          The
     STANDARD
          5EARtX
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





       We ought to think about our baptism more
     than we do.' In our times of doubt and
     despair, when the assurance of faith and sal-
     vation seem far away, when we are troubled
     by the guilt of our sins and the accusation of
     the devil, we ought to think about our bap-
     tism. AU such times our baptism ought to be a
     powerful means of grace to us.
     See "The Significance of Your Baptism"
                                                        -page  210



.                                              Vol. LXI, No. 9, February 1, 1985  -


194                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                         THE STANDARD  BEARER
                              CONTENTS                                                                            ISSN 03624692
                                                                                   :    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                         Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
  Meditation  -                                                                               SeconclClass Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                              Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       MyLoveofJehovah.......................194                              Depnrtntent Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
  Editorials  -                                                               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.
       Rev. Marinus Schipper, 1906-1985 . . . . . . . . . . .197              Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. Marinus Schipper, Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                              ma, Rev. Gise J. Van Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
       One Hundred Fifty Years and Sixty (2) . . . . . ; . .198               Editorial  Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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       Our Order of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199      Church News Editor:  Mr. David Harbach
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MEDITATION


                                           My Love of Jehovah
                                                                  Rev. H. Veldman



                   "I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. " Psalm 116:l


  We read in our King James version: "I love the                                 course, very little difference between the two ver-
Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my sup-                                 sions - the former speaks of the Lord as having
plications." We read in the Dutch: "I love God,                                  heard my voice and supplications while the latter
because Jehovah hears my voice and my supplica-                                  speaks of this hearing of the Lord in the present
tions." This Dutch version is correct. There is, of                              tense.


                                           Ti-lE STANDARD BEARER                                            195



  The author of Psalm 116 is unknown, and there-         Him as his own, as the God of his salvation! And,
fore the circumstances of this psalm are also un-        yet even this is not all.
known. This, however, is quite unimportant. If the         What does this imply? A few years ago we heard
Holy Spirit had intended to reveal him to us He          of the New Morality, or, if you will, of the Old Im-
would have done so. We have this psalm and this is       morality. And our present day and age is not free of
really all that matters here.                            this. Yes, the central concept of this phenomenon is
  Psalm 116 is a song of redemption. This is clear       love. Only, this, love is not the love of God. If only
from the entire psalm. We recognize immediately          we love the neighbor, love one another, we may
the three parts of our Heidelberg Catechism in this      perform any and every evil under the sun. If we
psalm: our misery of sin, our redemption, and our        love our family which is in poverty, we may steal.
gratitude. And we must not fail to note the personal     If we love a girl friend, who desires intimacy, we
note of our text and throughout this psalm: I love       may satisfy that desire. And so we could go on. The
the Lord because He hears my voice and my suppli-        difference between the New Morality of today and
cation.                                                  the Old Immorality of yesterday is that today they
           * * * * * * * * * *                           attempt to justify it, even by appealing to Scripture.
                                                         How corrupt it is! This is obvious. Think of all the
  I love the Lord, Jehovah - how unspeakably             corruption it brings forth. Indeed, according to
wonderful!                                               Scripture, if you love Me, ye will keep My com-
  First, I love the Lord, Jehovah. As Jehovah He is      mandments.
the I AM, the Rock, unchangeably the same. He is,          Remember, however, that the Lord is Jehovah,
in the Dutch, the Zijnde, we are the wordende. He is     the I AM, the Rock, the Unchangeable One, the
the I AM, the One Who is; we become. We can              God of eternal and infinite goodness and perfec-
never say, I am. We cannot say this because we do        tion, a Light in Whom is no darkness, the Rock that
not have life in ourselves; we become through            is infinitely and eternally perfect. To love God,
another. And we cannot say this, in the second           therefore, means that we love as He loves, and also
place, because we are never the same, we are             that we love what He loves. To love God means
always subject to change, physically and also            that we love His own, and also that we hate what
psychically, according to soul. But God is the I AM,     and whom He hates. It means that His friends are
Who owes His life to nothing outside of Himself;         my friends, and His cause is my cause. Then, His
He has within Himself the eternal source of His          enemies are my enemies. What He loves, Himself, I
own infinite being and life. Moreover, He is in          love; what He hates I hate. I long for Him, His fel-
Himself the All-Sufficient One. He is the sovereign      lowship and communion, His City, the City that
Creator of the heavens and the earth, and also the       has foundations. And then I yearn for the day when
Sustainer of the same. He is in Himself complete         all this filthy sin and darkness will be no more,
and all-sufficient. He needs no creature to add or       when I shall see Him face to face, in Christ Jesus,
contribute to His glory. He did not enrich Himself       know Him as we are known, in heavenly and im-
when He created the world. He would not become           mortal perfection. I love God, the Lord, Jehovah,
poorer if the whole universe were to collapse. He is     the God of my salvation.
in Himself all-glorious, the God of infinite goodness
and perfection, at Whose right hand there are              Indeed, how unspeakably wonderful! I love the
pleasures forevermore.                                   Lord, Jehovah, my God, now and forever.
                                                                  * * * * * * * * * *
  And, secondly, I love Him. This word, love,
means to breathe after, hence, to long after, to           We read "I love" because Jehovah hears my
desire. The word emphasizes a constant yearning,         voice and my supplications. Indeed, I love the Lord
longing for Jehovah, His fellowship and com-             because He has loved me first. To be sure, the
munion. Indeed, what an amazing phenomenon we            ground of my love of Jehovah is always His love to
have here! I long for God, for Jehovah, the I AM,        me in Jesus Christ, His Son our Lord. Now this, we
the in Himself all-sufficient One, Who needs no          know, is emphasized in the Word of God, in 1 John
man to establish or add to His glory. I long for Him,    4:lO: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but
desire to have Him, to have fellowship with Him, to      that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the pro-
taste amd experience His love. And this is true of       pitiation for our sins." Notice what we read here in
me, so completely and utterly insignificant - the        this word of God. And, indeed, this truth that the
whole world is less than vanity, less than nothing;      love of God is always first also receives emphasis in
who and what am I? Can you conceive of a greater         this scripture.
contrast, of anything greater and more wonderful           Jehovah hears my voice and my supplications. In
than the desire and longing in and of a sinner's         this expression, the latter word, supplications, ex-
heart to love the Lord, to seek Him and to want          plains the former word. My voice here assumes the


196                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



form or content of supplication. What else can we         loved us in Christ Jesus, loves us with an everlast-
do, when addressing the Lord, but pray supplicat-         ing and unchangeable love, the same yesterday, to-
ingly?                                                    day, and forever. These miseries and troubles of the
  What are these supplications? We read in verse          child of God, in addition to all this, are no surprise
3, "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the            to our God. Indeed, He has willed them, sovereign-
pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and       ly, from before the foundations of the world, in
sorrow." In verse 4 the psalmist continues: "Then         order that He may reveal Himself as the sole and
called I upon the name of the Lord; 0 Lord, I             only Saviour of His people. Are not all things
beseech Thee, deliver my soul." And in verse 8 we         known by Him, willed by Him from before this
read, "For Thou hast delivered my soul from death,        world's beginning? Is He not our eternal Father in
mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling."          our Lord Jesus Christ, and are not all things known
And what are these supplications as experienced by        by and to Him, even eternally?
the people of God throughout the ages? What are             Therefore we love the Lord. I love the Lord
they but the entreaties of a spiritually harassed and     because Jehovah hears my cry and my supplica-
distressed child of God? Indeed, these supplications      tions. I love Him because He reveals Himself to me
are not carnal, materialistic, the cry and longing for    as the unchangeable God of my salvation, because
the things of this present time and world. These          He saves me, continues to save me, and leads me in
cries are the supplications of a sinner who has been      the way everlasting. What else does this emphasize
brought low, who has become brokenhearted, who            but the wonderful truth that nothing can ever in-
has learned to see and know his sins and trespasses,      duce the Lord to turn His back upon me, to change
who has learned to understand and be fully im-            in His attitude toward me? This is our experience
pressed by the holiness and righteousness of an ho-       ever anew. Do not the scriptures declare that His
ly and unchangeable God, of whom it is true that          mercies are new every morning? Hence, my love of
the sorrows of death compassed him. The pains of          Him rests upon His love of me, and the work which
hell had gotten hold upon him; his soul had been          He has once begun shall be finished in the day of
delivered from death, his eyes from tears, and his        our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, of that wonderful
feet from falling. What else can we do, when we           love of God the scriptures speak throughout. How
know and see in ourselves nothing but sin and evil,       else can we account for the fact that the Lord never
that we cry to God for mercy? Indeed, all we can do       tires of our crying, is always ready to forgive us and
is pour out our hearts and souls in anguish and in        grant relief? It cannot be due to any good on our
supplication!                                             part, to anything we ever contribute to His everlast-
  And, Jehovah hears us. We understand that this          ing praise and glory. How true it is that this is not
does not mean that the Lord is merely aware of our        love that we loved Him, but that He loved us first
voice and supplications. The Lord knows all things,       and will therefore love us even forevermore!
sees all things. And yet we read in Scripture that          To Him we cry, every day anew.
His eye is far from the wicked and that He does not
hearken to their cries. But this word of God does           Always He hears our crying, our supplications.
mean that He hears us in the sense that He answers          0, Lord Jehovah, Thou art the God of my salva-
us. We pour out our souls to Him in prayer and He         tion.
always hears us. We never go to Him too often or in         Now and even forevermore.
vain. He never shuts the door in our faces. He does
not say to us, "What, are you knocking at My door
again?" He never turns us away empty-handed,
never wearies of our repeated crying and supplica-            The Standurd Bearer
tions. Always He is ready to hear us, to give us
relief, to concern Himself with our troubles. The
Lord, the overflowing Fount in Himself of all good,                makes  a thoughtfid
never dependent upon any creature, Who cannot
receive anything because He is the sovereign                             gift for the
Possessor of all things, is always present to forgive
us our sins, to relieve us of the misery of our soul,                sick & shut-ins.
to deliver us, over and over again, from the powers
of death and the terrors of hell.                                  Give The Standard Bearer!
  And why is this? Why does He never tire of us,
never become weary of our constant crying and
begging? Why? Because He is the Lord, Jehovah,
the Rock, everlastingly the same, Who, having


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                            197



EDITORIALS
Prof H.C. Hoeksema





            Rev. Marinus Schipper, 19064985


  Rev. Marinus Schipper went to glory on the sec-        He remained pastor of Southeast until his retire-
ond day of the new year, a month and six days            ment in 1978. It was during those years at South-
short of his seventy-ninth birthday. He was the          east, where I and my family were members for 9
oldest of our retired ministers in age, though not in    years, that I especially learned to know him as a
length of service in our churches. During the last       pastor, a vigorous preacher, a colleague, and a per-
two years of his life he suffered considerably, hav-     sonal friend. Rev. Schipper labored throughout his
ing undergone four major operations. He knew that        ministry, therefore, in Classis East. A good many of
the end of his earthly pilgrimage was approaching,       our people in  Classis West will remember him,
especially after the fourth operation; and he looked     however, because of the fact that in the post-1953
forward to the time of his release and his reward.       years he spent many weeks helping out in various
  My own memories of our brother go back to his          congregations in the time when our western chur-
student days in the early 1930's, when he would oc-      ches were in sore need of help and when there was
casionally supply the pulpit of First Church and         a severe shortage of ministers.
when he helped with catechetical instruction in            Not to be overlooked in this brief account are
that congregation. Actually his contact with our         two other areas of labor. While he was in the Grand
cause in a way went back to the time when the late       Rapids area brother Schipper labored uncounted
Herman Hoeksema was pastor of Fourteenth Street          hours in the work of our two major standing com-
Christian Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan;          mittees, the Theological School Committee and the
as a youth Rev. Schipper was a parishioner of Her-       Home Missions Committee. In both of these he was
man Hoeksema at that time, and he delighted in           always forward-looking and zealous. Our  Standard
telling stories of those early days.                     Bearer also profited from his labors. For many years
  Rev. Schipper began his ministerial labors in our      he was the editor of the department once known as
former Grand Haven (Mich.) congregation in 1937.         "Periscope," and now known as "All Around Us."
In 1939 he moved to Roosevelt Park, on Grand             Later he contributed, until his physical condition
Rapids' southwest side (later "Second Church"),          prevented it, to our Meditation department.
where he remained until 1945, when he moved to             And now this faithful servant rests from his
South Holland, Illinois. He stayed at South Holland      labors. Though he would be the first to demur and
until 1954, and was there, therefore, during the         to remind us of the fact that it was only by grace
crucial crisis years preceding the `"split" in 1953.     and that much imperfection clung to his labors, he
During those years he did faithful service in the        has left us an example of a faithful servant and a
conflict to maintain our Protestant Reformed posi-       militant soldier in the cause of our Lord Jesus
tion. In 1954 he returned to the Grand Rapids area,      Christ.
becoming pastor of the faithful remnant of Second
Church, now known as Southwest Church, leading             The funeral service was from Hudsonville
them in the period of their re-establishment. And in     Church on January 5. His pastor (and successor at
1962 he heeded a call from Southeast Church, again       Southeast Church) spoke in connection with Psalm
in a time of crisis, when the congregation was           34:22, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of His ser-
almost destroyed due to the defection of their           vants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be
pastor and many members in an aftermath of the           desolate."
1953 split. Under his leadership Southeast revived         May the Lord comfort the bereaved widow,
and became a flourishing congregation once more.         Helen, and the family.


I    198                                        THE STANDARD BEARER

            One Hundred Fifty Years and Sixty (2)


     (Note: The previous installment brought the history      is the fact that in effect a miniature of the entire
     commemorated in the "One Hundred Fifty Years"            Secession movement, with all its differences of em-
     of our subject to the point at which the Secession       phasis and with all its strengths and weaknesses,
     had become an accomplished fact in the congrega-         was transferred to this country. That this is true is
     tion at Ulrum, of which Hendrick de Cock was             still evident in the names of the towns and villages
     pastor. The current installment continues from this      round about Holland, Michigan. Zeeland, Vries-
     point by briefly relating the spread of the              land, Drenth, Overijsel, Graafschap, Groningen,
     Aficheiding. The reader should bear in mind that         Noordeloos are all communities in that area; and
     this is by no means a detailed account of the Seces-     they all remind us of the fact that the colonists kept
     sion and its spread.)                                    their peculiar identities and also their peculiar
       The -flame kindled at Ulrum soon spread                religious emphases when they moved to this coun-
     throughout the Netherlands. To those at all ac-          try. Frequently the early cultural isolation of these
     quainted with Dutch church history the names of          colonists has been bemoaned and criticized by
     Scholte, Van Raalte, Brummelkamp, Van Velzen,            historians; but we should remember that it was
     and Meerburg - along with that of De Cock - are          precisely this geographical and cultural isolation
     familiar. All of these, though of varying strength as    which also made it possible for the Secession move-
     far as their Reformed convictions are concerned,         ment, with all its internal differences and variety of
     were agreed as to the necessity of the Secession.        emphasis, to be transferred to our country and to
     And they were the original leaders of the Secession      persist and develop as it did.
     movement. And that movement was blessed of the             It was out of this transplanted Secession move-
     Lord. Persecution could not stop it. And there was       ment that our mother church, the Christian
     indeed real persecution! A provision of the              Reformed denomination, was born in 1857. And it
     Napoleonic penal code was invoked which forbade          had its origin not in the Van Raalte colony as such.
     public gatherings of twenty or more persons, with        The latter represented the weaker wing of the
     the intent of preventing the meeting of the Seces-       Secession movement, and under the direct in-
     .sion congregations for public worship. There were       fluence of Van Raalte himself had united at an early
     fines levied. There was imprisonment imposed.            stage with the Reformed Church in America. But
     The quartering of soldiers in homes of the Seces-        the more strongly Reformed element of the Seces-
     sionists was used as a means to squelch the move-        sion was represented in the De Cock-Joffers-Van
     ment. But by the end of 1835 there were some 70          Velzen wing. And it is from the latter especially that
     congregations, and that, too, in spite of such a         the fledgling Christian Reformed denomination
     severe shortage of ministers that the few who were       came in 1857. The Christian Reformed Church,
     available had to preach as often as twenty times per     therefore, stood originally in the historical line of
     week. Often the churches had to be satisfied with        the Afscheiding, and that, too, the Afscheiding in
     the services of exhorters. And while there were in-      its stronger and more soundly Reformed aspect.
     dividual efforts put forth toward the training of                                            (to be continued)
     more ministers, there was no central Theological
     School until the establishment of Kampen in 1854.
       But now we take our leave of the Netherlands,
     though our description of the Secession movement            The Standard Bearer
     there has been very brief. And we move to the
     American scene.                                               makes a thoughtful
       In 1847 the Secession movement was trans-
     planted to our country. This began with the estab-                     gift for the
     lishment of the Pella (Iowa) colony under Scholte
     and the establishment of the Holland (Michigan)                   sick & shut-ins.
     colony under the leadership of  Albertus Van
     Raalte. But what I wish to stress in this connection


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               199



MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE




                            Our Order of Worship
                                                Prof H. Hanko





  We have come, in our discussion of the order of         unimportant beginning, but insists that it must
worship, to those elements in which the minister          have a proper place and must itself be proper. With
speaks: the votum, the benedictions, the prayers          this we agree.
and the sermon. In this article we shall be discuss-        The beginning of the worship service is usually
ing the votum.                                            composed of three elements: the salutation or
  With the many changes which are taking place in         greeting, the votum proper, and the benediction.
the worship services these days, the votum has            The salutation, at least in our circles, is usually the
been all but lost. Greater efforts are being made, in     words, "Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ," or
the interests of novelty and innovation, to make the      "Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ." The
worship services more informal and to involve in          votum usually used is: "Our help is in the narne of
the worship services the congregation itself. The         the Lord Who made heaven and earth." The bene-
result is that many times worship services are            diction follows upon this.
begun in ways which seem strange and foreign, if            The word "votum" comes from the Latin voveo,
not downright profane. Upon ascending the pulpit,         which means, "to vow, to pray to God for some-
the minister may greet the congregation with some         thing." Apparently, the idea is not so much as
such words as: "Good morning, everyone," to               Heyns (in the above-mentioned book) maintains -
which the congregation responds. Or: "Good morn-          to consecrate or devote; rather the idea is to express
ing, God," with which greeting the congregation           dependence upon God at the very beginning of the
joins. Or: "Will everyone shake the hand of his           worship.
neighbor?" followed by a lot of noise in the audi-
torium.                                                     This votum took on different forms in the history
                                                          of the churches of the Reformation. Luther, in Ger-
  What is forgotten is that the worship service is a      many, made no use of a votum at all. He usually
solemn assembly in which the church of our Lord           began the worship services by announcing the sing-
Jesus Christ meets with her God in the worship of         ing of a song. A Lasco did the same. At Strassburg,
covenant fellowship. It is not an informal gathering      where Calvin spent a few years between his two
of people; it is not a picnic where people who know       stays in Geneva, the German congregation began
each other gather for some festivities; it is not even    its services with the words, "In the name of the
a business meeting or convocation of people who           Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen."
have come to discuss matters of mutual interest.          Calvin, in the French church, used the same votum
The church gathers with her God in worship. And           as we use. Although the Synod of Dordrecht in
the solemnity and wonder of it ought to be re-            1574 ruled that the votum used by Calvin ought to
tained.                                                   be used in the churches, this was not commonly
  In his book on liturgy, W. Heyns points out that        done. Many different forms were used to begin the
the votum is extremely important because it really        service. Sometimes the old formulas used in the
sets the tone and atmosphere of the entire worship        Romish church prior to the Reformation were kept:
service. If the beginning of the worship service is       the minister would begin with the words, "Peace
solemn and holy, this will set the tone for all the       be with you," to which the congregation would re-
worship which follows. He obviously does not con-         spond, "And with thy spirit." But gradually, in the
sider the votum a mere, relatively thoughtless and        Dutch churches, the form used by Calvin was more


200                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



and more accepted, and that has remained true till                Who made heaven and earth.
today within those churches which have their roots                   While, certainly, this had great meaning and
in the Netherlands Reformation.                                   significance for the people in those days, neverthe-
  It is clear from all this that there are no direct              less, the fact remains that the same is principally
Scriptural injunctions concerning this matter. As                 true for the church in every age. Just that we do not
we have found to be true with so many of the                      know overt persecution as our fathers did, does not
elements of worship, this too must be left to the                 mean that we are not in constant jeopardy and
discretion of the individual consistories as they                 danger. We iare surrounded by hostile forces on
decide what form of worship is most in keeping                    every side. The devil goes about as a roaring lion
with the nature of congregational worship and                     seeking whom he may devour. His demons are his
what serves best the edifying of the people of God.               minions who delight in the destruction of the saints
Nevertheless, the folrm in general use in our chur-               - if that were possible. The world is an alarming
ches is one that, while surely not infallible, is time            place, filled with dangers and traps, ready to
tested and has proved its worth over the years. It is             pounce on the unwary and lure his soul into
well that there is uniformity on this matter among                destruction. And our own weak and sinful flesh is
us, and changes ought not lightly to be made.                     an ally to all these enemies and is constantly at-
  The votum in use among us - "Our help is in the                 tempting to tug us into the snares of evil. How
name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth" -                    dangerous a place this world is! We would easily be
is the last verse of Psalm 124. It might be well to               swallowed up and the waters would easily over-
quote that entire Psalm a moment, for the last verse              whelm us. To be overcome would be the most
is the doxological conclusion of the Psalm.                       logical and easily accomplished event in the world.
                                                                  To destroy the whole church would be as easily ac-
         If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,         complished as swatting a mosquito - if . . . "If it
       now may Israel say;                                        had not been the Lord Who was on our side, now
         If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,         may Israel say . . . Blessed be the Lord, Who hath
       when men rose up against us:                               not given us as a prey to their teeth . . . Our help is
         Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their          in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and
       wrath was kindled against us:                              earth! ' '
         Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream              You can sense the quiet exultation that breathes
       had gone over our soul:                                    in these words as the church of Christ comes
         Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.            together once again on the Lord's Day, after a
         Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a          dangerous week in the world, and breathes out her
       prey to their teeth.                                       confession of hope and confidence in God, Who
                                                                  has safely guarded her.
         Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the
       fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.             It is well for us to consider briefly the meaning of
         Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made            these words from Psalm 124. There are just three or
       heaven and earth.                                          four remarks which ought briefly to be made.
  This "votum" in use in the churches must be                        In the first place, the church confesses that her
taken in connection with the entire Psalm. Evident-               help is in the name of the Lord. The name of the
ly, when Calvin introduced this in the French                     Lord is the Lord God Himself, but as He reveals
church in Strassburg, this meant a great deal more                Himself to His church. Centrally, that name is
to the church then than it does to us now. The                    Jesus  - Jehovah salvation. Thus, without going in-
Reformation faced foes on every side: the pope                    to detail on this matter, the church confesses that
with his armies of priests and prelates who hated                 her help is in Jesus, Who is the revelation of God.
the Reformed people with a single-minded passion;                 That is why the name Jehovah is also used here, for
the armies of hostile world powers in Germany and                 that name, more than any other, is the name which
France; the people, who, moved by Rome and their                  describes the Lord God as the One Who is faithful
clerics, often took delight in doing what darnage                 and unchanging to His covenant in Jesus Christ. No
they could to the Reformation. The whole move-                    wonder the name of Jehovah is described in Scrip-
ment was in constant jeopardy from a human point                  ture as a high tower in which we may find our
of view. How significant it then was that the con-                refuge and hiding place.
gregation, when it would come together, would                        In the second place, Jehovah is said here to be
confess before God that, though great and terrible                the One Who made heaven and earth. The
dangers surrounded them, the Lord was on their                    reference is undoubtedly to His great power as He
side; they were escaped once again as a bird out of               revealed it in the work of creation. If Jehovah, the
the snare; their help was in the name of the Lord,                God of His people, has made the earth and all its


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 201



creatures, the stars and planets and shining hosts of     only help is in Jehovah. It is a confession of our
heaven, men and angels - and devils - if our help         own weakness and sin. It is a confession of our ut-
is in His name, then surely we are safe in this           ter helplessness. It is Ia confession not only that in
dangerous life.                                           Jehovah are we safe, but that only in His name will
  Finally, therefore, the church confesses that her       we be safe for all this life till we enter the everlast-
                                                          ing Sabbath.

THE DAY OF'SHADOWS



                   The Enemy Beginning to Fall
                                               Rev. John A. Heys





  Although Esther did not plan it that way, the           whether it would give a clue as to Esther's petition
time between her first banquet prepared for the           and hesitancy to express it. It was not indigestion
king and Haman and the second produced some               that kept him awake. It was a delicious meal, and
events that benefited her. Those events served her        though he may have overeaten, Scripture reveals,
cause, but only because it was in harmony with            by pointing out that he wanted to review the
Gods cause, and because enlargement and de-               records to soothe himself, that he was concerned
liverance were coming from another place than the         about the kingdom, and perhaps even about his
one which she and Mordecai expected. It came              own life.
down from out of heaven, whereas they were look-             The king is reminded of a somewhat recent plot
ing for some earthly relief and protection.               to kill -him, which plot was exposed by a man
  The first event was not at all to Esther's liking.      whom he did not know any further than that his
She did not know that it was taking place and that it     name was Mordecai. This happened while Esther
would serve her cause. But had she known it she           was preparing for the beauty contest that brought
would have been very apprehensive. Questions              her to the queenship. But she had not yet revealed
arose in the mind of the king, and so disturbing          that Mordecai was her uncle-father. The king also
became his thoughts that he could not sleep all           learns that nothing had been done to reward
night. Questions arose in his mind such as, What          Mordecai for his good deed. And whether the king
does Esther want? Is there something going on in          knew his nationality is not revealed. Whether it
the kingdom that she knows and Haman and I do             dawned on him that here was proof that Haman's
not know? Why is she so hesitant to tell me her re-       charge about the Jews was false and that there were
quest? Why must there be two banquets, and why            Jews who were very loyal to the king likewise is not
must Haman,  my right hand man, be at these ban-          revealed. But here was the evidence that all the
quets? It must be important because she risked her        Jews should not be killed. Mind you, the very man
life to ask me for the first banquet. Does Haman's        whose actions provoked Haman to seek the death
presence mean that there is something politically         of all the Jews was so loyal to the king that he saved
wrong? Another plot to kill me?                           the king's life. It was not to the king's profit that
  At any rate we read in Esther 6:l that the king         men like that be put to death. It is far more for the
could not sleep the night between the banquets.           king's profit that men like Haman,`who plotted the
Esther's actions must have troubled him after the         death of the king's protector, should be put to
wine had lost its power over him. And that he             death.
feared some political problem is evident from the            The king, as we began to say, was surprised to
fact that he called for the book of records of the        find that no recognition of Mordecai's deed had
chronicles. He wanted to review the past to see           been given. Impetuously he decrees that great


     202                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
I

     honour shall be bestowed upon him. And entirely          lem. Stepping briskly, confident of what would
     apart from Esther's craftiness and Mordecai's            happen, he enters the court of the king little
     pathetic and debasing behaviour in the sackcloth         prepared for the king's command that he honour
     wherewith he clothed himself, the hand of God            Mordecai. Little does he expect that there is
     brought Haman  into the court the same moment            another man in the kingdom "in whom the king
     that the king decided on honouring Mordecai more         delighteth" other than himself. Did not all the re-
     highly - it turned out to be - than Haman had            cent events show that he was such a person?
     ever been honoured.                                        Boldly he therefore prescribes all the honor and
        What a day it was to which Haman woke up after        glory that he can imagine when the king calls him
     a good night's sleep, due to his wife's suggestion of    in for advice as to what should be done for the man
     getting Mordecai on the gallows. He would get his        who had exposed the plot of the two chamberlains
     revenge! On awaking that morning he stood, figura-       to kill the king.  Haman quickly prescribes royal
     tively speaking, facing the rising sun and looking       honor for himself! He will wear the king's apparel,
     for a bright, beautiful day in his life: the second      ride on his horse, and wear the royal crown. Once
     banquet and a way to get Mordecai out of his hair.       again it is the hand of God that turns the king's
     Little does he realize that behind him is a storm        heart so that Ahasuerus does not object to all this.
     cloud that contains a tornado that will not only         Here is a request far beyond what the king prom-
     destroy all his dreams but destroy him as well.          ised Esther, namely, even to half of the kingdom.
       He had a warning, or, better stated, he had found      Here is a request to be accepted by the public in the
     a fly in his ointment that bothered him. He had left     king's place. The people were to do to him even as
     that first banquet elated and in high spirits. He was    they were required to do to the king.
     on cloud nine. And he was eager to get home to tell        Truly "Pride goeth before destruction, and an
     his friends and his wife what honours had been           haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16: 18). And
     bestowed upon him. Politically he had climbed as         yet how many are there not today in the church
     high as a citizen could. -He was next to the king.       who boast of having prophesied in Christ's name,
     Socially he had now advanced to where he be-             in His name cast out devils and done many wonder-
     longed to the elite. The queen, that beautiful           ful works? They "saved" so many souls, added
     woman, had invited him to a banquet with the             souls to the church, really set the church on fire
     king. And get this, my friends and wife, was his         with spiritual enthusiasm and zeal. And yet Jesus
     thought, I alone was invited!                            will say to them, "I never knew you; depart from
       But momentarily all his joy was gone when he           Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:22-24).  It is
     came out and left the royal estate. There sat            not what we think of ourselves or of our works.
     Mordecai in his sackcloth, refusing to stand up          What counts is what God thinks of them. Do they
     when this dignitary, who was so high socially and        conform with the whole of Scripture, or with a few
     politically, appeared before him. He would not           selected verses?
     even move out of the way. Haman had to go around           But what a humiliation for Haman!  It is one thing
     him as he sat on the ground. He found a fly in his       for a proud man to have someone else be given the
     ointment that made him furious so that he saw red!       honors which he sought for himself. It is one thing
     He wanted to give Mordecai a swift and powerful          to have a nobody, picked up off the streets,
     kick to get him out of his way. Yea, the urge to kill    elevated above you after all the service you
     was strong in him. But we read that he refrained         rendered to the kingdom. It is one thing to prepare
     himself, that is, refrained from doing what at the       carefully and thoroughly for your advancement,
     moment he wanted to do, namely, kill Mordecai on         and then have something unexpected and unfore-
     the spot. He is therefore so ready later on to take      seen happen that makes it all impossible. But it is
     the advice of his wife that he build a gallows for       another thing to be made a lowly servant to the
     Mordecai and to get permission from the king to          man who is given the honors you earned. It is
     hang Mordecai on it.                                     another thing to have the man you hate with all
       Now he enters the king's court to get his ap-          your being be given higher honors before the public
     proval for Mordecai's death. This should be no prob-     in whose eyes you were known as a dignitary. It is
     lem, for it had already been decided that all the        another thing to be required to take a man off the
     Jews must be killed in the twelfth month, that is, in    streets who has publicly despised you, and then tell
     the month Adar. This would only be hurrying the          everyone within hearing distance that this is the
     matter up for one man, and then one who insulted         man wherein the king delighteth.
     the king's right hand man. And since he now                How much Haman  wished he had not advised
     belonged to that elite group that might banquet          the king to bestow so much honor on the man in
     with the king and queen this should pose no prob-        whom he delighted. What a shock it must have


                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                               203



been to him to hear the king tell him to give this      it not wonderful how in an atheistic and unbeliev-
honor to Mordecai! Here was the man he wanted           ing world God does not leave Himself today also
dead by a public hanging on high gallows. Instead       without a witness? Men deny Him. Christ they re-
he must be a humble servant to cause the public to      ject as the Son of God, and teach that He was a
bestow high honors on this man. He wanted him           mere man. And yet, go where you will in the world,
high in shame; and now he must lift him high in         east or west, north or south, and you will find that
honor.                                                  unbelievers and atheists as well as believers say
  Those must have been hours of sheer agony for         that today is A.D. 1985. They will teach Ancient
Haman.  It must have taken hours for him to parade      History and give dates that are this or that year B.C.
his worst enemy through the city streets in royal       The whole world reckons time from the birth of
honor, because he hardly got home and they came         Christ. The date is either so many years before His
to rush him to that second banquet. But the thought     birth, or so many in the period that began after He
of that banquet put a bad taste in his mouth. How       came into our flesh.
could he face the king who had humiliated him that        Now, although Haman's friends and wife did not
much? How could he enjoy the meal? And the              say it that way, their statement that he was begin-
queen, would she be as attractive now that his eyes     ning to fall before the Jews reveals that they knew
were clouded with shame and disappointment?             the history of God's people, and that the Seed of the
  Before he went to the banquet his wife and            woman was going to crush the serpent and his seed.
friends prepared him for a complete downfall            They know that to that day no one succeeded to
before Mordecai. There just was no way that a man       destroy the nation in which God's church was to be
passed by that way by the king could be restored to     found, and out of which the Christ would come.
his former position. Haman had prescribed too high      They are now sure that Haman shall "surely fall"
an honor for Mordecai to return to his own position     before Mordecai.
and respect in the eyes not only of the other             We, however, because God has given us faith in
political dignitaries but also of the citizens in       His Son, know that all the enemies of Christ and of
Shushan. These friends and his wife did not need to     His church will fail, and fall into the lake of fire.
be told by an angel of God what was coming. They        We know, because God in His grace has spoken to
could feel the direction from which the wind was        us in our hearts, that the honorable and rich of this
blowing. The king had passed him by - they did          world will lose it all, while the church will be lifted
not probably know that Haman had prescribed             out of its sackcloth and ashes to walk the streets of
such an high honor - and elevated his enemy.            gold in the new Jerusalem in white robes of
Unbelief and not faith made them draw the conclu-       righteousness, to be Christ's royal bride and to
sion that he would fall before the Jews. They knew      know the joy of being those who for Christ's sake
Jewish history but not the God Who made it. And is      are the ones in whom THE King delighteth.
FROM HOLY WRIT



          Believing all the Prophetic Scriptures
                                              Rev. G. Lubbers



                 Chapter XVIII
The Mystery of the "Seventy Weeks' in Daniel 9         tions which came upon Israel were no afterthought
                                                        on the part of God, nor should we forget that God
THE BOOKS BY WHICh?  DANIEL UNDERSTOOD                 had definitely foretold the "desolations" which
   THE DURATION OF THE DESOLATIONS                     would come upon the land, the holy city, the tem-
            (Daniel 9: l-3, continued)                 ple, and the people of God! Often we do not read
  It should be remembered well that these desola-      well, nor do we remember what we read!


204                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



   Such was too the sin of Israel in their entire        Hebrew translated "understand" is from a verb
history.                                                 which means in the Kal degree "to distinguish, dis-
  And they tempted God to wrath (Ps. 78:32; II           cern, to know, to have understanding, to be wise."
Kings 23:26-28).                                         It is far more than merely "to read." It is also far
  But Daniel remembered the words of Moses, the          more than mere intellectual knowledge of some
man of God. He read and remembered the great             chronological data, or some important news. It
and precious promises. He read with a glowing            meant that Daniel had a basic, correct and spiritual
heart of the future of the church, that Japheth          knowledge of the meaning of the "accomplish-
would dwell in the tents of Shem (Gen. 9:26-27).         ment" of the seventy years of the desolations upon
How he must have pondered the promise of God to          Jerusalem. One can very well hear very emphati-
Abraham, "in thee shall aZZ nations  be blessed"         cally and yet not understand the thing heard spiri-
(Gen. 12:3; Gen. 28:3, 4)! And how could Daniel          tually, even as one can very well see a thing with-
have overlooked, Bible-student that he was, the          out perceiving its meaning and God-intended im-
promise of the dying patriarch Jacob concerning          port. A very clear example we find of this in Isaiah
the things which would surely come to pass in the        6:9, 10, as this is quoted and applied by Jesus in
future when he says, "Gather yourselves together,        Matthew 13:11-13.  (Compare also John 12:37-41;
and hear, that I may tell you that which shall befall    Acts 28:25-28!)
you in the last days" (Gen. 49:l). How the prophet-        Surely Daniel understood what God was "ac-
ic meaning of the words of God through Jacob to          complishing" through these "desolations" in His
Judah must have been a matter of deep meditation         sovereign mercy and love to Israel. When Judah
and prayer for Daniel: "Judah, thou art he whom          goes down into Babylon in captivity a voice is in-
thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be upon        deed heard in Rama, weeping and lamentation;
the neck of thine enemies: thy father's children         Rachel weeping for her children, because they
shall bow down before thee . . . The sceptre shall       were not. But that is not the end according to the
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from be-           "books." God will, finding fault with the former
tween his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him          covenant, make a new covenant "after those days."
shall the gathering (see footnote) of the people be"     Things will be "better" then, in a better high priest,
(Gen. 49:lO). Yes, the nations, the nations would        and better blood will be shed, and a better temple
come to Judah. Was this not the very warp and            will be built (Jer. 3 1:33). And all Rachel's tears shall
woof of the hymnology of Israel (Ps. 72:8-18;  Ps.       be forever wiped away from her eyes! All this good
87:3-7)? Yes, glorious things are spoken of Zion!        is accomplished in Israel. This is the proclamation
Daniel could not have overlooked such beautiful          of a veritable chorus of prophetic voices in the
Scripture promises concerning the future of Israel,      "books." Read Isaiah 2:1-6; 65:l ff.; Hosea 1:l ff.
in their being the salvation of the Gentiles, as we
have in  Psalm  18:4,9: "that the Gentiles might           Yes, Daniel had in these "books" the more sure
glorify God for His mercy" (Rom. 159). David sang        prophetic word, and he gave diligent heed to them
in the Sprit, "For this cause I will confess to thee     until the day dawned and the day-star of hope arose
among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name." How         in his heart - yea, in the dark place of Babylon!
often Daniel must have had in mind the unforget-           He is not without hope in the world!
able, brief but important Psalm 117:l: "0 praise
the LORD, all ye nations: praise Him all ye people"        And he represents the true Israel of God, which
(Rom. 15:ll). And, not to quote more, notice such        hope in God's mercy, and also cry unto Him, as
beautiful passages as are quoted in Romans 1510,         God's elect, day and night. God will surely hear
12. Yes, there would be a root out of Jesse, and He      them, although He is very longsuffering over them
shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall      (Luke 18:7, 8).
the Gentiles trust (Is. 11~1).                             Thus Daniel understands the text in Jeremiah
  Great and precious promises in the "books."            25:11, 12.
  And these books were the canonical Scriptures!           He notices that this is altogether according to the
                                                         promise of God to Israel already spoken by Moses
  By these he understood the number of the years of      in the plains of Moab, before they enter into the
the Desolations upon Jerusalem. And Daniel, on           promised land. In that remarkable chapter, Levit-
the basis of these Scriptures, these "books," be-        icus 26, there are two sins singled out which would
lieved in hope against hope. He did so, standing         be of such a nature that Israel would come under
fearlessly before kings, yea, believing with a faith     the curse of the Lord and under His hot dis-
concerning things not yet seen, even in the lion's       pleasure, in ever intensifying degrees. However, if
den when already an old man!                             they repent in the "land of their enemies," when
  What did Daniel understand? The term in the            their uncircumcised hearts are humbled - then


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               205



"will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also        (Dan. 9:3-19)
with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham              This prayer of Daniel uttered before the face of
will I remember: and I will remember the land"           God is as fervent as it is historic in nature. There
(Lev. 26:40-42).                                         are prayers and prayers. There are the general
  There were to be four such visitations upon            prayers which fit the needs of every hour and time.
Israel in the back&dings of idolatry and of not          The model prayer which Jesus teaches His disciples
keeping the Lord's Sabbaths, and the desecrations        fits every need and every hour, and is a model for
of the service of God in His temple. First, there        every generation of the church. However, there are
would be the curse for contempt of God's law. God        also prayers which are uttered in times of deep
would appoint over Israel "terror, consumption,          need and distress in .a particular age and hour.
and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes,       Think of the prayers of Abraham, pleading for the
cause sorrow of heart." They would sow their seed        birth of a promised son (Gen. 15:2), or pleading that
in vain, for their enemies would take it. (Confer        Ishmael might live before the LORD (Gen. 17:18).
Judges 6:11, etc.) If Israel did not heed these judg-    Or again, think of the prayer of Isaac for his barren
ments there would be a second degree of the wrath        wife, Rebecca (Gen  25:21). Later we see Jacob
of God. The "I will punish you seven times more          agonize in prayer before the Lord at the river Jab-
for your sins." Then God will break the pride of         bok, when Esau is approaching with four hundred
their power, make their heaven as iron (no rain)         men. See him, humbled before the face of the Lord,
and earth as brass (famine in the land). (Confer: I      confessing his sin and all his unworthiness; and in
Rings 8:35, 36; 17:l; 18:l; II Chron. 7:13.)             that same night hear the great cryings and supplica-
  But God will turn do,wn the thumbscrews of His         tions when the angel of the LORD wrestles with
judgments if they do not repent. More and more, as       him, and Jacob triumphs in the prayer of faith that
Israel departed, God's judgments increased in in-        will not, will not let the angel go, until he blesses
tensity. They were increased "sevenfold." Then           him (Gen. 32:25).
God would bring "seven times more plagues upon             These latter prayers are unique. They cannot be
you according to your sins." God will walk con-          prayed by every saint as they were by these mighty
trary to Israel and "I will bring the sword upon         wrestlers in prayer. .
you, and I will avenge the quarrel of My                   Then there are the prayers of other saints. Think
covenant." And if they continue to walk contrary,        of the prayer of Samson when he would pull down
God will in His fury chastise them seven times           the walls of the palace of the Philistine merry-
more for their sins. Finally, God will scatter them      makers in honor of Dagon. What a mighty prayer of
among the heathen, and draw the sword after              faith. And it was heard. Or think of the penitential
them, and the land shall be desolate and the cities      prayer of David as so unforgettably expressed in
shall be waste.                                          Psalm 51. And then, lastly, think of the prayers of
  Thus Daniel read in the "books." He understood         Hezekiah in the temple when 185,000 soldiers sur-
the nature of the desolations as coming from the         round Jerusalem (Is. 37:14-20).
scourging hand of God! But Daniel also knew what           Yes, many more prayers at special occasions
the "books" said concerning the return of Israel,        could be mentioned. However, what we have cited
when God would remember His covenant of old.             makes it unnecessary to remind the reader of the
For God will not cast Israel away, neither abhor         great prayers of Moses as he stands in the "breach"
them to destroy them utterly. A remnant will             pleading for Israel's salvation at the time of the
return of Judah from which Shiloh shall come and         making of the golden calf, or to refer to the great
to whom the peoples shall be obedient, worship-          prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple
ping Him in spirit and in truth.                         (Ex. 32:30-35;  33:12-17; II Chron. 6:12-53).
  The time has come!                                     *Footnote:
  It is the time when Cyrus' command shall "go             The term "gathering" is the translation of a
forth." It is the time that the "command goes forth      feminine noun  '  `yiqqehah"   which really means:
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah"      obedience, submission. The "peoples" shall give
(Dan. 9:25). And in the hope of the sure fulfillment     willing obedience to Shiloh, the new obedience of
of God's promise to Israel, Daniel prays. It is the      faith. This shall be in the "last times." (See Is. 2:3;
only ground for his supplications, the sure mercies      Joel  2:30; Acts  2:17-21.)  Jacob, in the prophetic
of the Lord. God becomes the pleading ground, the        Spirit, sees vistas of distant Pentecost, fully come.
rock-bottom basis for Daniel's fervent supplica-
tions.                                                   I Read the Standard Bearer!
DANIEL'S PRAYER AIfTD CONFESSION OF SIN


206                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE



                   Integration and Segregation (2)
                                                  Rev. H.  Veldman





  We are calling attention in these articles to the          ful coexistence with each other would simply mean
subject, Integration and Segregation, as it is held          that they were equally afraid of one another. But
before us in I Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit         when a country as the Netherlands can live in
are we all baptized into one body, whether we be             peaceful cohabitation with a mighty nation such as
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and            Russia, it must mean that there must be an inner
have been all made to drink into one Spirit." We             bond uniting the two nations.
concluded our preceding article by referring to the            How applicable this is to the church of the living
amazing and wonderful unity of the church of God             God and of Christ! Indeed, this church of Christ is
and of Christ. In the world it is integration or             completely and utterly unique, the only organiza-
segregation, not both. The oneness as advocated by           tion or organism of its kind. The world seeks unity
the world is based upon equality, upon socialism.            only in the way of equality. The world's solution of
In the church it is integration and segregation.             its problems, we have noted, is that of socialism.
  The church of Christ is one, whether we be bond            The world thinks that men can live with each other
or free, and these  bondmen remain slaves. The               only upon the basis of equality, when the poor have
question of poverty over against riches, of slavery          acquired the wealth of the rich, when the slave is
over against freedom, of power and authority over            on equal footing with his master, when the child
against submission does not affect the unity of the          shares the authority within the home with his
church one whit. The scriptures do not advocate             parent, when there is no longer any distinction be-
equality, do not advocate the abolition of slavery,         tween bond or free, when equality reigns supreme.
the wiping out of all lines of demarcation between           But the church of God and of Christ is that unique
the various classes of people. In fact, this is exactly      institution where the bond and the free come
the wonderful characteristic of the unity of the             together; the poor and the rich, the high and the
church, that it is precisely this distinction between        lowly, the male and the female, the employer and
the bond and the free which serves to emphasize             his employee remain as they are, but are united in-
and focus attention upon the glorious unity of the           to one grand, glorious body.
church of our Lord Jesus Christ.                               What a wonderful unity this is! The rich and the
  Why is this true? How must this amazing unity of          poor, the master and his slave dwell with one
the church of Christ be understood? Let us use an           another in blessed accord, the one never seeking to
illustration. Let us use the illustration of a league or     supplant the other. The poor do not desire the
pact or covenant between various nations of the             wealth of the rich, the slave does not seek the free-
earth, of nations that differ in size and resources.        dom of his master; all the different classes of people
Imagine, if you please, if a nation such as Russia          within the church of Christ have learned to say
were to live in peaceful coexistence or cohabitation        with the apostle Paul, in Philippians 4:ll: "For I
with a country such as the Netherlands. How this            have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
would emphasize the idea and reality of a true uni-         to be content." It need not surprise us, therefore,
ty! Rich diversity is an absolute requirement for the       that the world has accused the church of Christ of
manifestation of unity. If all the nations of a cove-       being anti-social, anti any improvement. Indeed, it
nant or league were equal in resources, in military         must be true that there is truly an inner bond be-
might and preparedness, then their living in peace-         tween all these different classes of people, far sur-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                207



passing all natural bonds and distinctions. The             be in him a well of water springing up into everlast-
church believes in integration and segregation, is          ing life." This "well of water" is the Holy Spirit.
utterly unique, the only body and organization of           How terrible is the agony of thirst! The agony of
its kind. What a wonderful unity!                           hell is likened to thirst. Ask the desert traveller who
         * * * * * * * * * *                                craves a drop of water and there is no water in
  This word of God, in I Corinthians 12: 13, calls at-      sight! Ask the child of God, who craves for the liv-
tention to the realization of this unity of the church      ing God and His fellowship and is barred from Him
of God, first of all, in the words, "For by one Spirit      by a.gulf which he cannot possibly span. To drink
are we all baptized into one body." We do not pro-          into one Spirit refers to that activity of faith where-
pose to enter into a detailed exposition of these           by we consciously enter into this Spirit, this well of
words, or of what follows in the text, that we all          living water, and enter into the blessed fellowship
have been made to drink into one Spirit. The apos-          of God. Then we drink of the forgiveness of sins;
tle is obviously speaking here of Spirit baptism.           then we enter, consciously, into the blessed love
Water baptism is not another baptism. We have on-           and communion of God; then God is not far from
ly one baptism: Spirit baptism. Water baptism is on-        us, but is very near us, the God of our salvation,
ly a symbol of Spirit baptism. If one sees a Mr.            now and even forever. And now we understand,
Smith walking on a bright summer day, he does not           also in the light of this wonderful truth, the won-
say that he sees two Mr. Smiths. He sees only one           derful and amazing unity of the church of God and
Mr. Smith and his shadow. Now we have been bap-             of Christ. We aZZ, regardless of who and what we
tized by one Spirit into one body. This Spirit has          are, have been made to drink into this one Spirit,
transferred us out of one body into another. He has         the fountain of everlasting life and glory. Again, it
removed us out of the body of mankind whereof               makes absolutely no difference who and what we
Adam is the representative and organic head, and            are, whether rich or poor, white or black, male or
into the body whereof Christ is the Head. This was          female, of high or low degree; we all have one thing
accomplished centrally upon the cross, and spiri-           in common: the life of the alone blessed God
tually by the Spirit of all divine grace. He has            through His Holy Spirit. We are all sinners, yes, but
translated us out of the body of sin and death into         saved by grace. Indeed, in Christ there is neither
which all mankind was plunged because of Adam's             male nor female, bond nor free; we are all brothers
sin, and into the living body of Jesus Christ, our          and sisters in the Lord. Although pilgrims and
Lord.                                                       strangers in the earth, we are all heirs enroute to
                                                            the Jerusalem that is above. The carnal and
  Now we can understand, on the one hand, the               materialistic issues of this present life, the things
unity of the church of God and of Christ. Why this          that are earthly and carnal do not attract us. We
wonderful unity? Why is it that we are one,                 have something far better: the glory of the city of
whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or free? Why is          our God!
it that our position in life, whether it be that of male                * * * * * * * * * *
or female, cannot affect it? Why? It makes no dif-
ference whether we be rich or poor, professor or              One hears much nowadays of integration and
student. This is due to the fact that we all have been      segregation. One hears much nowadays of unity, of
baptized by one Spirit into one body. It is therefore       unifying the church of the living God. Let us not be
the one and selfsame Spirit Who unites and binds            deceived. There is nothing scriptural or Christian
us. We have all received from that one Spirit the           about any of these movements of church mergers.
same life, are therefore controlled and governed by         These movements are not from above by the Spirit
a principle that is far deeper than any outward and         of God. They are movements that are sponsored
material circumstances. This is the first and basic         and prompted from below. The church's cry and
reason why the church of God and of Christ is so            striving for ecumenicity is all at the cost of the
utterly and completely unique, the only one of its          truth. The Spirit of God and of our Lord Jesus
kind.                                                       Christ does not operate at the cost of the truth. In-
                                                            deed, without the truth, we understand, no real
  And, secondly, we have all been made to drink             unity is possible. This ecumenical movement will
into one Spirit. We have been made to drink into            surely lead to the harlot of Revelation 17.
one Spirit, and this drinking, once begun, has never
stopped. In Scripture the Holy Spirit is identified           Having all been baptized by one Spirit into one
with living water. We read in John 4:13-14: "Jesus          body, and having all been made to drink into one
answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh              Spirit, let us be a truly Pentecostal church. 0, I am
of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever             not speaking of Neo-Pentecostalism, the  Pente-
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall           costalism of our present age. Having received bap-
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall     tism once, water baptism, they are not satisfied


     208                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



     with this. They desire and seek a second baptism, a          would we perform? Do we wish to perpetuate a
     Spirit baptism. They desire a second baptism                 Christian's life here upon the earth rather than see
     because they would perform miracles, speak in                him enter into the City of our God? Shall we be
     tongues. The apostle Paul, a learned man and able            satisfied with merely the "ordinary, common"
     to speak in tongues, declares that he would rather           blessings of salvation?
     speak five words that are understood than a thou-               Let us be a truly Pentecostal people, endowed
     sand words in a strange tongue. Paul had no special          with the Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the
     desire to speak in a strange tongue. But these Neo-          crucified and risen Christ and Lord. Having been
     Pentecostals seek a second baptism. They are car-            baptized by that one Spirit into one body and hav-
     nal. Why should they seek a second baptism? Is it            ing been made to drink into that one Spirit, whether
     not enough to be baptized by one Spirit into one             Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, rich or
     body, to drink into the one Spirit? Is it not enough         poor, employer or employee, let us all walk to-
     to taste and experience the forgiveness of sin, the          gether, as unified by that one Spirit of all the bless-
     assurance that we are righteous in Christ before             ings of salvation, seeking one another, having
     God, heirs of everlasting life and glory? The                fellowship with one another, admonishing and
     psalmist declares his delight in being merely a door-        comforting and instructing one another, until that
     keeper in the house of the Lord (Ps. 84: 10). Is it not      wondrous day when, in the day of our Lord Jesus
     enough to be enroute to the City that has founda-            Christ, we shall attain unto the full status of the
     tions, whose Builder and Maker is God? We want               children of God and be made conformable, fully,
     more? We would speak in tongues which neither                unto the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, then to
     the people to whom we speak nor we ourselves                 know God as we are known, and to see Him, in
     understand? To whose edification is this? And we             Christ, in the new heavens and upon the new earth.
     would perform miracles? What kind of miracles
     BIBLE STUDY GUIDE




~      Revelation - Christ's Victorious Return (1)
                                                       Rev. J. Kortering





        The Book of Revelation, also called the                   the lake of fire. The New Jerusalem is the city four-
     Apocalypse (from the first word of the Greek text),          square which radiates the glory of God in the new
     unveils for us the things that must come to pass that        heavens and earth. Truly the victorious Christ has
     lead to the return of Christ. With His return, all           come and made all things new.
     things are brought to the final conclusion. In               AUTHOR AND DATE
     Genesis, we learn of the beginning of all things, the
     creation of the universe, of Adam and Eve, and of               The author identifies himself as John (see 1: 1, 4,
     Paradise. The beauty did not endure, for man dis-            9; 22:8). He does not call himself John, an apostle of
     obeyed God and the whole world was plunged into              Jesus Christ, but, "servant of Christ," "brother and
     sin and death. The history of redemption follows in          partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom
     the rest of the Scriptures. Here in Revelation we see        and patience which are in Jesus." Because of this
     the end of all things, the new heaven and earth;             there is a debate as to whether the same John
     Here the angel does not bar the way to the tree of           authored the gospel, epistles, and the Revelation.
     life; rather its leaves are for the healing of the na-          Other things enter into this discussion as well.
     tions. The water of life flows freely. The devil does        We summarize the things that favor Revelation be-
     not lurk in the background to tempt, he is cast into         ing authored by John the apostle as follows:


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                209



  1. There are many similarities between the               though it were still standing (these men interpret it
gospel, epistles, and the Apocalypse. Examples: use        literally). Furthermore, an event of such magnitude
of the name Jesus without the article, use of words        as the fall of the city would surely have been no-
such as logos, lamb, witness, and true are common          ticed in the Apocalypse if it had occurred.
in all these works. The vocabulary and structure             2. Appeal is made to the statements in chapter
are similar.                                               17:9-11 to the effect that five kings have fallen, one
  2. The author is familiar with the churches in           is, and one is yet to come. The beast that is to come
Asia Minor. The Apostle John came to Ephesus               is one who was and is not, one who is an eighth,
around A.D. 69 and 70. He centered his labors in           and yet of the seven. This reflects the current
Ephesus as he reached out to surrounding cities            legend concerning Nero, that he did not really die,
(where we find the seven churches). He was exiled          but would appear in the East and assert his power.
to Patmos during the fifteen years of Diocletian and         3. Some interpret Revelation 13:18, the number
returned to Ephesus during the reign of Nervius.           of the beast 666 as an example of gematria, that the
  3. The early church fathers accepted the author-         numbers of Nero Caesar written in Hebrew
ship of John the apostle, e.g. Irenaeus and Clement.       characters have numerical value yielding exactly
  Certain other things seem to mitigate against            the required sum of 666.
John the apostle as being the author. Such things as:        4. An early date is thought to be in accord with
  1. There are differences between the                     the rather uncouth character of the Greek of the
Apocalypse and gospel (letters). Such things as            Apocalypse. John refined his writing later on
vocabulary and grammatical structure. The                  when he wrote the gospel and letters.
sentence structure in Revelation seems awkward               Arguments in favor of a later dating, toward the
and sometimes crude in style in comparison to the          end of the reign of Domitian, around the year A.D.
gospel.                                                    96 are as follows:
  2. The fact that John does not identify himself as         1. This was the understanding of the ancient
"apostle" seems contrary to his usual custom of do-        church in the main. The church father Irenaeus,
ing so.                                                    e.g., says, referring to the Revelation, "It was seen
  3. Some of the early church fathers questioned           not very long ago, almost in our own generation, at
and even denied that John the apostle was the              the close of the reign of Domitian."
author.                                                      2. This later date agrees with the condition of
  It certainly is reasonable to conclude with the          the churches in Asia as reflected in the letters of the
church of the past that John, the apostle, the author      churches. Ephesus had left its first love. Sardis was
of the gospel and letters also wrote the Revelation        virtually dead. Laodicea was lukewarm. A con-
(Netherlands Confession Article 4). He was familiar        siderable interval had taken place between the
with the seven churches, having labored among              founding of the churches and the time of the
them extensively. The differences in grammar and           writing of Revelation.
style may be attributed to two things. First, John           3. It was during the reign of Domitian that the
was writing about a vision. The heavenly character         worship of the living emperor began to be pro-
was difficult to describe. Secondly, some even sug-        moted in Asia. Nero's persecution seems to have
gest that John may have used a secretary to write          been confined to Rome and was mostly political.
his gospel and letters, but now while imprisoned on        Domitian loved to be addressed as "Lord and
the Isle of Patmos, he had to write with his own           God," and doing so became a mark of loyalty to the
hand, and this accounts for the differences. While         emperor. Refusal to participate was sufficient
thus suffering for the stake of the gospel, he viewed      grounds for proceeding against the recalcitrant.
himself, not so much as apostle, but as partner in
the tribulation.                                             4. Laodicea appears as a prosperous city
                                                           (chapter 3). In the reign of Nero it was destroyed by
OCCASION AND DATE                                          earthquake, but rebuilt by the time of Domitian.
  There are two suggestions given as to the date of          The main reason for rejecting the early dating of
the writing.                                               the writing lies in their wrong interpretation of the
  The first is as early as A.D. 68-70. This would          symbols of the book. Historically the evidence
place it near the end of Nero's reign. We summarize        favors the later dating of A.D. 95 or 96.
the arguments cited in Harrison's Inntroduction  to the      Since the book is addressed to the seven chur-
New Testament. This is the view of Wescott, Hort,          ches of Asia Minor (1:4), the question arises as to
Lightfood, and Salmon, among others.                       how broadly we should apply this. The churches
  1. Jerusalem is mentioned in chapter 11 as               are explicitly listed. Yet, we know they were not


210                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



the only churches in Asia Minor. Why did the Holy         METHOD OF INTERPRETATION
Spirit select these seven? We must answer this              As part of the introduction to this book of Revela-
along these lines. The word addressed to them was         tion, we face the question as to how it is to be inter-
for all the churches of that time. These seven were       preted. Various writers have used different
selected as representative of all the rest. These         methods, and this has contributed to the confusion
seven were selected as representative of all the rest.    in trying to understand the meaning of this impor-
Each church had its own strengths and weaknesses
so that, taken together, they form a composite of         tant book. Some methods used are:
the spiritual needs of the church at any age. The           1. Spiritual method: an attempt to allegorize
number seven symbolizes the covenant, hence               much of the book. Some in the early church taught
these churches represent God's covenant people in         a literal return of Christ to earth for a thousand year
this world, struggling to maintain the cause of           reign. In rejecting this, these men spiritualized the
Christ. The message, then, is for the church of all       book (reduced it to a struggle between good and
ages. We must examine ourselves to determine              evil) and rejected any historical application.
whether we are strong or weak and heed the ad-              2. Praeterist Method: All prophecies of the book
monition of Christ, "He .that hath ears, let him hear     have been fulfilled during the early Jewish conflict
what the Spirit saith unto the churches."                 and during the time of Nero. It was written for the
  This leads us to point out that the purpose of this     church of that time, and only chapters 20-22 are
letter is threefold.                                      future.
  1. It was written to correct and encourage the            3. Continuous-Historical Method: By symbolic
church of Christ as she does battle with the forces       language, the book explains all history, from John
of evil. The greatest enemy is within the church:         to the end of the world. As example, the first two
apostasy, spiritual decline, heeding seducing             trumpets of Revelation 8:7, 8 are interpreted as
spirits. Well may we listen to the warning of Christ      reference to the attack by the Saracens and Turks
to repent and remember from which we are fallen.          on Rome. The beast of Revelation 13 is the Pope. By
  2. Persecution loomed large upon the horizon,           trying to fit the details into a historical sequence,
and the church needed encouragement. The wor-             there arise endless differences as to what symbol
ship of Domitian as god posed a great threat for all      of the vision fits what historical event.
Christians. As persecution became the practice of           4. Futuristic Method: All details of chapters 4-22
Imperial Rome, the saints needed to look to Christ        refer to some events that must yet take place. It all
to remain faithful.                                       refers to events connected with the one event, the
  3. The greatest hope for all saints is this, Christ     return of Christ.
is coming again. The whole book of Revelation un-           The book of Revelation must be viewed as proph-
folds before us the great future of the saints. It ex-    ecy that pictures in symbolic form what has and
plains that Christ will come in the way of tribula-       will take place in history in connection with the
tion. In all these things, the church is more than        eventual return of Christ. We are not given the
conquerors through Christ, Who loves us. His call,        details as to who or when, rather what takes place
"Behold, I come quickly," stirs us on to faithful         and how it affects the church as she looks for the
obedience. A careful reading and study of this book       return of her Lord.
prepares us to endure unto the end.
THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH


              Tlhe Significance of Your Baptism
                                              Rev. Ron Cammenga



  For most of you, the sacrament of Baptism was           you were all unaware of your baptism, that you
administered to you in your infancy. At that time         were baptized, and the meaning and significance of


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               211



your baptism. The Baptists suppose that this consti-       to be an apostle of Christ. In the passage he also re-
tutes an objection to infant baptism. We Reformed          counts Ananias' coming to him in Damascus and
deny the validity of this objection. As our Form For       restoring his sight. In verse 16 he records the word
Baptism states, "And although our young children           of Ananias to himself immediately after his sight
do not understand these things, we may not there-          had been restored: "And now why tarriest thou?
fore exclude them from baptism, for as they are            Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins,
without their knowledge, partakers of the condem-          calling on the name of the Lord." This verse
nation in Adam, so are they again received unto            teaches that baptism functions to wash away our
grace in Christ . . . ."                                   sins. Again, baptism is of saving power. In Titus 3:5
  Although at the time that you were baptized as           we read, "Not by works of righteousness which we
infants you were altogether unaware of the mean-           have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
ing of your baptism, you must not remain unaware           by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
of its meaning. Through the instruction of your            the Holy Ghost." Here baptism is called the "wash-
parents and the church, as well as your own study          ing of regeneration."
of these things, you must be made aware of the               Baptism has saving power, of course, not
tremendous significance of your baptism. For your          because of some inherent power in the water of
baptism is of the greatest significance. The event of      baptism, or because of some mystical power
your baptism, now many years ago, is an event that         possessed by the minister who administers the bap-
has the most importam implications, not only for           tism. The Heidelberg Catechism very clearly denies
all of your earthly life, but for all eternity.            this in Q.A. 72: "Is then the external baptism with
  The first important significance of your baptism         water the washing away of sin itself? Not at all: for
is that it marks you as a child of the covenant. The       the blood of Jesus Christ only, and the Holy Ghost
significance of your baptism is that it identifies you     cleanse us from all sin." The Belgic Confession
as one born in the church, as a member of the peo-         states in Article 34, "Not that this is effected by the
ple of God. You are not a heathen who stands out-          external water, but by the sprinkling of the
side of the sphere of the church of God, and alto-         precious blood of the Son of God . . . . Therefore the
gether apart from the knowledge of the gospel. The         ministers, on their part, administer the sacrament,
Heidelberg Catechism, in &.A. 74, teaches that by          and that which is visible, but our Lord giveth that
baptism we are "distinguished from the children of         which is signified by the sacrament."
unbelievers . . . . " And the Belgic Confession, in Ar-      Baptism has saving power because God is
ticle 34, the article entitled "Of Holy Baptism,"          pleased to use the sacrament as a means of grace
states that by baptism we are "separated from all          and faith. The sacrament is not an empty cere-
other people and strange religions, that we may            mony, of no real value. But the sacrament is the
wholly belong to him, whose ensign and banner we           means by which God is pleased to give us that
bear . . . ."                                              which is signified by the sacrament. Baptism saves
  Baptism is a mark of distinction. Just as circumci-      us because God uses the sacrament to give us the
sion in the Old Testament clearly identified one as        assurance  of our salvation. Baptism washes away
an Israelite, distinquishing the people of God in the      our sins because God uses the sacrament to assure
Old Testament from all the heathen nations about           us of the washing away of our sins: ". . . that I am as
them, so baptism in the New Testament identifies           certainly washed by His blood and Spirit from all
those who have been baptized as belonging to the           the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as
church. The baptized child is the child, not of un-        I am washed externally with water . . ." (Heidel-
believing, but of believing parents. He will be in-        berg Catechism, Q.A. 69). Baptism is the washing
structed and trained, not in the world, but within         of regeneration because by means of the sacrament
the church.                                                God gives believers the assurance of their regen-
                                                           eration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
  In the second place, the significance of baptism is
that it functions as a powerful means of grace. Bap-         Always these are the great questions and the
tism has power, tremendous, saving power. That             great struggles in the life of the believer. "Am I a
power is that it is an instrument for the strengthen-      saved child of God? Has Christ died for me? Are my
ing of our faith.                                          sins washed away? Does the Holy Spirit live and
  There are several Scripture passages which em-           work in my life?" And now baptism is a mighty
phasize the saving power of baptism. The Apostle           means of God to give to the believer the assurance
Peter writes in I Peter 3:21 that "baptism doth also       of his salvation and faith.
now save us . . . ." Baptism functions in our lives in       This is true, of course, only as we think about our
a saving way. In Acts 22 Paul records his conver-          baptism, contemplate and meditate on that bap-
sion on the Damascus road and his subsequent call          tism. Baptism isn't some kind of automatic means


212                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of grace, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches.           are contained two parts: therefore are we by God
But we must think about our baptism, and we must          through baptism, admonished of, and obliged unto
consciously consider the great significance of our        new obedience, namely, that we cleave to this one
baptism. We must do this all our life long. Our bap-      God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that we trust in
tism ought to be a means of grace to us our whole         Him, and love Him with all our hearts, with all our
life. The Belgic Confession, in that same 34th arti-      souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength;
cle, says, "Neither doth this baptism only avail us,      that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature,
at the time when the water is poured upon us, and         and walk in a new and holy life."
received by us, but also through the whole course           Now it is exactly by refusing to walk in this holy
of our life . . . ."                                      way that the reprobate, carnal seed shows itself in
  We ought to think about our baptism more than           the church. And when it does, that seed must be
we do. In our times of doubt and despair, when the        dealt with. That seed must not be allowed to re-
assurance of faith and salvation seem far away,           main in the church, comfortably at ease in Zion,
when we are troubled by the guilt of our sins and         trusting that they have been baptized and therefore
the accusations of the devil, we ought to think           they have nothing to worry about. But that carnal
about our baptism. At such times our baptism              seed must be dealt with. It must be disciplined, and
ought to be a powerful means of grace to us. Martin       if there is no repentance, excommunicated.
Luther tells us that when he was tormented with             But even then, they have been baptized. And that
doubts and fears, he would often write two words          baptism is significant, significant forever and for-
on the table in front of him with chalk: "Baptizutus      ever. It increases their guilt before God, and it in-
sum," that is, "I have been baptized." Often the          creases their punishment in the condemnation of
reality of his baptism was the means of God to            hell. On the great day of the judgment, and forever
bring Luther out of his despair and give him the vic-     as they suffer in hell, the fact of their baptism will
tory in his spiritual struggles. Our baptism ought to     always be before them. And in the endless ages of
be the same for us.                                       hell, the pagans will point their fingers at the sons
  The third significance of our baptism is that it        and daughters of the church who despised their
constitutes a call to us to holiness of life. Since we    baptism and trampled the blood of Jesus Christ
have been baptized, we must walk as those who are         under foot, and say to them, "You knew! You
baptized. As those who have been baptized in the          knew! You were baptized; you had the sign; you
name of the Triune God, we must live to the glory         had believing parents; you had the instruction that
and praise of this God, and not to ourselves. Since       we never had." And forever their baptism will be a
baptism is a sign and seal of the washing away of         testimony against them.
our sins, we must not walk in sin, but we must hate         But for the believer, for the believing young per-
and flee from our sins. Since we have received the        son, his baptism is a great comfort and a mighty en-
sign and seal of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit,     couragement. It is the great means of God in his life
we must live as those who are regenerated. Since          to distinguish him from the world, to give him the
we are holy, we must be holy.                             assurance of his salvation, and to incite him to
  It is this that the Form For Baptism calls our part     holiness.
in the covenant. "Whereas in all covenants, there
GUEST ARTICLE


                           Amazing Love of Father
                                                Rev. R.G. Moore




  I would like to consider with you a portion of the      It is good to reflect upon them for awhile; and thus
truth of God's Word as it is given to us in I John        we shall through this meditation. First we quote the
3:1-3. We read a very blessed truth in these verses.      text referred to above: "Behold, what manner of


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 213



love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we            sin and doeth unrighteousness is of the devil and is
should be called the sons of God: therefore the           not of God." We have believed the lie and we par-
world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.            took of Satan's nature. We did his lusts and with
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth          him pitted ourselves against God and hated Him. In
not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that         the words of Paul we were dead in sins and tres-
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we        passes: "Walking according to the course of this
shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath           world, according to the prince of the power of the
this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is          air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
pure."                                                    disobedience."
  We read in our text that "we shall be like Him."          But God has called such as we are by nature, His
It is evident from the context that the pronoun           sons! No wonder the exclamation of the immensity
"Him" is indicative of God. This of course does not       of God's love. Our God has adopted us! As right-
mean that we will become gods, for this would be          fully as we belonged to Satan, in whose power we
heresy, a heresy which some would follow today.           willfully placed ourselves in the way of our, sin and
However, by taking an earthly figure implied in our       its guilt, so now we belong to God and are rightfully
text we shall try to discern the truth of this clause.    His, through His adoption of us and through His
Let us look at a child in this life. A male child, one    calling us sons. In the earthly figure a child, should
that has just been born, is a frail creature and cer-     you adopt one, becomes yours legally. This takes
tainly not the equal of his father who begat him.         place by a judge pronouncing the child yours. This
However, as this child advances in years, the             action of the court is put into writing, signed and
resemblance between him and his father may be             sealed, and he becomes yours - heir to you.
strong - so that beholding the child, men may say           So did our God, the judge of heaven and earth,
the child is the very picture or image of the father.     pronounce such as we are His sons. His elect
He may have his father's eyes, profile, mannerisms        chosen in Christ He views in the cross of Christ,
and character. In a word, the child takes right after     and on the basis of Christ's redeeming work He
his father. He is like him.                               adopted them, who were children of darkness, to
  In light of the above figure we may grasp some-         be His children. Wonder of grace!
thing of the meaning of our text when John says,            Let us return to the figure. The child that one
"we shall be like Him." The promise of God found          may adopt may or may not look like us. We could
in our text is precisely that when we, God's people,      take all the care possible to select a child that shall
shall have appeared with Christ in glory (and we          appear like us. And our hopes may be very high
will), we shall be like God, our Father, who begat        that the child will grow up to be like us. But, in fact,
us, according to His perfect will. Of course, the
resemblance then will be perfect, as we are taken to      the very opposite could happen - that not only the
perfected glory. So then, as God is righteous, so will    child may not look like us at all, but also he may, in
                                                          spite of our labor and instruction, manifest himself
we be righteous perfectly. As God is holy, so will        as rebellious and unruly, etc.
we be holy perfectly. All vestiges of sin will then be
wholly obliterated. We will love as God loves,              On the other hand, our God does not adopt us
desiring His desires, thinking as He thinks, and          upon the basis of who we are, or what we look like.
willing His will. We will speak and act as He speaks      In fact, spiritually we were as unlike God as we
and acts, we will desire and love the things that He      could possibly be, being children of darkness, de-
desires and loves, which is above all His own bless-      formed spiritually, blind, naked sinners. By nature
ed self and His people redeemed in Christ.                we were undone sinners, driven by the curse of the
  In other words, we will take right after God in         law - even headed to sure and eternal destruction,
                                                          and that rightly. Totally depraved we were. But this
the true spiritual sense, being the perfect creaturely
likeness of our God in Christ. In the likenkss of God     did not deter God from loving us in Christ. For He
                                                          is ever unchangeable, and in elective love He has
we will show forth perfectly the glories of God's
virtues as we are conformed to the image of His on-       adopted us, calling us sons. For God is not limited
ly begotten Son. What amazing love of God!                as man, nor by man, as the error of free-willism
                                                          would teach. But God is able and desirous to
  For He adopts us as His children. By nature,            remake us, and He does, so that we will look like
apart from Christ, we are not like God at all - in        Him. He in Christ raises us from our spiritual
reality totally unlike Him spiritually. It cannot be      death, as He cleanses us from all of our sins by the
otherwise, as by nature we were children of dark-         blood of His only begotten Son. He creates in us a
ness, of disobedience, yea even of Satan. For we          new spirit and inscribes the law of His kingdom
committed sin and were unrighteous, as John says          upon our hearts, that we may live in its liberty.
in another part of this epistle: "He that committeth      Even now God, by His Word and Spirit, impresses


214                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



His likeness upon our minds and wills, so that we              You share his joys and his sorrows. The interests of
are become like Him. John says, "Now we are sons               your child lie close to your heart, and often you
of .God."                                                      bear your child on the wings of prayer to God. In
       Yet this is only very imperfect, for sin still riots    love you rebuke, admonish, and chasten your
in our flesh and taints the best of our works. Even            child. In a word, you deeply love him. But this is
the holiest of men confess that they have but the              often precisely what your child fails to discern. The
beginning of new obedience. Reading Romans                     child can be very critical of you and your actions
seven we see the apostle Paul also so confessing. It           with respect to him. He can be rebellious or filled
is the experience of every child of God. The result            with complaint. They may see you as too exacting,
of this is that the spiritual resemblance between us           questioning even the justness of your guidance -
and God is in this life so very far from being perfect         so much so that he may even doubt your love. And
that John says, not that we are like God, but that we          it goes to show you that, because of sin and the lack
shall be like Him. "Beloved, now are we the sons of            of understanding, your child does not see you as
God, and it doth not ye% appear what we shall be,              you are. However, as your child grows into a man,
but we know that when it shall appear, we shall be             he often looks back upon the way you led him, how
like Him." A child, when just born, is a frail                 that you instructed and corrected him, and now
creature, but a potential man. Looking at the child,           discerns that all you did was for his good and done
all we see is a defenseless babe on its mother's               in true love.
breast. But we know that when that child is full                 Spiritually, so is it with us, beloved in the Lord.
grown, he shall be like his father. Now it is con-             Dwelling in us, that is, in our flesh, is no good
cealed, but it shall appear that he is his father's son.       thing. For we are still sinful - though children of
       In this life, God's people are babes in Christ. We      God. Very much are we like that immature child.
are now become sons. Yet, that babe in Christ is               We too often murmur and complain to God, we
potentially a spiritual man, only that man does not            even all too often become critical of God's ways
yet appear. What we mean is that, looking at the               with us. Like Asaph we can become envious of the
child of God, you indeed see a babe in Christ. We              foolish and the prosperity of the wicked. And some-
are spiritually frail, weak and infirm. We walk only           times we will even question whether God loves us,
with great effort in the ways of God's command.                while the fact is that He so loves us that He has us
We speak the language of the kingdom of heaven                 engraved in the palms of His hands. What great
only with greatest difficulty. However, we know                sacrifice God made for us. He gave His only begot-
that when it shall appear what this babe (what we)             ten Son over to the accursed cross, that we might
shall be, that that which is now for the large part            not perish but have everlasting life. Further, He
hid shall be revealed in glory, then shall we be like          washes us of all our sins in Christ and realizes in us
our heavenly Father perfectly! This is the promise             the fruits of Christ's atonement, and still further
of the gospel! What amazing love of our God                    preserves us in His power unto the incorruptible in-
bestowed upon us in Christ.                                    heritance. He cares for us each day perfectly, and
                                                               this despite our murmurings and complaints. It
       It shall come to pass, and this without fail. John      reveals that now we still do not see God as He is. O!
says, "We shall see God our Father." Christ says,              the darkness caused by our sin.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God." Understand that we who are finite, shall see               However, we are going to grow up spiritually. In
God, Who is infinite and eternal. How? Our text                fact, even now under the preaching of Christ and
says we will! We shall see God's face, which is                by His Spirit we are doing this. But when that
wholly adapted to our capacity to see and know.                spiritual man, concealed often in us as we are babes
That face is Christ Jesus. In Him in heaven we shall           in the faith, shall have appeared, we shall be like
see the glory of God and know Him. The infinite                God. Then the resemblance between us and our
goodness of His invisible Being, the love, mercy,              God shall be perfect. We shall be His friends and
and compassion of God we shall see perfectly in                He shall be our God in perfection.
Christ. Even as Christ said, He that hath seen Me,               How we will bless God and sing His praises. We
hath seen the Father. Verily we shall see God as He            shall be like Him! Even now that hope is sure in our
is!                                                            hearts. For we are now sons in Christ. O! How great
       Already now in principle we are sons and see            the love of our God!
Him, only now not as He is, that is, not in all His
fuh-ress. Your child, when he is still young, often                       Take time to study
does not see you, his parents, as you are. As
parents, you sacrifice and toil for your child. When                    the Standard Bearer!
your child is sick, you nurse him back to health.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              215


                       News From Our Churches
                                                January 15,1985

  Rev. Jon Smith has accepted the call to Trinity         shake hands with the pastor. The pastor and one
Protestant Reformed Church of Houston, Texas.             elder will then exit to the back of the auditorium.
Rev. M. Kamps has declined the call to Hull               The congregation then leaves the auditorium as
Church in Iowa. A welcome program for Rev. Bek-           families, including their children. The pastor and
kering and his family was held December 19th at           elder extend greetings to our families and visitors as
Faith Church in Jenison, Michigan.                        they leave the auditorium. This will give better ex-
  While Rev. Miersma is laboring in New Zealand,          pression to an orderly conclusion to the worship
please send all bulletin announcements for First          service. This gives the office bearers opportunity to
Church in Holland, Michigan to Mrs. Brent Over-           express greetings to the congregation and thus ex-
way, 791 South 96th Avenue, Holland, MI 49423;            press the true love for one another in Christ.
telephone  - 722-4848. Grandville Church in                 The Evangelism Committee of South Holland
Grandville, Michigan has a new bulletin clerk: Rev.       Church in Illinois has received correspondence
J. Kortering, 3212 Calvin Ct., Grandville, MI 49418.      from Japan. A married couple from Japan was
Please forward any changes in bulletin clerks or          referred to South Holland by someone in Australia
clerks of the consistory to me so that they can be        who received pamphlets from South  Holland.
put in the news.                                          Perhaps we will have some new subscribers from
  Loveland Church in Colorado has changed their           Japan in the near future.
evening service to 6:00 P.M., except for the months         The Office Bearers' Conference was well attend-
of June through September. Grandville Church has          ed on January 8 at Southeast Church in Grand
made the following change in its order of worship.        Rapids. Prof. Ha&o gave an encouraging speech
At the conclusion of the worship service, while the       on the "Elder's Role."                            DH
congregation remains standing, the consistory will

                             Report of Classis East
                                                January 9,1985


  Classis  East met in regular session on Wednes-           The January Classis  is also the occasion for the
day, January 9, 1985 at the Southeast Protestant          submission of subsidy requests, this time for fiscal
Reformed Church. Each church was represented              year 1986. Covenant's request for $11,500, Kalama-
by two delegates. Present also was Home Mission-          zoo's request for $7,000, and Byron Center's re-
ary Kenneth Hanko and the Rev. G. Lubbers. The            quest for $6,259 were approved and now will be
Classis  also welcomed Rev. W. Bekkering, who at-         forwarded to Synod for its approval. In connection
tended Classis  East for the first time as a delegate.    with Byron Center's request, considerable time was
  The business of this session was ordinary for a         spent on discussing whether subsidy should be
January Classis.  Much time was spent in voting.          granted since this congregation now has 32
The voting results were as follows: Classical Com-        families, thus over the 30-family guideline. Classis
mittee: Rev. J. Kortering to a three-year term; Dele-     decided, however, that the circumstances in this
gates ad examina: primus three-year term: Rev. G.         young congregation required that this subsidy be
Van Baren, secundus three-year term: Rev. W. Bek-         granted. Grandville informed the Classis that their
kering; Synodical Delegates: MINISTERS: Primi: B.         congregation would be self-supporting beginning
Gritters, C. Haak, J. Kortering, G. Van Bar-en;           January 1, 1985.
Secundi: M. De Vries, R. Flikkema, M. Joostens, B.          Expenses for this meeting amounted to $496.00.
Woudenberg; ELDERS: Primi: C. Kuiper, D. Lotter-          Classis will meet next on May 8, 1985 at
man, D. Ondersma, G. Van Overloop; Secundi: W.            Kalamazoo.
De Kraker, G. Feenstra, W. Koops, P. Miedema.
Rev. C. Hanko and Rev. H. Veldman were elected            Respectfully submitted,
to serve as church visitors with Rev. J. Heys chosen      Jon Huisken, Stated Clerk
as alternate.


   THE STANDARD BEARER                    ~-  ~~
         P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 4.9506


                                                                                    ,


2 1 6                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                            NOTICE!!!
   The Men's Society of the Southwest Protestant Reformed Church                         The new address of the Byron Center Protestant Reformed Church
expresses its sincere sympathy to fellow member James Schipper                    is: 8360 Clyde Park Ave., S.W., Byron Center, Ml 49315.
and family in the passing of their father, REVEREND MARINUS
SCHIPPER.                                                                                The name and address of our new Clerk is: Mr. Kenneth Kuiper,
                                                                                  6551 Ivanrest, S.W., Byron Center, Ml 49315. His phone number is:
   May the bereaved family be comforted with the Word of God                      (616) 534-l 927.
found in Revelation 21:4 - "And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor cry-                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
ing, neither shall there be anymore pain: for the former things are
passed away."                                                                            The Adult Bible Class of the Faith Protestant Reformed Church ex-
                                                                                  presses their sincere sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Kuiper, Sr., in
P. Lotterman, Pres.                                                               the death of her father, MR. GERARD BYLSMA. May the grace of
C. Kuiper, Vice Pres.                                                             God comfort you in your sorrow.
                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On February 1, 1985, our parents, MR. AND MRS. HENRY T. KIEL                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.                                               The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Southwest Protestant
   We, their children and grandchildren thank our Heavenly Father                 Reformed Church wishes to express their Christian sympathy to Mr.
Who gave them to us. We pray that God will continue to be near them               and Mrs. Kenneth Schipper and family in the death of his father, REV.
and bless them in the years ahead.                                                MARINUS SCHIPPER.
   "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is                   "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and               (Psalm 116:5)
shall declare Thy mighty acts." (Psalm 145:3, 4)                                  Mr. Darrel Huisken, Pres.
Tom and Kathy Verbeek           Sandy Kiel                                        Mrs. Roselyn Moelker, Sec'y.
Jeff and Barb Steenholdt        Dan and Deb Kiel
Tom and Marcia Kiel             5 grandchildren     Kalamazoo, Michigan                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                         The Congregation and Council of  SouthEast Protestant Reformed
               RESOLUTlON OF SYMPATHY                                             Church wish to express their Christian sympathy to our dear member,
   The Congregation and Council of  SouthEast Protestant Reformed                 Mrs. Helen Schipper and her family in the death of her husband and
Church expresses its Christian sympathy to our member Mrs. Linda                  God's faithful servant, REV. MARINUS SCHIPPER, whom God took
Young and her family in the death of her father and our fellow saint              unto Himself on January 2, 1985.
MR. BUD BYLSMA, who went to his eternal rest on January 3,1985.                          "The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them
    May the truth "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" sustain          that trust in Him shall be desolate." (Psalm 34:22)
us all the days of our journey.                                                   Rev. Carl Haak, Pres.
Rev. Carl Haak, Pres.                                                             Harlow Kuiper, Clerk
Harlow Kuiper, Clerk                                                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
               RESOLUT%ON OF SYMPATHY                                                    The Martha Ladies Aid Society of the Protestant Reformed Church
   The SouthEast Protestant Reformed Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society                  of Hull, Iowa, expresses their sincere sympathy to one of our
expresses their sympathy to our sister, Mrs. Marinus Schipper and                 members, Mrs. William Kooiker in the death of her brother, RICHARD
her family in the death of REV. SCHIPPER. We thank God for the                    MULDER.
faithful labor and preaching of the Word performed by Rev. Schipper
as our pastor for 16 years.                                                              May our Covenant God comfort her and grant her His peace.
   Ps. 34:22, "The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants; and                   Mr. Ron Koole, Pres.
none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate."                                Mrs. Thomas De Jong, Sec'y.
                               NOTICE! ! !                                                               IN LOVING MEMORY
   Covenant Christian High School will be hiring one full-time faculty                   On January 3, 1985, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto
member for the 1985-I  986 academic year. Those who can serve                     Himself our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and brother,
the school in the areas of vocal music director, mathematics,                     GERARD E. BYLSMA, at the age of 68 years. We rejoice that he is in
science, and computer-related courses are encouraged to apply. Ap-                Glory with his Lord and we pray that Jehovah, our Covenant God, will
plicants should send letters of application to Covenant Christian High            uphold us by His Grace and give us the peace that passeth all under-
School, 1401 Ferndale  S.W., Grand Rapids, Ml 49504, attention Mr.                standing.
Frank Block, Education Committee Chairman.                                               "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
                                                                                  (Psalm 116: 15)
              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                     "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts un-
   The Ladies Aid Society of First Church of Grand Rapids, Ml, ex-               to wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)
press our sincere sympathy to Mrs. Helen Bylsma and family in the
loss of her husband and their father, GERARD.                                     Mrs. Gerard Bylsma                        Mrs. John Bartelds
                                                                                  Gerald and Bonnie Kuiper                  Mr. Ralph Meyer
   "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were                 Donald and Judi Doezema                   Mr. and Mrs. Adrian Griffioen
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands,               Duane and Shirley Gunnink                 Mr. and Mrs. George De Vries
eternal in the heavens." (II Cor. 5:l)                                            Paul and Linda Young                          and 16 grandchildren
Mrs. G. De Vries, Pres.                                                                                    First Church,
Mrs. C. Pastoor, Sec'y.                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan


