     STANDARD

P             A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE



                                   0





                      SPECIAL ISSUE

                        THE ANTITHESIS
       This issue is devoted in its entirety to the subject of the
     Antithesis, a term and an idea which was formerly a watch-
     word among believers who are of Reformed persuasion, but
                                            j'
     which today has in too many instances fallen into disuse
     and disrepute., To revive an understanding of the concept,
     to emphasize its importance, to kindle in God's people a re-
     newed awareness of their antithetical calling, and to furnish
     guidelines in some important areas of life for the fulfillment
     of that calling - these are among the goals of this issue. It is
     our prayer that our readers will find this special issue in-
     structive and helpful.



c                                                 Vol.  LXII, No. 5, December 1, 1985  J


! 98                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



                                   CONTENTS                                                                        THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                         ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
        Meditation  -                                                                            Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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           A Companion of God's People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98                  Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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        Editorial -                                                                    D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
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                                                                                       Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema,  Rev.
           Thesis and Antithesis ...................... 101                            Gise J. Van Baren,  Rev. Herman Veldman.
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  MEDITATION
  Rev. Herman Hoeksema




                               A Companion of God's People

                      "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."
                                                                                                                                         Psalm 119:63



        Thou, 0 Jehovah, art my portion!                                                confession the psalmist makes here, that he is a
        That, evidently, is the dominating thought of this                              companion of all them that fear Jehovah, that keep
  particular section of Psalm 119.                                                      His precepts.
        And that, too, is the basis, the background, of the                                 We remember that this psalm is divided into


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                99



twenty-two equal sections, according to the                   Jehovah is their portion, His people are their
number of characters in the Hebrew alphabet, each           companions!
verse of each section, in the original, beginning             Thou art my portion, 0 Lord!
with the same letter. And each of these sections is
controlled by one main thought, while the entire              I am a companion of all them that fear Thee! Of
psalm sings of the beauty and preciousness of the           them that keep Thy precepts!
Word of the Lord. In this section the preciousness                   * * * * * * * * * *
of the precepts and revelation of Jehovah is con-             A companion of all that fear the Lord!
sidered from the viewpoint of the fact that the Lord          A comprehensive, yet very distinctive, fellow-
is the poet's portion.                                      ship is expressed here.
  Because of this fundamental truth, the poet longs           Of a strong bond of fellowship the poet is speak-
for and  intreats Jehovah's favor, and implores His         ing, of a union with all that fear the Lord. This is
mercy, vs. 58.                                              the meaning of the original word. There is an ac-
  For one's portion is one's own peculiar posses-           tually existing bond between him and God's peo-
sion, in distinction from the possession of others. It      ple, so that he is spiritually united with them.
is one's inheritance. Or, perhaps, it is a possession       Secondly, on the basis of this spiritual bond,
which he acquired with great difficulty, or pur-            because of it, he associates with those who keep
chased at a great price. Or, among Israel, it was a         Jehovah's precepts, and they with him. He is in
part of the land of promise that was apportioned to         alliance with them. He delights to be in their com-
him by lot. Such portion was held especially dear           pany, to talk with them, to walk with them. For
by its owner. It was very precious to him. He prized        they love the same things, they strive after the same
it above all things. He set his heart on it. He had his     object, they walk in the same direction, they speak
delight in it. He would exchange it for nought in all       the same language, they do the same things. They
the world. He would devote his chief attention to it.       understand one another, and exercise actual fellow-
All this Jehovah is to the psalmist, to the church, to      ship.
every believer in distinction from the world. For             This companionship has its root in and is
the Lord gave Himself to us and bestowed upon us            motivated by a common principle.
the right and the grace to call Him our God. He
revealed Himself to us, and we know Him. He                   Companions must have something in common.
spread abroad His love in our hearts, and we taste          Some common principle must unite those who are
that He is good above all things. His lovingkindness        friends and associates in life. Man and wife are
is better than life. In Him we have our delight. To         united by a community of nature, a community of
Him, His Word, His service, His precepts, His               life, a community of love, and by a common pur-
cause and glory, we devote our chief attention. His         pose to build and keep their home. Two partners in
knowledge, His favor, His fellowship are precious           business are united by their common interest in
to us. He is our portion!                                   their business and by the purpose to seek its ad-
                                                            vancement. An alliance between two world powers
  The world, too, has its portion.                          is rooted in the mutual desire to be strong against a
  Its portion is the world: the lust of the flesh, the      common foe. Friendship presupposes a measure of
lust of the eyes, the pride of life.                        similarity between the friends. Like knows, under-
  But in sharp distinction from the world, the              stands, seeks like.
believers confess that the Lord is their portion.             No different it is with the companionship of
  Hence, they interest His favor and long for His           which the poet is speaking.
mercy.                                                        However, the principle in which this companion-
  They think on their ways, in order that they may          ship is rooted is not natural, but spiritual.
turn their feet unto His testimonies; they make               It is the fear of the Lord!
haste, that they may not delay in keeping His com-            For this is, evidently, the meaning of his confes-
mandments; even in the  midst of the oppressing             sion: I am a friend, an associate, a companion, of all
wicked, they do not forget His law; and at midnight         that fear Thee! With them I am united, and they
they will rise to give thanks unto Him because of           with me. To them I am ever attracted, and they to
His righteous judgments. (vss. 59-62)                       me. Their fellowship I seek, and they delight in my
  And because of this fundamental truth, they love          communion. With them I desire to walk my life's
the fellowship of the people of God.                        path, and they with me. With them I delight to
                                                            work, to toil, to suffer, to speak and to sing, and
This meditation is by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema, and    they with me. They are my friends, and I am theirs;
it first appeared in Volume XX, p.  413.                    their enemies are my enemies, and mine are theirs.


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               And all this, not for any carnal or earthly reasons;          It unites and separates!
               not for selfish ends, not for filthy lucre and material       It transcends all natural relationships!
               gain; not even because they are nice characters,
               friendly and lovely and helpful; but only and exact-          A companion of them that fear Thee!
               ly because they fear the Lord, even as the Lord is            Wonderful fellowship! .
               my portion!                                                          * * * * * * * * * *
                 That fear of the Lord is the deepest uniting prin-          Marvellous fruit of grace!
               ciple of this companionship!                                  For by nature we are not friends of those who
                 It is a very distinctive, a strongly uniting, and a      fear the Lord.
               very exclusive principle.                                     To be sure, the psalmist has no intention to
I                It unites  a22 who fear the Lord, no matter what         declare his own goodness and to exalt himself
               may be their name and position in the world,               above those who are not united with him in this
               whether they be high or low, rich or poor, master          fellowship. He rather considers himself a wonder
               or servant, king or subject; and whether they be           of the grace of that Lord Who is his portion..
/              similar in character, or of the most widely different         By nature we have a fellowship with those who
               dispositions. And it  excludes  all who fear not the       love iniquity. For we are in darkness, and we love
               Lord, whether otherwise they may be united by the          the darkness rather than the light. Enemies of God
               most common interests, or related in the most in-          and enemies of one another are we. But even in this
               timate natural bond of love!                               enmity against God, in virtue of which we also hate
                 For what unites them is the fear of the Lord!            one another, there is a certain affinity and common
                 And the Lord is God! And God is good! He is a            interest that impels us to seek one another in the
               light, and in Him is no darkness at all! He is the im-     friendship of the world. For the children of dark-
               plication of all infinite perfections! He is truth, and    ness not only commit the works of iniquity and
               righteousness, and justice, and love, and grace, and       delight in doing them, but they also have pleasure
               mercy, and faithfulness. He is the Holy One! And           in them that do the same things. And even as they
               by the fear of Him is not meant any slavish terror         hate the light, so they hate those who walk in the
               like that of the bond-servant for his master, whom         light.
               he really hates, but whom he obeys in constant               Never could we possibly declare by nature that
               dread of the whip. Thus the devils fear God, and           we are companions of them that fear the Lord.
               they tremble. Thus all the ungodly are filled with           What fellowship is there between darkness and
               terror for the Judge of heaven and earth, and they         light?
               call upon the mountains to cover them before His             What part has the infidel with the believer?
               face. But the fear of the Lord is the reverence of a
               childlike love. It implies the deep consciousness of         What concord could there be between the devil
               His glorious majesty, of His infinite immensity, of        and Christ?
               His spotless holiness, and of His absolute                   Nor could we possibly by our own efforts join
               sovereignty, so that we prostrate ourselves before         the company and enter the fellowship of those who
               Him in the dust and bow down in humble adora-              fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the indispen-
               tion before the throne of His glory. But it also im-       sable and sole condition unto this companionship.
               plies the consciousness of His great love toward us,       Unless that fear be in our hearts, we cannot feel at-
               which He has revealed in the cross and resurrec-           tracted to the people of God. We do not know
               tion of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the           them, because we know Him not. And that fear is a
               consciousness of the reconciliation which He has           matter of the inmost heart, out of which are the
               established with us in His Son, the knowledge of           issues of life. And the heart is beyond our control.
               faith that our sins are blotted out, that we are           No efforts on our part, no amount of reformation,
               righteous before Him, and that with Him there is           not the most strenuous application to the building
               forgiveness that He may be feared. And it implies          of character, can possibly change the heart.
               the spiritual knowledge that the Lord is good, and           The companionship with the people of God is a
               that it is good for us to be near unto Him, that we        matter of grace!
               may declare all His wondrous works!                          And grace is solely of God. It is the sovereign gift
                 That is the fear of the Lord!                            and work of Him Who quickens the dead, Who
     I           That fear of the Lord cuts deep! It is a matter of       calls the things that be not as if they were.
               the heart! It is a principle which concerns our rela-        For by the power of that grace we are quickened
               tion to God Who is GOD!
          I                                                               indeed, delivered from the dominion of death,
                 And it governs the whole of our life!                    raised unto a new life, which is not of this world,


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                101



neither of the earth, earthy, but from above,             become to them.
through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ           Citizens they are of another country, that is, an
from the dead. By the power of that wondrous              heavenly.
grace we are called out of darkness into the
marvellous light of God, that we might know Him             And companions of them that fear the Lord!
and declare His glorious praises. Through that              Wonderful grace of God!
grace a new love, the love of God in Christ, is shed                *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
abroad in our hearts, so that we taste that the Lord
is good and trust that He has blotted out all our sins      Companions in light!
and that we are righteous before Him. And so, `by           For only in as far as we actually walk in the light
His own grace we love Him, and fear Him, and              can the fellowship which we have together in
keep His commandments.                                    Christ operate.
  Thus we become companions of those that fear              Hence, the poet adds: ". . . and of them that keep
Him!                                                      thy precepts."
  Companions who seek one another's fellowship,             Not as if those who keep the precepts of the Lord
because, while they are all partakers of the same         are another class of companions, distinct and dif-
resurrection-life of their Lord, yea, of Himself, in      ferent from those who fear Him. They are, of
unity of Spirit and unity of faith and hope and love,     course, the same people. They that fear the Lord
yet they are not identical, but individually distinct     keep Jehovah's precepts, and they that walk in the
as members of one body, each in his own place and         way of His good commandments surely fear the
with his own significance for the whole.                  Lord. The two are inseparable.
  The fellowship of friendship in the fear of the           Yet it is not a mere repetition.
Lord!                                                       For the keeping of Jehovah's precepts is the
  A fellowship which includes  all  who fear the          realization, the manifestation, of the fear of the
Lord.                                                     Lord in our actual life and conversation in the
  Strong this bond of companionship is all the            midst of the world. It is, therefore, through the
more, because the life they, who are partakers of         keeping of His precepts that we reveal ourselves as
Christ and who are members of this communion,             those  `who fear the Lord, that we know one
have in common is not of this world. By it they are       another, and that we can have fellowship with one
separated from the world in its evil sense, so that       another as friends in Jesus Christ our Lord. If we
they have no fellowship with the unfruitful works         say that we fear and love the Lord, and walk in
of darkness any more; but also from the things            darkness, we do not the truth; and we cannot
below in the natural sense, so that they dwell in         possibly realize the companionship of the saints.
tents, seek the things which are above, and set their     But if we walk in the light, even as He is in the
hearts on things heavenly.                                light, we have fellowship with Him, and are com-
                                                          panions of one another, and the blood of Jesus
  They are sojourners and strangers in the earth.         Christ cleanseth us from all sin!
  Pilgrims they are, dwelling in tents.                     And so, we are companions of them that fear the
  And the world hates them.                               Lord, only in as far as they walk in the light . . . and
  And the more they seek the things above, the            we walk in the same light with them.
more they feel how strange the world has really             Holy friendship!

EDITORIAL


                              Thesis and Antithesis


  There was a time when, among Reformed Chris-            day, due to the ravages of synthesizing philosophy
tians, terms like  antithesis  and  antitheticaZ  were    and a synthesizing world-and-life view, that can no
familiar terms and rather generally understood. To-       longer be taken for granted. The terms themselves


102                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



have, among many people who are Reformed at               with," so that the word denotes "a putting to-
least in name, become foreign and for the most part       gether, that which is put together, a combination."
unheard, and the world-and-life view for which            It is an attempt at a Yes-No, or a No-Yes.
they stand has become unknown and unpracticed.
Perhaps this has become all too true even among us           In the light of the above, a proper understanding
Protestant Reformed people, who ought to be               of the thesis is a prerequisite for understanding the
known, more than any others (due to our insistence        antithesis, as well as a prerequisite for understand-
that grace is particular, never common), as the peo-      ing the impossibility of synthesis and the disastrous
ple of the antithesis. However that may be  - and         futility of every attempt at synthesis.
each may judge that for himself - it is well that we         What is meant by the thesis?*
remind ourselves of the meaning and significance             Briefly, to understand the thesis we must begin
of the antithesis.                                        with God. In the deepest sense of the word, the
   The truth concerning the antithesis and the anti-      .thesis is the Word of God concerning Himself.
thetical calling of the people of God in the midst of     Whether you think of the Word of God as He
the world runs as a silver thread throughout the          speaks it eternally concerning Himself within Him-
Scriptures and comes to the fore in many, many            self, as the Triune God, or whether you conceive of
specific passages. If one only has an eye for it, he      the Word of God as He speaks it outside of Himself
will be surprised how frequently, in one way or           to His people, always the thesis is the Word of God
another, with one application or another, this truth      concerning Himself. That speech of God is essen-
comes to expression. Especially in the Psalms and         tially this: "I Am; I Am GOD; I Am GOOD!" Or: "I
in the book of Proverbs, for example, it is frequent-     am a light, and in Me is no darkness at all." The
ly on the foreground and virtually stares one in the      thesis is the Yes of God concerning Himself. That
face. That the child of God is not of the world,          God is light, that He is truth, that He is righteous-
though he is in the world; that he is a child of light    ness, that He is wisdom, knowledge, holiness, love,
in the midst of a world which lies in darkness; and       infinite perfection - that is the deepest ground for
that light can have no fellowship with darkness -         the thesis. If God were not God, and if God were
this is the antithetical note sounded throughout the      not Good, there would be no thesis - and thus also
Scriptures. Frequently II Corinthians 6: 14-18 is         no antithesis  - possible.
cited in this connection as expressing sharply the          In the second place, the idea of the thesis pre-
antithetical position and calling of God's people:        supposes  - and usually when we speak of thesis
"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe-            and antithesis, we think immediately of this - the
lievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness           existence of God's covenant people. When motion
with unrighteousness? and what communion hath             is made of the thesis and the antithesis, we think of
light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ         God's people as the people of the antithesis and of
with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth          their antithetical calling in the midst of the world.
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the tem-         The very idea therefore presupposes that God
ple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the       chose and wills and forms a people who stand in
living God; as God bath said, I will dwell in them,       covenant relation to Him. It pleased God to form a
and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they       people for Himself to whom He might speak con-
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from               cerning Himself, a people who could hear His
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,           Word and know Hirn and love Him with all their
and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive       heart and mind and soul and strength, who could
you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be       witness of Him and for Him, who could confess His
my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."          name and show forth His praises in word and deed,
  There are three terms which are related and             and thus glorify Him. Through Christ His Son God
which commonly enter into any discussion of the           forms and gathers His people. And through Christ
idea of the antithesis. They are: thesis, antithesis,     His Son God speaks His Word to the very hearts of
and synthesis. As you will readily see, the terms an-     His covenant people. He tells them: "I Am; I Am
tithesis and synthesis have in them the term thesis.      God; I Am Good!" And they hear and believe and
The terms are clearly related, therefore. We may          confess: "Thou art GOD; Thou art GOOD! Thou
begin with the term  thesis.  Thesis  means "that         art the Light, and in Thee is no darkness at all! To
which is put, established, asserted to be the truth."     Thee alone be all glory!" The thesis, therefore, is
It is a positive affirmation. It is the Yes. The term     that which God's people hear of God, and confess
antithesis is formed by prefixing the term anti-, and     and affirm of Him, namely, that He is God in rela-
very simply it signifies "that which is opposed, a
denial." It is the No. The term synthesis is formed       *There is a more extensive treatment of this subject by
by prefixing the term syn-, which means "together         Herman  Hoeksema in Vol. XII, pp. 487, ff.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  103



tion to all things - our person, our body, our soul,        all that denies Him.
our heart, our mind, our will, our home, our man-                  The cause of the antithesis, therefore, is in God's
and-wife relationship, our parent-children relation-        will. God willed the existence of the darkness in
ship, society, business, industry, property, educa-         order to say No to it and to reveal that there is no
tion, state, church; and that it is good to do His will.    darkness in Him at all. And He saved and called His
  Our calling, therefore, with respect to this thesis       covenant people  out  of the world, but willed that
is twofold: to wiZZ it and to know it. This is a deeply     they should exist temporarily in the world, in order
spiritual matter: a matter, not simply of the head, of      that they should be an antithetical people, a people
the intellect, but a matter of the heart and of grace.      who cannot say Yes to God without inevitably say-
And, secondly, our calling is to develop the implica-       ing No to all that is of darkness.
tions of this thesis with respect to all of life and to            Let me conclude with a quotation from the arti-
confess  in word and walk that God, our God, is             cle by the late Herman Hoeksema already referred
GOD and that He alone is good.                              to:
  With this background, we may face the question:                  "They (God's covenant people) are purposely
what then is the antithesis?                                placed in a world that lieth in darkness, all whose
  In answer to this question, let me emphasize,             thoughts are that God is not, that He is not God,
first of all, that the antithesis is emphatically not       and that He is not good. And in the midst of that
the No of the world over against the Yes of God's           world the Word of God concerning Himself to them
covenant people. This, I fear, is a common miscon-          and in them and through them becomes the No of
ception concerning the antithesis. Christ is the            the Yes. For this reason it is a very lamentable
thesis; the devil is the antithesis. Righteousness is       pretext to live a synthesizing life on the part of
the thesis; unrighteousness is the antithesis.              those that love it, when they allege that the anti-
Godliness is the thesis; ungodliness is the anti-           thesis in its absolute form will not and cannot come
thesis. Truth in the thesis; the lie is the antithesis.     till after the day of Christ, in eternity. In eternity
Light is the thesis; darkness is the antithesis. The        the antithesis and the occasion for it shall be
thesis is the Yes; the antithesis is the No which op-       eliminated. Here, in this world, where the children
poses it. This, however, is an essentially dualistic        of God and the children of the devil have all things
conception. And even if you so conceive of matters          in common except grace to hear and to speak the
that the Yes of God and of the people of God                Word of God concerning Himself, we are called
ultimately overcomes the No of the devil and of the         and bound to live antithetically.
ungodly, it remains a dualistic conception.                        "And, therefore, we must live thetically.
  Positively, in the second place, the antithesis is               "We must love and will, know and speak and
the No of the Yes. It is the opposition of the thesis to    live the thesis, in order to realize the antithesis.
all that is not of it, to all that is contrary to it and
that opposes it. It is the No of the Christ over                   "For the antithesis is the No of the Yes.
against the power of sin and darkness and the devil.               "And only according as we firmly and clearly say
It is the No of righteousness over against unright-         Yes will we say No to the world.
eousness. It is the No of godliness over against the               "And such is our calling.
ungodliness of the world. It is the No of the truth
over against the lie of the false prophet. It is the No            "It will mean battle, tribulation, suffering. For
of those who have the love of the Father in them            the world will hate us because of our Yes with its
over against all that is not of the Father, but of the      inevitable No. In the world ye shall have tribula-
world  - the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the         tion. But be of good cheer. Even in the battle you
eyes, and the vainglory of life. It is the No of the        have more than the victory. In your tribulation you
light over against the darkness.                            may rejoice. For it is given you of grace, in the
                                                            cause of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also
  Essentially, therefore, the antithesis is the No of       to suffer with Him!"                                HCH
the Word of God concerning Himself over against
                 The Standard Bearer makes a
        thoughtful gift for the sick & shut-in.
             Give the Standard Bearer today!!


104                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


                                         Lest We Forget
                                                   Robert D. Decker





   For this special issue we were assigned the sub-          He originally formed it and would have destroyed
ject, "The Antithesis and Common Grace." We                  it, were it not for the intervention of common
have chosen to reprint excerpts of a lengthy article,        grace. If God had not intervened through the power
written by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema under               of common grace, so is the supposition, man would
the title, "Antithesis, Synthesis and Dualism." It is        immediately have been sent into eternal death and
sometimes said among us that Common Grace is no              destruction and the whole world would have re-
longer the issue. While there may be some truth to           turned to its original state of chaos, or perhaps been
that, the principles for which our fathers fought in         annihilated. But God prevents this devilish scheme.
1924 and which occasioned the formation of our               He carries through the original purpose of creation.
Protestant Reformed Churches must not be forgot-             This world must develop. The powers of this world
ten among us. We must continue to maintain the               must be brought to light, may not be destroyed by
truth of Gods Sovereign and Particular Grace. Our            sin. Not until all the forces of the world have been
children must be instructed in these truths. What            developed and it has become manifest how
Rev. Hoeksema wrote for the May 1, 1928 (Vol. 4)             beautiful a world God formed in the beginning, can
issue of The Standard Bearer is as true today as it          the world be destroyed to be replaced by the final
was then. To maintain Common Grace is to deny                restoration of paradise lost. For this purpose God
and, therefore, lose the truth of the antithesis. And        sends a twofold grace, a temporary grace and  .an
this means we lose the Reformed faith! Here is               eternal, a general and a particular. By virtue of the
what "H.H." had to say nearly sixty years ago:               former, which is God's lovingkindness over all
   "It is not many years ago that it was a rather            men, the righteous and the wicked alike, human
generally accepted principle with Reformed peo-              life is preserved and not immediately destroyed,
ple, that in this whole life, in every sphere of life in     the curse is tempered in its tendency to destroy,
the midst of the world, the Christian was called to          and the earth and its fulness are preserved. More-
assume an antithetical attitude towards the world            over, the power and progress of sin are checked. If
of darkness. For what did righteousness and un-              this general grace had not come, man would have
righteousness have in common: Or what concord is             been wholly a child of darkness, a pronounced
there between Christ and Belial? The natural man             enemy of God, only committing sin and never do-
minded the things of the flesh, and the carnal mind          ing anything good. He would have been wholly like
is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of       the devil. But now it is different. True, it is main-
God, neither, indeed, can be. Hence, he cannot see           tained, the natural man of himself is only a sinner
the Kingdom of God and will not seek God, but                and he cannot do anything good while he is in-
loves the darkness rather than light. But the                clined to all evil. But common grace improves upon
spiritual man, who has been renewed by the Spirit            him, to such an extent that he can still do much
and grace of God, according to the inner man of the          good, even though it is no good that saves him. In
heart, lives from the new principle of regeneration          all the spheres of life that pertain to this present
and reveals himself as a child of light. It is, there-      world, in the home, in the state, in society, in
fore, not his calling to leave the world, but to live       business and commerce, in science and art, he lives
the whole of life from a different spiritual-ethical        from this principle of a common and general tem-
principle than the natural man. He is in the world          poral grace and is able to will and to think and to ac-
but not of the world.                                        complish much good. But by means of another, a
                                                            special grace, God saves the sinner, uproots the evil
   "II. Now this antithesis is denied in more than          principle within him and prepares him for final
one way. It is denied first of all by the pernicious        glory. So that while the ungodly live from the prin-
doctrine of Common Grace. Also this theory at-              ciple of this common grace in the world, the godly
tempts to offer a life-view of the things of this pres-     live both from this same principle of common grace
ent time. Its fundamental conception is after all,          and that of particular or saving grace.
that the devil struck a hole into the work of God as           "It is not difficult to see where lies the funda-
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical TheoZogy and     mental error of this conception. It after all looks
New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.          upon this entire present history as an interval


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 105



which has ben necessitated because of sin. God's               from a different principle than the world is denied.
purpose is to perfect this present creation, not to            The antithesis is absolutely destroyed! We may be
perfect and glorify His covenant through the deep              in the world and of the world both, for together we
way of sin and grace. For a time this purpose is               live of the power of common grace!
frustrated through the power of the devil and sin.                "But this is not the only way in which the princi-
But God carries it through and reaches it in spite of          ple of the antithesis is destroyed. It is denied just as
the attempts of the devil. And not only that this              well by all those movements that would separate
world has its history and development according to             themselves from the world in the sense that they
an original purpose as it would have been without              would go out of the world. It is Dr. Kuyper's
sin, but He also restores the original perfection of           repeated assertion that you must choose between
the whole creation. All this is accomplished by the            his view and that of all Dualism that would live a
power of common and special grace. Strange                     separate existence, and create a separate field and
though it may sound, the theory of common grace                sphere of life for the godly and the ungodly. Yet,
is dualistic after all. It dares not conceive of sin as        this is not the case. The dualistic philosophy con-
nothing but a means for the realization of God's               fuses the battleground with the battle that must be
covenant and the development of His counsel to                 fought on it. It conceives of the battlefield itself as
the glory of His Name. Hence, it also confuses                 evil. Sin is inseparably bound up with the things of
Gods providence, whereby He maintains and pre-                 this present time and with our life in the body.
serves all things, so that the sphere and battlefield          Hence, they that adhere to this view would leave
for the principles of sin and grace may be provided,           the world as much as possible. They do not want to
with grace. What is after all nothing but means for            be in the world. They would like to gather the peo-
the ungodly to develop as ungodly and become ripe              ple of God on a separate island, in a separate state,
for destruction, and for the godly to reveal them-             and separate them from all contact with the un-
selves and develop as children of light, is con-               godly. They would flee out of the world. They would
sidered as grace and lovingkindness of the Lord,               seek refuge in monasteries and convents, in order
common to all. And what is after all only sin, as              to avoid all contact with sin. They would live in
soon as it is judged in the light of the law of God, is        deserts and holes, in order to be safe. But also this is
called good.                                                   wrong. Not only is it mere delusion that we can
  "But we are not so much concerned with the                   escape conflict with the powers of darkness by
criticism and exposition of the errors of this con-            separating ourselves literally and locally from the
ception as with the clear fact that it destroys the an-        world, for the simple reason that we carry the
tithesis. If it is true that in this present life, and with    powers of darkness with us in our own flesh and
a view to their earthly development, God is                    heart,  - the antithesis is within us; but it is also a
gracious to all, and has a covenant of friendship              fleeing from the battlefield and an attempt to
with all men, what business have we not to be                  frustrate Gods purpose with us. It is the purpose of
friends with all men, what business have we not to             God that light may shine in the darkness and that
be friends with those to whom the Lord is gracious?            the light may condemn the darkness. That purpose
Certainly, the outcry of the poet must be eliminated           cannot be reached by a dualistic flight from the
from Scripture: "Should I not hate, Lord, them that            world. All dualistic tendencies would have us not
hate thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred!" God             only not be of the world, but neither would they
is the friend of all, be it only for the present and           have us in the world!
with a view to the affairs of the present time. We                "Hence, we must maintain the antithetic view of
have no business to be enemies of those that are in            life and the world. God establishes His covenant
this life the friends of God. Besides, do we not live          with us antithetically. We cannot serve Him
from a common principle of life in this world? The             without rejecting and fighting mammon. In the
world does good. Not saving good, it is true, but              world and not of the world, living in all the do-
good in the sight of God. It does so from the grace            mains of life, but from the principle of light, con-
of God wrought in their hearts by the Holy Spirit of           demning the darkness, such is the purpose of God
God. Shall we then separate ourselves and con-                 with His people and our calling, till the victory is
demn the good and lovely works of the world? No,               won! ' '
but we shall rather unite with them, and do things
in common. Together we can labor for the building                 The Standard Bearer makes a
up of the home, of society, of the state, of com-
merce and industry, of science and art. It is only a             though&l gift for the holidays.
matter of tradition that we still have Christian
Schools. The school also belongs to the sphere of                     Give the Standard Bearer!
common grace. The calling of Gods people to live


106                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



                 The Antithesis and Anabaptism
                                                Ronald L. Cammenga





  Besides the Lutheran and the Reformed branches            6: 14-18; Ephesians 58. This is the straight and nar-
of the Protestant Reformation, there was also in the        row way that leads into the kingdom of heaven. On
days of the Reformation the Anabaptist movement.            either side of this straight and narrow way is a
This movement is often referred to as the "Radical          ditch. On the one side of the way of the antithesis is
Reformation."                                               the ditch of worldliness. Worldliness is a threat to
  Although there was much difference of opinion             the antithesis. But on the other side of the way of
and even open dissension among the various                  the antithesis is another ditch, the ditch of  Ana-
groups of the Anabaptists, they did share certain           baptism, the ditch of world-flight rather than world
outstanding principles. The unanimous verdict of            fight. This too is a denial of the antithesis.
the Anabaptists was that the Reformers had not                The thinking of the Anabaptists is represented by
gone far enough in the reform of the church, but            sentiments expressed by Jan Matthijs, one of the
had all too quickly compromised their position in           leaders of the movement.
order not to disrupt too drastically the status quo.              Impiety prevails everywhere. It is there-
The leaders of the Anabaptists were determined to               fore necessary that a new family of holy per-
carry the principles of the Reformation through to              sons should be founded, enjoying, without
the ultimate degree - something from which, they                distinction of sex, the gift of prophecy, and
were convinced, the Reformers had drawn back.                   skill to interpret divine revelations. Hence,
Men like Thomas Muntzer, Conrad Grebel, Jakob                   they need no learning: for the internal word
Hutter, Jan Matthijs, Jan van Leyden, and  Menno                is more than the outward expression. No
Simons led the Anabaptist cause.                                Christian must be suffered to engage in a
  Early on, the Reformers rejected the Anabaptist               legal process, to hold civil office, to take an
movement, and wrote against the teachings of the                oath, or to hold any private property; but all
Anabaptists. Luther condemned the excesses of the               things must be in common.
"Zwickau prophets." He referred to Muntzer as the           Matthijs called for the burning of all books except
"arch-devil of Allstedt." Calvin and Zwingli joined         the Bible; denounced learning and education as
Luther in this repudiation of the Anabaptist move-          tools of the Devil; and called for a community of
ment.                                                       goods among Christians.
  The outstanding error of the Anabaptists con-               The Anabaptists made a thorough distinction be-
cerned the sacrament of baptism. They denied in-            tween the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of
fant baptism, and also taught that the only legiti-         grace, the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom
mate mode of baptism was immersion, not sprin-              of God. Not only was there not to be fellowship and
kling. The Anabaptists insisted that all who had            cooperation between the converted and the uncon-
been baptized as infants or by way of sprinkling            verted, but the converted child of God was not
must be re-baptized. This accounts for the name             even to have contact with the world of unconverted
"Anabaptists," which means "Re-baptizers."                  men. There was to be complete separation and
  But the Anabaptists' peculiar views were not              isolation.
confined to baptism. They also held wrong views               The wrong application of the antithesis by the
concerning the relationship of the Christian to the         Anabaptists was especially pronounced in the area
world, the calling of the child of God in the midst of      of the relation of the Christian to the state. The
this present earthly life. In reality, the Anabaptists      Anabaptists not only taught that these two must be
denied the Biblical truth of the antithesis.                separate, but that believers ought to have nothing
  The people of God in the world are called to live         to do with any sort of government office or civil
the life of the antithesis. The Word of God makes           rank. The secular powers concerned only the un-
this plain in many places, among which are:                 righteous and the evildoers. The Christian must
Genesis  3:15; Matthew  5:13-16; II Corinthians             keep himself from any involvement with the
                                                            government, really has no need of it, and may
Ronald L. Cammenga is pastor  of the Protestant Reformed    never take an oath or bear arms for it. The state is
Church of Loveland, Colorado.                               an institution that arises out of sin. The Christian's


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                107



citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven precludes             serious about maintaining the antithesis, with be-
membership in or allegiance to any earthly                 ing Anabaptistic. Our thoroughgoing insistence on
kingdom.                                                   the life of the antithesis has been met with the
  It should not surprise us that a movement such           charge from some that we are Anabaptistic. This is
as the Anabaptists arose at the time of the Reforma-       the charge often leveled against us because we
tion. Although rejecting the tyranny of the Roman          deny the false teaching of Common Grace, as if to
Catholic hierarchy, Anabaptist principles are deep-        deny Common Grace necessarily entails the em-
ly rooted in Roman Catholicism, especially the             bracing of Anabaptistic views.
Roman Catholicism of the Middle Ages. The whole              We repudiate Anabaptism! We repudiate the
world-flight mentality had been a part of Roman            charge that we are Anabaptistic! We are not  Ana-
Catholicism. The monastic movement was an ex-              baptistic, but Reformed!
pression of this teaching. The antithesis of nature          We repudiate Anabaptism, first of all, because of
and grace was really Roman Catholic in origin. The         its wrong view of the nature of the antithesis. The
policy of "touch not, taste not, handle not" was           Anabaptists taught the antithesis of nature and
very much a policy of Rome. The Anabaptists only           grace. But this is not the antithesis. The Apostle
carried on, in this respect, the teaching of the           Paul says in I Timothy  4:4, "For every creature of
Roman Catholic Church. This belies the charge that         God is good, and nothing to be refused." God, the
the Reformers did not carry the Reformation far            good God, made the world. The world is not in-
enough. If any were guilty of this it was not the Prot-    herently evil; life in the world is not inherently evil.
estant Reformers, but the Anabaptists themselves.          The antithesis is not between nature and grace, but
  The Anabaptist teaching of world-flight survives         between sin and grace. The antithesis is between
down to the present. This is still the position of the     light and darkness, righteousness and unrighteous-
Roman Catholic Church whose higher life of                 ness, believer and unbeliever.
monkery and nunnery remain intact in our day.                Closely connected with this error of the  Ana-
This is also very much the position of most Baptists,      baptists was the error of making the antithesis
who, although they do not carry their views to the         primarily a matter of physical separation, rather
extremes of the Anabaptists in the days of the             than spiritual separation. Just because they viewed
Reformation, still adopt a "touch not, taste not,          the world itself as evil, the Anabaptists withdrew
handle not" approach to the use of the creation.           from ordinary life in the world. Now, there is even
This comes out in such things as their blanket con-        today a physical aspect to the calling of the believer
demnation of smoking and the drinking of alcoholic         to live the antithesis. The life of the antithesis
beverages. The Anabaptist views also survive in            means that we do not go into the tavern, to the
our day among the Mennonites, the Hutterites, and          dance hall, to the movie theater, to the place where
the Amish, all descendants of the Anabaptists of the       the wild party is going on. But although there is a
16th century. Their world-flight is seen in the            physical aspect to the antithesis, the antithesis itself
separate colonies they have established for                is essentially spiritual. The calling of the believer,
themselves, in which they stay isolated from or-           therefore, is not to flee out of the world. This in the
dinary life in the world. These colonies may be            end is the easy way. But his calling is to stay in the
found in our own country in the Dakotas, Iowa,             world and live for the honor and glory of the God of
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and other places.             the antithesis. We must be IN the world; this is
Their separation from ordinary life in the world is        God's will for us. But being IN the world, we must
seen in their peculiar styles of dress, their rejection    not be OF the world. We are called to use the
of modern means of transportation in favor of horse        creatures of this world, but not abuse them. We are
and buggy, their complete rejection or only limited        called to live in every legitimate sphere of earthly
use of machinery, especially farm machinery, and           life, only, in whatever relationship that may be, ac-
modern household conveniences. Some use only               cording to the principles of Gods Word. The  Ana-
hooks and eyes on their clothing because buttons           baptist robs God of His glory. In all His gifts and in
are considered too worldly.                                all His works, God is aiming at His own glory. It is
  As Reformed Christians we reject the Anabaptist          our calling to use them to that end. The Anabaptist
position. The Anabaptist way is not the way of the         refuses.
antithesis. As regards both the Anabaptists and              We repudiate the Anabaptist position, in the
those today advocating worldliness, we say, "A             third place, because of its rejection of the lawful
plague on both your houses." We do not embrace             authority placed by God in the civil magistracy.
the views of the Anabaptists as regards the relation-      The Anabaptist position is fundamentally contrary
ship of the Christian to this present world.               to the Fifth Commandment of God's law. The
  This is so, even though many charge us, who are          refusal to be in allegiance to the government, to


I
          108                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



          take an oath when demanded by the government,               citizen of the particular kingdom in which God
          to pay taxes to the government, to bear arms on             places him on this earth.
          behalf of the government is a failure to render unto          Not world-flight, but world fight is the way of the
          Caesar the things that are Caesar's. The Reformed           antithesis. Not fleeing out of the world, as attractive
          Christian, for God's sake and just exactly because          as that may be sometimes, but living in the world to
          he is a citizen of God's kingdom, is a good and loyal       God's glory - this is the Christian life.





                   The Antithesis and the Rule of Christ
     I                                                      Herman C. Hanko





            It is significant that the first mention of the anti-     heaven and in earth" (Mt.  28:18). In his great
          thesis in Scripture is also the first announcement of       chapter on the resurrection of Christ, Paul writes to
          the coming of Christ. We find this passage in               the Corinthians, "For he (Christ) must reign, till he
          Genesis 3:15: "And I will put enmity between thee           hath put all things under his feet" (I Cor. 15:27). To
          and the woman, and between thy seed and her                 the Philippians Paul writes, "Wherefore God also
          seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise       hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
          his heel.`: While every believer recognizes that this       which is above every name: that at the name of
          is the promise of Christ, Who would come at some           Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
          time in the future to crush the power of Satan and          and things in earth, and things under the earth (2:9,
          deliver His people from the sin into which they fell,       10). In Revelation  15 Christ is called the Prince of
          this gracious promise of Christ is mentioned in the         the kings of the earth. In Revelation 12, where the
          same breath with "enmity." Between Christ and               exaltation of Christ is described in figurative
          Satan would be nothing but enmity; and between              language, the saints in heaven are quoted as saying,
          those who belong to Christ and those who belong to          "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the
          Satan, nothing but enmity would characterize their          kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ"
          relationship. That enmity is the antithesis.                (vs. 10). This theme is repeated in the book of
            It is emphatically asserted in this passage that          Revelation [cf.  5:12-14,  19:16, etc.). Already in
          God creates that enmity, and by it, creates the anti-       prophecy Daniel saw this and pictured the exalta-
          thesis. God creates the antithesis, therefore, by           tion of Christ in these words: "I saw in the night vi-
          sending Christ and, through Christ, by saving His           sions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came
          people. The antithesis is rooted in the work of             with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient
          Christ. More particularly, the antithesis is rooted in      of days, and they brought him near before him.
          the sovereign rule of Christ over all.                      And there was given him dominion, and glory, and
                                                                      a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
            Christ is exalted at God's right hand from which          should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting
          position of honor and power He rules over all God's         dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
          creation. To put it differently, all God's counsel,         kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (7:13,
          which He has determined to do from all eternity is          14).
          executed and realized through the exalted Christ.
            This is clearly taught in many passages of Scrip-           Thus the Scriptures teach that Christ's rule is in
          ture. Christ Himself tells His disciples just prior to      the strictest and widest sense of the word universal.
          His exaltation that, "All power is given unto me in         He rules over the whole creation in heaven and on
                                                                      earth; but He rules also over all men and angels and
          Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New      devils. Absolutely nothing is outside His rule. He is
          Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.              even Lord of lords and King of kings.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               109



   But this rule of Christ over all men is exercised in     anointed, both  Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the
two different ways; and in this lies the antithesis.        Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered
  The difference has often, by Reformed                     together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy
theologians, been described as the rule of Christ's         counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:27,
grace and the rule of Christ's power. This ter-             28). Christ's rule over the wicked is in spite of and
minology is, however, not completely accurate.              even through the means of their rebellion.
The difference does not lie in the sovereignty or             But His rule over His people is the rule of His
power of Christ's rule, as if in one case Christ is less    grace. He rules over them in such a way that by a
sovereign than in the other; Christ is always               wonder of grace Christ translates them out of the
sovereign. Whether His rule is over the wicked or           kingdom of darkness into His own kingdom of
over His people, it is absolutely sovereign. Nothing        heaven. He destroys the power of sin and death in
that happens in this world, also in the affairs of          them and makes them citizens of His heavenly
men and nations, is apart from His rule. His                kingdom so that they become willing subjects of
sovereignty is equally exercised in either case. The        Him and bow in worship and service before Him.
difference lies in the manner of His rule. This must        The wicked are unwilling subjects of Christ; the
be clearly understood.                                      righteous love their great King Who has redeemed
                                                            them and bow in humble and willing obedience to
  The difference between Christ's rule of the               their Lord and Master.
wicked and His rule of His people is, first of all, a
difference of attitude. Christ, reflecting the attitude       In the third place, the end or purpose of Christ's
of His Father, hates the wicked and loves His peo-          rule is different in both instances. Christ rules over
ple. Some deny this and maintain that Christ loves          the wicked so that, while history unfolds, the
all men. But this clearly denies that God creates en-       wicked may serve the purpose of the salvation of
mity between His people and the wicked. How can             the church, and so that, at the end of time, the
God create such enmity when His love is equally             wicked, then ripe for judgment, may justly be cast
for all? This is impossible.                                into everlasting hell. Then their kingdom shall be
                                                            destroyed and the kingdom of Christ shall  be
  In the second place, the difference between the           established forever. But the purpose of Christ's rule
rule of Christ over the wicked and the rule of Christ       over His people is to save them, make them heirs of
over His people is a difference of the nature of            His kingdom and bring them as princes and
character of this rule. The wicked live in rebellion        princesses into the everlasting kingdom of heaven.
against Christ. They do all they can to destroy
Christ and His kingdom. They are at enmity with               This important and crucial distinction between
Christ and seek to establish their own kingdom of           the rule of Christ over the wicked and the rule of
wickedness. But in all this rebellion, Christ never-        Christ over His people is rooted in Christ's work on
theless rules. He rules in such a way that, on the          earth. Principally this distinction is rooted in the
one hand, the wicked remain wholly accountable              cross. On the one hand, it was on the cross that
for their sin and become ripe for judgment, and yet,        Genesis  3:15 was fulfilled and the head of the ser-
on the other hand, they serve the purpose which             pent and his seed was crushed. Scripture speaks of
Christ has determined. This is the clear statement          this more than once. Jesus, in speaking of His cross,
of Psalm 2. The wicked are described as raging and          says, "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall
imagining vain things. They set themselves and              the prince of this world be cast out" (Jn.  12:31).
take counsel together against the Lord and His              Paul, in describing what Christ accomplished on
Anointed. They proudly boast that they will break           the cross, speaks of the fact that Christ, "Having
Christ's bands and throw away Christ's cords. But           spoiled principalities and powers, made a shew of
He that sits in the heavens laughs and holds them           them' openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col.
in derision. How can this be? Does God laugh                2: 15). That is, part of Christ's work on the cross in
because in the end the wicked are finally defeated?         crushing the head of the serpent and his seed was
This is, of course, true. But this laughter is also due     to storm the citadel of Satan and the wicked world.
to the fact that in all their raging and proud boasting     This He did in such a way that he conquered this
they simply serve Christ's purpose and do His will.         stronghold and laid it waste and took all the spoils
They are chessmen on the chess board of history.            for His own kingdom. When Christ finished His
Everything they do is sovereignly determined. The           work, the power of Satan was forever broken
great truth of this was clearly set forth in the cross      beyond repair.
itself. The wicked destroyed Christ; but they,                But on this same cross, Christ accomplished sal-
through their hatred and fury, were instruments in          vation for His people. By destroying forever the
God's hands to accomplish redemption. "For of a             power of sin and death, by conquering the strong-
truth against the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast          hold of Satan and defeating the powers of darkness,


110                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



He at the same time accomplished salvation for His           cooperation,     mutual concern and interest,
people. He died in their place and paid the debt of          reciprocal relationships and fellowship. How this
sin and guilt. He earned for them salvation and an           idea of universal love and grace has destroyed the
everlasting place in IHis kingdom as citizens.               antithesis in the church is plain for all to see. The
   It all belongs together. Because Christ ac-               church and the world now make common cause in
complished on the cross the whole will of God, God          many areas. The chasm of the antithesis between
has also highly exalted Him and given Him a name             church and world is now bridged by a grace and
which is above every name. And what Christ did               love common to all. And the result is that the world
on His cross is now accomplished throughout                 rushes into the church and sweeps the church into
history as Christ defeats the forces of darkness and        the world so that worldliness and carnality become
gathers and saves His church. The distinction in the        the general character of God's people. Friendship,
rule of Christ is rooted in His cross.                       cooperation, mutual respect, fellowship take the
                                                            place of enmity.
  As that purpose of Christ's cross is carried out,
the antithesis becomes a reality in this present               It is because of Christ's rule that God's people
world. By taking His people into His own kingdom            are called to live out of the principle of the new life
through grace, Christ establishes enmity between            of Christ within their hearts. And because their
those of His kingdom and those of the kingdom of            Lord and Sovereign rules over them by grace,
this world.                                                 makes them citizens of the kingdom of heaven, but
                                                            rules over the wicked in His wrath and hatred, they
   It is not difficult to see how all this stands           too are called to live in enmity over against the
related. Those who teach that Christ died for every-        world. "Know ye not that the friendship of the
one because of His love for all can no longer speak         world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore
of an antithesis. And those who maintain that               will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God"
Christ is gracious towards all in this life in any          (James 5:4). Therefore, "be ye not unequally yoked
sense of the word cannot speak of an antithesis.            together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
And they cannot speak of an antithesis because              righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
they deny the distinction in the rule of Christ. If         communion hath light with darkness? And what
Christ is gracious to all, then His rule over all is a      concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath
rule of grace. And if His rule over all is a rule of        he that believeth with an infidel? And what agree-
grace, even though "common," the antithesis has             ment hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are
disappeared. Christ`s rule over this wicked world           the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
in which the elect are called to live is a rule of grace    will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be
just as His rule over His people is a rule of grace.        their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore
The result is that between God's people and the             come out from among them, and be ye separate,
wicked there are all kinds of opportunities for             saith the Lord . .  ." (II Cor.  6:14-17).





       The Antithesis and Christian Education
                                                 David J. Engelsma





  Fundamental to all of Christian life, inasmuch as         antithesis in the lives of the covenant people of
the whole of Christian life is obedience to the call of     God; and the instruction that such schools give is
God, "come out from among them, and be ye                   controlled by the antithesis.
separate" (II Cor.  6:17), the antithesis is especially
crucial for sound, Christian education. Good Chris-            Not a Biblical word (or, for that matter, a word
tian schools are a singularly clear expression of the       found in the Reformed creeds), the antithesis is


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             111



nevertheless a vital Biblical truth: the spiritual             tion in the truths of the creation, which prepares
separation and opposition that God has put be-                 the child for life and work on earth. Good, Chris-
tween His holy church and the ungodly world, and               tian schools are demanded by the covenant.
between the individual saint and the children of the             It is destructive of good, Christian education,
Devil (cf. Gen. 3:15). In the life of the believer, this       because it is a violation of the antithesis, that Chris-
separation from the world, and hatred of it, is an             tian schools are opened up to all the children of the
essential aspect of his devotion to, and love of, God:         neighborhood, or to children of strange religions.
"know ye not that the friendship of the world is en-             Nor is the Christian school, thus viewed, an ana-
mity with God? whosoever therefore will be a                   baptistic flight from the world  - an attempt to
friend of the world is the enemy of God' [James
4:4). For this reason, one of the main attacks of              separate from the world in a physical way. As is to
"our ancient foe" upon the church of God has                   be expected, the world hates Christian schools, as it
always been the attempt to breach the wall of                  hates every aspect of the covenant of God in its
separation that God has built between the church               midst. It condemns them as "divisive." But there
and the world.                                                 are also opponents of Christian education within
                                                               the church. They criticize Christian schools for an
   Reformed education, with a long and honorable               unhealthy isolation of the children of the church
history that goes back to the Reformation, repre-              and advocate sending the children to the schools of
sents one, outstanding way in which Reformed be-               the world, so that our children may early learn
lievers honor the antithesis, in life and practice,            what the world is and, in this way, become strong
both as regards a positive service of God, Who calls           in their Christian convictions. Criticizing Christian
us to rear our children "in the nurture and admoni-            parents for rearing their children in their own
tion of the Lord" (Eph.  6:4), and as regards                  schools is as foolish as it would be to criticize these
resistance of the Devil, who makes war with the'               parents for rearing their children in the "isolated"
remnant of the church's seed in education (Rev.                confines of their own homes, apart from ungodly
12:17).                                                        children and apart from ungodly instruction. As re-
               The Antithesis and the Origin                   gards the notion that the children of believers ought
                  of the Christian School                      to be sent off to rub mental and spiritual shoulders
   The Christian school is  born of the antithesis, In         with the world, in their education, Abraham
covenant grace, God redeems the children of be-                Kuyper has written well:
lieving parents from this present evil world (Gal.                 Christ has certainly declared, that between His fol-
                                                                  lowers and the world there is a difference as of sheep
1:4) and renews them, already in childhood, with                   and wolves . . . . Consider . . . what is implied in that
the new life of Jesus CHrist (Heidelberg Catechism,                sharp antithesis, which Jesus makes between sheep
Q. 74). Thus, He separates them, with their                        and wolves . . . the people of the world are fanatical in
parents, from the world and makes a difference                     their zeal for the world, and are bent upon inspiring
between our children and the world's children. The                your child, who now still resists with the spirit of the
sign of this separation and difference is Baptism:                world. They cannot rest, until your child is become
"by which we are . . . separated from all other peo-              part of the world. For this reason Jesus calls them
ple and strange religions, that we may wholly                     wolves. They want to make your child like unto them-
belong to Him, Whose ensign and banner we bear"                    selves, identify him with themselves, and thus
(Belgic Confession, Article 34). The children of                   spiritually devour him . . . . And so the lesson is this.
believers, in the elect among our offspring, are                  First keep your children with Jesus and under the
                                                                  shadow of His wings educate them until they are
covenant friends of God and enemies of the world,                 ready. And when they are ready, send them out into
by the mercy of God.                                              the world, let them out among wolves, but as sheep,
  Because they are God's children, the children of                i.e., as young people,  whose shield is the  Lord.1
believers must be taught and reared in a manner                  Arising as it does out of God's covenant, the
befitting their special position: they must learn the          Christian school is strictly and exclusively con-
fear of Jehovah God (Prov.  1:7); and they may not             trolled by the parents and other like-minded mem-
learn the way of the heathen (Jer. 10:2).  This calling        bers of the covenant of God. They make up the
of parents towards their children is all-embracing,            governing board and association. Their authority
according to Deuteronomy 6, to be carried out                  assures that the antithesis will be maintained in the
when parents sit in their house and when they walk             school - in the appointment of the teachers; in the
by the way, so that it extends to day-school instruc-          admittance of students; in the actual teaching; and
                                                               in the life of the school, generally.
David J. Engelsma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed           The authority of the State must be kept out. To
Church of South Holland, Illinois, and is a guest writer in    this end, all financial aid from the State must be re-
this issue.                                                    fused.


112                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



  Also, membership in the governing association           black, nor a struggle between rich and poor, nor a
and board must be limited to those who are in             struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie; but a
agreement with the covenantal-antithetical nature         struggle between those who believe in Jesus Christ
of Christian education. Reformed, Christian educa-        and infidels (II Cor. 6: 15). The Christian school
tion is threatened in our day by giving the direction     teaches the children of the covenant, how the
of the schools over to those who dissent from the         enemies of God press every aspect of human
very basis of covenant education, i.e.,  non-             culture into their revolt against their Maker  -
Reformed men.                                             allegedly scientific theory; literature; music;
       The Antithesis and the Instruction                 athletics; all. Thus, the children of believers are
                   of the School                          trained to have their own, unique, Christian mind;
                                                          to live in every sphere of human life out of the new
  Reformed, parental control safeguards antithet-         life of Christ, according to Scripture; to think
ical instruction in the classroom. A good, Christian      critically, discerning truth and lie (whether in
school teaches the truth and exposes the lie. All in-     reading Hemingway or the Chicago Tribune); and to
struction is based on and faithful to Holy Scripture,     have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
the inspired, infallible Word of God, as the doc-         darkness (Eph. 5: 11).
trines of Scripture are set forth and explained in the
Reformed Confessions. The Word of God in crea-              The school teaches the antithesis also by pointing
tion is the subject of the teaching in the Christian      out, in every subject, that God, the Sovereign of
school  - science, history, math, and all the other       history and the Judge of all mankind, curses the
areas of knowledge; but this Word is seen in the          unrighteous wicked and blesses His righteous peo-
light of Scripture and is taught in harmony with          ple, in time and history. In this way, the school, in
Scripture. This is essential.                             its own manner, reinforces the call to the children:
                                                          "come out from among them; and be ye separate"
  The school teaches the wonderful works of God           (II Cor. 6:17).
in creation and history. Because all things were            Fatal to this important task of the Christian
created by Christ and for Christ, because all things      school is the theory of common grace, which denies
consist by Christ (Col.  1:16,  17), and because Gods     the antithesis and affirms the oneness of the
plan is to gather together all things in Christ (Eph.
l:lO), the Christian school exalts the risen Jesus        children of God and the children of the world under
                                                          the grace 
Christ in all its teaching. In its own way, it makes                    of God and in the doing of works that please
the confession: Jesus Christ is Lord!                     Go`d. The results of having pulled this "Trojan
                                                          horse' ' into the Reformed City of God are
  Every supposedly scientific theory, every               devastating in our day. Teachers and scholars have
philosophy, every system of thought that exalts           a "mind" that has been formed in the world, to
itself against the knowledge of God and that is dis-      such an extent that this "mind" knows nothing of
obedient to the Lord Jesus is cast down in Christian      any antithesis between covenant children and the
education (II  @or.  l&4, 5).                             world's children, or of any essential difference be-
  It is not that the theories and works of the ungod-     tween a Christian knowledge and a knowledge of
ly world are kept out of the Christian school. On         the world, and to such an extent that this
the contrary, Christian education studies the theory      "common-grace mind" is as bold as brass to deny
of evolution; learns Communism's theory of                the infallible inspiration and Divine authority of
economy and history; reads the plays of Shake-            Holy Scripture. Schools assent to, and peddle as
speare; listens to the music of Mozart; and analyzes      God's own truth, demonic doctrines that are among
- thoroughly and honestly  - the psychological,           the most dangerous teachings ever to be launched
sociological, ethical, and historical views of man by     from Satan's mind against the cause of God's cove-
scholars who are without God and without hope in          nant, e.g., the assent to evolution in "theistic evolu-
the world. This is necessary preparation of the           tion. ' ' Administration, professors, and students
children of the covenant to live in the world, in our     alike enthusiastically respond to the world's call to
own particular society and age. But all is examined       arms against the sovereign authority of the God and
in the light of Scripture; and whatever appears as        Father of Jesus Christ in a revolution that now runs
conflicting with the written Word of God is con-          the gamut of human life  - the revolt of wives
demned as falsehood and lie.2                             against husbands (the feminist movement) and the
  The students are taught the antithesis. They are        revolt of citizens against government (the revolu-
taught that there  is  a separation and hostility on      tion of certain black citizens in South Africa against
earth between two kinds of men and two ways of            their. God-ordained rulers, aided and abetted by
life  - mankind is not united, is not a solidarity, is    Christian scholars and schools in our land).
not a brotherhood. They are taught  what  the an-           If we maintain and practice the antithesis in our
tithesis is  - not a struggle between white and           education of our children, God will bless us; and


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          113



His blessing will be sweet  - nothing less than the          `When Thou Sittest in Thine House (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
continuation of His covenant with our sons and               1929),  "Sheep in the Midst of Wolves," pp. 171 ff.
daughters, graced by Him to be stalwart in the truth         2For  a more full treatment of Christian education's avoidance
and beautiful with holiness.                                 of world-flight than is possible in this article, see the chapter,
  If we repudiate the antithesis, God will judge us;         "Reformed Education and Culture," in the present writer's
and His judgment will be bitter  - a generation of           book, Reformed Education. This book also treats of the unique
carnal, skeptical, unspiritual, pleasure-mad  world-         goal of Christian education, which is not possible in the short
                                                             compass of this article.
lings, and the end of the covenant in our lines.





             The Worldly Amusement Problem
                                                  Gise J. Van Baren





   She was lying on her deathbed. It had, first, been        ber not the sins of my youth, nor may transgres-
difficult to reconcile herself to the breaking of all        sions . . .  ." David does not mention those sins in
earthly ties - but the grace of God had brought her          the passage - but the anguish expressed is of one
to that point finally. The infinitely wise God knew          who has come to see the awfulness of walking con-
what was best for her and for her family. Except for         trary to God's law.
one last thing, she was ready to depart from this               Many, especially in their youth, fail to see the
life.                                                        terrible consequences of seeking "worldly amuse-
   Her problem was movie attendance - and lying              ments." Only later in life do these, brought to
about that. When she was young, she had attended             repentance and true conversion, begin to under-
certain movies with her friends. Of course, her              stand the effects upon themselves, their thoughts
parents did not know. And certainly the minister             and deeds.
and elders had not known. Trouble was, she
reached the point in life when she must make con-               We speak of "worldly amusements." If such
fession of her faith. She, and some of her friends,          were listed, not all would agree what should be in-
would appear before the consistory. In a way, she            cluded. Some might include only the vilest forms of
dreaded that encounter  - for she knew that one              "entertainment" as that found in sex parlors and
question usually asked was: "Have you attended               with pornographic movies. Others would include
movies?" Difficult though she knew it would be,              some things as movie and dance which is, however,
she resolved to answer truthfully. But when the              considered acceptable in some church circles.
time came, her friends (who had attended movies                 An "amusement" is any diversion from regular
with her) answered "No" to the question. When it             activity. It is an entertainment or pastime. Amuse-
was her turn to answer, her resolve melted - and             ments are activities which can refresh one for
she answered "No" as well.                                   resumption of regular labors. Amusements are not
   Now, before she dared to die, this double sin             necessarily wrong, nor are all of them by any
must be removed. She abhorred her earlier desire             means worthless.
for this "worldly amusement" - and especially her               But there are the "worldly" amusements. These
bold lie about it before the consistory of the church.       are such not because they exist  in  this world, but
She insisted on confession - and then she could die          because they are sinful and done in violation to the
in peace.                                                    law of our God. These are "worldly" because they
   So also David cried out in Psalm 25:7, "Remem-            come forth from the corruption and depravity of
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed       wicked men.
Church  of  Hudsonville, Michigan.                              These worldly amusements in themselves are


     114                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



     sinful. The very fact of engaging in these makes one                         . . . We believe that in view of the rapidly increasing
     to sin before God. There are also other amuse-                             popularity of the promiscuous dance and the low
     ments, which, though not sinful in themselves,                             morality of the modern dances, Christian parents and
     become sinful when they occupy so much of one's                            teachers and the Christian church should frown even
     time that he can not properly devote himself to his                        on the most innocent forms of this kind of amuse-
     calling to serve God in worship, in training of his                        ment . . . .
     children, in fellowship with the saints in society,                       All the above, and much more, was stated back
     etc. Participation in or viewing of football, basket-                  in 1928 - when by comparison to what is done to-
     ball, baseball for hour upon hour often daily is sin-                  day, the dance and movie were far less evil. Yet to-
     ful abuse of the time God has given to us.                             day this same church speaks of "film arts" and of
                                                                            "redeeming the dance." One wonders: has the
       In "worldly amusements" we do include the
I                                                                           church so greatly matured that today it can "han-
     dance and movie (theater, television drama).                           dle" these amusements in a spiritual and godly
     Though these can not be considered extensively in                      manner  - when some 60 years ago far less evil
     this short article, a few things might be noted. An                    forms of these amusements were emphatically de-
     interesting little booklet, "Worldly Amusements in                     nounced?
     the Light of Scripture," republished as late as 1945
     by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church (a                         But worldly amusements confront us too. There
     booklet which must prove acutely embarrassing to                       are disturbing reports of some of our young people
     them today), contains a Synodical report presented                     especially who attend movies and dances. And how
     to the Synod of 1928 and the decisions of that                         many of our homes openly view the dramatizations
     Synod on these "worldly amusements" of the                             presented  - which essentially are no different
     dance, movie attendance, and card-playing. This                        from the movie? Are we consistently opposed to
     decision came as a result of an overture from                          these worldly amusements?
     Classis  Grand Rapids West in 1926 "to utter a                           We have "Christian liberty" - a liberty not to do
     strong warning against worldliness and to take a                       as we please, but whereby we can freely do what
     definite stand against the evils of card-playing,                      God pleases. We are not to use this "liberty" as an
     theater-attendance (including movie-attendance),                       occasion to sin (Gal. 5: 13).
     and dancing." Classis  Illinois insisted that in-                        The problem, of course, is the old man of sin.
     dulgence in such sins is "detrimental to spiritual                     That old nature still desires the things of this world
     development, impedes religious progress, under-                        - and does not walk antithetically. Ephesians 4:22
     mines individual piety and devotion, and of                            states, "That ye put off concerning the former con-
     necessity jeopardizes the spiritual life of the                        versation the old man which is corrupt according to
     Church."                                                               the deceitful lusts." It is that old man which
       Of the theater, the report stated:                                   possesses the "lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh,
              Everyone knows that the modern theater is not an              and the pride of life" (I John 2:16). Worldly amuse-
            improvement upon the old, as far as morals are con-             ments exactly appeal to this lust. It is not truly a
            cerned. It is said to belittle virtue and extol vice. In its    desire for "art" which makes these things attrac-
            unblushing, disgusting display of sex, it is probably           tive; and, let's be honest, it is not a desire to
            the worst school of immorality among us today, and              "redeem" (whatever that might mean) the dance
            for this it deserves the supreme contempt of every              that causes one to be attracted by these. It is lust.
            Christian . . . .                                               The wicked world entices  - and all too often we
       Or there is the statement about the movie:                           are attracted.
              A large number of these pictures are a shameful ex-             Much of these "worldly amusements" became a
            ploitation of the sex-instinct; and many others exert a         problem in the church through the modern inven-
            baneful influence through the portrayal of crime, a             tions of man: the movie, television, radio. Before
            flippant attitude toward parental authority, the digni-         these inventions, the wicked world was somewhere
            ty of the government and of the Church. Because of              "out there." The Christian could sit tranquilly in
            these things the movie-theater is undeniably one of
            the most destructive forces in our country, morally             the seclusion of his home. Not today any more.
            pestilential . . . .                                            Now all the evils of man are vividly, in living color,
       Or there is the statement about the dance:                           set before us. The temptation to participate is real.
                                                                              Besides, there is that "peer" pressure. The
              The promiscuous dance, especially as it is in vogue           children of Christian parents in other churches can
            today, because of the close physical contact between
            the sexes, is fundamentally immoral. Its fascination            dance and attend movies. Some of our friends
            lies in its sex-appeal. It thrives on the sex-instinct, and     perhaps attend. Then why can we not? The ques-
            is therefore a violation of the seventh command-                tion is raised repeatedly, "What's wrong with it?"
            ment . . . .                                                    (More properly we might ask, "What is right about


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               115



it?")                                                     heavens and earth?
  At this point we also face the demand of Scrip-           May we have "fun"? Of course we may and can.
ture: antithetical living. We are to be "Christian"       But our pleasure ought to be a foretaste of that
not simply in name, but in life and walk. How ut-         which we anticipate even now in glory. It is the
terly senseless it is to spend 30 hours a week in our     pleasure of praising God forevermore. It is the joy
own Christian schools - but then spend 40 or more         of saints who rejoice in the covenant fellowship
hours in front of TV being instructed by unbe-            with God and His Son Jesus Christ.
lievers. Our difference must show. Our godliness
must be real.                                               Rejecting the pleasures of wickedness, we seek
                                                          the joys of salvation. Surely the careful searching of
   "Antithesis" is to live over against and in opposi-    Scriptures and diligent prayer are part of the life of
tion to the life-style of the world. It is to denounce    the Christian. He has his quiet moments of medita-
the corruptions of natural man, to flee the lusts of      tion when he sets aside his regular activities in
our own flesh. It is to condemn the kind of "amuse-       order to think upon his God.
ments" which please so very many in this world.
But it is also to affirm - to affirm the holiness and        And he enjoys those times of physical exercise in
godly living demanded of converted children of            games. He has pleasure in other activities which in-
God in Scripture. We are to "put on the new man,          volve concentration and thought: as with challeng-
which after God is created in righteousness and           ing games. He takes the time to enjoy the beauty of
true holiness" (Eph.  4:24).                              Gods wonderful creation. In short, he rejoices to
                                                          be involved in those kinds of amusements concern-
  Many have asked, But can not Christians have            ing which he would not be ashamed if Christ would
any fun? However, what is "fun" in living a               return to observe that very moment.
dissolute life? What is fun in violence, cursing,
swearing, sex of the movie? What is the fun of the           The Psalmist declares, "Let the saints be joyful in
dance? Is it the sexual attraction it generates? Is it    glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the
the good time it promotes, usually with the help of       high praises of God be in their mouth . .  ." (Ps.
drinking? Is this the fun we will enjoy in the new        14956).





                     The Antithesis and Unionism
                                                 Cornelius Hanko





   Very early in the  hi.story  of our Protestant Re-        1. Being a member of a worldly union is definite-
formed Churches our people realized that the               ly inconsistent with membership in the body of
denial of common grace and an antithetical life in         Christ.
this world required a refusal to be unequally yoked             a. There is no communion between Christ
with unbelievers.                                          and Belial. We cannot serve God and mammon.
   Two years after our inception, as early as 1927,        Children of God may not sit in the seat of mockers.
an overture was presented to classis (we had as yet             b. It is abundantly proven that the use of force
no synod) by the consistory of the South Holland           is the chief and most desired means used to attain
congregation requesting  classis to take an official       their goal.
stand against membership in the labor union.
Union membership was at that time a weighty                     c. The unions undermine the God-given
issue in the Chicago area. The following grounds           authority of the employer.
were offered:                                                2. The consistory regards this as a proper time to


116                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



take a definite stand against unionism before this           bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel"
evil takes root in our churches.                             (Gen.  3:15).
   3. The affiliation with a worldly union can only            Abraham, the father of all believers, was called
be condoned on the basis of the error of common              out of Ur of the Chaldees to sojourn in the land of
grace. With all might and main we must show with             Canaan with Isaac and Jacob, as heirs of the prom-
our deeds that we are willing to fight for our King          ise and as strangers and pilgrims on the earth
against Satan and the evil world. (Minutes of                (Heb.  11:13-15).
Classis,  June, 1927)         -                                The nation of Israel was separated from all the
   Classis  expressed that "a member of the Protes-          nations of the earth as God's peculiar possession, as
tant Reformed Churches cannot be a member of                 God declared through Moses in Deuteronomy
the labor union."                                            32:28: "Israel then shall dwell in safety alone." In
   In June of 1946 the union matter came to synod            her isolation would be her safety. This is typical of
in connection with the Taft Hartley law, which for-          the spiritual separation between God's people and
bids anyone from working in a union shop unless              the evil world. The church is in the world, yet not
he is a union member. At that time our synod ad-             of the world (Psalm  l:l, 2; I Pet.  2:9).
dressed a letter to the president, the cabinet, the            As a result, we are warned not to put on
congressmen, and the Supreme Court of the United             ourselves a yoke with unbelievers. II Corinthians
States which reads in part:                                  6: 14-18, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with
   "We, the Protestant Reformed Churches, are op-            unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteous-
posed to membership in the existing unions,                  ness with unrighteousness? and what communion
because we believe that the principles of the class          hath light with darkness? And what concord hath
struggle, dividing society into the two opposing             Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
camps of capital and labor, are contrary to Holy             believeth with an infidel? And what agreement
Writ and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;                hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the
because we cannot agree with the materialistic               temple of the living God: as God bath said, I will
motives and purposes that so manifestly actuate the          dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their
unions, but believe that we should first seek the            God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come
kingdom of God and its righteousness; because we             out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
believe that unionism in often defying authority             Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will
and taking the law into its own hands is in conflict         receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye
with the Word of God which enjoins us to honor               shall be my sons and daughters."
those that are in authority over us; because the               2. The child  of  God is called to seek first the
union seeks its own end through the deployment of            kingdom of heaven and its righteousness in the con-
force and coercion, which militates against the              fidence that his heavenly Father will fully supply all his
principles and spirit of the gospel of our Lord Jesus        needs  (Matthew  6:25-34).
Christ; in short, because we refuse to affiliate our-          This is the intent of the fourth petition of the
selves with any organization whose principles and            perfect prayer that our Lord teaches us: "Give us
practices are so plainly in conflict with the teaching       this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:ll).
of Holy Writ." (For the complete copy see the Acts
of Synod 1946, or the Standard Bearer, Vol. 22, page           Jesus warned the bread-hungry multitude at
456.)                                                        Capernaum, who sought Him because He had
                                                             miraculously fed them with bread the day before,
  The Scriptural basis for this stand is most ob-            "Labor not for the bread that perisheth, but for that
vious .                                                      meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
   1. The believer and the unbeliever are as different as    the Son of man shall give unto you; for him hath
light and darkness, heaven and hell, so that the believer    God the Father sealed" (John 6:27). See also Psalm
feels himself compelled to live in the world, yet not of     63:l; Col.  3:l; Heb.  1125, 26.
the world, antithetically opposed to all the works of          In this connection it should be mentioned that
darkness.                                                    labor unions are oath-bound organizations. In times
  This becomes evident already immediately after             past, a prospective member was required to lay his
the fall of man in paradise when God said to Satan,          hand on a Bible as he swore allegiance to the union
"And I will put enmity between thee and the                  above any other organization or religious affiliation.
woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall           Today nothing more is required than a signature,
                                                             which does bind a person to the constitution with
                                                             its oath.
Cornelius Hanho  is a minister emeritus in the Protestant
Reformed Churches.                                             3. Scripture condemns the use of force, strikes, or


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  117



other coercion used by the employee to compel the                "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they
employer  to grant his wishes. God requires that we       have wearied thee, then how  canst thou content
submit to the authority placed over us as unto Him.       with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein
  In Romans 13: 1,2 we are told, "Let every soul be       thou trustest, these wearied thee, then how wilt
subject unto the higher powers. For there is no           thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?" Jer. 12:7. If
power but of God; the powers that be are ordained         we cannot resist the threat of trials today, how will
of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power,          we and our children survive when antichrist exerts
resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist      his power over us?
shall receive to themselves damnation." That is                  "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain
strong language.                                          the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what
  And that also applies to employees, "Servants, be       shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark
obedient to them that are your masters according to       8:36, 37.
the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of             5. Scripture requires of us that we contend for the
heart as unto Christ; not with eye service, as men        faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).
pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of           "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my
God from the heart (Eph.  6:5, 6). See also I Peter       servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know
2: 18-20.                                                 and believe me, and understand that I am he;
  It is commonly known that the employer does             before me there was no God formed, neither shall
sometimes take undue advantage of the employee,           there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside
even to the point of imposing severe burdens upon         me there is no savior. I have declared, and have
him. In our society there is always the option of         saved, and I have  shewed,  when there was no
quitting and seeking other employment. This may           strange god among you, therefore ye  are my
cause suffering, yet we must be willing to suffer for     witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God!" (Isaiah
Christ's sake (Matt.  16:24, 25; Luke  14:27; John        43:10-12).
16:33).                                                          Jesus assures us, "Whosoever shall confess me
  In the epistle of James, chapter 5, the rich man is     before men, him will I confess before my Father
condemned for oppressing the poor. Of the poor            which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me
man who works for him it is said, "He doth not            before men, him will I deny before my Father
resist you." But the Lord is Judge: "Behold, the hire     which is in heaven" (Matt.  10:22, 23; Matt.  12:30).
of the laborers who have reaped down your fields,                "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the com-
which you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries       ing of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth
of them which have reaped are entered into the            for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa-
ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in             tience for it, until he receive the early and the latter
pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have           rain. Be ye also patient, establish your hearts; for
nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter"          the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James  5:7,
(verses 4 and 5).                                         8).
  4. Scripture teaches us that we must trust in the              Either our treasure is in heaven and we set our
Lord rather than in the arm of flesh.                     hearts on that which is spiritual and heavenly, or
   "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed is the man that           we sell our souls for the passing things of this
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and            world. Either we belong to the party of the living
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall         God or we join the ranks of antichrist. Either we
be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see        respect the truth of Scripture or we surrender
when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched           ourselves to the domineering power of the wicked.
places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not in-      Either we put our trust in God and experience
habited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the          peace and contentment, or we lean on the arm of
Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as      flesh and suffer the consequences.
a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out             Let us live our lives antithetically, holding that
her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat       which we have that no man take our crown (Rev.
cometh, but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be     3:ll).
careful in the year of the drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit" (Jer.  17:5-8).  See also      I                                                             I
Psalm  61:5-8, 10; Psalm  118:8.                                   Take the time to read and
  The contrast is between Christ and antichrist, the               study the Standard Bearer.
church and the world, trusting in God or in the arm
of the flesh.


118                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


                   The Antithesis, Culture, and the
                                       Cultural Mandate.
                                                    Thomas C. Miersma





   Culture. The word itself brings to our minds a              distorted in its meaning, by the theory of common
wide variety of ideas and thoughts. We speak of our            grace and the philosophy of the A.A.C.S. The
own culture and of the culture of other nations and            passage in question certainly teaches that God gave
peoples which is different from our own  - dif-                unto man at his creation a certain commission or
ferent customs or manners or forms of dress, dif-              mandate, a certain calling regarding the things of
ferences in the building and the style of homes, dif-          creation. He was made to have dominion over the
ferent forms of music and art and expression, dif-             earth and called to replenish and subdue it. Man as
ferences in government or the institutions of a                he came from the hand of God his creator and as he
society or in the way business is done, different              stood as God's covenant son and covenant  friend-
foods or ways of cooking. We speak also of cultural            servant, was king under God, called to exercise
events, important events in the life of society, par-          dominion, to cultivate and culture the earth. Thus
ticularly in the intellectual life of society or in the        Adam and Eve were set in the Garden of Eden to
realm of the arts. Today we also speak of sub-                 dress it and to keep it.
cultures, of the different trends and streams of                 But there are several other elements which we
thought, behavior, dress, and music within our                 must notice in this connection. In the first place the
society and culture.                                           commission or mandate of dominion which God
  The word culture itself, however, in its original            gave unto man stands intimately connected with
meaning goes slightly beyond these ideas, for it in-           his relationship to God in God's covenant and with
cludes not only the result of man's labor and activi-          his creation in the image of God in true knowledge,
ty but the activity itself, that process of discovery          righteousness, and holiness. It is only as man
and development which characterizes man's in-                  stands in covenant fellowship with God and in His
dustry, science, and labor in the world. It is this            image that he has the right to exercise that lordship
sense which is reflected in our word agriculture.              and dominion. Secondly, this Word of God does not
And we still conceive of culture in this sense when            merely set before us an admonition to man, but it is
we speak of culturing a microorganism in a labora-             itself a creative word of God, by which man was
tory. Culture includes therefore not only the prod-            created with the power and ability to exercise that
uct or fruit of man's labor and activity but also the          lordship. He was created with the cultural urge
labor itself which he bestows upon the creation and            within him, and it belongs to the very formation of
upon his world. By culture we mean, therefore, all             his human nature to engage in cultural activity.
that man has discovered and developed from the                 Thirdly, we must note that this commission was
creation, shaped and molded by his labor, and by               given unto man as he stood in paradise the first,
which he has formed the fabric of his life and that            without sin, in a world uncorrupted by sin.
of his society.                                                  It is in light of the fall into sin however that we
  It is evident when we consider this matter of                must now consider the question of culture and the
culture in the light of the Word of God that God               cultural mandate. In the fall man was changed,
also made man in the beginning to be just such a               spiritually and morally and in his relationship to
creature. In Genesis  1:26-28 in connection with               God. In violating Gods covenant, he separated
man's creation in the image of God we read that                himself from God, fell into darkness and death
God gave dominion over the creation to the man                 under the wrath of God, and lost God's image.
and called him to "be fruitful, and multiply, and              Though he continues to be man, with the cultural
replenish the earth, and subdue it." This is some-             urge within him, he has lost the right to exercise
times called the "cultural mandate," a term which              dominion over God's creation. Fallen man has no
in our day has become much corrupted and                       cultural mandate from God; he has in fact no right
                                                               to so much as a toehold in God's creation, and God
Thomas  C. Miersma is pastor  of  the First Protestant         in judgment drives him out of the world by death.
Reformed Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                  What of his power and ability to engage in cultural


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 119



activity? Man retains, as remnants of natural light,      from a spiritual point of view be judged to be essen-
his natural gifts of mind and intellect, of will and      tially one: the culture of sinful man who has
feeling, though they are diminished so that man is        departed from the living God.
not able to discern and name the animals as Adam           What then of the child of God whose heart is
could. Nor are these natural gifts a matter of a cer-     renewed by God's grace and in whom the image of
tain common grace. Rather, they are rooted in the         God is restored? Christ by His suffering and death
fact that in the fall man remains a man, but now a        has overcome sin and death and the curse, and is
sinful fallen and depraved man, possessing from a         raised unto exalted lordship over all things. In Him
spiritual point of view a corrupted and polluted          is established the kingdom of God which is of
human nature.                                             heaven, the foundation of a new heavens and earth,
  Nor is the creation left unchanged by the fall. For     and the hope of eternal life in a heavenly paradise
the curse of God came upon it, and man no longer          more glorious than paradise the first. And in Christ
stands in paradise the first. Though that curse of        we are anointed to be kings and priests unto God by
God upon the creation was mitigated somewhat              His Spirit and begin to live a new life, which is not
after the flood for the sake  pf the church (Genesis      of this world but of that which is to come. And
8:20-22;  9:8-15), yet man's span of life was also        therefore with regard to the culture of this world
shortened. Nor was the curse wholly lifted, for the       our calling is to walk in spiritual separation from it,
whole creation continues to groan and travail in          being in the world but not of it.
pain together until now (cf. Romans 8: 19-22). All of        Is the cultural mandate then restored in the child
man's cultural activity therefore is now carried out      of God? And if so, how is it to be exercised? The
in the sphere of death under the wrath of God             answer to this question must be carefully drawn
which is revealed from heaven. And man, though            lest we fall into error. The answer is a qualified yes;
he develops the things of this world and engages in       and to the question how, the answer is, in the way
cultural activity, does so as a rebel in Gods crea-       of the antithesis. Qualified the answer must be
tion, an idolater who worships and serves the             because the child of God exercises his calling not
creature rather than the Creator, and who in all his      by trying to reform or transform this world but by
cultural activity serves sin.                             living the life of a citizen of the kingdom of heaven,
  Nor may we conceive of the history and develop-         in this world, and in spiritual separation from it.
ment of man's culture, of his science and art, of his     Qualified it must be too over against the philosophy
technology and labors as a positive development           of the A.A.C.S. and others who conceive of the
from a spiritual point of view. Such is the error of      cultural mandate and the calling of the child of God
common grace, which confuses increasing com-              to be to go out and redeem the so-called good
plexity and sophistication with positive moral and        culture of this world, the fruit of common grace,
spiritual development and with good before God.           and to Christianize it. Such is not the calling of the
For though man discovers "some regard for virtue,         child of God. For it fails to recognize the principle
good order in society, and for maintaining an order-      of sin and its development and fails also to recog-
ly external deportment," yet as to such light of          nize that that calling is one we receive only in con-
nature as he retains, "he is incapable of using it        nection with the kingdom of heaven. Moreover,
aright even in things natural and civil," says our        this world yet lies under the curse, and the child of
Canons. "Nay further, this light such as it is, man       God himself has only a small beginning of new obe-
in various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds        dience being yet in the flesh. It is not by transform-
it in unrighteousness,  by doing which he becomes         ing culture and society that this world shall become
inexcusable before God" (Canons III-IV Art. 4).           the kingdom of our God and His Christ but only by
Rather man develops in and serves sin in all his          the resurrection at the last day when the culture of
cultural life. From a spiritual point of view all of      this world shall perish by fire even as the culture of
man's cultural activity serves the coming of Anti-        the world before the flood was overthrown by the
christ and stands in opposition to God. Thus in the       flood. It is not by Christian social action or political
culture of our own day and its development, we see        action that man is renewed and changed, but only
more and more clearly revealed that process of            by grace in the heart through regeneration and
development under the wrath of God which is               faith. The child of God does not seek a Christian
described in Romans I: 19 ff., and the spirit of          political party or state in this world, for he is
unbelief which prevailed in the days before the           already a member of the only Christian state and
flood.                                                    kingdom to be found in this world, Christ's
                                                          kingdom, manifested in the church.
  The culture of this world, while it manifests itself
as manifold and diverse among different nations             Rather he seeks to live as a citizen of that
and peoples, in different climates and places, must       kingdom in his home, in the instruction he gives his

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





 120                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

  children through Christign day schools, to labor as                     is godliness. Neither does he substitute the crude
  unto God and not unto men in his work in the                            music, literature, and amusements of popular
  world. He fights the battle of faith in the world,                      culture for the more complex forms of higher
  seeks to consecrate all things in his heart unto God,                   culture out of the delusion that the one is
  to live antithetically over against the culture of this                 dangerous and the other only harmless entertain-
  world. For the childl of God does not go out of the                     ment. But on the contrary he approaches all things
  world. He uses the things of this world, its in-                        from a spiritual point of view, with the love of God
  dustry, science, institutions. He dwells in the                         in his heart, and in the recognition that sinful man
  houses of this world, wears in modesty the clothes                      in all that he says and does cannot please God. The
  of this world, eats this world's food. He engages in                    more clearly the principle of sin reveals itself in the
  business, submits himself to the powers that be,                        culture in which he lives the less he has to do with
  and walks in the midst of society; he is acquainted                     it, separating himself from it, walking with spiritual
  with this world's literature, music, and art. But he                    discernment, hating sin and fleeing from it. He
  does these things always with eyes fixed upon the                       looks to the end of his calling, the hope of a new
  kingdom which is above, seeking the things which                        heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
  are above. He is no hermit,  no anti-intellectual,                      shall dwell.
  who assumes that ignorance of the world about him


                                            GIDEON - A MIGHTY DELIVERER
             The Church that is privileged by the grace of God to be truly Reformed, at the  end  of the 20th
         century, has an awesome calling  - a "Gideon-like" calling. She is called to contend with myriad
         foes that are sworn to destroy the Reformed Faith and Church, for  the deliverance of  God's  op-
         pressed people. This demands taking careful heed to herself and, often, painful, internal strug-
         gle. Every living member of the Reformed Church shares in this calling.
             A taped series of sermons on the history of Gideon  ,(Judges 6-8) not only explains the
         fascinating account of God's deliverance of His Israel under the old covenant, but also applies
         the history, as history fulfilled in Christ, to the New Testament Church and calls this Church to
         her urgent  task  and mighty warfare, on behalf of God's covenant people.
             Preached in 1985 by Rev. David J. Engelsma for the Congregation of the Protestant Re-
         formed Church of South Holland, Illinois, these sermons, it is hoped, may arouse and encourage
         others, so that "through faith . . . out of  weakness  (they are) made strong, wax valiant in fight,
         turn to flight the armies of the aliens."
             The set comes in an attractive "book-type" box, and consists of six sermons on three quality
         cassette tapes: "The Call of a Mighty Deliverer"; "Putting our Own House in Order"; "Thinning
         the Ranks"; "Deliverance by the Sword of the Covenant"; "Divisions Within"; and
         "Deliverance . . .  And Departure."
             Distributed for $15.00 (Postage included) by:
                 The Evangelism Committee of the Protestant Reformed Church
                 1651 1 South Park Avenue, South Holland, Illinois 60473
                 U.S.A., Phone: (312) 596-3113


               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                     ATTENTION TEACHERS!!!
    The Ladies' Aid Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church              Covenant Christian School of Lynden;Washington,  has an open-
 (Walker, MI) expresses its Christian sympathy to Mrs. Berdina Lotter-    ing for a teaching-administrator in the Liberal'Arts subjects for the
 man in the death of her mother, MRS. PIPER.                              1986-87 school year.
    "Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by        Please send enquiries to: Covenant  Ch.?istian School, 9088 North-
 my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward       lawn Road,  Lynden,  Washington 98264, or phone: Peter Adams,
 receive me to glory."  (Ps.  73:23, 24)                                  (206) 398-2774, or Albert De Boer,  (206) 354-5825.
 Prof. H. Hanko, Pres.                                                                                                           `1
 Eilene Terpstra, Sec'y.


