     tySTANDAf?D
         BEARER'
          A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                      Y\




       As we continue to stare into the
     mirror of God's perfect law and
     confess our sins, we also see Christ,
     standing as it were behind us, and
     hear Him say to us, "Thy sins,
     though ever so many, are forgiven
     thee! "
     See "The Law of Liberty"
                                                - page 386



.                                             Vol. LXI, No. 17, June 1, 1985    J


386                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER
                                CONTENTS                                                                              PSSN  03624692
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       On Synod's Agenda, 1985 . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 389      Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. Marinus  Schipper. Rev. James  Slopse-
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MEDITATION



                                               The Law of Liberty
                                                                        Rev. C. Hanko




                   Ques. 92. What is the law of God?
                   Ans. Here follow the ten commandments as recorded in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
                   Ques. 93. How are these commandments divided?
                   Ans. Into two tables, the first which teaches us how we must behave toward God; the second
                what duties we owe to our neighbor.
                                                                                               Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 34


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 387



  Free!                                                   the other. Each lives for the praise and glory of the
  We are free from the bondage of sin and death,          other as they live in intimate communion of life
transformed into sons, enjoying the glorious liberty      together. God appoints the Son to reveal His glory
of the sons of God!                                       beyond Himself, giving Him a people to be re-
                                                          deemed by His blood and to be delivered from the
  For the Son has made us free! He whom the Son           deep black darkness of death and hell into the
makes free is free indeed!                                glorious liberty of sons,in His house. Whom the Son
  Sin has no more dominion over us! Grace                 frees is free to devote himself in love to God, even
abounds!                                                  as the love of God is spread abroad in his heart!
  Death has no sting! The grave has no victory!             God is the righteous Judge. He condemns sin,
  Thanks be to God Who has given us the victory           even the smallest transgression deserves His just
in our Lord Jesus Christ!                                 punishment in everlasting hell. He hates all the
                                                          workers of iniquity. "For Jehovah thy God is a
  Through the power of the law!                           jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers
  God and His law are inseparably one.                    upon the children unto the third and fourth gener-
  Our God is sovereign Lord over heaven and               ation of those who hate Him, and showing mercy
earth. As their Creator and Sustainer He has ab-          unto thousands of those who love Him and keep
solute claim to them and authority over them.             His commandments."
  His throne is in the heavens, where the myriads           God and His law are one, for He is the sovereign,
of angels worship Him as they carry out His will in       determining, righteous God Who must be feared!
heaven and on earth.                                      He will give His glory to no other!
  God has set His own law for the angels. He has            God has given His law unto Israel and His
also established His law for the sun, moon, and           statutes unto Jacob.
stars, as He holds them in their courses. God has           This is actually the second time that we are con-
determined a law for the tree, that it should send its    fronted with the law of.God in our Book of Instruc-
roots deep into the earth and lift its branches           tion.
toward heaven to draw its life from the soil and            The first time was in the second Lord's Day,
from the light. He has appointed that the fish            where we learned to confess that we are prone by
should swim in the sea and the birds should soar in       nature to hate God and our neighbor. We were asked,
the air. Break those laws and the result is death.        How do you know this? To which we answered,
Springtime is God's appointed time for all creation       in essence, God demands of me that I love God
to awaken from the sleep of winter; trees and             with my whole being, and that I love my neighbor
flowers burst forth in newness of life. According to      as myself. That is the basic principle of all the Scrip-
Gods law we are born of our parents, we breathe,          tures. The result? I know that the law can only con-
we eat and drink, we see and hear, we speak and           demn me, for I am evil, born in sin; and accursed is
act in our earthly surroundings. Of us as thinking,       everyone who does not abide in all that is written in
willing, consciously acting individuals God re-           the book of the law to do it!
quires, Love Me! Serve Me in your daily walk of
life, in every relationship to your neighbor! And He        In the meantime the Catechism instructed us in
justly judges every man according to the deeds            the truth that Christ came to fulfill the law for all
done in the body, whether good or evil, according         those given to Him of the Father. The Son of God
to His divine standard of love!                           came into our flesh and surrendered Himself in
                                                          perfect obedience to the Father. Always He con-
  God is the holy God. He is devoted unto Himself         fessed, "It is joy to do Thy will, 0 God," even
as the Being of infinite perfections. He delights in      though Gods will required that He suffer torments
the dazzling brightness of His glory as God above         of hellish agony under Gods wrath to atone for our
all, blessed forever! He keeps Himself aloof from all     sins. He bore the curse in our stead and bore it
that would contaminate His perfection. He                 away. He delivered us from the curse and merited
banishes far from Him all the workers of iniquity.        for us the right to walk at liberty as sons of God!
Bless Him, ye angels, wondrous in might! Bless              Therefore now our Catechism once more intro-
Him, all His works in all places of His dominion!         duces the subject of the law. This time the law
Bless the Lord, 0 my soul!                                comes to us as a rule of life, a directive that says: Do
  For God is love. The three persons of the divine        this and live! It is the guide to true thankfulness, the
trinity love each other in their unique bond of per-      power of God in His redeemed saints to live humbly
fection, all three essentially one, yet personally        before their God in loving obedience!
distinct. Each seeks and finds the other, is drawn to       "I am the Lord your God, which brought you out


388                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."       into my heart, into my life, into the intimacy of my
   Every day, especially on the Sabbath when the          covenant fellowship, to share with you the riches of
law is read, we are reminded that Jehovah our             My NAME eternally!
Almighty has delivered us from the realm of Satan            Through the atoning sacrifice of Christ we
and from the bondage of sin and death.                    receive the right to be called the sons of God. By
   Israel lived in a picture world, being taught like     His Spirit of adoption in our hearts we are assured
children by types and shadows. Egypt was for              of our eternal sonship. We cry, ' `Abba, Father." `By
Israel (and still is for us) a picture of the world       that same Spirit we are transformed, through the
under the dominion of sin. Sin is a cruel tyrant,         Word, into the likeness of Christ: changed even
even as Pharaoh tyrannized over them. Sin en-             from glory to glory! We learn to confess, "0 how
slaved them, even as the taskmasters forced them          love I Thy law! It is my meditation all the day!"
to hard labor. The law condemned them, even as               That is what creates the tension in our lives.
the cruel whip of their taskmasters cut deep fur-
rows into their scarred backs. Every effort on their         Paul speaks of that in Romans 7. He confesses
part to escape that bondage only meant greater            that he takes delight in the law of God according to
enslavement, which ultimately could only end in           the inward man. The new life in Christ assures him
their destruction. What applied to them also applies      that the law is holy, just, and good. It is the power
to us in our sin and misery.                              of God unto salvation, for it converts the heart, and
                                                          teaches us to walk in wisdom's ways. Our con-
   With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm             science warns us against ways of wickedness, spur-
Jehovah brought His covenant people out of the            ring us on to love God and the neighbor, for in the
house of bondage by executing His judgments upon          keeping of the law there is a great delight!
their tormenters. Jehovah, their Almighty, Un-
changeable, Covenant God remembered His sworn               But there is still that other law in us, the power of
promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He                 sin, which never gives up trying to have dominion.
prepared Moses for them as their deliverer. He in-        Sin is like a sleeping lion, aroused to rage by the
stilled in their hearts the desire to be delivered,       law, eager to tear us to shreds. With Paul I must
brought them out in the night in which they stood         complain, "The good that I would I do not: but the
under the blood, eating the unblemished lamb. He          evil which I would not, that I do." I am reminded
gave to spiritual Israel the faith to look beyond this    of the boy who sees the sign of "keep off the grass"
blood to the one perfect sacrifice that would be          and deliberately runs over it. Just as when we see a
brought for their sins by the promised Messiah.           "wet paint" sign we have the urge to try it out.
God still declares to us, I am Jehovah, the                 In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good. But
Almighty, Who has brought thee out of the bondage         grace abounds! For the law is in my heart as the liv-
of sin and death into the glorious liberty of sons in     ing power of the Holy Spirit to lead me on the way
My House.                                                 of life eternal!
  He does this by the renewal of His Spirit in our          Before us is stretched out even to the distant
hearts.                                                   horizon the highway of God's law as a ribbon .of the
  Every day, and every hour of the day we stand           narrow way that leads to life. Along the way the
before the mirror of God's law. Particularly              devil points out to us appealing exits that lead to
through the preaching of the Word we are con-             destruction. The world sets up her sign posts of her
fronted with a reflection of ourselves in the mirror.     lusts and pleasures. Our own flesh rebels against
Our best smile and nicest clothing cannot hide from       the narrow confines of the law, seeking the license
us the sad reality that we are actually very ugly,        of sin. Often we go astray. Like foolish sheep we
worse than we care to admit. That reflection tells        wander off, each in his own way. Yet by the power
us, "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor,          of His law God draws us back in sorrow and repen-
and blind, and naked." It arouses in us the cry, "0       tance. That law always remains the lamp before
God, be merciful to me, the sinner!" For "I am            our feet. In the darkness of our present night it
prone by nature to hate Thee and the neighbor!"           shines as a light upon our pathway. It is our sure
                                                          Guide to eternity!
  As we continue to stare into the mirror of Gods
perfect law and confess our sins, we also see Christ,       It is the perfect rule for a thankful life in obe-
standing as it were behind us, and hear Him say to        dience and prayer!
us, "Thy sins, though ever so many, are forgiven            "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the
thee!" For the law, which permeates all of Scrip-         counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of
ture, is always accompanied by God's promise, "I          sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But
will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy."             his delight is in the law of the Lord: and in his law
He assures us, I wi-11 be a GOD unto thee. I take you     doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1: 1, 2).


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                389



EDITORIAL



                        On Synod's Agenda, 1985
                                             Prof. H.C. Hoeksema




  This year's Agenda arrived just in time for me to       preaching in churches of other denominations.
present to our readers a brief summary of the             Classis West takes the position in this connection
various items on the agenda of our 1985 synod.            that this matter has been previously adjudged by
  This year synod is scheduled to convene on Tues-        the Synods of 1977 and 1978. The other appeal has
day, June 11, in harmony with a decision of, the          to do with our people being asked to support the
Synod of 1984. This is a departure from the rules,        work of Reformed education in Ulster in connec-
but one which is allowed by the rules themselves.         tion with the sponsoring of Mr. Deane Wassink as a
It is also somewhat in the nature of an experiment.       teacher there. The appellant claims that it is not
Formerly our synods always convened on Wednes-            proper for our churches to send and support a
day morning. This was a rule dating back to the           teacher, but that we should send a missionary.
time when all the delegates would travel to synod         Classis  West sustains the consistory's position that
either by car or by train. Now, however, the possi-       a consistory has the right to judge a cause worthy to
bility of air travel makes it very well possible for      be supported by God's people, and "that the send-
the delegates to arrive on Monday and for synod to        ing of a teacher by a committee should not be con-
convene on Tuesday. This also implies, of course,         fused with the official missionary work carried on
that the pre-synodical service will be scheduled for      and supported by the churches of the denomina-
Monday evening, June 10, at our Hudsonville               tion." Synod will have to judge concerning these
church. Connected with this change is also the            appeals.
possibility in a year like this, when there are no ex-      A large part of synods time and energies will un-
aminations of graduates, that synod might be able         doubtedly be devoted to matters pertaining to our
to complete its work by the end of the week. Last         denominational outreach in one form or another.
year this would have been possible if synod had
begun on Tuesday; and this possibility was un-              First of all, there is a lengthy and important
doubtedly one of the motives for the change to            report from our Committee for Contact With Other
Tuesday. Another change is the change to the sec-         Churches. The more important items in this report
ond rather than the first week (Tuesday or                have to do with our contacts with overseas chur-
Wednesday) of June. This has been tried before,           ches, and several of the items stem from the visit of
partly in an attempt to avoid conflicts with school       the Rev. D. Engelsma and Prof. H. Hanko to the
graduation dates. Time will tell whether these ex-        United Kingdom. We cannot go into great detail in
perimental changes should be made permanent and           this respect, but only mention several items:
should be incorporated in the rules.                        1) The Committee reports no progress in contact
  Ours is a rather small agenda: only 132 pages. I        with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of
think lengthy agendas, such as, for example, this         Australia. In fact, it is reported that there are inter-
year's Christian Reformed Agenda of 540 pages, are        nal difficulties in that denomination, due to doc-
a symptom of a burgeoning bureaucracy and                 trinal aberrations of one of their ministers. It is
synodical hierarchy. They are to be avoided.              recommended, therefore, to postpone seeking
  Turning to the contents of this year's Agenda, we       closer contact with them until their internal prob-
may note, first of all, that there are two appeals to     lems are resolved.
be dealt with. Both of these appeals come from              2) The Committee recommends continued con-
brethren who reside in lClassis West. One concerns        tact with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of
the matter of ministers of our denomination               North Ireland in the interest of getting to know


390                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



each other better, but it does not at present recom-      fornia (Rev. S. Houck). In my opinion, there is a
mend any expansion of contact.                            paucity of details in the report concerning this
     3) The Committee recommends a full sister-           work. 2) There is a lengthy report concerning the
church relationship with the Evangelical Reformed         Jamaica work which apparently points up a lack of
Church of Singapore, with the single exception that       sufficient contact and cooperation between the
there be no exchange of fraternal delegates at pres-      Mission Committee and the calling church, but
ent.                                                      which also poses many problems concerning the
                                                          Jamaica work which are crying for a solution. 3)
     4) The Committee recommends a full sister-           There is a report concerning Rev. Miersma's work
church relationship with the Bible Presbyterian           in New Zealand, as also a report concerning the in-
Church of Larne, North Ireland (the church of             stitution of the church there. However, no solution
which the Rev. G. Hutton is pastor). In this cormec-      is proposed for the problem of future help for the
tion the Committee raises the important question          young church in New Zealand. Synod will surely
whether the "Reformed standards" in the Constitu-         have to face the question whether, now that we
tion of the Contact Committee includes the West-          have helped them thus far, we will leave them or-
minster creeds, and it recommends that Synod              phans. 4) All in all, the proposed Mission budget for
decide that the Westminster standards are in-
cluded. The Committee also recommends granting            the coming fiscal year amounts to $169,750. This
                                                          will undoubtedly also pose some problems for
the Rev. Hutton license to preach in our churches.        synod.
     5) The Committee also recommends several
measures to promote growth of a relationship with           Another significant item is a report by the Psalter
the Measbro Dyke Evangelical Church of Barnsley,          Reprinting Committee. This committee, appointed
England, of which the Rev. Philip  Rawson is              by Synod of 1984, was instructed to investigate
pastor. Among these is a proposal to invite Pastor        thoroughly the feasibility of a new printing of the
Rawson for an official visit to our churches next         Psalter in connection with our desire to include the
y       e    a    r    .                                  Ecumenical Creeds and historical introductions to
                                                          these creeds and to our Three Forms of Unity in a
     Included with the Contact Committee's report is      new edition. This committee recommends that we
a report by Rev. Engelsma and Prof. Hanko con-            contract with the Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
cerning their trip to the UK.                             Company to print 4,000 new Pscdters  in a Protestant
     The Foreign Mission Committee reports favor-         Reformed edition. They also recommend that a
ably concerning the work of Rev. den Hartog in            committee be appointed to correct errors of transla-
Singapore. They also report that Rev. den Hartog          tion in the Three Forms of Unity before this reprint
suggests that his work in Singapore is drawing to a       is made. Such a committee would have to report to
close and that shortly after'June of 1986 his labors      the Synod of 1986. This means, therefore, that the
be terminated there. This committee also reports          new edition is some two years in the future, that is,
concerning contact with and support of Gabriel            if this proposal is adopted.
Anyigba, of Ghana. While the committee reports              The last major item in the Agenda is the report of
that it granted him $500;00 to study at Haggai In-        the Theological School Committee. In this connec-
stitute in Singapore, chiefly to give Rev. den Hartog     tion, we note the following: 1) The committee
the opportunity to evaluate Mr. Anyigba's qualifi-        reports the enrollment of two pre-seminarians who
cations, they do not report concerning that evalua-       will begin their studies in the fall of 1985. (Note:
tion. Nor do they have further recommendations            These young men, remember, are 8 years away
concerning this work. They do recommend: 1) Con-          from the ministry!) 2) The committee proposes to
tinued collections for support of seminarian Jaiki        synod a plan for the orderly retirement and replace-
Mahtani (though without any details concerning            ment of professors. The report is too long and in-
current support and future need). 2) Investigation        volved to summarize here. Suffice it to say that the
by emissaries of the possibility of establishing a        purpose of the plan is to avoid, in as far as possible,
mission field m-Malaysia, as well as of the question      the crisis situation which has twice arisen in our
whether our labors will be finished in Singapore in       school in which the late Revs. Ophoff and Hoekse-
the near future.                                          ma had to be replaced on less than 3 months'
     The Domestic Mission Committee has a very            notice. 3) The committee also brings to synod, with
lengthy report, which it is difficult to summarize in     its approval and recommendation, a proposal that
this editorial. Suffice it to say: 1) That they recom-    synod provide space for the RFPA Publications
mend the continuation of labors in Blue Bell, Penn-       Committee to erect a modest headquarters on the
sylvania (Rev. K. Hanko), in Elk Grove, Village, Il-      8-acre seminary property.
linois (Rev. R. Van Overloop), and in Ripon, Cali-          These are some of the main items on synods


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               39.1



docket. There are many other reports, some more             May the Lord bless our 1985 Synod, so that all
important, some less important, but all requiring         the deliberations and decisions may be fruitful for
synod's attention.                                        the cause of our churches and His church!

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                            Our Order of Worship
                                                Prof H. Hanko





  In the last few articles which we have written on       minister confesses her faith before the face of God.
the subject of the order of worship we have been          `The congregation is speaking. The same is true
talking about those elements at the beginning and         when the congregation prays to God. It does so
the end of the worship service in which the               through the words of the minister who speaks on
minister himself speaks. We noticed that the min-         the behalf of God's people. So it is the congregation
ister speaks, sometimes on behalf of the congrega-        speaking when the minister says, "Our help is in
tion and sometimes as the mouthpiece of God               the name of the Lord . . . ."
through Christ. Those elements are called: the salu-        To put it a bit differently, in this holy conversa-
tation - "Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ"; the          tion which takes place between God and His people
votum - "Our help is in the name of the Lord Who          in the worship service, the minister plays a vital
made heaven and eartlh"; and the benedictions -           role, sometimes speaking in God's name to the con-
spoken at the beginning and the end of the worship        gregation, sometimes speaking on behalf of the con-
services. In the salutation the minister speaks to the    gregation to God. It is really only in the singing that
congregation as the mouthpiece of God in Christ.          the congregation directly speaks to God without the
He addresses the congregation as Gods beloved;            agency of the minister - and then in the words of
but it is God speaking through him and calling the        the Psalms of the church. For the rest, what the
congregation His own beloved people. In the votum         congregation says to God is either spoken silently
the minister is speaking as the spokesman of the          in the heart of the believer as he responds in faith to
congregation. The congregation through her                what the minister says, or is spoken by the minister
minister says together as a confession: "Our help is      for him.
in the name of the Lord Who made heaven and                 Yet at the same time it must be remembered that
earth."                                                   whether the believer speaks to God in the quiet
  It ought not to surprise us that the minister has       depths of his own heart or whether he speaks to
this twofold function in his official ministry. Surely    God through what the minister says, he speaks.
no one will deny that he speaks as an ambassador          That is, he speaks to his covenant God and ex-
of God, in God's name, so that God speaks through         presses what lies within his own heart. The
him to the church. But we are not always as con-          believer is always active in the worship service.
scious as we ought to be in the worship service of        There is not one moment when he sits passively
the fact that the minister also speaks to God on          and lets the worship roll over him as the waves of
behalf of the congregation. This is true not only of      the sea roll over him when he sits in the water of
the votum, but also of the congregational prayers         the ocean. When the minister speaks in Gods
and the recitation of the creed. With regard to this      name, he must be attentive and listen, for God is
latter, that is also one of the differences between       speaking to him. When the minister speaks on his
the reading of the law and the reading (or recita-        behalf, he must express through the minister what
tion) of the creed. When the law is read, the             lies within his own heart. He must be conscious of
minister speaks as God's spokesman. God is then           what the minister says and make that his very own
speaking to His people. When the Apostolic Creed          speech to God. This takes concentration and effort,
is read or recited, the congregation through the          but it is essential to all worship.


  392                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



    Having said all this, we must now turn to the            benedictions are a part of the worship service when
  benedictions.                                              the congregation comes together to worship God.
    Throughout our discussion of the various                   It would seem that the raising of the hands in
  elements which make up the worship service, we             pronouncing the benediction also has Scriptural
  have always faced the question whether each ele-           warrant. We read in Leviticus 9:22, "And Aaron
  ment is specifically commanded by Scripture, or            lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed
 whether each element is a matter of liberty and             them . . . ." The Lord Jesus did the same when He
  therefore left to the discretion of the individual con-    blessed His disciples just prior to His ascension:
  gregation under the direction of the elders. We face       "And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he
 the same question in connection with the benedic-           lifted up his hands, and blessed them" (Luke
 tions. Our answer to this question is that the bene-        24:50). Certainly this raising of the hands is sym-
  dictions are indeed commanded by Scripture and             bolic of the fact that Gods blessing comes upon the
 are not therefore to be excluded from the worship           people through the minister called by God to speak
  service. The Scriptural proof of this is to be found       in His name. There is nothing magic, of course, in
 in both the Old and the New Testaments. There are           the raising of the hands. No blessing flows from the
 instances already in the Old Testament of those             fingertips of the ministers. No supernatural power
 who occupied special offices in the congregation of         runs like electricity from the outstretched hands of
 Israel blessing the people. In Numbers 6:22-27 we           the minister to the congregation - as seems to be
 read, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,               the position of some Pentecostals during healing
 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On              sessions. God is speaking His word of blessing
 this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying     upon His congregation through the man whom He
 unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The          appointed to speak in His name.
 Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be                    So also it must be remembered that this is an
 gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his                    authoritative Word of God. When the minister pro-
 countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And             nounces the blessing, he is not blessing the con-
 they shall put my name upon the children of Israel;         gregation. Nor is it true that he is merely expressing
 and I will bless them." It is striking in this passage      a pious wish on behalf of the congregation, a desire
 that the Lord tells Moses that when Aaron and his           to see spiritual blessings come to his sheep. He is
 sons pronounce this blessing upon the children of           not expressing his personal longing to see a multi-
 Israel, they are putting the Lords name upon the            plication of spiritual virtues come to the flock. He is
 people; and by putting the Lord's name upon the             emphatically speaking the Word of God. That bene-
 people, God is blessing them. Jacob as a patriarch          diction is an authoritative word. In Gods name,
 blessed his sons before he died and in them the             speaking on God's behalf, in a way as official
 tribes which would come from them (Gen. 49).                minister that makes God Himself speak, the
 Moses pronounced a lengthy blessing upon the                minister pronounces the blessing.
 children of Israel as recorded in Deuteronomy 33.
 This blessing is introduced with the words, "And              It is well to be conscious of this during the wor-
 this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of            ship service. We so often become so accustomed to
 God blessed the children of Israel before his               the worship service that we are scarcely aware of
 death." Solomon, significantly, did the same at the         what is going on. When the minister says, e.g.,
 time of his great prayer when the temple was                "Grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied unto
 dedicated. We read in the first verses of II                you. . . ," this is Gods Word of blessing. This is what
 Chronicles 6, "Then said Solomon, The Lord hath             the text we quoted above means when, in connec-
 said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. But         tion with the so-called Aaronitic blessing, God says,
 I have built an house of habitation for thee, and a         "And they (i.e., Aaron and his sons) shall put my
 place for thy dwelling for ever. And the king turned        name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless
. his face, and blessed the whole congregation of            them." When the minister "puts Gods name" on
 Israel: and all the congregation of Israel stood."          the congregation, God is blessing them. This bless-
    It is a well-known fact that the apostles often          ing is a fact. And the congregation must hear God
 began and ended their letters to the churches with          bless them and appropriate that blessing by faith.
 benedictions. We need not refer to specific texts;          The congregation must say, "Jehovah our God is
 one can find them by consulting the different books         blessing us through Jesus Christ. We believe this
 in Scripture. It must be remembered that these let-         and receive this blessing in humility and
 ters, infallibly inspired, were God's Word through          gratitude."
 the apostles of His church. That so many begin and            Heyns in his book on liturgy makes a comment
 end with benedictions, therefore, is clearly meant          in this connection which strikes us as somewhat
 to lay down the rule for the church of all time that        strange. He claims that the benedictions are Gods


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               393



response to the congregation's confession in the           God Himself. But it is true that God, Who creates
votum (at the beginning of the worship service),           in us by His speech even what we say, responds to
and God's response to the whole worship of the             that by answering us. It is better to emphasize the
congregation (at the end of the worship service). It       fact that God blesses His people as He comes to
is possible, I presume, to understand this properly        them to take up fellowship with them in the wor-
and in the right sense if we always remember what          ship service. And, as they leave God's house, they
we have insisted upon throughout these articles:           leave with the blessing of God ringing in their ears.
All our speech is the fruit of Gods speech; and              We shall have to wait to discuss the content of
never is God's speech the fruit or result of our           the benedictions.
speech. God speaks first, sovereignly and ef-
ficaciously; our speech follows as created in us by

THE LORD GAVE THE WORD



               The AAissionary a Slave to All (2)
                                              prof: Robert D. Decker





  In the previous issue we began an exposition of          Jewish Christians must not misunderstand and be
I Corinthians 9: 19-23. We believe this passage has        led to think that in some sense they were still
much to teach concerrring  the mission task of the         "under the law."
church. Here we learn how the missionary ought to
regard himself, his work, and those to whom he               It ought also be noted that the second main
preaches the gospel. Continuing this exposition we         clause of this explains the first clause. The text,
pay particular attention to verse twenty which             therefore, must be understood as follows: "And I
reads, "And I became to the Jews as a Jew in order         became to the Jews, i.e., to those under the law, as
that I might gain the Jews; to those under the law as      a Jew, i.e., as under the law; though not being
under the law, [though not being myself under the          myself under the law; that I might gain the Jews,
law], `in order that I might gain them that are under      i.e., those under the law."
the law" (translation mine, R.D.D.).                         By "law" the Apostle does not refer to the moral
  It ought to be noted that the clause which ap-           law of the ten commandments. The law of God in
pears in brackets is omitted in the Ring James Ver-        this sense obligates all men to love God with all
sion. We have included it in our translation because       their hearts, minds, souls and to love the neighbor
it has good support in the manuscripts; i.e., the bet-     as themselves. That the Scriptures teach that Christ
ter and more reliable of the manuscripts include it.       is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
To this Charles Hodge adds, "The internal evidence         that believes (cf. Romans 10:4), no one can deny.
is also in its favour. It was important for Paul to say    But this does not mean that the law of God summed
that although acting us under the law, he was not          in the ten commandments is abrogated or abol-
under it; because it was a fundamental principle of        ished. Not at all! The moral law of God never had
the gospel which he preached, that believers are           any meaning or significance apart from Jesus
freed from the law. `We are not under law, but             Christ. In the Old Testament era it pointed Israel to
under grace,' Rom. 6:14. It was necessary, there-          their sin, their inability to serve God, and thus their
fore, that his compliance with the Jewish law              inability to save themselves. The law for the Old
should be recognized as a matter of voluntary con-         Testament saint was the schoolmaster, the tutor,
cession" (Commentary on First Corintkicms,  p. 164).       which led him to Christ in Whom alone he could be
With this we agree. It was necessary for the Apostle       saved! (cf. Galatians 3:24). This same law of God as
to make this disclaimer lest the Gentile Christians        fulfilled in Jesus Christ, Who was delivered on ac-
be left with the wrong impression. Likewise the            count of our offenses and raised again on account


394                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



of our justification (Romans 4:25), is a summary ex-        Even though he was not under the law the Apos-
pression of the will of God for the redeemed in           tle writes, "to the Jews became I as a Jew . . . to
Christ. The law is the standard according to which        those under the law as under the law." What does
the people of God in Christ are called to live in obe-    he mean by this? Before that question be answered
dience to the God of their salvation. As such, that       positively it must be understood what Paul does not
law of God has become the guide for the Christian's       mean. He does not mean that he accommodated
life of thankfulness to God for the salvation             himself to Jewish ritual and practice by compromis-
graciously given him in Christ. Precisely because         ing the principles of the truth of the gospel either in
he is a new creature in Christ, saved by grace            doctrine or in walk of life! This is something the
through faith, the child of God is called to walk in      Apostle never did. This is something no missionary
those good works which God has before ordained            or preacher may do. Consistently and faithfully,
that he should walk in them (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10).       often though it meant great peril, Paul preached the
The standard by which a work is judged to be good         whole counsel of God. He never shrank from that.
is the law of the ten commandments. This law of           The great themes of Paul's preaching and teaching
God remains in force. When the Apostle says,              were always sin and grace. The record of the Book
therefore, "though not being myself under the             of Acts and his Epistles bear abundant testimony to
law," he does not mean that he is free from the           this. He did this in spite of bitter opposition. and
obligation to love God and his neighbor.                  knowing full well that the gospel which he
  By "law" the text refers to the typical civil and       preached was to the unbelieving Jew a stumbling
especially the ceremonial laws under which Israel,        block and to the Greek foolishness. Even though it
the typical Kingdom of God, was governed in the           meant prison, torture, and even death the Apostle
Old Testament era. That law included the `taber-          never compromised the truth. Missionaries must
nacle and later the temple and its service; the proph-    follow this example. A gospel of compromise and
ets, priests, and kings; the many sacrifices; the         accommodation is a false gospel. Nothing is ever
typical feasts (e.g. ,the Passover); and the typical      gained by such a gospel. The gospel must be
rites such as circumcision. Included too were the         preached. That gospel always condemns all that is
laws concerning diet, the distinction between the         of sin and evil. That gospel never comes with a
clean and unclean animals, the latter of which were       "both . . . and," but always with an "either. . . or"
not to be eaten by the Israelite. All of these pointed    - either God or the devil, Christ or Belial, faith or
to Christ, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin         unbelief. That gospel always preaches the name of
of the world. These laws were fulfilled in Christ         Jesus, the only name under heaven given among
Who was once offered to bear the sins of many. The        men whereby we must be saved. The gospel always
types and shadows or pictures of the Old Testa-'          demands faith and repentance. The gospel always
ment are no longer necessary because the reality to       commands all men everywhere to abstain from
which they pointed, viz., Christ, has come and            fleshly lusts which war against the soul. It calls
redeemed the elect in His cross and resurrection.         God's elect in every nation under heaven to come
When Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Pass-         out from among the unbelieving world and be
over feast in the upper room in Jerusalem in the          separate. The gospel proclaims that all that is in the
night of His betrayal it was the last Passover. In its    unbelieving world is the lusts of the flesh, the lusts
place our Lord instituted the Lord's Supper. Why?         of the eye, and the pride of life. It demands, there-
Because Christ, the Lamb without spot and                 fore, that we love not that world (I John 2:15-17).
blemish, to Whom the Passover pointed was slain           The absolute sovereignty of God as revealed in
on the cross the very next day. When Jesus ac-            Jesus Christ and the total depravity of man outside
complished redemption for His people, the veil of         of Christ is the message of the gospel. It brooks no
the temple was torn from top to bottom. Why?              compromise. This was the gospel Paul preached to
Because Christ bad opened the way through His             the Jews. This is the gospel the church through its
shed blood into the holiest of all. Through the           missionaries must preach.
anointing of the Holy Spirit all of Gods people are         Positively, what the Apostle means is that when
prophets speaking God's praises, priests consecra-        he labored and lived among the Jews, he lived as a
ting themselves in God's service, and kings ruling        Jew. In matters indifferent (adiaphora) Paul ob-
over the works of God!s hands. No more sacrifices         served Jewish custom. The Apostle taught in the
need be made because the sacrifice which forever          Jewish synagogues every time he had opportunity.
frees God's people from sin and death has been            He upon occasion went to the temple in Jerusalem.
made. This is what the Apostle means by "law."            He preached Christ crucified out of the Old Testa-
The Jews to whom he preached were "under" that            ment Scriptures. In matters of food and drink, cir-
law, which is to say, they were still observing that      cumcision, etc. Paul lived as a Jew. Though he was
law. The Apostle was no longer "under" that law.          free to eat whatever meat he wished he abstained


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              3 9 5



from eating that which according to Levitical Law                  bidden by the Word of God, they must live as
was unclean. According to Acts 16 Paul had                         Jamaicans or Singaporeans. They must give no un-
Timothy circumcised so as to give no offence to the                 necessary offense.
Jews. On the other hand, because of false brethren                    Paul's purpose in so conducting himself among
who insisted on the necessity of circumcision, Paul                 the Jews was this: "in order that I might gain the
refused to compel Titus to be circumcised. Over                    Jews, i.e., them who are under the law." The verb
this issue he had to "withstand Peter to his face"                  "gain" must be taken in the sense of "save." The
(cf. Galatians 2). To the Jew he became as a Jew                   Apostle desires the salvation of those to whom God
even though he had been made free, from all of                      sends him to preach. He knows only the elect will
those laws by God's grace in Christ Jesus. In this                  be saved and the rest damned. Let that be'because
way the Apostle took great care not to offend the                  he does not corrupt the Word of God (cf. II Corin-
Jews, "his kinsmen according to the flesh." After                   thians 2:1417).                            (to be continued)
this example missionaries must conduct them-
selves. In matters indifferent, in customs not for-

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE



     Old Testament Introduction (concluded)
                                                         Rev. J. Kortering





  The Holy Spirit guided all the events that led to                     employed only consonants. Not a single vowel was  m-
our receiving the inspired record of the Old Testa-                     dicated  till centuries after Moses and a full system of
ment. Even though we do not have any of the                            vocalization was not devised until 600-800 A.D. Think
original manuscripts (some were written as long                         then what the task of the reader and the copyist was!
ago as 1500 B.C.), we do have some copies through                   THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and we have
the Massoretic, text which was drawn from the                         The Old Testament was written in the Hebrew
                                                                    language except for brief passages in Daniel
copies available about the ninth century A.D.                       (2:4-7:28),  Ezra  (4:8-6:18;   7:12-26),  and Jeremiah
  We follow this history given by Merrill Unger in                  (10: 11) which were written in Aramaic. Hebrew
his Introductory Guide to the Old Testament.  He                    belongs to the Semitic group of languages. The dif-
writes on page 116:                                                 ferences between them were determined by their
     The Old Testament being an ancient document,                   location. East Semitic included  Babylonian-
   some parts of which were written as early as the fif-            Assyrian, South Semitic-Arabic, and both North
   teenth century B.C., naturally under went a long proc-           and Northwest Semitic-Aramaic and Hebrew.
   ess of development before  .it attained its present                There is no reference in the Old Testament to the
   form. It is not easy for us moderns, to whom writing is
   such a simple process, to understand this. But writing           Hebrew language itself. We read of the Hebrew
   in the ancient world was far from the simple thing it is         people. Abraham was called, "The Hebrew" in
   now. Not only were writing materials and implements              Genesis  14:13.  His descendants were known as
   woefully inadequate from our modern point of view,               Hebrews (Genesis 40:15 and Exodus 2:ll). Their
   but many baffling difficulties existed of which the an-          language was referred to as, "the language of Ca-
   cients were not even aware. That which to us seems               naan" (Isa.  19:18), and "the Jews' language" (II
   so obvious, the necessity of separating letters into             Kings 18:26,  28 and Nehemiah 13:24).
   words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters for the
   sake of clarity, dawned upon them only gradually                   According to the International Standard Bible En-
   . . . . Imagine then, an ancient text consisting of one          cyclopedia, Hebrew in the earliest period no doubt
   unbroken string of letters and to make matters worse,            resembled the classical Arabic of the seventh and
   only consonants. Ancient Old Testament texts                     following centuries. The variations found between


396                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



the strata of the language occurring in the Old          reading of the Hebrews test and compilers of the
Testament are slight compared with the differences       Jewish tradition (Massora) and transmitted them by
between modern and ancient Arabic. Abraham evi-          writing.
dently spoke an Aramaic dialect while in Mesopo-           God used these Rabbis, for they had deep respect
tamia and then settled in Canaan and adapted to a        for the Holy Scripture as God's Word. Their task
local Canaanite form of language which taken             was carefully defined so as to transmit the exact
together makes the Old Hebrew very close to the          text as handed down and pass it on to the future
Phoenician language.                                     generation. This careful use of existing manuscripts
THE HEBREW TEX.T                                         and precise writing of the correct text produced the
  All during the Old Testament period, copies of         Hebrew Bible as we know it today. During the
the inspired books were available. Some may have         seventh century, vowel signs were added as well as
been individual books, others, especially as time        accent marks for easier reading. Careful instruc-
went on, complete manuscripts of the entire Old          tions were given in how to make their copies. These
Testament canon. Many copies disappeared and             were recorded in manuals or handbooks which
wore out simply because they were so fragile. Some       contained detailed grammatical notes. Soon these
of the oldest copies Amade by Moses were probably        copies followed certain approved and autographed
written on clay tablets, the common form of              copies of certain ones which were considered the
material used during the fourteenth and fifteenth        standard of all the rest. Some of these old copies
centuries before Christ. Later the skins of animals      have survived (we have about 1,700 partial copies
were used and sewn into scrolls of about seventeen       and fragments preserved). The oldest complete
inches wide by a hundred or more feet in length.         manuscript goes back to A.D. 1100. The most
Books of pages were not used until the second or         reliable text was by a Rabbi named Ben  Asher
third century A.D. The most common material              which formed the basis of an edition published by
used for writing was papyrus in the form of rolls        Jacob Ben Chayyim at Venice in 1525-1526. This
usually about ten inches high by about thirty feet       forms the "received text" as it is commonly called
long. By pressing the pith of the papyrus into           today.
layers, sometimes as many as three layers, and us-
ing a pen fashioned from a reed and ink from soot          The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947
or lampblack diluted with water, the writer was          was noteworthy, for in that cave in Qumran near
able to preserve his thoughts in written form. Even      the Dead Sea was found, among other writings, a
then, they usually lasted at most a century or two       complete copy of the prophecy of Isaiah which
and then were worn out or destroyed by aging. A          dated back to about 125 B.C. This became the
Biblical reference to this method of writing is given    oldest copy of any manuscript of a book of the Old
in Jeremiah 36 when Baruch wrote down the words          Testament. Its discovery has not confirmed our
of Jeremiah.                                             faith in the Bible and the reliability of the
                                                         Massoretic text, for true faith in God doesn't re-
  Whatever was available during the Old Testa-           quire such proof. Rather, we rejoice in Gods prov-
ment period soon disappeared. The translation of         idential care for His written Word that we may be
the Old Testament into Greek by the seventy              certain that what we have is in truth the Word of
scholars (The Septuagint) around 350-150 B.C. was        God!
taken from such manuscripts which were avail-
able. Our Lord in all probability did not have           THE HIGHER CRITICS
original manuscripts of the Old Testament Hebrew.          Having set forth in our previous article the sim-
He used the Septuagint .version. All this time there     ple truth that we believe God inspired the authors
were copies of manuscripts hidden away in caves          to write their books, we do not intend to get into a
and preserved by the Rabbis who continued to             long and technical debate with the critics who in-
study them. During the years from the Septuagint         sist that the Old Testament was a composite of dif-
to the Massoretic scholars, the manuscripts under-       ferent documents, e.g., that the Pentateuch had at
went some change. Probably it was divided into           least four authors and Isaiah had two authors. Ac-
verses during this period (also paragraphs),             cording to them the authors also wrote consider-
chapters came much later. Some punctuation               ably later than usually thought. These notions came
marksand editing took place. It was in the seventh       about by a school of thought that rejects the
century A.D. that a revival in Jewish learning took      evidence of the Scripture itself. Beginning already
place in the Palestinian schools. Tiberias, on Lake      in the seventeenth century, through the influence
Galilee, which was built by Herod the Tetrarch,          of a Roman Catholic priest, Richard Simon, a
became the center for a flourishing school of Jewish     gathering of men began to criticize the Bible
scholars. These Rabbis were called Massoretes,           because they considered the historical books as
because they were rigid adherents of the traditional     quotations from public annals. And since the text


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          397



was poorly preserved, one had to judge for himself                    and their theories. Let us rather spend time in dis-
whether it agreed with church doctrine. This kind                     covering God's thought in the Bible. That will pay us
of thinking became fodder for the fire of the "En-                    large dividends. Nevertheless, these critics are hailed
lightenment" which followed. Since human reason                       as the scholars and all who oppose them are derided
became the highest standard of all truth, man had                     as nincompoops whose attitude is thoroughly un-
to judge for himself whether to accept the Bible or                   scientific. Let us then be nincompoops and be proud
not. Out of this movement came forth the well                         of it. Wellhausen himself admitted and even insisted
known Graf-Kuenen-Wellhausen school of Biblical                       that we have to choose between this theory and
                                                                      Christ. Says he, "We must either cast aside as worth-
criticism. It is rationalism applied to the Bible.                    less our dearly bought scientific method, or must for-
  In our course of dealing with the Bible books,                      ever cease to acknowledge the authority of the New
their authors, dates, etc. we will simply state in this               Testament in the domain of exegesis of the Old."
introduction, that we reject this influence of evil                   Quoted from Keunen's book,  Prophets and Prophecy,
upon the understanding of the Bible. We agree with                    page 487.
Rev. G. Ophoff in his introduction to the Old Testa-                 As we take up our study of the Old Testament,
ment,                                                              may the Holy Spirit lay upon our hearts these
                                                                   words, as the Word of God! Rather than setting up
     We are not going to argue with these higher critics.          so-called historical evidence against the contents of
   We are not going to carefully weigh their arguments
   and refute them. In the first place there is no time for        the Old Testament, we will read the Old Testament
   that in  this course. Secondly, it is a sheer waste of          for its historical and spiritual truth. Through the
   time. We know before hand that they can have no                 events in the lives of the patriarchs and the nation
   argument. It would be interesting to examine their              of Israel, God speaks to us the gospel, the good
   arguments just to see how true it is that they have no          news of our salvation in Jesus Christ. In Christ both
   argument. Their eyes are so completely blinded by              Jew and Gentile are one, both being the true
   their theory that they cannot  even see to read. Life is        children of Abraham by faith.
   too short to waste even one moment on these people

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS



                                      The Baptism Form
                                                       Rev. James Slopsema





         Understanding The. Sacraments                            portance at all. According to some the church
   Baptism is one of the two sacraments Christ has                receives no blessing at all from the sacraments. The
instituted in the Christian church.                               sacraments are not means of grace but mere
                                                                  memorials ordained in the church to remind us of
  There are many erroneous views that have arisen                 the great work of salvation in Jesus Christ. Conse-
concerning the sacraments.                                        quently you find among some that the sacrament of
  There are those, for example, who claim that the                baptism is no longer administered or is optional.
sacraments themselves work salvation. The water                   Then again there are others who in their zeal to em-
of baptism itself has the power to wash away sin.                 phasize the primacy of the preaching have  de-
The bread and wine of the Lord's Supper them-                     emphasized the sacraments to the point that they
selves nourish the soul to life eternal. Those who                are of little significance for the church. We definite-
hold these views also elevate the sacraments, par-                ly need the preaching; but we could almost do
ticularly the Lords Supper, to the place of promi-                without the sacraments.
nence in worship, even above the preaching.                          Before we discuss the baptism form as such it
  Then there are those who go to the other ex-                    would be well for us to come to a clear understand-
treme, attributing to the sacraments little if any im-            ing of the sacraments. Certain questions ought to be


398                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



answered, such as: what are the sacraments? how                    authority with which he has been vested. The flag
are they related to the preaching? what do the                     of our country is a sign of our country and all for
sacraments accomplish? how are the sacraments                      which it stands. In like manner the sacraments are
important? These questions we will seek to answer                  signs. They are signs which depict for us in visible
in this article.                                                   form the great work of Gods salvation in Jesus
  For a definition of the sacraments we turn to our                Christ. Baptism symbolizes the work of God to
Heidelberg Catechism.                                              wash away our sins in the blood of Christ. In the
                                                                   Lord's Supper the work of God to nourish our souls
          Q. 66. What are the sacraments?                          to eternal life with the body and blood of Christ is
          A. The sacraments are holy visible signs and seals,      symbolized.
       appointed of God for this end, that by the use thereof,
       he may the more fully declare and seal to us the prom-        But the sacraments are more than signs. They are
       ise of the gospel, viz., that he grants us freely the       also seals.
       remission of sin, and life eternal, for the sake of that      A seal is a pledge or a guarantee. In Bible times
       one sacrifice of Christ, accomplished on the cross.         the king's seal was affixed to all official documents
  Notice that in this definition the Heidelberg Cate-              that came from the king. This seal consisted of wax
chism speaks of the "promise of the gospel." This                  imprinted with the king's signet or ring. This seal
expression indicates that the gospel or good news of               was the guarantee that this particular document
God is essentially a promise. According to the Cate-               was from the king and that the king stood behind it
chism this promise God makes in the gospel is                      ready to enforce any proclamation the document
"that he grants us freely the remission of sin, and                contained.
life eternal, for the sake of that one sacrifice of
Christ, accomplished on the cross." Now if we bear                   In like manner the sacraments are seals. They
in mind that whenever the Catechism speaks of                      are guarantees and pledges that God makes to His
"us" or "me" it speaks of us or me the believer,                   people. Through the sacraments God pledges to
then we may summarize the Catechism by saying                      give to His people the salvation He has depicted for
that in the gospel God promises full and free salva-               them in the sacraments. Thus, through baptism
tion in Jesus Christ to all and every believer.                    God pledges to wash away the sins of His people.
                                                                   Through the Lord's Supper God pledges to nourish
  This great gospel of salvation is what forms the                 the souls of His people with the crucified body and
content of all true preaching. In the same Lords                   shed blood of Christ. The sacraments are Gods
Day in which the Catechism speaks of the sacra-                    guarantees of this.
ments, the Catechism also speaks of the preaching
of the gospel (cf. LD 25, Q&A 65). It is through the                 In our day it is well to emphasize that the sacra-
preaching of the gospel, we are taught, that the                   ments seal or guarantee salvation only to the
Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts. The expres-                 b e l i e v e r .
sion "preaching of the gospel" indicates that the                    It is widely held in Reformed circles that the
gospel of salvation forms the proper content of all                sacraments guarantee salvation to all who partake
preaching. The preaching is not the proclamation of                of them. This is applied especially to the sacrament
the word and .will of man. It is the proclamation of               of baptism. We are told that through baptism God
the gospel of salvation recorded in Holy Writ.                     guarantees or promises the washing away of sins to
                                                                   all children of believing parents. However, not all
  Of this great gospel the sacraments are signs and                who receive the guarantee of salvation in baptism
seals.                                                             receive that salvation. This is because the guai-an-
  There is therefore a very definite connection be-                tee is conditional. There is so to speak a string at-
tween the sacraments and the preaching. And the                    tached. The condition that must be met is faith.
connection is this: what is proclaimed in the                      God will grant the salvation pledged in baptism
preaching is signified and sealed in the sacraments.               only on condition that the child later on believes in
The same gospel proclaimed in the preaching to the                 Jesus Christ. And so it is that many receive in bap-
ear is in the sacraments presented visibly to the eye              tism' a guarantee or promise of salvation that is
of Gods people and placed within the reach of                      never realized. This view of baptism and the sacra-
their taste, smell, and touch. The preaching and                   ment is to be condemned. Among other things it
sacraments are inseparably connected.                              leads us into the murky waters of Arminianism, as
  According to the Catechism's definition the                      does all conditional theology.
sacraments are first of all signs. A sign is very simp-              Over against this it must be emphasized that the
ly a picture. It is something visible that represents              sacraments seal salvation only to the believer. Both
what is invisible to us. Thus, for example, the                    believer and unbeliever may receive the sacra-
badge of the police officer is a visible sign of the               ments. But the sacraments serve as a guarantee of


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    399



salvation only to the believer.                                   strengthen our faith in a way that the preaching can
   This certainly is in harmony with the Heidelberg               not and does not.
Catechism. The Catechism in Q & A 66, which we                      The Catechism teaches that it is through the
quoted earlier, definitely limits the promise of the              preaching that the Holy Spirit works faith. This is
gospel to the believer. According to the Catechism                unique to the preaching. The sacraments do not
the promise of the gospel is "that he grants KS freely            work faith as does the preaching. The sacraments
the remission of sins, and life eternal . . . ." This us,         presuppose faith and merely strengthen that faith.
we have seen, is the believer. The promise of the                 The preaching alone works faith. However, the
gospel is not a general promise to all, but a parti-              preaching also strengthens faith. The preaching
cular promise to the believer. Quite in harmony                   does two things therefore. It works faith and
with this the Catechism in this same Q & A also                   strengthens  ic whereas the sacraments only
teaches that through the sacraments God "more                     strengthen faith. For that reason the sacraments are
fully declares and seals to US (again the believer) the           often called the secondary means of grace.
promise of the gospel."                                             However, the sacraments strengthen faith in a
  This is important to understand and maintain. It                way that the preaching can not. This is suggested
does little to comfort, encourage, or strengthen our              by the Catechism in Q & A 66 when it teaches that
faith to know that through the sacraments God                     through the sacraments God "more fully declares
pledges salvation to many who never receive that                  and seals to us the promise of the gospel." The idea
salvation. The pledge or guarantee of God in the                  here is that through the preaching God declares to
sacraments is then rather empty and hollow.                       us the promise of the gospel, but that He more fully
However, it is altogether different if the guarantee              declares to us this gospel through the sacraments.
of salvation made in the sacraments is sure in every              How is this so? This is true because through the
instance, if everyone who is guaranteed salvation                 preaching the gospel is proclaimed verbally to us
receives that salvation. That's a guarantee we can                and brought to our ear. However, through the
lay hold of, that can comfort and strengthen our                  sacraments this same gospel is brought to us in visi-
faith. And that's the kind of guarantee we have in                ble,form~ so that we can see it, taste it, touch and
the sacraments once we understand that through                    handle it. In this way the great gospel of salvation.is
the sacraments God guarantees salvation not to all                brought to us more forcibly than just by the preach-
but only to the believer, who as a believer will cer-             ing. If, for example, someone describes to you a
tainly receive that salvation.                                    foreign land he has visited, you certainly are able to
  We are now ready to understand what the sacra-                  come to some understanding of what that land is
ments accomplish and how they are important.                      like. However, if he shows you pictures he has
                                                                  taken on his trip, your understanding is much bet-
  In light of all we have discussed it is quite ob-               ter and clearer. Better yet will be ypur understand-
vious that the sacraments themselves do not save.                 ing if various articles from this distant land are
Contrary to the teachings of some, the water of bap-              available to touch and handle. In like manner must
tism itself does not wash away sins. Neither do the               we understand the sacraments in relation to the
bread and wine of the Lord's Supper nourish the              preaching. When the great gospel of salvation pro-
soul to eternal life. It is .the blood of Christ alone            claimed in the preaching is set before us visibly in
that washes away sin. And it is Christ alone as the               the sacraments so that we can see, taste, and touch,
Bread of Life that nourishes our souls to life eternal.           then the gospel is declared to us in a way that the
The sacraments are but signs and seals of these                   preaching alone can not present it. And for that
spiritual realities.                                              reason the sacraments are also able to strengthen
  However, the sacraments do accomplish some-                     our faith in a way that the preaching alone can not
thing very important. For they strengthen our faith.              and does not.
This we are taught in the Heidelberg Catechism, Q                   We must not therefore conclude that the sacra-
& A 65. There we read that faith comes from "the                  ments are of little importance, simply .duplicating
Holy Ghost, who works faith in our hearts by the                  what the preaching already does. No, the sacra-
preaching of the gospel, and confirms it by the use               ments are added to the preaching to accomplish
of the sacraments." The sacraments confirm or                     what the preaching alone can not do. They
strengthen our faith. They do that exactly because                strengthen our faith above and beyond what the
they are seals, guaranteeing our salvation. The faith             preaching can.`Our faith, our spiritual life, our en-
of Gods people is definitely strengthened when                    joyment of Gods salvation are much enriched
through the sacraments God guarantees them full                   through the sacraments.
and free salvation in Jesus Christ.
  Finally, we must see that the sacraments                   1       Read & Study The Standard Bearer!                       .I


400                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



GU'DED INTO ALL TRUTH


                           "The Illumination of the
                               Spirit in the Church"
                                              Rev. Thomas Miersma





  The Word of God is clear and understandable to               spirits, it decrees, that no one, relying on his
the believing child of God. This is the position of            own skill, shall - in matters of faith, and of
the Reformation. Over against Rome, which set                 morals pertaining to the edification of Chris-
aside Scripture's sole authority and clarity in order         tian doctrine, - wresting the sacred Scrip-
to teach the doctrines of men, the Reformers ex-              ture to his own senses, presume to interpret
alted the Word of God to its proper place as the all-         the said sacred Scripture contrary to that
sufficient rule of faith and life. This objective prin-        sense which holy mother Church, - whose
ciple of truth was the guiding principle of the               it is to judge of the true sense and interpre-
church's reformation. It does not stand by itself,            tation of the holy Scriptures, - hath held
however; the Word of God must be spiritually ap-               and doth hold; or even contrary to the
propriated and its meaning understood. And this is             unanimous consent of the Fathers; even
a matter of the inner principle of understanding              though such interpretations were never (in-
and interpretation.                                            tended) to be at any time published. Con-
  On this point also, as we have already indicated,            traveners shall be made known by their Or-
Rome and the Reformers disagreed. Rome limited                 dinaries, and be punished with the penalties
the right and ability to understand and interpret             by law established.
Gods Word to the hierarchy of the church. This             In the light of this position Rome charged the Re-
they did in a particular way. Rome took the posi-          formers with schism and error and persecuted the
tion that the Spirit of truth was not given to all         Reformation with fire and sword.
believers, but only to the special priesthood of the         It is to the answer of the Reformers that we must
church. The ordinary members of the church were            now direct our attention in our study. Before we
bound to receive the authoritative pronouncements          focus upon the teaching of the Reformers in detail,
of the church's hierarchy, councils, and papacy, as        however, it might be well to set before our minds
the authoritative declaration of the truth of God's        the broad scope of their teaching.
Word. The believers might not search or study the            The Reformers took the position that it was the
Scriptures for themselves to interpret or expound          Spirit alone Who illumined the heart and mind of
them, for no one had .the right to disagree with the       man to understand God's Word. Not the church
church's interpretation or to teach anything con-          therefore, but God Himself, Who gave His Word of
trary to it. By so doing Rome sought to impose from        truth, is the expounder and interpreter of His Own
above the opinions of men and to compel the con-           Word. Scripture interprets Scripture. This is the
sciences of men, demanding blind acceptance and            principle of all Reformed exegesis. Truth therefore
obedience. The will of the majority, the opinions of       is not a matter of opinion, but under the leading of
councils and decrees, the vanity of men, were set          the Spirit, a matter of certainty, for God's Word of
above the truth of God's Word.                             truth is clear and certain in its meaning. It is objec-
  Rome's opinion is clearly expressed in the               tively and concretely knowable in itself, and the
decrees of the Council of Trent, 1546, which is            Spirit given to the church, consisting of all
Rome's answer to the Reformation. In the fourth            believers, leads the believer to know and under-
session we read the following:                             stand that Word of God for Himself. That work and
       Furthermore, in o'rder to restrain petulant         operation of the Spirit is not limited to one person


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  401



or group within that church, but is given to every            II Peter 2.
believer, who is anointed with the Spirit to under-              The Samaritan woman was clever enough
stand God's Word for himself. Denying the restric-            to say to Christ (John 4): "I know that
tion of the priesthood to the clergy of the church,           Messias cometh, which is called Christ:
the Reformers taught the principle of a priesthood            when he cometh, he will tell us all things."
of believers, all anointed by the Spirit to know and          And our theologians have not yet learned
understand God's Word. This principle is em-                  that lesson. Ask them if they understand the
bodied in Lord's Day XII of the Heidelberg Cate-              words: Christ is  caput  ecclesiae,   that is,
chism which speaks of the anointing of Christ and             Christ is head of the congregation or church
the believers' partaking of it. Thus, the Word of             which is his body. They will answer: Yes,
God set forth in Scripture and addressed to the               they understand them very well, but they
heart of the believer by His Spirit makes that Word           may not do so apart from the official pro-
spiritually clear and understandable.                         nouncements of men. What poor creatures!
  Thus Zwingli writes in his sermon on the clarity            Rather than allow themselves to be van-
of the Word,                                                  quished by the truth, they deny that they
    When the' Word of God shines on the                       are men, as if they had no ordinary intelli-
    human understanding, it enlightens it in                  gence and did not know the meaning of
    such a way that it understands and con-                   caput. And all that in order to subject the
    fesses the Word and knows the certainty of                truth to the Caiaphas's and Annas's, its of-
   it. This was the inner experience of David,                ficial interpreters. It is not of the slightest
   and he spoke of it in Psalm 119: "The en-                  account to them that Christ Himself said
   trance of thy words, 0 Lord, giveth light; it              (John 6): "They shall all be taught of God,"
   giveth understanding unto the simple, . . ."               in the words of Isaiah 54. But if all Chris-
    (Zwingli and Bullinger, tr. G.W. Bromley,                 tians are taught of God, why can you not
   Library of Christian Classics, Volume XXIV,                leave them the certainty and freedom of
   The Westminster Press 1953, p. 75)                         that teaching according to the understand-
                                                              ing which God himself has imparted? And
  In this is embodied the right of the believer to            that God himself is the teacher of the hearts
study the Word of God for himself, to know it. This           of believers we learn from Christ in the
is a right which is guaranteed to the least of all            words immediately following, when he says
believers in the church. The conclusions of faithful          (John 6): "Every man that hath heard, and
Bible study by believers are not the opinions of              hath learned of the Father, cometh unto
men, but are knowledge given by God Who is the                me." None can come to the Lord Jesus
Teacher of truth. Such Bible study requires an atti-          Christ except he has learned to know him of
tude of spiritual submission to the Word of God, in           the Father. And note who the teacher is: not
which we come to it to hear what God has to say to
us, for it is a matter of the Spirit's illumination and       doctores, not patres, not pope, not cathedra,
                                                              nor concilia, but the Father of Jesus Christ.
not men's wisdom. This principle necessarily                  And you cannot say, we are taught of men
stands in opposition to the idea of Rome which                as well. No, for just before he says: "No
would exalt the wisdolm of men above the Word of              man can come to me, except my heavenly
God, and which would manufacture out of the                   Father draw him." Even if you hear the
papacy and its pronouncements a new head for the              gospel of Jesus Christ from an apostle, you
church other than Christ.                                     cannot act upon it unless the heavenly
  Zwingli writes in his sermon on the clarity of              Father teach and draw you by the Spirit.
Gods Word,                                                    The words are clear; enlightenment, in-
   Away then with that light of your own                      struction and assurance are by divine
   which you would give to the Word of God                    teaching without any intervention on the
    with your interpreters. In John 3, John the               part of that which is human. And if they are
    Baptist says: "A lman can receive nothing                 taught of God, they are well taught, with
    except it be given him from above." If we                 clarity and conviction: if they had first to be
    are to receive and understand anything it                 taught and assured by men, we should have
    must come from above. But if that is so,                  to describe them as taught of men rather
    then no other man can attain it for us. The               than of God. (Ibid. pp. 79-80.)
    comprehension and understanding of                       This principle of the spiritual illumination of the
    divine doctrine comes then from above and              believer to know and understand the truth of God's
    not from interpreters, who are just as liable          Word is fundamental. It is the inner principle and
    to be led into temptation as Balaam was. See           subjective foundation upon which the study of


402                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



Scripture is possible. By it, the Word of God is clear     only a select few, neither to the clergy, nor to a
not only in itself, objectively, but also to the           special priesthood, nor to so-called scholars.
believer. And he, being taught from above, may               Do not misunderstand the Reformers however,
know and understand it aright.                             concerning this illuminating work of the Spirit in
  On the basis of this truth our creeds call us to         the office of believer. In teaching this, Zwingli and
discern out of the Word of God for ourselves the           the other Reformers were not opening the door to
marks of the true church; we have both the right           chaos and confusion in the church. Nor were the
and calling to do so. For the same reason we have          Reformers sanctioning a spirit either of lawlessness
embodied in our whole system of church govern-             or individualism. This was the error of the Anabap-
ment the right to correct the church when it errs,         tists which the Reformers also soundly condemned.
by bringing matters to its attention in the way of         The illuminating work of the Spirit belongs to the
protest and appeal. Likewise, we do not set the            believer as he stands in organic connection with the
creeds above Scripture but under it, giving the            church, in the communion of the body of Christ,
believer the right also to bring to the church's atten-    manifested in the church institute. The union of the
tion by way of gravamen, errors in the creeds. This        church to Christ and of the believer to Christ are
right of believers to study and search God's Word,         the same union, by faith, through the Spirit. The
to know and understand it, is fundamental and              church's anointing and the believer's are one and
sacred. The Spirit is given us to illumine us that we      the same and may not be separated. But that il-
might know Gods Word, believe the truth, and               luminating work of the Spirit extends to the whole
discern the truth from the lie. As God Himself gives       church and every believer and is not limited, as
His Word of truth, so also it is His work by which         Rome would have it, to just a holy few.
we understand that Word and that is not limited to

IN HIS FEA.R



                                      God Is Love (II)
                                                Rev. Ronald Hanko




  In forbidding murder, the Siih Commandment               murder, are forbidden. They are forbidden not only
gives us a lesson in love and its duties. As with all      because love is of God, but also because God is love
the Commandments, the negative prohibition of              (I Jn. 3:15, 4:7, 8, 20, 21).
the Sixth Commandment implies a positive require-
ment. And in the case of the Sixth Commandment,              That the ungodly. neither know nor understand
that positive requirement is the same as the basic         the love of God is evident from their widespread
demand of the whole second table of the Law, that          and perverse disobedience toward this Command-
we love our neighbor for God's sake. This Sixth            ment. Not only do they practice murder wholesale,
Commandment, however, requires the highest                 through abortion and other forms of birth-preven-
possible expression of that love when it demands           tion, but they preserve the lives of those whom God
that we preserve the life of our neighbor and seek         commands them to kill, the murderer and the
his well-being.                                            blasphemer, all the while piously speaking of love,
                                                           even of the love of God.
  We.must show this love for our neighbor because
God Himself is love. Through obedience to the                We must understand, of course, that the Sixth
Sixth Commandment we have the God-given op-                Commandment does not forbid killing, but murder.
portunity to praise Him as a God of love in deed as        Killing in itself is not wrong, though the right to kill
well as in word. This, as we have seen, is the             others does not belong to any private citizen, but to
teaching of God's Word in the first Epistle of John.       the magistrates and rulers; and even their right is
There both murder and hatred, the deepest cause of         closely bound by the Word of God which gives


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              403



them their positions of authority. Rulers have the       We cannot in good conscience abhor abortion,
power to kill, first of all, in executing the demands    while we ourselves freely participate in other forms
of justice. In fact, they have the express command       of violence, or enjoy the murder and mayhem that
to kill every murderer (Gen. 9:5, 6, Num. 35:31,         is fed to us via the television set and radio.
Rom. 13:4). They also have the power to kill in wag-       As far as others are concerned, the Command-
ing war, This power is often abused by ungodly           ment forbids not- only .murder, but also all violence
rulers, but the power itself is given by the Word of     against our neighbor, including all thoughts and
God, which never condemns war in itself as evil          words with which we might dishonor, hurt, or kill
(Num. 31:2, Luke 3:14).                                  him. The tongue especially is an instrument of
   The world professes a great horror of war and         murder. Solomon says that the words of  tale-
killing today, to the extent that in most cases they     bearers are as wounds (Prov.  26:22), and Jesus
`will not put even the worst murderer to death; but      reminds us that the first murder was not in deed
this is not out of any desire to keep God's law, nor     but in word when our first parents were murdered
even out of natural affection, but a matter of con-      by Satan's lies and slander (Jn. 8:44). Too often this
venience at best, and at worst a symptom of their        is also the case in the church, so that the whole
continued rebellion against God and their refusal to     church is filled with whisperings and gossip, back-
do anything God says. Their hypocrisy is revealed        biting and slander, until the communion and life of
in the practice of abortion. Herod's murders and         the church is destroyed. For the safety of the
the bloody deeds of other great tyrants pale into in-    church and the glory of God we must put away
significance when compared with the slaughter            these works of the flesh.
that is legally practiced in our country today.            The opposite is also true. Not only must these
  The Sixth Commandment, therefore, is designed          sins against the Sixth Commandment be rooted out
especially for the people of God - those in whose        of our lives through constant watchfulness and
heart the love of God has been shed abroad through       prayer, but we must "put on charity," and walk in
Jesus Christ. Only by that great work of grace by        love as God for Christ's sake has loved us (Col. 3: 14,
which God reveals the power and glory of His own         Eph. 5:2). That is the positive requirement of the
love to them are they able to understand love and        Sixth Commandment.
know what the Sixth Commandment forbids and                In the church, among the saints, that, love is the
reqrires as far as loving the neighbor for God's sake    bond of perfectness of which we read in Colossians
is concerned. This Commandment is given to them          3:14. It is the glue which binds the people of God
that they may show their love for Him Who first          together and makes them one, just as it binds the
loved them.                                              three Persons of the Holy Trinity together in the
  As we know, the Sixth Commandment speaks               unity of the Godhead (Jn. 17:23). That love is the
only of murder, but outright murder is not the only      bond of perfectness because it is the perfect work
sin forbidden. Murder is only the worst form of sin      of God's grace in the saints that draws them to-
against the Commandment, and in forbidding               gether in love, just as Gods own perfection is that
murder God also forbids all other ways in which          which He loves and seeks in Himself, thus living in
we might dishonor, wound, or kill ourselves or our       perfect unity as the three-Personed God  (Jn.
neighbors. This is clear from Christ's sermon in         17:21-23).
Matthew 5 (vss. 21, 22), where anger, rash and             We must learn, therefore, to look for that work of       .
hurtful words, and hatred are all counted as             grace in one another. That is the first duty of love.
murder (cf. I Jn. 3:15).                                 We so often fall down in all the other duties of love
  As far as our own lives are concerned, then, the       exactly because we see only the faults of our
Commandment not only forbids self-murder or              brethren and are blind to God's work in them. All
suicide, but forbids us to abuse our bodies, to ex-      the other duties of love are part of a constant effort
pose ourselves wilfully to danger, or even to neglect    to encourage and ,build up that work of God's grace
the proper care of our bodies. We must not only          in them. This we do "by kindly words and virtuous
love our neighbor but we must also love ourselves,       l i f e . "
and care for our lives as gifts from God, and for our      In love we do not ignore the sins of a brother.
bodies as temples of His Spirit (I Cor. 6:19, 20).       Love cannot ignore sin because it is the bond of
Drunkenness, gluttony, drug abuse, and all kinds         perfectness. But in love we deal with the erring
of dangerous sports and amusements must there-           brother as a fellow heir of God's grace. We do not
fore be condemned and shunned by us. Nor may             use his faults and sins to murder him in the church
we be hypocrites in condemning these sins. We            as far as his name and reputation are concerned,
must be just as qtick to condemn our own gluttony        nor wound him by tale-bearing and gossip, but seek
as we are to condemn another man's drunkenness.          his salvation in the way of love which Jesus teaches


404                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



us in Matthew 18. Even if, in the way of Matthew             love of God.
18, a brother must finally be excommunicated from              Nevertheless, though our duties are first toward
the fellowship of the church, the Word of God still          family and church, the Sixth Commandment also
requires that we do not count him as an enemy, but           governs our relationship to our unbelieving neigh-
that we admonish him as a brother (II Thess. 3:15).          bor. Once again it must be emphasized, however,
     Nor may we ever forget that that love of the            that even here my neighbor is not some needy per-
neighbor which the Sixth Commandment requires                son in another country to whom I send gifts of food
is first of all a love for the brethren. It must be that     or clothing through some social or church agency,
way, because only with them can love be a bond of            but the man whose life is intertwined with mine.
perfectness. They only have that perfect work of             That is the point of the parable of the good Samari-
Gods almighty grace, and only with them can we               tan (Luke  10:25-37).  In answer to the question,
be one. It is wrong that the officebearers-and mem-          "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus makes it clear. that
bers of the church attempt to fulfill the demands of         the man who lies weak, wounded, and needy
love through all sorts of social endeavors, to the           across my life's pathway is my neighbor. He may
complete neglect of their own members. It was for            be and often is one who calls me a dog, who hates
such conduct that Jesus condemned the Pharisees,             me and refuses to have anything to do with me, just
who compassed heaven and earth to make one pros-             as the Jews treated the Samaritans, but he is never-
elyte, while their own people wandered as sheep              theless my neighbor.
without shepherds (Matt. 23:15, 9:36).                         My love for him can never be a bond of perfect-
     My neighbor is always the man whose life is part        ness, unless he repents and turns from his wicked
of my life. That neighbor is not even first of all my        ways, and in that measure my love for him is also
fellow saints in the church, but the wife and                incomplete and unfulfilled. Nevertheless, I must
children or parents and husband that God has                 love him, and the great duty of that love is that I
given me. To speak with honeyed tongue in the                show him the love of God, not just by the confes-
church and walk softly among the saints while my             sion of my mouth, but by the witness of my whole
home is filled with violence and wounding words is           life. Thereby I show to him the power of God's love
also hypocrisy and sin. The closer my neighbor is to         in me. In doing so, I can neither disregard his sin
me, the more difficult the duties of love become. It         nor walk with him in his sin. Yet by kindness,
is not so difficult to perform the duties of love to         charity, timely assistance in  need' (I John  3:17,
those who are relative strangers. That is why so             James 2:15, 16), as well as by separation from his
many forsake their duties in the church and in the           wicked ways I bring to him the very means that
home for various social causes. To love my brother           God promises to use for the salvation of his people
in the church, who so often sins against me, to love         - the witness of a godly life. Love can do no more.
the wife who often is intractable and rebellious, or           In these things the children of God are mani-
the husband who seeks only himself, to love and              fested (I Jn. 3:10), and in this they know that they
refrain from murdering in thought or word the dis-           have passed from death into life by the power of
obedient and rebellious children God has given me
-                                                            the love of God (3:14). Thus God, Who is Love, is
     that is the difficult part of obedience to the Sixth    glorified, and the wonders of His love revealed
Commandment. That is the part of obedience                   through Jesus Christ are magnified and exalted.
which truly shows the power and wonder of the


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                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                             405



QUESTION BOX



                  Bibles in the Worship Services
                                                  Rev. C. Hanko



A reader asks:                                             tant to mar their book in any way, but they did
   It is being proposed in the church to which I           have a ribbon or a small card at certain passages
belong to give all our Bibles away. The argument is:       which they wished to remember. In the transition
People should bring their own Bibles to church,            from the Dutch language to the English many car-
then they can underline and make notes in their            ried with them a New Testament with parallel col-
own Bible in the service.                                  umns of the Dutch and the English. Again, too bad
  Do any of the churches in the Prot. Ref. denomin-        that this was limited only to the New Testament,
ation have this custom of bringing their own Bibles,       but that was done likely for the same reason men-
with no Bible in the church pews?                          tioned before.
  Is this desirable?                                         I have seen Bibles that were underscored and
                                                           had marginal references.
  First of all, my apologies for not having answered
this question sooner. For various reasons, one that I        One of them was owned by a girl of Baptist per-
was away from home for four months, second that I          suasion, and was very neatly underscored, with
do not like to enter into problems being discussed         references written in fine letters in the margins.
in a local church, I did not give an answer until          The underscoring must have been done with a fine
now.                                                       pencil and a small ruler. I can see where this can
                                                           well be done in a catechism class with the Bible ly-
  Whether there are other churches that follow the         ing on the table. One thing struck my attention.
practice of members taking their own Bibles to             There were so very many passages underscored,
church, I do not know of any in our denomination,          and so many references in the margins, that I
but that does not mean that there are none.                wondered how anyone could keep track of all of
  As to the general question of the propriety of this      them? I also wonder whether all these references
practice, something can be said for both sides of the      will interfere with the private reading of the Scrip-
question. It is really a matter of preference, since I     tures for personal, spiritual edification.
see no principle involved in this matter. Therefore I        Another Bible was marked with pencils of
can make a few general remarks. Possibly Prof.             various colors, crudely underscored and carelessly
Hanko will say more about this in his articles on          scribbled, sometimes with large letters, making
worship services.                                          the notes almost illegible. In one word, it was a
  To me the main question is this: What can serve          very messy Bible, which I would not care to own,
best for the solernr&y of the worship service and          much less to take in public. Markings, like friends,
for the edification of the saints through the preach-      should be few and well chosen. Besides, they
ing of the Word?                                           should be done with utmost care.
  Years ago, when our services were still held in            In this connection I might mention that there are
the Dutch language, it was a common practice for           some who feel that they are benefited by taking
the members to take their own Psalmbooks to                notes of the sermon. They say that hereby they can
church. Small children received Psalmbooks as in-          give their full attention to the message, are
centive to learn their Uexts for Sunday School. The        spiritually edified in a greater measure, and can re-
older people usually had the New Testament in-             tain the contents of the sermon much longer. All
cluded in their Psalmbook, as well as the psalms           this seems to be a matter of personal preference.
and the liturgical forms. I certainly do not favor car-      In any case, we should not lose sight of the fact
rying around less than half of a Bible, but this was       that the worship services must remain a solemn
likely done to avoid making the Psalmbook too              worship in the commumon of saints!
large and too bulky. My parents were very reluc-


406                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



                                       Book Review

BORN SLAVES,  Clifford Pond; Presbyterian and            To this we also must give a resolute `No! Man is
Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, N.J.; 93          born a slave to sin!' He is not free."
pp., $3.50 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H.C.                 As a rule I do not favor books which are only
Hoeksema)                                                summaries of larger classics. It is much better to
  This little book offers a summary of Martin            read and digest the larger classic itself. Along this
Luther's classic work, The Bondage of the Will. In a     line, this book has its shortcomings, too. For one
brief preface about "The question" the author, or        thing, it is obviously a severe condensation of
compiler, of this work tells us the gist of the book:    Luther's large tome. For another, it does not follow
"The question is-does man have something called          the same order as the original work of Luther. But
`free-will? Can a man freely and without help            the author-compiler does not hide, but rather ad-
turn to Christ for salvation from his sins? Erasmus      mits, these facts.
answers: `Yes!' Luther says a resounding: `no!'             Hence, if this small volume will give the reader a
Luther was convinced that `free-will' strikes at the     taste of Luther's work and thus an incentive to
heart of the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace     digest the original work of Luther, it can serve a
alone, through faith alone. We must have the same        good purpose. Besides, in spite of the shortcomings
conviction. We must fight against `free-will as          mentioned, the book is both interesting and ac-
vigorously as Luther did. Erasmus said: `I can con-      curate: a good taste of Luther.
ceive of "free-will" as a power of human will by
which a man may apply himself to those things that          Recommended.
lead to eternal salvation or turn away from them.'



                        News From Our Churches
                                                 May 15,1985



  Rev. Joostens has asked for a two-week extension       are testing out the use of our own catechism books.
to consider the call to be pastor of Lynden Church       If this seems to go well enough we may start using
in Washington. Rev. Dale Kuiper has received the         these books in all the churches. We have also
call to be minister at Isabel Church in South            planned for this coming July a Youth Conference
Dakota. Rev. M. De Vries has accepted the call to        on the subject of "Friendship, Dating, and Mar-
Edgerton, Minnesota.                                     riage. ' '
  Rev. Bruinsma writes that a few aspects of the
work which need much time and labor are the need            He closes with, "There is much work to be done
to begin a consistent and solid program to teach the     in our churches here before they are solid enough
young children the Bible and the truths of our Prot-     to stand on their own. Let us pray that God will
estant Reformed Churches. Hand in hand with this         strengthen His people and the churches here in
is the difficulty of maintaining the interest of the     order that in the future they can stand on their own
youth, especially young men. It seems that a sin en-     by God's grace."
grained in the very culture is that church is a             The construction of First Church's sanctuary is
necessity for small children as well as for old men      going well. The heating, plumbing, and electrical
and women. But for a young man to attend church          sub-contractors are busy roughing in their respec-
is to them a shame and a sign of weakness.               tive work. The brick-layers are also progressing on
  In another paragraph he writes, God is a God of        the exterior of the building. More room has been
means and He uses His Word and the preaching to          provided for the kitchen counters. They are waiting
change the hearts of His people from darkness to         for design proposals for the rose window from the
light. For this reason we are beginning to set up a      Rainbow Art Glass Company. The cornerstone con-
catechism program in the churches. At present we         tents have been removed from the old building.


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               407



The contents which were stored in a copper box                               The Reformed Fellowship of South Holland
consisted of decisions relative to the church strug-                       Church in Illinois heard a speech by Rev. Engelsma
gles of 1924. The laying of the cornerstone for the                        on "A Comparison of the Presbyterian and the
new church building is planned for Saturday, June                         ~ Reformed Faith."
1, at 10:00 AM.                                                              Prof. H.C. Hoeksema spoke to the high school
   The Singapore Camp-Day is planned fbr June 14                           and college age young people of Faith Church on
&, 15. The first night Rev. den Hartog will speak on                       our Seminary and the need for students.
"The Reformed Faith In Singapore." On the follow-                            The Young People's Convention will be from
ing morning, Francis Quek will speak on the                                July 29 to August 2 at Grand Valley College in
"Christian Witness" and Jackie Mahtani on "Sing-                           Allendale, Michigan.
apore Prayer Meetings." Then, in the afternoon,
Lim Kokeng will  direct a "Cell Meeting." This                               The Summer mini-course for our teachers will be
camp-day is sponsored by the .combined efforts of                          held at the Crossroads Restaurant in Grandville,
the Byron Center, Faith! and Kalamazoo churches                            Michigan on August 7 from 2:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.,
in Michigan. If you wcant to know what cell groups                         dinner included. Mr. John Kalsbeek, Mr. Gary Van
are, how a prayer-meeting is conducted, and how                            Der Schaaf, and Miss Agatha Lubbers will speak on
the Singaporeans present their beliefs to others,                          "Practical Approaches To Interdisciplinary
then, come to the Singapore Camp-Day.                                      Writing."                                                     DH



                                     Report of Classis East

   Classis  East met in regular session on May 8,                          moderator for Southwest. The following schedule
1985 at the Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed                                  was adopted for classical appointments: June 2 - W.
Church. Each church was represented by two dele-                           Bekkering, June 9 - R. Flikkema, June 16 - B. Grit-
gates. Rev. B. Gritters chaired this meeting of                            ters, July 7 - C. Haak, July 14 - M. Joostens, July 21-
classis.                                                                   R. Miersma, August 4 - R. Hanko, August 11 - J.
  The main item of business was the treatment of                           Kortering, August 18 - G. Van Baren, September l-
an appeal of a brother who maintained that his con-                        B. Woudenberg, September 8 - R. Flikkema.
sistory did not thoroughly treat his protest. Classis                        Rev. W. Bekkering was elected to serve on the
decided that the consistory did in fact thoroughly                         Classical Committee to replace Rev. De Vries.
treat the protest and thus the appeal was not sus-                         Classis also dealt with discipline matters presented
tained.                                                                    by three consistories.
   In other action, clasjsis approved the ministerial                        Expenses of this classis Amounted to $563.00.
credentials of Rev. M. De Vries who has accepted                           Classis will meet next at Hope Church on
the call to Edgerton. Because of his leaving, South-                       September 11, 1985.
west Church requested a moderator and classical                                                         Respectfully submitted,
appointments. Rev. Kolrtering was appointed as the                                                      Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk

                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
  On May 26, 1985, our parents, MR.  & MRS. ROBERT  HOVING                   On June 17, 1985, our parents, MR. AND MRS. CHARLES
celebrated their 35th Wedding,Anniversary.                                 PASTOOR will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.
  We, their children and grandchildren, are. thankful to God for the         We are thankful to our Covenant God for them and for the love
Christian love and instruction .they have given us. We pray that God       they have shown us. We pray for God's continued blessing upon
will continue to bless them in the years ahead.                            them.
  "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praise       "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
unto thy name, 0 most High." (Psalm 92: I)                                 them that fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children."
                                                                           (Psalm 103:17)
Robert Jr. & Cheryl Hoving                      Stephan Hoving
Daniel & Jennie Boone                          John  81 Grace Ozinga       Cornelius C. and Joyce Pastoor             7 grandchildren
Roger & Judith Brands                          Timothy Hoving              Harry and Thelma Boonstra                  2 great-grandchildren
Gerald  & Theresa Dykstra                      Sarah Hoving                Carol Ann Pastoor
Albert  & Claire Sorensen                          16 grandchildren                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan

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




                                                                                                                                                            ,-
                                                                                                         - . . .
408                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER  -  .-


                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                 Jehovah, our covenant God will uphold us by His grace and give us
   On May 24, 1985, our parents, MR. AND MRS. MARVIN                                the peace that passeth all understanding.
HAVEMAN, celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary. We, their                          "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."
children and grandchildren, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for                 (Psalm 46: I)
God-fearing parents, and the Christian instruction and guidance He                  Mr. William Geelhoed               Mrs. Donald (Martheen)  Griffioen
has provided through them. May God continue to be near them and                     Mrs. Lucy Johnson                  Mrs. Arnie (Shirley) Snoeyink
bless them in the years ahead.                                                      Mrs. Jim (Fanny) Dekker            Dr. Glenn W. Geelhoed
   "For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting; and His truth en-               Mrs. Janet (Pastoor) Ohlman        Mrs. Doug (Mildred) Holtvluwer
dureth to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)                                           Mrs. Helen Helmus                     grandchildren
Brent and Wilma Overway                    Doug and Marlene  Haan
Lester and Joyce  Haveman                  Deane and Donna Wassink
Clarence  Haveman                          John and Debra Haveman
Calvin and Eunice Yonker                        and 21 grandchildren                                 ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
                                                                                      Covenant Christian School of Lynden, Washington, is in urgent
                     IN LOVING MEMORY                                               need of teachers. Positions are available for one elementary and one
                                                                                    high school teacher. For more information please contact Albert de
   On May 1, 1985, it pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto                      Boer, 7235 Hannagan Road, Lynden, WA 98264, phone  (206)
Himself our beloved wife, sister, sister in law, step mother and grand-             354-5825. Or call H.W. Kuiper at the school, (206) 354-5436.
mother, MRS. GRACE (HELMUSI GEELHOED, at the age of 80 years.                                                                     Albert de Boer, Secy.
We rejoice that she is in glory with her Lord and we pray that



                                                                  rme3 Booh Ourlec
                                                                            3505  Kelly
                                                                  Hudsonville, Michigan 49426
                                                                          616-669-6730


                                                       invites you to come and visit
       FOR THE-GRADUATE IN YOUR FAMILY
                                    Select a book to start your graduate on the
                                                way to a good religious library.
                                                                   Choose from
                       Bibles, reference works, devotional books, study guides,
                                                       biographies, and histories.

                                  BOOK OF THE MONTH
                 In the Sanctuary: a book on prayer by Herman Hoeksema
                                                       $3.95               40% off  - $2.40
                        Let us help your graduate build a good religious library.


