              The
     STANDARD
              BEARER
r             A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . We must never take the attitude that we

     have arrived. Nor must we suppose that the
     only threats to this heritage of ours are the
     errors of all of the other churches out there.
     The fact of the matter is that the greatest
     threats to our Reformation heritage are from
     our own selves, our own weaknesses, our
     own sins, both as individuals and as chur-
                       ,e
     ches.
     See "Our Reformation Heritage" - page 20



                                                  Volume LXI, No. 1, October 1, 1984 -


2                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                  CONTENTS                                                                               ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during  June, July, and August.
                                                                                                Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
     Meditation  -                                                                                    SecondClass  Postage  Paid at Grand  Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                    Editor-in-Chief:  Prof.  Homer  C.  Hoeksema
        Preaching as Chief Key of the Kingdom . . . . . . . . .2                    Department  Editors: Rev. Ronald  Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog. Prof. Robert
     Editorial  -                                                                   D.  Decker, Rev.  Cornelius Hanko,   Prof. Herman  C. Hanko,   Rev. Ronald   Hanko,
                                                                                    Mr.  David   Harbach,   Rev.  John  A.  Heys,   Rev.  J.  Kortering,  Rev.  George  C.
        Seminary Convocation, 1984. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5              Lubbers,  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Miersma,  Rev.  Marinus  Schipper,  Rev.  James  Slopse-
                                                                                    ma, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman  Veldman.
     Seminary Convocation  -                                                        Editorial O@z:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
        Thirty-Five Years of Faithful Service . . . . . . . . . . .5                                   4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                       Grandville,  Michigan49418
        Presentation of Plaque to                                                   Church News Editor:  Mr. David  Harbach
           Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6                                      4930 Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
                                                                                                           Grandville, Michigan 49418
        Transcript of Letter from the                                               Editorial   Policy:  Every  editor  is  solely  responsible   for  the  contents  of  his  own
           Consistory of Doon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7        articles. Contributions  of geneial interest  from our readers and questions for the
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MEDITATION


           Preaching as Chief Key of the Kingdom
                                                                          Rev. C. Hanko



                     Ques. 83. What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?
                     Ans. The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline, or excommunication out of
                 the Christian church; by these two, the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers, and shut
                 against unbelievers.
                     Ques. 84. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the holy
                 gospel?
                     Ans. Thus: when according to the command of Christ, it is declared and publicly testified to
                 all believers, that, whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins
                 are really forgiven them of God, for the sake of Christ's merits; and on the contrary, when it is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   3



           declared and testified to all unbelievers, and such as do not sincerely repent, that they stand ex-
          posed to the wrath  of  God, and eternal condemnation, so long as they are unconverted; accord-
           ing to which testimony of the gospel, God will judge them, both in this, and in the life to come.
                                                                      Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 31


     Zion, founded on -the mountain,                              This sentinel, you may rest assured, is none
        God, thy Maker, loves thee well;                       other than Christ Himself. He is the foundation
     He has chosen thee, most precious,                        upon which God's church is built, He is the gate,
        He delights in thee to dwell;                          and He is the sentinel, for He is the Way, the Truth,
     God's own city, who can all thy glory tell?               and the Life. In Him, and in Him alone, is all our
  The Psalmist sang of God's church, represented               salvation. To Him is given the authority of God,
in the old dispensation by the mighty citadel of               merited through His death, resurrection, and exal-
Jerusalem with its massive walls and its strong iron           tation at the Father's right hand, to exercise the key
gates. The gate of this spiritual City is pictured as          power of the kingdom of heaven. He alone has the
having a lock and key, and a sentinel who is                   power to open and close the gate of the kingdom, to
authorized of God to exercise his key power, open-             bind and to loose, to declare within or without, to
ing the gate for some and closing it for others. For           take in and to cast out. This is His own testimony,
outside of this Holy City rages the enemy, all the             "I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall
forces of darkness, sin, and hell, wickedly deter-             not prevail against it." Our Lord exercises this
mined to destroy the City and all its inhabitants.             power through the preaching of the Word from the
Symbolically this represents the key power of the              pulpit, through the divinely ordained ministers,
kingdom of heaven, guarding the City of God                    who are properly called by God's church, and who
against the onslaughts of the power of darkness, to            declare: "So saith the Lord," expounding the Scrip-
the glory of our God, for the welfare of Zion, as a            tures in sincerity and truth.
blessing to the citizens of heaven.                               It is our duty to be on our guard against false
  Upon Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ,               teachers and preachers who declare the church to
the Son of the living God," Jesus had responded,               be an open city, inviting and urging whomsoever
"And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon            will to enter, assuring them of a false hope of life
this rock I will build My church, and the gates of             everlasting. They are interlopers, thieves, and rob-
hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give thee        bers,, who plunder the sheepfold of Christ, surrepti-
the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever              tiously presenting themselves as ambassadors of
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,             Christ, presenting a gospel that appeals to the flesh,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be              corrupting the Scriptures, and deceiving many.
loosed in heaven" (Matthew  16:18, 19).                           We must insist that the preaching we hear from
  Glorious confession! For the Rock upon which                 the pulpit is the sound exposition of the Word of
Jesus builds His church is not the man Peter, nor              God. We do not attend church on Sunday to hear
Peter as representative of the apostles, but HIM               the philosophies of a man, no matter how brilliant
Whom Peter confesses to be the Christ, the Son of              he may seem to be, no matter how fluent in his
the living God. Blessed is that man who experi-                speech, how beautiful his style, or appealing his
ences the wonder of God's grace in his own heart               voice or person. We come to hear the voice of Jesus
and life, whereby He knows and confesses Jesus to              calling us out of our lethargy of sin, bringing us to
be the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and            sincere repentance in sorrow of heart, and assuring
blood cannot reveal that to us. God alone, by the              us upon confession of our sins and forsaking them,
risen and glorified Christ, and through His Spirit in          that our sins, no matter how great or how many,
our hearts can so renew us, so enlighten our under-            are forgiven us on the merit of the cross of Jesus
standing, that we realize our depravity, sin, and              Christ, just as really as sinners heard Jesus' words
misery, and are driven out to the cross of Calvary,            of peace and comfort while He walked among us
where we make the good confession that Jesus is                here on earth. To hear Jesus speak to us through the
our Savior, our Lord, and our God! In other words,             preaching we must be sure that the preacher is
God makes us citizens of His kingdom, leads us to              called in the God-ordained manner. God is a God of
the gate of the City, where the sentinel, so to speak,         law and order. He requires that only Christ shall ex-
recognizes us by our confession, assures us of the             ercise the keys of the kingdom; and Christ shall do
forgiveness of our sins, unlocks and opens the gate,           this only as the chief Shepherd of His flock by ap-
saying, "Come, thou blessed, enter thou into the               pointing under-shepherds called by Himself. And
joys of thy Lord!"                                             Christ refuses to call anyone except through His


4                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



church, for Christ exercises the key power through         this must not be considered the chief calling of the
the church institute, and through the church in-           local church, as so many do in our day, God does
stitute alone. Thus Christ calls through His church,       sometimes use the pulpit in the local church to
which is represented by the special offices of             draw His own out of the world into the church. In a
ministers, elders, and deacons. The divinely called        sense it can be said that all of us are drawn out of
minister must preach the Word, expound the Scrip-          darkness into light and into a richer communion of
tures, proclaim the crucified and risen Christ. That       life with God in Christ, even though we were
is his sole mandate. That alone makes preaching            regenerated and converted in our early infancy.
the power of God unto salvation, the Light that              There are, moreover, those who are within the
penetrates the darkness of the human heart, our            church institute who must be put out. They are the
sure Guide, the Lamp before our feet and the Light         carnal element that is always present in the sphere
upon our pathway, leading us to the eternal Day.           of, the covenant. It is not all Israel that is called
     It must not escape us, that this power of God         Israel. Some are born of believing parents and grow
always works antithetically; that is, it is a savor of     up in the church, but are unbelievers, as becomes
life unto life, but also a savor of death unto death.      evident from their sinful walk of life. Others come
the Jew within the church clamors for signs and            into the church with ulterior motives, placed there
wonders, for display of power, for big happenings,         by Satan to destroy the church, like foxes that
while the idol worshiper clamors for the wisdom of         wreak havoc in the vineyard. The preaching of the
the world. To them the preaching of the gospel,            Word must be so thoroughly Scriptural that it
centering in the crucified and risen Christ, is            serves as a power of God exposing them. The Word
always foolishness. Their wicked, rebellious hearts        offends, and also condemns. Often they will leave
cry out: NO! A thousand times NO. For "This say-           to seek their refuge in some other church, where
ing is hard, who can believe it?" No one leaves the        the preaching is more to their liking. We must
church quite as he entered. He has been where the          realize that also in them Christ is exercising His
Spirit dwells, where Christ is present with His            power, the power of the Word as a savor of death
Word, where the saints gather, where the gospel is         unto death. They left, for they were not of us.
preached. God's Word never returns void. It proves           There are also those who seek admittance into
the fact that "He who believes in the Son of God           the Christian church even though they are unre-
has everlasting life, but he who is disobedient to the     generated citizens of Satan's kingdom. From sinful
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides        motives they attend the services for a while and
on him" (John  3:36).                                      then apply to the consistory to be accepted as
                                                           members of the congregation. Maybe they married
     Our Catechism suggests four possible uses of the      someone who is already a member of the church.
keys of the kingdom. The key of preaching, which           Maybe they consider it to be to their advantage to
is the chief key of Christ, both opens and locks the       become a member of that particular congregation.
gate of the kingdom. It opens the gate to draw into        Whatever the motive may be, Satan is trying to
the church that which is outside, but actually             bring his forces as a fifth column into the church,
belongs within. It also opens the gate to drive out        wolves in sheep's clothing. As eager as the congre-
those who are within yet belong outside. It closes         gation may be to receive new members, the office
and locks the gate to keep out those who are outside       bearers must be on their guard against such evil
and belong outside, yet attempt to enter in. And at        workers. If such individuals still somehow find
the same time it keeps in that which is within and         their way into the congregation, the preaching must
must remain in into eternity.                              be so positive that this carnal element cannot hold
     There are those who must be drawn in by the           out without exposing itself, and ultimately being
preaching of the Word, even though they are out-           placed outside the kingdom.
side. They are ,known of God as Jesus' sheep, elect          Finally, there are those within the church who
of God from before the foundations of the world,           also have a rightful place there, as is evident from
and redeemed by the precious blood of God's own            their hearty confession that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son, yet born and reared outside of God's church           Son of the living God. Since they are still imperfect
and covenant. For their sake the church receives           saints, they must always be warned against a sinful
the mandate to go out into all the world and to            walk of life. The preaching must keep them within
preach the gospel to all nations, for he who believes      the fold, causing them to grow in the grace and
and is baptized shall be saved. The great commis-          knowledge of Christ, into an ever closer commu-
sion is still the calling of God's church in the world,    nion with the living God. They are kept by the
amazingly evident in Singapore. That does not              power of God through faith, even unto the end, by
mean that God never uses the local church and              the powerful Word of Christ brought to them
ministry to draw His own unto Himself. Although            through His ambassadors.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                5



  The faithful servant of Jesus Christ is unto God a     them that perish (II Cor. 215). To God be the glory
sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in    now and evermore!
EDITORIAL


                   Seminary Convocation, 1984
                                             Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




  This year the Convocation of our Theological           Russell Dykstra, Steven Key, and Charles Terpstra.
School was at our Hudsonville Protestant Reformed        Back for his second of three years of training is our
Church, where a fair-sized audience was gathered         Singaporean brother, Jaikishin Mahtani. And in the
for the occasion. For several years now our              final year of his pre-seminary training is Mr. Mit-
seminary convocation has been a public occasion to       chell Dick. May our God bless our professors and
which the people of our Michigan area churches           students in the new school term!
are invited. It always proves to be an evening of          A surprise feature of the evening's program - a
spiritual enjoyment and edification, as well as an       surprise, that is, to me, because I knew nothing of it
evening of refreshment and encouragement for our         until I read the evening's program  - was the fact
seminary professors and students. I only wish            that the Theological School Committee prepared a
sometimes that more of our people could and              commemoration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of
would join us on this occasion.                          my ordination as Minister of the Gospel and the
  It was Prof. Hanko's turn to deliver the convoca-      twenty-fifth anniversary of my installation as Pro-
tion address this year. It was an address to which       fessor of Theology. At the request of the TSC, I
all our churches and people may well take heed. In       have included an account of this surprise commem-
order that you may do so, a transcript of his address    oration, a transcript of the presentation  - remarks
will be found elsewhere in this issue.                   of the Rev. Lubbers, of the letter from the  Con-
  As usual, it fell to me as Rector to intro&me our      sistory of Doon, Iowa, and of the remarks made by
students. There were no new students to introduce.       Mr.  Menno Smits as representative of the  Con-
Besides, there was a reduction in our student body,      sistory of South Holland, Illinois.
due to the fact that the Free Reformed students are        I take this opportunity also to express publicly
no longer with us, having transferred to Calvin          my hearty thanks and appreciation for this kind
Seminary. We have three seminarians who are              and encouraging gesture to the Theological School
beginning their third year of training: Messrs.          Committee and to all who had a part in it.




                           Seminary Convocation

                     Thirty-Five Years of Faithful Service

  On September 5 we celebrated the fact that it          formed Church. This represents many years of the
was thirty-five years ago that Prof. Homer C. Hoek-      faithfulness of our covenant God, both to brother
sema was ordained  inUo the ministry of the Word         Hoeksema and to our churches. The Theological
and Sacraments in our  Doon, Iowa Protestant  Re-        School Committee felt that this anniversary date


6                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



should not pass by unnoticed, not for Prof.  Hoek-          schism in Classis  West. Later in South Holland, too,
sema's and-his dear wife's sake, but above all for          the matter of faithfulness to the Reformed faith was
the sake of the Lord Who gave strength, courage,            tried. And the bottom-line was ever and anew:
and faithfulness.                                           what hath God wrought!
     To God be the glory!        -                            Both the Consistories of Doon and South Holland
     It was on the evening of September 5 that many         were requested to be represented at this time in
brothers and sisters met for the Convocation pro-           Hudsonville Church.
gram of a new school year of our Seminary. A good             All in all, it was a fitting evening, a joyous occa-
and profitable program was rendered and enjoyed             sion. We returned to our homes in the confidence
by those present in the Hudsonville Protestant Re-          that hitherto the LORD has helped us, and that as
formed Church. Prof. Hanko gave the convocation             the faithful God He will continue to be with us.
address, the students were introduced, and the                Our prayer is that the LORD may continue to use
school and the professors, students, and Theolog-           Professor Hoeksema, as well as our other Pro-
ical School Committee were commended to the                 fessors, in the years to come for the teaching of
faithful love of God in prayer.                             young men to preach the Reformed faith, so that in
     However, there was a special number on the pro-        future generations faithful men may stand in God's
gram. The Theological School Committee had pre-             church, holding forth the Word of life.
pared a beautiful plaque in honor of Prof. Hoekse-            God Who entrusted the Word as a trust to the
ma's commemorating thirty-five years of service in          church of the ages is able to keep this trust unto the
our churches. Ten of these years, 1949-1959, were           day of the Lord.
years which were devoted to labors of love in the
churches at  Doon, Iowa and South Holland, Il-                He is faithful Who has promised!
linois. There were years of "sturm and dranq"; they                             -Theological School Committee
were the years of trouble and stress; these were the                                 per Rev. George C. Lubbers
years when the souls of men were tried. Often such          P.S. The actual dates were October 13, 1949 at
days of stress bring out the best in God's servants as      Doon and September 4, 1959 at the seminary. HCH
well as the worst. Such was the service of Prof.
Hoeksema in  Doon, during the days of the actual


         Presentation of Plaque to Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema

     Brothers and sisters in Christ, Students and             Full well we know that the final, complete, and
Faculty Members, Members of the Theological                 adequate reward for God's faithful ministers will
School Committee, and Consistories of Doon, Iowa            not be here on earth; neither is it in the domain of
and South Holland, Illinois:                                any man or woman adequately to judge of the value
     Tonight we have the happy occasion of recogniz-        of the service performed by any faithful steward.
ing the goodness and the tender mercies of the Lord         However, we do know that it is sought in a steward
over His church, as represented in our Protestant           of the Lord, a mere under-rower of Christ, that he
Reformed Churches in America, in granting us a              be found faithful. It is only in the grace of God that
faithful servant, Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema.                  any man may serve in an office in God's church.
                                                            Truly, these offices are very beautiful in the sight of
     This year of 1984 numbers thirty-five years of         God; they are full of prophetic and priestly beauty.
uninterrupted service and ministry in God's                 They are God's offices, and it is His work which a
church, the church which is the pillar and ground           servant of the Lord is called to perform.
of the truth.                                                 We commend Professor Hoeksema lovingly unto
     I feel not a little honored to be requested to make    the day when each steward shall receive a reward
these remarks, and presently to hand to Prof. Hoek-         according to his work. It will be a reward of grace
sema the tasteful and fitting plaque which the              for labors performed by grace, and that, too, unto
Theological School Committee has prepared.                  which Christ alone can and does enable His ser-
     Tonight we remember gratefully that Prof. Hoek-        vants to perform faithfully unto the very end. Paul
sema served ten years in the ministry in the respec-        does not say for naught that he has constant thanks-
tive churches of Doon,  Iowa and South Holland, Il-         giving to Christ, Who enabled him, accounting him
linois, and twenty-five years in our Seminary.              faithful, placing him in the ministry.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             7



  May Prof. Hoeksema, together with the other                        of Students for the ministry
Professors, continue to be strengthened, in order                               1949-1984
that they may be able to say, "I can do all things                  Theological School Committee
through Christ Who strengthens me."                         Protestant Reformed Churches in America
  We believe it fitting and proper that we extend to
Prof. Hoeksema a special token of our gratitude to        And now I have the honor in the name of the
God and as an expression of our appreciation for        Theological School Committee of the Protestant Re-
his many labors a plaque which reads as follows:        formed Churches to present this plaque made
                   Faithful Service Award               specially for this occasion. The artwork is from the
                        Presented to                    hand of sister Terri Gleason, the beautiful oak
                   Homer C. Hoeksema                    background is from the hand of one of the brethren
                    for Devoted Service                 in our churches. Heartfelt thanks to both.
                   in the Gospel Ministry                 I ask Prof. Hoeksema to step forward and receive
                    And in the Training                 this plaque.


          Transcript of Letter from the Consistory of Doon

Dear Prof. H.C. Hoeksema,                               most of our recent Pastors received from you in
  It was with great joy that we accepted the invita-    seminary. We believe that our churches have
tion to send a word of congratulations upon your        received pastors able rightly to divide the word of
thirty-fifth anniversary in the ministry of the Word    truth. In no small way we are indebted to you,
of God. We give thanks to God for His grace to us       though not to you only, for exegetically biblical and
through your faithful labors on behalf of the gospel    confessionally sound sermons proclaimed from our
of our risen Lord. The Scriptures instruct us that      pulpits throughout our denomination. The Lord has
the living Lord Jesus gives to His church, which is     used you for the cause of truth and righteousness in
found in a world of sin and unbelief, pastors and       our midst. May Jehovah, our God, be praised.
teachers for the perfecting of the saints. Therefore    Finally, we conclude this word of congratula-
we have and do now receive you as a gift of God to      tions by considering our need in the future. We all
us and to all our churches.                             know and thankfully acknowledge that no mere
  We fondly recall your labors among us as our          man is indispensable. But we know too that God
Pastor in  Doon, Iowa. God used you to give us a        uses the means of earthen vessels to accomplish
clearer understanding of and greater appreciation       His purpose in Christ Jesus. May the Lord, there-
for the truths of God's covenant with believers and     fore, continue to give you health and strength of
their seed and the glorious truths of sovereign         body, stamina and vigor to perform your many
grace. Your pointed, incisive instruction in the        responsibilities, and, above all, the graces of faith-
principles of the gospel, both in the preaching and     fulness to His word, humility before God, and love
the catechism room, gave our small, struggling con-     of Him in Christ Jesus.
gregation the spiritual strength necessary to             We need to hear your voice of leadership in the
persevere in a most difficult time. We remember         churches. May our God bless us by giving you
well the troubles and tensions of 1953. We thank        several more years of service in the Protestant Re-
God that our then-youthful pastor was a tower of        formed Churches in America, which churches we
strength for us and for  Classis West, which body       love.
experienced that unfaithfulness permeated its min-                      In the love of Christ Jesus,
isterial ranks.                                                           The  Doon Consistory
  The consistory of the  Doon congregation ex-                   (w.s.)  Rev. M. Kamps, President
presses our indebtedness to you for the training of                      Jim Hoogendoorn, Clerk

            The Standard Bearer makes a thoughtfil
                            gift for the sick and shut-in.


8                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



                      Transcript of Remarks by Menno Smits

     The Council of the Prot. Ref. Church of South          many years in the training and instruction of young
Holland extends its greetings and wishes to  con-           men for the ministry.
gratulate,Prof. Hoeksema on his 35 years of service           We pray that God may continue to use Prof.
in our denomination.                                        Hoeksema for this important task, and through his
     He served 10 years as pastor, six of those years in    teaching, along with the other professors, prepare
Doon,  Iowa and four years in South Holland; and            men faithfully to proclaim, defend, and preserve
now tonight we commemorate his 25th year as pro-            God's Word as has been revealed to us, until the
fessor in our seminary.                                     coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
     It is with gratitude in our hearts that we give          Let us continue to pray for the professors and
thanks to the Lord for using Prof. Hoeksema these           students in our seminary. Thank-you.


             Speech - Our Seminary and the End of the Age

     Introduction.                                            Thus, in Scripture, the darkness which charac-
     Although my speech tonight, in a general way, is       terizes the night is synonymous with sin and guilt,
based upon Romans 13:11, 12, it is not my purpose           moral corruption, and perversion, evil in all its
to give a detailed exegesis of this text, nor to preach     forms, and death. Light, on the other hand, is a
a sermon on it.                                             figure of holiness and righteousness, moral purity
                                                            and sanctity, goodness in all its forms, and true life.
     It is rather my purpose to discuss with you, in
the light of this passage from God's Word, our need           The night came into this world with the fall of
for students in the Seminary. This need is critical,        Adam and Eve, for then the world came under the
not for the Seminary so much, but for the churches          direction and control of Satan who comes from the
in which God has given us our particular calling to         darkest regions of hell to lead men away from God
labor on behalf of His kingdom. It is not our well-         and to make this world his empire. He represents
being, the welfare of the Seminary that is at issue; it     all that is of darkness, for he comes with the lie and
is the welfare of the churches of which you all are a       with every manner of sin. Man dwells in this dark-
part. This need does not seem to me to be recog-            ness because he has forsaken God and given him-
nized sufficiently among us, and it is for this reason      self over to Satan's rule. All his works are charac-
that I wish to speak a bit about it.                        terized by darkness, i.e., by the lie and by the
                                                            works of evil. As this sin develops in the human
     Although there are different interpretations of        race through the conquering of the powers of the
this text given among commentators, it seems clear          creation and the subjection of them all to sin, the
on the very surface  of  it that the Scriptures are         night of this world's history grows ever darker. The
speaking here of the end of the world in relation to        darkness of hell pervades history, for the prince of
its present history.                                        darkness rules.
     However, this idea is presented in somewhat              But God does not surrender the rule of the
figurative language, in terms of a contrast between         universe to Satan. He rules supreme in all that He
day and night. The present history of the world is          does. God causes the light to shine in this world of
compared with the night, while the age that shall           darkness, though sometimes it seems to us as if it
come when our Lord appears is compared with the             shines very feebly and is all but extinguished.
day.                                                          That light is principally Jesus Christ, of Whom
     This figure is not strange by any means to Scrip-      John says, "He was the true light." Christ is the
ture. When Scripture makes use of it, Scripture             true light because He is the very Truth of God in
refers to the day and night as moral-ethical ideas          this world of the lie. He is the Holy One, the
rather than merely chronological concepts. In fact,         perfectly righteous One, Who was Himself holy
it is not to say too much to insist that God originally     and Who accomplished all holiness and righteous-
created the day and the night as figures of the             ness by His death and resurrection. It is through
spiritual day and the spiritual night, the latter of        Christ that we are also the light of the world.
which came when sin entered the world.                      Through Christ, God has given His truth to us,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   9



which truth has given us Christ's holiness and             in this respect too that we have a calling: a calling to
perfect righteousness. In this all-pervasive               gather the lost sheep of the house of Israel through
darkness, the church shines as light. It may be a          our Domestic Mission program, and a calling to
flickering light sometimes; it may even appear to go       maintain and defend the truth, something which is
out completely; but it is there, shining by the power      particularly important within the established
of Him Who is the true light.                              church.
   Nevertheless, the church continues to live in the         It is through these labors that we are called to
midst of this darkness. And, just as day follows           witness to the light. And the nearness of the end of
night in creation, so also it is in the history of the     the night and the coming of the day gives urgency
world. The night of sin and death goes on, and the         to this. It never really ceases to amaze me that we,
day will not dawn until our Lord comes back again          in this country, live in a time when we can be busy
to bring in the everlasting day, where there shall         with these things without interference and harass-
never be night. It is to that day that the people of       ment. We still have freedom to worship our God ac-
God look forward in longing and expectation.               cording to the Scriptures; we still are able to
   But the history of this world serves the coming of      educate our children in Protestant Reformed
the day of Christ, just as the night serves the com-       schools; we still are able to send out missionaries in
ing and glory of the day. And it is for this reason        this land and abroad to be a means through whom
that God's people, representatives of the light, give      God gathers His elect; we still are able to defend
testimony and witness to that light in their life here     and develop the truth as it is taught in God's Word.
in the night.                                                But the fact remains that the night of sin, the
  It is of that testimony to the light that the apostle    darkness of sin, becomes increasingly black, and
speaks primarily in this text. And he gives urgency        the time is near when we will be able to do these
to that by calling attention to the fact that the dawn-    things no longer. Thus there is an urgency about
ing of the new day is not far off. He reminds us that      our calling, which nothing can minimize, to use the
the night is far spent and the day is at hand. There       time God has given us for this purpose before the
are no rays of light penetrating the eastern horizon       night apparently swallows up the light altogether.
as yet; indeed the night grows ever darker. But              It is clear from all I have said that at the heart of
everyone knows that it is darkest just before dawn;        our calling to walk as children of the light is the
and the very darkness of the night expresses exact-        calling to be busy in the preaching of the Word. It is
ly the fact that the night is far spent and the day is     in this way that the gospel is brought to the church
at hand.                                                   and on the mission field. It is in this way that the
  To give urgency to this, the apostle even reminds        truth is preserved and maintained while the dark-
the people of God that the day of their salvation is       ness of the lie becomes more intense and im-
nearer than when we believed. The passing of the           penetrable. It is obvious, therefore, that if we are to
night must not be measured in long and incompre-           be faithful to our calling in this respect, we are to
hensible periods of time, but in matters of days, or       do all in our power to preserve the ministry of the
weeks. Though we believed a short time ago, the            Word among us. And this means students in our
dawning of the day is nearer than then. Each day of        Seminary.
our life of faith brings us nearer that day.                 The fact is, however, that we are not receiving
                                                           very many. I would like to have you consider for a
  That this is true in our times cannot be denied.         moment just a few brief facts. At present we have
The signs of Christ's coming are very clear and un-        three vacant churches who are calling and five
mistakable. We cannot mention them all tonight,            students, four of whom are in the Seminary and
nor need we. There are only two or three, related to.      will graduate, the Lord willing, in another two
what I have to say tonight, to which I call attention.     years. Of these four, one is committed to the work
  A sign of the coming of the day is the preaching         in Singapore. If there would be students starting
of the gospel in every land. This has happened in          college this fall with a view to coming to Seminary
our day, and God has given to our churches a part          (and I do not know of any) it would be 1992 before
in that work. Through the work of missions we              they would graduate. By that time several of our
labor in Singapore, Jamaica, and Africa, places            older ministers will be nearing retirement or will
where the gospel is relatively new.                        already be retired. And, during this eight years,
  Another sign of the return of Christ is the              under God's blessing, we can look forward to the
apostasy which characterizes the "church" world            establishment of new congregations. This all points
of our day. It becomes increasingly severe as more         to a severe and critical shortage of ministers to
churches depart from the faith, and the movement           carry on the work.
to false doctrine gains speed and momentum. It is            Why is it that we have such a shortage of


10                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



students? I have talked with others about this, some          and concern for studying. While there are still
who are teachers, some who are my colleagues in               students who are conscientious in their work and
the ministry, and some who are people occupying               who apply themselves to their studies, the number
the pews. The reasons that are given are these,               of them is markedly decreasing. The desire for
which I want briefly to mention and discuss with              learning, studying, mastering material is on the
you.                                                          wane. The ones who apply themselves are consid-
      In the first place, it has been pointed out that, up    ered odd. The chief concern of a growing number of
until a short time ago, all our churches were filled          students is in having a good time, playing sports,
and there were no vacancies. This has a way of dis-           earning money, and not in hard-nose study. This, of
couraging students because they tend to wonder if             course, has a lot to say about our homes, for the
there will be a place for them when they graduate             students in school reflect the homes from which
from school.                                                  they come. And this leads me to yet another point.
      Now, this is, of course, a matter of faith.                There is, I am told, and the evidence seems clear,
Although there have been times in the history of              a gradual decline in interest in the things of God's
our churches when all the churches had pastors,               kingdom. In a recent sermon on the text: "But seek
there has never been a time when graduates from               ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous-
our Seminary had no place. I was in Seminary in               ness . . . , " Prof. Decker made some imortant points
such a time, and was told more than once that it              on this subject. A general spiritual malaise charac-
was foolish for me to continue my studies since               terizes many of us because we become increasingly
there was no place for me in the churches. But                engulfed in the materialism and carnality of our
before I started my second year, the split in 1953            times. The ministry requires sacrifice and will re-
came and there were so many vacant churches ask-              quire more such in the future as the night grows
ing for help that I could not even go to school very          darker. As respect for and interest in God's Word
much during my second year.                                   declines, there is also a decline in the respect in
                                                              which ministers were once held. They are often
      This is all, I said, a matter of faith. Jesus' words    subjected to scathing criticism and constant
are always true: "The harvest is plentiful, but the           reproach. To give one's life to the ministry under
laborers are few." When God calls to the ministry,            these circumstances is considered too great a
God calls knowing the work the one He calls will              sacrifice to make. And the spiritual strength to
have.                                                         make it is too great when worldliness has sapped
      In the second place, I have been told that the          our spiritual interests and resolves.
high academic standards of the Seminary are a bar-
rier to students. Because the demands of the                     The answer to this lies, of course, in the admoni-
Seminary are so great, students are hesitant to               tion of the apostle: "It is high time to awake out of
enter, fearing they might not succeed.                        sleep. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put
                                                              on the armor of light."
      This is, of course, a difficult matter for me to
discuss, for I am on the inside. But a couple of                 We stand, I am convinced, at a crucial stage in
remarks can be made in this connection. The first is          our history. In many respects the future strength
that I doubt whether any of our people who are                and well-being of our churches is to be decided in
seriously concerned about the heavy responsibil-              the next few years. And, while there are many con-
ities of the ministry are interested in a mediocre            siderations which enter into this whole matter,
minister, who has been only shabbily trained. The             none can deny that a strong ministry lies at the
tendency in our day in Seminaries is to make                  heart of the strength of our churches. But we will
studies easier and easier. Neither you nor I want             have no strong ministry if we have no ministry at
this to happen in our school. In the second place,            all.
however, I do not really think this is true. I do not            The responsibility for all this rests upon us all. It
think that the standards of the Seminary are any              rests upon our pastors, our consistories, our homes.
higher than when I went to school and studied                 It rests upon you and me. Let us be earnest in
under Revs. Hoeksema and Ophoff. The fact is that             prayer that the Lord of the harvest will send forth
any average student, provided he is willing to study          laborers into His vineyard. And may our gracious
and work hard (as he will have to do all his life if he       God be pleased to hear and answer our prayers.
is a conscientious minister) is able to "make the
grade" in school. But, in the third place, this brings
me to another point which has been made especial-                           Read and Study
ly by our teachers.                                                    The Standard Bearer.
      Concerned teachers have told me that they find
within our schools an increasing lack of interest in


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               11



THE DAY OF SHADOWS



              Shameful, Unvarnished Fatalism
                                               Rev. John A. Heys




  If any lingering doubt remains as to whether            had angered an enemy of Israel. And, although he
Esther and Mordecai were believing children of            did not see it that way, it seemed as though the seed
God, or manifest unbelievers, the fourth chapter of       of the serpent was about to crush the head of the
the Book of Esther should remove all doubt and            seed of the women. A critical moment in the
reveal to us that they were indeed unbelievers who        history of the Old Testament Church has arrived!
will not confess the God Who brought up His peo-             But let us turn our attention for a moment to the
ple out of the land of Egypt and Who gave rich pro-       king and his policies that differed so from those of
mises to Abraham and his seed.                            Jehovah to whom Mordecai should have gone in
  Mordecai's reaction to the published decree of          confession of his sin, and for help in this dire pre-
the king, that all the Jews in the provinces of his       dicament which he had helped create. None might
kingdom were to be destroyed, was to tear his             enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
clothes, put on sackcloth with ashes, and in the          The king's life must be made as happy as humanly
midst of the city to cry with a loud voice and a bit-     possible. All manifestations of deep sorrow and
ter cry. And it is to be noted here already that his      grief must be kept from his eyes. He must not hear
first thought was not of going to God in prayer. In       the moaning and wailing of those in distress. He
fact, we shall see that this was never in his thoughts    must live in a very unreal world, sheltered as much
- not even when God saved the Jews through an             as possible from the curse that undeniably is on the
amazing turn of events. Instead he went to play           earth.
upon the emotions of the people. Therefore he                It was not  Haman's decree that one in sackcloth
went into the midst of the city where the greatest        might not enter the king's gate. He was not trying to
group of observers would be found. For that reason        keep the Jews from playing on the king's emotions,
he cried wth a loud voice to reach out as far as he       or to seek reprieve and a disannulling of the decree.
could. To try to move the populous he made a bitter       The laws of the Medes and the Persians are not
cry. His sackcloth and ashes revealed him to be in        altered. Of that we read already in Esther 1:19. We
deep mourning and showed how much it grieved              read of it three times in Daniel 6:8, 12, and 15. No,
him that all the Jews in the kingdom were to be           this rule that no one wearing sackcloth might come
destroyed.                                                into the king's gate was in effect long before this
  He came, we read, even up to the gate of the            decree that Haman succeeded in getting the king to
king's palace with his lament and in that sackcloth       make, namely, to destroy all the Jews in his king-
with ashes. And although he could not enter to            dom.
bring his lament to the king's ears, he came as close        But note the tremendous difference. He Who is
as he was allowed.                                        the King of all creation welcomes the cries of His
  To be sure the other Jews in the kingdom were           covenant people in all their sorrows and griefs.
also deeply disturbed and filled with great fear.         Does He not tell us to cast all our cares upon Him,
They had at best only a year to live; and then their      with the assurance that He cares for us? (And real-
children could not carry on where they left off but       ly, if we can cast them upon Him, they were not as
would likewise be killed. Their generation was            big and heavy as we imagined, for to His own He
about to cease; and there would be no generation of       gives the grace to do exactly that.) And does He not
Jews after that! Yet understandably Mordecai felt         counsel us in Psalm  50:15, "Call upon me in the
the sting more than any other Jew. For he had occa-       day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
sioned this coming slaughter of his people by refus-      glorify Me"? Are not those who  labour and are
ing to bow before the king's right-hand man. He           heavy laden called to come unto Him with the


12                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



assurance that He will give them rest? What a King        of more understanding of her position. He tells her,
we have! What folly that Mordecai does not go to          "Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in
Him. To him that camrot help him Mordecai is not          the king's house, more than all the Jews." Not only
allowed to come. To Him Who alone can help him            does he remind her that her head is already in
he will not go. 0, the folly of unbelief!                 danger, even though she is in the king's house, but
                                                          he makes a veiled threat. For he adds, "For if thou
      But for the sake of His covenant people God does    altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall
set in motion events that will save His church and        there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews
whereby He will keep His covenant promises.               from another place; but thou and thy father's house
News comes to Esther, who also lived a sheltered          shall be destroyed: and who knowest whether thou
life in the palace away from all the sorrows and          art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" It
troubles in the kingdom. Her maids, however, get          is not at all impossible that he would himself have
news from outside and tell her how the Jews were          exposed her as a Jewess, if she does not try to save
fasting, weeping, and wailing, with many of them          his life and that of thousands of other Jews. The
lying in the streets in sackcloth and ashes. The tell-    secret is now out! Esther is a Jewess; and at least
ing blow was that Mordecai was doing all this at the      one chamberlain knows it. But it is quite safe; and
king's gate. And she feared for his life. Although he     subsequent revelation reveals that the king did not
was not her blood father, she loved him and ap-           hear of this until it came from Esther's own lips. As
preciated all that he had done in taking care of her      difficult as it was to appear before the king un-
from childhood onward, and in helping her get this
place of honor as queen of the land. And therefore        called, there was little possibility that this chamber-
she sent other clothing for him to wear. But he           lain would go to tell the king.
refused to receive it. Esther now sends one of her          At the moment we will not go into this matter
servants to find out why he behaves this way and          and will focus on Esther's response to this warning
what his problem is. Never had he behaved this            of Mordecai. She orders Mordecai to gather the
way before. Mordecai tells this chamberlain the           Jews together to fast for her, neither to eat nor
situation and gives him a copy of the decree to give      drink for three days, with the promise that after
to Esther, so that she could see the seriousness of       these three days she will go in unto the king with a
the matter.                                               request for her people, adding those words of
                                                          shameful, unvarnished fatalism. But before we
      But Mordecai did more through this chamber-         look more closely at those words, let it be noticed
lain. He charged Esther to go in unto the king to         once again the significant silence here, both on her
plead for her people and to seek to deliver them          part and on Mordecai's. God's name is not men-
from this threatened destruction. Esther in reply,        tioned. What is more, she asks for fasting while sig-
and again through the chamberlain, reminds                nificantly not adding "and praying." One would ex-
Mordecai that for anyone to come before the king          pect her to ask the Jews to pray for her as she ap-
uncalled for, and unto whom the king did not ex-          proaches the king, and not only for her but for all
tend the golden sceptre, was to expose oneself to         the Jews that their lives may yet be spared.
certain death. Mordecai was asking a very
dangerous deed of her. He was asking her to take            Now fasting when it is accompanied by prayer is
her life into her hands. And especially was this a        fine. But fasting divorced from prayer is worthless.
life-risking act now because the king had not called      You can do that merely to try to lose a few pounds
for her for thirty long days. Fickle man that he was,     of weight from the body. Prayer is the essential
he must have found some other woman, or have              thing in praying and fasting. Turn to Joel  2:12, 13
been so satisfied with the other virgins which were       where we read, "Turn ye unto Me with all your
steadily being brought in to him. And to force            heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with
herself upon him by appearing uncalled was a              mourning. And rend your heart, and not your
dangerous act to perform. The law called for the          garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." Pray-
death of such whom the king did not at the moment         ing is an act of the heart. Fasting is an act of the
wish to see. There was one law in regard to this, she     flesh, and without that act of the heart, the outward
tells Mordecai. And that means that there are no ifs,     failure to eat means nothing. It means no more than
ands, or buts, no exceptions to that rule, no fine        rending your garments and leaving your wicked
print and loopholes that would serve to save the life     heart intact. And there must be weeping over sin.
of these intruders. If the king judged one to be an       Otherwise the fasting is only an outward ritual with
intruder, if he did not approve and show this by ex-      no spiritual value whatsoever. And would not a be-
tending his golden ruling rod, death was inescap-         lieving child of God in such a desperate situation
able.                                                     urge prayer, and direct the Jews to approach the
                                                          God Who brought them up out of Egypt in a
      Now Mordecai becomes more emphatic, instead         similarly hopeless situation?


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               13



  More of this when we examine Mordecai's acts           minated!
of unbelief a bit more closely. Now we must look           What would faith have said? Listen to what
hard at those words of fatalism of Esther, namely,       Daniel's friends said to the king: "We are not care-
"If I perish, I perish." And I ask, "Is that the         ful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God
language of faith? Is this the way a child of God        whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burn-
would react in such a situation? Is that the speech      ing fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine
of one who has heeded the word of God quoted             hand, 0 king. But if not, be it known unto thee, 0
above from Joel? Is there any evidence of a rent         king, that we will not serve thy gods" (Daniel
heart here? Is there even a suggestion of turning to     3: 16b-18).  Applied here, Esther would have said, "I
God with her heart? Is there any committing of the       am not full of cares and anxieties (which is what
whole matter into His hands? Is there any confes-        `not careful' means) to go in unto the king though
sion of what we sing from the Psalm, `My hand is in      not called by him. If it so be, my God Whom I serve
Thy hand, Thou  carest for me'? Is there even the        is able to deliver me from his sword, and He will
slightest hint here that she has Jehovah, the God of     deliver me from the king. But if not, I have served
our salvation, before her and in her thoughts?"          Him faithfully in the interest of His church. And
  Unwittingly she spoke the truth. If she perishes       rather than perish, I will, as Asaph so beautifully
according to the law of the king, she would in the       stated it in Psalm 73, be led by His counsel and
full sense of the word everlastingly perish in the       afterward be received up into glory."
torment of hell! That is not what she meant                And mind you she speaks so fatalistically in spite
however. She meant that if she died because she          of the fact that Mordecai had suggested that she
appeared before the king without being called, and       came to the kingdom for a time like this, and that
because he did not feel inclined to extend his           deliverance would come from another place. God's
golden rod to her, that would be the end of her. By      counsel she did not think of, and that God ruled
"If I perish, I perish" she meant, "If I die, that is    even the hearts of kings to turn them  whitherso-
the end of me. It is all over." The word she uses is     ever He will (Proverbs  21:2). No,, there just is not
the same word that Haman used in Esther 3:9 when         the slightest hint of faith in God. We shall, the Lord
he requested the king to have it written that all the    willing, pursue this next time.
Jews were to be destroyed. They were to be exter-
FROM HOLY WRIT



        Believing All the Prophetic Scriptures
                                                 FIV)
                                               Rev. G. Lubbers




          The "Kingdom-Unchanged"                        ment in the light of the New Testament, nor is it
        Fulfilled in the New Testament                   the fruit of explaining the less clear passages of the
                                                         Bible in the light of the more clear passages of Holy
  Strange and unbelievable as it may sound in the        Writ, but it is the very teaching of Jewish  rab-
ears of the Reformed believer who believes all the       binism. The Jewish Targums, oral and written inter-
Scriptures, it is nonetheless a fact that  Dispensa-     pretations and paraphrases of the Old Testament
tionalism teaches that the Kingdom, spoken of in         prophecies, give this Premillennial interpretation.
the prophecies of the Old Testament, is in its very      In a footnote in Volume I, page 78, Dr. Alfred Eder-
essence a Jewish National kingdom. In this king-         sheim gives the following illuminating information.
dom the Gentile Christians do not share!                 The very understandably Jewish interpretation
  Yes, strange thus to teach! This is not a rightly      speaks of the  nationa  restoration and the future
dividing of the Scriptures, explaining the Old Testa-    glory of Israel in an exclusively Jewish sense. Not a


14                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



word is said about the future salvation of the Gen-                        can sum up briefly: that it speaks of the salvation
tile world. The futuristic interpretation which                            which the aged prophet has seen when he sees the
holds that the promises of Israel's restoration all                        forty-day old baby in the arms of Mary at the tem-
refer to the time of the future Millennium is cut out                      ple. This was at the occasion of Jesus being "pre-
of the same pattern as that of the teachers in the                         sented to the Lord" according to the law of Moses
Mishna.  The Mishna is the "whole of the oral law                          in Leviticus  12:1-8; it was the rite connected with
which had come into existence up to the end of the                         the "firstborn" son's being holy to the Lord  (Ex.
second century A.D." (Vol. V, page 2904,  The In-                          13:12, 15). This is the Savior, firstborn, in Whom
ternational Standard Bible Encyclopedia).                                  salvation is prepared before the face of all the peo-
      It is instructive, indeed, to notice the following                   ple of Israel. But this "people" is contextually both
from the pen of Edersheim: "It is worth while to                           the people out of Old Testament "Israel" and also
trace, how universally and warmly both Eastern                             of the "Gentile" world. Hence, it is first the Jew
and Western Judaism cherished the hope of Israel's                         and also the Greek; Japheth shall dwell in the tents
return to their own land. The Targumim have                                of Shem (Gen. 9:27). It will be such that Christ is to
repeated reference to it."                                                 be "the light of the nations and the glory of thy peo-
                                                                           ple Israel.' '
      In this connection we have the following foot-
note by Edersheim:                                                           What should not escape our attention is that the
         "Notably in connection with Exodus  12:42 (both  in               Holy Spirit is "upon Simeon"; this is not a mere
       the  Pseudo-Jon.   and  Jer.  Targum);   Numbers   24:7             personal confession of an aged Old Testament
       (Jer.   Targum);   Deut.   30:4  (Targum   Ps.  -  Jon.)  Isaiah    saint, who stands in the morning of the latter days,
       14:29;  Jeremiah   33:13;  Hosea   14:7;  Zechariah   10:6.         but this aged Simeon is a prophet, the mouthpiece
      It would be well worth the reader's time and ef-                     of God. -Do we not read in verse 26 of Luke 2 that
fort to look up these prophetic utterances in his/her                      "it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that
own Bible. For, as Edersheim affirms, "it cannot be                        he should not see death, before he had seen the
doubted, that in this respect the Targums  represent                       Lord's Christ?" And do we not read that "he came
the views of the Synagogue at the time of Jesus."                          by the Spirit into the temple" and being in that state
                                                                           of being led by the Spirit he uttered those memor-
      However, some good, solid Bible reading and                          able words concerning the Christ: His suffering,
study of the prophecies proves quite otherwise. It                         death, and the exaltation for the falling and rising
will prove that the restoration of Israel into their                       again of many in Israel? And would His crucifixion
own land was the beginning of the restoration of all                       at Calvary not be as a sword passing through the
the elect, both Jew and Greek, into a better coun-                         soul of Mary, as well as the "sign" of contradiction
try, that is an heavenly (Heb.  11:13-16). God is not                      by unbelieving members of the commonwealth of
ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac,                            Israel?
and Jacob, for He has prepared for them a city.
Such is the hope of Israel's complete restoration                            Now these words are a remarkable commentary
(Acts  1:6;  `3:21). This is not an afterthought on the                    of the Holy Spirit on His own words in Isaiah
part of God, but, as Peter says, they are the eternal                      49:6ff.
verities "which God hath spoken by the mouth of                               Let it be borne in mind that Isaiah  49:6ff was
the holy prophets since the world began"  (Idem                            written centuries before there was any Jewish
verse 21).                                                                 interpretation of these in the Mishnah and later in
                                                                           the Talmud. Both the Mishnah and the Talmud are
      Only by some clever exegetical juggling can one                      the products of men who did not believe that there
attempt to prove that the Old Testament Scriptures                         was salvation predicted in the Scriptures. Paul says
in their promises concerning the Restoration of                            such of these in Acts  13:27. Writes he, "For they
Israel, did not have the elect Gentiles in mind too as                     that dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because
being a part of the Israel of God, fellow-members in                       they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the proph-
the commonwealth of Israel (Eph. 2: 11-22).                                ets which are read every sabbath day, they have
      If we proceed on the exegetical principle that the                   fulfilled them in condemning Him." And this
Holy Spirit interprets His own Word, which He                              spiritual ignorance is perpetuated in the Jewish
spoke as the Spirit of Christ in the prophets in the                       writing after Christ in the Mishnah, Talmud, yea,
did  Testameni (interprets these later to the New                          also all the Jewish application of the law, as record-
Testament prophets) we have no problem in under-                           ed in their Halakah.
standing the somewhat less clear utterances in the                            They did not know the Scriptures and the proph-
Old Testament.                                                             ets, yea, did not know Moses' writing from
      We have such a notable case in the aged Simeon,                      Genesis to Deuteronomy. They did not know that
spoken of in Luke  2:29-32.  The essence of this we                        Jesus is the Lord of Glory (I Cor.  2:7, 8). The


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 15



reason? They have a vail of blindness over their            understand the clear and lucid teaching in Isaiah
minds. Even to this day, when unbelieving Israel            49:6ff.
reads the Scriptures "the vail is upon their heart"           Here we have but to believe and listen. And in
(II Cor.  3:14, 15).                                        that order, too.
  Now it ill behooves those who profess to believe            We desire to learn from this passage that the Ho-
in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, to perpetuate           ly Spirit indeed before preached the glad tidings
this erroneous interpretation which knew neither            that the Gentiles too should be saved by grace, and
Christ nor the "voices" of all the prophets! This is        should be justified without works of law (Gal. 3:8).
what premillennialism does, knowingly or un-                It was not a mere afterthought on the part of Christ
knowingly. Pray, may it be the latter.                      to turn to the Gentiles. It is Satan's lie that the Old
  But let us then attend to the prophecy in Isaiah          Testament prophecies did not speak clearly of the
49:6ff. It is good, at the outset, to notice that the       salvation of the church. Millennialism needs this
same "voices of the Prophets" are heard in Genesis          reconstruction of the prophetic teaching to main-
15:15 as well as in many passages in Isaiah. We             tain that salvation and the kingdom life is for
refer to such passages as Isaiah  405;  42:6;  46:23,       natural Israel in the literal land of Palestine.
30;  52:lO. Nor should we overlook the wonderful              In Isaiah 49: 1 we read a most wonderful exhorta-
gospel of Isaiah  25:6-8. We could call attention to        tion from the lips of the Servant of the Lord, Who
such wonderful Messianic Psalms as  22:22ff;                was called from the womb, from the bowels of His
87:1-7; and to others.                                      mother. The words, "Listen, 0 isles, unto Me and
  However, let it be observed that the Holy Spirit          hearken ye people from afar," is really the keynote
in one grand sentence in Luke 2:31, 32 gives us the         of all the prophetic utterances from Isaiah 49 till
key to the understanding of all the prophecies. The         Isaiah 57. It is as Dr. Young says in his commentary
Bible is then not any longer a closed, dark book; the       on this verse: "As the isles are to hearken unto Him
prophecies are then very lucid and clear. We then           so our attention is to be directed unto Him through-
can understand the burning hearts of the travellers         out this section."
to  Emmaus,  when Christ opened to them all the               It would seem that this prepares us for the world-
Scriptures, beginning at Moses, the Psalms, and all         wide proclamation of the Gospel. It anticipates and
the Prophets.                                               includes the words of Jesus to His disciples on the
  We cannot enter into a detailed exegesis of each          Mount of Olives, where in answer to the question
of the texts which we have quoted. It ought to be           of the disciples, "wilt Thou at this time restore the
clear that if Isaiah  49:6ff refers to the gathering in     kingdom of Israel?" Jesus answers and says, "It is
of the Gentiles, the islands of the sea, through the        not for you to know the seasons which the Father
instrumentality of Old Testament Israel, then this is       hath put in His own power, but ye shall receive
the teaching of the Bible. It is then the clear Biblical    power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you; and ye
hermeneutics of the Spirit of Christ. All we need is        shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and
one clear Scripture passage as the key to under-            in all Judea, and in Samaria,  and unto the uttermost
stand all Scripture passages. Notice what Jesus says        part of the earth" (Acts  1:6-8).
of this hermeneutical principle in Mark 4: 13. There          The kingdom, promised to David, is here given
Jesus, the infallible Teacher, says, "Know ye not           to his Son, Jesus Christ; it is the kingdom which
this parable? and how shall ye know all parables?"          was "near" when Jesus began to preach and to
The prophecies are not a hodge podge of contradic-          teach in His state of humiliation; it has come now,
tions, but the one interprets the other.                    in His state of exaltation at the Father's right hand.
  And so we can thus proceed with attempting to                                                  (to be continued)


                          The Standard Bearer makes an
                          excellent gift for any occasion.
                        As a thoughtful expression of your
                        concern, give the Standard Bearer.


16                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



                               II John - Walk in the Truth
                                                                            Rev. J. Kortering




      Having shown in his first epistle the significance                               the author of this second epistle.
of love as a power for true fellowship in Christ                                         The only question that does arise is his self desig-
Jesus, John deals in his other letters with the ap-                                    nation as, "the elder" (vs. 1 and III John 1). He does
plication of this guideline to two specific instances.                                 not identify himself by name. There is, however,
In this second epistle he emphasizes the need to                                       plenty of evidence to convince us that John could
hold to the truth and refuse hospitality to heretics                                   properly call himself elder. Peter called himself
who deny the true knowledge of Christ, but to ex-                                      elder (I Peter 5: 1) as well as apostle (I Peter 1: 11).
tend it to all who walk in the truth. In his third epis-                               The Greek word  pesbuteros   refers to someone ad-
tle he commends Gaius for his hospitality in the                                       vanced in age as well as an office bearer in the
gospel, but reprimands Diotrephes for his failure.                                     church. In both instances, John could properly be
Tenney, in his New  Testament Introduction,  explains                                  called elder. The early church recognized John as
this relationship as follows.                                                          the author of this second letter. True, the letter was
          The  smaller   epistles   deal  with  the  same   problems                   somewhat overshadowed by the larger first epistle
       (as  considered   in  the  first  epistle],   from  the  stand-                 (and perhaps some even considered II and III John
       point of church polity  and discipline.  I John says that                       as part of I John), yet the church fathers regarded it
       "they", meaning   the  adherents   of  the  false   doctrine,                   as an inspired letter and John as its author. The
       "went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they                         style, vocabulary, and subject matter easily identify
       had  been of  us, they  would  have   continued with   us"                      it with the first epistle.
       (2:9).  There had been a schism in some  of the church-
       es in which the errorists  had withdrawn  to form their                           Considering the closeness of the content of all
       own  group.  Some  of these,  however,  had become itin-                        three epistles, we may conclude that they were
       erant   teachers,  who   sought   to  gain  entrance  into                      written in close succession as far as time is con-
       smaller   churches that were immature and weak.  The                            cerned. The heresy mentioned-in First John contin-
       Second   Epistle   contains  warnings   against   them:  "For                   ues to be his concern in this epistle. They must walk
       many   deceivers   are   gone  forth  into   the  world,   even                 together  in truth,  reject all heresy, as well as those
       they  that confess  not that  Jesus Christ  cometh in  the
       flesh," II John  7. The church is warned  that  any such                        who advocate heresy. We place the writing of this
       teacher is not to be welcomed,  "for he that giveth  him                        letter within the decade A.D. 90-100, the same as
       greeting   partaketh  in  his  evil  works"   II  John   10,  11.               for First John.
          The  Third  Epistle   affords   one   or  two   interesting                  THE ELECT LADY
       insights   into   church  life  in  this  period.   Apparently                    We concluded that John wrote his first epistle to
       much  of  the  ministry  was   carried   on  by  itinerant
       preachers  who   made   periodic  rounds,   staying   a  little                 the saints of Asia Minor, especially the region of
       while with each group and holding  "protracted meet-                            Ephesus where the heretic Cerenthus lived. From
       ings"  in  private   homes.   Such  a  procedure  was   easily                  Ephesus the letter was circulated to others.
       susceptible  of  abuse  by  religious   racketeers,  who                          This letter is addressed to "the elect lady and her
       would  use  their privileges  to obtain a free living  from                     children, whom I love in the truth, but also all they
       the  people.   John   commended   Gaius   for  his  gracious                    that have known the truth" (vs. 1). Over the years,
       support   of them since they received no contributions                          various suggestions have been given to explain who
       from  the  Gentiles  to  whom  they  administered   (III                        this lady is. These suggestions break down into two
       John   5,  8).                                                                  groups. First, those who explain that this lady is a
THE AUTHOR AND DATE                                                                    real person, a leading lady in the churches of Asia
      There is no question, but that John, the Apostle,                                Minor, perhaps a resident of Ephesus. They suggest
brother of James and author of the gospel, is also                                     that her name might be  "Electa" (a proper name


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       17



from the word translated elect), or "Cyria" (a prop-             one another (vs. 5). Walking in love is expressed as
er name from the word translated lady), or that                  keeping God's commandments, the summary of
she is described simply as an elect lady without a               which is to love one another (vs. 6).
proper name at all. The other group understands                    3. As we walk in the truth, we must know how
"elect lady" as a figure of speech describing the                to deal with many deceivers (vss. 7-11). These de-
church itself as the spiritual mother of God's                   ceivers are identified as those who confess not that
children.                                                        Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. They are anti-
  Arguments have gone back and forth expressing                  christs (vs. 7). John exhorts us not to lose the work
reasons why one is to be preferred over the other.               that has been done by God, but to receive a full
In favor of an individual Christian woman and her                reward (vs. 8). It is so serious that, if we follow such
family are: 1. A symbolic interpretation is not indi-            error, we will lose  God;  if we remain faithful we
cated, it seems forced upon the text. 2. A distinction           possess both the Father and the Son (vs. 9). The key
is made between the lady and her children (vs. 1)                verses follow: if such heretics come to our houses,
and "all those who know the truth." If the lady is               we are exhorted to refuse them entrance and not
the church then all who know the truth would be                  give them the greeting of God's speed, for if we do
the same ones. 3. Both verses 5 and 13 refer to an               that we are partakers of their lie (vss. 10, 11).
individual in the singular, hence a godly woman.                   4. Conclusion and parting prayer (vss. 12, 13).
Arguments against an individual but in favor of                  He informs them that he has many more things to
spiritualizing are: 1. Electa was not a proper name              write, but he will wait until he sees them face to
in that day, though Cyria was. Yet there is no in-               face (vs. 12). Those with him send greetings, Amen
dication of her name. 2. The Scriptures in other                 (vs. 13).
places picture the church as a woman (Gal. 4:26). 3.             QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
The content of the letter is general, it hardly applies
to one lady. Also, would it not be strange, in that                1. Explain briefly the relationship between the
day especially, to address a letter to an unidentified           three epistles of John.
woman? 4. Plural pronouns are used in verses 6, 8,                 2. Review once again the error of rejecting Jesus
10, and 12 in which John identifies himself with the             Christ as come into the flesh. How was this error in
lady, hence the church is one. 5. III John verse 9               John's day preliminary to the many doctrinal con-
mentions a former letter to "the church." This epis-             troversies regarding the natures of Christ, His Per-
tle could be the one. Personally, it seems more con-             son, and His works that were to follow in the sec-
vincing to spiritualize "the elect lady" and make it             ond. and third centuries?
a description of the entire church. One hesitates to               3. Discuss the arguments for and against the
be too dogmatic about such things, however.                      "elect lady" of verse 1 as being a Christian woman
Whether he directed this letter to a Christian                   with her family. Are you convinced one way or the
woman and her family (which is entirely possible),               other?
or to the saints whom he calls elect lady and her
children, the end result is not different: it is intend-           4. How is this letter a brief summary of his first
ed by the Spirit to be read by the entire church and             epistle? Can you show this?
also for us. Ultimately, we are the "elect lady" no                5. Why are truth and love so closely related? Ex-
matter who may have been first intended.                         pand on this idea by considering other passages of
A BRIEF OUTLINE                                                  the Bible that deal with the subject of truth.
  As we outline this letter we must show how the                   6. As you reflect on verses 10, 11, what is meant
theme of walking in the truth is developed.                      by not receiving a heretic into your house (would
Throughout, the emphasis in on the TRUTH.                        this mean, do not discuss it with him at all, or does
                                                                 it mean do not socialize with him)? How does a per-
  1. His greetings (vss. l-3). He identifies himself             son bid another God-speed?
as the elder, and the recipient as the elect lady and              7. Try to illustrate the instruction of verses 10,
her children. Here he specifically points out,                   11 in our dealing with the Jehovah's Witnesses who
"whom I love in the truth" and others as "those                  come to our doors. What is the proper method in
that have known the truth" (vs. 1). His concern is               dealing with them on the basis of this passage?
for the truth's sake (vs. 2). He extends apostolic
greetings (vs. 3).                                          I                                                                I
  2. He exhorts us to walk in the truth (vss. 4-6).                    Remember a fkiend with a
He expresses joy in that he found her children                       gift of The Standard Bearer.
walking in truth (vs. 4,). This walking in truth is not
new; it is old and it is demonstrated in that we love


18                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH



                           The Return to Scripture -
                                            The Waldenses
                                                        Rev. T. Miersma



      Throughout the Middle Ages God always                       poor, and to follow Christ. Around the year 1170 he
preserved in the church a remnant who kept the                    made provision for his wife and daughters, the lat-
light of the gospel burning in the midst of the pre-              ter of whom entered a convent, and distributed his
vailing darkness. The Waldenses were such a                       remaining possessions among the poor. His desire
group. They were not, for the most part, learned                  was to live simply according to the literal com-
men or theologians. Originally they formed a group                mands of the gospel.
within the existing church, nor did they have any                   This desire led him to seek a translation of the
real desire to leave the church or to reform it. While            gospels and other parts of the Scriptures from the
their contribution to the history of doctrine is                  Latin into the common language of the people.
small, they did serve to a certain extent in prepar-              Then he, and those who found themselves in agree-
ing the way for a return to Scripture in the days of              ment with him went about from village to village,
the Reformation and are therefore worthy of our at-               preaching. In this he and his followers sought to
tention.                                                          follow directly the command of Christ to the
      The Waldenses derive their name from Peter                  apostles to go forth two by two, taking nothing with
Waldo, a prosperous merchant of Lyons, France                     them but the bare necessities of life. The name they
who lived in the latter part of the 1100s and prob-               took for themselves was "the poor of Christ." They
ably died around 1218. While little of his life is                sought, by their preaching, to spread the simple
known for certain, there are several things which                 precepts of the gospel among the people. As this
can be said of him. He was evidently a faithful son               movement spread it was resisted by the church
of the Roman church. In his day, spiritual piety and              which forbade them to preach. When the  Wal-
devotion were measured in terms of voluntary acts                 denses sought approval from the church authorities
of humiliation, pilgrimages, monastic seclusion,                  for their way of life and for their translation of the
and other outward acts of devotion. He therefore                  gospels, the church refused its consent.
who desired to live a more spiritual, religious, and                This rejection by the church authorities is under-
holy life would separate himself as much as possi-                standable. In the first place, the Waldenses were
ble from the material things of the world in order to             not ordained and sent to preach; they were laymen,
devote himself to spiritual contemplation and good                not officebearers. Although the church was techni-
works. This idea of a physical separation from the                cally correct, she passed over the real issue: that the
world was partially rooted in the Roman Catholic                  clergy themselves had neglected to preach faith-
idea that evil was found in material things, as well              fully the Word, and that those who were God's peo-
as in a lack of a clear understanding of the doctrine             ple hungered for His Word. In the second place,
of justification b y   f a i t h   w i t h o u t   w o r k s .    this preaching of the gospel, however simple in
Monasticism and celibacy were viewed as the high-                 form, stood as a threat to the whole structure the
est form of the religious life.                                   Roman church had built, as it was founded upon
      In this environment there were various avenues              human traditions and the commandments of men.
or ways of life open to laymen who were seeking a                 A return to the Word of God as the authority for
more meaningful spiritual life and a sanctified                   faith and life must necessarily undermine the
walk. It was such a desire which moved Peter                      whole Roman Catholic system of doctrine, of the
Waldo, under the instruction and counsel of a                     sacraments, of hierarchy, of popes, and with them
priest, to take literally the command to the rich                 the temporal power of the church. And so they
young ruler to sell all that he had, to give to the               were forbidden to preach, and when they refused


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               19



to stop, saying that they must obey God rather than       poor" emphasized the same ideas of poverty and
men, they were excommunicated, which at that              personal piety, but under the strict control of the
time also exposed them to punishment by the civil         church. This idea later found a home in the reli-
authorities. The movement, however, continued to          gious order of the Franciscans within the Roman
spread, from France into Italy, Austria, Germany,         church.
and even into Poland.                                       A second response of the church to this growing
  In addition to their preaching the Waldenses also       movement was to forbid laymen to possess copies
distributed and sold copies of the gospels and other      of the Scriptures. Heretofore the church had taken
portions of Scripture, and that in the common             no official stand on the matter, but at the Synod of
language of the people. This led to a greater             Toulouse in 1229, the Bible was officially removed
knowledge of the Word of God among the common             from the hands of the laity. All translations were
people and would also serve to prepare the way for        also denounced. The laity might only possess the
reformation.                                              portions of the Scriptures which were in use in the
  Despite being driven from the church, the               church's liturgy such as the psalter. the decree of
Waldenses continued their labors. Their zealous           this Synod was not a universal one, but it did set the
teaching and preaching of the Scriptures in the           pattern for the later Middle Ages, and it reflects the
common language could not be without effect. The          church's hardening in her position of removing the
group more and more began to question certain             Scriptures from the people.
doctrines of the church. In the first place, they em-       The church's primary response however was one
phasized the importance of preaching. This was at         of suppression and persecution. This persecution at
odds with the Roman church's emphasis on the sac-         first varied in degree and from place to place, but it
raments, particularly the mass, and the priority of       increased in severity as the influence of the  Wal-
these over the preaching. They also began to              denses spread. As early as 1212 some of their
challenge such doctrines as purgatory and prayers         number may have suffered martyrdom in  Strass-
for the dead. Positively, they began to assert, in an     bourg. In some areas of Europe they were able to
early form, the doctrine of the priesthood of             gain a considerable following, especially in
believers. The right of unfaithful clergy to function     Bohemia where the pre-reformer John Huss was to
in their office was also challenged by them. This in      arise. To counteract these developments the church
itself was indeed a serious threat to Rome, as many       established the Inquisition. The Inquisition was
of her priests lived in open fornication and concu-       organized by the popes and its purpose was the
binage.                                                   rooting out and destruction of heresy by means of
  While all this does not mean that the Waldenses         interrogation and threats under torture. While the
were true Protestants, yet, in their development          Inquisition was directed at groups other than the
they were heading in the direction of the Reforma-        Waldenses as well, they too fell victim to its
tion. Their movement was rooted chiefly in the            methods of torture,  .imprisonment, and execution
desire for personal piety and spirituality, while its     by burning at the stake. In the 1300s the Inquisition
doctrinal development stood in the background.            was sent to Bohemia, Poland, and Austria to root
Their simple approach to Scripture often led to a         out the Waldenses. In 1487, Pope Innocent VIII
definite lack of clarity in their views as well as to     called upon the king of France to set out on a
several serious errors. Some of their groups for ex-      crusade against the Waldenses in order to root
ample, taught that women also could preach. This          them out of the alpine valleys to which many of
was a confusion of the office of believer with the of-    them had retreated for safety.
ficial work of the ministry, a confusion which arose        In spite of these things the Waldenses survived,
out of the Waldenses' rejection of the authority of       and when the Reformation took place in the 1500s
the offices in the church. They also showed a             they appropriated it and its doctrine. It was then
tendency to drift into anabaptist and baptistic ideas     that they endured some of the fiercest persecution
and to reject infant baptism and the lawful oath.         yet to come upon them.
  But it was their emphasis on preaching and on             In the Waldenses therefore also is revealed the
the power and authority of the Word of God, and           fact that the way of the church's return to Scripture
their dissemination of the Scriptures to the people       would not be a way of peaceful Reformation, but a
which reserves for them a special place in the            way of suffering and death for the Word of God.
history of the church. These things the hierarchy of      For the church of Rome was more and more mani-
Rome could not tolerate. In attempting to deal with       festing herself as the false church. Only in the way
the Waldenses the church created an ecclesiastical-       of suffering would the yoke of tradition and false
ly approved counterpart to them from disaffected          doctrine be broken and the church reformed upon
members of their group. This group of "Catholic           the foundation of the pure Word of God.


20                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH



                           Our Reformation Heritage
                                                   Rev. Ron Cammenga



      The last day of this month will mark the 467th           is the truth of justification by faith alone. The
anniversary of the Reformation. The Reformation,               Reformation not only recovered the Bible, but it
dated from Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses on the            also recovered the central message of the Bible: jus-
chapel door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517,                 tification by faith alone. Rome had denied this
was a great work of God for the renewal of His                 truth. Rome had taught salvation by works, that
church. Prior to the Reformation, the church had               men must earn their salvation. Through his own ex-
departed from the truth of God. There were de-                 perience and from the study of the Scriptures,
partures in doctrine. Many serious errors were held            Luther came to see the error of this teaching. In its
and taught by the church. There were also depar-               place he preached the truth that salvation is of
tures in the Christian life. Ungodly and carnal liv-           grace. Salvation is not the work of man, but the
ing characterized both the clergy and the laity at the         work of God in Christ received by men through
time of the Reformation. The Reformation was the               faith alone. God, not man, must receive the glory
means of God to purify and reform His church. It               for salvation.
was such a reformation as called the faithful people
of God out of an apostate church in order to in-                 Thirdly, it was the work of the Reformation to
stitute the church anew.                                       restore preaching to its rightful place. The great
                                                               truth of justification by faith alone was a truth that
      We today are heirs of the Reformation and of the         had to be preached. By the time of the Reformation,
work of the Reformers. We are children of the                  preaching had all but disappeared in the church. In-
Reformation; the Reformers are our spiritual                   stead of preaching, the priests administered the sac-
fathers. The Reformation is our heritage. This ap-             raments. Not the preaching, but the sacraments,
plies to you young people. You young people are                and especially the Mass, was viewed as the chief
children of the Reformation. The heritage of the               means of grace and salvation. So little preaching
Reformation is YOUR heritage. It's a blessed heri-             was done that even the sacraments were admin-
tage, a glorious heritage, a priceless heritage. For           istered in a language that the people could not un-
this heritage you ought to be eternally thankful to            derstand. The Reformation restored preaching to its
God.                                                           rightful place in the church. The Reformers them-
      What is the Reformation heritage that is yours           selves were mighty preachers. In harmony with the
and for which you ought to be thankful?                        centrality of the preaching, the worship services of
      That heritage is, first of all, the Bible. The Refor-    the Reformed churches emphasized the preaching,
mation was the great means of God for the recovery             expository, doctrinal preaching.
of the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church had                      In the fourth place, the Reformation restructured
buried the Bible. The people were forbidden to                 the church itself. The offices and discipline of the
have and to read the Bible. Besides, Rome had                  church had been thoroughly corrupted in the
obscured the Bible with all her traditions and papal           Roman Catholic Church. An unbiblical form of
decrees that were exalted above the authority of the           hierarchy had been introduced, with an infallible
Bible. Instead of faith in the Word of God, the peo-           pope at the head. The office of all believers had
ple were exhorted to put their faith in the church.            been completely lost sight of. There existed almost
The Reformers reacted sharply to Rome's denial of              no conception of the proper work and calling of the
the central and exclusive place of the Word of God             officebearers. A cleavage was made between the
in the faith and life of the people. Through their ef-         clergy and the laity. The Reformation did away
forts the Bible was restored to the church.                    with this hierarchical form of church government.
      Secondly, belonging to our Reformation heritage          Especially through the labors of Calvin, the  Re-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                21



formed churches were restored to a presbyterian               For this truth you ought to be thankful. You
form of church government.                                  ought to be thankful that you have this heritage.
   In the fifth place, occupying an important place         God in His grace has caused you to be born to
in our Reformation heritage are our creeds. Particu-        believing parents. He has seen to it that you have
larly two of our creeds, the Heidelberg Catechism           been brought up in a Reformed church, in a church
and the Belgic Confession of Faith, are direct pro-         that stands on the Reformation. He has given you
ducts of the Reformation. For the sake of the unity         faithful instruction in the Reformed faith many
of the church, out of concern for the instruction of        years already, by your parents, in the church, at the
the youth, and to serve as a witness to the world,          Christian school. That the Reformation is your
the Reformation wrote creeds. In these creeds we            heritage ought to be reason for deepest gratitude on
have not only the essentials of the Reformed faith,         your part.
what it means to be Reformed, but we have also set            If you are grateful for this heritage, and to the
forth all of the fundamental truths of the Word of          degree to which you are grateful, you will use this
God. How useful to the Reformed churches have               heritage. This heritage is yours not simply to ad-
not the creeds been!                                        mire, but to use. Do you read and study God's
                                                            Word? Do you embrace with a believing heart the
   In the sixth place, the Reformation restored god-        truth of that Word? Do you faithfully hear and
ly living, and put the Christian life on its proper         receive the preaching of this truth? Do you partici-
basis. The Reformers renounced as the basis for the         pate in the life of the church and, through confes-
Christian life the attempt to earn salvation. Instead       sion of faith, in the government of the church? Do
they proclaimed as the basis for the Christian's life       you show a concern for a godly walk and separate
in the world gratitude, (3oratitude  for gracious salva-    yourself from those who do not? Do you avail your-
tion. The Reformers' emphasis on justification by           self of the Christian education that is yours, and
faith alone did not lead them to disparage good             already now do what you can to support the cause
works. Instead it was this very doctrine which the          of Christian education? Do you live a life of devo-
Reformation recovered that led the Reformers to             tion to the truth of God and to the church that
call God's people to a serious and devout Christian         maintains that truth? This is how we show our grat-
life.                                                       itude for our Reformation heritage and identify our-
   In the seventh place, the Reformation was instru-        selves as children of the Reformation.
mental in promoting and establishing Christian
schools. Christian education is part of our Reforma-          Grateful for this heritage, you will also defend
tion heritage. The Christian school movement that           and maintain it. This is not only your heritage to en-
flourishes among our own people rests on prin-              joy and from which to profit, but this is the heritage
ciples set forth by the Reformers. Luther once said:        that you are called to preserve for your children
                                                            after you. On every hand today the heritage of the
         When schools prosper the church remains            Reformation is being corrupted and sold. Every im-
         righteous and her doctrine pure . . . . Young      portant aspect of that heritage is under attack and is
         pupils and students are the seed and source        being denied today. More and more there is a
         of the church . . . . For the sake of the          movement back to the very conditions from which
         church we must have and maintain Chris-            the Reformation delivered God's people. The
         tian schools. They may not appear attrac-          Reformation heritage is despised and berated. As
         tive, but they are useful and necessary.           the children of the Reformation, you are called to
   Finally, it must not be overlooked that belonging        preserve your heritage. Maintain and defend it
to our Reformation heritage is also the example of          against every corruption, every denial, every at-
unswerving devotion to the truth which the Re-              tempt at compromise. Be concerned to pass that
formers give us. They were men who stood for the            heritage on intact to the coming generation.
truth, and who stood for the truth at a cost. They            A concern for the preservation of our Reforma-
were willing to pay the price, to make the sacrifice,
for the sake of the truth. They endured the.persecu-        tion heritage will also motivate you to continual
tion, gave up their earthly possessions, parted with        reformation. We must never take the attitude that
those who had been their friends and companions,            we have arrived. Nor must we suppose that the on-
for the sake of the truth. Many of them laid down           ly threats to this heritage of ours are the errors of all
their own lives for the truth's sake. What an exam-         of the other churches out there. The fact of the mat-
ple of steadfastness and of faithful  disciplieship!        ter is that the greatest threats to our Reformation
                                                            heritage are from our own selves, our own weak-
   This is our heritage. This is YOUR heritage,             nesses, our own sins, both as individuals and as
young people. What a heritage it is! It is the truth, it    churches. Love for this great heritage which is ours
is the gospel, it is God Himself.                           must express itself in our being Reformed and


22                                            THE ST-ANDARD BEARER



always reforming.                                           like Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Knox. May God
      We are grateful to God for what He has done and       preserve this Reformation heritage among us. And
what He has given us in the Reformation. We are             may we be used by Him for the propagation of the
thankful for what He accomplished through men               Reformed faith in all the world.


                                         Book Reviews

A PRIMER ON THE ATONEMENT,  By John H.                      is less than satisfactory. He fails to discuss the ques-
Gerstner; Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing              tion within the context of God's eternal counsel and
Company, 1984; 30 pp., $1.50 (paper). (Reviewed             finally solves the problem by distinguishing be-
by Prof. H. Hanko).                                         tween God's love of complacency and God's love of
      In his series of "primers" on fundamental doc-        benevolence. Such a distinction is not found in
trines of the Christian faith, Dr. Gerstner has done        Scripture and Gerstner offers no Scriptural proof
a valuable service to the church. The primers con-          for it.
tain clear and concise discussions on these points,            We recommend, however, this primer also as a
and they are, therefore, helpful to anyone who is           concise statement on the atonement.
coming to faith in Christ. They are, on the whole,
helpful tools for instruction.                              22 LANDMARK YEARS (CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
      This pamphlet deals with the central doctrine of      INTERNATIONAL,  3.943-65)  John A. Vander
the atonement, a crucial doctrine to say the least. It      Ark (Assisted by Gordon Oosterman); Baker Book
is, as others, written in dialogue form in which an         House, Grand Rapids, MI; 189 pp., $9.95 (paper).
"`inquirer,' who is an educated, thoughtful person,         [Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema]
becoming convinced of the truths of the Christian             This book is about the history of one period in
religion, though not yet converted to them," dis-           the existence of Christian Schools International
cusses this truth with "`Christian,' an experienced         (formerly the National Union of Christian Schools),
evangelical minister."                                      the 22 years from 1943-65. It is written by a man
      Various aspects of the truth concerning the           who was director of CSI from 1953-77. (For those of
atonement are discussed and various problems                our readers who were acquainted with the former
faced. Special attention is given to the particular         principal of Baxter Christian School in Grand
aspect of the atonement, i.e., to the truth that            Rapids, this is not the same John Vander Ark.)
Christ shed His blood for His people only.                    The book will be valuable, first of all, to anyone
      Nevertheless, this is not one of Gerstner's better    who is interested in the history and development of
primers. I was, in fact, somewhat disappointed in           CSI. There is much information furnished on this
it. I think there were especially three reasons why         subject, as well as on the Christian school move-
the book was disappointing. The first was that              ment in general. In the second place, the book is
Gerstner did not at all deal with the concept of            valuable from the point of view of the fact that it
"satisfaction," a concept which lies at the very            becomes abundantly clear in it what kind of organ-
heart of the truth of Christ's sacrificial work. This is    ization CSI is, i.e., a movement which is principally
quite surprising in the light of the fact that the          Christian Reformed in its outlook on Christian edu-
Westminster Confession (Gerstner's own confes-              cation.
sional commitment) speaks of this: "The Lord                  However, this book is not strictly limited to the
Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of            activities of CSI, but also reflects on other Christian
himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once           schools and Christian school movements. In a
offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of    chapter entitled "Relationships with Churches and
his Father. . . " (VIII, 5). Secondly Gerstner gets into    Colleges" reference is made to our Protestant Re-
the matter of the call of the gospel; and, while in         formed Christian Schools. However, in the three
this discussion, he is basically sound, he neverthe-        paragraphs devoted to Protestant Reformed schools
less uses the terms "call, " "offer," and "invitation"      (pp. 101-102) I noticed at least four errors of fact,
indiscriminantly. This is confusing, to say the least.      errors serious enough to affect the picture drawn of
Finally, the author deals at length with the question       our Protestant Reformed school movement. It is to
of how God or the Son of God can both love and              be, hoped that similar inaccuracy does not char-
hate the sinner at the same time. His treatment here        acterize the rest of the book. Nevertheless, I recom-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                23



mend the book for those interested in a reference           the exposition a series of "Homilies" which are
work on CSI.                                                specifically directed to the minister in his sermon
                                                            making.
LUKE'S THRILLING GOSPEL,  by Ivor Powell;                     The second goal of the book is to provide an easi-
Kregel Publications, 1984; 507 pp., $12.95. (Re-            ly read and non-technical exposition of the book of
viewed by Prof. H. Hanko).                                  Luke, which would make a helpful study guide to
      Ivor Powell, a Baptist minister from Wales, is a      anyone.
figure not too well known to American readers. He             While the exposition is fairly brief, the author, on
is the author of a number of books on Bible studies;        the whole, attains his goals. He is, generally, con-
this one was first printed in 1965 and is now               servative in his approach to Scripture, and his ex-
published by Kregel Publications.                           position is clear and to the point. In the judgment of
      The author has, as he explains in. his introduc-      this reviewer, the "Homilies" are not really all that
tion, especially two purposes in mind. His chief            helpful, but this is probably due to the fact that
purpose is to provide material for the minister who         Gerstner's concept of homiletics is quite different
is searching for flesh to put on the skeleton of his        from ours. And the book has a decidedly Arminian
sermon outline, but who in the press of all his other       slant to it, something which the reader must take
work simply cannot find time to locate such                 into account in his study. It is, however, a helpful
material. To attain this end, the author includes in        commentary in many respects.



                         News From Our Churches
                                                September 15, 1984


      On September 4, there was an officebearers con-       be going there, D.V., the end of September.
ference at Doon Protestant Reformed Church. Rev.              II . . . On August  19 two new elders were or-
G. Lanting gave a paper on "The History of Church           dained into office.
Visitation" and Rev. Kamps gave a paper on "The               I,
Evaluation of the Practice of Church Visitation                     . . . There is a real movement to unite all the
Among Us."                                                  religions into one, something the political leaders of
                                                            the country publicly talk about. A number of the
      The Theological School of the Protestant Re-          more liberal churches are just about ready to join
formed Churches held its Convocation, September             hands with heathen religion . . . . It seems to me
5, at Hudsonville Church. Prof. H. Hanko gave the           that the day could come very soon when those who
address on "Our Seminary and The End of Time."              dare to say that the Lord alone is God and Jesus
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema was also presented a plaque             Christ is the only Savior will be severely
commemorating his thirty-five years of faithful ser-        persecuted.
vice.  Doon Consistory sent a letter of congratula-
tions and South Holland Consistory sent a                     I, . . . We are still waiting for the approval of our
representative to congratulate Prof. Hoeksema.              change of use and building permit applications for
          who is for you a faithful minister of Christ"     Blair Road. So it will probably be quite a while
icbiossians   1:7).  ". . . the same (truth) commit thou    before we will be moving there . . . .  "
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others
also" (II Timothy  2:2).                                      Rev. Lubbers has a new commentary now for
                                                            sale beside his commentary on Galatians entitled
      Rev. Arie den Hartog writes from Singapore:
I,                                                          Freeborn Sons Of Sarah. The new commentary is on
      . . . I gave four messages on the (annual church)     Hebrews, and is entitled, GZory  Of The True Taber-
camp theme KNOWING GOD. In addition to this                 nacle.
there were discussion groups on a number of sub-
jects relating to Christian living . . . . We were very       Classis  West examined Candidate Ken Hanko
much impressed by the brethren from Trengganu               and advised Covenant Protestant Reformed
(Malaysia) who seem to be really taking hold of the         Church, N.J. to proceed with ordaining and in-
Reformed Faith. We thank the Lord for this. The             stalling him as missionary to Bluebell, PA. Congrat-
church there had once again asked one of our                ulations to Candidate Hanko!
Pastors to go up there to preach. So Pastor Lau will          The Congregation of First Church has decided to

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



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sell their East Paris property for the amount of                                                              an additional $5,000 to see them through this
$150,000 cash. First Church will decide on their                                                              academic year. If you would like to share in the
temporary meeting place soon. They will need a                                                                support of this important work, please make your
meeting place for about nine months, beginning                                                                check payable to South Holland Protestant Re-
around the end of November. A cash/pledge drive                                                               formed Church (Fund for Reformed Education in
for a goal of $50,000 appears possible to reach.                                                              Ulster) and sent it to: Mr. Jack Lenting, 17014
       While Rev. Bruinsma is getting ready for his                                                           Wausau Ave., South Holland, IL 60473. Mr.
labors in Jamaica, Mrs. Bruinsma is also getting                                                              Wassink's address is: 28 Hillmount Gardens,
ready to be her children's teacher through the                                                                Larne, County Antrimn, North Ireland  BT4OlTF.
Christian Liberty Academy by correspondence.                                                                            The Evangelism Committee of South Holland
       Rev. Haak received the call from Faith Protestant                                                      Church has arranged two public lectures in obser-
Reformed Church, Rev. Cammenga the call from                                                                 vance of Reformation Day this fall. Both will treat
Loveland Church, and Rev. Kamps from our                                                                      the Secession of 1834 in the Reformed Churches of
Lynden congregation.                                                                                          the Netherlands, the 150th anniversary of which is
                                                                                                             this year. The first lecture will be held in South
       The Committee for Reformed Education in                                                               Holland Church, Thursday, October 25 and the
Ulster set a goal of $13,000 for the financial support                                                       second will be held on the Northwest Side on Fri-
necessary to make Mr. Wassink's going to Northern                                                            day, October 26. The speaker at both lectures will
Ireland possible. The original goal was reached.                                                             be Prof. H.C. Hoeksema.                                                                                                         DH
However, several other expenses, notably the cost
of insurance for Deane and his family, will require

                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       The consistory of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church ex-
presses its sincere Christian sympathy to our fellow elder, Perlin
Schut, and his family, in the sudden death of his father, MR. HENRY
J. SCHUT. May we each be reminded again of the wonderful words
of our Lord, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it                                                      kEPoRL.ED   FREE  P"BLISHIAC   ASSOCIATIOB,                           BOX 6064, CRAliD  RAFLX, EI 49506
were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.                                                  EDlTOR ,N#mr*"d ComDlnc  W,hl Addrc`,,
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also" (John
14:1-3).
Rev. G. Van Baren,  Pres.
N. Brower, Vice All                                                                                                                             FULLNAME                                I                   COMsiETE  UAlLlNGAD0A6ll
                                                                                                                     -  FREE  PUBLISHING   ASSCCIATION,,  P.O.SOX   6064.  GRAND RAPIDS.  m  ,95"6
                                                                                                                 I                                                                      I                                                           I,
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                        I                                                                       I                                                          I
  The Ladies Aid Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
Church expresses its sincere sympathy to Gertrude Kuiper in the loss
of her husband, JOHN, whom the Lord called home July 21, 1984,
after many years of suffering.                                                                                  I                                                                  I
                                                                                                                I                                                                  I                                                               II
       "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not wor-
thy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us"
(Remans 8: 18).
Rev. G. Van Baren, Pres.
Mrs. Marian Kuiper, Vice Sec'y.


                  LEAGUE MEETING NOTICE!!!
       The Fall Meeting of the League of Eastern Men's and Ladies'
Societies will be `held, the Lord willing, on Tuesday, October 16,
1984, at 8:00 P.M. at the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church.
Members and friends are invited to attend.                                                                                                                                                         0                                    0

       Rev. Carl Haak will speak on the subject - "How To Be Effective                                                                                                                           1  0743                I       1.95c
In Personal Witness."
Gwen Van Kampen (Mrs. Joe)
Secretary


