           The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                      Y





     .  .  . What we must be convinced of as Chris-

     tians is that mothers ought not t9 work out-
     side of their homes, not first of all because of
     the bad results of this for society or for them-
     selves, but because this is forbidden by the
     Word of God.
            See ' `Working Mothers' ' - page 187





h                                              Vol. LXI, No. 8, January 15, 1985  -


170                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                             ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                               Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
  Meditation  -                                                                                           d
                                                                                                    Secon Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                Editor-in-Chit?/7 Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Go and Tell the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170        Department  Editors:  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editorial  -                                                                  D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
                                                                                Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering, Rev. George C.
       One Hundred Fifty Years and Sixty . . . . . . . . . .173                 Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                ma, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman  Veldman.

  Special Report  -                                                             Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
       Trip to the British Isles (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175                         4975  Ivanrest Ave.  SW.
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MEDITATION


                                       Go and Tell the Church
                                                                      Rev. C. Hanko



                  Ques. 85: How is the kingdom of heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline?
                  Ans.: Thus; when according to the command of Christ, those who under the name of chris-
               tians, maintain doctrines, or practices inconsistent therewith, and will not, after having been
               often brotherly admonished, renounce their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of
               to the church, or to those, who are thereunto appointed by the church; and if they despise their
               admonitions, are by them forbidden the use of the sacraments, whereby they are excluded from
               the Christian church, and by God Himself from the kingdom of Christ; and when they promise
               and show real amendment, are again received as members of Christ and of His church.
                                                                                                                                   Lord's Day 31


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               171



  Sin brings untold misery into the church.                has anything against me, it is my duty to go to him,
  The sinner is miserable. He knows that he is             according to Matthew 523, 24. I may never say, let
depriving himself of his peace with God. He suffers        him come to me. If I have anything against a
untold agonies, especially as he tosses and turns          brother, it is my duty to go to him. There is no
throughout the long, sleepless hours of the night.         escape from this duty. Never may we take the Cain
His prayers choke in his throat. To silence the voice      attitude, "Am I my brother's keeper?" No excuse
of conscience he continuously argues with himself,         may keep me from carrying out my duty. What a
justifying the very actions that he would condemn          grief would be spared to God's church, if the love
in others. Admit it or not, he is enslaved in the bond-    of Christ always impelled us to hate sin to such a
age of sin, from which he knows no escape. Those           degree that we would oppose it whenever it lifts its
three words: I have sinned, are so difficult to utter.     vile head among us!
Even more difficult it is for him to forsake his sin          For we do have a communal responsibility
and make his peace with God.                               toward one another. Jesus warns us of this when
  The other person (or persons) who knows about            He says, "Take heed to yours&es; if thy brother
this sin is also miserable. He is grieved, yet he bears    trespass against thee . .  ." (Luke  17:3).  We know
his grief alone, rather than divulge his knowledge         about a certain sin of a fellow saint. We ignore it.
to anyone. He finds his refuge in prayer for the err-      Or we gossip about it. How much easier it is to tell
ing brother or sister who has fallen victim to the         others than to face the guilty party! We ourselves
wiles of Satan. Impelled by the love of Christ, he         become guilty. Especially because we ignore our
wrestles in prayer day and night, and then proceeds        communal responsibility.
to carry out the unpleasant, difficult task of one sin-      We read of this communal responsibility more
ner admonishing another. Realizing more than ever          often in Scripture. One clear evidence of it appears
the power of sin, he goes to his brother again and         when Israel has entered Canaan and has conquered
again. He knows that the more public this sin              Jericho. We read, "But the children of Israel com-
becomes, the more difficult becomes the reconcilia-        mitted a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan . .
tion. Finally, he seeks out a proper witness, maybe        . took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the
two, in order to confirm that he is right in making        Lord was kindled against the children of Israel"
the charges, and that he has dealt with the sinner in      (Joshua 7: 1). Here is an instance where one of the
true humility and Christian love. By the word of           people sinned, even without the knowledge of the
two or three witnesses will every word be estab-           others, yet the entire congregation is held responsi-
lished.                                                    ble. The Lord would not give them the promised
  At this point he may think that he has carried out       land until they had put away the evil by punishing
his duty. Why involve himself in this painful task         Achan and his family with stoning (vs. 26). Are we
any longer? But Jesus says, "If he shall neglect to        possibly inclined to think too lightly of sin in
hear  them, tell it unto the church." Others have          ourselves and in our fellow saints?
become involved. The witness has not merely                  This communal responsibility weighed heavily
served as a silent observer, but is also grieved by        on Daniel, who as a young man was taken captive
the sin that persists among the members of the             into Babylon. In the 9th chapter of his prophecy he
church. Together they tell it to the church, that is,      weeps and makes confession before the face of God
to the representative body of the church, the elders,      for all Israel and Judah. "We have sinned, and have
We may ask, but what if the guilty party is a dear         committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and
friend, a close relative, or even a member of the          have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts
family, a wayward son? That question sends us to           and from thy judgments. . . . 0 Lord, righteousness
the Scriptures, to Deuteronomy 21:15-21,  which in-        belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces,
structs the parents of the old dispensation in regard      as at this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhab-
to their calling over against a rebellious son. True,      itants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel" (vss. 5, 7).
we live in a different dispensation, but the under-        Does not Jesus teach us to pray, "And forgive us OUT
lying principle of the duty of the parent determines       debts, as we forgive OUY debtors"?
our calling also today. Even if we are dealing with a        Sin is transgression of God's law, a violation of
member of the family, sin may never be ignored,            His love, an offence against His Most High Majesty.
much less condoned. We may ask, in turn, who is            That is what makes sin such a serious matter. But
capable of carrying this out? To which the answer          sin also spreads like a contagious disease through
is, no one of himself, but we must pray for grace,         the congregation, if it is not nipped in the bud. And
rather than prove unfaithful to our God!                   who can put his hand in his own bosom and not
  Our mutual responsibility toward one another as          find it leprous when he takes it out? The church
members of God's church never ceases. If anyone            becomes involved. Therefore the church must be


172                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



told by reporting an unconfessed, persistent sin to       membership papers. Often relatives and friends
the elders. Personally, we must still continue to         will encourage him to do so, in order to avoid fur-
storm the throne  od grace, seeking mercy for the         ther disgrace. In this day of spiritual laxity there is
wandering sheep, if so be that God will still save;       some church that will accept him, regardless of the
which, indeed, he will certainly do, unless this per-     offence. Yet this is so very wrong! At that solemn
son is not a sheep of His fold. Therefore we always       moment when he made confession of his faith
pray in submission to the divine will.                    before God and the church he promised, if ever
  Church discipline differs when it is applied to a       that should prove necessary, to submit to church
baptized member and when it is applied to a con-          discipline. Now he breaks that vow! He tries to run
fessing member. In both instances the faithful            away from God, much as Jonah did when he re-
elders never weary of visiting the unfaithful mem-        fused to go to Nineveh, but that is impossible. It is
ber. In both instances the offender is spared as          Christ who exercises His discipline through the
much publicity as possible. But the various steps of      church. To turn against Christ is nothing less than
censure which are applied to a confessing member          exercising the keys of the kingdom, excommunica-
are not used in dealing with a baptized member.           tion on one's self.
After repeated admonitions, in which the sinner             After many visits and admonitions by the elders,
becomes the more adamant and resentful, the con-          without obtaining the desired results, the  con-
sistory proceeds, upon the advice of  classis,  to        sistory is forced to proceed to the second step of
"erase" him from their membership. The word               censure. Before this is carried out, the advice of
"erase" leaves one with a bad taste. It gives the im-     classis is sought, even as isdone in the instance of a
pression that the baptized member is only a               baptized member. At this point the name of the of-
member of the church in a purely formal sense, and        fender, as well as his  offence, is announced to the
that his removal is nothing more than applying the        congregation, for a twofold reason. First, the con-
eraser to his name in the membership books. This          gregation must be aware of the fact that discipline
is certainly not the case. He has been in the realm       involves all of us, so that we are urged to pray for
of the covenant, has the sign of baptism on his fore-     the erring member of the church and to admonish
head, and will, therefore, receive greater condem-        him whenever possible. Second, emphasis falls on
nation for having known the way and not having            the fact, that discipline is intended, not to destroy,
walked in it.                                             but to save. Often the guilty party complains of be-
  In the case of a confessing member the discipline       ing harassed and takes on a leave-me-alone at-
is much more protracted. There is, first of all, the      titude. He still must be made aware that the church
"silent censure," in which the erring brother is still    is compelled by the love of Christ to make him
not exposed, at least not any more than the case re-      realize the seriousness of his'sin and its terrible con-
quires. At the same time, he is made aware of the         sequences.
consequences of his stubborn resistance to all ad-          Finally, and reluctantly, the consistory proceeds
monition. He is withdrawing himself from the com-         to the "final remedy." The sinner is warned, and
munion of saints, from God's church, and from             the congregation is informed, that, unless there is a
God Himself. Unless he repents, the outcome will          sincere repentance even at this late date, the
only be disastrous.                                       church, in the name of Christ, will proceed to the
  If this person persists in his waywardness, even        painful task of excommunication, declaring this
after repeated admonitions by the elders, a public        person to be as a "heathen and publican," outside
announcement is made, informing the congrega-             of the kingdom. When the Form for excommunica-
tion officially that sin is present among them. But       tion is read there is aroused in the heart of every
even now the name is withheld, still protecting him       sincere child of God the consciousness of his own
from public exposure. The objection has been              wretchedness and sinfulness, with the prayer for
raised, that if the name of the erring brother is         mercy and grace, for "let him who stands beware
withheld, it proves impossible for the congregation       lest he fall."
to pray for him. Or, if the name is not known, the          We can close on a more pleasant note. There is
wrong person may be brought under suspicion. To           always the possibility that this person is a lost
those objections must be answered, that the congre-       sheep that has wandered far from the fold, but
gation should not busy itself at this point with the      whom God in mercy brings back with sincere
party involved, but rather with the sin that remains      repentance. There is joy in heaven over the lost that
unconfessed among them; over that sin we grieve           was found. Who of us would not welcome the prod-
and raise our voices to heaven!                           igal son back into Father's House?
  At this stage, sometimes earlier, the offender               Give The Standard Bearer!
tries to escape further discipline by asking for his


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                            173



EDITORIAL



          One Hundred Fifty Years and Sixty
                                             Prof H.C. Hoeksema





[Editor's note: This is the text of my address           One Hundred Fifty Years and Sixty:
delivered Sept. 27, 1984, at our Hudsonville Prot.       Their Meaning
Ref. Church to commemorate the Sixtieth Anniver-           One cannot understand the  Afscheiding  and its
sary of our Standard Bearer. This year, 1985, marks      significance except against the background of the
the Sixtieth Anniversary of our Protestant Re-           appalling decline in the Reformed Church in the
formed Churches; but the Standard Bearer, which          Netherlands which preceded it. The Synod of
played a part in the origin of our churches, is ac-      Dordt undoubtedly marks the high point in the
tually older than our denomination.]                     establishment of the Reformed faith in the Nether-
  We are gathered this evening to commemorate            lands. But  ahnost from the time of the synod for-
the Sixtieth Anniversary of our Standard Bearer. On      ward, and especially from about 1640 onward,
this evening, the twenty-seventh of September,           there is an absolutely appalling history of decline.
1984, we stand not at the beginning of our sixtieth      When we compare the church at the time of the
year, but at the end. The final issue of Volume 60       Secession with the church at the time of Dordt, it is
has been published, and with the October 1 issue         almost difficult to believe that they are the same
we begin our sixty-first year. The Lord has  privi-      Reformed Church.
ledged us to publish our magazine for sixty years.
This is something, I think, which no one would have        This decline was first of all of a doctrinal
foreseen at the time of the enthusiastic but humble      character. It ran all the way from dead orthodoxy
beginnings of our magazine and which many                and dead confessionalism through pietism and wild
thought utterly impossible. Even as many predicted       examples of false mysticism and a form of dispensa-
(was the wish father to the thought?) that our Prot-     tionalism to rationalism and its denial first of the
estant Reformed Churches would die an early              authority of the Word of God and then of the most
death, so it was also thought that the  Standard         fundamental truths of the Christian faith. We can-
Bearer  would perish and be gone in a short time.        not now enter into detail concerning this history.
But here we are  - after sixty years! And this is        But we call attention especially to the fact that dur-
reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving, not to men,       ing the eighteenth century Rationalism, which
but to our faithful covenant God!                        makes sinful human reason the highest court of ap-
                                                         peal in all thought, found its way into the
  The occasion tonight is a double anniversary,          Lowlands. Under its influence, especially in the
and this accounts for my subject. We are very near       universities, reason claimed the sole right of
to the actual anniversary of the  Afscheiding,  the      supremacy in theology: what was not logically and
Secession of 1834, in the Netherlands. That will be      rationally understandable and demonstrable was
one hundred fifty years ago on October 13 and 14.        dismissed as unknowable. The miraculous was
That accounts for the "One Hundred Fifty Years"          laughed out of court, and God out of the universe.
in my subject. The other, the Sixty Years, as I said,    The possibility of revelation and the divinity of the
refers to the sixtieth anniversary of our magazine.      Bible were denied. Christ was degraded into a mere
And the two are related. They are related not only       man. The faith of the church was vain. And the
because the sixty years is part of the time-span of      church succumbed to this influence, chiefly
the one hundred fifty. But they are related in a very    because it made the fundamental mistake of at-
direct way, both historically and as to doctrinal and    tempting to meet rationalism on its own ground.
church political principles.                             The result was that the most fundamental truths
  To this I wish to call your attention.                 were denied: truths such as the deity of Christ, His


174                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



resurrection, His vicarious atonement, the Trinity.     of the well-known representative assemblies of
And they were denied, mind you, in the very             classis, particular synod, and general synod.
schools where the future ministers of the churches      Hierarchy and collegialism of the worst kind pre-
were being trained! Characteristically Reformed         vailed. And, as might be expected, these hier-
truths, such as sovereign predestination and total      archical boards were in the control of the liberal
depravity, were not even in the picture. The result     majority in the church, as always happens.
was that before long there was even a large degree        It is not difficult to understand, in the light of the
of ignorance concerning these truths among those        above, that the situation was ripe for the suppres-
ministers who could be classified as orthodox. Rev.     sion and persecution of the faithful remnant.
Hendrik de Cock is an example of this: it was only
as pastor of Ulrum, where he was instructed by            There was such a remnant. There always is an
others, some of them members of his congregation,       ever-abiding remnant: God takes care of that! There
that he came to a clearly Reformed position. What       were people of God in the towns and villages of the
we would call modernism, or liberalism, today           Netherlands who still confessed the truth, who
became common in what had been the stronghold           desired to keep their heritage at all costs, and who
of the Reformation. Christ was the ideal man.           pined away because of the rampant apostasy.
Salvation was deliverance from wrong ideas. Sanc-         But when they raised their voices in protest, or
tification meant to be delivered from bad habits.       when they wrote against the heresies and the
The truth was lost! The church was largely dead!        heretics of the day, or when they sought baptism
  Imagine! This took place in the churches of           for the infants in a congregation where they could
Dordt! In the course of some 200 years!                 honestly answer the questions asked of parents at
  It is necessary to mention this bit of history        baptism (particularly the question, "Whether you
because sometimes the struggle of the Secession of      acknowledge the doctrine . . . which is taught here
1834 has been reduced to one concerning the intro-      in this Christian Church to be the true and perfect
duction of so-called evangelical hymns in addition      doctrine of salvation?"), they were persecuted.
to the psalms. This is not true! The so-called hymn-    Such was the case in Ulrum, Province of  Gron-
question was indeed an issue, but not the funda-        ingen, where Hendrick de Cock was pastor. Prior to
mental one. In some instances it became the occa-       1834 he had been suspended for his opposition to
sion of separation, not a leading cause.                the liberalism in the churches, suspended without
                                                        salary; and he was under sentence of deposition
  Paired with this doctrinal decline was a change       from office. [The story of the Rev. de Cock is inter-
and decline from a church political point of view.      esting all by itself, but to tell it here would take us
  Shortly before the time of the Secession the          too far afield.]
Dutch church had become in the full sense of the          That brings us to the Secession proper.
term a State Church, so that the State governed and
controlled the affairs of the church completely.          It began with the signing of the Act of Separation
                                                        by some 260 members of the congregation in a
  Already at the time of the Synod of Dordrecht in      meeting at the home of the Widow Hulshof on the
1618-19 there was a considerable degree of such in-     evening of October 14, 1834. It would be interest-
terference by the civil government, as is well          ing to study that entire document in detail: for it
known. In fact, there was a considerable degree of      embodies the fundamental principles of the
such governmental control built into the Church         Afscheiding. But time does not permit such a study
Order of Dordt, though not enough to satisfy the        now. Let me summarize that "Act of Separation or
government. It was the latter fact which became         Return":
the reason why the Church Order of Dordt was
never approved by the State and why there was no        1) The document states that this small group was
national synod convened again after Dordt.              separating with finality from the Netherlands Re-
                                                        formed Church.
  But when the Netherlands was liberated from
the French domination and King William I took the       2) It speaks clearly of the reason: the cause lay in
throne again in 1816, the Dutch church became a         the corruption of the State Church, in the degener-
State Church in the full sense of that term. The        ating of doctrine, the profaning of the sacraments,
government  - ultimately the king  - was in full        in the horrible neglect of discipline. In a word: in
control. Representative assemblies in the govern-       the departure from the marks of the true church,
ment of the church were abolished. Classical            Art. 29 of the Confession.
boards of directors, provincial boards, and a na-       3) It rejects the suspension and deposition of Rev.
tional synod at the top, all of them ultimately         de Cock, and calls that suspension and deposition
responsible to the royal government took the place      ungodly.


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              175



4) It declares that recent history makes it plain that    6) It declares a willingness to have communion
the State Church is the false church.                     with all true Reformed members and to unite with
                                                          every  ,gathering that is based on God's Word, and
5) It declares that by virtue of the office of            declares that they hold to God's holy Word and to
believers, Article 28 of the Confession of Faith,         the Forms of Unity which are in all things based on
they separate from those who are not the church,          that Word. [A translation of the Act of Secession or
and want no fellowship with the Netherlands Re-           Return was published in the Feb. 15, 1984 issue.]
formed Church until it returns to the true service of
the Lord.                                                   Such was the beginning of the  Afscheiding  one
                                                          hundred fifty years ago.            (to be continued)

SPECIAL REPORT



                       Trip to the British Isles (2)
                                                 Prof: H. Hanko





[Editor's note: This is the second installment of Pro-    from the congregation in Larne, Ireland. Most of
fessor Hanko's interesting account of a tour by him       the members and the pastor were originally part of
and Rev. D. Engelsma in behalf of our  synodical          a denomination called The Wesleyan Reform
Contact Committee to the United Kingdom. The              Church, a denomination which has its roots in the
previous installment dealt with their visit to Ulster.    Wesleyan Revivals which swept England. This con-
The scene now changes to England.]                        gregation separated from the denomination of
   From Ireland we went to England, particularly to       which it was a part for especially two reasons: 1)
visit a small and independent congregation in Barn-       the denomination had become very liberal; 2) the
sley in South Yorkshire. Before  travellmg to  Barn-      denomination practiced "christening" instead of
sley, however, we made a hurried trip to Edinburgh        baptism. To christen is to sprinkle water on a baby,
in Scotland to visit briefly with Rev. Sinclair Horne,    but not as a sign of the covenant; rather it means in-
who is Secretary of the Scottish Reformation Socie-       corporation into the visible church and is closely
ty. He is also pastor of a small Reformed Presbyter-      associated with baptismal regeneration. Christen-
ian Church in Scotland. While we could not stay           ing is performed for any baby whose parents re-
long, it became clear that the Scottish Reformation       quest it, whether or not such parents attend church
Society is attempting to maintain the Reformed            regularly, walk a Christian life, and manifest them-
faith in Scotland, but that it is a difficult battle      selves as people of God. Revolting against this
because of the apostasy, worldliness, and spiritual       ungodly practice, the congregation of Barnsley
indifference of the people. This is true in Scotland      withdrew from the denomination, but also, as a
and England as a whole. One could not help but be         reaction to christening, abandoned the whole prac-
reminded of the words of Latimer, an English Re-          tice of infant baptism.
former of the 16th Century, which he spoke while            But the pastor became acquainted with  Calvin-
he and his colleague Ridley were being burned at          istic writings in his studies and particularly became
the stake for their faith: "Be of good comfort,           acquainted with our own Protestant Reformed pub-
Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day        lications. Through the reading and study of them he
light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I     became persuaded that the Reformed faith is
trust shall never be put out." Apart from a few           Biblical, and he began to teach these truths to his
isolated groups, the candle in England has gone out!      people. Through correspondence with some of our
   The congregation in Barnsley, with its pastor,         ministers, he also developed close personal ties
Rev. Philip  Rawson,  has a history quite different       with some of our Protestant Reformed people. The


176                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



result is that his congregation has come a long way       wanting very much to be a part of a Reformed con-
towards the Reformed faith since the days they left       gregation, can find no church in Bristol with which
the Wesleyan Reform Church.                               to affiliate, which consistently maintains the Re-
  In Barnsley too our time was occupied with              formed faith. One of the men of this group
many meetings. We preached in Pastor  Rawson's            publishes (I think privately and at his own expense)
congregation on the Saturday night we arrived, on         a paper entitled,  The, Presbyterian,  in which a
the evening of the Lord's Day, and on the following       defense is made of the Presbyterian faith and
Tuesday evening, just before our departure on             church polity. (Some of our readers might be in-
Wednesday. The whole of Monday was taken up               terested in obtaining this worthwhile paper.) At any
by a ministers' conference in which we delivered          rate, we spent a long and good meeting with these
two speeches: one on "The Christian and the Law"          people of God discussing again our own Protestant
- a burning issue among Reformed Baptists, many           Reformed distinctives and answering many ques-
of whom were present at the conference, and the           tions concerning our stand on common grace, the
other on "Evangelism and the Reformed Faith."             restraint of sin, the internal and gracious operation
Once again there was opportunity to present our           of the Spirit in the hearts of all men, and the well-
own distinctive position with respect to the doc-         meant offer of the gospel. There was also oppor-
trines of grace as they related to the question of        tunity to talk about our covenant views, something
common grace and the well-meant offer. The ladies         which was particularly appealing to these people
of Barnsley congregation, which congregation is           and something which they discussed avidly. What
called the Measbro Dyke Evangelical Church, pre-          the Lord has in store for these people we cannot
pared a delicious lunch, which gave further oppor-        now know.
tunity for discussion and fellowship. The meeting           That brings us almost to the end of the story.
was extremely profitable because it gave us another       There are a few notes of interest which our readers
opportunity to clear away misunderstandings con-          might enjoy hearing about.
cerning our churches.                                       One thing about England which struck us very
  On Monday evening we met with the Board of              forcibly was that many things are very old, far
Deacons (the ruling body of the congregation) to          older than in our relatively young country. There
discuss what could be done in the way of closer           are churches, e.g., which date, at least in part, back
church relationships. It was an especially enjoyable      to Norman times - the middle of the 11th Century.
evening, partly because it gave us opportunity to         There are walls still intact in the city of York which
get to know some of the men of the congregation           were built by the Romans when the Roman Empire
more intimately, partly because it revealed to us         was still intact and extended its rule to part of the
how far the congregation had come in the work of          British Isles. This gives to many in England a sense
reform in the church, and partly because it gave us       of history which we lack in this country.
opportunity to discuss with them questions of the         Many of these old buildings and sites are closely
truth with which they are not as yet completely           connected with the Reformation in England of the
familiar. The possibilities of closer relationships       16th and 17th Centuries. It was for us a great thrill
with this congregation in the future are very real.       to stand where the first Presbyterian Church was
  We were moved once again by the hospitality             built in Ireland in 1610; to explore the castle in Car-
and friendship of God's people in Barnsley, by how        rickfergus which is called, "Prince Billy's Castle"
much we were at home in their fellowship, by the          after King William of Orange from the Netherlands,
eager reception to our preaching, and by the serious      who briefly ruled in England and Ireland; to ex-
determination of the congregation to be Biblical          plore St. Magdalen's Chapel where John Knox met
and Reformed in their confession and walk. It was         with other elders and drew up the Scot's Confes-
with heavy hearts that we said farewell to them           sion of Faith in 1620; to stand on the spot where
after the worship service on Tuesday evening.             many martyrs were hanged for their faith; to walk
  There was one more rather important and inter-          in the Jerusalem room of Westminster Abbey
esting meeting in which we participated. Our              where the Westminster Confessions were com-
readers must understand that there were others in         posed.
England with whom we would have liked to visit,             It is also interesting that many of the more con-
but could not for lack of time. But we did manage to      servative denominations and congregations include
go to Bristol, a city about 120 miles straight west of    as part of their ministry a Christian Bookshop, in
London. Here a small group of three couples and           which they sell books of value for the Reformed
two young adults were gathered for a meeting              faith. Many of the Puritan writers can be purchased
which we held on Thursday evening of our last             in these Bookshops and our own RFPA publications
week in the British Isles. These three couples,           are also sold. We visited four separate such  Book-


                  -_                      THE STANDARD  BEAR&                                            - 177



shops in our stay. It struck us as an effective and       In these "last days" God has given us the
important way to distribute Reformed literature.        privilege of bringing His truth to others, of coming
  While our chief reason for going to England was       into contact with other believers throughout the
to visit with and work in the congregations of          world who have a like precious faith with us, and of
Larne, Ireland and Barnsley, England, an excep-         enjoying fellowship with them. We live too near
tionally important benefit of the trip was that the     the end of time for large numbers to come to the
Lord opened many doors for us to bring the truth of     faith; but there are small groups here and there
Scripture to others. We had abundant opportunity        who love the Lord and His truth. They look to us
to clear up, in the minds of many, misunderstand-       for fellowship and help in their own struggles to
ings concerning our churches and to present the         maintain the truth.
truth of Gods covenant which is our own unique            All this puts upon us heavy responsibilities. One
heritage. These we were thankful for; the Lord gave     surely is that we appreciate with humble thanks-
us opportunities which we had not anticipated to        giving to God what He has so graciously given to
do these things, and it is our earnest prayer that      us. Another is that we hold fast to this truth with all
God will make them fruitful.                            our hearts in our confession and life. Another is
  It became evident in our contacts that our heri-      that we help in every way that we can those who
tage of the everlasting covenant of grace is a very     look to us in their need.
precious truth, a truth which is that which makes         May God bless our churches and may God bless
us uniquely Reformed, but also a truth which many       His saints in the British Isles who struggle so
are attracted to and which they eagerly receive. We     valiantly for the faith and who are the real hope of
must be thankful for this heritage and maintain and     the Reformed truth in their land.
develop it.

THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                           Human Craftiness and
                                Divine Faithfulness
                                             Rev. John A. Heys





  The golden sceptre was extended to Esther, and        quest, and that she should not be afraid to make
she began to breathe more freely. She had come          such a request. She found him to be in a very pleas-
before the king uncalled for; and had he not extend-    ant mood. And she found this because God cannot
ed that golden rod to her she would have been ex-       forget His church, and, unknown to both Esther
ecuted that very day! But her husband-king was          and Ahasuerus, He was directing every step they
pleased to see her in the royal apparel; and to in-     took. So beautifully we read in Psalm  121:2-8 that
form the soldiers attending him that she was not to     He to Whom we look for help made the heaven and
be put to death, he extended that powerful and          the earth, and thus has perfect control over all that
significant piece of metal to her.                      is in them. God Himself assures us through the
  She certainly was greatly cheered also by the         psalmist in this psalm that He neither slumbers nor
king's words, "What is thy request? It shall be even    `sleeps. There is never a moment in the daytime or
given to thee to the half of the kingdom." Of course    the night that He is not watching over His church
this was not to be taken literally. He would not        and available when we need help. He will preserve
have shared the kingdom with her. It simply meant       us from all evil, for He will preserve our souls.
that he was willing to grant her any reasonable re-     Though none of this was in Esther's thoughts, she


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



breathed more freely when the rod was extended,            actly that. She had a tremendous task before her.
and was greatly encouraged by this promise which           The unchangeable law of the king must be
the king made to her. And although Esther did not          changed. What his right hand man had convinced
see it that way or think of it as she should have, we      him was so necessary for the good of the kingdom,
must hold fast the truth and keep it in our minds          she would have to show the king was not "to the
also today when the whole world is in turmoil, and         profit" of the king (Esther  3:8).
we do not know from day to day what the leaders              Consider further that the inclusion of Haman as
of the nations are going to do. We live in fear of the     one to enjoy this banquet with the king was not
nuclear bomb button, lest it be pushed and send the        without its perils. Not only was the king an un-
world into a war too horrible to describe. I began to      predictable man, and a husband who could divorce
say that we today must hold on to Proverbs 21: 1,          his beautiful wife when she refused to do what he
"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the       requested while he was under the power of wine,
rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever He            but there was that danger of the king becoming im-
will." That is our comfort.                                patient and jealous. By adding  Haman's name
  Esther must now take another step for the saving         Esther herself rules out the idea that the invitation
of the lives of her people. Her life was momentarily       was due to a great love for the king, and to a painful
spared, but it is still in danger of death because of      missing of his fellowship. She was indeed walking
that decree which Haman  had succeeded in getting          on thin ice. But she knew what she was doing, for,
the king to seal with his ring. That next step was a       as chapter 5:6 reveals, it was a "banquet of wine."
touchy matter and not without its dangers.                 After she got past this hurdle of the king accepting
Cautiously Esther makes a request that will lead up        the invitation, she will resort to the spirit of alcohol.
to that basic plea for the life of her people. She had     (The Holy Spirit was not at all in her thoughts.) But
carefully planned the whole approach before she            now to get the king to agree to such a banquet with
appeared before the king. She will ask the king to         Haman  took courage, even though he had promised
come to a banquet. But note that she says "the ban-        the half of his kingdom.
quet that I have prepared for thee." It was in the
process of being prepared right then and there. This         That promise of half of his kingdom could easily
is no afterthought that came into her soul as soon as      be broken by a man such as her husband was. Even
she heard the king promise up to the half of his           if his initial reaction to the suggestion of  Haman's
kingdom.                                                   presence was not adverse, she did not know what it
  What time of the clay it was when she appeared           would be after he pondered over it and thought it
before the king is not stated. But it would seem as        over. In fact even before she got his promise she did
though it was early afternoon. For not only was the        not know whether he would snarl at her, "What do
banquet prepared, but  Haman,  who was to be in-           you want? Get it over with and do not take my
vited, is commanded "to make haste, that he may            precious time." And now that he had promised half
do as Esther hath said."                                   of his kingdom, she still does not know what his
                                                           reaction will be to have this third party there. Easi-
  She has success also in this second step of her          ly the thoughts could come to his mind as to
strategy. And we should appreciate the importance          whether these two had been seeing each other late-
of this. In itself it was not dangerous to invite her      ly,, and had established some very friendly relation-
husband to a banquet, or even to ask a king. This          ship. After all, Esther was an exceptionally beauti-
might flatter a king to, have such a beautiful woman       ful and attractive wife, and Haman's work brought
invite him to a banquet. A husband might interpret         him to the royal grounds very frequently. Her over-
this as a sure evidence of his wife's love and con-        all plan demanded Haman's presence, but she had
cern for him. We know better. We know that she             to walk carefully and wait for the right time to pre-
did not marry him for love or arrange this banquet         sent her request to the king.
in love for him. It was bait so that she could catch
him in her trap. It was a pretense of love, and of a         He Who has the king's heart in His hand, and has
longing to be in his presence and to have his fellow-      perfect control not only over his physical activities
ship after thirty days of being ignored by him. She        but the thoughts and desire of his heart, moved him
is, as I wrote last time, devilishly clever. While he      to agree and to order  Haman notified and com-
enjoyed a delicious meal, and she had made him as          manded to make haste. All His promises in Christ
happy as was possible for her, she would ask that          must be and in covenant faithfulness will be filled.
basic and all-important question about saving the          Haman must not succeed. Satan must not get his
lives of her people. There is a saying to the effect       way and prevent the birth of Christ. The Seed of
that the way to a man's heart is through his               the woman will be born. The head of the serpent
stomach. Whether that saying was used in those             will be crushed. All of Haman's dice throwing and
days or not, it is plain that Esther intended to do ex-    horoscope will not insure his success. They are


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              179



nonsense. It is God Who picked the day and                it comes to those that have no blood ties with her?
directed Pur, that is the lot, which Haman's friends        We are not told why she wanted Haman at these
cast for a favorable month and day (Esther  3:7).         banquets. But one thing is sure and that is, as I
And He picked a time that would give time for             pointed out last time, she must drive a wedge be-
events to take place that would change the un-            tween these two men who agreed that all her people
changeable, and save the lives of the Jews for the        in the empire must be killed. She was aware of the
birth of Christ at the favorable time appointed from      fact that Haman  had started this whole business of
eternity by God. The heathen rage, but they always        killing the Jews. She said so at the second banquet.
imagine a  vain  thing. It looks at times as though       And whereas  Haman had persuaded the king to
they will succeed, but we are  now  more than con-        believe that it was "to the profit" of the king to
querors, even though we may suffer severely at the        have the Jews killed (Esther  3:8), she had to show
hands of the world. And this incident is recorded in      the king in the presence of Haman that it was to the
Holy Writ to assure us that all is well, even when        profit of the king to save her life together with the
what the fleshly eye sees is frightening. The eye of      lives of her people, and to take  Haman's life. And
faith sees victory even while the enemy is boasting       he will be there to defend himself, if he can. Having
of the damage he has done to the church and cause         Haman  there - by God's arrangement, and not by
of Christ.                                                Satan's, or merely by Esther's - the king will recall
  The banquet is held, but Esther is not ready yet        what already was somewhat farther back in his
to make that all-important request for her life and       mind. Having  Haman there will sharpen his
for that of her people. Patiently the king, for his       memory. And do not forget that the king himself
heart was in God's hand, agrees to another ban-           had not found any Jews as a threat to him and his
quet. This one brought such fleshly pleasure to           kingdom. He did not have too much interest in the
him; and if he had any doubts about the relation-         matter either way. If it was for his profit, fine. Let
ship between Esther and  Haman,  the wine took            the dangerous people - accused without any shred
care of that, and so did Esther's conduct. She did        of proof as to their threat to him - be killed. And if
not need to try to show that she had no friendly          these thousands died, what was that to him, even if
relations with Haman.  The very opposite was true.        they were innocent of  Haman's charge? But
So intense was her hatred for this man, so brightly       Haman's reaction to Esther's charge would reveal
did her anger towards this man burn that she had to       to the king his guilt.
fight hard with herself to hide it. She despised him        Regardless of Esther's reason or motive  Haman
with all her heart. And yet she covered up so             deserved such an exposition of his evil. And, after
perfectly that Haman  left the banquet thinking that      all, it was but a minor prelude to his exposure
she thought highly of him (Esther 5:12).                  before the judgment seat of Christ. Moses' words in
  Now it was not in Esther's plans to give the king       Numbers 32:23 are very fitting here: "Be sure your
time to analyze the situation and to wonder what          sin will find you out." Found guilty before man is
she had in mind. That is not why she asked for            one thing. How terrible to be found guilty before
another banquet before making her basic request           God! And we must all appear - the Greek has "be
known. But it was in God's counsel, and the time          exposed" - before the judgment seat of Christ (II
between the two banquets He not only decreed but          Corinthians 5:lO). Haman was fighting here against
intended to use for the good of His church. Esther        Christ by fighting against His people in the Jewish
planned the time element. God planned the events          nation. He who touches the members of the body
that would take place in those twenty-four hours.         of which Christ is the Head touches Christ. And he
But this must wait till next time. The point I want to    deserves to have his sin exposed before God's face
make now is that, although we are not told what           by Christ, and then be cast into everlasting tor-
Esther's reason was for delaying the making known         ment.
of her plea for the life of her people, and thus also       We, too, will appear and be exposed before that
for her own life, there was a divine purpose.             judgment seat of Christ. But He Who exposes us is
  Nor are we told why she wanted Haman at these           He Who absolved us by taking upon Himself our
banquets. Was it because of that intense hatred, so       guilt and suffering its punishment until it was all
that she wanted to humiliate him as much as she           fully endured. And whereas  Haman's banqueting
could? And that before the king? Is she not only          was turned into execution, our suffering and shame
devilishly clever but also devilishly cruel? Is she       here below at the hands of the world will be changed
deliberately building him up for a great fall? Is that    into heavenly-banqueting that knows no end.
her reason? In spite of her outward beauty of face          Human craftiness may at times succeed in bring-
does she have a vicious, ugly nature inside of her?       ing man a few temporary joys. Divine faithfulness
In spite of her submissive nature over against her        always brings everlasting covenant blessedness to
uncle-father does she have a very evil nature when        His church.


180                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE



                  Integration and Segregation (1)
                                                 Rev. H. Veldman





   We hear much of integration and segregation to-         That the church is Christ's body is because He is
day. We surely hear much of it in the midst of the         the Head and by His Spirit and grace governs,
world. The Word of God, however, also speaks of            directs, and completely controls it. This unity of the
it. In fact, we see this phenomenon all about us, in       body, of the church of Christ, is now explained in
all the works of God's hands. A scripture which            this scripture of 1 Corinthians  12:13.
calls our attention to this truth is recorded for us in      1 Corinthians 12:13 is a very beautiful and strik-
1 Corinthians  12:13, and we quote: "For by one            ing passage. Two expressions appear upon the fore-
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether          ground here in connection with the wonderful uni-
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or              ty of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ: the ex-
free; and have been all made to drink into one             pressions "we all" and "one body." These two
Spirit."                                                   thoughts are emphasized throughout this chapter.
   In the context of this scripture the apostle draws      The church of Christ is characterized by two things:
a comparison between the human body and the                integration and segregation. We hear much today of
church which is the body of Christ, calling atten-         integration and segregation. The inspired writer of
tion to the fact that this body, although having           1 Corinthians speaks of both as characterizing the
many members, is nevertheless one body. And this           church of God and of Christ. However, there is a
unity of the body of Christ is grounded in the truth       vast difference between these concepts as in the
that we all have been baptized by the one Spirit into      world and in the midst of the church of Christ. In
one body and have been all made to drink into one          the world it is integration or segregation; the world
Spirit.                                                    does not maintain both  - it is either-or. In the
  This wonderful unity of the church of God is             church, however, it is integration  and  segregation
already set forth by the apostle in the beginning of       -. both are maintained. And this is due to the fact
this twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians. In verse 4 the      that we have all been baptized into one body and
apostle speaks of the diversities of gifts but of the      have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
same Spirit. Then, in the verses that follow, atten-                * * * * * * * * * *
tion is called to this diversity of gifts: the gifts of      The apostle calls attention throughout this
wisdom, knowledge, faith, the working of miracles,         chapter to the symbol of the human body. The
of prophecy, diverse kinds of tongues, interpreta-         human body, we understand, is a divinely willed
tion of tongues. And concerning all these gifts we         and created symbol. Is it not amazingly strange that
read in verse 11 that all these gifts are worked by        the world, in the throes of its conflict between in-
that one and the  selfsame Spirit, Who divides to          tegration and segregation, is so blind, does not learn
every man severally as He wills. And now all this          a lesson from that which is so clearly set forth
culminates in verse 12. Paul, in verse 12, is speak-       before them, everywhere displayed in all the works
ing of the human body. That body is one. It has            of God's hands? The Lord has created the heavens
many members, and all these members, being                 and the earth and all the things that are therein con-
many, are one body. So also, we read, is Christ. The       tained as a mighty symbol of the things heavenly
reference here, we understand, is to the church.           and spiritual. However, apart from their symbolic
That the church is called Christ here is because the       significance,    the things themselves speak a
church is Christ's body. After all, my body is part of     language that cannot be denied. Oneness and diver-
me, belongs to  me;  my body and I are identical.          sity, integration and segregation are everywhere


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                181



displayed, on a magnificent scale, very plainly so        this striving for unity. "The right to this or that," is
that all men can see and read it, in all the creation     the slogan of the world. The constitution of our
the Lord has made, as in the world of vegetation          country declares that all men have been endowed
and plants, in the world of flowers, colors, and          by their Creator with the inalienable right to life,
animals, and in the human body. Think of all the          liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The slogan of
magnificent rainbows, from the day of the flood,          the anti-abortion campaign is: the right to live. The
and no two rainbows are alike; of all the snowflakes      poor have the right to the riches of the rich, the stu-
and no two alike. Think of all the gorgeous colors in     dent has the right to rule and govern with the pro-
the season of autumn, a riot of color and yet blend-      fessor, the black has the right to the same status as
ing together in beautiful and unfathomable har-           the white. All men have equally the right to life,
mony. Think of all the different flowers, plants,         liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Socialism is
and animals, as brought forth by the almighty             the world's solution to its problems. The world will
Creator. What a segregation, what a separation and        be one only when the blacks are equal with the
difference, and yet what an amazing integration,          whites, when the poor have attained unto equality
oneness, harmony!                                         with the rich, when the working man may dictate
  All this is true also of the human body. The body       the policies of his employer with the employer,
has many members, and they are not all equally            when the students may regulate and control col-
beautiful and honorable. How different are the eye        leges and universities with their professors and
and the toe, and so we could go on. The apostle           boards of trustees, when all inequalities have been
speaks of this difference in this chapter of 1 Corin-     wiped out and erased. The distinction between the
thians 12, in the verses 15 and 16: "If the foot shall    poor and the rich, between the slave and his master
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the           is being viewed by the nominal church, that which
body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear     is called church, as antichristian more and more.
shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the      And more and more that nominal church is causing
body; is it therefore not of the body?" In other          its voice to be heard on the side of integration,
words, if the foot and the ear are dissatisfied be-       claiming that segregation is contrary to the will of
cause they are not the hand and the eye respective-       God and His Word.
ly, are they therefore not of the body? But the body,       And the result of all this? It is chaos! Of course!
although many members, is one, and these                  First of all, this striving of the world is in flat con-
members, although all different and retaining their       tradiction with all of life around us, symbolized
own peculiar place and functions, nevertheless do         everywhere, also in the human body. How absurd
not act and function individually and separately          and ridiculous it would be if the toe were to claim
from the body, but they all serve the body, each in       equal honor and beauty with the eye! How absurd
its own place and way. They all serve the same pur-       it would be if the roots of a fruit tree were to claim
pose and function for the body, although many and         equal beauty and recognition with the fruit of the
different. In this, the body is a beautiful symbol of     tree, if an ordinary, obnoxious weed were to claim
the church of God and of Christ. Indeed, the              equal honor and beauty with the rose! Secondly,
church of Christ is one, characterized by a wonder-       this striving of the world is in direct violation of the
ful unity. At the same time, however, it is also con-     very ordinances of the Lord Who is directly respon-
stituted of many members.                                 sible for the distinction between the poor and the
  How wonderful is the unity of the church of God         rich, the black and the white, etc. The Lord simply
and of Christ! The world today strives after unity.       did not create all men equal. 0, it is true that all
This is generally true. This is true ecclesiastically,    men stand in the same servile relation to the living
in the church world. The church world today is            God, that all men are equally under divine condem-
characterized by ecumenicity, by the integration of       nation. However, all men are not equal as far as
churches; today we witness the merging of chur-           their natural gifts and talents are concerned. All
ches into one church, one denomination. And this          children do not have equally the talents and gifts of
effort will succeed until the harlot of the book of       the mind. This wide distinction between all
Revelation is finally realized. But this is also true,    creatures is directly of the Lord. Socialism is  anti-
socially and economically: the poor seek equality         God, anti-Christ. It is rooted in man's lust and
with the rich, the black with the white, the students     pleasure for the things that are of time and that are
with their professors, the employees with their           below.
employers, the ones with no power with those who                    * * *  * * * * * * *
have power, the have-nots with those who have.
And, specifically, notice this worlds striving for          How different it is in the church of the living
unity. The world's conception of unity is based           God and of Christ!
upon equality. Socialism is the world's solution in         Notice what we read in this scripture of 1 Corin-


182                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



thians 12: 13: "For by one Spirit are we all baptized     structs that the slave, Onesimus, be returned to his
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,            master. 0, yes, they love to quote the scripture that
whether we be bond or free, and have been all             in Christ one is neither male nor female, bond nor
made to drink into one Spirit." The body is one,          free. And imagine, then, the absurdities to which
whether we be Jew or Gentile (Greek), whether we          they expose themselves! If one be neither male nor
be bond (slaves) or free.                                 female in Christ, what is he or she? One is surely
  Let us understand this. What a difference there         male or female. If one be neither bond nor free in
was between Jews and Gentiles! How the one                Christ, what is he or she? One is surely bond or
looked down upon the other! And what a difference         free. Indeed, in the church males and females,
between the bond and free. These  bondmen were            bond and free remain as and what they are. What
slaves, were viewed as mere cattle, had absolutely        this scripture means is that we are viewed, we are
nothing to say. And the point is that in the church       treated, and we have fellowship with each other,
of God they remain as they are! The Greek does not        not as rich or poor, not as employer or employee,
become a Jew, and the slave does not become a free        not as white or black, but as the body in Jesus
man. The scripture,c do not care whether one is           Christ, as united with the living Christ through the
black or white, slave or free, employer or                living bond of faith.
employee, rich or poor, of high or low degree.              The Lord willing, we will continue with this sub-
There is nothing antiscriptural about slavery as          ject, Integration and Segregation, in our following
such. In his epistle to Philemon, the apostle in-         article.
THE LORD GAVE THE WORD




                             Missionary Methods (26)
                                             Prof Robert D. Decker





  The point made in our last article is that the work     labors in a given field. At the very beginning he
of the missionary is to be distinguished from that of     ought to begin formal worship services on the
a pastor of an established congregation. The latter       Lord's Day. In addition there ought to be less for-
cares for a specific, settled congregation. He does so    mal services of preaching and teaching during the
chiefly by the preaching of the Word. The mis-            week. This is what Anderson had to say in a lecture
sionary also preaches. This is his calling. But the       given in 1861: "The native Christians have also
missionary preaches to the unconverted. By this           needed regular, well-studied exhibitions of the plan
means Christ gathers His elect out of the nations.        of salvation, and of their duty as Christians. They
The aim or purpose of the missionary is that a con-       could not be adequately informed and elevated to
gregation with its own officebearers, including a         the self-governing, self-sustaining basis by means of
native pastor, may be established. This congrega-         mere conversational (informal, Bible study groups)
tion, according to Rufus Anderson, must be  self-         preaching. They required the benefit, indeed, of
governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating.         every one of the auxiliary means of grace, but could
When this is accomplished in a given field the mis-       never reach their full stature as Christians without
sionary must move on to a new field of labor.             the regular, stated, formal preaching of the Word.
  Throughout his writings Anderson emphasizes             The heathen then saw the missionary in his true
that whatever the missionary does he must preach          place and dignity. If they did not often go to hear
the Word. Preaching is his chief task. The mis-           him, they knew there was a day which he regarded
sionary must do this from the very beginning of his       as specially set apart by the God of heaven for


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               183



declaring and for hearing the truths of the Christian    located, well organized, well trained churches, may
religion; and also a time when the missionary            extend his influence over a large territory. In such a
assumed authority to speak, and when it was the          country as India, or China, his direct  influrence
sole business of all others to hear." (Rufus Ander-      may reach even scores of thousands" (Anderson,
son,  To Advance The Gospel, R. Pierce Beaver, ed.,      pp. 97, 98). With the essence of this we agree.
p. 90.)                                                  Those churches, however, must be Confessionally
  With this we are in hearty agreement. All the          Reformed churches under the rule and care of the
work of a missionary, whether foreign or domestic,       King of the church through the officebearers, a poli-
ought to center in the formal preaching of the Word      ty required by Scripture itself.
of God. As the mission grows and bears fruit in the        In response to the question, what should be the
establishment of a congregation or congregations,        nature of the mission church? Anderson said, "It
other needs will become manifest. In foreign lands       should be composed only of hopeful converts; and
the Scriptures will have to be translated into the       should have, as soon as possible, a native pastor,
native tongue so that the people may have Bibles to      and of the same race, who has been trained cheer-
read and study. God's people must be instructed in       fully to take the oversight of what will generally be
their calling to provide covenant, Christian educa-      a small, poor, ignorant people, and mingle with
tion for their children. Native pastors and elders       them familiarly and sympathetically. And by a
and deacons must be instructed in their duties and       native pastor, I mean one recognized as having the
respective callings.  NaUive pastors, or those men       pastoral care of a local church, with the right to ad-
who aspire to the ministry of the Word in the mis-       minister the ordinances of baptism and the Lords
sion church, must be educated. They must learn           Supper" (Anderson, p. 98).
how to preach, how to expound Holy Scripture,
how to shepherd the flock of God. They must learn          In addition to this, Anderson emphasizes, "As
the principles of Reformed, Biblical Church Polity.      soon as the mission church has a native pastor, the
Initially this may be done on a rather small scale.      responsibilities of self-government should be de-
The missionary or missionaries may instruct one or       volved upon it. Mistakes, perplexities, and some-
two young men. If the churches on the field grow         times scandals, there will be; but it is often thus
they would in time establish their own theological       that useful experience is gained, even in churches
school. It is also possible, and this is being done      here at home. The salary of the native pastor should
with the young men from Singapore, that young            be based on the Christianized ideas of living ac-
men from the foreign field receive their theological     quired by his people; and the church should
education at the Seminary of the sending church.         become self-supporting at the earliest possible day.
                                                         It should also be self-propagating (he means it
  All of this, however, must be in strict subordina-     should engage in mission work, R.D.D.) from the
tion to the preaching of the gospel. The church's        very first. Such churches, and only such, are the
task through its missionary is not to build schools,     life, strength, and glory of missions" (Anderson,
administer hospitals, or provide a variety of social     pp. 98, 99). This is good, Biblical methodology in
or other services. The church's task is to preach the    missions. Laboring this way is certainly following
gospel by which means alone the Son of God               the pattern of the Apostles, especially Paul.
gathers out of the whole human race those chosen
to everlasting life (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, L.D.        Anderson goes on to stress again: "A foreign mis-
XXI). These other institutions must come as a fruit      sionary should not be the pastor of a native church.
of the preaching of the Word in the hearts of the        His business is to plant churches, in well-chosen
converts.                                                parts of his field, committing them as soon as possi-
  The purpose of the missionary must be the estab-       ble to the care of native pastors; himself sustaining
lishing or instituting of local manifestations of the    a common relation to all, as their ecclesiastical
church of Jesus Christ. Wrote Anderson, "Promi-          father and adviser; having, in some sense, like the
nent, then, among the visible agencies in foreign        apostle, the daily care of the churches. He might
missions, if we follow the great apostle (Paul,          stand thus related to a score of churches and even
R.D.D.), are LOCAL CHURCHES. I call them by no           more, however they were related to each other; and
denominational name. They may be churches                when he is old, might be able to say, through the
governed by popular vote, or by elders they have         abounding grace of God, `Though ye have ten thou-
themselves chosen for the purpose. They are local        sand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many
bodies of associated Christians. The first duty of a     fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you all
missionary is to gather such a church. That will         through the gospel.' I Cor. 4:15" (Anderson, p. 99).
serve as a nucleus  - and it is the only possible          This certainly is the great aim in missions. In
nucleus, a school not being one  - of a permanent        sum, what Anderson said is this: 1) The aim of mis-
congregation. A missionary, by means of properly         sions is the gathering of the elect out of the nations.


184                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



These converts must be organized into local mani-          There is power in the doctrine of the cross, through
festations of the institute of the church of Jesus         grace, to overcome this. The doctrine of the cross -
Christ. 2) The means by which this is to be ac-            as will more clearly appear when we come to the
complished is the preaching of the Word. By this           evidences of success in missions - is the grand in-
means God is pleased to "save them that believe."          strument of conquest. Not one of the great supersti-
We ought to add to this that the preaching of the         tions of the world could hold a governing place in
Word has another effect, viz., it hardens the             the human soul, after the conviction has once been
reprobate in their unbelief and sin and, thus,            thoroughly produced, that there is salvation only in
renders them without excuse before God. And, let           Christ. Be it what it may, the man, thus convinced,
us not forget the words of Jesus: "And this gospel of     would flee from it, as he would from a falling build-
the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a      ing in the rocking of an earthquake" (Anderson, p.
witness unto the na-tions; and then shall the end          102).
come" (Matthew 24: 14).                                      How true! Man by nature, no matter to what
  Anderson concluded his lecture with these               "ism" he may be committed, is dead in trespasses
remarks concerning those to whom the missionary           and sins. He is spiritually dead! This means he can-
preaches and the Gospel which he preaches to              not, though he always foolishly persists in trying,
them: "The gospel is applicable equally to all false      save himself. Only Gods grace, by the working of
religions. Generically considered, there can be but       the Holy Spirit of Christ, can make a dead sinner
two religions: the one looking for salvation by           alive. That God surely does in the hearts of His
grace;  and the other, by  works  (emphasis, Ander-       elect, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
son's). The principle of evil in all unbelieving men,     world. Let us never forget this! Let us use the only
is the same. The refuge of lies in Popery, in             means God has given, the preaching of the Word,
Judaism, in Mohammedanism, in Brahminism,                 in the confidence that God will work His work of
Buddhism, and every form of paganism, are won-            grace in the hearts of His chosen ones and His work
derfully alike. There is one disease, and one             of wrath and condemnation in the hearts of the
remedy. Before the gospel, the unbelieving world          reprobate. Let us be on with the task as faithful ser-
stands an undistinguished mass of rebellious sin-         vants of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this way God is
ners; unwilling that  (God should reign over them,        pleased to cause His glory to shine in His church.
unwilling to be saved except by their own works,                                              (to be continued)
and averse to all real holiness of heart and life.
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                  The Nicene Creed
                                              Rev. James Slopsema





Article 9 (cont'd.)                                          The early church correctly acknowledged the ex-
  In Article 9 of the 1\Ticene  Creed the early church    istence of  only one church: There are not several
confessed, "And I believe one holy catholic and           bodies of Christ, but only one. However, the early
apostolic church."                                        church made the mistake of trying to identify the
                                                          one church of God with a particular institution.
  We find in this article the four attributes of the
church  - her unity or oneness, her holiness, her            The early church in turn confessed that this par-
catholicity, and her apostolicity. We have seen           ticular institution of the church is catholic. By this
however that the early church had a much different        was meant that the one institution of the church is
understanding of thesle  concepts than we do today.       the whole or complete church. Within this  institu-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                185



tion of the church is to be found the whole body of        nated, there is only one church. There is only one
Christ. Outside of this institution, membership in         body of Christ, one temple of God, one Mount
the body of Christ is not possible.                        Zion, not several.
  The early church also confessed that the church             Nor must we make the mistake of identifying
is apostolic. By this she meant that the bishops of        this one church with any one institution or ecclesi-
the church were the personal successors of the             astical organization. The body of Christ is not to be
apostles and therefore received from Christ via the        identified with the Roman Catholic Church or the
apostles all the gifts of the Spirit necessary to lead     Protestant Reformed Churches of America or with
and guide the church into all the truth. This implied      any other church. The body of Christ is broader
that that institution loyal to and subservient to          than any one ecclesiastical organization. The mem-
these apostolic bishops was the one true church of         bers of Christ's body are to be found in many differ-
Christ.                                                    ent churches and denominations. In fact we may
  For that reason the church is also holy. That the        say that wherever the gospel is proclaimed, the sac-
church is holy means that she is devoted and con-          raments administered, and Christian discipline ex-
secrated to God. And she is that exactly because she       ercised, the one body of Christ is both represented
is apostolic - loyal to the personal successors of the     and manifest. And no church or group is able to
apostles who alone have preserved the true tradi-          claim that to herself exclusively.
tion of the apostles.                                        By the unity of oneness of the church is also
  With this conception of the church the early             meant that there is an essential unity among the
church was led originally in this 9th article of her       members of Christ's body. All the members of
creed to confess her faith in the church. She con-         Christ are given the same gift of faith whereby they
fessed that even as she believed in God the Father         come into possession of the one salvation of God.
and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit, so also        Consequently, they all possess the same hope, the
she believed in the one holy catholic and apostolic        hope of life eternal. They all live the same life, the
church. By this she meant that the trust. of the           life of thankful service to God. They all are of one
saints was in the institution of the church. And           mind, which is the mind of Christ.
again this was because the church was apostolic -            It is true, of course, that this unity is not always
led by the personal successors to the apostles who         so apparent. For the church world today is badly
were gifted by the Holy Spirit.                            fragmented. There are many different denomina-
  This in brief summarizes what we saw in our last         tions, each with its own confession and belief. One
article to be the understanding of the early church        confesses this about Christ, and another will con-
by this confession of the Nicene Creed.                    tradict that confession with something else. Never-
                                                           theless, in principle there is an essential unity
  What we wish to do now is to examine these               among the saints which finds its source in the com-
various attributes of the church in the light of Scrip-    mon salvation they all have in Jesus Christ. And
ture to ascertain their true meaning. In so doing we       whereas that unity is not made perfect in this pre-
will find that this confession of the early church         sent age, it will be made complete in the age to
concerning the church is indeed a beautiful one,           come. For that we look forward.
provided we understand it in the true, Biblical
sense.                                                       The church is also catholic.
  First of all, the Scriptures teach the unity or one-       By this is meant that the church is universal. The
ness of the church. This attribute of the church is        church is not to be limited to any one nationality or
set forth in a passage such as Romans 12:5: "So, we,       social status. The church of Christ is not comprised
being many, are one body in Christ, and every one          merely of the Dutch or the English, the blacks or
members one of another." We find the idea of the           the whites. The body of Christ is made up of all na-
unity of the church also in Ephesians 4:4-6: "There        tionalities and races; and none are excluded.
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in      Neither is the church limited to any social status.
one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one         Not just the male but also the female, not just the
baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above           rich but also the poor, not just the bond but also the
all, and through all, and in you all."                     free are found in the body of Christ. Besides this,
                                                           the church of Jesus Christ is not limited to any one
  By the unity or oneness of the church is meant           age or generation. The church did not have its be-
first that there is only one church. The church is         ginning at Pentecost, as is the claim of some. The
designated in the Scriptures by various names. It is       church finds its beginnings at the very dawn of
called the body of Christ, the temple of God, the          history in Adam. And that church has continued to
household of God, the New Jerusalem, and Mount             exist down through the centuries and will continue
Zion. But regardless of how the church is  desig-          to exist on the earth until the very end of time.


186                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  This catholic character of the church is certainly      priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that
attested to by such Scripture passages as Romans          ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath
10:12,  13: "For there is no difference between the       called you out of darkness into His marvelous
Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is          light"; I Corinthians  1:2: "Unto the church of God
rich to all that call upon him"; Galatians  3:28:         which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither         Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for      every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
ye are all one in Christ Jesus"; Revelation  7:9:         Lord."
"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude,           By the holiness of the church is meant that the
which no man could number, of all nations, and            church has been consecrated to God by the work of
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the       salvation in Jesus Christ. Negatively, she has been
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white           separated from the world so that she lives anti-
robes, and palms in their hands."                         thetically opposed to the world with all its sin and
  According to the Scriptures, the church of Christ       corruption. Positively, this holiness means that she
is also apostolic.                                        has been brought by the power of grace in Christ
  By this is not meant that there are those in the        into the service of the living God, whose salvation
church who can lay hold to the claim to be the per-       she enjoys.
sonal successors to the apostles, who also in this          Again this holiness is only a principle reality for
way have special gifts of the Spirit, which are given     the church for this present age. Witness all the
to no one else, to lead the church.                       spiritual corruption of the world that still clings to
  The apostolicity of the church is rather to be          the church. Witness the failure of the church and
understood in the light of Ephesians  2:20, where         her members time and again to serve the cause of
the church is said to be "`built upon the foundation      God with that zeal that they ought. Nevertheless, in
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself        Christ the church is principally holy. And in the age
being the chief corner stone." That the church is         to come this holiness shall be perfected.
built on the apostles and prophets means that she is        Finally, in this article we as a church confess all
built on the doctrine of the apostles and prophets.       this as the object of our faith. No, we do not con-
Both the apostles of the New Testament and the            fess, as the early church originally did, faith in this
prophets of the Old Testament were vehicles of            holy catholic and apostolic church. We confess our
divine revelation. It was through them that Jesus         faith in the triune God and in His great work of
Christ, our chief prophet, spoke and revealed the         salvation alone. In that alone we put our trust. In
full counsel of God concerning our redemption.            the church we do not put our trust. That, according
That revelation of God given through the apostles         to LD 34 Q 95 of our Heidelberg Catechism, would
and prophets has been infallibly preserved for us in      be idolatry. Rather we believe an holy catholic and
the Scriptures through the wonder of inspiration.         apostolic church. That means that we believe that
And it is upon the basis of that revelation that the      there is such a church. And even though it may not
church is built. Through the proclamation of that         always appear to be the case with the church, we
revelation the church is not only gathered but she        also believe that she is one and holy and catholic
also grows spiritually. And it's in that sense, and       and apostolic. And it means too that we pray and
that sense alone, that the church is apostolic. She is    work for the unity, holiness, catholicity, and
apostolic in the sense that she is built on the           apostolicity of that church.
teachings of the apostles and that therefore she also'
confesses the doctrines of the apostles.
  Again this is true of the church only in principle
for the present age. For there are many churches
and many members of the body of Christ that do                The Standard Bearer
not confess the doctrines of the prophets and
apostles in all their purity but have in one way or             makes a thoughtful
another corrupted those beautiful doctrines with
the philosophies of man. Yet in the age to come the                      gift for the
apostolic character of the church will be fully and
perfectly realized as all the saints in glory sing the              sick & shut-ins.
praises of God in perfect truth.
  Finally, the church in holy.
  This is clearly taught in such passages as I Peter
2:9: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             187



THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH




                                  Working Mothers
                                             Rev. Ron Cammenga





  In the past couple of articles we have been deal-        One of the consequences of the rise in the num-
ing with the whole subject of the Christian and          ber of working mothers has been the phenomenon
work. We want yet to consider the question of            of "latch-key kids. " "Latch-key kids" are children
working mothers.                                         whose parents both work, or children of working
  By "working mothers," of course, we mean               single parents, usually mothers. After a day at
mothers who work outside of their homes. Every           school, they must come home to an empty house
mother who takes seriously her motherly calling          and must take care of themselves, because Dad and
within her home is a working, hard-working               Mom are both working.
mother. But we want to talk about those mothers            Exact figures are difficult to find, but estimates
who work outside of the home. Even then, our             that I have seen place the number of American
main concern is not with all mothers who work            school-children coming home to an empty house or
outside of the home, but especially with those who       apartment from 2 million to 6.5 million, with one
have small and school-age children.                      figure even set at nearly 10 million. The Depart-
  It's obvious to anyone the least bit observant that    ment of Labor indicates that 32 million children of
the numbers of working women generally, and              all ages (infant through high school) have mothers
working mothers specifically, are constantly in-         who work outside the home. Thirteen million of
creasing. Nor is this phenomenon limited to the          those children are under age 14. Every year an ad-
world at large, but it is something that is found        ditional 4 percent of the nation's mothers take jobs
within the church, and within our own churches.          outside their homes. The Newark, New Jersey fire
Many of our own mothers become full- or part-time        department reports that one out of six calls that
working mothers.                                         they handle involves children left alone at home.
  The drastic rise in the numbers of working               Experts agree that the telephone and television
women has had very obvious effects upon our              have made possible the latch-key arrangement.
society. Road signs no longer read "Men At Work,"        One researcher has said, "The television is the
but "People Working." Heads of committees are no         baby sitter, and the telephone is the lifeline to Mom
longer "chairmen" but "chairpersons." That some-         and Dad," (quoted in Christianity Today, Aug. 10,
times annoying, sometimes helpful person we used         1984, in an article by Dean Merrill entitled  "After-
to refer to as a "salesman" is now a "salesperson."      School Orphans").
Every occupation recorded this past year by the            In our own churches, it's plain to see, the
Census Bureau lists women as well as men.                number of working mothers has increased quite
  The statistics are staggering. Forty-four percent,     substantially in the last couple of years. Various
nearly half, of all employed Americans are women.        reasons are given to justify the mother's doing this.
And the percentage continues to rise steadily. So        The chief reason is that this is simply necessary in
rapidly have the women swelled the ranks of the          order for the family to make ends meet. It is an
work force that substantial numbers of men are los-      economic necessity. The bills must be paid (house
ing their jobs to women. The advances of modern          payment, car payment, medical bills, utility bills,
technology and the introduction of specialized           etc.); the Christian school tuition, which always
equipment have made it possible for women to             seems to go up, must be paid; the church budget
enter jobs that in the past were exclusively held by     and other financial obligations must be met.
men.                                                     Although in the world too mothers often give finan-


188                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



cial necessity as the reason for working, it's in-       with regard to these precious, covenant children by
teresting that statistics show that the majority  of     working outside of the home.
mothers, sixty-seven percent, work outside the              In I Timothy 5: 14 the instruction of the Apostle is
home not because they must, but because they             similar: "I will therefore that the younger women
want to.                                                 marry, bear children, guide the house, give none
  Serious ill effects of the rise of working mothers     occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully."
are increasingly in evidence. We may be certain          The will of God's Apostle, and therefore of God
that many of the economic woes that our country          Himself Who sends the Apostle, is that the younger
and other countries are experiencing today,              women marry, bring forth children (notice:
especially the high rate of unemployment, are due        ' ' children, ' ' in the plural), and guide their houses.
to women forsaking their God-assigned labors in          They are not to be off working outside of their
the home for work outside of the home in the             home, but in their home, guiding those homes.
marketplace. Certainly the rise of working mothers       Again, the incentive is that by doing this they "give
has contributed a great deal to the breakdown of         none occasion to the adversary to speak reproach-
the family, something that even the government           fully."
becomes alarmed about today. Working wives and             The last part of Proverbs 31 gives a very beauti-
mothers have introduced strained relationships in        ful description of the "virtuous woman" (verse 10).
many marriages. There is the increased contact that      Oh, she is a woman who works, who works hard.
working women have with men other than their             But she is a woman who works hard at home,
own husbands, and which accounts to no little            whose whole labor is consumed in the needs of her
degree for the rise in extra-marital affairs and the     home and family. All her work is directed towards
increase in divorce. The husband's inability to earn     them and on their behalf. The reward that she
enough to be the family's principal source of sup-       receives from God, already in this life, is that "her
port, and in many cases the wife's outstripping the      children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband
husband as "breadwinner" for the family, is a ma-        also, and he praiseth her" (vs. 28). The women can
jor cause of marital breakup. God is not mocked.         be sure that if they forsake the example of the vir-
Society will pay its dues for disobedience to the or-    tuous woman of Proverbs 31, they will also forfeit
dinances of God.                                         this great blessedness that comes to her.
  What we must be convinced of as Christians is            This is simply the plain teaching of the Bible: The
that mothers ought not to work outside of their          place of the young mother is in her home, with her
homes, not first of all because of the bad results of    `children. This is as much the teaching of the Bible
this for society or for themselves, but because this     as the truth of total depravity, the virgin birth, the
is forbidden by the Word of God. We are Reformed         antithesis, and any other doctrine of the faith. As
Christians. The Word of God is the sole standard         much as we are called to believe and confess these
for our faith and for our life. The teaching of the      other truths, are we to honor the Bible's teaching
Word of God, not our financial situation, not our        concerning the place of the mother in the home.
personal feeling that housework and motherhood
are unfulfilling, must be decisive as regards the          But are there no exceptions? Are there not times
proper sphere of labor for mothers.                      when it is permissible that the mother work outside
                                                         of the home? Isn't it permitted when the mother
  The Word of God is clear in its prohibition of         needs to work to help provide a Christian education
working mothers. The word of the Apostle in Titus        for the children? When the husband's paycheck
2:5 to young mothers is that they are "to be             alone won't cover the family's expenses?
discreet, chaste, keepers  at home, good, obedient to      No, mothers ought not to work in order to pro-
their own husbands, that the word of God be not          vide the Christian education that their children
blasphemed." Not only does the Apostle describe          need. Christian education is important; Christian
the nature of the work of the mothers here, but he       education is required by the Word of God, but
describes the sphere of their labor. They are to be      never at the cost of the loss of the mother to the
"keepers at home." This is God's will for young          home. What is more basic, the home or the school?
mothers. An incentive to their obedience to the will     If the day ever comes that our ability to provide
of God on this score is "that the Word of God be         Christian education depends on mothers working
not blasphemed." The Word of God is blasphemed           outside of the home, that must be the day that we
by the world when we Christians speak so much            close the doors to our Christian schools. That will
about the covenant of God with us and with our           be the day when God's blessing leaves our Chris-
children, talk so much about the blessedness of          tian school movement.
children, that our children are gifts to us from God,
but then allow our mothers to forsake their calling         But that day has not come. Oh, I don't mean to


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 189



minimize the financial difficulty that many of our        church who are struggling. Thirdly, those who ex-
families, especially our young families, are having.      perience financial hardship have recourse to the of-
But the answer is not to send the mother out of the       fice of Christ in the deacons. Christ has instituted
home. The answer is to seek help in the way which         this office exactly for them,' with their needs in
the Scriptures themselves clearly outline in a place      mind. They ought not neglect, but ought to avail
like I Timothy 5. First, families who are in financial    themselves of the help of this office. If they do,
trouble ought seriously to examine their life-style.      they themselves and the whole congregation will
Are they living above, or within, their means.            reap the fruits of the exercise in the church of this
Secondly, if they are honestly living within their        office.
means as best they can, but are still unable to meet        Recently two young mothers, who had in the
their obligations, they must seek first the help of       past worked outside of their homes, acknowledged
their close relatives. This is nothing shameful. This     to me how wrong and how detrimental to their
is the Word of God. And relatives, parents, brothers      home and family life their working had been.
and sisters, even uncles and aunts, should be sensi-      Because they had come to see this, they quit their
tive to the needs of such families and stand willing      jobs. I pray that the other working mothers among
to help them. Other wealthier members of the              us may be brought to the same realization.
church ought also to help those families of the

IN HIS FEAR



                                   God Is Sovereign
                                               Rev. Ronald Hanko





  In our study of the Ten Commandments, we                liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he
have come to the Fifth Commandment, and thus              hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not
also to the second table of the law, which teaches        seen" (I Jn.  4:12, 20). We understand, then, that in
us our duties toward our neighbor, just as the first      the last six commandments God teaches us to show
table taught our duties toward God. We may not            our love for Him, by our love for our neighbor.
forget, however, that this second table of the law is
not to be divorced from the first. In the final             This is the reason why an unbeliever cannot real-
analysis, this second table of the law, though it         ly keep the law of God at all, though in some
speaks of our relationships to our fellow men, has        respects his outward behavior may conform to the
also to do with our duty toward God Himself.              demands of the law. He does not love God, and
                                                          therefore any real love for the neighbor is also im-
  This close connection between the two tables of         possible (I Jn. 2:9-11,4:7,  8). Just as Jesus called the
the law is reflected in the words of Jesus in Mat-        Pharisees "white-washed tombs" in their careful
thew  20:40, where He says that the Second Com-           observance of the law, clean and white on the out-
mandment (referring to the second table of the            side but full of dead men's bones on the inside, so
whole law), which teaches us to love our neighbors        the many works of charity and kindness that are
as ourselves, is "like" the first, which teaches us to    done today in the name of the brotherhood of man,
love the Lord our God. That love of the neighbor as       and by unbelievers, though they may appear right
commanded in the second table is Zike the love of         in the eyes of men, nevertheless stink of death and
God, because, in the end, it is the love of God. As       corruption in the nostrils of God.
John says, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in
us, and His love is perfected in us," and again, "If a       All this is of great importance in our study of the
man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a      second table of the law. In learning what these last


190                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



six commandments teach, we must be constantly              others who have power or strength, but He alone
reminded that more than mere outward conformity            has power. He is "the blessed and only Potentate,
is required of us. In learning what they teach`we          the King of kings, and Lord of lords" (I Tim. 6: 15).
must learn to love God and to serve Him in our             This must be made clear over against all the lies
relationships to other men. Thus, once again, we           that men tell about God, even while claiming to
must seek for and search out God's self-revelation         believe that He is sovereign. That He is the
in these commandments as well as in the first four         Almighty means that there is no creature, great or
commandments of the law. Knowing the revelation            small, not even Satan, or his demons, or any one of
of His glory which God has given as the foundation         the wicked who blaspheme His Name, who has any
of each of these commandments, we will be able to          power apart from Him. Satan's power to rise up
make our obedience to each commandment an act              against the kingdom of God and against the church
of love toward Him, as well as toward our neigh-           is given to him by a sovereign God (Job  1:12, I
bor, and in our relationships to our neighbor we           Kings 22:21-23,  Rev. 20: l-3). The same is true of the
will also be able to fulfil the purpose of our ex-         wicked. They have no power to do anything at all,
istence, and to show His praises forth in gratitude.       except it be given them from above (Prov.  16:9,
  The revelation which God gives of Himself in the         21:1, Is. 457, Amos 1:6, Jn. 19:10, 11, Acts4:26-28).
Fifth Commandment is very precious to God's peo-           All creatures are so in the hand of Almighty God
ple, and a source of great comfort and hope to them        that without His will they cannot so much as move
in the many troubles of their present life. God            (Heid. Cat., X, 28, Dan.  4:34, 35).
teaches us in the Fifth Commandment that He is               That God is sovereign means also that He has all
sovereign, and we all know the comfort of that             authority. His sovereignty, in other words, is not
truth. In a few words, it is the comfort of knowing        just the sovereignty of might, but also of right. He
that "He which hath begun a good work in you will          has not only the power to govern and direct all His
perform it until the clay of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).    creatures, but also the right to do so as their
This means, therefore, that we, who love God and           Creator, and as the sovereign Architect Who has
the truth of His sovereignty, are called to maintain       decreed all things from eternity. Even more than in
and confess that truth by submitting to those whom         His power, His sovereignty is revealed in His
God has placed over us in positions of authority, as       authority and right to rule His creatures, as Paul
well as by exercising authority in the proper way          points out in Romans 9:21, where he speaks of the
when it pleases God to set us in such a place of           right of the Potter over the clay.
authority. To put it another way, we enjoy the com-          The Fifth Commandment is concerned especially
forts of the truth that God is sovereign, not in some      with Gods authority, and requires submission to
esoteric and intellectual way, but in the most basic       all those whom God has placed over us in positions
relationships of life, by living in those relationships    of authority. God has given to such persons first of
as God commands in the Fifth Commandment.                  all the right to rule our lives, and He requires in the
  It is no coincidence that the godlessness and law-       Fifth Commandment that we recognize that right.
lessness of our society have appeared together. The        Certainly those who have such positions ought also
lawlessness that troubles society is a result of its       to have power to maintain and uphold their
refusal to bow before the sovereign authority and          authority and to do what is required of them in
power of the Almighty. That lawlessness shall final-       their position. Especially that is necessary in this
ly issue forth in the Son of Perdition, the Antichrist,    sinful world. But even if they do not have that
who "shall speak great words against the most              power, they still have the authority and must be
High. . . and think to change times and laws" (Dan.        honored in the Name of God Almighty Who gave
7:25). The shame is that this spirit of lawlessness        them that authority.
has invaded the church, so that the authority of the         It is not circumstance, therefore, which gives
offices and work and discipline of the church are          authority - not might, or wisdom, or social stand-
despised, and so that some to whom God has for-            ing, or the consent of the governed (as our own
bidden a place of authority in the church, intrude         godless Constitution states), but God only. God
themselves into these positions by indecent means.         may use circumstances to bestow authority, and He
But though it is shameful, it is not surprising, for       may give it in different ways, even through
the church, by and large, has also forsaken the            rebellion against authority, as He gave it to our own
truth that God is sovereign, so that the lawlessness       government some 200 years ago, but He remains
which troubles the church only reflects a god-less         the sovereign and only Potentate, and must be
teaching and preaching.                                    recognized as the source of all authority.
  That God is sovereign means first of all that He is        The Fifth Commandment, therefore, in requiring
Almighty. He is not just greater in power than all         submission to the authority of parents, husbands,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               191



employers, government officials, and officebearers        15:23). Just as much as witchcraft is idolatry in that
in the church, is really requiring submission to the     it trusts in superstitious practices, rather than in
authority of God Himself. Paul says that in so many      God, so also is rebellion and disobedience idolatry
words in Romans  13:l: "Let every soul be subject        in that it rejects the authority that God Himself has
unto the higher powers. For there is no power but        given to certain persons; and in rejecting that
of God; the powers that be are ordained of God."         authority it rejects God and worships another god,
Thus it follows that "whosoever therefore resisteth      the god of this world, who has no power and
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God."              authority in himself, but who has used his  God-
Resisting authority is resisting God and denying         given authority to become the first great rebel (Is.
His sovereign right to rule over us through others.      14:12-15, Eph.  2:2). Obedience, on the other hand,
That is why all politics or theology or resistance       glorifies and honors a sovereign and almighty God.
must be an abomination to the believing child of            That obedience is a gift of grace. By nature we
God.                                                     too are children of disobedience as others (Eph.
  We must not allow this matter of authority to be       2:3), and as such we also are rebels against God and
confused by all sorts of questions about gifts,          against all those whom God has placed over us with
abilities, standing in God's sight, or even about the    authority. In connection with the demands of the
evils that are often committed by those to whom          Fifth Commandment, we shall certainly be able to
God has given authority. The question is not             see our own shortcoming and failure. But God Who
whether the husband is stronger than his wife, but       is rich in mercy sent us His obedient Son, Who was
whether God has given him authority over his wife        obedient even to the death of the cross, that His
and children in the home. The question is not            obedience and submission might cover all our re-
whether the man in the church and in society has         belliousness (Phil.  2:8). That Savior, now risen and
more gifts than the woman, but whether God has           exalted, has left us an example of obedience in all
made him the head of the woman. The question is          the spheres of life, and has poured out His Spirit in-
not whether governments sometimes oppress their          to our hearts to teach us new obedience and to give
citizens, but whether God has given government           grace sufficient to serve and honor the authority
authority over its citizens. Nor is it a question of     and power of our sovereign God and Father.
whether employers always treat their employees
fairly and honestly, but whether employees are
commanded by the Word of God to obey their                   The Standard Bearer
masters.
  The world throws off the yoke of authority in-                  makes a thoughtful
creasingly today, and always as much as it dares in
the home and in society exactly because God is not
in all their thoughts. The Christian submits to                         gift for the
authority because God is in all his thoughts, and
especially because God has chosen to execute His                   sick & shut-ins.
power and show His authority through Christ, Who
is the Savior of all Christians.                              Give The Standard Bearer!
  Rebellion in any form "is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubborness as iniquity and idolatry" (I Sam.

                       News From Our Churches
                                               January  1,1985




  Rev. Bekkering preached his farewell sermon at         sented to go to Trinity Church in Texas with his
Trinity Protestant Reformed Church in the evening        family for December 23 and 30. Rev. Kuiper also
on December 9. The Bekkerings moved on                   preached the Christmas and New Year sermons in
December 11. Rev. Van  Baren preached the  ser-          Texas.
mon at Rev. Bekkering's installation as pastor in           Rev. C. Hanko left for Florida on December 11.
Faith Church, December 16. Rev. Dale Kuiper con-         He expects to be preaching there during the winter


  THE STANDARD BEARER
           P.O. Box 6064                                                                               j GG,;.". /
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





192                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

months. Rev. Hanko's address is: K  & K Trailer                       lecture emphasized that, according to the instruc-
Park, Lot  #4, F. Street, U.S. 41 (14th St.),  Braden-                tion of the Holy Spirit, the offices in the church are
ton, Florida 33505. First Church of Holland,                          closed to women. And it addressed the legitimate
Michigan desires that we remember Rev. R.                             and practical question of what, then, is the role of
Miersma and his family as they labor among our                        women in the church. This lecture is also available
fellow saints in New Zealand. The Miersma's ad-                       on cassette tape for $3.00, from the Evangelism
dress is:  #20 Maungaraki Rd., Korokoro  Petone,                      Committee of South Holland Protestant Reformed
New Zealand. Their telephone number is: 011-64-                       Church, 16511 South Park Avenue, South Holland,
4-684-540.                                                            IL 60473.
  Rev. Marinus  Schipper,  who for many years                            An office bearers' meeting was held January 8 at
served faithfully as a pastor in our Protestant                       Southeast Church in Grand Rapids. All male con-
Reformed Churches, went to be with the Lord on                        fessing members in the surrounding churches there
January 2, 1985. His confession, especially during                    were encouraged to attend Prof. Hanko's speech on
the last couple of years when he suffered much                        "The Elders' Role in Family Visitation."
pain and discomfort, was that he had nevertheless                        Rev. Van Baren is leading a post-confession class
great  comfort, in that he belonged to his faithful                   on the study of Reformed Doctrine, at Hudsonville
Savior.                                                               Church, 7:00 P.M., on Tuesdays. I do not know
  In a letter received by our churches,  Redlands                     whether this class meets every week or every other
Protestant Reformed Church in California ex-                          week. The young people are encouraged to attend.
presses gratitude for the benevolence received for
the family of Rev. S. Houck. Rev. Houck continues                        Grandville Protestant Reformed Church is in the
to improve although he has some discomfort from                       process of purchasing 4.01 acres of land in the
sitting or riding for too long a time. He has fully                   Grandville, Michigan area to build their future
resumed his labors and is presently working with                      church building and parsonage. They are expecting
several families who are interested in our churches.                  the Grandville City Planning Commission to ap-
His son, Jeremy, is presently home and more stable                    prove their request to purchase this land.
but continues to receive weekly checkups and                             Hope Church in Walker, Michigan has approved
medication for his kidney problem. His immunity                       the purchase of a new Allen electronic organ. They
to infection and disease is very low. Let us continue                 held a cash drive the week of December 10 to raise
to remember Rev. Houck and his family in our                          the remaining money needed to buy the new organ.
prayers.                                                                 Covenant Church of Wyckoff, New Jersey
  I missed reporting a Reformation Day speech.                        reports that Public Service arrived to install the
Rev. Richard G. Moore spoke on "The Continuing                        gas line which runs under the driveway. They are
Principles of the Reformation" in our Hull Church                     now able to put down the stone base and asphalt
on October 29. I am not sure if a cassette tape of his                paving for the driveway.
speech is available.                                                     The building committee of Heritage Christian
  The Evangelism Committee of South Holland                           School informs us that the footing, foundation,
Protestant Reformed Church informs me that the                        underfloor plumbing and conduit work, sewer and
two lectures given by Prof. Hoeksema on "The                          water lines have been finished. The library commit-
Afscheiding" are available on two separate tapes at                   tee is in need of good used dictionaries and en-
a cost of $3.00 each. They also inform me that Rev.                   cyclopedias with annual year books. Contact Kathy
Engelsma lectured in Randolph on the theme, "The                      Veenstra and Sharon  Haveman if you have these
Important Place of Women In The Church." This                         books.                                                          DH

                            NOTICE!!!                                                            NOTICE!!!
  The newly organized Heritage Christian School of Hudsonville,         Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in
Michigan is in need of teachers for grades K through 9 for the        Randolph, Wisconsin on March 6, 1985, at 8:30 A.M., the Lord will-
1985-l 986 School Year.                                               ing. Material for the Agenda must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk
  Please contact Mr. Ervin Kortering, 253 East 19th St., Holland,     30 days before Classis convenes. Delegates in need of lodging are to
Michigan 49423. Phone number is (616) 396-4966.                       inform the Clerk of the Randolph Consistory.
                                            Erv. Kortering, Sec'y.                                     -Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk


