has been fruitless so far.
       being accused of following a double standard when it                     They say they are among the lowest-paid
       comes to workers' rights. Both churches have stood                 denominational workers in the nation. Although a
       behind the trade union movement in the past. But                   wage increase became effective this year, it was less
       when some of their own employees have organized to                 than the employees wanted, and they lost many
       bargain for improved wages and benefits, the chur-                 benefits they had previously enjoyed....
       ches have not always been supportive.                             All this is somewhat of an indication of the
         The 9.5 million-member United Methodist Church                sincerity of the "social gospel" as proclaimed in the
       has long stated its support for collective bargaining. In       churches today.

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE



                  Preservation and Perseverance (3)
                                                             Rev. H. Veldman





  In our preceding article on the subject of Preser-                     On the one hand, the truth of the preservation of
vation and Perseverance, we called attention to the                    the people of God is clearly set forth in the Word of
fact that these truths are confessional. As one might                  God. We read in I Corinthians 1:8-9: "Who shall
expect, the preservation and perseverance of the                       also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be
saints are set forth particularly in the fifth head of                 blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
our Canons, although we also read of them in                           is faithful, by Whom ye were called unto the
Heads III and IV of these Canons. However, also                        fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Here
the Scriptures, of course, emphasize the certainty                     the preservation or confirmation of the saints is
of the everlasting salvation of the church of God.                     based upon the truth that God is faithful. In Philip-
We say "of course" because these Canons, we                            pians 1:6 we read the familiar passage: "Being con-
know, are based upon the Word of God.                                  fident of this very thing, that He which hath begun


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                373



a good work in you will perform it until the day of        2:10, 26 the exalted Christ writes unto His church:
Jesus Christ." We do not read here that the Lord           "Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer:
will perform this good work at the day of our Lord         behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison,
Jesus Christ (this, of course, is also truth), but that    that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation
He will perform and complete it  until  the day of         ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give
Jesus Christ. And this refers to the completion of         thee a crown of life.. . . And he that overcometh, and
this work from the moment of its beginning or in-          keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give
ception until the day of Jesus Christ. Never does          power over the nations." And we conclude by
the Lord leave His own. The same truth is clearly          quoting Revelation 3: 11: "Behold, I come quickly'
held before us in I Thessalonians  5:23: "And the          hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy
very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray          crown."
God your whole spirit and soul and body be                   Preservation and perseverance - both truths are
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord            clearly taught in the Word of God. Preservation, as
Jesus Christ." In I Peter  1:4 and 5 we read the           is indicated by the word, refers to the work of God
beautiful passage: "To an inheritance incorrupti-          upon us, God's work in which we are wholly
ble, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,              passive. Mind you, it is not that preservation is
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the            God's work whereas perseverance is our work, a
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to         work of man. Preservation, however, is the work of
be revealed in the last time." We do well to bear in       God upon us in which we are passive, whereas
mind that this passage is addressed to the people of       perseverance is the work of God in us in which we
God who are pilgrims and strangers in the midst of         are active. We are preserved, kept, according to the
the world, whose position in the midst of the world        apostle Peter, by the power of God until the day of
is therefore a humanly impossible position; as such        our Lord Jesus Christ.
pilgrims and strangers they can never of                     W h a t ,   n o w   i s   t h e   S c r i p t u r a l   t r u t h   o f
themselves attain unto this everlasting inheritance.       Perseverance? We ask, first of all, what is not
And notice that two truths are held before us in this      meant by it? When we ask the question what this
Word of God: the inheritance itself is preserved and       perseverance of the saints is all about, we do well to
is ready to be revealed at the last time, and we, too,     understand that to persevere unto the end surely
are kept and preserved unto that eternal salvation.        does not mean that we assume the offensive in the
And the last passage which we would quote is John
14:16: "And I will pray the Father, and He shall           sense that we conquer the world for Christ. To
                                                           overcome and keep the works of Christ unto the
give you another Comforter, that He may abide              end (Rev.  2:26)  does not mean that we work for
with you forever." Indeed, we are also reminded,           Jesus, persist therein, win the world for Jesus,
may ,I add, and I would say, of course, of that            transform the kingdom of the devil and of darkness
wonderful passage in Romans 8, verses 35-39,
where we read that nothing can separate us from            into a kingdom of light and of God's dear Son,
                                                           cleanse the world of all debauchery and crime and
the love of Christ, and that in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us.            filth and shame, of all corruption and immorality,
                                                           and thereby extend the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
  On the other hand, of course, the truth of the           Christ so that it will cover the face of the earth and
perseverance of the people of God is also set forth        embrace every living mortal that dwells upon the
very clearly in the Word of God. We must endure            face of this earth. How could this be possible? 0, it
unto the end. We read in Matthew  24:13: "But he           may sound attractive and appealing to do great
that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be          things for Jesus, to win the world for Him, but this
saved." In Romans 2:7-8 the apostle writes: "To            is surely not the calling of the cause of the living
them who by patient continuance in well doing              God and of His Son. Indeed, to persevere does not
seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal         mean that we untiringly work for the peace of this
life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not       world and strive unto the end that all swords may
obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indigna-         be beaten into plowshares and all spears into prun-
tion and wrath." Indeed, eternal life is promised to       inghooks, and that the knowledge of God in Christ
them who by patient continuance in well doing              Jesus may cover the face of this present earth as the
seek for glory and honour and immortality. In this         waters cover the face of the sea. How often we hear
we must continue and persevere. In Hebrews  3:14           this in our present day and age! Man likes to hear
and 6: 11 we read: "For we are made partakers of           this., It flatters him to be told that he can do big
Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence         things for Jesus, transform this world of crime and
steadfast unto the end.. . . And we desire that every      shame and filth into a kingdom of God and of His
one of you do shew the same diligence to the full          Christ! Of course, this transformation, as per-
assurance of hope unto the end." In Revelation             formed by the natural man, will never be a spiritual


     374                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



     transformation. It will remove only the results of         this does not mean that the wicked desire it, seek it
     sin but never sin itself. Such is surely not our call-     for themselves; they surely do not want this crown
     ing, either as a church or as individuals, as people       of everlasting life and glory. They are not interested
     of God. Our calling is never synthetic; it is always       in the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. But they
     antithetic. We are not called to transform the             would take the crown from us; they do not want us
     kingdom of the devil and of darkness, but to be of         to have it; they would deprive us of that eternal life
     the party of the living God, and to testify against it.    and glory.
     When they who are in high places, who occupy                 Unto that end we must hold fast that which we
     responsible positions in government speak of               have. What we must hold fast is clearly set forth in
     delivering this world from crime and corruption, is        the Word of God, even as we read it in Revelation
     it not noteworthy that crime and corruption con-           3:8: "And thou hast kept My word and hast not
     tinue in these high places? Our calling is not to          denied My Name. " Indeed, life and doctrine are in-
     cleanse and purify the garments of all others, but to      separably connected. They can never be divorced
     keep our own clean and unspotted in the midst of           from each other. On the one hand, we must main-
     this world. We must shine as lights in the midst of        tain and proclaim the truth; on the other hand, we
     darkness, speak of the truth over against the lie, put     must surely practise it and walk accordingly. Our
     on the whole armour  of God and never imagine for          doctrine determines our walk of life; our life is the
     a solitary moment that the time will ever come             seal and crown upon our doctrine. The one affects
     when such preparedness will no longer be                   the other: if I love God I will love His Word and
     necessary in the midst of this world.                      maintain it. Hating God I will also hate His truth,
       What, then, is this perseverance of the people of        distort and corrupt it. On the other hand, if I main-
     God? Is it not striking that a modern dictionary           tain not the truth I will be as a sailor without a com-
     defines Perseverance as: "In the Calvinistic system        pass, as a traveller without a guide. On the other
     of theology, the continuance in grace and certain          hand, I must also seal the truth with a godly walk,
     salvation of those whom God effectually calls, ac-         practise it, and walk in all the commandments of
     cepts in Christ, and sanctifies by His Spirit"? In-        the Lord. This is our calling: hold fast that which
     deed, this perseverance means that we in grace and         we have, doctrine and life. We must cling
     in the certain salvation of those whom God effec-          tenaciously to the truth, revealed in Christ Jesus,
     tually calls, irresistibly, and, we would say,             revealed in His Word, and as maintained by our
     receives in Christ, receiving all those who by His         Protestant Reformed Churches as the perfect doc-
     grace come unto Him, in Christ Jesus. To be sure,          trine of salvation. We do not proclaim and teach
     we may and must be on the offensive. We must               anything new; we have continued in the old paths,
     take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of         except that we have developed them. May the Lord
     God. We must fight, indeed, as conquerors; only,           give us His grace to continue in these old paths, and
     our offensive is not that we conquer the world for         do this particularly with the children whom God
     Christ, but that we stand in the victory of the Cap-       has given us and continues to give us. This is our
     tain of our salvation, and untiringly proclaim that        calling. How important it is that we maintain this
     we are conquerors, and that the day will dawn              calling, adhere to the infallible Scripture as the only
     when we shall be revealed as such in the Day of our        lamp before our feet and light upon our path,
     Lord Jesus Christ. But, as far as our position in this     especially because of the many departures from
     world is concerned, we are purely on the defensive,        these Scriptures in our present day and age, making
     and we must persevere in the sense that we hold            it increasingly difficult to maintain the truth of Ho-
     fast that which we have, as we also read it in             ly Writ, as they center in Christ Jesus, our Lord,
     Revelation 3: 11.                                          God's only begotten Son, Jehovah's revelation in
-      In this holding fast we must persevere. No man           Him as the only God of our salvation.
     must take our crown. The Greek has two words for
     crown. The one word is the symbol of royal domin-
     ion (the crown of a king), and the other word is a
     symbol of victory. This crown refers to a  laurel-                 Take time to read
     wreath, a prize which is given the winning contes-
     tant at the end of a race. And, as far as the content                    and study the
     or meaning of this crown is concerned, it refers to
     everlasting life, the life in heavenly immortality,                 Standard Bearer
     eternal fellowship with God in the holy city, the
     New Jerusalem, the heavenly Paradise, the house
     of our Father with its many mansions, heavenly life
     and glory. No man, now, must take our crown. 0,

                                                                                                                           I


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               375



THE LORD GAVE THE WORD




                         Missionary Methods (23)
                                      (The Views of Rufus Anderson)
                                            Prof. Robert D. Decker



  The fundamental principle of Anderson's  (1796-         much disposed. They forsake their native land and
1880) views on missions is this: the aim of mission       the loved scenes of their youthful days. Oceans
work must be the gathering of indigenous churches         separate them from their relatives and friends.
which are self-supporting, self-governing, and self-      They encounter torrid heats and strange diseases.
propagating. In this connection Anderson stressed         They traverse pathless wilds, and are exposed
that the task of the missionary is solely evangelism,     to burning suns and chilling night damps, to rain or
i.e., the preaching and the teaching of the gospel.       snow. Yet these things, when in their most repul-
The missionary is not to engage in the work of civil-     sive forms, are reckoned by missionaries as the
ization. He must not attempt to transform the             least of the trials appertaining to their vocation. The
heathen society in which he works so that it con-         foreign missionary's greatest sacrifices and trials
forms as much as possible to European-American            are  social  and  religious.  It is here that he has a
society. To this principle we shall return in later       severity of trial, which even the domestic mission-
articles. For the present we wish to consider some        ary ordinarily cannot have. Whatever the devoted
of Anderson's views concerning some of the more           servant of Christ upon the frontiers may endure for
practical aspects and problems involved in                the present, he sees waves of a Christian civiliza-
missions.                                                 tion not far distant rolling onward, and knows that
  These matters apply especially to the work of           there will soon be all around him gospel institutions
foreign missions, although to a lesser degree some        and a Christian community. But it is not so with the
may also apply to domestic work. Certainly one of         foreign missionary. It requires great strength of
the greatest problems is that of the missionary mov-      faith in Christ for him to look at his rising family,
ing away from his homeland to a foreign and often         and then with unruffled feelings toward the future.
primitive land. Is it possible for a man to do this?      True, he sees the gospel taking hold of minds and
Would a missionary be able to take his wife and           hearts in consequence of his ministry; he sees
children with him? How would his children be              around him the germs of a future Christian civiliza-
properly educated? These questions and more have         tion. But then owing to the imperfect -and disor-
prompted some to conclude that a man with                 dered state of society in heathen communities, he
children cannot serve on a foreign field. This is        dares not anticipate so much social advancement
what Anderson said in 1845: "His (the mission-           for two or three generations to come as would make
ary's) embassy and message are as really from the        it pleasant to think of leaving his children among
other world, as if he were an angel from heaven. He      the people for whose spiritual well-being he de-
who devotes himself to the work of foreign mis-          lights to spend his own strength and years. And
sions, comes thereby under peculiar engagements          then his heart yearns  ofttimes to be braced and
and obligations. His situation is in some important      cheered by social Christian fellowship of a higher
respects peculiar, compared with that of all others.     order than he finds among his converts from hea-
His sphere of action lies beyond the bounds of his       thenism. It is not the flesh-pots of Egypt he looks
native land, beyond the bounds of Christendom,           back upon, nor any of the pleasant things that used
where society and the family and human nature all        to gratify his senses in his native land; but he does
lie in ruins... They are required therefore preemin-     sometimes think of the kindred spirits he would
ently to renounce the world. From the nature of the      find in that land, and of the high intellectual and
case they make a greater sacrifice of worldly bless-     spiritual fellowship he would enjoy in their society,
ings, than their brethren at home can do, however        and how it would refresh and strengthen his own


376                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



mind and heart. Often there is a feeling of weak-           style is perhaps the best things that has happened
ness and faintness arising from the want of such fel-       to us since Thomas Edison invented the incandes-
lowship, which is the most painful part of his suf-         cent lamp. The American missionary, more than
ferings. The foreign missionary is obliged, indeed,         any other, finds it difficult to knuckle down to the
to act preeminently upon the doctrine of a future           simple life-style in most parts of the Third World.
life, and of God's supreme and universal govern-            Like the children of Israel who hankered after the
ment, and to make a deliberate sacrifice of time for        `leeks and onions of Egypt,' he wants to retain as
eternity, and of earth for heaven. And this he does         much as possible the American standard of living.
as an act of duty to his Redeemer, for the sake of          That is why some of them take tons of household
extending the influence of his redemption, and              stuff, including canned goods, when they leave for
bringing its reconciling  cand saving power to bear         the field.... Missionaries must be prepared to
upon the myriads of immortal souls dwelling                 endure hardness, like good soldiers of Jesus Christ,
beyond the utmost verge of the Christian church"            in order to identify with the people they are seeking
(TO Advance the Gospel, Rufus Anderson; R. Pierce           to win. The gap between the `have' nations and the
Beaver, ed., pp. 77,78).                                    `have not' nations is altogether too great. The
                                                            Christian missionary by himself cannot close that
  Dr. J. Herbert Kane, a missionary to China for fif-       gap no matter what he does, but he can help to
teen years and currently professor of missions              bridge it at the local level if he is willing to `eat bit-
emeritus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School,            terness"'
Deerfield, Illinois, has some interesting and                            (Kane, pp. 78, 79).
instructive comments on this subject. One of the              Some children of missionaries are tutored on the
qualifications a missionary must have according to          field, while others are educated at Boarding
Kane is this:  "Assurance of divine guidance.  Mis-         Schools. This latter involves separating the children
sionary work is not getting any easier. Some of             from their parents for some months at a time. And,
the physical hardships have been eliminated, but in         let it be understood, this is no small matter! Dr.
their place is a whole host of other difficulties, psy-     Kane, whose children were educated in a mission
chological, ideological, and interpersonal. The             boarding school, has this to say about it: "To begin
short-termer may be able to get along fairly well           with, we must go back to the Scriptures and dis-
without any great `sense of call,' but the career mis-      cover what Christ had to say about the matter. Few
sionary will find it mighty handy when the going            of His statements are stronger or clearer than His
gets rough. It will help him immensely if he can            statement on family ties. `He who loves father or
say, `I am a missionary by the will of God.' . . . If a     mother more than Me is not worthy of Me' (Matt.
missionary has a deep, abiding conviction that he is        10:37). However difficult it is to work it out in prac-
in Brazil, or Borneo, or Burundi by the will of God         tice, we are forced to confess that all horizontal re-
he will not turn and run at the first sight or `sound of    lationships must be subservient to the vertical rela-
danger, nor will he give up when the difficulties           tionship between Christ and His disciple. Nobody,
multiply and the frustrations almost drive him              not even the dearest person on earth, must be
crazy. He will go the second mile and stay on the           allowed to come between the disciple and his
job long after the sun has gone down only if he is          Lord.... This does not mean that we abandon our
sure that he is in the will of the Lord"  (Under-           children or repudiate our parents (I Tim. 5:8); but it
standing Christian Missions,  3rd. ed., pp. 82, 83).        does means that  in principle  we recognize the
Another qualification cited by Kane is:  "AbiZity           supremacy of Jesus Christ in aZZ relationships of life
to endure hardness. The Chinese call it `eating bitter-     . . . . Once the child makes the initial adjustment,
ness.' There is no doubt that the affluent society in       which usually takes only a few days, he settles
which we live has produced in all of us a love of           down to a life of comfort and contentment. He has
ease and comfort that is the hallmark of the                other children of his own age, language, and cul-
American way of life. We have central heating in            ture with whom he can study and play. Classes are
the winter and air-conditioning in the summer and           small enough to permit individual tutoring where
twenty-eight varieties of ice cream the year round.         necessary. Teachers are dedicated as well as com-
Physical well-being, financial security, material           petent. Homework is done together under super-
prosperity, peace and contentment, law and                  vision, which means no one falls behind. And best
order-these are the main ingredients that go to             of all-there is no television.. . . It is no exaggeration
make up the affluent society that is America. The           to say that the MKs (missionaries' kids, R.D.D.) in a
individual is pampered and protected from the cra-          mission school are given more attention and
dle to the grave. Dentistry, surgery, and now child-        security than the children in American suburbia.. . .
birth, are all rendered painless. Even Band-Aids            Schools for missionaries' children are not penal in-
must be `ouchless.' The energy crisis that now              stitutions nor are they reformatories. They are a
threatens to change drastically the American  life-         combination of home, school, and church where


           a
                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              377



the prevailing atmosphere is surcharged with               and they are great. Not every Christian can be a
Christian love. There is no need to shed any tears         missionary or a missionary's wife. It takes one
for the  MKs on the mission field.  They.should  be         called and qualified and strengthened by the grace
reserved for the  `&derprivileged' kids at home"            of God. What we do wish to stress, however, is that
(Kane, pp. 59,60).                                         it is by no means impossible for a missionary with a
  We certainly have no wish to minimize the hard-          family to labor in a foreign land. Thousands upon
ships, the inconveniences, or the problems and             thousands have done it in the past. It can be done
many frustrations missionaries and their families          today, by the grace of God. To be continued.. .
must endure for the Lord's sake. These are many

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                   The Nicene ,Creed
                                               Rev: James SZopsema




Article 8: And I believe in the HoZy Ghost, the Lord        God, begotten of the Father (the only begotten, i.e.,
           and Giver of Zife; Who proceedeth from the       of the essence of the Father, God of God, and) Light
           Father and the Son; W'ho with the Father         of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,
           and the Son is worshipped and glorified;         being of one substance with the Father; by Whom
           Who spake by the prophets.                       all things were made (in heaven and on earth)."
  There is quite a bit of history behind this 8th arti-       This same council concluded the Nicene Creed
cle of the.Nicene Creed.                                   with a brief confession concerning the Holy Spirit:
                                                            "I be-lieve in the Holy Ghost."
  In its original formulation by the Council of
Nicea in 325 this article briefly stated, "And I              There are several reasons for the brevity of this
believe in the Holy Ghost."                                 confession. First, the Scriptures do not speak only
  You perhaps recall from earlier articles that the         of the Father and the Son. They speak of Father,
Council of  Nicea was convened to settle the great          Son and Holy Ghost. Time and again these three
trinitarian controversy that raged in the early Chris-      are mentioned together. And so, having confessed
tian church. The controversy centered chiefly in           faith in the Father and the Son, it was deemed
the identity of Jesus Christ. There were basically          necessary also to express faith in the  Ho1.y Ghost.
three different positions in the church. There was         However, the identity of the Holy Ghost was not
first the orthodox position which maintained that          the issue at this particular time. The issue was the
Jesus Christ is truly divine. He is the eternal Son of     identity of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Besides this, the
God, one in essence with the Father. Then there             church at this time was not even clear as to the true
were the Arians, followers of Arius, who main-              identity of the Holy Spirit. Some thought the Holy
tained that Jesus was not God in the same sense as          Spirit to be a creature of God. Others leaned to the
the Father. He is god-like but not truly God. For He       position that the Holy Spirit was no person at all,
is created of the Father and possesses a different         but simply a power or attribute,of  God. And so the
nature or being than the Father. Finally, there was         Council of Nicea was content with the simple state-
the middle party, called the Semi-Arians, who              ment, "I believe in the Holy Ghost."
maintained that although Jesus is truly divine, the           However, controversy continued to rage after
eternal Son of God, He is not one in being with the        the Council of  Nicea.  The Arians and some of the
Father. His being is rather  like  that of the Father.     Semi-Arians maintained that they had been
  At the Council of  Nicea,  the orthodox position         pressured to endorse the statements of  Nicea.
prevailed as the church confessed in the 2nd article       Besides that, there was a confusion in terminology.
of the Nicene Creed that Jesus Christ is "the Son of       This was due to an inability to distinguish properly


378                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



between the concepts "person" and "essence."               The additions to this 8th article by the Council of
Because of this, many did in fact endorse the truth      Constantinople were designed to establish the true
 of Nicea but balked at the language used to express     divinity of the Spirit.
the orthodox position. The upshot of all this was          The question arises why the Council of Constan-
that over the years the Semi-Arian position and ter-     tinople did not use some of the language it used to
minology began to prevail in the church. And for a       assert the divinity of the Son to confess the divinity
while it appeared as though the orthodox position        of the Spirit. Article 2 of the Nicene creed asserts
of  Nicea would be lost to the church. However,          the true Godhead of the Son by describing Him as
through the diligent work of a handful of dedicated      "very God...being of one substance with the
men of God the proper distinctions were made and         Father." Certainly, these same descriptions are ap-
the church was won over to the original position         plicable to the Spirit as well. He too is very God, of
and language of Nicea.                                   one substance with the Father. We would conclude
   As the issue of the Son's identity became more        therefore that having established the true identity
settled, the question of the Holy Spirit's identity      of the Son with these terms, the early church
came more to the fore. The church saw that she           fathers would also have used these same terms to
must also come to grips with the true identity of the    describe the Spirit. However, according to some
Spirit as she had done with the Son. There were          church historians, the Council of Constantinople
various positions held in the church. There were         chose not to use this terminology to avoid offending
those who maintained that the Holy Spirit is merely      some of the more "conservative" Bishops of the
a power or attribute of God. This was held even by       church. Evidently there were still some in the
some who embraced the orthodox position of Nicea         church who were not ready to apply this very
on the true divinity of the Son. Then there were         specific terminology to the Spirit. Hence, the early
those who taught that the Holy Spirit was created        church chose to assert the true divinity of the Spirit
by God and thus merely a creature. This had been         in other ways.
the original position of the Arians, who had also          To assert the true Godhead of the Spirit, the early
taught the same concerning the Son. The  Semi-           church first confessed that the Holy Spirit is
Arians, who after  Nicea came to dominate the            "Lord." The term "lord" emphasizes the twofold
church for some time, also maintained the same           idea of ownership and therefore of rule. A lord is
teaching concerning the Spirit. They taught the eter-    one who owns another. And therefore, because he
nal generation of the Son, but the creation of the       is owner, he is also ruler over that which he owns.
Spirit. As late as 380 Gregory of Nazianzen wrote,       This term, with this twofold meaning, is applied in
 "Of the wise among us, some consider the Holy           the Scripture to a slave-owner (cf. Parable of
Ghost an influence, others a creature, others God        Talents, Matt. 25:14-30). This same term is also ap-
himself, and again others know not which way to          plied to God Himself in a host of different passages.
decide, from reverence, as they say, for the Holy        We even read quite frequently the expression
Scripture, which declares nothing exact in the case.     "Lord God." That God is Lord emphasizes that, as
For this reason they waver between worshipping           the Creator, God is divine Owner of all things. The
and not worshipping the Holy Ghost, and strike a         heavens and the earth with all that they contain
middle course, which is in fact, however, a bad          belong to God. All the silver and gold is God's.
one."                                                    Even the cattle on a thousand hills belong to God.
   At the great Council of Constantinople in 381 the     And so He is also the absolute, sovereign Ruler over
issue concerning the Holy Spirit was by and large        all things. To God belongs not only the right but
settled. The Council of Constantinople added to the      also the power to impose His will upon the
original confession of the Nicene creed concerning       creature. And His is also the right and power to
the Holy Ghost. At Constantinople the church con-        maintain His will by rewarding the good and
 fessed that the Holy Ghost is the One "Who is Lord      punishing the evil. He is Lord of lords and Ring of
and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father,       kings.
Who with the Father and the Son together is  wor-          And now in this same sense the early church
shipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets."       confessed that the Holy Spirit is Lord. By this the
The Council of Constantinople gave us this 8th arti-     early church meant that the Holy Spirit, with the
 cle in its present form with but one exception. At      Father and the Son, is the Creator, Owner, and
the Council of Constantinople the church con-            Ruler over all and is therefore truly God. What the
fessed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the            Council of Constantinople sought to confess with
Father. She made no mention of the Holy Spirit's         this term is the same as we find in verses 17 and 18
from the Son. This was not added until later by the      of th.e Athanasian Creed: "17. So the Father is Lord:
I Western or Latin branch of the church at the Synod     the Son Lord: and the Holy Ghost Lord. 18. And yet
 of Toledo in 689.                                       not three Lords; but one Lord."


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                379



  In the same breath the writers of the Nicene            has to the power to give life, to quicken from the
Creed also confessed that the Holy Spirit is the          dead, except God? But now this same distinction is
"Giver of Life." The word found in the original           also  ,applied in Scripture to the Holy Spirit, In II
Greek of the  Nicene creed has the meaning of "to         Corinthians  3:6 we are informed that the Spirit
cause to live, to make alive (quicken), to give life."    giveth life. In John 6:63 Jesus tells His disciples, "It
This same word or term is used in Scripture first to      is the spirit that quickeneth." And the spirit here,
define God the Father and God the Son. Thus, for          although not capitalized in the KJV, is the Holy
example, we read in I Timothy 6:13 of "God, Who           Spirit. In Romans 8: 11 we read that the Spirit shall
quickeneth all things. " In Romans 4:17 we read of        quicken our mortal bodies. The Spirit therefore also
"God, Who quickeneth the dead." In John 5:21 we           is the "Giver of life" and thus is truly divine with
read, "For as the Father raiseth up from the dead,        the Father and the Son. It was evidently this line of
and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth           thought that prompted the Council of Constantino-
whom He will." In all these and other passages God        ple to confess the true Godhead of the Holy Spirit
the Father and God the Son are designated as the          by acknowledging Him as the "Giver of life." In
"Giver of life." And this is quite obviously a            short, He is God because divine works are ascribed
distinction that is reserved solely for God. Who else     to Him.

IN HIS FEAR



           Servants of the Lord in His Church
                                             Pastor Arie den Hartog





  It follows from the fact that we have been saved        go into Thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay
by the wonderful sovereign grace of God that we           Thee my vows, which my lips have uttered, and
have now become His servants. We now owe our              my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble. I
whole life to the Lord. We are not our own to live        will offer unto Thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings,
unto ourselves. We must live unto Him who has             with the incense of rams; I will offer bullock with
delivered us from death and from judgment. If one         goats. Selah. Come and hear, all ye that fear God,
therefore confesses that God is his sovereign Lord        and I will declare what He hath done for my soul"
and God, and on the other hand refuses to serve           (Psalm 66: 13-16). In Psalm 96 the same truth is ex-
Him, such a one is no better than a hypocrite. If we      pressed: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his
love the Lord we will earnestly desire to serve Him.      name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.
The Psalmist confesses, "0 Lord, truly I am thy ser-      0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear
vant; I am thy servant and the son of thine hand-         before him, all the earth" (Psalm  96:7-g).  We read
maid: thou hast loosed my bonds" (Psalm 116:16).          of this again in Psalm 100. "Make a joyful noise un-
If we look for'the great day of the Lord with eager       to the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with
expectation then we desire in that day to hear of         gladness: come before his presence with singing.
our Lord and God, "Well done thou good and                Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy          made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people,
Lord" (Matthew 25:Zl).                                    and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his courts
  Of all the areas in our life where we must serve        with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his
the Lord the chief one is surely the church of God.       name" (Psalm lOO;l-4). Once again this is expressed
Reading through the Psalms we find this mentioned         in Psalm 116. "I will pay my vows unto the Lord
many times. Though the Psalmist surely under-             now in the presence of all his people, in the courts
stood that he had to serve the Lord in every area of      of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, 0
his life, it was his urgent desire especially to serve    Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord" (Psalm  116:18, 19).
the Lord in His house. In Psalm 66 he says, "I will          From the above Psalms we can learn much about


380                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



what it means to serve the Lord in His house. We          natural man's hatred for the truth that we preach.
serve Him when we come to worship Him, to                 It may also however be due to our unfaithfulness as
acknowledge Him as our Lord and our God. We               the servants of the Lord to bring others to the
serve Him when we come to offer our sacrifices of         Lord's house. We must earnestly and zealously ex-
thanksgiving and praise unto Him. We serve the            hort our friends and neighbors to come up to the
Lord when we enter His house to declare among             mountain of the Lord's house with us that the Lord
His people His mighty deeds and what wonderful            might teach them of His wonderful ways and in
things He has done for our salvation. In the house        order that we also might tell them what wonderful
of the Lord  &is servants serve Him with gladness         things the Lord has done  f& us. We may well all
and singing. In the  hosue  of the Lord we come to        ask ourselves, when was the last time I actually in-
pay our vows before the Lord, wherein we resolve          vited someone to come to church with me? If we
to serve Him in all our life. In the  versification of    have not done that for a long time we should be
Psalm 66 in the Psalter we sing, "Here in Thy house       ashamed of ourselves. This type of mission work in
I give to Thee the life that Thou dost bless." Each       our own churches is not just an option, or
week as we enter into the Lord's house we come            something nice and wonderful, it is our calling and
again to dedicate and consecrate our whole life to        obligation as servants of the Lord.
the Lord as His servants.                                   We must serve the Lord in His house in the midst
  Do we know what it means to serve the Lord in           of the communion of the saints. This means that we
His house in this manner? Is one of the principle         must come to the Lord's house to give of ourselves
reasons for our going up to the house of the Lord         to our fellow saints. We must not come to criticize
our great desire to serve Him and to consecrate our       and to cause division in the church and to
whole life to Him in humility as His servants? How        discourage our fellow saints. We must come to
sad when the Christian has no desire to go up to the      dwell together with our fellow saints in the unity of
house of the Lord or when he goes there merely out        love and peace. We serve the Lord in the commu-
of slavish necessity. When we refuse to go to the         nion of the saints when we make it our business to
house of God or are careless about this we are real-      exhort and encourage one another. Scripture often
ly rebels against God, we are refusing to serve Him       commands us to do this. "Not forsaking the
as our Lord and acknowledge Him as our Great              assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of
God and Savior.                                           some is; but exhorting one another: and so much
  We serve the Lord in His house when we come to          the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews
hear His Word and submit ourselves untd it. We            10:25). The Lord has given to His church special of-
come ready to speak, in the words of Samuel,              fice bearers to equip all of the members of the
"Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." We are the        church for "the work of the ministry, for the edify-
Lord's servants when in His presence we resolve to        ing of the body of Christ: till we all come in the uni-
be doers of His word as well as hearers.                  ty of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
                                                          unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
  We serve the Lord in His house when we show             of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12 and 13).
forth His praises before His people. God is glorified
in the sight of His people when they show each              We must serve the Lord ifi the communion of the
other His great goodness in their lives. By doing this    saints also during the week at the weekly meetings
we encourage our fellow saints to praise God              of the church. It is tragic when a member of the
together with us.                                         church of Jesus Christ is convinced that he has
                                                          dolie his duty by merely going to the worship ser-
  We bring our offerings to the house of the Lord to      vice on the Lord's Day and afterwards quickly hur-
serve Him. Not of course as though the Lord has           rying home again. A church that has few attending
need of our offerings. Surely the cattle on a thou-       weekly meetings such as Bible study classes and
sand hills are His and He has no need of offerings        societies is in a sad condition. One who is not
from our hands. Yet He delights in the offerings of       engaged in the Lord's work in the church during
His people and He is pleased to use those offerings       the week can hardly be called a faithful servant.
for the progress of His kingdom on earth. The ser-        We serve the Lord when  we come to such weekly
vant of the Lord enters His house to give joyfully        meetings well prepared, ready to contribute to
and liberally unto the Lord.                              discussions and to teach our fellow saints what God
  We serve the Lord when we seek to bring our             has  ,taught us. Being to busy with our secular oc-
friends'and neighbors and relatives to the housk of       cupation that we cannot attend at least one weekly
the Lord with us. This is the calling of all servants     meeting at the church cannot be justified in God's
of the Lord. There may be many reasons why our            sight. What a  beaytiful example we find in the
church is not growing in numbers. It may be due to        apostolic church at Jerusalem. In Acts 2 we read
the apostasy of our age. It may be due. to the            that the saints there continued daily with one  ac-


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                               381



cord in the temple in the fellowship of the saints                      Lord called him a wicked and slothful servant. The
and the praise of God.                                                  Lord will judge in this manner today also concern-
   We serve the Lord in His church when we con-                         ing any member of the church who does not use his
secrate and  dedicae our gifts and abilities to the                     talent. How wonderful it would be if all the
Lord. "As every man hath received the gift, even so                     members of the church would stir up the gifts that
minister the same one to another, as good stewards                      the Lord has given them and as faithful servants
of the manifold grace of God" (I Peter  4:lO). God                      before the Lord actively use them. Our churches
has given manifold grace to the members of His                     would prosper and be greatly blessed of the Lord.
church, giving each of them a gift or gifts. All have                     We are faithful servants in the church of the
received a gift from the Lord. There is no such thing                   Lord when we earnestly love that church, when we
as a member of the church of Jesus Christ with-                         love the Lord that dwells in her midst, when we
out a gift, because then such a one would be a                          love the Lord's Word that is declared by her. We
useless servant and there would be no reason for                   are faithful servants when we support and defend
the Lord to have added him to His church. We must                  that church and her cause in the  world to the ut-
all soberly discern the gift that God has given to us              most of our abilities. We are faithful servants when
and use that gift for the spiritual benefit of the                 we love the saints in the church, when we seek to
whole church. The parable of the talents speaks of                 help them, pray for them, and seek for their bless-
this same matter. Each of the servants received a                  ing. We are faithful servants of the Lord in His
talent or talents. Though.one received five, another               church when we pray for and strive for peace and
two, atid another only one, yet all received at least              unity in her midst and the glory of the name of God
one. All the servants of the Lord had the solemn                   to shine in her. May God make us all faithful ser-
obligation before the Lord to use that talent. When                vants in His church.
one of the servants did not use his talent, then the

TRANSLATED TREASURES


                                                                   .

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





(In the last paragraph Kuyper has concluded his discussion of      teenth Century with Rome, Rome determined fif-
how an individual engages in church reformation and finally        teen different characteristics as marks of the true
makes a break with his church when such church reformation         church. The Reformed theologians found these to
proves impossible from within: In, the following paragraph,        be too superficial for a number of reasons. Over
Kuyper goes on to discuss the whole concept of the true and the
false church for reasons which he himself gives.)                  against them they ventured an attempt to establish
                                                                   more correct characteristics. If we sum up what
59. The Distinction Between the True and False                     was maintained at that time, then it is clear that &
     Church.                                                       Reformed theologians establish as a necessary
  In order that the believer may have a definite                   characteristic the preaching of the Word of God.
standard by which to decide when his church                        Most added to it as a second mark the administra-
ceases to be a true church and begins to be a false                tion of the sacraments. And a few added to these
church, we must explain further what the marks of                  two the exercise of Christian discipline. A very few
the true and false church care.                                    substituted for this latter or added to it the mark of
  In the doctrinal and church political struggle                   Christian love, the holiness of morality,, etc. Our
which was carried on by our fathers in the Six-                    Confession of Faith states in Article 29, as is well-


382                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



known, the three marks: 1) the preaching of the          guished as the objective and the subjective.
Word; 2) the administration of the sacraments; 3)          In all ages a group of Christians have pressed the
the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline. It sums up    point that the mark of the true church should be
these three marks in the one general mark, that we       sought in the subjective and personal holiness of
must hold to the pure Word of God, rejecting all         her members. Confessing correctly that the church
things which are opposed to it and holding Jesus         is the gathering of the elect, these brothers set up
Christ as the only Head of the church.                   the questionable but extremely dangerous demand
  It is also to be observed that our oldest              that these elect should show themselves as children
theologians, as well as Article 29 of our Confession     of God. On this they base their risky idea that the
of Faith, added to each of these three marks the re-     church must be known by the holiness of her
quirement of purity. The preaching of the Word is        members, holiness meant in the spiritual, not in the
not enough. There must be the pure preaching of          external sense.
the gospel. Likewise, the pure administration of the       On the other hand, over against that subjective
sacrament is required. And the exercise of Chris-        idea, throughout all the history of the church of
tian discipline must be so applied that not only a       Christ, the idea has been maintained that the exter-
few, but all sins are punished.                          nal church must be judged, not according to the
  Reading this, a few brothers have come to the          spiritual state of her members, but only according
conclusion that each church must be considered as        to  the\ external appearance of the church as such.
falling away from the true church when something         This insight leads of itself to  ihis proposition: The
is lacking in the preaching, when the administra-        marks of the church lie not in the holiness of her
tion of the sacraments is wrong, or when the exer-       members, but in the character which she shows as
cise of discipline is lax.                               church.
  In keeping with this, these same brothers take           We ought not to judge this first idea too harshly.
the occasion to terminate membership from such a         A thirst for holiness is created in God's child along
church hastily and to set up a pure church with the      with the new birth. How can it be different if the
purpose of showing the fault and sin of the old          worldlimindedness into which the church con-
church and to give the old church a bill of divorce-     tinually sinks gives pain to him who knows God's
ment.                                                    hidden ways? One must seek for a separation of the
  It is not proper to handle such a profound ques-       pure and impure and must check that which is evil.
tion so superficially. It is a  we&known  fact that      If these brothers understand more fully the
such a man as John a' Marck, followed by Bernhard        unbelievable power of sin and if they have learned
de Noor, talked of two other marks: i.e., "purity in     in fearful wrestling of the soul how each flake of
the fundamentals of doctrine and holiness of life."      grace which falls as white snow on our souls is dir-
This makes us think that we ought to refrain from        tied by the stain of our souls, then they would not
so superficial a judgment. At any rate, wiser and        set the fantasy of imagined purity against this
betted  men such as de Noor, Turretin, and whoever       abomination, but would rather engage in an earnest
else have pointed out that not each of these three       and pressing warning. But those who are fanatical
marks is equally indispensable and that in the re-       and live too much in the over-excitement of the
quirements of these three marks there is a certain       mind, such as Donatists, Cathari, the Brownites,
latitude left for minor differences.                     the Labadites, and whoever else wants to sort out
                                                         the content of the fishnet before its time and lives
  It is on that ground that we make bold to treat        in the beautiful hope of their holy purpose, such a
this extremely important point somewhat more             one is bound to face bitter disappointment and the
carefully than has commonly been done.                   risk of the fading of their own freshness of faith.
  In the first place, our attention is fixed on the
point that in connection with the drawing up of the        It can be no different. They fall into error in four
marks of the true church, usually three trends ap-       respects. 1) They forget that the genuine character
ply.  We may call these three trends the personal,       of the work of God in the soul does not permit of
the Scriptural, and the ecclesiastical.                  external judgment. 2) They forget that the dispensa-
                                                         tidn under which we live until our death involves
  We can be brief concerning the last one because        the continual influence of sin in the saints accord-
it is represented by Rome and the controversy            ing to God's inscrutable purpose during the whole
which we have with Rome is left out of our con-          of this present age. 3) They forget that the elect can
sideration in this pamphlet.                             live a long time in the church before they are
  But we ought to describe briefly the contrast be-      translated out of death into life. 4) They forget that
tween the Scriptural and personal trend which, ac-       people are transitory and pass away, while the
cording to another principle can also be distin-         church remains.


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  383



   All the Reformers, and especially Calvin, have                          such a degree that Isaiah does not hesitate to call
always opposed this Donati'st struggle with deep                           Jerusalem a Sodom and Gomorrah . . . . Was this
conviction. Calvin writes: "In `bearing the im-                            any better in the days of Christ and His apostles?
perfection of the members, our complitice  must go                         Really not. The false piety of the Pharisees no more
very far, because the path is so slippery and the                          than the licentiousness of the Sadducees prevented
tricks of Satan to make us fall are so sly . . . . And if                  Christ and His apostles from going up with them to
one says that it is unbearable and intolerable as long                     the same temple and using the same sacrament
as the plague of iniquity continues to eat as a cancer                     withthem.. . . And if you are still not persuaded,
in the church of the Lord, then I ask if the opinion                       look at David, who was burdened by God with
of the Apostles does not satisfy them. In the Corin-                       maintaining morality, but who covered the
thian -congregation there were not only a few who                          misdeed of his shameful lust by abominations of
had fallen into sin, but almost the whole body of                          the violation of right and of bloodshed. And yet was
the congregation was sick. It was not only a single                        not the same David regenerated? Is he not with
sin which was rampant there, but much iniquity                             honor named among the regenerated? Nevertheless
was present. And it was no sin of minor signifi-                           what itself aroused horror among the heathen, he,
cance but of fearful abomination. Not only were                            David, thii%ted to perpi?trate." (Calvin, Institutes of
the morals corrupted, but corruption had also crept                        the Christian ReZigion, L, IV, c, 1.)
into the teaching. And what now does the holy                                 Nearly our whole church has judged in the same
Apostle do as mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit with                           way. As far as we know no one who is competent to
Whose judgment the church stands or falls? Does                            judge defends this Donatist idea, and we shall let
he recommend separation? Does he exclude them                              this idea of the subjective or personal mark the true
from Christ? Does he subject them to an anathema?                          church go, in order to direct the attention of the
Nothing of the kind, but just the opposite. He still                       reader to the second or Scriptural and objective
recognizes them as a church of Christ and as a                             tendencies which the marks of the true church seek
gathering of saints. This is true also of Jesus and His                    not in the personal state of the members, but in the
disciples. The depictions which the prophets                               state of the church itself.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, and Habakkuk give us of the
sins of the Jerusalem of their days are fearful and
horrible. Everything was corrupted among the peo-                                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
ple and the rulers, even the priests themselves, to                           On May 22, 1984, the Lord willing, our beloved parents, grand-
                            NOTICE!!!                                      parents and great-grandparents,  MEINDERT and SUSAN GAASTRA,
                                                                           will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.
  According to the decision of the Synod of 1983, the Consistory of          We are thankful to our Heavenly Father for these many years they
the Hull Protestant Reformed Church, Hull, Iowa, was appointed the         have had together and for blessing us with God-fearing parents who
calling church for the 1984 Synod. The Consistory of Hull hereby           guided us in His ways. It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to
notifies our Churches that the 1984 Synod of the Protestant Reform-        bless them and keep them in His care during their remaining years.
ed Churches in America will convene, the Lord willing, on Wednes-             "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I
day, June 13, 1984 at 9:00 A.M., in the Hull Protestant Reformed           make known Thy faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 89:l).
Church. The pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday evening,
June 12, at  7:45 P.M. Rev. G. Van  Baren, President of the 1983           Anne Lindeman
Synod will preach the sermon.  Synodical  delegates are to meet with       Edwin and Clarice Gritters            17 grandchildren
the Consistory before the service. Delegates in need of lodging            Ray and Carol Gaastra                 17 great-grandchildren
should contact Mr. Bert Van Maanen, 1818 First St., Hull, Iowa             Otto and Mary Gail Gaastra
51239 (Phone:  (712)-439-l  803).

              RESOLUTION  OF SYMPATHY                                                          TEACHER NEEDED!!!
  The Ladies..Aid Society of The First Protestant Reformed Church of          Covenant Christian School of Lynden, Washington, will need a
Grand Rapids, Michigan, mourns the loss of a faithful member, MRS.         teacher for Grade 3 through 5 for the 1984-85 school year. Those in-
LUCY WOUDENBERG, whom the Lord took to Glory on April 14,                  terested may contact our Administrator, Mr. Henry  Ktiiper at his
1984. We express our sympathy to her family and pray that the Lord         home. Phone  (206) 354-2592 or at the school  -  (206) 354-5436.
will comfort them with His everlasting mercy.                                 Applications should be sent to the school at 9088 Northwood
  "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."     Road, Lynden, WA 98264.
                                                       (I Cor. 15:22).                                                  John Meyer, Sec'y.
Mrs. Peter Decker, Pres.
Mrs. Gerard Bylsma, Sec'y.                                                                               NOTICE!!!
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                         The STANDARD BEARER has loose issues from the last 60 years
                                                                           of printing, many that will make complete volumes. You may obtain
  The Congregation and Consistory of the Kalamazoo Protestant              these as they are or we have some of them that are bound. If you
Reformed Church wish to express their sincere Christian sympathy to        would like to purchase some of these, please contact our business.of-
their pastor, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg and his family in the death of       fice. The address is: THE STANDARD BEARER, POST OFFICE BOX
his mother, MRS. LUCY WOUDENBERG.                                          6064, GRAND RAPIDS, Ml 49506
   "For this God is our God forever and ever: he will be our guide even    R.F.P.A. BOARD
unto death" (Psalm 48:1.4).                                                James Koole, Sec'y.


   THE STANDARD BEARER                 -+-                                         -         -___- ~~-
         P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





                                                     _   -I~-.-IIR-III_-_      ._~   ---   .-   ----.   --   -.A----   -





                 I
384                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


                               News Fro= Our Churches
                                                                  April 30, 1984

    From the April issue of Across the Aide, Rev. Arie                             begin building there as soon as all the preparations
 and Sherry den Hartog write in part, "Let me begin                                can be made. The cost is  $100,000.  All the im-
 by telling you what is uppermost in our hearts and                                provements are in and paid for except for a $2,018
 mind. We thank the Lord for the gift of a son to our                              sewer assessment to be paid within 5 years. Closing
 family last week Tuesday, Matthew  Farrand. We                                    costs will consist of a $3,000 realty fee and about
 are so thankful that the Lord has given  u's six                                  $500 for survey and title insurance. The property is
 healthy children.. Both mother and son are doing                                  very accessible for anyone using the Expressway or
 well.... We are very thankful also that many of the                               the East Beltline.
 members of the church are helping out in the
 home. Two ladies are taking turns bringing in the                                      An interesting fact is that a marriage ceremony
 meal for the next two weeks.                                                      took place during a Sunday evening worship ser-
                                                                                   vice at Hope -Protestant Reformed Church, April
    "The church has just rented two additional                                     15. Some people have commented that it is about
 rooms at the kampong where we have our meet-                                      time our weddings take place during the Sunday
 ings. This has made it possible to move two of the                                worship services. Others say that having the wed-
 meetings out of our apartment.... We still have at                                ding on Sunday draws too much attention to the
 least three meetings every week.... We do enjoy be-                               people getting married. One thing is certain, and
 ing able to open our home for the members of the                                  that is that every ceremony of holy matrimony
 church....                                                                        must reflect the relationship of Christ and His
    "The biggest event going. . . is still the matter of                           church. The emphasis should always be on Christ,
 the purchase of the building at Blair Rd. and the                                 the bridegroom, taking unto Himself the church,
 formation of the second congregation there. The                                   the bride.
 purchase should be finalized this week. We already                                     Newsletter No. 7 of the Randolph Protestant
 h a v e   3 2   p e o p l e   s i g n e d   u p   f o r   t h e   n e w           Reformed School Society reads in part, "Some are
 congregation.. . . It probably will be several months                             of the opinion that education is spiritually neutral.
 before the place is ready for us to move in and for                               In other words, what is taught in the school is mere-
 the .beginning of worship services there. . . .                                   ly objective fact. In math, children learn to use
    "The numerous Bible study groups that we                                       numbers. In science, they learn about the earth-and
 have. ..are well attended.. ..and serve a very good                               the laws of nature. In history, they learn certain
 purpose in the church especially in the Singapore                                 dates and events. They learn to read, write and
 situation.                                                                        spell. And, of course, if this be true, then there is no
    "We have received another request from the                                     need for Christian schools. . . .
brethren in Trengganu Malaysia that either Pastor                                       "However, the fact is that education is never
 Lau or myself come there for a couple of weeks to                                 neutral.. . . Educators see it to be their duty to teach
preach for them.... We want very much to help                                      values. They set before the child certain goals.
them as much as we can but because of the load of                                  They seek to mold the child to live a productive
work we have in ERCS it will be difficult...."                                     life....
    Rev. Bruinsma has received the call to be mis-                                      "The viewpoint and values that are taught in the
 sionary to Jamaica. Rev. Kenneth Brown, one of                                    public school are rather those of the world. That
 our Jamaican ministers, was in Grand Rapids and                                   only stands to reason. If the church does not con-
visited the congregation of First Church to tell them                              trol the perspective of the school then the world
 about the work on that island. Rev. Brown                                         does....
 ministers to the congregation at Diaz.                                                 "Can we afford to send our children to these
    The congregation of First Church has decided to                                kind of schools? Financially the price is right. But
purchase the property at 2800 Michigan N.E. and to                                 what of the spiritual cost? Can we afford that?"


