          The
     STANDARD
          BEARER
/          A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                  \





       In the great Day of days we shall stand be-
     fore the judgment seat of Christ to carry
     away the deeds done in the body, according
     to that which we have done, whether good
     or evil. In that Day all that is of ourselves
                                                 _.-
     will be burned away like straw and stubble.
     All that remains will be only Christ's work
     wrought in and through us by a living faith
     in Him!
                     See "Good Works" - page 338



.                                               Vol. LXI, No. 15, May 1, 1985  -


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                                  ISSN              0362-4692
                                                                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                              Published b the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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      GoodWorks.............................                                       EdZor-in-Chiefc   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                   DepnrWmzf  Ediforsr  Rev. Ronald  Cammenga. Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
   Editor's Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340    D. Decker, Rev. Cornelius Hanko. Prof. Herman C. Hanko,, Rev. Ronald Hanko,
                                                                                   Mr.,David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys. Rev. J.  Kortermg, Rev. George C.
   Guest Editorial  -                                                              Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper. Rev. James  Slopse-
                                                                                   ma, Rev. Gise  J. Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman.
      The Protestant  Eeformed  Church                                             Edimrial  Olficet Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
         of New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341                               4975  Ivanrest Ave. S.W.
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   From Holy Writ  -                                                               Church News Editor: Mr. David Harbach
                                                                                                             4930  Ivanrest Ave., Apt. B
      Believing All the Scriptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343                                      Grandville, Michigan 49418
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MEDITATION


                                                            Good Works
                                                                         Rev. C. Hank0


                  Ques. 91           But what are good works?
                  Ans.        Only those which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to the law of
              God, and to his glory; and not such as are founded on our imagination, or the institutions of
              men. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 33.



  The rich young ruler came to Jesus with the anx-                                       Jesus first reminds him that he should not  care-
ious question, "Good Master, what good thing shall                                   lessly use the word "good," since there is none
I do, that I may have eternal life?"                                                 good but God. If Jesus is indeed the Good Master,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                339



He is sent of God. That the young ruler should            and united with Him by the powerful bond of liv-
understand at the outset.                                 ing faith, for both the ability to believe and the ac-
   Then our Lord refers him to the ten command-           tivity of faith are from the Fountain of life, Christ
ments, particularly to the second table of the law.       Jesus!
One can hear the ring of disappointment in his               We are new creatures in Christ. Christ by His
voice when he remarks that this is no different           Spirit has implanted into our hearts His resurrec-
from what he had been taught by the scribes since         tion life. We live, yet no more we, for Christ now
he was a child. These commands he had scrupu-             lives in and through us. From this must follow that
lously kept according to the letter of the law all his    all the good we do is Christ's work of grace in us.
life. Yet this had not given him the sorely needed        Apart from Christ we can do no good. Yet through
peace of heart, the assurance of eternal life.            faith in Him we can do all things, since He em-
   Thereupon Jesus tells him of the basic principle       powers us!
of the law, which is to love God above all, by say-         We are members of His body. We no longer func-
ing, "Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the         tion as individuals, but as members of Christ, some
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and         as eyes, some as ears, some as hands or feet, or
come and follow me" (Matt.  19:16-Z).                     possibly a mere finger, or less. Each member serves
  The young ruler went away sorrowing, as he              its purpose as a part of the body, and for the
pondered the lesson in his heart, that salvation is by    welfare of the body! Our span of life, our gifts and
grace through faith, all works excluded. As all           talents, our possessions, our place in the family, or
Scripture teaches us: By the works of the law no          in the congregation, all that we have and all that we
man is justified before God. The just shall live by       are is not ours, but is God's gift entrusted to us as
faith!                                                    stewards of His house to be used by us as His
                                                          peculiar possession, the heirs of His salvation!
  This our fathers understood very clearly as they
point out to us in this Lord's Day that good works          Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Christ
have their source in faith, have their perfect stan-      claims our all as we live by faith and not by sight!
dard in the law, and have their one soul purpose in         In the great Day of days we shall stand before the
the glory of God! Such works are good in the sight        judgment seat of Christ to carry away the deeds
of the living God, since of Him, and through Him,         done in the body, according to that which we have
and unto Him are all things! To Him the glory!            done, whether good or evil. In that Day all that is of
Proceeding fi-om a True Faith.                            ourselves will be burned away like straw and stub-
                                                          ble. All that remains will be only Christ's work
  This saying is hard, who can believe it?                wrought in and through us by a living faith in Him!
  Ever since the fall in paradise man has been try-       According to God's Law.
ing to merit his salvation by his own works. Cain
presented God with the crops of his field and               We so readily set up our own standard of
resented the fact that God rejected them. Carnal          "good."
Israel boasted in themselves, saying, "The people           Anything that is of genuine quality, useful, or ad-
of the Lord are we." How many do exactly that             vantageous to others is good. But we have our own
same thing in our day!                                    idea of what fits that definition and what does not.
  The Pharisees enjoyed telling God of all their vir-       We speak of a good farmer, or a good business
tues and good works, looking down with contempt           man. Each may be well qualified for his work and
upon others who were less worthy than they.               may produce profitable. results, even as a good
  All exponents of men's free will, or of the good        baker bakes good bread. But the deciding question
that sinners do, or who put their trust in their own      is, is he good in the sight of God? Does he carry
works must necessarily say with the rich young            away God's approval and blessing?
ruler, "All these things have I kept, yet assurance         Glibly we talk of a good neighbor. We grant that
of faith I lack!"                                         he does not go to church, he will have nothing to do
  For all that is not of faith is sin!                    with religion, he uses profane language at times,
                                                          but he is a very nice fellow, a good sport and a good
  Every desire that arises within me, every thought       golfing companion.
that flashes through my mind, every word I utter,
every move I make or deed that I perform, if not            One hears much talk about love for the fellow
rooted in faith, God brands as sin!                       man which is not rooted in the love of God. What-
                                                          ever is done for the advantage of another is good. It
  Well may we ask: Who, then, can be saved?               is argued that it is perfectly proper, even good, to
  The answer: Those who are engrafted into Christ         steal, to lie, to live with another sexually without


340                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



being married, to get a divorce when the marriage           That Word, which appears throughout the Scrip-
does not work out, or even to get an abortion, as         tures, is at the same time the lamp before our feet
long as the motive and intentions are good.               and the light upon our pathway, leading us through
   You and I become judges. We determine what is          this present dark night of sin and death to the eter-
good according to our own standard. But who are           nal dawn. In God's light, by His Spirit in our hearts,
we to judge?                                              we see the light. The Psalmist declares Thy law is in
                                                          my heart! 0 how love I Thy law! It is my medita-
   God is God, not man! God determines the right          tion all the day! For it is joy to do Thy will!
and the wrong according to the perfect standard of
His own righteous, sovereign Being. God Himself is        To the Glory of God.
the only standard of good, for He alone is good.            God alone is good. He is the God of infinite
Christ sums this up briefly in the great command:         perfections, who lives His own blessed life of cove-
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy            nant fellowship within His own Being as triune
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.      God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He alone is the
This is the first and great commandment. And the          source of all that is good, the overflowing Fountain
second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor      of every good and perfect gift in Christ Jesus.
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all              In heaven the angels hide their faces in holy
the law and the prophets."                                adoration, the saints bow in worship and praise. All
   Solomon brings the Book of Ecclesiastes to a           the works of His hands declare His praises. For that
close with these words: "Let us hear the conclusion       His Name is near His wondrous works declare.
of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his com-          And thou, my soul, bless thou Him above all!
mandments, for this is the whole duty of man."              Scripture reveals even greater wonders, as God
  We must have God's law written upon our fore-           makes Himself known to us as our heavenly Father
heads and upon our right hands, engraven  upon the        who has redeemed us unto Himself by the precious
doorposts of our houses, ready at all times to apply      blood of His dear Son Jesus Christ. By His Word
it to our lives, to our families, whether we are sit-     and Spirit He creates in us a living faith, whereby
ting in our homes or walking by the way. This ap-         we may know Him, love Him, and live in intimate
plies to every life-mate, parent, or child. There may     communion of life with Him through our Savior,
be no double standard in our lives, as, for example,      who is now our exalted Lord in the heavens.
one for adults and another for teenagers. Scripture         We are taught to address God with that intimate
requires: Husbands, love your wives in submission         name: Father! We are privileged to call on Him as
to Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your               our heavenly Father in Christ. As His children we
husbands as to the Lord. Parents, instruct your           learn to say, Hallow Thou Thy Name in us, through
children both in word and deed in the fear of the         us, round about us! Thy kingdom come within us
Lord. Children, obey your parents in obedience to         unto the final perfection of all the saints in Christ,
Christ.                                                   our Lord! Thy will be done in all the works of Thy
  The law of God is the straight and narrow way           hands, no less in and by us. Feed us with the bread
that leads us Home in glory! Anyone who departs           apportioned for us. Forgive all our transgressions,
from that way transgresses, wanders off, sins             remove our guilty stain. Lead us not into tempta-
against God. There is no return except by a com-          tion, but rather lead us ever onward to the perfec-
plete about face, a hearty repentance in true sorrow      tion in glory!
to walk humbly before our God in the way that He            For Thine is the kingdom. Thine the power.
lays out for us.                                          Thine the glory! Forever!



                                       Editor's Notes

PRC of New Zealand                                        Reformed Church of New Zealand. If I may be per-
  It gives me great pleasure to give my editorial         mitted  a personal word in this connection, I take
space in this issue to the Rev. Rodney Miersma for        this opportunity to extend to the new congregation
his report of the institution of the infant Protestant    warmest congratulations. "May the God of all


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                             341



grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by         church life once again.
Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,                *    *    *    *     *    *    *  * * *
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
(I Peter 5:lO) All of you I know either through cor-        Refomzed Book Outlet
respondence or personal contact, or both. Some of             By the time this appears in print the new Re-
you, as Rev. Miersma indicates in his report, I have        formed Book Outlet in Hudsonville should be open
known for a good many years. I shared in your               and thriving. Plans are to open for business on
struggles. I think I can understand just a bit what         April 25. For any who might want to phone, the
an emotion-fraught occasion it must have been               number is (616)  669-6'730.  The mailing address is:
when at last you could begin to have a "normal"             3505 Kelly, Hudsonville, MI 49426.

GUEST EDITORIAL



              The Protestant Reformed Church
                                     of New Zealand
                                               Rev. Rodney Miersma





  It gives me great pleasure to be able to write this       during that service were duty bound to carry out
article under the above title. Such a title is possible     that mandate as officebearers of Christ.
because the Lord in His mercy and grace has                   After the sermon those who desired to become
blessed the preaching of His Word unto the organ-           charter members of the church were asked to bring
izing of the Protestant Reformed Fellowship of              forward their membership papers which they had
Wellington into an instituted church of Jesus               received from the churches which they had left.
Christ. It is our privilege to be able to share this joy    Five families, representing eighteen souls, came
with them, for the Lord has seen fit to use us as           forward to have their names recorded as charter
Protestant Reformed Churches in America as a                members of the Protestant Reformed Church of
means to bring this to pass.                                New Zealand, a church which would stand on the
  Organizational services were conducted on the
Lord's Day, March 17, 1985, during the morning
worship service. The undersigned preached on
Ephesians  220-22, emphasizing that they as an in-
stituted church of Jesus Christ were a visible mani-
festation of the church invisible, the spiritual
habitation of the living God as He dwells with His
covenant people in Jesus Christ through the Spirit.
Their strength, therefore, could only be found in
the foundation of the apostles and prophets with
Jesus Christ as its chief cornerstone, that is, in the
Word of God as recorded and preached by the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
that Word, the revelation of the God of our salva-
tion. The small flock was instructed that as a church
this was the Word that they were commanded of
God to preach, and that too, in all its purity. In ad-      Meeting Place of the new Protestant Reformed
dition, the officebearers which were to be elected          Church of New Zealand.


342                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



Word of God, a church which would hold high the
Three Forms of Unity as her standard bearer, a
church which would be governed by the principles
of Scripture as set forth in the Church Order of the
Great Synod of Dordrecht (1618-1619). Having
received and examined the membership papers,
they were declared to be organized officially as an
instituted church of Christ. Thanksgiving was
given to our covenant God for His faithfulness.
These details are mentioned because we often
wonder to ourselves and to each other what kind of
churches are organized by our mission efforts. In
that light it can be said that if it were not for the
many miles of ocean between the Americas and
New Zealand they would be heartily welcomed as a         L to R: Mrs. Dilys Watson; Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Ins-
church within our denomination. For this we can          keep, Susanna and Jonathan; Mr. & Mrs. Bob van
be thankful to the Lord our God and repeat what          Herk and Joy; Mr. & Mrs. Anton Vooys and Tony;
was on the cover of the bulletin on that blessed day,    Mr. Bob Kane, Edwin and Brendan. (Not pictured:
"To God . . . Be glory!"                                 Jonathan, Elisabeth, Andrew, Lucy Watson).
  After the above organization the confessing male
members proceeded with the election of officebear-       the sovereign decree of God with respect to repro-
ers which would comprise the session (consistory)        bation, 2) to question the historicity of beginning
of the church. Where churches are organized for          chapters of Genesis, and, 3) to teach that the
the first time this is done by way of a free election    authority of the Scriptures was qualified, not
which means that there is no nomination ahead of         dependent on its infallibility. To review this in
time, but that all confessing male members are           detail one can read issues of  The Standard Bearer
eligible. Two elders and one deacon, thus elected,       printed in 1970-1972. Concerned men in the
were then ordained into their respective offices.        Reformed Churches of New Zealand became
  The above described event was cause for joy and        alarmed, for their young men were being trained
thanksgiving- unto God. The significance of being a      for the ministry in that school. Since they were
church was impressed upon the hearts of the little       denied access to the pages of the Trowel And Sword
flock again that day during the evening service, at      in which Dr. Runia was writing they formed the
which time the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was        Reformed and Presbyterian Fellowship for the pur-
celebrated. Some of the saints had not been able to      pose of publishing a paper called the  Reformed
partake of the Lord's Supper for fourteen years.         Guardian.  This sounds very similar to the begin-
One can not fully appreciate how much this means         nings of our own RFPA and the publication of The
to one who has been deprived for so long. On             Standard Bearer.  Included in the membership of
March 3 1, the Lord willing, the sacrament of Bap-       this Fellowship was W. van Rij (now of Christ-
tism will also be administered.                          church OPC), B. van Herk and A. Vooys (now of
                                                         the newly organized PRC of NZ), and A. van Echten
  As we look at the members of the flock and the         (now of the Palmerston North PR Fellowship). The
history which stands behind their organization we        first three mentioned brought their concerns to the
can truly see that God does indeed gather His peo-       sessions of their respective churches. But the
ple from every nation, tongue, and tribe. Among          Reformed Churches of NZ did not stand up for the
these eighteen souls we find saints of Dutch,            truth even at their Synod. Consequently the
English, Irish, Scottish, and native New Zealand         brethren were disciplined for voicing their objec-
descent. Their church background is just as              tions to the heresy being taught, even to the extent
diverse, coming from Anglican, Brethren, Catholic,       that two were suspended from the office of elder.
Presbyterian, and Reformed Churches.                     They now had no choice but to leave the Reformed
  How did we as Protestant Reformed Churches             Church of NZ. During this history, contact had
come into contact with these fellow saints? Let me       been made with our churches through The Standard
brief you a little on the history. In the mid 1960s      Bearer  and Prof. H.C. Hoeksema. Little groups of
there was a certain Prof. Dr. Klaas Runia serving as     families began to meet in homes to hear tapes from
professor in the Reformed Theological School in          Hope Church, Walker. The immediate result was
Geelong, Australia. In a.paper called the TroweZ And     the formation of the Christchurch OPC in 1974 on
Sword, as well as in the class room, he began 1) to      the south island. In 1975 Prof.  Hoeksema-and  Rev.
question the teachings of the Canons concerning          C. Hanko made their Australian trip and visited


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                343



                                                          be Reformed in every sense of the word. Thus, they
                                                          did not join with various church groups that
                                                          courted them. They met in their homes listening to
                                                          tapes from Hope Church, Walker, asking in 1981
                                                          permission to use the name Protestant Reformed in
                                                          naming themselves the Prot. Ref. Fellowships of
                                                          Wellington and Palmerston North. They also asked
                                                          our churches for help. In 1982, at which time they
                                                          began to meet in St. Michael's Lutheran Church,
                                                          Rev. J. Heys came to help them for a period of
                                                          seven months. He returned in 1983 for a similar
                                                          period of time. In the fall of 1984 the Holland con-
                                                          gregation, having sent its pastor emeritus for two
                                                          seasons, now sent its pastor and family for seven
L to R: Elders A. Vosys and B. van Herk and
Deacon R. Kane.                                           months. It was in this latter stay that the fruit of our
                                                          labors in the past years has manifested itself in the
these men and others on both the north and south          organization of this church of Christ.
islands. As a result of this trip Bob Kane from Well-
ington, upon hearing a lecture by Prof. Hoeksema,           In conclusion we may as a denomination extend
began worshiping with the Wellington group. In            to this little flock our warmest greetings as we share
Christchurch, plans were set in order for one of our      their joy with them. As expressed in the Holland
ministers to help them.                                   congregation's greetings to the new congregation
  Rev. R. Van Overloop  and family were in Christ-        "We rejoice greatly that the Spirit of Christ has
church for the first part of 1978, with Rev. Heys         filled your hearts and brought you to this mile-
and his wife coming in the end of 1978 and the            stone. We are filled with joy that God has used our
beginning of 1979. Soon calls were extended for a         congregation, and more specifically our pastors,
minister-on-loan to Christchurch, but they refused        past and present, in a small way to accomplish His
to accept the man called. Prof. Hoeksema. Since           purpose. The comparatively slight sacrifice of our
then they have turned from us, and our efforts            pastor's absence is far overshadowed by the bless-
were directed to helping the saints on the north          edness we experience in this communion with the
island.                                                   saints in a far land. May the God of all grace lead
  The saints on the north island clearly wanted to        you all in the future as He has in the past."

FROM HOLY- WRIT



                      Believing All the Scriptures
                                                Rev. G. Lubbers




    The Mystery Of The "Seventy Weeks"                    daybreak of the final fulfillment of God's promises,
                    in Daniel 9                           as they are all yea in Christ, and in Him Amen to
                   Chapter XIX                            the glory of God (II Cor.  1:20).
  As we have said, this prayer of Daniel is truly a         Daybreak, the light of God to shine in this be-
historical prayer. It is also very particular and uni-    nighted world in the face of Jesus Christ. Time for
clue. Daniel stands here praying at the crossroads of     the people who sat in the darkness of the shadow of
God's covenant dealings; he stands at the dawning         death to see a great light (Is. 9:2; Matt. 4:14-16). For-
of the morning of the day of Christ, the acceptable       soothe, what could all the types and shadows ac-
year of the LORD. Yes, it is really the cry for the       complish, yes, what did they accomplish toward


344                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



the finishing of the transgressions, making an end       and I will make thy windows of agates and thy
of sin?                                                  gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders with pleas-
  Yes, watchman, what of the night?!                     ant stones, and all thy children shall be taught of
                                                         the LORD, and great shall be the peace of thy
  Watchman, there is no real sacrifice of animals;       children" (Is. 54: 11-13).
none of the burnt-offerings and sin-offerings can
really take away one sin, nor can it cleanse the con-      Now we must keep sharply before our minds
science (Heb. 8:6-8). God Himself finds fault with       that Daniel prays this great prayer in this spiritual
this entire typical and merely symbolical ministry       context, as a  prophet  of  God,  who by the Spirit of
in the worldly sanctuary. Did not the Holy Ghost         Christ is inquiring diligently and searching out the
proclaim clearly and loudly that the way into the        sufferings to come upon Christ and the glory to
most holy place was not made manifest yet (Heb.          follow. In his prayer he is not at all interested in the
9:8)?                                                    realization merely of Israel in the earthly land of
                                                         Canaan, but he is concerned about the sins, the
  Had not the best reformation which Hezekiah            backslidings and the great transgressions of Israel,
could institute to restore the Old Testament Pass-       which are such that they are an utter disregard of
over really been of no avail? And must the same not      all that Moses and the prophets have spoken. They
also be said of the reformation of Josiah (II Chron.     are mostly wilful sins of disobedience. They are
31:2-21; II. Chron.  34:3-17)? These two attempts        such that the "curses" spoken of by Moses and
could not and did not ward off the divinely des-         predicted by him have been brought upon Israel in
tined destruction of the kingdom, nor did it prevent     the just judgment of God.
the sacking of Jerusalem and the temple by the
Babylonian armies under Nebuchadnezzar. And                And this explains the intensity of Daniel's
what is so painfully true is that Satan knew the         prayers and supplications to the LORD, the God of
reason why these sacrifices were to no avail. Did        heaven!
not Satan point out the weakness and the sinfulness        He prays according to the promised mercies of
of the Old Testament priesthood, as represented by       God spoken of by Moses in Leviticus  26:40-42:  "If
the high priest Joshua standing at the altar  (Zech.     they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their
3:l)? It all cried for a better Priest, really a king    fathers . . . if their uncircumcised hearts be hum-
priest, God's Servant, the BRANCH, Messiah. Yes,         bled, and they accept the punishment of their ini-
Satan and all his hosts knew it and they made war        quity  - then  will I remember my covenant with
in heaven; Michael and his angels must war before        Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also
God's throne in heaven with the Dragon and his           my covenant with Abraham will I remember: and I
angels.                                                  will remember the land."
  Justice must be satisfied! Only then shall the           Truly Daniel prays a well-founded petition,
heavens rejoice and they that dwell therein. Then        based upon great and precious promises!
shall all the angels of God sing: Glory to God in the      For these Daniel prays!
highest, and peace among the men of God's  good-           His prayer is, as it were, a storming of the gates
pleasure! (Rev.  12:7-10). There must be a better        of heaven. He asks and receives, he seeks and he
covenant based upon better promise. There must           finds, he knocks and it is opened to him. He is ap-
be a complete and full end the transgression and         pealing to a merciful God, appealing to him to take
sin! And it must be announced before all heavens,        reasons out of Himself to forgive and to cause his
before all the demons in hell, before all the angels     face to shine once more upon Jerusalem and the ho-
before God's throne, and before all the saints in the    ly temple. He knows that the time has come on
Ministry of reconciliation: "It is finished" (John       God's time table. The clock of God is about to strike
19:30; II Cor.  5:19-21).                                the hour, the appointed time of God's salvation in
  Truly, if ever a man lived and experienced the ut-     Messiah, the Prince. We shall see more of this in
ter failure of all salvation by the deeds of the law,    subsequent chapters.
for Israel as a people, it was the prophet Daniel.         And Daniel may experience that God does not lie
Even as Joseph's heart ever cleaved to the land of       concerning His promised word through Moses in
the promise, in Egypt, so Daniel's heart clung to the    Leviticus  26:40-42.  Heaven and earth may pass
place of God's rest in Jerusalem, praying three          away, but every jot and tittle of God's word shall
times a day facing a city and a temple which were        come to pass. God is faithful (in covenant faithful-
not, but which would one day be rebuilt; it would        ness) Who has promised.
be the beautiful city of which Isaiah speaks when
he says, "0 thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and       It is the hour of Daniel's prayer!
not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with          Before Daniel has finished his prayer, Gabriel
fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires,     comes to answer Daniel's prayer with the Divine


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              345



Disclosure and revelation concerning the fulfill-         GABRIEL THE MESSENGER FROM GOD'S
ment of the meaning of the "seventy years" of             THRONE  (Dan.  9:20-23)
which Jeremiah spoke in chapter 25: 11, 12 of his           Daniel recognized this "man Gabriel." Truly, he
prophecy. Not only Jeremiah's prophecy is to be           was not a real man, flesh and blood, born from a
fulfilled, but the many prophecies which were be-         woman. He was one of God's mighty angels, who
ing prophesied during the entire period, beginning        came in the form of a man. It seems that Daniel
with Isaiah. We see here the fulfillment of Isaiah        sees him in a "vision." In Daniel  8:16 Gabriel also
40:1, which is the keynote of all of the prophecies       appears in a "vision. " Daniel there saw a vision of
of Isaiah, as recorded in the chapters 40-66!  For the    the ram and of the rough goat, referring to world-
very heart of all these prophecies we find in Isaiah      powers, Medo-Persia and Greece.
53. Here we read of Christ's suffering for our trans-
gressions, of His being raised for our justification,       Daniel recognized this angel as being Gabriel.
and of His glorification in the redeemed saints.            Now when we study the Scriptures, we notice
  The fulfillment of the promises, implied really in      that Gabriel is the one angel with the very special
the seventy years of Captivity, are shown as ful-         task of pointing out the fulfillment of our salvation
filled in the coming of Messiah. And this coming is       in the Messiah, the Christ of God. Such was his task
symbolized in "seventy sevens," the realization of        here in Daniel. First he must foretell and explain
the covenant of God according to the full counsel of      the history of the world-powers, the last  Pan-
God.                                                      Asiatic power, and the first Pan-European world-
                                                          power, and Israel's place in this great unfolding of
  When Daniel's prayer and supplications came             God's plan in world history, which is at bottom
before God in heaven, God heard the prayer of a           nothing but church history. It is the line of the com-
righteous man which avails much. Fact is that, in         ing of Christ, the birth of Christ as we read in Mat-
this prayer, God hears the prayer of all His saints.      thew l:l-18. Secondly, Gabriel must unfold before
Daniel's prayer is an intercessory prayer not mere-       the eyes of Daniel the central fulfillment of all
ly for himself, but it is a prayer for Israel, for the    God's  ,promises  in the death and resurrection and
holy city, Jerusalem and for the people of His            glorification of Jesus Christ.
choosing (Dan.  9:18, 19).                                  This truth of the Gospel-story here we must
  Daniel is a very godly man. He is called a man          clearly see.
"of desires" as we have noticed.                            And, incidentally, we must not allow an exegetical
  We almost hear Gabriel say of Daniel what God           juggling of dispensational-premillennialism to blind
says in the most absolute sense about His only            us for this very evident Gospel-content of the
begotten Son: in Him is all my good pleasure (Matt.       message of Gabriel to Daniel concerning the
3: 17). The endearment shown to Daniel is really: a       Mediatorial work of the Messiah of God, Who will
man much beloved! He is a man, according to the           be God's Son in our flesh.
Hebrew, "of desires" (Dan.  9:23;  10:19). He need
therefore not fear, but may take courage that God           We will attempt to show from careful exegesis
has heard his prayer and will answer it.                  that the entire meaning of the "seventy sevens" is
                                                          that these cannot ever be correctly interpreted ac-
  And then we notice that also in this case God           cording to the "rule of faith," the infallible Scrip-
shows that He is able and willing to do far above all     tures, unless we see that the "last week," the
that Daniel can ask or think (Eph.  3:20, 21). God        "seventieth seven" is the Arch-Stone in the entire
will do this for His great Name's sake. He cannot         house of God. Those who refuse to see this in the
deny Himself. God is faithful to His own. And             symbolism of the "seventy sevens" reject the Stone
Daniel may rest assured.                                  laid in Sion, elect and precious, chosen of God.
                                                          They fail to see the wonder-work of grace  - and
                                                          perish in their sins!

                         The Standard Bearer makes a
                      thoughtful gift for any occasion.
                              Give the Standard Bearer!'


346                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



ALLAROWNDUS



                  Was Adam a Neanderthal Man?
                                                            Rev. G. Van Baren





  Some time ago we quoted parts of an article by                         In another article in the same paper, Rev. John
Dr. Menninga found in the-Banner of November 12,                       Hultink writes:
1984. In that article, he expressed his conviction                           . . . The first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis
that the earth was very old - and that Adam was,                          are proving to be extremely problematic, if not down-
perhaps, not created directly of the dust of the                          right embarrassing, for many Christians in the twen-
ground. Adam could well have been the fruit of                            tieth century. Especially those with a higher educa-
evolution, perhaps a Neanderthal man. That article                        tion suffer acute embarrassment when asked to state
called forth letters of disagreement - and an issue                       their views of Genesis 1-11. On the one hand, they do
of  Christian Renewal  (Mar. 4, 1985) containing                          not want to treat the biblical revelation of the origin of
                                                                          the universe lightly, but on the other hand, they feel
several good articles in refutation of Menninga's                         obligated to defend the  theories  of unbelieving scien-
position. One brief article quotes the late Dr.                           tists. For many Christians today, God's revelation in
Abraham Kuyper in which he warns against the                              the Bible contradicts God's revelation in His creation.
evil of evolution:                                                        So they belittle the biblical account of creation or
         Hesitation in the face of evolution amounts to a                 dismiss it as "time-bound." Unless the Christian com-
       betrayal of one's own convictions. Evolution is a new              munity extricates itself from this morass, its distinc-
       concept, a newly created faith which strives to en-                tive Christian voice will be completely swallowed up
       compass and dominate our entire lives. It has estab-               by the godless views advocated by non-Christians.
       lished itself in direct opposition to the Christian faith            History has convincingly demonstrated that com-
       and seeks to establish `its temple on the ruins of our             promise in the face of evolutionism will ultimately
       Christian confession . . . .                                       result in the irrelevance of Christianity. And how
         . . . In opposition to Nietzsche's law of evolution              could it be otherwise? One would have hoped that by
       which proclaims that the strong must trample the                   now reformed Christians in North America would
       weak, we cling to the teachings of Christ who seeks                have learned this lesson from the liberal professors in
       what is lost and shows compassion to those who are                 The Netherlands.
       weak. In opposition to the mechanistic rootlessness of               H.M. Kuitert, professor of ethics at the Free Univer-
       evolution, we affirm faith in God who has worked all               sity of Amsterdam, has no difficulty with the prob-
       things, and continued to work all things according to              lem, "How are we to understand the biblical revela-
       the counsel of His will. In opposition to so-called                tion about Adam and Eve?" Kuitert simply dismisses
       natural selection which seeks to establish the species             the belief in Adam and Eve as historical persons.
       but neglect the individual, we hold to Divine election             Adam and Eve never existed. The story of creation, as
       which promises "a white stone with a new name writ-                well as the story of early civilization recorded in the
       ten on it, known only to him who receives it."                     first eleven chapters of Genesis, were never meant to
         .  .  . I now consider it my calling to raise my voice           be taken literally, Kuitert argues . . . .
       against the even more subtle and deadly danger of                    When Kuitert first published his unscriptural ideas,
       evolution. It is a warning addressed not merely to peo-            he cautioned that the core of the Christian faith must
       ple of Reformed persuasion, but to all those who walk              remain intact . . . . He emphasized that theologians
       on the holy ground of the Christian religion. I con-               should not be permitted to question the biblical teach-
       clude by taking my stand where the Christian church                ings about the resurrection. The resurrection was not
       on earth has always stood and will always stand by                 to be viewed as part of the time-bound baggage of
       giving a reaffirmation, in the. face of the false claims           Scripture that could be discarded. Kuitert considered
       brought by evolution, of the first article of the Chris-           the resurrection essential to the Christian faith. That
       tian faith where we confess: "I believe in God the                 is, until he changed his mind a few years later. Within
       Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth."                      a few short years he indicated that there were at least


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         3 4 7



   ten different ways, all of them acceptable, in which               is that theories about the past can  not  be logically
   one could believe in the resurrection of Jesus. . . . And          derived from the data. Rather, they are primarily the
   so it came to pass that for Kuitert the resurrection was           product of a scientist's creative imagination. Theories
   no longer essential to the Christian faith . . . .                 are not so much given to us by nature, as imposed by
     The first step that Kuitert took upon this perilous              us on nature. As such, our choice of theories is heavily
   journey was to discard the first eleven chapters of                dependent on our philosophical biases.
   Genesis as part of God's divine revelation. Since                    Recently there has been considerable debate be-
   God's Word disagreed with some of the theories                     tween two competing interpretations of the geological
   posited by evolutionists, Kuitert chose to discard                 data. On the one hand, secular geology operates under
   God's Word. Once he began this process, it was only a              the central thesis that all the data can be explained in
   matter of time before the cancer of his unbelief ate               terms of natural, evolutionary processes. On the other
   away at all the essentials of the Christian faith, and he          hand, creationists work on the premises of a  young-
   was left with only the carcass of his own pitiful ideas.           earth, global-Flood, and the possibility of miracles.
     It is therefore all the more remarkable that no less             The former is ultimately based on non-theistic
   than three professors at Calvin College have decided               materialism; the latter on the traditional reading of
   to set out on an equally perilous journey. Davis A.                Scripture.
   Young, Clarence Menninga and George  Marsden  no                     Both strive to explain all things in terms of their
   longer know what to do with the first eleven chapters              own central thesis, fitting all the data into a precon-
   of the book of Genesis. Their embarrassment is every-              ceived mold. In so doing they must devise and apply
   where evident from the articles they write and the                 secondary theories regarding specific geological
   speeches they give. Although some lip service is still             mechanisms and processes. But, due to the subjective
   being paid to the book of Genesis, their articles make             nature of theorizing, both sides are free to choose only
   it quite clear that their evolutionistic thinking takes            those theories that are consistent with their own cen-
   precedent. Some of their published statements are so               tral thesis.
   contradictory that one is inclined to dismiss them as                When Menninga and Young detect deficiencies in
   incongruous and dishonest. But this doesn't make                   creationist explanations this does not falsify creation-
   their views any less dangerous to impressionable                   ism, as they assert. For the fault can always be attri-
   school teachers who sit in their classes year after year.          buted to inadequate secondary theories. The creation-
   There is every reason to believe that if the Christian             ists can always remove such shortcomings by making
   community travels the path chosen by these three                   suitable adjustments to these theories. For both evolu-
   professors, it will only be a question of time before we           tionists and creationists their central thesis can never
   all arrive at Kuitert's destination.                               be scientifically either proven or disproven. It is a
     One would at least expect that if a Christian                    necessary presupposition that is chosen on the basis of
   academic teaching at a Christian institution of higher             prior philosophical commitments.
   learning is going to treat the biblical account of the                . . . Menninga and Young appear to be blissfully
   creation of the universe so lightly, he would do so on             unaware of the deeper epistemological issues.
   the basis of compelling and irrefutable evidence. One
   would also think that if such compelling evidence sup-           So the debate about creation vs. evolution con-
   porting the evolutionistic origin of the universe is so        tinues  - but, sad to say, it now exists  within  the
   readily and convincingly available, it would be shared         churches. As some of the above writers pointed
   freely with the entire Christian community. But this is        out, Kuitert in the Netherlands began his pilgrim-
   not the case . . . .                                           age toward open unbelief just as do Menninga and
     Why is it, if, as it is contended, that man has lived        others today. In the Netherlands nothing was done
   on the earth for fifty thousand or possibly two million        about Kuitert (I understand that he is still a member
   years, that there are no fossil remains to support this        in good standing in the church and continues to
   view? And how does one account for the continued               teach); but also here in this land, there appears to
   popularity of the theory of evolution in some quarters
   when there are enough missing links in this theory to          be nothing done about professors who teach a  so-
   forge a chain and wrap it around the earth? Why is it          called  theistic  evolution.
   that in the face of insurmountable contradictions,               Yet even among some within educated circles of
   Christian scholars at Calvin College continue to insist        unbelievers, doubt seems to be increasing about the
   not only on advocating evolutionistic views, but on
   placing God in charge of this highly dubious enter-            validity of the theory of evolution. One unbelieving
   prise by calling themselves theistic evolutionists? . . . .    scientist is said to have declared that man could as
                                                                  likely be the result of an evolutionary process as a
  Another writer, Dr. John Byl, comments about                    tornado, sweeping through a junk-yard, could form
t1re assertions of Menninga and others:                           a 747 jet-liner.
     . . . There are many possible theoretical interpreta-
   tions of the present data: we can devise explanations            How beautiful, then, is the testimony of Scrip-
   in terms of constant laws, varying laws, miracles,             ture: "By faith we understand that the worlds were
   catastrophic collisions with comets, etc. The problem          framed by the word of the Lord."


348                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



THE LORD GAVE THE WORD



               The Missionary a Slave to All (1)
                                            Prof Robert D. Decker




  It is our purpose to expound I Corinthians             beyond dispute. They were "his work in the Lord"
9: 19-22 in this and succeeding articles. We are con-    and "the seal of his apostleship" (vss. l-3). Because
vinced that this passage has much to teach concern-      he was an Apostle, Paul had the same right (the
ing mission work. The passage speaks of the proper       word "power" which occurs repeatedly in this
attitude a missionary must have towards himself,         chapter ought to be translated, "right or authority")
towards his work, and towards those to whom he           to be supported and to have his family supported,
preaches the gospel. It deals with questions such as     had he chosen to marry,  as.did Peter or any other
the following: 1) What is the proper motive behind       Apostle (vss. 4-6). This right to adequate support
missionary preaching? 2) How ought the mis-              from those to whom he preaches the Apostle proves
sionary to conduct himself in relation to those to       in the following verses. The laborer is worthy of his
whom he preaches? 3) What ought to be the mis-           hire is the principle asserted in verse seven. This
sionary's purpose in preaching the gospel? 4) In         principle, furthermore, is taught in the Old Testa-
what relationship does the missionary stand to           ment Scripture, even with application to oxen used
those to whom he preaches?                               to'tread out the corn (vss. 8-10). The Apostle argues
  The passage records the following confession of        that if they have sown spiritual things unto the Cor-
the inspired apostle Paul: "For though I be free         inthians then surely they have the right to carnal
from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto        (material support) things from the people of God
all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I     (vs. 11). Besides, other of their teachers possessed
became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to          this right (vs. 12). Those who served in the temple
them that are under the law, as under the law, that      in the old dispensation were supported by the tem-
I might gain them that are under the law; To them        ple (vs. 13). Christ ordained that those who preach
that are without law, as without law, (being not         the gospel should live of the gospel (vs. 14).
without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)          But the Apostle chose not to receive this support
that I might gain them that are without law. To the      from the church. He did this so that no one could
weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak:       accuse him of abusing his rights and privileges as
I am made all things to all men, that I might by all     an Apostle. The gospel which he preaches is "with-
means save some. And this I do for the gospel's          out charge." He preaches not for money but out of
sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."        divine necessity. "Woe is me, if I preach not the
  In order to acquire an understanding of what this      gospel," he declares. God called him to preach;  _
passage means and how it applies to missionaries         God laid this necessity upon him. His reward is that
and mission work we shall have to pay attention to       the gospel which he preaches is without charge. He
the context in which it occurs. In chapter eight the     gives offense to no man. No one can question his
Apostle had admonished the stronger brothers to          motives in preaching the gospel (vss. 15-18).
take care lest their liberty. become a stumbling           This was not, however, the only case in which
block to the weaker brothers (I Cor. 8:9). In chapter    Paul abstained from exercising his rights as an
nine Paul demonstrates how he himself had always         Apostle. He was all things to all men that he might
acted on this principle. He was an Apostle and,          gain the more (vss. 19-23). This kind of self-denial
therefore, possessed all the rights of an Apostle. He    the ungodly exercised to gain a corruptible crown.
had seen Christ, i.e., he had been confronted and .      Ought not the Christian do as much to gain the
called by the resurrected Christ. His divine mission     spiritual crown? Without self-denial and strenuous
as an Apostle, at least among the Corinthians, was       effort the prize of their high calling in Christ could


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                349



   never be attained! (vss. 24-27).                          4:13-16). To this great, sacred calling the preacher
     In verse nineteen the inspired Apostle confesses,       must give his all! He must make everything in his
   "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made       life subservient to his calling to preach the Word of
   myself servant unto all, that I might gain the            God. He must not regard the work of the ministry,
   more." Paul is saying here that he is free from all       whether pastoral or missionary, as a forty-hour per
   men, i.e., he is under obligation to no man. He is        week job. He stands in God's service twenty-four
   free from the support of those to whom he                 hours per day, seven days per week, for his entire
  preaches. No one can question his motives and he           life! His chief task is preaching for,  ". . . how shall
   gives offense to no one. Even though that be true,        they hear without a preacher?" (cf. Rom.
   the Apostle makes himself a servant of all men. The       10:13-15). And preaching is hard work! To be
   word translated "servant" by the King James really        prepared to preach, the preacher must spend many,
   means "slave." Paul makes himself a slave to all. A       many hours per week "meditating on the things of
  bond-servant or slave in New Testament times was           God." He must give attendance to reading. He
  in total subjection to his master. The slave lacked        must wrestle with the Scriptures and prayerfully
  all the rights and privileges of the free. He had no       expound the Word of God. Only then is he able to
  property. rights; not even his children belonged to        proclaim the gospel as it applies to the lives of
  him.  He'was subject completely to the will of his         God's people.
  master and at his mercy. The Apostle confesses to             Precisely because the preacher or missionary is a
  be a slave to all men. What he means is that he            slave to God he must make himself a slave to those
  stands totally in the service of the gospel. As an         to whom he preaches. The preacher must follow
  Apostle, Paul was the slave of God and of the Lord         the example of his Lord and Master Who took a
  `Jesus Christ. He was called and qualified to be an        towel and basin and knelt before His disciples and
  Apostle by the risen Lord Christ. He was complete-         washed their dirty feet (cf. John  13:1-17). Only in
  ly subject to the will of God in Christ. Christ was        this way can the preacher be truly "happy" (John
  his master! Totally dependent upon Christ was the          13:17). The preacher is not called to be served by
  Apostle. Because that was true he makes himself a          those to whom he preaches. He is called to serve
  slave to those to whom he preaches the gospel. He          them. They do not exist for his sake but he for
  is totally in the service of those to whom he              theirs. Cheerfully, willingly, with much patience
  preaches. The Apostle literally  spent  his entire life    and love and longsuffering must the preacher serve
  in the service of God and His cause in Christ. He          His Master by serving His people. He must stand
  was a full-time preacher of the gospel.                    totally in the service of the church and the cause of
     This ought to be the attitude of every missionary       the gospel. He must conduct himself in relation to
  and, for that matter, preacher of the gospel.              those to whom he preaches so as to make the gospel
  Preachers, missionaries are slaves of God in Christ.       "without charge" (I Cor.  9:18). The preacher must
  They are lawfully called by God through His                not abuse his authority as an officebearer. This was
-1,, church. They are qualified by God through His           the Apostle's confession and it must be that of
  Spirit and Word. In a real, even unique sense, the         every faithful preacher and missionary.
  preacher's life is not his own. He belongs to God.           The Apostle expresses his purpose in making
  He is subject to God's will in everything. The office      himself a slave to all men in these terms: ". . . that I
  of the ministry of the Word, whether pastoral or           might gain the more. " This does not mean that Paul
  missionary, is not just another profession along           regarded himself as the one who did the gaining or
  with other professions such as medicine, law, or           saving of those to whom he preached. Salvation is
  engineering. The minister is a slave of God and the        by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it
  Lord Jesus Christ. His sacred commission is,               is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8-10). The Apostle is only
  "Preach the Word; be instant in -season, out of            the instrument through whom God saves His elect
  season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffer-       in Christ. The idea is that by giving no offense and
  ing and  doc'trine" (II Tim.  4:2). What the inspired      by making himself slave to all he gains the more.
  Apostle commanded his spiritual son, Timothy, ap-          This principle certainly applies. If Paul's motives
`%;plies with equal force to all preachers: "Till I come,    were suspect, if his hearers imagined that he
 `Ttgive  attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doc-     preached for money or to enhance his own reputa-
  trine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was     tion, or if the Apostle in some way offended the
  given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the          brethren by his conduct, his effectiveness as a
  hands of the presbytery. Meditate on these things;         preacher would be greatly diminished if not
  j,give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may      destroyed completely.
 - appear to all. Take heed to thyself and unto the doc-       Let God's servants in the ministry take these
   trine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt     matters to heart. They must give no offense to their
   both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (I Tim.       hearers. They must make themselves slaves to all


350                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



to whom they preach. They must fight the great sin          praise of His Name. May God continue to call such
of pride and put away all self-serving, selfish             men to the ministry of the Word and give them the
motives. They must give themselves wholly to the            grace to confess, "woe is me if I preach not the
work. These are the kind of servants God is pleased         gospel" (I Cor. 9:16b).
to use to gather His elect out of the nations to the                                           (to be continued)

BIBLE STUDY GZXDE




                  Old Testament Introduction  (1)
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering





  Having completed the study of the New Testa-              righteousness" of Malachi  4:2, the good news is
ment books of the Bible, we now turn to the Old             that God is a God of salvation in Christ His Son.
Testament for a brief analysis of each of the books,
especially seeking to understand the unique place              Keeping this in mind, we can understand the
of each book within the collection of all sixty-six. In     basic distinction between the Old Testament and
this article we begin by way of introduction to sum-        the New Testament. The word "testament" was
marize a few of the unique features of the Old Test-        popularized by the Latin church fathers. Testament
ament Scriptures.                                           is another word for covenant, the covenant which
                                                            God establishes with His people in Christ. God laid
THE BIBLE DISPLAYS UNITY IN DIVERSITY                       down the basis for His loving favor, namely, His
  The Old Testament is made up of thirty-nine               perfect righteousness. God made man righteous
books which, joined with the twenty-seven of the            through creation. Man, however, turned to evil and
New Testament, make up the total of sixty-six               chose sin. God could justly have cast the entire
books of the Bible. The name Bible is derived from          human race into the judgment of hell. Instead, He
the word  byblus, a reference to the reed by that           graciously saves His people through the promise of
name which was used extensively in making                   the coming of Jesus whose blood is the satisfaction
scrolls. Hence, the Greek word  biblios  became             for sin. The righteousness of Christ is the founda-
descriptive of the collection of the sacred writings        tion for the covenant of God with His people. The
known as The Books,  The.Bible.                             difference between the old and new covenant is the
  The unifying principle of the whole of the Scrip-         administration of the good-news of this covenant.
tures is that they are the revelation of the God of         The old looks forward to the coming of Jesus
our salvation in Jesus Christ His Son. It bears             Christ, the new explains His presence and work.
repeating that God has chosen to save His people            We sometimes say, "The new is in the old con-
through the death of His own Son. The Bible sets            tained, the old is in the new explained," or "The
forth the glory of that salvation in Jesus Christ as        New Testament is enfolded in the Old and the Old
the Son of God. Already in the beginning, we learn          is unfolded in the New." Both Testaments belong
of the need for the covering of His blood because of        together as one whole.
the disobedience of Adam and Eve, a sinful act                We also conclude from this that the Old Testa-
which the righteousness of God punished with                ment is not a message limited to the Jews or for
everlasting death. The whole human race was                 God's people confined to a certain period of time
plunged into the condemnation of that death. The            and of no use to the church today. Rather, God
Old Testament is a distinctive contribution to the          speaks eternal truth both in the Old and New Testa-
message of salvation in Jesus. Christ. From the             ments. We are able to learn gospel truth as we
mother promise, "seed of the woman" in Genesis              follow the unfolding of the covenant in the Old
3:15, to the closing promise of "the Sun of                 Testament. By means of such history, and the


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               351



distinctiveness of the Hebrew language, God con-           spiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
veys to us today the message of hope and salvation.        reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous-
We profit greatly from the study of the Old Testa-         ness: that the man of God may be perfect,
ment Scripture.                                            thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim.
THE OLD TESTAMENT DIVINELY INSPIRED                        3:16, 17) refers first of all to the Old Testament
                                                           writings. Similarly, in II Peter  l:2O,  21 we read,
  In the midst of many attacks upon the Bible as           "Knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is
God's Word, we do well to emphasize that we                of any private- interpretation. For the prophecy
believe that the Old Testament is God's Word,              came not in old time by the will of man: but holy
come to us by inspiration. The Holy Spirit places          men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
this conviction within our hearts, so that we              Ghost." This, too, is first of all a reference to the
assume by faith that the Bible is God's Word. This         prophecy of the Old Testament. The warning is
controls our dealings with the Bible. We do not set        given, "But the prophet which shall presume to
out to prove that each book is inspired and reason         speak a word in my name, which I have not com-
from the Scriptures that it is such. We believe            manded him to speak, or that shall speak in the
through the Holy Spirit's guidance in our hearts           name of other gods even that prophet shall die"
(see I Cor. 2:14, 15), and confess with the church of      (Deut.  18:20).  Hence, we read that the prophets
all ages (see Netherlands Confession Articles  3-7),       often prefaced their words with such divine author-
that God wrote His own Word. We `seek to instruct          ship, "The word of the Lord came expressly unto
God's people in the importance of each book and            Ezekiel" (Ezekiel  1:3). Similarly, Moses wrote,
how the Holy Spirit speaks to us distinctly in each        "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord" (Ex-
one.                                                       odus  24:4). Jesus recognized the authority of the
  We make a distinction between revelation, in-            Old Testament in different ways. He declared,
spiration, and illumination. Revehtion  describes the      `,`heaven  and earth shall pass away, but my words
work of the Holy Spirit in which He conveyed to            shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35).  And why? "And
the authors the knowledge of the truth that He             Scripture cannot be broken" (John  10:35).  Repeat-
wanted them to write down. This revelation came            edly Christ quoted from the Old Testament and
in different forms, by direct speech from God, by          thus yielded to its authority, "It is written" (see
dreams, through events themselves, etc. The                Matt. 4:4-10). We conclude that the authors of the
authors of the Bible frequently acknowledged that          Old Testament were inspired by the Holy Spirit to
the message they brought was from God, not man.            write their books.
Hence they used such expressions as, "Thus saith           THE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
the Lord" (Ex.  4:22), and "Hear the word of the             By the term "canon" we have in mind the final
Lord" (Isa.  1:lO). God often commanded them to            selection of each of the thirty-nine books as being
write down His words (Jer. 30: 1, 2). By inspiration       part of the inspired collection. The term canon is
we refer to that work of the Holy Spirit as He over-       derived from the Hebrew  qanah,   meaning reed or
ruled the actual writing so that in the process the        measuring rod. The books that measured up to the
authors were able to write that revelation accurate-       standards were included. We believe that the same
ly. Here we see how God used the agency of men             Holy Spirit Who guided the authors to write, also
for this purpose. It is not correct to say that the Bi-    guided the people of God in selecting the books He
ble is the product of God and man, it is God's Word        wanted in the completed Scripture. This included
conveyed to us through. living instruments. God            preserving the original writing long enough so that
planned the entire Bible from eternity, He planned         copies could be made of them, and guiding the
who would be the authors and governed their lives          church to recognize the true Scripture over against
that they would be exactly the men He wanted. At           spurious writings. There were more writings than
the proper time, He moved them to desire to write          those included in the canon of the Old Testament.
what He revealed to them. The Holy Spirit con-             Examples: Book of the wars of the Lord (Numbers
trolled their writing and used their own personality       21: 14); The book of Jasher (Joshua 10: 13); The Book
and vocabulary so that each contributed in his own         of the acts of Solomon (I Kings 11:41); and the Book
individual way exactly as God wanted it. By  il-           of Samuel and seer, the Book of Nathan the pro-
Zumination  we refer to the Spirit's guidance of the       phet, the Book of Gad the seer (I Chron.  29:29).
readers of the Word that they receive it as the Word       There is a large group of books called the
of God and believe and follow it.                          apocrypha, which our Netherlands Confession
  Surely the Holy Scriptures' claim to be inspired         designates as worthy of reading for its history and
includes the Old Testament. The classical passages         instruction, but not to be considered inspired (see
for inspiration refer first of all to the Old Testa-       Art. 6).
ment. The passage, "All scripture is given by in-             If we would take our Hebrew Bible in hand and


352                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



follow the order of books given in the Massoretic            ed into major: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and minor:
test, we would discover that there are only twenty-          Hosea,  Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
four books. The "discrepancy". is easily explained,          Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah,
our KJV follows the division of the books and the            Malachi. The third are called the  writings  and are
order presented in the Septuagint Bible, the Greek           divided into Poetical: Psalms, Proverbs, Job; the
translation of the Hebrew Old Testament Bible                Five Rolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentation,
which was made around 250-160 B.C. The differ-               Ecclesiastes, Esther; and finally the Historical:
ences are as follows: Samuel, Kings, Chronicles,             Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.
and Ezra-Nehemiah are divided into two books                       According to Unger in his Introductory Guide to
each. The minor prophets are divided into twelve             the Old Testament  the reason for the three-fold divi-
books instead of being counted as one. This ac-              sion is that the law is identical with our pentateuch,
counts for fifteen additional books. Hence the               the prophets are former and latter in relation to the
material content is exactly the same.                        time period covered by each, the minor and major
  The Hebrew Bible also follows a different order.           are determined by length. The writings are mixed
Not only does the student of Hebrew have to learn            in character by writers who had the prophetic gift
to open his Bible at the back and read from right to         but not the office. The rolls are called that because
left, he has to be familiar with a different arrange-        they were written on separate scrolls to facilitate
ment of the books. The Hebrew Bible is divided in-           reading at the feasts. The third section is unclassi-
to three sections as follows: the first is the  Zaw:         fied mostly as historical. Note Chronicles is called
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteron-               Paralipomenon meaning "the remainder" in the
omy. The second is titled the  Prophets,  first the          Septuagint and in our Netherlands Confession, Art.
former prophets including Joshua, Judges, Samuel,            4.
Kings, then the later prophets, being further divid-

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                     The Nicene, Creed
                                                Rev. James Slopsema





Article 11 - We look for the resurrection of the dead,       wicked. The resurrection of the righteous is called
Article 12 - and the iife of the world to come. Amen.        the resurrection of life, whereas the resurrection of
                                                             the wicked is called the resurrection of damnation.
       The final two articles of the Nicene Creed speak      The exact words of our Savior are, "Marvel not at
 of the final glory of the church. Two spiritual             this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are
realities are mentioned here. Article 11 speaks of           in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come
the final resurrection. Article 12 speaks of the life        forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrec-
of the world to come. These two are inseparably              tion of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
connected. For the resurrection of the dead is a             resurrection of damnation." In general, the Scrip-
resurrection to the life of the world to come. And           tures concentrate on the resurrection of the
they both mean our final salvation.                          righteous unto life. There are many beautiful
       In Article 11 the early church confessed her faith    passages which instruct us concerning this resur-
in the resurrection of the dead.                             rection, such as Romans  8:11, I Corinthians 15, I
       The Scriptures speak quite often of a bodily          Thessalonians  4:13-18, etc.
resurrection of the dead in the day of our Lord                    The reality of such a resurrection was denied in
Jesus Christ. In John  5:28, 29 Jesus speaks of a            the history of the early church by the world of
general resurrection of both the righteous and the           pagan religion and philosophy. The prevailing


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 353



thought of the pagan world was that all things               The Nicene Creed speaks literally of the "age" to
physical and material, the human body included,           come. The Scriptures speak of the age that now is in
are inherently evil. Hence, although a certain im-        distinction from the age which is to come, that is,
mortality of the soul vvas acknowledged, there was        eternity. In this last article the Nicene Creed speaks
no room for a bodily resurrection. The body was           of the age to come which will be ushered in at
considered to be the prison house of the soul. At         Christ's appearing.
death the soul was finally liberated from the body,          The early church fathers did not have so much to
never more to be brought back into the bondage of         say concerning the life of the world to come. This is
the body. At death the body was happily destroyed         no doubt because the Scriptures do not give a very
forever. It was quite evidently this thinking that        clear picture of what this life will be. The Scriptures
Paul encountered in Athens on his second mis-             tell us that this life is everlasting. They tell us that
sionary journey. "Then certain philosophers of the        this life will consist of perfect fellowship with God,
Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him            not marred by the sins of this present time. It will
(Paul). And some said, What will this babbler say?        be a life without suffering and pain. But this life
other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of            belongs to another age and a new creation. Hence,
strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus,        it belongs to that which eye has not seen, nor ear
and the resurrection" (Acts 17: 18). Continuing           heard. Neither has it entered into the heart of man
through this chapter we find that the Athenians           to conceive. The Scriptures are content to assure us
brought Paul to the Areopagus on Mars' hill to hear       that this future life is glorious beyond our wildest
more of his doctrine. "And when they heard of the         expectations. Certainly the present sufferings
resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others         which are necessary to prepare us for this life are
said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul     not worthy to be compared to the glory and bliss of
departed from among them" (vss. 32, 33).                  this life.
  A similar position concerning the inherent evil of
all things material, and with that a denial of the           The Scriptures make the future glory a matter of
resurrection, was also to be found with certain           faith. And the early church acknowledged this
heretical groups cast out of the Christian church at      future glory as an object of her faith in the final arti-
this time. This was true for example of the               cle of the Nicene Creed: "(We look for) . . . the life
                                                          of the world to come."
Gnostics, as well as the Manicheaens.
  Over against all this the early church maintained         There are two related subjects that are not
and confessed the Biblical teaching of the resurrec-      touched on specifically in the Nicene Creed but are
tion of the dead.                                         very closely related to the subject at hand. It would
                                                          be worth our while to look at these briefly.
  There were some in the church who tended to
spiritualize the resurrection of the dead. But the           The first subject deals with the ultimate fate of
church as a whole maintained that the resurrection        the ungodly and impenitent. In the early church
of the dead was a bodily resurrection. The early          three positions were held. There were those who
church recognized on the basis of Scripture that the      taught the annihilation of all the wicked. In other
material and physical are not inherently evil. Not        words, the ungodly either at death or at the day of
just the soul but also the body has been redeemed         judgment are destroyed body and soul so that they
by the blood of Christ. Through regeneration the          simply cease to exist any more. Then there were
body even becomes the temple of God. Under-               those who maintained a final restoration of all men
standing these things the early church readily ac-        to holiness and happiness. In other words, the
cepted the teachings of the Scripture concerning a        ungodly after this life will be given a second chance
bodily resurrection of the dead in the day of Jesus'      and will all ultimately be brought to repentance
coming. She even recognized that the body re-             and salvation. Finally, there were those who taught
ceived in the resurrection will not be a new crea-        the Biblical truth of everlasting punishment of the
tion but that each will receive in the resurrection       wicked in hell where according to body and soul
his own proper body that was committed to the             they will come under the eternal wrath of God for
grave.                                                    sin. Those who held to this position were by far in
                                                          the majority. And in due time this became the sole
  To this belief the early church gave expression in      view of the church, until the rise of the heresy of
Article 11 of the Nicene Creed: "We look for the          universal salvation in the last few centuries.
resurrection of the dead." Here reference is not to
the resurrection in general but specifically to the          The second related subject of interest deals with
resurrection of life unto eternal life and glory. This    the state or condition of man's soul after death but
is evident from the next and concluding article of        before the final resurrection, which we have come
this creed, "and the life of the world to come."          to call the intermediate state.


  354                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



   At first there was little thought or discussion on        heavenly glory. They long for the life of the world
 this. This was due to the anticipation of a quick           to come. Their constant prayer is, "Come, Lord
 return of Jesus Christ from heaven. But as time             Jesus, come quickly."
 went on and Christ did not come, the church began              The early Christian church was very strong in
 to consider this matter.                                    this hope. Their hope in the resurrection and future
    The ideas and teachings of the early church              glory was no doubt strengthened by the persecu-
 fathers on the intermediate state were very vague.          tion she had endured for the first three hundred
 They spoke of hades or sheol, terms which the Bi-           years of her existence. There is nothing like
 ble uses to describe the state of the dead. The             persecution for Christ's sake to turn the eyes of the
 church fathers taught that in sheol the righteous en-       church to her future glory. How the early church
 joy a measure of reward not equal to their future           looked for the life of the world to come! To this liv-
 glory in heaven, and the wicked suffer a degree of          ing hope she gave expression in these concluding
 punishment not equal to  .their future torment in           articles of her creed.
 hell. Some spoke of a purifying process that takes            What a fit conclusion to the early church's con-
 place for the righteous in sheol. Some have under-          fession.
 stood this to be the beginnings of the Roman Cath-
 olic doctrine of purgatory. However, this is not the          All the great doctrines of salvation revealed in
case. The doctrine of purgatory teaches that the             Holy Writ find their climax in the resurrection unto
 righteous must suffer after death to make payment           glory. Jesus Christ was sent of the Father into the
 for sins committed in this life. The doctrine of            world, suffered and died, was raised again the third
 purgatory is a doctrine that arose out of the error of      day, ascended into heaven for one purpose  - that
 work-righteousness. This however was definitely             one day He might return and through the resurrec-
 not the teaching of the early church fathers. They          tion glorify His people in a new creation. What a
 taught rather that through some mystical process            glorious salvation God has for us in Christ!
 the soul was purified from the defilement of sin and          The early church in the Nicene Creed set out to
 thus prepared for the life in the world to come.            summarize the great doctrines of salvation. This
 They viewed the intermediate state as a place not           she did very beautifully. And quite in harmony
 for justification but sanctification. Finally, the          with the great gospel of salvation the early church
 church fathers also spoke of paradise, which is far         climaxed her confession with the crowning doc-
 above sheol. It was to paradise that Jesus ascended.        trine of salvation, the resurrection of the dead unto
 Into paradise also enter the souls of the martyrs.          the life of the world to come.
 Yet paradise is still not the final glory for God's peo-      We have seen that the Nicene Creed was more
 ple. Final glory is the life of the world to come.          than a simple statement of doctrine. It was a living
   For the final resurrection and the life of the            confession that arose from the believing hearts of
 world to come the early church looked. This she             God's people. The truths of this confession were
 acknowledged in the final two articles of the               near and dear to the early church. Her members
 Nicene Creed: "We Zook for the resurrection of the          embraced them and cherished them. They fought
 dead, and the life of the world to come."                   for them and defended them. Many even died for
   This is a very clear expression of the Christian          them.
 hope. The Christian hope is a confident expectation           These truths led the saints to look for the resur-
 and an intense longing for the final salvation to be        rection of the dead and the life of the world to
 revealed in the day of Jesus Christ. Those who live         come. May these same truths so live in our hearts
 in hope live in the expectation that Christ will one        that we too with the early church and the church of
 day come from heaven to make all things new.                all ages look for the final resurrection and the life
 They are confident of a final resurrection into             eternal!


                          Phe Standard Bearer makes a
                  thoughtfil gift for the sick or shut-in.
                              Give the Standard Bearer!


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             355



GUIDED  l-NT0 ALL TRUTH




         The Sole Authority of the Word of God
                                and Its Sufficiency
                                               Rev. T. Miersma




   The Reformed doctrine of the exclusive authority      pervert it (Galatians  1:7). Since, as the reformers
of Scripture as the only and all-sufficient rule of      reasoned, that gospel is set down in Scripture ac-
faith and life stood at the heart of the reformers'      cording to Scripture's own claim and testimony,
controversy with Rome. This truth Rome denied            every tradition and word of men must be tried by
and continues to deny. This principle, along with        its standard. The apostle himself says that if he
the truth of justification by faith, formed the key      himself were to preach anything different, it was
doctrinal dispute by which the reformers stood or        not to be received.
fell.                                                      In the same light the reformers maintained that
   Rome, as we saw in the previous article, main-        the Spirit of truth was not limited to the clergy
tained that Scripture derived its authority from the     alone, but was given unto the whole church. This
church, set forth in the visible institute, centering    internal and subjective principle of the source of
in the clergy and the papacy. The church, that is        Scripture's authority was rooted in the truth of the
the clergy of the church, were considered the suc-       priesthood of all believers. Upon this principle of
cessors of the apostles, and it is this succession of    the believers' spiritual anointing to know and
apostolic authority receiving the books of Scripture     understand God's Word, the reformers restored the
which also gave to Scripture its authority. More-        right and privilege of the people of God to interpret
over, limiting the activity of the Spirit of truth to    and understand God's Word themselves. Not only
the clergy as the "teaching church," Rome also           therefore did Scripture have sole authority over the
removed the Word of God from the hands of the            church, but the ordinary believer could understand
people. In the light of this position, Rome denied to    that Word and could test and prove all things in the
Scripture its sole and exclusive authority in the        light of that Word for himself. If any came teaching
church.                                                  another gospel, not only  might  he reject it, but he
   Over against this false view, the reformers main-     must  reject it, according to the very calling of his
tained that the source of Scripture's authority was      anointing set forth in I John  4:1, "Try the spirits
to be found in Christ, Who gave His Word to the          whether they are of God . . .  ."
church by the apostles. To the reformers, therefore,       This set Rome and the reformers utterly at odds
Scripture as God's Word possessed divine authority       with one another. Rome wanted to maintain along-
in itself, and was itself truth and the sole standard    side of Scripture the higher authority of the church
of truth. That word necessarily stood above every        and clergy, and, as a second word of God, the sup-
word of man or tradition of men, and indeed above        posed oral and apostolic traditions of the church.
the apostles themselves. This principle they found       According to this theory, the preaching and
in the Word of God itself. Thus our Belgic Confes-       teaching of the apostles was contained not only in
sion of Faith, when it speaks concerning this in Ar-     Scripture, but had been also kept and preserved in
ticle VII, quotes Galatians  1:8, "But though we or      the church in oral form. It had also been written
an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto        down in part in the writings of the church fathers.
you than that which we have preached unto you,             Rome gave this oral tradition equal authority
let him be accursed." To come therefore preaching        with Scripture. In it, moreover, were taught things
any other gospel than the gospel of Christ is to         which supplemented what was contained in  Scrip-


356                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



ture and which they claimed were necessary also to             laws, which man would introduce into the
interpret Scripture. Scripture alone was insuffi-              worship of God, thereby to bind and compel
cient. The traditions and practices of the church of           the conscience in any manner whatever.
long standing were all supposedly based on this               In the light of this the papacy and the whole
apostolic tradition, and because of their antiquity         manner and order of the Roman worship must fall
were to be received as binding upon the church.             to the ground, since none of it is taught in God's
Moreover the church, that is the clergy and the             Word. The reformers therefore began a thorough
papacy, as the custodian of this tradition, was per-        reform of the church in the light of the Word of
mitted further to expound and interpret this tradi-         God. This reform embraced the whole life of the
tion, and by the Spirit residing in the priesthood of       church, not only its doctrine and theology, but its
the church, might also expand this tradition and            order, its worship, and its discipline. It set before
bring new truths to light.                                  the people also the calling to a Biblical walk in
  Having an additional source of authority in an            godliness. The reformation involved, in the light of
oral tradition which is ever expanding in its inter-        this one principle, a spiritual transformation and
pretation by the church, is a fundamental part of           renewal of the whole church and the life of the peo-
the Romish system and continues to be so. In the            ple of God upon the sound foundation of the ab-
light of it Rome has, since the days of the Reforma-        solute and all-sufficient truth of the Word of God.
tion, added the doctrine of the immaculate concep-            Nothing might challenge this principle of the sole
tion of Mary in 1850 (the idea that Mary was kept           standard of Scripture, neither the persuasive argu-
free from original sin), and the idea of the infallibil-    ments of men, the decrees of counsels, nor the opin-
ity of the pope in matters of doctrine in 1870. This        ions of the church fathers. Whatsoever did not
principle allows the Romish church, in effect, to           agree with the infallible rule of the Word of God
teach whatever it wants to and to make that                 was to be rejected. No practice, ceremony, or tradi-
teaching authoritative doctrine in the church. The          tion which did not agree with it was either to be
only restriction upon this "tradition" is a vague one       kept or introduced into the church. Our Confession
to the effect that the doctrine must reflect a certain      of Faith in Article VII states this principle of the ab-
consensus or agreement of those considered to be            solute and sole standard of the truth of God's Word
church fathers. In reality, the doctrine of papal in-       and its sufficiency, when it states that this truth of
fallibility has now eliminated even this need.              God set down in the Scriptures,
  Over against this serious error which throws                  . . . is above all; for all men are of them-
open the door to almost any gospel other than the               selves liars, and more vain than vanity
gospel set down in Scripture, the reformers main-               itself. Therefore, we reject with all our
tained that Scripture alone has the sole right to               hearts, whatsoever doth not agree with this
regulate our faith and bind our conscience. All                 infallible rule, which the apostles have
things, even the ancient practices of the church and            taught us, saying, Try the spirits whether
the writings of the church fathers, as weak and                 they are of God. Likewise, if there come
fallible men, must be tried in the light of the Word            any unto you, and bring not this doctrine,
of God. It and it alone is the authoritative will of            receive him not into your house.
God for the church. It alone has the power to com-             Our Reformed fathers understood the issue most
pel the conscience of the believer by its testimony,        clearly. Either we say with Christ, "Thy word is
and to guide and rule our faith and life. It alone is       truth" (John 17: 17), and we bow before it, or we are
the standard of truth. This principle the reformers         left with the vanity and lie of men. To this truth of
applied both to the life of the believer and to the         our Reformed heritage we also must cling. For it
order and worship of the church. It is this principle
                                              _.            also we must contend, and that particularly in our
which our Belgic Confession of Faith embodies in            day when more and more we see the Christian
Article XXX11 which speaks of the order and                 church, also those churches which have their roots
discipline of the church, declaring,                        in the Reformation, departing from this sole stan-
       In the meantime we believe, though it is             dard of the Word of God. It is the truth of God's
       useful and beneficial, that those, who are           Word which is at stake when we see about us in-
       rulers of the Church, institute and establish        troduced into God's house another gospel and doc-
       certain ordinances among themselves for.             trine, inventions of men in the order and worship
       maintaining the body of the Church; yet they         of the church which God has not commanded, and
       ought studiously to take care, that they do          a walk of life which is not according to truth.
       not depart from those things which Christ,              Nor must we think that we are immune from this
       our only Master, hath instituted. And there-         trend. That departure begins so easily when we as
       fore, we reject all human inventions, and all        the people of God in our own life and walk become


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                357



hearers but not doers of the Word. It is so easy and                 this world to intrude into the church. In this matter
so pleasing to the flesh and our sinful vanity to set                there is no compromise, for it is either Scripture
alongside of Scripture our own feelings and experi-                  alone as the sole foundation of truth, which is
ences, our own wisdom and desires, as a second                       above all, fully sufficient for faith and life, or we
authority. It is so easy to allow the philosophy of                  shall be left with only the vanity of men.

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE



                                 The Apostles' Creed (2)
                                                           Rev. H. Veldman




                      Introduction (2)                               after all, that important? Is it not far more con-
  We concluded our preceding article by calling at-                  venient to have a gospel upon a thumbnail? . . . and,
tention, generally speaking, to the various doctrines                much more practical? Must we read and study and
as set forth before us in this beautiful confession,                 familiarize ourselves with all these doctrinal truths?
our Apostles' Creed. In our fourth and final obser-                  Is it after all not the important thing that we are
vation we reminded our readers of what we read in                    saved? And is it not true that, to be saved, all we
Articles 4-7, which speak of our Lord's humiliation                  need do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? This is
and exaltation. We now continue.                                     all that Philip demanded of the Ethiopian eunuch,
                                                                     according to Acts 8. What does double predestina-
  Fifthly, in Articles 8-12 we have the doctrine of                  tion (election and reprobation) have to do with this?
the Holy Spirit and of the church and the related                    What does the truth of the eternal Godhead of the
blessings of salvation. Here we have, first of all, the              Son have to do with it? Why must we believe in the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And how important it is                 doctrine of the Incarnation? And must we under-
that this article in re the Holy Spirit appears here                 stand and grasp His bodily and physical resurrec-
where it does, between the glorification of Christ                   tion from the dead, His ascension, His sitting at
and the church! We believe an holy catholic                          the right hand of God, and His return to judgment?
church. The Dutch translation adds the word                          After all, the salvation of a lost sinner is really so
"Christian." Of this church we read that it is holy                  very simple. All he needs do is to be sorry for his
and catholic (universal). And all this is concluded in               sin, accept the free offer of salvation, give his heart
Articles 9-12: the communion of saints, the forgive-                 to Jesus and be saved. And now all this? Why com-
ness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the                  plicate these really simple matters?
life everlasting.                                                      Why must we believe all the things promised us
       *    *    *     *    *    *    *    *    *     *              in the gospel and briefly summarized for us in the
  All this, now, is necessary for us to believe. This                Apostles' Creed? The answer is this: these things
is what we read in Question 22 of our Heidelberg                     are necessary for a Christian to believe. It is exactly
Catechism: What is then necessary for a Christian                    this that we read in Question 22. You either believe
to believe? And the Apostles' Creed follows in                       all this or you simply do not believe. To believe all
Answer 23. Shall we and do we grasp this? Why                        this is necessary. Without it, your believing is im-
must we believe all these things? Why must we                        possible, and if you do not believe you cannot be
take hold of all these fundamentals? Why must we                     saved. Perhaps you ask, but what must we say of an
believe in the Trinity, in the truth that our Lord                   infant who cannot believe all this? To this we
Jesus Christ is the eternal, the only and natural Son                answer, first of all, that an infant is saved only
of God, in the Incarnation, in particular atonement,                 because of God's eternal, unconditional, and
in His wonderful exaltation at the right hand of                     sovereign love, because of Christ's particular atone-
God and His return to judgment? Why? Can we not                      ment upon the cross and because of God's irresisti-
be saved without these things? Is this doctrine,                     ble grace. And, secondly, as we grow up and


358                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                             -
mature, we either believe these things, embrace             sin, and our absolute hopelessness; fact is, nobody
them, or we deny and`reject them. It is either-or.          is saved in any other way.
This is the truth. We must believe all this. Why?             And now we go to the cross of Calvary. Why?
Why is this necessary?                                      The answer is obvious. When God saves a sinner
  Indeed, we can understand what is known as the            He leads him to the cross, the cross of our Lord
"thumbnail gospel." This is the gospel that can be          Jesus Christ. And what do we see there? We see
written upon a thumbnail. Now the sinner accepts            there the suffering Man of Sorrows, but then as He
this gospel, first of all, because he is interested only    is the eternal Son of God. An eternal wrath of God
in himself. His only concern is his escape from the         must be borne in the obedience of perfect love.
misery of his sin and from guilt and the wrath of           Consciously he must be forsaken of God and praise
God, that he may enjoy the blessedness of life for-         God in all the wonderful outpouring of His
ever. He is not concerned about the "how" of this,          righteous love and indignation. To bear that wrath
how it may occur, or about any details of the truth,        of God, to pay for the sins of others, is possible, as
but only what he must do to be saved. It does not           the, Heidelberg Catechism and all Scripture teach
concern him that the purpose of his salvation might         us, by the eternal Son of God. This means that if
conceivably lie elsewhere than in himself. As far as        Jesus be not the eternal Son of God, co-eternal and
the truth is concerned, he really could not care less.      co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, there is
In the second place, however, this sinner is not con-       simply no atonement. And if there be no atonement
cerned bout God. He does not care about the vir-            then there is no salvation. Then no sinner can
tues of God's holiness and righteousness and glory.         possibly be saved. But we see more upon that cross.
And he does not care what happens to the virtues            We do not merely see the dying of a martyr; we do
of God's almighty and sovereign power and that a            not see the suffering of a universal Christ, a Christ
god (we deliberately write this word with a small           for all men. A Christ for all is really a Christ for
"g") desires the salvation of all men and saves only        none. Then Christ also died for those who perish.
a few; he really could not, we repeat, care less. He        And this means that He never paid for sin, because
surely does not understand, does not care to under-         had He blotted out their sin they could never
stand, that the Lord never gives His glory to               perish. Is this serious? Indeed it is! But we see
another and that He never shares it with another.           Christ, the Lamb of God, of Calvary, as He suffers
  To understand the necessity of this content of the        for and pays the debt only of His own, even as Jesus
knowledge of our faith, we will begin with the doc-         Himself declares in John  lO:ll, 14, 26-29, and we
trine of the knowledge of sin. Why do we begin              quote:
with this? We are dealing, we must bear in mind,                 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth
with this question: who are saved? And its answer              his life for the sheep . . . . I am the good shepherd, and
is set forth in Question and Answer 20 of our                  know My sheep, and am known of Mine . . . . But ye
Heidelberg Catechism: only they who are ingrafted              believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said
into Christ by a true and living faith. Only believers         unto you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
are saved. However, when a sinner is saved, con-               and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life;
sciously, his first knowledge is that of sin. What is          and they shall never perish, neither shall any man
sin? Sin is transgression of the law, the law of God.          pluck them out of My hand: My Father, which gave
Sin is exactly as terrible as God is great. Sin can be         them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to
                                                               pluck them out of My Father's hand.
understood only when viewed in the light of Him
against Whom it is committed. Sin is the unbe-                And why is it necessary to believe this? What
lievably awful refusal of a sinner who is less than         really does this doctrine, the doctrine of particular
nothing to serve the living God Who is God over all         atonement, have to do with our salvation? The
and alone worthy of all praise and adoration. This is       answer to this question is really very simple. God's
sin. It is wilful and deliberate. As a power, a             justice demands that all our sins must be paid. If
spiritual power, it dominates us completely, all our        Christ suffers and dies for all men (as we wrote a
heart and mind and soul and strength, so that  we.          moment ago) then He also died for those who
cannot possibly move except in the service of sin.          perish. And this means that He never paid for sin,
We are dead and blind and deaf and lame and                 because had He died and paid for their sins they
dumb. But there is also guilt. As guilt it is the           could never perish. And, of course, if our sins are
obligation to pay, to bear, in full consciousness, the      not paid, no salvation is possible. The Arminian
awesomely eternal and infinite wrath of God. To be          may declare, believing in a universal atonement,
saved, we must be delivered from this sin. All our          that he is saved. We will leave- that personal matter
guilt must be paid, and this spiritual power of evil        between him and the Lord. We will testify to him
must be broken. To be saved, through faith, it is           what Scripture says. And, the Arminian may boast
surely necessary to know this power and guilt of            that he has a richer Christ than we because,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              359


                                                                                .     5


whereas his Christ died for everybody, our Christ          draw him i John 6:44). -The power that saves us is an
died only for some; we will declare to him that not        almighty, irresistible, efficacious, explosive power
all are saved for whom his Christ is reputed to have       and therefore also a very particular and sovereign
died, and also that the alternative is not between a       power. Surely, if God must begin this work, He
Christ for all and a Christ for some, but between a        begins it as and where He wills. I ask, Is this
Christ for some and a Christ for none. And now, as         necessary for us to believe? 0, if this.were not true
we stand at and before the cross of Calvary, we also       how could a sinner possibly be saved? Can any
see more. Fact is, Christ died for us while we were        saved sinner believe that he is saved because he
yet sinners. He came to us and we hated Him,               chose and decided to believe? This is impossible.
despised Him, would destroy Him, and surely tried          This is contrary to all the testimony of Holy Writ.
to do so. What does this mean? It means that He           That one believes is because it is God Who began
loved us notwithstandingly. It means that He loved        His work in him. God alone caused him to see
us first. In fact, God so loved the world (His world)      himself in all the filth and hopelessness of his sin;
that He gave His only begotten Son. It means that,         God alone made him free who was once a hopeless
as we stand at the foot of the cross and look upon         slave of his sin. Indeed, the Lord does not save in
that great Shepherd of His sheep, our hearts and          any other way. No sinner experiences salvation ex-
souls go back from that cross into the depths of           cept as the fruit of divine grace. We will surely not
eternity, and we see behind it all a wonderful, un-       permit any Arminian to lead us astray from these
conditional, unchangeable love of God, that He            wonderful truths. Let us continue to glory in God,
loved, first, a wretch as I am.                           the God of our salvation, render to Him the glory
  However, besides the knowledge of sin and the           due unto His Name. Of Him and through Him and
truth of  Calvary!s  particular atonement, we must  - unto Him must be all the praise and the glory, now
                                                          and forever.
also believe the truth of God's almighty, irresistible
grace. We are saved by grace, through faith, and             The Lord willing, we will continue with this in
that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. Indeed,     our following article.
no man can come unto the Father except the Father

                       INews From Our Churches
                                                 April 15, 1985

  Our congregation in Lynden, Washington ex-              and with the comparison of the theology of the
tended a call to Rev. M. Joostens. Our congregation       Presbyterian faith and the Reformed faith. The
in Edgerton, Minnesota extended a call to Rev. M.         Council also placed a new book in the church
De Vries, from a trio that included also Rev. R.          library, Torchbearers of the Truth, a history of Scot-
Moore and Rev. C. Haak. The trio for Hull, Iowa is        tish Presbyterian&m and particularly of Presbyte-
Rev. R. Hanko, Rev. R. Moore, and Rev. J.                 rian martyrs.
Slopsema.                                                    Pastor Lau in Singapore is teaching the present
  At the March congregational meeting of Love-            group the catechism to prepare them for baptism.
land Church in Colorado, it was decided to proceed        The congregation had a wedding in the church, at
with the building of a new church building accord-        the kampong where they hold their worship serv-
ing to the plan proposed by the consistory. First         ices. There has been a great amount of pastoral
Church, in Grand Rapids, Michigan will remove             work in the past weeks but Rev. den Hartog is hap-
the cornerstone from the old church, examine the          py to see that the members of the church visit their
contents of the cornerstone, and put it in the new        ministers freely. The elders and session meetings
church. They will replace the cornerstone in the          have been considering the matter of the tenure of
old church with a new stone.                              the officebearers and the whole subject of the prop-
  The Council of South Holland Church, Illinois           er elements of the worship service. They are also
has scheduled a public meeting on Friday evening,         deciding how much renovating to do of the Blair
June 7, at which Rev. [George Hutton, Pastor of the       Road House to get it ready as a parsonage by May.
Bible Presbyterian Church of Larne, Northern              It remains to be seen whether or not the contractors
Ireland will speak. Rev. Engelsma has given a two-        can complete the work in time for the den Hartogs
part series on "The History and Theology of               to move into the parsonage before their furlough in
Presbyterianism" to South Holland's Reformed Fel-         May. When they held their special services in the
lowship. The series dealt with the history of the         church during the season of Good Friday and
Presbyterian faith especially in England, Scotland,       Easter, the members of the church tried very hard
and Northern Ireland from 1560 to the present day,        to bring friends and relatives to the church, who


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360                                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   ---.

may never have heard the gospel or been to church.                                                                Rev. Cammenga gave a public lecture sponsored
     Rev. K. Hanko writes that a few months ago the                                                       by the Church Extension Committee of Loveland
Reformed Witness Hour sent them the names of a                                                            Church, Colorado on "Christian Liberty."
couple of men who had heard Rev. Van  Baren on                                                                   The Men's and Ladies' Societies and Adult Bible
Family Radio. One of these men called Rev. Hanko                                                          Class of Hudsonville Church, Michigan decided to
and has been coming to their worship services                                                             sponsor a Bookstore in Hudsonville Plaza for the
every evening. They also plan another series of lec-                                                      sale of our own literature as well as other good
tures this spring on the Five Points of Calvinism.                                                        books. Mrs. H.C. Hoeksema will be the store
Rev. Hanko and his family plan to take a week of                                                          manager.
vacation in early May, to go to Grand Rapids for                                                                 For those living within the WKPR radio listening
classis and a wedding.                                                                                    area, the Reformed Witness Hour is on Sunday at
    Southeast Church, Michigan plans on a  Camp-                                                          4:00 P.M., and Christian Dialogue is on Monday,
day Workshop with Rev. den Hartog June 14 & 15.                                                           Tuesday, and Wednesday at  11:30 A.M.
More details on this later.                                                                                                                                                     D.H.
    The Spring Lecture will be delivered on Thurs-
day, May 9 at 8 P.M. in Hudsonville Church. Rev.                                                                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Engelsma will speak on the topic, "The God-fearing                                                               On May 4, 1985, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS.
Family."                                                                                            WILLIAM CORSON, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

                                                                                                                 We, their children and grandchildren, are thankful to our Heavenly
                                                                                                    Father for the years they have had together. We have been blessed
                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                         with God-fearing parents who have guided us in the truths of the
    Through the Lord's goodness, our parents, HAROLD AND SADIE                                      Scripture. It is our prayer that God will continue to bless them and
GLUPKER, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary April 25,                                      keep them in His care.
1 9 8 5 .                                                                                                        "For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth  en-
    We are grateful to God for them and all that they have given and                                dureth to all generations." (Psalm  100:5)
done for us, in His name. It is our prayer that they may be given many                              Ronald and Linda Corson                        Randall Corson
more years together.                                                                                             Melissa, Chad, Rhonda             Richard Corson

    "The Lord,  tiath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."
                                                            (Psalm  126:3).                                                                IN MEMORIAM
Craig and Janalyn Glupker                                                                                        On March 4, 1985, it pleased our Faithful Covenant God to take
                                                                                                    unto Himself our beloved husband, father, grandfather and  great-
                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                          grandfather, LOUIS LOOYENGA, at the age of seventy-nine years.
                                                                                                                 To know that we belong to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in
    The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of the Southeast Protestant                                     life and death, is our only comfort.
Reformed Church expresses its sincere sympathy to our fellow mem-
bers, Mr. and Mrs. Case Lubbers and Mr. and Mrs. John Flikkema, Jr.                                              In times like these, we are thankful for the bond of fellowship and
in the death of their father, MR. JOHN FLIKKEMA, SR. Our prayer is                                  communion of the saints that only the children of God can ex-
that the Lord will comfort them in their sorrow.                                                    perience.
    "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."                                              "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
                                                           (Psalm 1 16: 15).                                                                                           (Psalm 116: 15)

Mrs. B. Velting, Sec'y.                                                                             Mrs. Bertha Looyenga                               Raymond and Louisa Null
                                                                                                    Theodore and Theresa Looyenga                         20 grandchildren
                                          NOTICE!!!                                                 Stuart and Marilyn Looyenga                           35 great-grandchildren
                                                                                                    Willard and Sophia Krommendyke
   According to the decision of Synod of 1984, the Consistory of the                                                                                        Grand Rapids, Michigan
Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan
was appointed the calling church for the 1985 Synod. The  Con-                                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
sistory hereby notifies our Churches that the 1985 Synod of the Prot-                                            The Council of the South Holland Protestant Reformed Church ex-
estant Reformed Churches in America will convene, the Lord willing,                                 tends their Christian sympathy to their fellow office-bearer, Mr.
on Tuesday, June 11, 1985, at 9:00 A.M. in the Hudsonville Protes-                                  Jacob Lenting, in the death of his brother, MR. HENRY LENTING. It is
tant Reformed Church, 5101 Beechtree Ave., Hudsonville, Michigan.                                   our prayer that Jacob, with all the other members of the Lenting fami-
The Pre-Synodicel service will be held Monday evening, June 10,                                     ly, together with Mrs. Henry Lenting and children, may experience
1985, at  7:30 P.M. Rev. D.J. Engelsma, President of the 1984                                       that the grace of our Covenant God is sufficient for our every need.
Synod will preach the sermon.  Synodical  delegates are requested to
meet with the Consistory before the service. Delegates in need of                                                "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
transportation from Grand Rapids or lodging in Hudsonville should                                   dissolved, we have a building of  God;an  house not made with hands,
contact Mr. P. Hoekstra, 1278 Greenly, Hudsonville, Ml 49426.                                       eternal in the heavens."
Phone  (616)  896-9279.                                                                             Rev. David J. Engelsma, Pres.
P. Hoekstra, Clerk                                                                                  Louis R. Regnerus, Clerk


