              -The
     STANDARD'
                 EARER
              A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZI'NE                                           Y





     .  .  . For unto us a Child is born! Unto us a Son

     is given! His Name is Wonderful Counsellor!
     The Mighty God! The Everlasting Father!
     The Prince of Peace!
       Let Zion now rejoice, and all her children
     sing!
       For He has come! And He will surely
     come again before very long!
       To our salvation!
     See "The Birth of the Man-Child' '
                                                             - page 122


\                                                  4 Vol. LXI, No. 6,  tDecember 15, 1984  -


122                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD REARER
                               CONTENTS                                                                                      ISSN 03624692
                                                                                                  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: 
       The Birth of the Man-Child                                                                           Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122     Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga,  Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125         D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,. Rev. Ronald Hanko,
                                                                                       Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J.  Kortenng, Rev. George C.
  Correspondence and Reply  -                                                          Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                       ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
       About Partaking of the Lord's Supper. . . . . . . . .125                        Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
  The Spirit's Prayer for the Saints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126                                        4975 Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                            Grandville, Michigan 49418
  Book Review  -                                                                       Church News Editor:  Mr. David Harbach
                                                                                                                4930 Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
       The Reformation of 1834. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128                                          Grandville, Michigan 49418
  The Day of Shadows -                                                                 Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                       articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and questions for the
       An Initial Victory                                                              Question-Box Department are welcome. Contributions will be limited to  ap
                               . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129    proximately 300 words and must be neatly written or typewritten, and must be
                                                                                       signed. Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth of the month. All com-
  All Around Us -                                                                      munications relative to the contents should be sent to the editorial office.
       "How Shall We Disagree?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131                   Reprint Policy: Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                       magazine by other publications, provided: a) that such reprinted articles are
       Creation and Geology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133               reproduced m full; b) that proper acknowledgement is made; c) that a copy of the
                                                                                       periodical in which such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
  Bible Study Guide -                                                                  Business Office: The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                            Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
       III John - Christian Hospitality . . . . . . . . . . . . .134                                        P.O. Box 6064                             PH: (616) 243-2953
                                                                                                            Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
  Faith of Our Fathers  -                                                              New  Zealand Business Office:  The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                        c/o Protestant Reformed Fellowship
       TheNiceneCreed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..13 5                                                B. VanHerk,  66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                        Wainuiomata, New Zealand
  Guided Into All Truth -                                                              Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $10.50 per year. Unless a definite request
                                                                                       for discontinuance is received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
       The Legacy of Wyclif:  A Trail of Martyrdom . . .138                            scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order, and he will be
                                                                                       billed for renewal. If you have a change of address, please notify the Business
  The Strength of Youth  -                                                             Offioe as  earlv as oossible in order to avoid the inconvenience of delayed deli-
                                                                                       very. Include youriip Code.
       The Christian and Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140                 Advertising Policy:  The  Standard Bearer  does not accept commercial advertising of
  Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142           any kind. Announcements of church and school events, anniversaries, obituaries,
                                                                                       and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to
  News From Our Churches.                                                              the Business Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadline for
                                          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143     announcements is the 1st or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the
                                                                                       15th or the 1st respectively.
                                                                                       Bound Volumes:  The Business Office will  acce t standing orders for bound
                                                                                       copies of the current volume; such orders are  rlled
                                                                                                                                              P     as soon  as  possible after
                                                                                       completion of a volume. A limited number of past volumes may be obtained
                                                                                       through the Business Office.

MEDITATION



                              The Birth of the Man-Child
                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko



                  A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth
               recompence to His enemies.
                  Before ske travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-
               child.
                  Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring
               forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought
               forth her children.                                                                                                            Isaiah 66:6-8


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                123



       A voice!                                               before the eager gaze of the prophet.
       A voice from the Holy City, proceeding from the          He saw if afar off. But he saw it! It would surely
     temple!                                                  come to pass! And it did! In the fulness of time our
       The voice of Jehovah declaring glad tidings, as a      Lord Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary!
     call to worship, even while it struck fear in the          We can never fathom the wonder of the virgin
     hearts of God's enemies, like rumblings of thunder!      birth!
       Hear the word of the Lord!                               Before she travailed, she brought forth. Before
       All ye who tremble in reverence at His word!           her pain came, she was delivered of a Man-child!
       In prophetic vision Isaiah hears the voice, and          Not as if Mary experienced a painless delivery.
     sees people streaming from all directions toward         The emphasis falls on the wonder of Jesus' birth.
     Jerusalem and the temple to discover the occasion        We were not co-workers with God in bringing forth
     for this amazing voice.                                  the promised Seed. We added nothing. God sent
                                                              His only begotten Son into the world, born of a
       What they see exceeds their fondest imagination.       virgin. Honesty requires that we confess that if this
       A woman, whose name is Zion, sits in the tem-          birth in any way depended on us, it would never
     ple, and there, suddenly, unexpectedly gives birth       have happened. We did all we could to prevent it.
     to a Man-child. A Baby Boy!                              Jesus was born out of the dead root of David, as'life
       Before anyone can comprehend the wonder of             from the dead. He was the Holy One, by a wonder
     this amazing birth, another child is born, and           of grace brought forth from an unholy, sinful
     another, and still another, until a whole nation is      ancestry.
     born, the land is covered with them!                       Zion, the true spiritual Israel according to the
       Before the wondering eyes of the onlookers one         election of grace brought forth the Savior.
     wonder follows upon another in rapid succession!           God remembered His covenant. Suddenly, unex-
       Who has ever heard or seen the like of it?!            pectedly, in spite of all the powers of darkness to
                                                              prevent it, the Savior was born.
       Wonder of wonders! A Man-child is born!                  The wonders only increase!
       This Man-child is brought to birth by Zion, the
     church of the old dispensation!                            This Man-child is Himself the Voice of Jehovah!
       God has chosen Zion as His people, His peculiar          The Son of God, Who calls the things that are not
     possession. He took up residence among them in           as though they were, formed His human nature in
     the most holy place, the House of God. There He          the womb of Mary and came into this world as truly
     bestowed His blessing. There He proclaimed the           God and completely man. The God of our salvation
     glad tidings of His promise: A virgin shall conceive     took on the form of a servant and humbled Himself
     and bear a Son, Whose name shall be called Im-           under His own wrath unto the accursed death of
     manuel, God with us!                                     the cross. Powerfully He proclaimed Himself to be
                                                              the promised Messiah, both by preaching with
       The true, spiritual Israel embraced that promise       divine authority and performing miracles which
     as their only comfort in life and death, for body and    only God could perform. He took upon Himself our
     soul. At their altars they confessed theipsins and       sickness and diseases, along with the wrath of evil
     prayed for forgiveness, even for a right to eternal      men, fulfilling His earthly ministry by His com-
     life obtained only by the perfect sacrifice still to     plete self-surrender to the anguish of hellish
     come. As they worshipped in the temple their             torments, to atone for our sins and to merit for us
     hopes reached out for the day of the Messiah still to    eternal life. He conquered over sin, death, hell, and
     come. They died, not having obtained the promise,        the grave, and marched triumphantly through
     but having seen it afar off.                             death into highest glory and power at the Father's
       Although carnal Israel had taken possession of         right hand in the heavens.
     God's heritage and mocked at the cherished hope             God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
     of the believers, though the weary night seemed to       Himself!
     drag on endlessly, the true people of God still clung
     tenaciously to God's Word, which could never fail.          Who has ever heard the like of this?
     Their prayers continued to ascend to heaven: "O!            Yet the wonders never cease!
     that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come                 To his utter amazement the prophet Isaiah sees
     down to us!" "Rise, help and redeem us, Thy mer-         another baby born, and another, and still another,
     cy we trust."                                            until a nation is born, the earth is filled, even to its
       And now it came to pass, as in a moment of time,       utmost bounds. A new day has dawned. The ful-

L


     124                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



     ness of time has come. In a moment, in a compara-           It is the voice of God's righteous judgment!
     tively short time the Savior has come, has ac-              It is the voice of Jehovah, majestic and mighty!
     complished His earthly task, and is gone into glory,
     to pour out His Spirit into the church. In a single         It will continue until time. shall be no more!
     day, on the day of Pentecost, the church of one             Hear the Word of the Lord! All ye that tremble at
     hundred and twenty souls was increased by three           His word!
     thousand. Soon another two thousand are added,              They that feared the Lord and trusted in His
     and then still more, ever increasing, as the church       word had waited long for its fulfillment.
     of the new dispensation spreads to the ends of the
     earth and to the islands of the sea. There is no stop-      They had spoken of it repeatedly one with
     ping this voice of Jehovah! He Who has begun a            another. They encouraged one another to continue
     good work will surely finish it, even until the last      in the faith, never to give up their hopes and
     elect is gathered in. Christ is the Firstfruits of an     prayers for the birth of the Savior. They taught
     abundant harvest of redeemed saints!                      their children to live in that hope. They still testi-
~      Let the nations tremble!                                fied of it on their deathbeds.
       The voice of Jehovah, the Lord of all glory, rolls        And the Lord heard. He kept before Him a book
     over the waters, the thunders awake!                      of remembrance, in which their names were writ-
                                                               ten as His precious jewels. With them He kept
       There were those in the days of Isaiah, and             covenant! (Malachi 3:16, 17)
     especially afterward, who mocked, saying, Where
     is the day of Messiah's coming? All things remain as        Among them were the pious Zacharias and his
     they have been from the beginning. Besides, who is        God-fearing wife Elisabeth, Joseph and Mary from
     so foolish as to believe that God will send a Savior?     despised Nazareth, Simeon and Anna, who longed
     Why should we need a Savior? For the people of the        to be delivered from this vale of tears, yet could not
     Lord are we; our salvation is secure in ourselves.        until the promise was fulfilled. There were the
     No, these were no foreigners among Israel. These          humble shepherds, who never ceased speaking of
     were people who professed to be extremely pious,          their hope as they watched their flocks throughout
     outstanding saints! At the time when this prophecy        the long, weary night. And there were the wise
     reached its fulfillment they were the proud, aristo-      men, our gentile representatives, in whom had
     cratic  Sadducees and the self-sufficient,  self-         been aroused the desire to see the promised King.
     righteous Pharisees, who were willing instruments           They heard the voice! The voice of Jehovah
     of Satan to prevent the coming of the Savior, even        speaking within them.
     as we have so many in our day.                              They saw the fulfillment of God's promises!
       They regarded with scorn those ignorant souls             With them we also rejoice today! For unto us a
     who still clung to the vain dream of former genera-       Child is born! Unto us a Son is given! His Name is
     tions. They mocked with those who spoke of the            Wonderful Counsellor! The Mighty God! The
     glorious day of the revelation of the God of our sal-     Everlasting Father! The Prince of Peace!
     vation, when the Savior would come to make all
     things new.                                                 Let Zion now rejoice, and all her children sing!
       Sneeringly they said, Let God be glorified! It can-       For He has come! And He will surely come again
     not, it will never happen!                                before very long!
       They also hear the voice of Jehovah proceeding            To our salvation!
     from the temple, rumbling through Jerusalem, like
     the thundering roar of the judgment to come. They
     cannot escape it. Although they refused to believe
     the reports of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, they soon
     met Him in person in the Holy City. They tried to            The Standard Bearer
     silence His voice with their violent opposition,
I    even to the extent that they condemned Him to                  makes a thoughtfil
     death as accursed of God and of men. Yet the
     reports continued. The voice of Jehovah spoke as                        gift for the
     the Son of man arose from the dead. This voice con-
     tinued to speak through Jesus' apostles. It con-                   sick & shut-ins.
     tinues still, in spite of every effort to deny the
     authority of the Scriptures, in spite of all the wick-
     ed efforts to deny the wonders of salvation wrought
     by Jehovah, our faithful covenant God!


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              125



                                        Editor's Notes

     In the expectation that this issue will reach at      churches to various churches and individuals in
   least most of our readers before the holidays, we       Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. In our
  take this opportunity to wish you a joyous Christ-       January 1 issue we will be carrying a report. Having
   mas and a blessed New Year.                             heard an oral report from Prof. Hanko at school, I
                     * * * * *                             can promise you this will be a very interesting
     The usual space of the Editorial department in        report.            * * * * *
   this issue is more than used up by my holdover arti-
   cle from the December 1 special issue, "The Spirit's      Anyone looking for a place to bestow a  last-
~ Prayer For The Saints," and by "Correspondence           minute worthwhile Christmas gift? Here is an unof-
   and Reply."                                             ficial hint. The seminary is in sore need of a new or
                     * * * * *                             nood used piano. The ancient instrument we now
     Undoubtedly many of our readers are eager to          have in o&assembly room is, I'm sure, more out of
   know something about the visit of Rev. D.               tune than the voices which are lifted up in joyful
                                                           song there.
   Engelsma and Prof. H. Hanko in behalf of our

  CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY



           About Partaking of the Lord's Supper
                                               Prof. H.C. Hoeksema





     From a reader in Holland, Michigan I received         RepZy
   the following letter, placement of which was               Thank-you for your letter, and for your ex-
   delayed somewhat because of our special issue:          pressed interest in our magazine.
   "Dear Prof. Hoeksema,                                      Your comment on my editorial, "About Guests
     "While not a member of the PRC, I do subscribe         At Communion," is really not on the subject with
   to the Standard Bearer. I read your magazine from        which the editorial dealt, but on a related subject.
   cover to cover with interest, though not always in       The editorial, or rather, the classical decision which
   agreement.                                               the editorial quoted as a matter of information, real-
     "I would like to comment on your editorial in the      ly deals with the subject of the consistory's duty
   Nov. 1 issue. Having traveled considerably in the        with respect to supervising the celebration of the
   past, I have been invited and accepted communion         Lord's Supper. It deals with so-called close (not
   with brothers and sisters from a number of denomi-       closed) communion - sometimes referred to as the
   nations. To me these have been times of blessing. I      "fencing of the table." This practice is, of course,
   fully expect to commune with these saints in our         fully in harmony with our Reformed confessions
   eternal home.                                            (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 30; Confession
     "My question is? why not now?                          of Faith, Art. 35; and Form for the Administration
                                                            of the Lord's Supper). Actually, the decision quoted
                                "Yours in Christ,           deals with defining this duty of the consistory to
                                    (w.s.) Harv Nyhof"      supervise participation in the Lord's Supper. Your


126                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



comment, on the other hand, deals with the subject          3. It would also exclude partaking of the Lord's
of the individual believer's  participation  in the       Supper in churches which hold a fundamentally
Lord's Supper in churches other than the one in           different view of the supper, for example, Roman
which he is a member. I think the presupposition of       Catholic transubstantiation or Lutheran consub-
your letter is that the two are related; and that is      stantiation.
correct.                                                    4. In general, I would say that the very same
  In reply, therefore, the following comments:            principles mentioned in my editorial must be
  1. If you hold to the Reformed position of close        adhered to by the individual believer, though now,
communion, it seems to me that for a Reformed             of course, applied by the individual to the concrete
believer it follows that you cannot simply indis-         instance at hand.
criminately partake of the Lord's Supper wherever           5. The standard which you suggest when you
and by whomever it is celebrated in denominations         write, "I fully expect to commune with these saints
other than your own. If you do this, it is tanta-         in our eternal home . . . . Why not now?" cannot
mount to holding to close communion at home, but          very well be applied, of course. And the reason, it
open communion away from home. This would                 seems to me, is obvious: in our eternal home all that
hardly be consistent.                                     now separates us will be forever done away, and
  2. This, it seems to me, would immediately rule         we shall be perfectly one church in our Lord Jesus
out the possibility of joining in the celebration of      Christ. Here and now, however, that is not the
the Lord's Supper in churches where there is open,        case. And therefore, here and now we are called
unsupervised communion. I have been in churches           upon to exercise our Christian discernment and
- and perhaps you have, too - where the minister          discretion with respect to our way and walk as
simply announces, "All those who love the Lord            members of Christ's church in the midst of the
Jesus Christ are invited to partake of the Lord's         world, even as the church is called upon to keep the
Supper."                                                  table of the Lord from being profaned.





               The Spirit's Prayer for the Saints
                                              Prof. H.C. Hoeksema





  This aspect of prayer, related to .-our prayers,        ond is that of the children of God themselves, vss.
comes to the fore in Romans 8:26, 27: "Likewise           23-25. The third is the "groanings that cannot be ut-
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know      tered." All three are related to the glory that shall
not what we should pray for as we ought: but the          be revealed in us, the manifestation of the sons of
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groan-      God, the adoption, the redemption of our body. For
ings which cannot be uttered. And he that search-         this the whole creation earnestly waits and groans
eth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the            in the bondage of corruption. For it we hope and
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the            wait with patience, groaning because of our present
saints according to the will of God." What is this in-    bodies. And with a view to it the Spirit prays for us
tercessory prayer of the Spirit? How and when does        with unutterable sighs.
it take place? Why is it needed? What is its benefit?       The word "likewise" joins vss. 26 and 27 to the
These and other questions arise in connection with        immediately preceding passage. Hence, if we hope
this mysterious intercession.                             for that we see not, then we wait for it with pa-
  We may notice, first of all, that this is the third     tience; and then the Spirit helps our infirmity by
groan mentioned in Romans 8. The first is the             praying for us with groanings that cannot be ut-
groan, or sigh, of the creature, vss. 19-22. The sec-     tered. For in waiting we are often weak; we do not


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  127



   have and we do not exercise the necessary pa-                  and  without us.
   tience. But the Spirit by His intercessory prayer                This intercession of the Spirit is perfect. We may
   comes to our aid, so that the result of this interces-         note in this connection that He prays for saints. In
    sion is that we are strengthened in our patience.             the original we do not read "for the saints," but
      The author and subject of this prayer of which              simply, "for saints." The effect of this is that it im-
   the apostle speaks is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit              presses us with the fact that the Spirit prays for no
   helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit makes interces-            one else: only for saints. And He prays for them as
    sion for us, prays, with unutterable groanings. The           saints, in their capacity of saints. This is significant.
    Spirit makes this intercession for us according to            It means that in His intercession in their behalf He
    the will of God. But it is the Spirit as He dwells in the     always looks at them from that spiritual point of
    church and in the hearts of believers Who makes this          view: they are saints. And He prays accordingly.
    intercession. That Spirit was given unto our Lord               Further, the perfection of His intercession lies in
   Jesus Christ without measure at His exaltation. He             the fact that He always knows. This is evident from
    dwells in Christ, first of all, as the Head. That Spirit      the implied contrast: "we know not what we
    was poured out in the church on the day of Pente-             should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh
    cost, in order to dwell with and in the church, the           intercession . . . . " This means that He is perfectly
    body of Christ, forever. Hence, He dwells in us as            and in detail acquainted with all our real needs as
    the members of Christ's body. And it is from and in           saints. And He prays accordingly, through Christ,
    our hearts that He prays and makes the interces-              to our Father. And when the Spirit makes interces-
    sion referred to in these verses.                             sion, He does so "according to God." The KJV in-
      The question is: how?                                       serts the words "the will of," but these do not occur
      Is this a prayer of the Spirit which He works in            in the original. This expression, "according to
    our hearts and which He therefore prays through               God," certainly implies that He prays according to
    us? Or is it a prayer by the indwelling Spirit Himself        God's will, which He knows perfectly; but it is
    and for us, but without our being definitely con-             richer. The meaning is that the Spirit makes inter-
    scious of it? Undoubtedly the text refers to the lat-         cession so that God may be glorified in His saints,
    ter. This is a prayer of the Spirit Himself in our            and prays so that His good pleasure may be real-
    behalf, but without our being definitely aware of it.         ized.
    That this is correct is plain, first of all, from the fact      Thus "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities."
    that the text plainly refers to something special. All        Not the infirmities and imperfections of our
    of our true prayers are wrought in us and through             prayers are meant, though it is perfectly true in
    us by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ; and there-         itself that there are such infirmities. This is not
    fore it would not be anything special that this               what the apostle has in mind. It is our infirmities
    should be mentioned in this connection. However,              with a view to the suffering of this present time (vs.
    plainly the apostle is here referring to something            18) that are meant. This is the connection. We hope
    special; he makes a point of mentioning it and                for that which we see not. And while we so hope,
    refers to it as one of .the three groans. Secondly, we        we suffer with Christ as far as the things that are
    may note that the text plainly speaks of "interces-           seen are concerned. And this suffering requires pa-
    sion." But intercession in the nature of the case             tience. But in this we are often weak: weak because
    cannot very well be something by us; in the nature            of our sinful nature, and weak because we are still
    of the case this intercession of the Spirit is for us, in     earthy and cling to the things that are seen, and
    our behalf And, in the third place, we must note              weak because of our limited understanding of the
    that the text speaks of "groanings-which cannot be            ways of God, so that things often appear to us to be
    uttered. " These groanings only reveal themselves in          all wrong and to go in the wrong direction. In this
    our sighing. They are not articulate as far as we are         infirmity the Spirit helps, so that the fruit of this in-
    concerned. They are not in the form of a conscious-           tercession for us is the experience of a greater pa-
    ly uttered prayer, that is, as far as the saints are con-     tience in the midst of the sufferings of this present
    cerned.                                                       time. Because of this help, there is on our part a
       Hence, this intercession of the Spirit is distinct,        stronger concentration of our heart on the invisible
    on the one hand, from Christ's intercessory prayer            object of our hope. There is a firmer confidence
    in our behalf. Scripture also speaks of this. But this        that all things work together for good to them that
    intercession is distinct. Christ's intercession is in         love God. There is more spiritual power to commit
    heaven; this intercession is from our hearts. But, on         our way unto God. And there is in us a great calm
    the other hand, this intercession is also distinct            and the peace that passeth all understanding, even
                                                                  in the midst of the sufferings of this present time.
Lfrom our own prayers. The latter are by the Spirit
    through us. This is an intercession of the Spirit for us         It is in this same connection that the passage


128                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



mentions our limited knowledge: "we know not                His prayer is surely heard: for it is a perfect inter-
what we should pray for as we ought." We ought to         cession. He makes intercession for us "according to
pray always for what tends to the glory of God in         God." We would often pray according to man, ac-
Christ. And we ought to pray always for our true          cording to our own insight, according to the desires
good and for the good of God's cause in the world.        of the moment. And then the Spirit from within the
But we do not do this because we do not know              depths of our heart prays according to God. More-
whether the one thing or the other is good. This is       over, He prays for saints. Of course, all prayer to
not because we do not know in general what is             God is for the benefit of the saints as such. But
God's counsel. We do, indeed; and we have no dif-         when we pray according to man, we do not pray for
ficulty as long as we pray only for and in harmony        the real needs of the saints. The Spirit does! He
with the general line of that will of God. But we fail    prays for the saints and their true and eternal well-
to understand the details of God's counsel. They          being. And we are conscious of this prayer of the
belong to the secret things which God did not             Spirit only by speechless sighing.
reveal to us. What place am I to occupy in glory?
Just how must my way in this present time lead me           It is heard because God distinguishes. He is the
to that place? And how are my place and my way            One Who searches the hearts, meaning that God
related to the way and the place of all other things      from moment to moment knows all that is in our
and the way of the church as a whole in this world?       hearts. And He knows the mind of the Spirit. He
And how are all of these related to the sufferings of     knows it also in distinction from our mind and our
this present time, the sufferings with Christ and for     prayers. He knows that mind of the Spirit as the in-
His sake? These things we know not. And the result        terceding Spirit, the mind of the Spirit with respect
is that we could often pray for things that are not       to our needs. And this mind and prayer of the spirit
good for us: not necessarily for carnal and temporal      He fulfills.
things, but even for the things of the kingdom of           What a comfort to know that God is constantly
God. Thus, for example, the apostle Paul himself          acquainting Himself with the true needs of His
prayed repeatedly to be delivered from his thorn in       saints - through Christ Who prays for us, and by
the flesh. But the Spirit prays for the direct op-        the Spirit Who dwells within us. And He fulfills all
posite, and He always prays (for He knows!) for           our needs - even when we do not know what we
that which is good and in harmony with the will of        should pray for. We may know that we receive just
God. He prays for grace that we may be patient            what is necessary to lead us to eternal glory. And
when God's way is different from our way and              we may wait for it with that patience that is able to
when God's way for us is difficult and difficult to       say, "Thy grace is sufficient for me!"
understand. And thus He helps our infirmities.

BOOK REVIEW



                         The Reformation of 1834


THE REFORMATION OF 1834, Faculty of Mid-                  observes, that "all primary and the best secondary
America Seminary; Mid-America Reformed                    sources which tell this story are found only in the
Seminary Bookstore, Orange City, Iowa; 85 pp.             Dutch language."
(paper), $5.00 U.S., $6.00 Can. [Reviewed by Prof.          To a degree the book is also a successful attempt.
H.C. Hoeksema]                                            The first two chapters, written by Dr. P.Y. De Jong,
  This little book is a contribution by several           are very helpful when it comes to the history of the
writers (members of the MARS faculty) to fill the         Afscheiding; and they are for the most part accurate.
lack of English-language materials about the Seces-         The remaining chapters of the book are of vary-
sion of 1834. It is certainly true, as the Preface        ing quality and accuracy, in my opinion. Nelson


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              I29



Kloosterman not only misses the boat as far as the        es which was occasioned by the decisions of the
doctrinal significance of the Secession is concerned,     Synod of Sneek-Utrecht, 1942-44.
but he also appears to me to show a Liberated bias.         A fundamental question which the book fails to
And he certainly fails to show, p. 40, that Simon         address is the question where the heritage of the
Van Velzen taught a general, well-meant offer of          Secession is to be found today. Does their own
grace to all sinners. What Van Velzen teaches in the      denomination, the CRC, still possess it? The book
paragraph quoted is nothing else than the general         appears to put several denominations, including
proclamation of a particular promise. Henry               the PRC, on a more or less equal footing today.
Vander Kam certainly goes far beyond his subject          Such a presentation is, of course, impossible.
in Chapter 4, "The expanding influence of the
Secession." Besides, I greatly question the accuracy        In spite of these criticisms, I nevertheless recom-
of his presentation of the split in the Dutch church-     mend the book, chiefly because of its historical sec-
                                                          tion, provided it be read with discernment.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                                  An Initial Victory
                                               Rev. John A. Heys




  A most crucial moment had come.                         4: 11). But must this then include the king's wife?
  Esther, a Jewess, must come to stand before the         Must the one who as wife has been designed by
Gentile king who had sealed the decree that all the       God to be an help meet for the king be included in
Jews in his vast realm must be put to death. And          this law? Undoubtedly, for the king did hold out
there she must plead for the lives of her people          the sceptre to her to spare her life. He would not
while placing her own life in the danger of a swifter     have done this if she were not included. She who
death. Nominally, indeed, this king was her hus-          should have been closest to him to encourage, com-
band and a man who did not know that she was of           fort, and support him would be put to death, if she
that race which he had ordered exterminated. But a        entered his presence in the inner court without be-
mighty poor husband he was. For thirty days he            ing called by him. Esther did not have fear for
had not found need for her fellowship and compan-         nothing. She knew that she was included; and the
ionship. God had made the woman to be an help             king showed that she was no exception. And the
meet, that is, fit, suitable for man. Yet, even though    distance which he held for the last thirty days gave
she was in the same house with him, he had not            her reason to fear that the sceptre would not be ex-
called for her, and, we may believe, had not spoken       tended.
to her all that time.                                       Let us not forget - and you may be sure that
  It is true that especially in those days kings had      Esther did not forget - that this king had divorced
much on their minds. It is also true that in those        a most beautiful wife not too many years before
days as well as today political leaders needed pro-       this. Do not overlook the fact also that, even if he
tection, and that they should have been spared            did hold out the sceptre, she had to reveal to the
trivialities, so that they could concentrate on the       king her own deception. In faithfulness to
more important matters of ruling the nation. And          Mordecai's command she had not made her people
"all the king's servants, and the people of the king's    and kindred known to the king. But now she will
provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man           have to do that. Obtaining the sceptre - and with it
or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner         life - is only part of the picture. She must not only
court, who is not called, there is one law of his to      expose her deception, she must drive a wedge be-
put to death, except to whom the king shall hold          tween the king and a man closer to the king than she
out the golden sceptre, that he may live" (Esther         was, namely, Haman.  You may be sure that in the


130                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



thirty days wherein he did not call for her, he did       speak of Him Who sits at God's right hand in the
call for his right-hand man in the government.            highest heaven.
  But before we go on, let us not overlook the truth        Psalm 121:1,2 makes that so very clear. We read,
which the rest of Scripture reveals to us. We can at      "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from
times be poor husbands and poor wives. We have            whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the
our flesh and with it our failings. But the gospel in     Lord, which made heaven and earth." Plainly,
the Scriptures is that as the bride of Christ we have     enlargement and deliverance come from Him Who
such a faithful Husband. We may not have Him in           sits on those two hills that in Jerusalem were so
all our thoughts. We may be able to go for thirty         significant. Christ it is Who symbolically sits on the
days and not step inside His church to fellowship         throne on Mt. Zion; and David was only the type of
with Him in the preaching of the Word, while on a         Christ. Christ it is Who is the Highpriest on Mt.
vacation: To be in His presence in His house on the       Moriah where the tabernacle, and later the temple
Sabbath for an hour may be so boring that we keep         stood. In Him as our King, as our Highpriest, and as
looking at the clock or our watches to see how soon       the Lamb sacrificed on God's altar for all our sins,
we can be relieved. We can put everything before          we have true, lasting enlargement and deliverance.
meeting Him. The cold we have on the Sabbath,             And we do look to those hills, because we look to
and that keeps us away from meeting Him and join-         Him Who works for us from those heavenly
ing the other saints in singing His praises, may be       heights.
worse on Monday. But we will go to work for that            Colossians 3: 1, 2 express the same idea. We are
precious dollar.                                          to seek the things which are above where Christ sit-
  And yet we have an Husband who never has us             teth at Gods right hand. We are to set our affec-
out of His thoughts He never slumbers or sleeps,          tions on things in that heavenly place. There the
and His great, unchangeable love will not allow           storehouse of all of salvation's blessings is. And out
Him to forget us for one split-second. And He has         of it we get daily our enlargement and deliverance.
no sceptre to frighten us. Constantly He is calling to    Therefore also we read in Revelation 21: 1, 2 that
us, "Come unto Me, all ye that  labour and are            the holy city, the new Jerusalem comes down from
heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew           God out of heaven. Indeed, enlargement and
11:28). He is never too preoccupied. And "Whoso-          deliverance come from another place. But then it is
ever will, let him take of the water of life freely"      another place than the one that Mordecai con-
(Revelation 22:17).  "Him that cometh to Me I will        sidered as a possible source of help.
in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). And, yes, even as
Esther had walked in deception before Ahasuerus,            But to return to Esther and her fleshly attempts
we have walked in gross sins before our King and          to effect enlargement and deliverance, she came
Husband. But He opened a way for us to come to            not to the king in love. It was not that she missed
Him. Go to Him by way of His cross. He has ex-            him so much these thirty days that she just had to
tended the sceptre already. It is pointed at all          go and see him. It was not loneliness, for she op-
whose names are in His book of life. And He does          posed Mordecai's suggestion. Loneliness, love for
call to us both externally in the preaching and inter-    the king would have been set on fire by Mordecai's
nally by His Spirit. We need not fear approaching         suggestion and given her added excuse for rushing
Him in prayer for our lives. And He is never too          into his presence. Besides, she never married him
busy, even though He rules the whole creation             for love. And there is no suggestion that she missed
from Gods right hand. What is more, we have His           him. Her revelation that he had not called for her in
promise that He will come to us, and come with full       thirty days was only to let Mordecai know how
salvation and in all His glory to glorify us.             dangerous it was to go to see the king when not
                                                          called by him to do so.
  In a sense that never entered into the mind of
Mordecai, it is true that enlargement will come             It is also interesting to note how deliberate Esther
from another place, and that deliverance is sure.         was, and how clever she was to take little steps and
That place is heaven, and it is heaven in a figurative    do all that she could to insure success. Men were in
sense; That place is first of all the cross from          that day far more deliberate than we are today.
whence true enlargement and deliverance comes.            They were not slaves of time, and they lived at a
When we are burdened with the load of guilt, and          much slower pace than we do today. There can be
the enormity of our sins presses down upon us and         no doubt about it that she had help within the
takes our breath away, the place to which we look         palace itself. For note that she comes before the
is Golgotha, the altar on which the Lamb of God           king wearing the royaZ apparel. Now this was not
was sacrificed for our sins. But He is now in             merely to harmonize fully with the fact that "the
heaven, and we look to Him at God's right hand.           king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house."
And when we say "from heaven" we figuratively             She surely did blend in beautifully with the sur-


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        1 31



roundings. She fit perfectly into the picture.           goal is to destroy the church and keep that seed of
  But there is more behind her clever approach.          the woman from being born. He worked in Haman
Remember that when the king wanted Vashti to ap-         to get the death sentence. He would not now work
pear before him and his princes, he ordered his          to have it undone.
seven chamberlains to bring her out with the royal         No, when I say that she was devilishly clever I
crown. This identified her as his wife, his prize        mean that, being under Satan's power because she
possession. This tickled his vanity and fed his          too was fallen in Adam, her wicked flesh became
pride. And Esther came thus, either in remem-            clever in sin. She employs the same cleverness that
brance of this fact, or more likely as informed of it    the devil used to get Adam to eat of the forbidden
by Hegai, keeper of the women in whose eyes "she         fruit in paradise. She behaves as he does, and in
obtained kindness" (Esther 2:8, 9). She was "pre-        that sense exercises a devilishly clever approach to
ferred" by him unto the best place of the house of       the problem. She does not go to God. She follows
the women. And now that she had been chosen and          Satan.
was the queen his admiration of her did not                We must not try to escape our guilt by blaming
diminish.                                                the devil for the specific sin which we committed at
  0 she was clever, devilishly clever, and during        the moment. It is true that all of our sins stem forth
the three days between her words of fatalism to          from his victory over Adam, so that we all get a cor-
Mordecai and the day she appeared before the king,       rupt nature the moment of our conception. We are,
she had done some serious thinking and planning.         as the Confession states it, infected with. an
When then I say that she was devilishly clever I do      hereditary spiritual disease at conception. But we
not mean that Satan was using her and suggesting         must not blame the devil for our sins. So often we
to her this crafty way. There is nothing he wanted       sin when he and his cohorts are miles away. It is
less than the sparing of the Jews. He is no fool, and    not always a case of sinning because of a tempta-
he knew and did not forget God's promises to             tion or devilish pressure upon us.
Abraham's seed, or that mother promise of a seed           But Esther succeeds. She has initial success and
of the woman - now narrowed down to Abraham's            victory. Not, however, because she is so clever. She
seed - that would some day crush his head. Do not        has this initial victory and complete success, as we
forget that we have a clever, crafty enemy who           will see, the Lord willing, in subsequent contribu-
remembers a whole lot more than we do and listens        tions to these pages, because enlargement and
sometimes far more carefully to what God says            deliverance come out of heaven, the last place
than we do. He is not swayed by gold and silver and      where she and Mordecai would look for it.
earthly treasures and pleasures the way we are. His

ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Buren        _




                      "How Shall We Disagree?"


  The Banner, November 19, 1984, contains two            Rev. George Vander Weit, points out that this is
letters in "Voices" which express grave reserva-         nothing less than the "tactics of the world . . . in-
tions about the decision of the Reformed Fellow-         filtrating the church." That's strong language. The
ship in Northwest Iowa to withhold financial sup-        letter states:
port from Calvin College and Seminary in response              The actions of the Reformed Fellowship at its
to the Synod's decision last summer to allow for the         September 14 meeting in Sioux Center, Iowa, were
ordination of women as deacons in the Christian              most disturbing.
Reformed Church. This raises the question, "How                I am a minister in  Classis  Lake Erie, a  classis
shall one disagree?" One of the letters, written by          labeled by many in the denomination as "liberal."


132                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



       Some of us "liberals" do not agree with some of the          violate Synod's rulings as these apply to women
       decisions of our Synods, regarding those as violations       serving in the office of elder. The article states in
       of the Word of God. However, we have not asked               part
       Synod for permission to disobey. We have always
       regarded Synodical decisions as "settled and bind-                   . . . The women who have occupied these offices
       ing."                                                             have been on the forefront of change within the CRC.
                                                                         Their experience has been a unique' one for them-
         We have always proclaimed that authority should                 selves and the churches in which they served, par-
       be `respected even when we disagree. Disobedience                ticularly 
       must not be rapid or flagrant, and surely others                               within the office of elder, which has not been
                                                                         formally approved by Synod. Each church has
       ought not to be encouraged to disobey.                            handled this situation in its own individual way,
         NOW the "conservatives" are displeased with a                   creating adjunct and associate positions in order to
       Synodical decision, a decision made after years of               allow women's gifts to be utilized as fully as possible.
       study, including study by recognized "conservative"              Most women in office performed all of the duties of
       ministers and professors. Those who normally call for            their male counterparts, with the exception of voting
       decency and good order have requested and received               in council or consistory meetings. . . .
   a special dispensation from Synod to disobey. Those                      . . . For Mary Swierenga of the Washington, D.C.
       who usually respect authority have responded to the
       authority of Synod not with obedience or humble                  CRC, holding offices of elder associate and elder was
                                                                        unique as she was elected to be her church's clerk. . . .
       submission but with a defiant declaration that they
   will not regard this decision as "settled and binding."                  . . . The seven churches interviewed were aliie in
       Like hijackers who seize airplanes, the Reformed Fel-            their reluctance to  .disobey  Synods rulings on the
       lowship has held a financial gun to the heads of in-             matter. Rev. Roger Van Harn of Grace CRC said that,
       stitutions loved and supported by the denomination.              "Although we were 100 percent behind women in of-
   All of this it has done while proclaiming love for the               fice, it was a long struggle to decide whether it was
   church and respect for the Word.                                     right to go against Synod."
         It is certainly true that the spirit and tactics of the       In another article in this same issue of Chimes,
   world are infiltrating the church. It's too bad that              the following is stated:
   many cam-rot see just how true that is because of the                    Rev. Van Harn summarized further the decisions
   logs in their own eyes.                                              of Synod by declaring "that the heart of what the
  It is strong language indeed! A self-professed                        church said is that women may be deacons." Van
"liberal" takes the "conservatives" to task for                         Harn said the church has been in chaos since 1969
refusing to abide by the decisions of their Synod                       over the women-in-office issue and "only the unique
but rather holds a "financial gun to the heads of in-                   power and grace of the Holy Spirit - not strategies -
stitutions loved and supported by the denomina-                         are going to bring order out of chaos."
tion." The same man insists, "We have always re-                            Van Harn argued that the Gospel is clearer to us
garded Synodical decisions as `settled and                              now that the question of women in office has been
binding."'                                                              addressed. "Firstly, the CRC church has come to a
  Now, however one might judge the action of the                        better understanding of gender. We are all saved by
                                                                        grace; there is no gender distinction in this regard.
Reformed Fellowship, still it ill-behooves the                          Men and women were meant to work together in all
"liberal" to bring these kinds of charges against the                   aspects of the church's work." Secondly, Van Harn
"conservative" - especially with the added claim,                       advocated that "ordination is clearer now. It is an
"We have always regarded Synodical decisions as                         authorization to serve, not an endowing of power;
settled and binding,`" (even when these are "viola-                     therefore, it can be applied to all offices."
tions of the Word of God').                                                 . . . In the meantime, Van Harn urged that women
  The hypocrisy of the claim is exposed when one                        should do the work of elders now, if they are so
reads another report concerning "Women serving                          called, even if Synod will not grant them the official
the Church" in Calvin College Chimes, November                          title. "The day is surely coming when women will
16, 1984. There is, in that article, no evidence of a                   not be barred from any office, but there is no reason
                                                                        to wait and squander gifts for such an ideal situation
willingness to "abide by Synodical decisions," but,                     to arrive."
on the contrary, open admission that churches
deliberately violated the position of the Synod, al-                   So this is what the "liberal" C.R.C. would claim
lowing women not only to serve as deacons before                    to be "abiding by the decisions of Synod???" It
Synod took its decision last summer, but even al-                   would seem that the "liberal" is not really so of-
lowing women to serve as elders. If the report is ac-               fended that the Reformed Fellowship has adopted
curate, even the president of the Synod of 1984,                    "the tactics of the world," as it is offended that the
Rev. Roger Van Harn, admits to violating earlier                    Reformed Fellowship had begun using the very tac-
rulings of Synod on this matter - in fact, he ap-                   tics of the "liberal." Will all such tactics create a
pears to encourage the churches to continue to                      split in the C.R.C.? Rev. Louis Roossien in the


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     133



Chimes claims, "The CRC is not (sic) ecumenical -               despite the tensions and-disagreements, the Holy
we are beyond splitting. I am convinced that                    Spirit is working and we are going to stay together."


                                   Creation and Geology

  In an interview, recorded in the Banner,                         Maybe. How God initiated this image of God in man I
November 12, 1984, Dr. Clarence Menninga,                           don't know, of course.
geology department chairman at Calvin College,                        Q. Do you think God created Adam as a fully
gives his views on creation, including the creation                 grown man?
of Adam. His views are not, of course, new or                         A. I find it interesting to note that when God de-
original - though diametrically opposed to views                    cided to come into the world as our Redeemer, He
taught at Calvin College only a few decades ago. It                didn't enter it as a full-grown man. Mary's neighbors
is disturbing that views, forthrightly condemned by                would not have known Jesus' birth was by anything
such men as Prof. L. Berkhof in his  Systematic                     other than natural processes. Now, maybe Adam's
TheoZogy,  are now presented as the proper views for               neighbors didn't either . . . . .
children of God to hold. Concerning himself, Men-                 Menninga places those who believe in a %-hour,
ninga states:                                                   six-day creation some 6,000 years ago in the
      . . . They call us theistic evolutionists.                category of such as believed in the flat-earth theory.
      Q. And that means?                                        He claims that "we'd be doing children a terrible
      A. That's a label for people who believe that God         disservice if we taught them that the earth is young,
   works through the processes of nature to bring about         that creation was by fiat in twenty-four-hour days,
   the changes and the sequences that have taken place.         that geology was by catastrophism."
      Q. You can live with that label?                            The objections to the above views have been
      A. I really don't like it. I can live with it because     stated many times in many magazines and theolog-
   some people call me that. If I were to label myself, I       ical treatises. These views were debated years ago
   would call myself a creationist because I believe that       in some liberal Presbyterian circles. Later, these
   God created this universe. I also believe that God up-       were, debated in Reformed churches - especially
   holds and sustains and controls it - all good, Calvin-       those along the East Coast. Now they are presented
   istic affirmations. But I think that just as God heals       openly and publicly in the Banner. One expects, by
   disease through processes, and just as He manages            this time, hardly any reaction to the views of the
   the planets in the solar system through momentum             C.R.C.
   and gravity, so He also has done His creative work
   over a long period of time through natural proces-             Yet, what does this do to the infallible Scrip-
   ses . . . .                                                  tures? What does this do to the truth of the head-
  Menmnga continues by answering some ques-                     ship of Adam - and Christ - as taught in Romans
tions concerning his view of the first man:                     5? Were there "a-moral" men before Adam? Was
      Q. Have people also developed over a long period          there even a single man called "Adam?" What does
   of time by such processes as genetic change, muta-           this view do to the doctrine of total depravity?
   tion, and so forth?                                            All of the objections to Menninga's teachings
      A. That's a question a lot of church groups ask me.       concerning theistic evolution as well as his views of
   My response is usually that man is a very special,           the creation of man are presented in Prof. L. Berk-
   unique creature, made in God's image, who has fel-           hof's Systematic TheoZogy,  in the chapters concern-
   lowship with his creator and moral responsibility for        ing the creation of the material world, and the
   his moral choices. But what does this mean with re-
   gard to the physical nature of man - his skeleton, the       origin of man. It would be well for serious students
   size of his brain, the fact that he uses tools? Well, the    of Scripture to read Berkhof again on this. The Prot-
   Bible doesn't say anything about these kinds of              estant Reformed Churches object to Menninga's
   things. Christian Reformed theology has generally            teachings not because we are some sort of offspring
   avoided dealing with how these two perspectives  -           of Neanderthal man (with all of his intellectual limi-
   the moral and the physical nature of humankind  -            tations), but because it is our desire to maintain the
   fit together . . . .                                         historic Reformed positions which were held so
      . . . Was Adam, perhaps, one of the Neanderthals,         firmly only a few decades ago also in the Christian
   who are much closer to modern man than, say, Lucy?           Reformed Church.


134                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



                   III: John - Christian Hospitality
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering




  The one outstanding feature of this short letter is       in mind any of these. Fact is he was a spiritual
that the author draws a contrast between Gaius and          brother in one of the churches of Asia Minor.
Diotrephes concerning their hospitality or lack of it          The purpose of John in writing him seems to be
in their dealings with the brothers who brought the         twofold. First, it was to commend him for his Chris-
gospel in their midst.                                      tian hospitality, and to do that publicly before the
AUTHOR AND DATE                                             whole church so as to set a good example. Second,
  We can state briefly and with conviction that the         John sought his help in dealing with a certain
Apostle John was the author of this letter.                 Diotrephes, who was a self-seeking member of the
                                                            church, a beligerent character, proud; seeking his
  We see the similarity between the first, second,          own honor and dividing the church against John.
and third epistles. Here in the third, he identifies        Whether he taught heresy or not cannot be deter-
himself as he does in the second as "The elder"             mined, for lack of evidence.
(1:l). The common subject material points in the
direction of one author. In the first epistle, John            In dealing with this special need, John extols the
emphasized the fellowship in love. In the second he         virtues of those who are faithful, both Gaius and
deals with a specific area of this fellowship, that is,     Demetrius (who probably was the person carrying
the need to walk in the truth. Here in the third, he        this letter to them). He mentions that his joy as
deals with yet another aspect, how we are to                apostle is that he sees his spiritual children walking
receive in our homes and churches pastors and mis-          in truth. Christian hospitality is proof of that. He
sionaries who bring the gospel. Finally, there is           encourages them to care for the brothers and
similarity of grammar, vocabulary, style of writing         strangers who bring the Word to them. It is impor-
that indicates that one author wrote all three.             tant that they receive such and be fellow helpers to
John's authorship was accepted from early history           the truth.
to the present.                                               These itinerant preachers needed a place to stay,
  Since we view the second and third epistles as            and when a home was opened to them, they were
further development of the first, it would seem             refreshed physically and spiritually. One can well
likely that the third was written after the others.         imagine the demands placed upon a person who
Though this cannot be accurately established, it is         had to travel under adverse circumstances. If he
generally accepted. This would once again place it          was refused a place to stay and was openly op-
sometime within A.D. 90-100.                                posed, this would discourage him and the work
                                                            would suffer. Diotrephes was certainly an enemy
THE SPECIAL MESSAGE                                         of the truth as he sought to spread his evil influ-
  The letter is addressed to a certain Gaius, "the          ence. John saw the need to condemn it without
well beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth' (1: 1).       reservation. By contrast, an open house with Chris-
Efforts have been put forth to identify him. The            tian love and encouragement such as was given by
concordance indicates three other references - a            Gaius would go a long way in the furtherance of the
native of Macedonia and companion of Paul (Acts             gospel.
19:29); a man of Derbe in Lycaonia, also a com-
panion of Paul (Acts 20:4); and a Corinthian whom           A BRIEF OUTLINE
Paul baptized (I Cor. 1:14). There is also a reference        1. Introduction (vss. l-4). The author identifies
in Romans 16:23 to Gaius with whom Paul was                 himself as the elder and designates his recipient as
staying at the time he wrote the Roman epistle. It is       Gaius (vs. 1). He expresses the desire that he may
impossible to establish which one, if in fact he had        be in good health, along with spiritual prosperity


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            135



(vs. 2). He informs him of his joy when he heard          face. He pronounces the blessing of peace upon
from the brethren the report that he was faithful to      them. He extends the greetings of those who are
the truth in both doctrine and life (vs. 3). He gen-      with him, as well as asking Gaius to greet his
eralizes by saying he has no greater joy than that his    friends by name (vss. 13, 14).
spiritual children walk in truth (vs. 4).                 QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
  2. He encourages hospitality (vss. 5-8). He tells          1. Consider how the three epistles of John com-
Gaius that he is faithful in his dealing with             pliment each other as far as subject matter is con-
strangers who bring the gospel (vs. 5) and have tes-      cerned.
tified before the church of his goodness in them (vs.
6). He adds that in doing this he does well, so that        2. Reflect upon the virtues of Gaius and make a
they do not have to depend upon the Gentiles (the         list of adjectives that you think would best describe
unbelievers) for their livelihood, but can receive it     him. Look up other passages of Scripture that deal
from the church in the name of Christ. Thus Christ        with these same qualities of Christian character to
is extolled (vss 7, 8).                                   see what the Bible says about them.
  3. He reproves those who oppose the truth (vss.           3. Evaluate yourself and your fellow saints to
9-11). He refers to a previous letter to the church,      determine whether the blessings of hospitality are
one that Diotrephes evidently did not heed, for he        present. Consider whether there are areas in which
refuses to receive John and the apostles (vs. 10). He     they could be improved. John deals with hospitality
also tells Gaius that when he comes, he will deal         shown to itinerant preachers. The same principles
personally with Diotrephes. He gives detail as to         apply, do they not, to any stranger or even to a
the evil of this man: he wants the preeminence; he        member of the church that seems to be a loner?
uses malicious talk against John; he refuses to have        4. By contrast, make a list of the adjectives that
anything to do with the brethren or with those who        would best describe the evil of Diotrephes. Consult
associate with them, even gaining support to cen-         a concordance to learn what the Bible says about
sure them by casting them out (vs. 10). He warns          such things.
Gaius and the church not to follow such evil, for           5. Examine yourself and see if any of these evils
those who do that have not seen God. Rather, they         of Diotrephes are in yourself. Make a list of ways
are to follow good, as proof that their life is from      you believe God would have you deal with them
God (vs. 11).                                             and prayerfully begin to practice this.
  4. He commends the witness of the truth (vs.              6. Do you believe there are others in the church
12). In contrast to Diotrephes, he acknowledges           who act like Diotrephes. Are there some who try to
Demetrius as a faithful servant who loves the truth,      set members of the congregation against certain of
as testified by other saints as well as by John           our preachers, missionaries, or professors? In light
himself (vs. 12).                                         of John's instruction here, which is instruction from
  5. Conclusion (vss. 13, 14). He tells them he has       God, how should you deal with such members?
many things to write, but he will not do so at this         7. Prove from this letter that Christian hospital-
time, trusting that he will soon see them face to         ity has its spiritual roots in God Himself.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                  The Nicene Creed
                                              Rev. James Slopsema



  Article 9:  And  I believe one holy catholic and        and her apostolicity.
apostolic church.                                            What the early church understood by these four
  We find in this particular article of the Nicene        attributes of the church is somewhat different from
Creed the four attributes of the church. It speaks of     our understanding of them. This particular article
her unity or oneness, her holiness, her catholicity,      of the Nicene Creed was composed by the Council


136                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



of Constantinople in 381. By this time the episcopal       pastor) and the ruling elder. This distinction is
form of church government, that is, rule by the            made in I Timothy 5:17: "Let the elders that rule
bishops, was firmly entrenched in the early church.        will be counted worthy of double honor, especially
This later gave way to the papacy, that is, rule by        they who labor in the word and doctrine."
the pope. This episcopal structure of the church             Over the course of time, however, the early
significantly altered the early church's understand-       church made a separation between the episcopoi
ing of these four attributes of the church.                and the presbuteroi. The episcopoi were called the
  In our treatment of this article, therefore, we in-      bishops and the presbuteroi the presbyters. Both
tend first to discover what the early church under-        were considered to occupy an office of rule in the
stood by this confession. Then we wish to examine          church. The office of bishop, however, was higher
how these four attributes of the church ought to be        than the office of presbyter.
understood in the light of Scripture. For these four         In the course of time there also arose a hierarchy
attributes - the church's unity, holiness, catholic-       among the bishops of the church. Originally each
ity, and apostolicity - are all Biblical concepts.         local congregation had its own bishop with a
And, therefore, regardless of the early church's           number of presbyters functioning beneath him.
understanding of this article, this particular confes-     And among the bishops of the various congrega-
sion can still be used by us as a very beautiful con-      tions there was generally an equality. However,
fession of our faith, provided we understand it in         eventually the bishops in the cities were given a
the true Biblical sense.                                   place of supremacy over the bishops in charge of
  To discover the early church's understanding of          the rural or country congregations. This was due to
this article we must first gain an understanding of        the fact that quite frequently the rural congrega-
the episcopal form of church government that arose         tions were established by the city congregations.
in the early church.                                       Furthermore, the bishops in the larger cities, usual-
  The episcopal form of church government had its          ly the provincial capitals, and the bishops in the
beginnings with a distinction between the clergy           cities where the apostles had labored and estab-
and the laity in the church. By the clergy was             lished churches were, in turn, considered to be
meant those who hold office in the church. The lai-        more important than the bishops who labored in
ty was the rest of the church membership. This             the smaller cities. The bishops in the provincial
distinction as it arose in the church was a bad one        cities were called Metropolitan bishops in the east
because it was used to attribute a special priesthood      and Archbishops in the west. The bishops in the
to the clergy, much like the priesthood of the Old         apostolic cities were called Patriarchs. Problems
Testament. The idea was that the laity could not ap-       arising in other churches were often sent to these
proach God directly but only through the medium            bishops for adjudication. Eventually the bishops of
of the clergy. Furthermore, the laity also needed          Rome, Alexander, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Con-
the clergy to interpret the Scriptures for them. This      stantinople became the most prominent in the
was a denial of the office of believer.                    church, with the bishop of Rome being the fore-
                                                           most.
  In the second place, within the ranks of the
clergy there was also the rise of the office of bishop.      The final element in the episcopal form of
                                                           church government that arose in the early church
  The New Testament Scriptures speak of the                was the erroneous idea that the bishops were the
episkopoi (from which we get our word "episco-             personal successors of the apostles. The early
pal"), the presbuteroi (from which we get our word         church taught that the 12 apostles were the per-
"presbyter"), and the diakonoi (from which we get          sonal successors of Christ and that through the rite
our word "deacon"}. These are translated in the            of ordination each bishop became a personal suc-
KJV as Bishop, Elder, and Deacon respectively, sug-        cessor of the apostles. This meant that from Christ
gesting that these are three separate offices in the       through the apostles and to the bishops came all the
church. The fact is, however, that there are only          gifts of the Spirit necessary to rule the church in all
two offices, the office of elder and deacon. The           matters of doctrine and life. Whatever the bishops
New Testament episkopoi and presbuteroi are two            decided therefore was the will of Christ for the
terms for the office of elder. The first term means        church. To submit to the hierarchical rule of the
"overseer" and views the office of elder from the          bishops was to submit to Christ. To oppose the
viewpoint of its duties. The elder is the overseer         bishops was to oppose Christ.
who is to rule and exercise supervision in the
church. The second term means "elder" and em-                Within this framework the church was defined.
phasizes the dignity of the office. Furthermore the          First of all, the early church identified the church
Scriptures acknowledge two kinds of elders, the            with an institution. We must understand that the
teaching elder (which we call the minister or              early church did not clearly distinguish as we do


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                137



between the church as organism and the church as          this term by the early church. The word "catholic"
institute. The Bible teaches that the church is a liv-    comes from two Greek words: kata which means
ing organism. It is the body of Christ. Within this       "concerning" and bolos which means "whole." Its
body Christ is the head. The members of the               primary meaning therefore is wholeness, complete-
church in turn are connected by faith to Christ so        ness. And this is how the early church used this
that they are ruled by Christ and live out of Him.        word in this article. The one institution which is the
This living organism of the church is also manifest       church is catholic in that it is the whole, complete
in institutional form through the threefold office of     church. Therein you will find the whole and com-
minister, elder, and deacon. The institution of the       plete body of Christ. Outside this institution you
church therefore is found wherever there is the           can not find the church.
preaching of the Word, the administration of the            This one catholic church is, in turn, apostolic. By
sacraments, and the exercise of Christian disci-          this was meant that the complete church of Christ
pline. However, the early church made no clear            is to be found in that institution that is ruled by and
distinction between the organism and the institute        loyal to the personal successors of the apostles.
of the church. The result was that she identified the     Many institutions may claim to be the church or
body of Christ with an institution.                       part of the church. But the only institution that can
  Furthermore, the early church identified the            be called the church is that institution ruled by the
body of Christ with that institution ruled by the         bishops, the personal successors to the apostles.
hierarchy of bishops. To belong to the institution        And, being the personal successors to the apostles,
ruled by the bishops was to belong to the body of         the bishops have been led by the Spirit to preserve
Christ. To be outside that institution was to be out-     within the church the teachings and traditions of
side the body of Christ and thus without the              the apostles.
possibility of salvation, Other organizations called        Therefore the church is also holy. That the
themselves the church There were the Donatists            church is holy does not mean that she is perfect.
and the Montanists, who confessed the principles          That she is holy means that she is consecrated to
of the Christian faith but disagreed on matters of        God, serves the honor and glory of God. This is true
Christian discipline and the efficacy of baptism ad-      of the church exactly because she is apostolic, that
ministered by those who had temporarily fallen            is, faithful to the teachings and traditions of the
away in times of persecution. There were other            apostles.
groups that had been cast out as heretical and              Finally, the early church confessed her faith in
which continued to exist in the form of churches.         this one holy catholic and apostolic church. Later
But these were not the church; nor was their mem-         the Western church altered this by confessing, "I
bership to be considered a part of the body of            believe one holy catholic and apostolic church."
Christ. For the church could be found only with the       Notice that the preposition "in" is dropped. And
bishops who were the personal successors of the           this is the way we have received the Nicene Creed.
apostles.                                                 However, originally the early church confessed, "I
  The church father Cyprian, who lived in the             believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church."
third century, put it this way, "No one can have          Even as she believed in God the Father, in Jesus
God for his father, who) has not the church for his       Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, so also she believed
mother." The same church father also wrote, "The          in the' one holy catholic and apostolic church. That
bishop is in the church., and the church is in the        means that she put her trust in the church even as
bishop, and if anyone is not with the bishop he is        she put her trust in the triune God. She did this
not in the church."                                       because of her concept of the church. The church is
  In this light we are now ready to understand the        to be the object of trust because it is the one institu-
confession of the early church, "And I believe in         tion ruled by the personal successors of the apostles
one holy catholic and apostolic church."                  and where the teachings and traditions of the
                                                          apostles are faithfully preserved.
  In this confession the early church acknowl-
edged, first of all, the existence of one church.           According to Article 9 of the Belgic Confession
There are not many churches, but only one church.         we have received the creed of Nicea. We have not
And this church was to be identified with a par-          however received the early church's interpretation
ticular institution. There are not many institutions      of this article. In our next article we intend to show
that comprise the church. There is only one institu-      how this article ought to be understood in the light
tion that may be called the church.                       of Scripture so that it becomes a very beautiful con-
                                                          fession for the church today.
  This one church, in turn, is catholic. We use the
term "catholic" today in the sense of "general" or        1 Read the Standard Bearer!  1
"universal." This was not the meaning attached to


138                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH



                              The Legacy of Wyclif:
                              A Trail of Martyrdom
                                                 Rev. T. Miersma



  John Wyclif died in 1384. He left behind him a           to the generations following them, generations who
translation of the Scriptures from the Latin into the      would later enter the Reformation.
English language. He left behind him, in his
numerous writings, a clear exposition of most of             The price the Lollards paid for their faithfulness,
the doctrines which would later form the heart of          however, demands our attention. Charged as
the Reformation. He left behind him, too, a clear          heretics for possessing copies of the Word of God,
description of many of the errors of a church which        for repudiating the idolatry of the mass and the
had departed from the foundation laid in the Word          superstition and idolatry of the worship of images,
of God. This legacy of Wyclif lived on in England,         they were systematically hunted down, tried as
and in Eastern Europe in two separate streams.             heretics, pressured to recant, and imprisoned.
  In England the power of the church soon began            Some indeed sealed their confession with their own
to reassert itself, so that by the early 1400s Wyclif's    blood. In 1401 the English Parliament passed an act
translation of the Scriptures had been banned.             decreeing the burning of heretics, and for the next
Although Wyclif himself was dead and the church            125 years the Lollards continued to pay the price of
could not personally harm him, nevertheless he             their lives, at the stake. The legacy of Wyclif left
was branded as a heretic and in 1429 his bones             behind it a trail of martyrdom. The record of their
were dug up, burnt to ashes, and the remains cast          sufferings comes down to us today, sometimes ac-
into a river.                                              curately reported, sometimes distorted or em-
                                                           bellished, but clear enough to indicate the price
  It was against his followers that the Romish             that was paid. They were not great reformers, their
church now directed its attack. Wyclif's writings          names are not well known, but they were steadfast
had created a movement in the English church               in the truth as they had received it. William
which taught his doctrines, circulated his transla-        Sawtree, chaplain, burned to death, 1401. John
tions of the Bible or portions of it, and which laid       Badby, a tailor, chained in a cask and burned to
great stress on preaching. These followers of Wyclif       death, 1410. The list which is drawn from Foxe's
received the name Lollards, and the movement               Booh of Martyrs and which is given in Schaff's
spread across England. The leaders of this move-           History of the Christian Church, Volume VI, pp. 353
ment, those who taught his views at Oxford, and            ff. reads like a catalogue of death. Those burned to
those who labored with him in the English transla-         death included "two London merchants, Richard
tion of the Bible, were forced to repudiate their          Turming and John Claydon at Smithfield, 1415;
work, were imprisoned, or were forced to flee              William Taylor, a priest, in 1423 at Smithfield;
England.                                                   William White at Norwich, 1428; Richard Hove-
  The persecution of the .Lollard movement forced          don, a London citizen, 1430; Thomas Bagley, a
it underground, and the elimination of many of its         priest, in the following year; and in 1440, Richard
clerical leaders forced it to become primarily a           Wyche, who had corresponded with Huss . . . Ac-
movement among the laity or common people.                 cording to Foxe there were, 1424-1430, 100 pros-
Their understanding of Wyclif's teachings was not          ecutions for heresy in Norwich alone." Lord
learned but simple, preserving the kernel of the           Cobham, hanged and burned, 1417. In Scotland as
truth. Through the circulation of the Scriptures, by       well, we read of ". . . James Resby, one of Wyclif's
mutual exhortation and teaching, they managed to           poor priests, being burnt at Perth, 1407, and
keep alive what they had received, and to pass it on       another at Glasgow, 1422. In 1433 a Bohemian stu-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              139



dent at St. Andrews, Paul Craw, suffered the same          stake, suffering the same fire as the lowly Lollards
penalty for heresy."                                       of England. Though pressed to retract his views he
  The effect of this persecution was to drive the          refused unless convinced by Scripture, taking the
Lollard movement into the countryside and away             same stand Luther was later to take. A year later
from the larger cities. But still the list continues.      Jerome of Prague suffered the same death. It was
    At Amersham, one of its centres, four were             through Huss that the later reformers would come
    tried in 1462, and some suffered death, as             into contact with the views of Wyclif, though they
    William Barlowe in 1466, and John Goose a              were to reach similar conclusions on their own.
    few years later. In 1507, three were burnt               Religious civil war and bloodshed followed in
    there, including William Tylsworth, the                Bohemia. From its ruins a remnant of the truth was
    leading man of the congregation . . . . The            preserved at the coming of the Reformation. Wyclif
    first woman to suffer martyrdom in Eng-                and Huss, the Lollards and the movements in
    land, Joan Broughton, was burnt at Smith-              England and Bohemia came a century before the
    field, 1494, as was also her daughter, Lady            time which God had appointed to reform His
    Young. Nine Lollards made public penance               church. They were the forerunners of a return to
    at Coventry, 1486, but, as late as 1519, six           Scripture and many among them were called to be
    men and one woman suffered death there.                faithful even unto death. When one considers their
There were others as well whose names and suffer-          history and the price they paid one is struck by the
ings are not known, forerunners of the Reformation         contrast between them and our own indifferent and
and of the sufferings that would follow at the hands       unfaithful. generation.
of an apostate and false church.                             The false church of Rome, which ascribes to
  That same trail of suffering and martyrdom was           itself and its ordinances more authority than the
also found on the Continent of eastern Europe. In          Word of God is stained with all the blood of the
the days of Wyclif an alliance had been formed be-         martyrs of the Reformation from Wyclif until now.
tween the royal houses of England and Bohemia              Its idol, the pope, travels the world, performing the
through marriage. The result was close contact be-         blasphemy of the mass, and is hailed in every land
tween the universities of England and the Universi-        as a great spiritual leader, receiving the worship
ty of Prague, in what is now Czechoslovakia.               and praise of men which is due to God alone. The
Wyclif's views and writings made their impact              leaders of many so-called Protestant churches ap-
there as well as in England. In particular they were       plaud his coming as a spiritual renewal. Again and
appropriated and ably defended by John Huss who            again today we see the Word of God and its authori-
became a lecturer at the University of Prague in           ty set aside, as those who claim to be the spiritual
1398. Huss not only taught in the university but           heirs of Wyclif and the reformers, move to create a
was a powerful and popular preacher as well. With          church in their own image. Wolves enter the sheep-
him labored Jerome of Prague who had studied for           fold of Christ. The people of God are given stones
a time at Oxford. Under their influence the views          for bread, and the keys of the kingdom are not exer-
of Wyclif were widely disseminated and took deep           cised. Too often the Word of God for which the
root.                                                      church suffered and died, lies closed, unstudied, a
                                                           matter of indifference.
  The result was religious turmoil which brought             That Word of God which we have received, and
down upon it the wrath of the church. Huss was             its truth, was sealed with the blood of the martyrs,
charged with heresy, and when he would not sub-            and it testifies against our apostate generation even
mit to the dictates of the church, excommunicated.         as the saints themselves cry before the throne of
The nobles of Bohemia protected Huss for a time,           God, "How long, 0 Lord?" (Revelation 6:9-11).
but finally, at the insistence of the church and with      God has given unto us as their spiritual descen-
a safe'conduct from the king, Huss was summoned            dants to possess that Word and its truth and to
before the general council of the church at Con-           study it in peace and freedom, and to hear it
stance. To this council Huss went willingly, hoping        faithfully preached. Let us treasure it highly, for we
for a fair hearing, relying in part on the assurances      know that the day is coming when the man of sin
and promises of safely from the king, but ready            shall be revealed and it shall be taken from us. And
also, if need be, to seal his confession with his life.    with that day shall also come fire and tribulation.       __-
  The fair hearing for which he had hoped he did           That day we need not fear, for the remnant shall be
not receive. The promises and oaths of the king            saved and the grace of God which preserved them
were not kept. He was mistreated and imprisoned,           in faithfulness also keeps us, and shall keep us, un-
denied access to a Bible, and kept in squalid condi-       to the day of Jesus Christ.
tions for seven months. Finally, unjustly con-
demned to death, he was led out to be burned at the             Give the Standard Bearer!


140                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH



                          The Christian and Work
                                              Rev. Ron Cammenga




  Labor is an institution of God. Like marriage and       Adam. "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast
government, labor is a creation ordinance. The God        hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
Who made man, made man to work. We ought to               eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, say-
work. Work is good for us. We should be thankful          ing, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for
that we can work. We can be sure that we will             thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
work in heaven, in the new creation of God.               of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring
  Gods institution of labor is under serious attack       forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
today from many quarters. There is the pleasure-          field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
madness that has overrun our society with its in-         till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast
evitable disparaging of work. There is the assault of     thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
labor by the modern labor unions which violate            thou return" (Gen. 3:17-19).
every Biblical principle concerning labor. There is         The understanding of this text is important. The
the fact that increasingly women are forsaking their      important thing to notice in this Word of God is
God-assigned place in the home and are going out-         that the curse pronounced upon Adam is NOT the
side of the home to work and pursue careers, some-        curse of labor, as some suppose. The curse is the
thing we hope to discuss in a future article. There is    pain and hardship, the frustration and disappoint-
also, of course, the sinful nature within each one of     ment that will now be connected to man's labor.
us that is tempted to rebel against the will of God in      We find this echoed in the words of Lamech, the
the area of labor, is tempted to laziness or careless-    father of Noah, at the time of Noah's birth, when he
ness in regard to our work.                               said concerning the son whom God had given him,
  There is nothing we so need to be reminded of to-       "This same shall comfort us concerning our work
day as the teaching of God's Word regarding labor.        and toil of our hands, because of the ground which
We can be sure that a great many of our present           the Lord hath cursed" (Gen. 5:29).
physical and economic problems arise from our
failure to observe Gods weekly day of rest. But we          The fourth commandment of Gods law stands as
                                                          the great call of God to the thankful, redeemed
can also be quite sure that a great many of our
economic problems arise from our failure to honor         Christian to labor. It is often forgotten that the
                                                          fourth commandment is a command to labor as
the sanctity of six days of labor. God commands us        well as to rest. In fact, the command to rest is
to labor.                                                 grounded in and arises out of the command first to
  That God calls us to work is plain already from         labor. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy
the account of man's creation. Making man in His          work" (Ex. 20:9). The day of rest has no meaning
own image, God made man to work. In Genesis               except as rest from labor. We may be quite certain
2:15 we read, "And the Lord God took the man,             that the man who disobeys the first aspect of this
and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and       commandment, who is unfaithful in his work, will
to keep it." God gave man work to do in Paradise.         never enjoy the benefits and blessedness of the day
He did not permit the man whom He had created to          of rest.
live in the Garden of Eden doing nothing. But He            The New Testament is equally clear on the
required of Adam that he keep and dress and care          gospel's call to work. In the parables of the pounds
for the Garden.                                           (Luke 19:11-27) and of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30),
  The first mention of the institution of labor after     the Lord calls us to faithful labor in the kingdom.
the fall of man is in the curse pronounced upon           We must not bury our talents or squander our gifts.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               141



The Lord's judgment on the unprofitable servant is          idleness is cloaked in the garb of piety which con-
severe: "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou             siders labor somehow incompatible with the re-
knewest that I reap where I sowed hot, and gather           quirements of communion with God and devotion
where I have not strawed . . . cast ye the unprofit-        to spiritual things, that idleness is only made a
able servant into outer darkness: there shall be            more serious sin still.
weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:26, 30).              There are times, of course, when through no
  The teaching of the Apostle Paul parallels the            fault of our own we are unable to work. Perhaps
teaching of Christ. In Ephesians 4:28 he says, "Let         that's on account of sickness or injury. Or perhaps
him that stole steal no more: but rather let him            it is the case that although we are able to work, the
labor, working with his hands the thing which is            work is just not available. There is nothing shame-
good, that he may have to give to him that                  ful in this. Then it is God Who prevents us from
needeth." In I Thessalonians 4: 11, 12 he ad-               working. And in that case, God has also provided
monishes the Thessalonian Christians: "And that             means for our support, first through the help of
ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business,          relatives (I Tim. 5), and then through the diaconate.
and to work with your own hands, as we com-                    The implication of Scripture's teaching concern-
manded you; that ye may walk honestly toward                ing work is also that our work must be good work.
them that are without, and that ye may have lack of         The Scripture is not only concerned THAT we
nothing."                                                   work, but its concern extends to HOW we work. In
  One of the clearest passages on the Christian's           this area of life too, God requires our very best. Our
calling to work is found in II Thessalonians 3. In II       work must not be halfbaked and slipshod. Our
Thessalonians  3:6 the Apostle admonishes the               work must not be characterized by carelessness
believers to ". . . withdraw yourselves from every          and sloppiness, whether this is our work in school,
brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the          at home, or in the office or factory. The principle
tradition which he received of us." We might at             that too often governs our work is not how good a
first suppose that the Apostle is talking here about        job we can do, but how little we can get by with or
false doctrine, and that he has in mind our calling         how quickly we can get finished. If this is the case
to separate from heretics. Or we might think that           with us then the great motivation that ought to be
Paul has in view some gross, unrepented of sin like         in view in all our life is absent in our work: the
adultery, or idolatry, or theft, or drunkenness. But        glory of God.
the disorderliness that the Apostle has in mind here          We ought to work. In our work, every legitimate
is idleness, laziness. That comes out in verse 11:          area of endeavor is open to the believer. Every
"For we hear that there are some which walk                 legitimate form of work is work that the Christian
among you disorderly, working not at all, but are           may be engaged in. He may be farmer or factory
busybodies." The Apostle's judgment on this dis-            worker, office worker or plumber, carpenter or gar-
orderliness is severe: "For even when we were               bage collector, policeman or doctor, lawyer or
with you, this we commanded you, that if any                store-owner, teacher or preacher, businessman or
would not work, neither should he eat" (verse 10).          mayor. The gospel does not forbid any area of legiti-
The churches today, of course, have no use for this         mate work.
judgment of the Apostle. They consider it to be un-           There are, of course, vocations that for one
charitable and unchristian. And so they launch              reason or another are closed to the people of God. It
their massive programs to feed the derelicts and            is not permitted the child of God to be a profes-
vagrants, and consider that they do a good work.            sional ball player, both from the point of view of
Instead they ought to listen to God's Apostle, "if          the wrong of devoting oneself to a career in sports
any would not work, neither should he eat." The             and also from the point of view of the desecration
sluggard must bear the judgment of God. Our gov-            of the Sabbath Day by those who are involved in
ernment is guilty of the same thing when it pro-            professional sports. It is not permitted God's people
vides welfare for those who are simply too lazy to          to be dancers or movie stars or to pursue careers in
get and to keep a job.                                      which they deliberately and unnecessarily place
  The positive implications of the Apostle's in-            their life in jeopardy.
struction here are plain. It is a mark of faith in Jesus      There is also work which although in itself is not
Christ, an evidence of the sincerity of faith itself,       wrong becomes wrong for the child of God because
that we labor to earn our living and to provide for         of circumstances. Perhaps it's the case that the
the needs of our family. The ethic advanced by the          child of God must join the union, something incon-
New Testament Scriptures is that Christians ought           sistent with the principles of the fifth command-
to work with quietness, and eat their own bread, II         ment. Or perhaps it's the case that in order to have
Thessalonians 3:12. Idleness is sin. And when that          a certain job he must leave a true church for no'


142                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



church at all, or for a church that does not preach       engaged in legitimate work on the Sabbath Day on
the truth. In these cases, the Christian is confronted    that account always to be absent from the worship
squarely with his calling to seek first the kingdom       services of the church. When such legitimate work
of God (Matt. 6:33). He must not take the job that        becomes a frequent hindrance to worship and the
requires that he join the union or leave the church.      use of the means of grace, the Christian and the
It would be wrong for him to do so.                       consistory of such a Christian must draw the line. It
  There are also those careers which, although            has been said that it is legitimate to pull one's ass
legitimate in themselves, pose certain threats to the     out of the ditch on the Sabbath, but it would be
child of God. It is permitted the child of God to be a    wrong to devote one's whole Sabbath to the pulling
doctor, or a nurse, or a policeman. It is even permit-    of asses out of ditches. It's true that from time to
ted that, on account of the work required by these        time our work may justify our absence from the
careers, the child of God occasionally be absent          worship services. But the fact of the matter is that if
from the worship services of the church. The work         we're not there, we're not hearing the preaching of
of these careers is to be considered work of present      the gospel and our faith is not being strengthened.
necessity which is permitted on the Sabbath Day.            Next time we want, the Lord willing, to consider
But there are dangers involved in such careers,           our work as a Divine vocation, and we want to
dangers which our young people ought not to be            discuss the purposes of our labor.
unaware of. It is wrong for even those who are



                                       Book Reviews

THE GLORY OF THE TRUE TABERNACLE, by                      OUR LORD'S PATTERN FOR PRAYER,  by
Rev. George C. Lubbers; Grand Rapids,  Mich.,             Adolph Saphir; Kregel Publications, 1984; 430 pp.,
1984. (674 pages, paperback, $11.00) Reviewed by          $9.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko).
Prof. R.D. Decker.                                           Adolph Saphir was a Presbyterian minister in
  Rev. Lubbers, who has faithfully served his Lord        Scotland who lived from 1831-1891. In his day he
for some fifty years in the ministry of the Word in       was much admired and sought after, and has left
the Protestant Reformed Churches, needs no intro-         his church with a legacy of sermons and other
duction to Protestant Reformed readers. His wide          writings.
and varied experience as a pastor, preacher, and            In the forward, prepared by Warren W. Wiersbe,
missionary (both domestic and foreign) is every-          the following is said of the book:
where apparent in this fine commentary on the
Epistle to the Hebrews. In this book one finds solid            Originally published as Lectures on the
exegesis from the Greek text. At the same time, the           Lord's Prayer, this book is one of the best on
expositions are clear and understandable to the               that very special portion of Scripture. There
"person in the pew." This commentary will prove               are many volumes written by various au-
useful for personal Bible study as well as for the            thors on this prayer, but too often they go to
preacher. Rev. Lubbers is a student of the Holy               one of two extremes: either they are so "de-
Scriptures to whom the Lord has given profound in-            votional" that they are doctrinally shallow,
sights into the Word.                                         or so "technical" that they never touch the
                                                              heart. Saphir manages to blend pastoral
  I take this opportunity to congratulate my col-
league and friend in the Lord on the publication of           warmth with good exegesis to produce a
this commentary. There are few really -good com-              book for both the head and the heart. I es-
mentaries which are of benefit to both preacher               pecially appreciate the insights he gives
                                                              from Jewish lore and custom.
and lay person. This is one of the few.                         Best of all, Saphir magnifies the Person of
         Read and Study                                       our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the reading of
                                                              this book is almost an experience of wor-
   The Standard Bearer.                                       ship. I commend it to you, not only for per-
                                                              sonal study, but for personal growth in
                                                              grace.


                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                               143



  These are fairly strong words of recommenda-            William Edward Chadwick (1858-1934),  a child
tion. Nevertheless, the book is good and we recom-      of the manse, was an Anglican clergyman.
mend it. It will be of use for our ministers who          This book ought to be read by every seminary
preach on the Lord's Prayer in connection with the      student and candidate for the ministry. It ought to
Heidelberg Catechism to give them fresh insights        be read and re-read by experienced ministers. It
and new avenues of thought on this subject; but it      would be helpful, as well, for the ruling elders of
will also serve as good devotional reading for Gods     the church.
people.
  One must be careful of the author's millennial        THE PRIMER ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST, by
views in connection with his discussion of the king-    John H. Gerstner; Presbyterian and Reformed Pub-
dom.                                                    lishing Company, 1984; 38 pp., $1.75. (Reviewed
                                                        by Prof. H. Hanko).
PASTORAL TEACHING OF PAUL, by W. Ed-
ward Chadwick; Kregel Publications, Grand                 This is another in John Gerstner's series on the
Rapids, MI, 1984; 394 pp., (paper). (Reviewed by        cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. It is writ-
Prof. R.D. Decker).                                     ten in dialogue form and presents the proof for the
                                                        deity ,of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  This book treats the following subjects: The Min-
ister of Christ, A Workman; The Pastor and His            The book is excellent and we highly recommend
Pastorate (the minister's conception of himself, the    it. It offers some original and unusual proofs of
minister's conception of those to whom he mini-         Christ's divinity, emphasizing that many of Jesus'
sters); Concepts of Ministry; The Address To The        statements make sense only on the basis of His
Ephesian Elders At Miletus; The Love of Souls; The      divinity. It offers proof also from Jesus' moral
Motive Power of Ministry (I Cor. 13); The Prayers       teaching and from the fact that He alone is the
of Paul (an excellent chapter which includes an ex-     power by which His moral precepts can be kept.
egesis of five of the recorded prayers of the           Gerstner also makes it clear that one can believe in
Apostle); Paul On Preaching (another excellent          the deity of Christ only when God reveals this to a
chapter); Paul On Prophecy; Paul On Wisdom. In-         man; it is a matter of faith and of faith alone. An in-
cluded is an index on Scripture passages expounded      teresting explanation is given of Jesus' question:
and cited in the work.                                  "Why callest thou me good?"
  This is good, meaty pastoral theology based on          The value of the book would have been increas-
sound exegesis. Strikingly enough the book does         ed if the author had included Scriptural references.
not deal with the pastoral epistles, but is based on      We  recommand this book to our readers as a
the ministry of the Apostle as recorded in the Book     valuable addition to home libraries and as a suc-
of Acts and the Epistles.                               cinct summary of the proof for our Lords divinity.



                       News From Our Churches
                                            November 15,1984



  Rev. W. Bekkering has accepted the call to Faith      Him Whom We Have Believed," which is a study
Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. C. Haak has            of the different names of our Savior. Family Radio
declined the call from Hull Protestant Reformed         is on station WFME, 94.7 FM in the New Jersey
Church. This means that of this writing three           area.
churches in Classis  West are vacant: Hull, Lynden,       If you would like a copy of Rev. VanOverloop's
and Trinity in Houston, Texas. Rev. and Mrs. H.         Reformation speech, "Reformation and Receiving
Veldman left for Lynden, Washington, where Rev.         the Word Preached," then contact either Mr. Bob
Veldman will be preaching until December 16.            Moelker (616-452-5753) or Mr. Bob Faber (616-94%
  Rev. R. Hanko gave a series of messages on Fami-      7038). Each copy of the tape is $3.00.       '
ly Radio on the program! "In His Presence" Novem-         Prof. Hoeksema also gave his speech, "The Sig-
ber 5-9. The theme of his messages was "Knowing         nificance of the Secession of 1834 for Reformed

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




                                              "
                                            : :             .___-                    I  -_.;:.;:e  &
                                             .;.~...-~,~:-`.:-...":   +--  -`=;i'-;  ---  .--  . .~ .--y..;- L    .;-.;;

1 4 4                                                        THE  STANDARD BEARER

Churches Today," to the Mr. & Mrs. League Meet-                                             list so that people in the same area can become
ing held in Faith Church, November 13, 1984. Rev.                                           aware of each other. They find it difficult to choose
Haak spoke to the Eastern Men's and Ladies'                                                 who will receive a response since the people who
League on "How To Be Effective In Personal Wit-                                             send for requests must do so at a substantial per-
ness," October 16, at Southwest Church.                                                     sonal expense.
    On Saturday, November 17, the ground-breaking                                                Rev. K. Hanko's new address is 17 Miami Road,
ceremony was held for the new Heritage Protestant                                           Norristown, PA 19403. Telephone number 215-
Reformed Christian School of Hudsonville. The                                               630-0491.
School will be located on 40th Ave. between                                                      In regards to First Church's building of a new
Chicago Drive and New Holland Street in Hudson-                                             church, Rev. Joostens writes as follows, in "Across
ville. Plans are to have this new school ready by                                           the Aisle" : "This will be the house where we can
this coming September. The new principal will be                                            faithfully come to be fed with the bread of life,
announced in the near future.                                                               which is broken for us. Here we bring our children,
    At the October 17 Council Meeting, the Organ                                            teaching them to sit still and learn to appreciate
Committee of Hope Church submitted its recom-                                               with us the wonders of Gods glory! Here we will
mendations for purchasing a new organ. Informa-                                             teach them to sing with us His praises. We have
tion regarding these recommendations was made                                               determined to build a house for the Name of the
available to the congregation prior to their annual                                         Lord, and for the furtherance of His kingdom in our
congregational meeting.                                                                     midst. We have reason to ,praise Him for making
    The Reformed Witness Committee of Hope                                                  this possible."
Church is presently working on the preliminaries                                                 Rev. George Hutton wrote in a letter, "We are
to publishing a new pamphlet written by Rev. R.                                             still seeking to battle away here in Larne by the
Harbach. They also continue to send many packets                                            grace and help of the Lord. Things are not getting
of literature and tapes to Ghana, West Africa. Since                                        any easier . . . .
they receive many more requests from overseas                                                     "The people of the Lord are an afflicted people
than they are able to fill, they have been trying to                                        wherever their lot is cast but we know that in the
identify organizations or individuals who can func-                                         midst of all our trials and tribulations we are kept
tion as local distributors of Protestant Reformed                                           by the power of God through faith . . . . "
material. They are also consolidating their mailing                                                                                                            DH

                                                                                                                            NOTICE!!!
                            NOTICE!!!                                                            The newly organized Heritage Christian School of Hudsonville,
    In view of Classis East meeting at Southeast Protestant Reformed                         Michigan is in need of teachers for grades K through 9 for the 1985-
Church on January 9, 1985, the consistory of Southeast invites all                           1986 School Year.
male confessing members to the Officebearer's Conference in our
church at 8:00 p.m. on January 8, 1985. Professor H. Hanko will                                  Please contact Mr. Ervin Kortering, 253 East 19th St., Holland,
speak on "The Elders' Role in Family Visitation." A period of                                Michigan 49423. Phone number is (616) 396-4966.
fellowship will follow in the church basement.                                                                                                Erv. Kortering, Sec'y.

                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                                                       NOTICE!!!
    On January 3, 1985, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.                              The two books  - "FREEBORN SONS OF SARAH" and "THE
WM. HOKSBERGEN of Hull, Iowa will observe their 50th wedding an-                             GLORY OF THE TRUE TABERNACLE" can be obtained by writing to
niversary.                                                                                  the author, Rev. George C. Lubbers, 2074 Cranbrook Dr., N.E.,
   We, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are                             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505.
thankful to our Heavenly Father for the years He has given them                                  Price per copy is $5.63 and $11.86 (postage included) respec-
together and for the covenant care and instruction they have given                          tively. These books make excellent gifts to give to relatives and
us. It is our prayer that they may continue to experience the blessings                     friends. The books can also be obtained at the Baker Book House and
of our faithful God.                                                                         Kregel's Book Store in Grand Rapids.
    "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
that that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children."                                                        NOTICE!!!
(Psalm 103:17)                                                                                   Classis East will meet in regular session on January 9, 1985, at
John and Lori Hoksbergen              Ken and Doris                                          the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church. Material to be treated at
Bill and Harriet Jansma               23 grandchildren                                       this session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk at least three
Henry and Jane Hoksbergen             10 great-grandchildren                                 weeks prior to the convening of this meeting.
Don and Bonnie Hoksbergen                                                                                                                John Huisken, Stated Clerk


