            The
     STANDARD
           BEARER
c            A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





                         Special Issue
              The Office of Believers

     Dear Reader:
       This is the second of our special issues for the current
     volume-year. It is devoted in its entirety to the subject of the
     Office of Believers. You will find a variety of articles on this
     subject, chosen out of a large number of possible subjects.
     We hope yo'u will find these articles instructive and helpful
     with respect to a subject which has frequently been misun-
     derstood and a reality in the Christian life which has too
     often been neglected. A word of special thanks to our two
     guest writers in this issue, Pastor Carl J. Haak and Mission-
     ary-pastor R.onald J. Van Overloop.                                   HCH




                                                 Vol.  LXII, No. 12, March 15, 1986  -


266                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER




                              CONTENTS                                                                     THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
   Meditation  -                                                                              Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mich.
                                                                               Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
       Your Sons and Daughters Now Prophesy. . . . . .266                      Department Editors: Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                               D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
   The Office of Believers and Pentecost . . . . . . . . . .269                Rev. Ronald Hanko, Mr. David Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. J. Kortering,
                                                                               Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
   The Reformation and the Office of All Believers . .271                      Gise J. Van  Baren,  Rev. Herman  Veldman.
                                                                               BditoriaI   Office: Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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MEDITATION


        Your Sons and Daughters Now Prophesy
                                                                     Cornelius Hanho


                   And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all
                flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
                and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour
                out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. Acts 217, 18.


   "This is that which was spoken by the prophet                                     There had been wonders from heaven and signs
Joel . . . .  "                                                                  from the earth beneath (vs. 19).
   "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith                                A short time previously the sun had turned to
God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all                                  darkness at noontime. Wicked men were in the
flesh!"                                                                          process of crucifying God's Christ. The rulers were


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              267



plotting together against God and His Anointed.               Every one was impelled by the Spirit to give ex-
They had condemned Him and nailed Him to the                pression to the new experiences within his soul.
cross. Yet at the stroke of noontime God had cast a         Meanwhile a crowd was gathering outside,
terrifying gloom over the Place of the Skull. During        thousands from every part of the city, drawn most
those three hours the world stood condemned, for            likely by the sound of the rushing of a mighty wind,
especially then God was in Christ reconciling the           actually brought there by God to witness what God
world unto Himself, nevermore to reckon the sins            had wrought in His people. The disciples went out,
of Gods people against them. As our Lord came               spread through the crowd, and experienced a new
forth out of the deep agonies of His suffering the          power and gift of the Spirit. Each was able to speak
darkness fled, and the triumphant voice broke               to the person he or she approached in his or her
forth: "It is Finished!" All is accomplished. Once          own language. When one approached an Arab he
more the darkness descended upon the land, the              spoke Arabian, if he approached a Crete he spoke
earth quaked, graves were opened, the veil of the           Cretian to him. But even more amazing than that,
temple rent from the top to the bottom. Now the             each one spoke of the new insight that he had
world stood judged and condemned, the devil cast            received into the mighty works of God.
out. Now the saints of all ages stood reconciled to
God!                                                          Wonderful works they were. Need we ask what
                                                            those works were? Surely the Spirit had given them
  The Captain of our salvation gave Himself unto            a new insight into the recent events, the  crucifii-
death and the grave, arose again on the third day,          ion, death, resurrection, and ascension of their
and marched triumphantly into glory, accom-                 Lord! With full confidence they could now say,
panied by the angels, to take His exalted place at          "Must not the Christ have suffered all these things
the Father's right hand. As Head of His church He           and thus entered into His glory?"
receives His due reward; every spiritual blessing is
bestowed upon Him to share with His church!                   Some in the audience were amazed. Others tried
                                                            to silence this new proof of Christ's resurrection
  On the Passover He merited life and salvation for         with the strongest weapon the devil ever devised,
His people; on the Harvest Feast He is ready to             mockery! They accused these followers of Jesus of
bestow those gifts of grace upon His church!                drunken babbling.
  All things stood in readiness!                              To Peter the Spirit gave the ability to refute these
  "I will pour out of My Spirit!"                           enemies of God.
  The day of feast of Pentecost had actually come             The prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled!
and gone.                                                     God has sent forth His Spirit upon all flesh!
  Even as the Passover, this important feast had
brought many thousands of Jews and proselytes to              The three persons of the Godhead were in
Jerusalem. It was now the first day of a new week,          perfect agreement when together they sent forth
fifty days after the resurrection. One hundred and          the Spirit. No, rather, Father and Son told the Spirit
twenty devoted followers of Jesus were gathered to-         to go, and the Spirit on its own initiative went to
gether still praying for the outpouring of the prom-        carry out their eternal purpose. He entered into the
ised Spirit. In answer to their prayer, the Spirit          exalted Christ, and through Christ went forth into
made His presence known by the sound of a roar-             the church as represented here by the one hundred
ing wind, which reached tornado proportions and             and twenty.
was likely heard throughout the holy city. Yet,               God came to dwell in the hearts of mere men, in-
strange to say, the sound was centered in the room          significant men of ordinary flesh, unworthy in
where Jesus' disciples were assembled. There was            themselves! Yet these were appointed from all eter-
the sound of wind, yet no wind; neither the drapes          nity to receive the Spirit. Not as if the Spirit had not
nor a hair of their heads stirred!                          worked the work of salvation in the hearts of the
  A flame of fire appeared above the assembly,              saints of the old dispensation. Of course He had.
dividing itself into one hundred and twenty flames,         But never before had the Spirit made the hearts of
each settling above the heads of each one present.          Gods saints His special dwelling place. Christ now
Again, this flame had every appearance of fire, yet         came to implant His resurrection life in their
it was no fire, gave off no heat, but symbolized the        hearts. From now on they would understand the
power of the Holy Spirit purifying and enlightening         wonderful works of God far better than ever
the hearts of those in whom the Spirit had come to          before, since the types and shadows had faded into
dwell.                                                      reality, the victory of the cross was attained, and
                                                            now a far more intimate communion with God was
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    established! Now they knew God in the intimacy of
Reformed Churches.                                          their Father, Jesus as their elder Brother, even as


268                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



they experienced as never before that they were            called-of Christ. Christ speaks through His Word to
sons and daughters in God's House!                        the individual believer, who thereby becomes a
  The Spirit was now sent forth upon aZZ flesh. The       prophet in the office of believers. The difference is
church was no longer kept within the narrow con-          that in the Old Testament only a few received
fines of national Israel, but became universal in the     God's revelation, and others had to inquire about
sense that it would spread out to every nation and        the will of God from them. But now the Spirit
people of the earth. This is shown to us by the Spirit    dwells and speaks within us in this sense, that we
when He empowers the disciples of Jesus to speak          have no need that any should teach us, for we have
to each man or woman in his or her native tongue.         the unction of the Holy One, and we know all
This is also plainly the fulfillment of so many           things (I John  220).
prophecies in the  Cld Testament, and has become             Young men and old men, masters and servants
evident through the mission labors of the apostles        are all recipients of this gift of the Spirit. From this
after Pentecost.                                          we do not conclude that a child is capable of partak-
  Moreover, the Spirit works in the hearts of             ing of the Lord's Supper or holding an office in the
thousands of listeners, applying the preached             church, or that women may teach in the church.
Word, as the Spirit always operates, by bringing to       But all are one in the office of believers. "For as
conviction of sin and repentance. It appears as if        many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
the troubled hearts of these many converts cannot         put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
wait for Peter to finish, but press upon him with the     is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
urgent question, "Men and brethren, what must             female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27,
we do?" As a result three thousand were added to          28).
the church on that very day!                                 Each functions according to his or her capacity.
  The Spirit literally poured out blessings, even         It belongs to the nature of young men to look into
grace for grace, and that on thousands, which             the future and see visions with a spiritual eye. It
ultimately become a multitude that no man can             belongs to the nature of the elderly to dream
number!                                                   dreams, reflecting on the past. Fathers in and
                                                          through their calling, mothers in the home, teen-
       Abundant fields of grain shall wave                agers in the classroom, each one in his own station
         All white for harvesting,                        in life is called to tell the praises of the Lord!
       And boundless joy and gladness fill
         The city of the King (Psalm 7.2).                  The same can be said of the priestly and royal of-
                                                          fice of the believer. We are devoted to God in love
  "Yours sons and your daughters shall                    as His willing servants, manifesting that love
prophesy!"                                                among the saints. We resist Satan and sin, diligently
  Although we tend to limit prophecy to future            contending for the faith once delivered to the
events, the term, as used in Scripture, implies pro-      saints.
claiming the mighty works of God of the past, and           Scripture includes under the fruits of the Spirit
of the present, as well as of the future. This gift is    such gifts as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentle-
not given to the individual apart from the church,        ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal.
as if anyone may boast that he has received a             522, 23).
special revelation from God. This gift is given to the
church, and to the individual as member of the              What a marvelous gift! Blessed is that people
church in the communion of saints. The preaching          whose God is Jehovah!
of the Word always remains the chief means of               Hearts that overflow with praise! Foretaste of
grace, brought by the ambassador that is personally       glory!


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                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                269





        The Office of Believers and Pentecost
                                                  Homer C. Hoeksema





  The believer is in office!                                selves living sacrifices of thankfulness; and they
  The expression "office of believers" is not found         are kings, to fight against sin and Satan in this life,
in Scripture; and it does not occur in our Reformed         and afterwards to reign with Christ eternally over
confessions. And probably when we think of of-              all creatures.
fices in the church, we are inclined to think im-              Many passages of Scripture could be cited in this
mediately of the offices of minister, elder, and            connection, but let me quote just two passages
deacon. Perhaps it even takes a reminder to make            which speak literally of this three-fold office of
us think of the fact that there is such a thing as the      believers. In Revelation  15, 6 we read:  ". . . Unto
office of believers and of the fact that all believers      him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
are in office. Whatever may be the reason for this,         his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests
and whether or not it is due to the fact that there is      unto God and his Father; to him be glory and do-
insufficient knowledge and awareness of it in the           minion for ever and ever. Amen." And according to
church today, it is a fact that believers occupy a          Acts 2, we are prophets. For Peter proclaims that on
three-fold office, that of prophet, priest, and king;       Pentecost is fulfilled the prophecy of Joel: "But this
moreover, they should be keenly aware of this fact.          (referring to the events of Pentecost) is that which
If they are not, it can only be to the detriment of the     was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come
church in the midst of the world.                           to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of
  Our Heidelberg Catechism speaks of this in                my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your
Lord's Day XII, although in this connection it does         daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
not use the term  ofice, but speaks of anointing. In        shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
Q. and A. 32 we read: "But why art thou called a            dreams: And on my servants and on my hand-
Christian? Because I am a member of Christ by               maidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit;
faith, and thus am partaker of his anointing; that so       and they shall prophesy" (vss. 16-18).
I may confess his name, and present myself a living            To understand this, we must remember, first of
sacrifice of thankfulness to him: and also that with        all, that Jesus is the Anointed One. He is the prom-
a free and good conscience I may fight against sin          ised Messiah, the Christ. Among all the anointed of
and Satan in this life: and afterwards reign with           the old dispensation, He is the Anointed, the fulfill-
him eternally, over all creatures." You will notice         ment of them all. He is the One Who is ordained of
that in the 32nd answer the three aspects of this of-       God and divinely qualified to be God's  office-
fice are not mentioned by name; their function, or          bearer, to function with authority in the Kingdom
activity, is mentioned. But when you read Q. and             of God in God's name, as God's servant. Hence, the
A. 32 in connection with Q. and A. 31, it becomes           central idea of Christ's office is that of  Kmg-
plain that the reference here is to prophet, priest,         Servant. He is King as Head in the kingdom of
and king. For according to Q. and A. 31 our Savior          heaven. For it is Gods eternal purpose to make of
is called Christ, i.e., Anointed, "Because he is or-        all created things in heaven and on earth His Kmg-
dained of God the Father, and anointed with the             dom, in which all in heaven and on earth  shali in
Holy Ghost, to be our chief Prophet and Teacher. . .        willing obedience be subject to Him. It is God's
our only High Priest . . . and also to be our eternal       purpose to make His Son in human nature the Head
King . . .  ." Christians, believers, are partakers of      and King of that kingdom. And He is the Servant of
that anointing. Hence, they are prophets, to confess        Jehovah, representing God's cause in the world. All
Christ's name; they are priests, to present  them-          things must be subservient to and subjected to
                                                            Christ, in order that He may be subject to God, that
Homer C. Hoeksema is professor of Dogmatics and Old         thus God may be all in all. To that exalted position
Testament at the Protestant Reformed Seminary.              of the Firstborn of every creature in all the universe


     270                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



     Christ has now attained, having fought the battle          fight of faith against sin and Satan; and He makes
     against sin and death, and having overcome all the         us partakers, through faith, of His victory, even in
     powers of darkness. He has the name above every            the midst of the battle. And while we have not yet
     name. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. God           entered into the glory of our royal dominion with
     has "made him Lord and Christ."                            Christ, and while we are still engaged in a daily
       In that office of Christ we may distinguish three        struggle against sin and are in tribulation `in the
     aspects. He is Servant-King with His mind, to know         midst of the world, so that we even suffer defeat
     God and speak for Him: Prophet. He is  Servant-            outwardly, He gives us the assurance that we are
     King with His heart and will, to love God, to be con-      more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
     secrated to Him, and to sacrifice Himself to Him:          And in His day, we shall appear with Him in glory
     Priest. And He is Servant-King with His power, to          and shall reign forever and ever with Him in the
     do battle against sin and Satan and to reign over all      new creation. And when He does so, then we fight
     things: King. Thus Christ is our Chief Prophet, our        with a free and good conscience against sin and
     only High Priest, and our eternal King.                    Satan, and presently shall enter into the glorious
                                                                victory of our Lord.
       In the second place, we are partakers of His
     anointing. This means that through Him believers             Such is the office of believers!
     are ordained and qualified by Christ through His                        * * * * * * * * * *
     Spirit to be officebearers. In Him they have not on-         Now what does all this have to do with Pente-
     ly the obligation and calling (the  must),  but the        cost? Or perhaps we should put the question this
     privilege and right (the may), the volition (the wiZZ),    way: what does Pentecost have to do with all of
     and the ability (the can) to be and to function as         this?
     God's friend-servants in the midst of this world,            The answer is that it was on Pentecost day that
     and forever. All this we have, remember, only in           all that we have described concerning the office of
     and through our Lord Jesus Christ and by faith in          believers became reality through the outpouring of
     Him.                                                       the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the exalted Christ
       In the third place, even as Christ's office is three-    upon the church. This is pointed to specifically
     fold, so through our partaking of His anointing by         with respect to the office of prophet by the Apostle
     faith we become servants of God in the same three-         Peter, according to the passage in Acts 2 which we
     fold sense. He changes us into true prophets of            quoted at the beginning of this discussion. When
     God, instructing us by His Spirit and Word, deliver-       the Spirit was poured out as the Spirit of the exalted
     ing us from the darkness of our understanding, en-         Christ, the prophecy of Joel 2 was fulfilled. The ef-
     lightening us by His grace, so that we have the true       fect was that all God's people became prophets  -
     knowledge of God. He does that now; but presently          sons and daughters, old men and young men, ser-
     that knowledge shall be perfected in heavenly              vants and handmaidens. And the same was true
     glory, so that we shall see face to face, and know         with respect to the office of priest and king.
     even as we are known. When He does this, then we             This marked a tremendous change in the life of
     confess His name and show forth the praises of             the church. It introduced something which was
     Him Who has called us out of darkness into His             heretofore unheard of and never before exper-
     marvelous light, and that, too, antithetically, in the     ienced. We are accustomed to the fact that a77 Gods
     midst of a world that is in darkness and that loves        people have a three-fold office  - perhaps too ac-
     the lie. He transforms us into a holy priesthood, so       customed sometimes. For that reason, too, we prob-
     that we become priests of God. For He instills in          ably do not always appreciate Pentecost as we
     our hearts the love of God, cleanses us from the           should. I have often remarked in sermons that for
     defilement of sin, consecrates us to Himself in true       the people of God who actually passed through the
     holiness  - again, here in principle, but perfectly        transition from the old to the new dispensation it
     and completely on the plane of heavenly glory,             must have been an astounding change to ex-
     when the entire glorified church shall become the          perience.
     perfect temple of God. When He does this, then we
     consecrate ourselves to Him and present ourselves            An entire additional article could easily be
     as living sacrifices, with all our heart and mind and      devoted to this subject; but permit me to point out a
     soul and strength, and that, too, in the midst of a        few things.
     world devoted to the service of the devil and sin. As        First of all, it is plain from Scripture that also in
     our eternal King, He constitutes us a royal people, a      the old dispensation it was principally true that
     nation of kings under God with Him. He delivers us         God's people were a royal priesthood. We read, for
     from our unrighteousness and perversity of will,           example, in Exodus  19:5, 6: "Now therefore, if ye
     and gives us a new righteousness, so that we               will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
~    delight to do God's will. He enables us to fight the       then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             271



all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be    had to take hold of the skirt of a prophet. Certain
unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."        men were priests; and you could not bring
In this connection, it was also true that God's peo-      sacrifices and could not know atonement and for-
ple in the old dispensation were saved even as we,        giveness and consecration to Gods service without
and that the Holy Spirit, Who had been eternally          those priests. And the same was true of the office of
ordained to be the Spirit of redemption, led God's        king: it could only be known and experienced
people through the shadows to the hope of the reali-      through special, God-anointed kings.
ty that was to come. God's people, therefore, were          In the third place, all of this was strictly
emphatically saved by hope. The reality of atone-         regulated by the law which was imposed upon the
ment and redemption and of all the blessings of           promise of Sinai - the law which strictly regulated
salvation had not yet been realized; and God's peo-       every phase of the life of God's children. Without
ple could only dimly apprehend these through the          that law the people of God could not move in the
shadows and in the light of the promise of the com-       old dispensation.
ing Christ.                                                 But all this was changed at Pentecost. The
  In close connection with the preceding, in the          church is no longer in bondage to the law, but is
second place, in the old dispensation this hope and       free. And the church is no longer dependent on any
salvation of God's people was inseparably tied to         special men, special officebearers, to live its
special officebearers; and these special  office-         religious life, but only on Christ. All God's people
bearers were indispensable for the people of God in       have the Spirit of Christ and His blessings. And all
the old dispensation. There were certain men who          God's people are prophets, priests, and kings. They
were prophets; and to know the Lord's Word one            all have the anointing of the Holy One!





                The Ref.ormation and the Office
                                      of All Believers
                                               Herman C. Hanko





  The Scriptural teaching concerning the office of        Rome's evil teaching concerning the priesthood
all believers was one of the crucial doctrines of the     and the consequent elaborate sacerdotal system
Reformation and was held by every Reformer on             which Rome set up and which was at the heart of
the continent of Europe and in Great Britain. It is       her whole life as church. Rome taught that the
not too much to say that without this central             clergy of the Romish Church constituted a priest-
teaching, the Reformation would never have                hood which stood between the individual member
restored the church to the pure teaching of Scrip-        of the church and God. This priesthood was,
ture.                                                     according to Rome, established by God through the
                                                          direct apostolic succession of ordination. Beginning
  The truth concerning the office of all believers        with the apostle Peter, the first pope of Rome,
had been denied by the Romish Church. A number            subsequent popes possessed the same position in
of factors accounted for this. While we cannot trace      the church which Peter occupied. Although this
the gradual development of Rome's heresies as             apostolic succession of ordination moved primarily
they stood related to this subject, foremost stood        through the popes, it filtered down, so to speak,
                                                          from the pope to the lower levels of the clergy - in-
Herman C. Hanho is professor in the Church History and    cluding the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and
New Testament departments at the Protestant Reformed      priests. This divine ordination gave to the entire
Seminary.                                                 clergy a unique place in the church, for it put them


     272                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



     between God and the people so that no contact be-        self. He was in no position to interpret them, and so
     tween God and His people was possible except as          it was better that he not have them. Rome therefore
     mediated by the clergy.                                  forbade the Scriptures to be translated into
       From the one side, God did not dispense grace to       languages which the individual members could
     His people in any other way than through the             understand, and forbade the people even to possess
     church. Every grace, every blessing of salvation,        a Bible of their own. We need only remind our-
     every good gift, was mediated by the clergy itself       selves of how Rome fought bitterly,  even,after  the
     and the sacramental system of the church. To gain        Reformation, to keep the Scriptures out of the
     such grace, the individual member had to come to         hands of God's people, and of how Rome even
     the church, obey the church's laws, rules, and regu-     smeared the blood of Tyndale on her hands
     lations, and submit to the mediation of the clergy.      because he insisted on providing a Bible for God's
     The grace of forgiveness, for example, could come        people in their own language.
     only through the Confessional and the priest's ab-         Only the church could interpret the Scriptures;
     solution. The grace of the sacraments could come         that is, only the clergy, the only ones who pos-
     only through the elements themselves: the bread          sessed the Spirit of Christ by ordination, could know
     and wine of the Lord's Supper was in fact the body       what the Scriptures meant. And all this implied that
     and blood of Christ, changed by the priest. The          the church also subjected the Scriptures to its own
     grace of escaping the fires of purgatory could come      authority. Only the church had the right to say
     only through masses, payment of funds, purchase          which books belonged in the canon of Scripture -
     of indulgences, all of which had to be paid to the       even if this meant including the  Apocrypha.  Only
     church and all of which was distributed by the           the church could add to the Scriptures doctrines
     church. All grace came only through the institute of     which she wanted to add. And the church need
     the church, which institute was, in fact, the clergy.    give account to no one. Only the church could say
       Gods people themselves could, therefore, come          what the Scriptures mean; and everyone was
~    to God only through this same clergy. There was          obligated, even on pain of death, to submit without
     really no other way. If you wanted to go to God,         question to what the church had said.
     you had to go to the church, and the church would          Rome denied that God's people occupy an office,
     go to God for you. The church would stand in your        the office of believers. Rome denied, therefore, that
     place before God's face and do for you what you          God's people possess in their hearts the Spirit of
     could not do yourself.                                   Christ, Who anoints them to this holy office. Rome
                                                              denied that Christ gives His Spirit to every one of
       This was a terrible and brutal doctrine. The of-       those who belong to His church. What a monstrous
     fice of all believers, as taught in the Scriptures,      crime this was. When the institute of the church ar-
     means that the individual child of God, with the         rogates to herself powers which Christ has given to
     Spirit in his heart, is, in his own right, prophet,      all His saints, the church becomes a thief and a
     priest, and king. This Rome denied. Rome insisted        spiritual murderer. Such was nevertheless the sad
     that only those who took part by ordination in           situation in the church prior to the Reformation.
     apostalic  succession, from the pope on down,
     possessed these offices.                                   It is not surprising that Luther was the first to at-
                                                              tack these terrible doctrines of Rome and restore
       It is not difficult to see how Rome worked this        the office of believers to God's people. The tremen-
     out. The individual member of the.church was not         dous insight which God gave Luther to see the
     a prophet: he could not know the will of God             Biblical teaching on this subject is staggering.
     himself. He had to go to the church. The individual      Luther developed the ideas of Scripture on this sub-
     member was not a priest: to go into God's sanc-          ject early in the Reformation, particularly in his
     tuary he needed the mediation of Rome's priest-          pamphlet, "Address to the German Nobility." He
     hood. The individual was not king: the church            insisted that it was a crime of monumental propor-
     ruled over him with an iron rod prescribing for him      tions that the Romish Church had denied God's
     in every detail of his life.                             people the right to hold this office. All God's people
       The error which the Reformers attacked more            possessed the Spirit of Christ and were, therefore,
     than any other was the issue of the relation of the      in their own right, prophets and priests and kings.
     believer to the Scriptures. Because Rome denied          Yet, while Luther surely was the first of the
     that the believer is himself a prophet, Rome in-         Reformers to see this, nevertheless, on this point,
     sisted that the believer could not, of himself, know     all the Reformers were in agreement. In fact, in this
     the Scriptures. Several conclusions followed from        fundamental doctrine the Reformers owed a debt of
     this. Rome believed, and from Rome's position this       considerable size to some who, before the Reforma-
     follows with irrefutable logic, that the individual      tion, had already insisted on this truth. Wycliffe in
     believer ought not to possess the Scriptures him-        England had emphasized this idea almost two hun-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               273



dred years before the Reformation; Huss had                 rect one. One need not go into the labyrinths of
followed him in this doctrine in Bohemia  - and             Papal exegesis to understand what Scripture
had lost his life at the stake because of it; the           teaches and find, through dark and obscure
Waldensians had clung to this, even when their              byways, the hidden meaning. What Scripture says,
dead bodies were strewed over the Alps by Rome's            it means. And that meaning is so clear and so pro-
inquisition. But the Reformers were unanimous in            found that the youngest can understand and the
their insistence on this great truth.                       oldest can only marvel. Scripture is infallible in
  It is quite obvious that this had-important rami-         every word and inerrant in all its parts. It is God's
fications for the church of Christ as it was restored       Word, and it is given by an inspiration that is with-
to her purity by that great work of God. In restoring       out error of any kind. And from this it follows that
the office of all believers to the saints, the Re-          Scripture is absolutely authoritative  in%ll-of-life.
formers, with one fell swoop, smashed the Romish            The believer, coming to Scripture as a pupil to sit at
Church's imposing sacerdotal system into a thou-            the feet of Christ, submits to that authoritative.
sand pieces. The Reformers moved the entire                 Word and finds in it God's will for him in the whole
clergy out of the way so that they could no longer          of his calling and walk.
stand between the believer and his God. Christ was            We cannot conclude this article without warning
the only Mediator of God's people, and the  all-            God's people in the most serious way that once
sufficiency of Christ's work was enough.                    again their office is being threatened. Rome's same
                                                            old tyranny is reappearing in the church. Only
  That Gods people, by the Spirit of Christ in their        now, instead of a clerical priesthood imposing itself
hearts, were once again restored to their office of         between God and His people, .a priesthood of
priest meant that no longer was the blessed gift of         "scholars" is occupying that place. Denying the ab-
forgiveness of sins to be mediated through an earth-        solute inerrancy of. the Holy Scriptures, these
ly priesthood, but the people of God could go to the        scholars tell us today that the authority of Scripture
throne of grace through their only Mediator Jesus           is limited to what it intends to teach, but not to
Christ to be assured of pardon and grace to endure.         everything; that the literal meaning of Scripture is
When the office of king was restored to the believer        not its correct one; that one must be able to under-
through the great work of the Reformation, the peo-         stand the genre of Scripture, the circumstances
ple were freed from the bondage of Rome's tyranny           under which it was written, the viewpoint of the
and liberated from the shackles of her endless laws         men who wrote it, the editorial work which was
and prescriptions. Perhaps the greatest result of           done in preparing it, and the fruits of archaeological
this was that the great truth of Christian liberty was      discoveries if we are really to know what Scripture
once again set in its proper place in the life of the       teaches. So the child of God, who has none of this
people of God.                                              learning, cannot possibly understand what Scrip-
  But especially did the Reformers emphasize the            ture teaches; he is dependent upon scholars. The
office of prophet. The apostle John had written,            anointing of the Spirit which makes him a prophet
"But the anointing which ye have received of him            in his own right is insufficient. The Bible is a closed
abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach          book to him. His office has no meaning. What a ter-
you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all          rible evil. Are we to return to Rome and deny, out
things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath    of hand, what the Reformers stood for? God forbid.
taught you, ye shall abide in him" (I John  2:27).            The office of believers is a precious Reformation
This truth had many implications, especially                heritage. It puts Gods people in the throne room of
with respect to the doctrine of Scripture. We cannot        God through Jesus Christ. It gives to him that most
go into it all here, but it ought to be clear to any one    precious of all possible gifts, the Scriptures: the
who has given any thought to this subject that this         Scriptures which teach him the knowledge of God
fundamental truth has brought profound changes              through Christ, Whom to know is everlasting life.
to the life of God's child in the world. His most
precious possession, God's own Word to him, was                 The Standard Bearer
restored to him. And it was restored to him in his
own language so that he could read it and under-
stand it. All the great -truths concerning Scripture          makes a lovely gift for
are directly related to this truth. The Scripture is
clear and understandable to any child of God who                   the sick & shut-in.
reads it, so that he can know what God says,
regardless of his age. He needs only the Spirit of
Christ, the anointing of the Holy One, to teach him.             Give the Standard Bearer!
Only the literal meaning of the Scriptures is the cor-


274                                               THE STANDARD BEARER





                          Prophets and Perspicuity
                                                   Homer C. Hoeksema





  All God's people are prophets.                             greatest; and in that sense they can and do know all
  The Spirit Who was poured out on the church on             things.
the day of Pentecost is the Spirit of prophecy, Who            What we have written above already implies and
makes God's people participants in the prophetic             presupposes the truth of the perspicuity of Scrip-
anointing of Christ. "Your sons and your daughters           ture. In fact, the two truths of the perspicuity of
shall prophesy.1" Hence, under the new covenant,             Scripture and the prophetic anointing of all
according to Hebrews 8, "they shall not teach                believers belong together and are inseparable. They
every man his neighbour, and every man his                   are related as the two sides of the same coin. The
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know           perspicuity of Scripture is the objective side; the
me, from the least to the greatest," vs. 11. In fact,        anointing of believers as prophets is the subjective
God's people know all things: "But ye have an unc-           side. .And thus believers, who have the anointing of
tion (anointing) from the Holy One, and ye know all          Christ, can and do know all things, and need not
things. I have not written unto you because ye               that anyone should teach them. They can go direct-
know not the truth, but because ye know it, and              ly to the Scriptures and know the Lord from these
that no lie is of the truth." And again: "But the            Scriptures. And they are able to discern the truth,
anointing which ye have received of him abideth in           and that, too, in distinction from the lie.
you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but               What is the perspicuity of Scripture?
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,              The term itself is not a Scriptural one; neither do
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught      you find the term in our creeds. It is derived from a
you, ye shall abide in him."                                 Latin word which means to "see through" some-
  This does not mean, and cannot mean, that                  thing. If I may coin an expression, it means the see-
believers can, so to speak, strike out on their own          through-aide-ness   of Scripture. It is that attribute of
and prophesy, apart from the Word of the Scrip-              Holy Scripture according to which the Bible is
tures. It does not mean, as false mysticism has it,          clear, lucid, intelligible, able to be understood. As
and as neo-Pentecostalism has it, that believers can         far as our creeds are concerned, this truth is clearly
know and speak the Word of God  apart  f?-om the             implied in the articles on the authority and on the
Scriptures  and can utter new words and new revela-          sufficiency of Holy Scripture in our Belgic Confes-
tions. For remember: the Spirit is the Spirit of             sion. And as far as Scripture is concerned, it is
Christ.  The Spirit says nothing of Himself. Revela-         taught directly or by implication in many, many
tion, as far as its content is concerned, is not the         passages. Let me cite a few passages. In II Peter
work of the Spirit independently of Christ. The              1:19, the word of prophecy is compared with "a
Spirit says nothing of Himself. All that the Spirit          light that shineth in a dark place." In II Timothy
speaks and teaches He takes out of Christ, John              3: 15 that the Scriptures are so lucid that a child can
14:26; John  1526; John  16:13, 14. And Christ we            understand them: for Paul writes to Timothy that
possess in the Word of the Scriptures. Hence, the            "from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
Spirit of Christ always leads us to the Word; He             which are able to make thee wise unto salva-
never speaks without it. He enlightens the church's          tion . . .  ." And, by the way, is that not our ex-
understanding of that Word, so that God's people             perience also, that our children at an early age can
know all things through that Word. In that sense             and do know the Scriptures? And in Psalm 119:105
they all know the Lord, from the least to the                we read: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
                                                             light unto my path."
Homer C. Hoeksema is professor of Dogmatics and Old            Let me briefly point out some of the chief im-
Testament at the Protestant Reformed Seminary.               plications of this truth, without expanding on them:


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                               275



  1) The Bible is a plain book. It is understandable      nection with the passage quoted from I John 2:
by the people of God, so that they may read it and          1) This anointing is the anointing of the Holy
interpret it for themselves.                              One, i.e., Christ. He is here called the Holy One to
  2) This implies, of course, the idea of the suffi-      emphasize the thought that the believers' anointing
ciency of Scripture, and that, too, all by itself. The    is a hoZy anointing. It comes from the Holy One, and
Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and what-       it is therefore such that believers partake of His
soever man ought to believe unto salvation is suffi-      holiness. By this anointing believers become
ciently taught therein. Its doctrine is most perfect      separate from the effects of sin, and especially in
and complete in all respects.                             this connection from the darkness of the lie.
  3) This does not mean that the Bible does not             2) This anointing is abiding (it "abideth in you")
contain many elements which are difficult to un-          and constant. It can never be lost. Once anointed is
derstand and explain. Nor does it mean that diligent      always anointed. One who is anointed cannot turn
searching and study of the Scriptures is not              away from the truth and deny Christ, cannot first
necessary. Nor, as we shall see, does it mean that        be of Christ and ofthe church and later go out from
the believer can understand the Scriptures without        the church and be of Antichrist. Besides, this anoint-
the guidance of the Spirit. But it does mean that         ing is constant. It is not thus, that the Spirit comes
"whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation"          now and then. He constantly dwells in believers.
is so clearly taught that any child of God, though he     He never leaves them. They always partake of
be quite ordinary and even unlearned, can under-          Christ's anointing.  .Otherwise there would be no
stand Holy Scripture.                                     guarantee for Gods people against the deception
  4) This also implies that the Word of God is to be      and temptation of the lie.
taken in its obvious meaning and in its historical          3) This anointing is true. How could it be other-
sense. The divine author of the Scriptures is the         wise? For it is the anointing of Him Who is the
Faithful and True One, and He intended to be              Truth, John  14:6. It always leads the anointed into
understood when He addressed His Word to His              the truth, therefore. And it "is no lie," John adds.
church. This rule of interpretation is of the utmost      Hence, it never deceives and causes one to walk in
importance. If it is not followed, you can make the       error and in the lie.
Scriptures mean almost anything at all; and you can         4) Hence, this anointing is trustworthy. It never
effectively take the Scriptures away from and out of      fails. For what is true, and is not a lie, is to be
reach of the ordinary child of God.                       trusted and depended upon. Gods people must not
  The implications of this truth are immense, and         depend on self, on learned men, on so-called ex-
believers must never allow this truth of the              perts, nor on the wisdom of synods and councils,
perspicuity of Scripture to be forgotten and buried.      but on the anointing of the Holy One.
This is important to our day especially. When I read        5) The fruit of this anointing is that believers: a)
the wild theories and alleged interpretations of          know all things; b) know the truth, and that no lie is
higher criticism of various kinds - higher criticism      of the truth; c) need not that any man teach you,
which has flooded the seminaries and churches of          because this anointing teacheth you of all things.
our land with its outlandish and outrageous "inter-         All of this does not mean that believers despise
pretations"  - then there is one conclusion which         the pastors and teachers which God gives His
strikes me. It is this: if this is the way we must in-    church. These are indeed gifts of God for the  up-
terpret Scripture, then no one, except the learned        building of the saints and for the edifying of the
intelligentsia, who are thoroughly versed in all the      body of Christ. But it does mean that believers are
intricacies of the various methods of criticism, can      not wholly dependent upon an institution of men
understand and interpret the Word of God or have          for the knowledge of the Lord, and for the proper
any certainty that when he has interpreted it, he         functioning of their spiritual life. They have the
has the correct understanding. To me, this is from a      unction of the Holy One, and they need not that
practical, spiritual point of view, the great danger      anyone teach them. And if pastors and teachers
and the fatal flaw of higher criticism.                   become corrupt and heretical and a certain institu-
  Now the power and ability to read and to under-         tion of the church becomes deformed due to the
stand the perspicuous Scriptures lies in the pro-         corruption of the truth, believers are in a position to
phetic anointing of all believers. This, we must          know and to discern this and to judge. And they are
remember, is not a matter of mere intellectual un-        even in a position in their office of believers to
derstanding; but it is a  spiritual  gift. We need not    separate themselves from the false church and to
elaborate here on the anointing as such: we have          institute the true church anew. This is the sacred
already discussed this. But let me briefly call atten-    right of reformation which believers must never
tion to the characteristics of this anointing in con-     give up!


276                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                               1
                          The Office of Believers -
                           and Church Membership
                                                  Gise J. Van Baren





   Once upon a time (children's stories and perhaps          prophesy ("But ye have an unction from the Holy
"parables" should begin that way) there was a man            One, and ye know all things" - I John  2:20.) The
who was a carpenter  - a very good one at that.              gift of prophecy is not limited to the minister; it is a
From his youth he had been developing his talents.           gift given to each Christian by virtue of his union to
He spent unending hours practicing and seeking to            Christ. There is, too, the gift of holiness and, then,
perfect this art. He lived in a ramshackle, old house        service. Many Scriptural passages point to the call-
(badly in need of repair), but he did not have the           ing of saints to be holy  - and to serve God in all
time to take care of that. He anticipated a call from        things. Finally, there is the gift to rule - not only as
the king who was building his palace. After all,             elders in the church, but as those who would direct
the king would want the best in his realm to work            their time, possessions, and very being in the serv-
on that wonderful project! Nor could this carpenter          ice of their Lord.
accept the request for his services of those living             The office of believers is one to be used diligently
about him - he must be ready, if the king calls, to          and faithfully in the church. One need not wait first
go immediately. He knew that his abilities could be          for some call to serve as minister, elder, or deacon.
best used in the service of his king - but he waited         That particular call may never come  - and in the
in vain for the king's call to serve in the king's           case of women, we believe Scripture clearly indi-
carpentry crew at the palace. After many years, the          cates, will never come. But each has the office of
carpenter died. His house had virtually fallen apart.        believers  - to be used and never neglected. Each
The neighbors no longer knew of his talents since            child of God is partaker of Christ's anointing  - in
he had never used them on their behalf. To the end           order that he may serve God in the body of Jesus
of his life, the carpenter regretted the fact that he        Christ as that is seen here on the earth.
had not been able to use his talents in the area for
which he deemed himself perfectly qualified - and              The office of believers exists exactly in order that
therefore he had not used these talents properly at          the church may flourish in this earth. He who
all.                                                         refuses faithfully to use this office, has neglected
   Does the story sound all too familiar? How many           the command of his King.
are not eager and willing to use their time and                But how can this office be used? Apart from serv-
abilities in some grand project of the King of kings         ing in the various offices within the church, what
- and while waiting for the opportunity to arrive,           can one do? Is it not true that the laity are not that
fail to do those necessary and required tasks He has         important within the church?
laid upon us in our daily lives?                                Nothing can be further from the truth. The office
   This issue of the Standard Bearer treats of the of-       of believers is expressed in fellowship and com-
fice of believers. Other articles have set forth the         munion. This is seen in society meetings, in evening
idea of this office. Suffice it to say here that this of-    fellowship, in daily contacts. In societies particular-
fice is the fruit of Christ's anointing. The HeideZberg      ly, there is the opportunity to profit mutually in
Catechism states, "I am a member of Christ by                sharing one's understanding of the Word of God.
faith, and thus am partaker of His anointing . .  ."         True, this requires more than faithful attendance at
(Q. 32). This means that those united to Christ can          society  - necessary though attendance itself is. It
                                                             requires, yea, demands, careful study of the
Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed       passage of Scripture. One can not simply rely on
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                             what he recalls about the passage from the time he


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               277



was in school and catechism. He must compare                  of the needs of the church; the needs of the Chris-
Scripture with Scripture; he reads and studies that           tian schools; the needs of his own family. As priest,
which others write on the passage. He considers               he makes continual supplication to God for Jesus'
possible questions which can be raised on the                 sake.
passage - and possible answers which he can give.               Even outside of the church, in contact with
Thus, with an interchange of ideas and thoughts,              others about him, the Christian shows by word and
the knowledge of Scripture increases. Also, the ap-           deed his own blessed relationship with God his
plication of these Scriptural truths is made there for        Father. His interest in the kingdom of heaven, his
the spiritual profit of all present.                          concern for the children of God, his faithfulness in
  But this office is used not only in society                 his work  - all show him to be indeed a citizen of
meetings. There are ever so many opportunities to             the heavenly kingdom. How wonderful it is also
exercise this office in its threefold aspect within the       when God gives those opportunities to speak to
church. There is frequently the need to comfort               others of the wonder of Gods salvation. There is
and assure fellow saints. When death comes, when              nothing more beautiful than to be able to speak of
God takes from another his or her lifelong mate, the          that Sovereignty of our God and the riches of His
encouragement of the saints is needed. That en-               grace and mercy.
couragement is needed not only in the funeral                   But are we functioning in this great office to the
home, but also in the months which follow.                    best of our ability? There seems so much which
  When sickness comes, sometimes fatal sickness,              prevents one from serving in that office properly.
the saints rally around such an individual and his            We are distracted. We have television - with hours
family who face the affliction, to comfort and en-            spent in front of it weekly. But possibly we find we
courage with good words from Scripture and with               have not enough time to attend societies, or, if we
prayer. Nothing lifts up the afflicted more than              attend, no time to prepare ourselves for that. We
when they hear from God's Word itself concerning              have sports: the high school variety to professional
the Presence of God with His people.                          sports. This might consume vast amounts of our
  When problems arise, saints find ways to help               time. But we have little time for church activities,
each other and direct each other through the time             for visiting the sick or comforting the mourners.
of trial.                                                     We live in the age of "labor-saving devices," but we
                                                              have precious little time to serve as we ought in the
  When sin is seen, saints warn and admonish                  office of believers. Or, is it not so with you?
from Holy Scripture. They do not rejoice in the sin,            Often we would minimize our own gifts and
nor gossip about it. Rather, they follow the Scrip-           abilities to serve in this office. We all know other
tural norm of seeking the repentance of the sinner.           saints of God who are so very capable. These know
They do not ignore sin or pretend that it is not              how to teach, how to comfort, how to warn. These
there. Rather, for the sake of the one sinning, every         are the ones who can speak so fluently in society
effort is put forth to lead to true repentance.               and contribute so intelligently. But we are unable
  When occasions of joy are present, then the                 to do so - or so we tell ourselves. We deplore our
saints together also rejoice. Oh, how God also                own lack of ability  - and think that there is
directs that His people may know the blessings of             nothing we can contribute. But that is a sad and sin-
salvation. Such is seen especially as the children are        ful attitude  - for are we not all partakers of
baptized, as the young people make public confes-             Christ's anointing?
sion of their faith, as the youth are joined in holy             Some do think they have talents which ought to
marriage.                                                     qualify them to serve in the office of deacon, elder,
  This office of believer is, above all, exercised as         or minister. These may be women to whom these
these saints gather together each Sabbath to wor-             special offices are forbidden in Scripture; or these
ship God in His house of prayer under the                     may be men who seem never to be called to ,serve
preaching of the Word. It is their joy, for these few         in one of the special offices. So one quickly con-
moments, to search Scripture, to consider its mean-           cludes that he is not allowed to use his talents to
ing, to hear the truths of the Word expounded to              their full. He might deplore the lack of opportunity.
them. It is their pleasure to study together that             But such ignore that God gives to each many oppor-
Word and consider its application to life.                    tunities to function in the church of God. Let none
   With all of this, there is the fact that in this office    ignore the obvious tasks and calling while awaiting
the believer has the opportunity, daily, to come to           the reception of what he considers to be the higher
God in prayer. Earnestly, he brings before Father's           call.
throne all of the needs and cares of God's people.               Consider your office, man or woman of God.
He prays concerning the afflicted; he speaks to God           God has called you from darkness to His marvelous


278                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



-light. He has changed the very course of our life.               while forever waiting for some higher or more no-
He has given you the anointing of His Son. You are               ble work to do. The labor is here and now. "Oc-
prophets, priests, and kings of the living God. A                 cupy," said Jesus, "til I come." Many things are not
more wonderful position there is not. A higher call-              being done; much in this office is not being carried
ing there can not be. In fulfilling the daily tasks to            out. Where such is true, let us repent. And by the
the best of our ability, in doing those things which              grace of our God, let us consciously, actively use
our Father in heaven requires of us, we are using                this office within the church to His glory and the
our office properly.                                              spiritual benefit of His church.
   Let us, then, not waste our time nor our talents





       The Office of Believers and Bible Study
                                                    RonaZd J. Van OverZoop





   One of the vital issues of the Reformation was                   Next to praying there is nothing so important in
the priesthood of all believers. The Reformation                 practical religion as Bible reading. God mercifully
abolished the idea that only a select group of men               gave us a book which is "able to make us wise unto
may function as priests. It pointed out that Scrip-              salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ."
ture calls all of the members of the church                      Through that one book the believer learns what to
"priests" (I Peter  29) and that each has priestly               believe, what to be, and what to do; he learns how
tasks (Hebrews  13:15, 16).                                      to live and die with comfort.
   One of the principal duties of priests was to                    It has been rightly said, "Happy is he who
know and to teach the Word of God to the people                  possesses the Bible; happiest is he who reads and
(Malachi  2:7). In the old dispensation the people               obeys the Bible."
had to find the knowledge of God from the mouth                     What do you do with the Bible? Do you read it?
of the priest. Now, with the outpouring of the Holy              Do you read and obey it? "How readest thou?"
Spirit, every child of God knows and speaks the                  (Luke  10:26b).
Word of God and is able to teach others. The Word
is written in our hearts, so every believer knows                   Why should the Bible be read and obeyed?
God, from the least to the greatest (Hebrews  8:10,                 First, Scripture should be read because the
11 and I John 2:27).                                             knowledge of the things found in the Bible is ab-
  The danger is great that the believer does not use             solutely necessary to a man's salvation. One can get
his office. This danger is present in the worship                to heaven without money, learning, or health, but
services when the believers do not enter into what is            knowledge of the Bible is necessary.
preached with understanding, do not respond to it,                  How glorious is God's plan of salvation. How
and do not make it their own. This danger is also                satisfying to the soul is the knowledge of the way
present in the home of believers when the Bible is               by which our sins are forgiven. How comforting are
neglected or abused. Abuse of the Bible is probably              the accounts the Bible gives of the great Mediator,
more serious than the neglect of it. It is dangerous             the man Christ Jesus: His incarnation, suffering,
to use verses out of their context. It is just as                crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. How
dangerous to hold doctrinal positions without being              precious are the promises the Bible contains for
able to give a Biblical defense.                                 those who love God. How encouraging are the ex-
                                                                 amples the Bible gives of the good people, who
Ronald J. Van Overloop  is a Protestant Reformed                 were of like passions as we are. How instructive are
missionary-pastor in suburban northwest Chicago.                 the examples the Bible gives of the wicked.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 279



  Secondly, the Bible should be read and obeyed, if         duct. It is the only correct compass to guide the
only because of how it originated and Who is its            believer through the storms of this life.
author. The Bible was "given by inspiration of                Do you know the Scriptures well enough to be
God." It is not a collection of thoughts of various         able to defend your doctrinal position? As impor-
imperfect men. It is the very mind of the King of           tant as doctrine is, it is not sufficient to know only
kings. All other books, however good and useful             the doctrine. Do you free yourself from the charge
they may be, are more or less defective. The Bible          of abusing the Scriptures because, in defending
is absolutely perfect, being entirely the Word of           your position, you do not use only one passage, but
God.                                                        a number of them, thus giving the current teaching
  Therefore, it is no light matter what you are do-         of Scripture?
ing with this Book.                                           To those willing to read the Bible, here is some
  Thirdly, the Bible should be read because it is the       advice.
only food that can sustain the heart which has the            1; Make use of your Bible. All the resolving to
new principle of the life of Christ, given by the Ho-       read it does absolutely no good. Read it!
ly Spirit. A newborn babe desires its mother's milk.
It does not have to be taught to desire it. So the life       2. Be careful how you read it. Do not just let the
of Christ delights in the Word of God day and night         words pass before your eyes. Read it with the
(Psalm 1:2).                                                earnest desire to understand it. It does no good if it
                                                            is not understood. The believer must read the Bible
  This is so true that it can be said of one who            concentrating on understanding what he reads, as if
despises Bible reading, that he is not born again,          digging for golden nuggets of truth.
even if he is zealous for the ceremonies of the
church. The signal evidence of the Spirit's presence          3. Read the Bible with childlike faith and humili-
within a believer is that the Word is precious to           ty. Believe implicitly what you read, and do not
him. "I have esteemed the words of his mouth                stand in judgment over it.
more than my necessary food." "How sweet are                  4. Read the Bible in the spirit of obedience and
thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey            self-application. It is not to be read for curiosity or
to my mouth!" (Job  23:12; Psalm  119:103).                 speculation.
  It is very important whether you know anything              5. Read the Bible daily. We put on our clothes
of this sweetness of the Word.                              daily and eat our food daily. So we should read the
  The knowledge gained from Bible reading has               Scriptures. A great type of the Word of God in the
many benefits.                                              old dispensation was the manna the children of
                                                            Israel received in the wilderness. They had to
  Applied by the Holy Spirit, the Bible is the instru-      gather it fresh every morning. That is probably the
ment which converts souls to God (Psalm  19:7).             best time for our daily reading of the Scriptures.
Also through faith it is able to instruct in righteous-
ness and to furnish the child of God unto all good            6. Read all of the Bible and read it in an orderly
works (II Timothy  3~16). This is a tremendous              way. Skipping here and there, from this interesting
potential lying at the fingertips of every believer.        piece of history or to that short psalm, profits but
The man who has the Bible and the Holy Spirit has           little. Paul told Timothy that ALL Scripture is prof-
an infallible guide. He needs no priest or church for       itable.
him to know the truth. What are you doing with                7. Most importantly, read the Bible with Christ
such a powerful tool? Are you using these talents           Jesus continually in view. He and His life are its
well, so it can be said that you are being faithful         primary objects. When you see Him and yourself
over few things and will be made ruler over many            you will be the most benefited.
things?                                                       Many believers love and believe the Bible, but
  Another benefit is that the Bible is the only tool        they read it only a little. They are likely to get little
by which all questions of doctrine and practice can         comfort from it in time of need. They will not be
be tried. God has mercifully provided an unerring           established in the truth. They are likely also to
standard for our poor, fallen understandings. The           make mistakes in life and practice. And they can
world is full of difficulties on points of doctrine,        easily be carried away for a while by some false
with some errors so very close to the truth. The            wind.
world is equally full of difficulties on points of prac-
tice. There are questions about vocations, about              The Bible must be read, but not a little. It must
amusements, about the various relationships in              be read a great deal. "Let the Word of Christ dwell
society, about the duties of parenting, etc. The Bi-        in you richly" (Colossians  3:16).
ble must be made the rule for doctrine and con-               The benefits of daily reading the Scriptures with


280                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



an earnest, childlike faith come slowly, but surely.           Resolve to read the Bible more. Resolve to honor
No dramatic changes are evident immediately. But            it more in your families. Meditate upon it more and
impressions are left upon the heart, of which we            talk more about it. And resolve to live by it more
might not be aware. Sin becomes more and more               and more.
disgusting and Christ more and more precious.





                         The Ministry of the Word
                                                  Robert D. Decker





  Ministers of the gospel do not make much money.             The apostle Paul admonishes Timothy, a
Generally speaking, at least this is true in our            minister of the Word, "Thou therefore, my son, be
denomination, ministers do not accumulate a great           strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And in the
deal of earthly wealth. Do not misunderstand, our           things that thou hast heard of me among many
ministers are provided with all they need. They are         witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,
provided with good houses and a salary and other            who shall be able to teach others also" (II Timothy
benefits which are sufficient to "free them from            2: 1, 2). The Apostle is nearing the end of his life. He
worldly cares and avocations." But, if one wishes           is concerned that his spiritual son, Timothy, a
to make a great deal of money and amass to himself          young minister, remember what he had been
earthly riches, he ought not enter the ministry of          taught, the gospel of God's sovereign grace in
the Word. The rewards a minister receives are far           Christ Jesus. The truth of the gospel must be
greater, much more worthwhile, of much more                 preserved by Timothy. And, that truth must be
value than mere money. A faithful minister has the          committed or passed on to faithful men. These
assurance that God is well pleased with his labors          faithful men are future ministers of the gospel.
in the midst of the church. Can anything be more            These must have the ability to teach others the
valuable than this? A faithful minister has the joy of      truth of Holy Scripture. This is highly necessary,
seeing the fruit of the preaching of the Word in the        for only in this way are the elect gathered out of the
hearts and lives of Gods children. How can one              nations, the church is preserved and defended until
measure the joy and satisfaction a minister feels           Christ returns, and Gods name is praised.
when God uses him with all his human weaknesses               This is what our churches need too. We need
and sins to build His church? To bring the en-              faithful men who are able to teach others. These
couragement and promises of God's Word to the               faithful men must come from the generation of the
sick, to instruct the lambs of the flock, to bring the      young men in our churches. The future well-being
comfort of the gospel to those who mourn, to bap-           of our churches depends on this. This does not af-
tize the infants of the covenant, to preach the Word        fect merely the young men of the churches, but all
and administer the Lord's Supper, to witness the            of us. The simple fact is that our churches need
confession of faith of the youth of the church, all         students for the ministry. Our calling is to pray that
these and more provide rewards for God's faithful           god will give us faithful men who are able to teach
ministers which cannot be measured in mere earth-           others.
ly terms. Not only so but the faithful minister is
promised that when the Chief Shepherd appears he               Faithful men must possess certain spiritual gifts.
shall receive the crown of glory. (Cf. I Peter 5:1-4.)      Among these is the gift of what may be called gen-
                                                            uine piety or spirituality. These must be men full
                                                            of faith. It is true that there are hypocrites in the
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and     ministry. These never last. Sooner or later they are
New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.          exposed. God even uses false prophets like Balaam


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                281



to bless His people. These, however, are the excep-        ful work to make an edifying sermon. The bulk of
tion, not the rule. Ministers must be pious,               the minister's time must be spent in his study with
spiritual, godly men. They must be men saved by            the Bible and his books.
grace through faith, God's gift, men in whose                The minister also needs the gift of public speak-
hearts is the love of God in Jesus Christ. Men, they       ing. His chief task is to preach the Word twice on
must be, who love God, and God's people and                the Lord's Day and to teach the children and youth
cause.                                                     of the church in catechism. The seminary provides
  Humility is another of the spiritual gifts a             courses on how to make a sermon and how to
minister must have. There is no room for pride in          deliver a sermon and how to teach catechism, but a
the ministry. Self-seeking, pride, selfishness, the        man needs that gift from God. The seminary
seeking of the praise of men, all these are                courses can only help a student develop that gift
abominable sins among God's people, especially             and use it properly and for the edification of the
among ministers. If one wants the praise of men,           church.
honor, fame he must not seek the ministry. Faithful
men are humble men. As were the Apostles, they               There is great need in our churches for faithful
are slaves of God and of His church. Faithful men          men who are able to teach others. It is certainly
are men of much prayer, for they know that all that        true that all of Gods people are anointed with the
they have and are is of God. Faithful men know             anointing of Christ. All are in Christ and by His
they cannot preach one sermon or do anything at            grace prophets, priests, and kings. The means by
all apart from God's grace. Without ceasing they           which God enables His people to speak His praises,
pray for God's grace to enable them faithfully to          consecrate themselves in His service, and rule over
teach others.                                              the works of His hands is chiefly the preaching of
  Sympathetic understanding is a third spiritual           the Word. God saves His church by means of
gift of faithful men. Jesus, our great, merciful High      preaching. Scripture teaches in I Corinthians 1 that
Priest is touched with the feelings of our infirmities     it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to
and was tempted in all points like as we, yet              save them that believe. Romans 1 tells us that the
without sin (Hebrews 4: 15). The servants of Christ        gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
must be as Jesus was. They must know Gods peo-             Romans 10 says that we cannot believe on Christ,
ple, know their needs, joys, struggles, sorrows, and       call upon His name, and be saved unless we hear
afflictions. Faithful men must feel with God's peo-        Christ by means of a preacher who is sent.
ple, understand them so as to be able to bring Gods          There is also a practical side to this great need.
Word to their needs. Ministers must weep with              Among our ministers and professors, two are in
those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.         their sixties, four in their fifties and the rest are in
  Faithful men must also be men of spiritual               their forties or younger. Bearing in mind that it
courage. The Apostle admonished the church at              takes eight years of education after high school to
Ephesus to pray for all the saints and for him that        prepare for the ministry, someone beginning next
he might have boldness to make known the                   fall would graduate from the seminary in 1994. By
mystery of the gospel (Ephesians  6:18, 19). This          that time two, perhaps five, of the ministers would
must be the prayer of every faithful minister. He          be retired. All of our retired ministers would be
needs boldness to preach the TRUTH of Gods                 well into their eighties or in heaven. Any of the
Word. The Gospel declares that we are sinners who          others could be gone through death, illness, or
cannot do any good at all, that our salvation is all by    discipline.
the grace of God in Christ. To do this takes bold-           The need is great indeed! Young men in the chur-
ness or courage. Ministers stand in the front line of      ches ought to examine themselves to determine
the battle of faith. This is why Paul tells Timothy        whether or not they have the necessary gifts for the
that he must endure hardness as a good soldier of          ministry of the Word. If they do, they ought prayer-
Christ. Again, this takes courage.                         fully to consider whether or not the Lord calls them
  In addition, the minister needs certain natural          to pursue the ministry of the Word. Parents ought
gifts. He needs the ability to study. A faithful man       to discuss these matters with their sons. So should
must be able to teach others by means of the               teachers in our Christian schools. Pastors ought to
preaching of the Word. He needs the ability to read        hold this need before their congregations and
and study the Scriptures and all that goes with this.      especially before the young men of the congrega-
A broad background in history, philosophy, litera-         tions. All of us must pray earnestly that God will
ture, and the original languages of the Bible are          raise up faithful men from our congregations who
needed by one aspiring to the ministry. A minister         are able to teach others in our churches. God hears
must have the ability to explain God's Word to             those prayers and He will provide for His praying
God's people. It takes many hours of hard, prayer-         people!


282                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



   Make no mistake about it, the ministry of the                 never be underestimated. The work is hard, very
Word is hard work. In the light of the last hour in              hard. The rewards and joys of the work are greater
which we are called to live as prophets, priests, and            by far!
kings in Christ, it will become harder. This ought





                                     We and Our Elders
                                                     Barrett L. Gritters





   The relation between believers in the church and              ment" to support this. If this presentation is not cor-
the elders is often incorrectly viewed as similar to             rect, though, I would welcome some of our Presby-
that between citizens of the United States and their             terian brethren to give us their insight.) This view
State or Congressional Representatives. Ours (USA)               seems to do justice to the reformational principle of
is a government "of the people, by the people, and               the priesthood of all believers; that is, that we are
for the people" in which (according to our constitu-             all "prophets, priests, and kings." Both Presby-
tion) the power rests in the people who are                      terians and Reformed people of God believe in this
governed. That is, the power rests in the people                 important principle. How it is applied is the ques-
themselves. Because this kind of representative                  tion.
government is part of our country's heritage, some                  The Reformed system of church government
get the notion that the church runs that way too. In             teaches that the right to rule the church does not
the church of Christ, though, believers are not the              come from the believers themselves. They too hold
basis of authority.                                              a kingly office; but this kingly office means that
  Reformed churches differ from most Presbyter-                  they "with a free and good conscience . . . fight
ian churches in their views of church government.                against sin and Satan . . . and afterwards reign with
One of these differences is exhibited in the relation            him eternally, over all creatures" (Heidelberg
between believers and elders in the church. This                 Catechism, Lord's Day 12). Although believers take
difference in viewpoint touches on the positive pur-             part in the election of elders, the right to rule the
pose of this article.                                            church is a  speciaZ   authority and power given by
  A distinctive character of Presbyterianism is the              Christ, different from what all believers have in
teaching that "ecclesiastical power is given to the              common.
people, and is by them conferred on the Elders, so                  Thus, the relation between believers and the of-
that the latter exercise this power in the name of               fice of elder is not that believers give the  office-
the people, and consequently are subject to the peo-             bearers their authority to rule. The question re-
ple." That is, believers hold in themselves ec-                  mains, then: "What is the proper relation between
clesiastical right to rule by virtue of their general            you and your elders?" In answer to that, the follow-
priesthood, or office of believer. Believers then con-           ing points give us some direction:
fer this right (or power) on the particular men                     1.  Respect and remember.  First of all, we should
whom they elect to serve as elders in the church.                realize that there is a brother/sister relation be-
(See Heyns' Handbook for EZders and Deacons [ 19281              tween us and our elders. They too are sheep of the
p. 16. Heyns quotes Charles Hodge from his Church                flock of God, and need to experience our love and
PoZity  and the PCUSA "Form of Church  Govern-                   prayers in their difficult labors. But we may never
                                                                 fail to see that elders, in their office, carry the
Barrett L. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant Reformed         authority of Christ. They are bishops ("overseers":
Church of Byron Center, Michigan.                                Titus  1:7, I Timothy  3:1, etc.), and as bishops have


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              283



been given a place of rule in the church. We must        sion to remove or retain the name, but the brother
view them as overseers over the flock of God,            must not let that stop him from bringing what he
which He purchased with His own blood, and               sees as a serious objection to any name. The  con-
willingly place ourselves under their rule. When         sistory may have much reason to thank the brother
believers view their "fellow elder-saints" as those      for helping them make a crucial decision. If the
clothed with the authority of Christ and sent by         consistory cannot convince the objector that his
Christ for their good, nothing but good can result.      reasons are not valid, the objecting brother may ap-
Thus, when another church member is an elder, I          peal the consistory's decision to  classis.
not only love and respect him as a brother in the           4. Protest and Appeal. The right of protest and ap-
Lord, but am called to reverence him because of his      peal is a right of every confessing believer, male or
office and have the duty to submit to his authority      female. Because of his office of believer, one who is
as one appointed by Christ Himself.                      grieved by a decision of the elders may, as in the
  2. Choosing  OUY  officebeavers.  Male, confessing     case above with nominations for officebearer, bring
believers have opportunity as well as responsibility     to the consistory a written objection of a decision
to help in the election of officebearers in the          that has been made. .If a carefully formulated pro-
church. Here again is where their office of believer     test shows the consistory that the decision is con-
is manifested. When the consistory presents a slate      trary to the Scripture, the confessions, or  the.
of nominations for approbation, church members           Church Order, they must graciously and thankfully
must do much more than consider who is the most          rescind the decision they made and give thanks to
personable of the lot, or take part in a sort of         God for the office of believers. Again, if the  con-
popularity contest. They must not base their vote        sistory is not convinced that they have erred, and
on who friends or relatives are voting for. Theirs is    therefore do not change, the protestor has the right
the duty to exercise sanctified wisdom and spend         to appeal that case to classis and synod.
time with the Scripture (concerning the necessary
qualifications) and time in prayer (about whom the         Much more could be said about this procedure.
Lord would have in the office of elder).                 What needs to be  ,said here is that this exercise of
  Too often members come to meetings asking to           protest and appeal must be a spiritual exercise of
have their minds refreshed concerning who is on          the office. The right of protest is a concrete expres-
nomination. Or if that is not the case, then there       sion of the office we all hold. Used properly it can
may be come quick consideration of the list of           be a blessing to the church.
nominees and hasty writing of the names, only to           5. Preparing for  ofice. Reformed churches have
find that he has forgotten who he voted for when         emphasized preparation for the office of minister -
the elections are finished. The point that must be       and rightfully so. But this has not been done on a
made is that too often we are guilty of not putting      widespread basis for elders and deacons. (Part of
enough prayerful consideration into the voting for       the reason is that we do not know whom the Lord
officebearers. As believers we have the right and        will call.) An emphasis is placed on ministers' prep-
duty (but no less the ability) to vote with spiritual    aration because of the lifetime call, the bulk of the
regard. God uses this means to place in the office       work, and the nature of preaching. But neglecting
the man whom He chooses.                                 preparation for office of elder is not proper. Also
                                                         this office (as well as the office of deacon) is dif-
  3. Prophe  tic exercise. In connection with the
government of the church, the confessing believer        ficult and critically important for the life of the con-
(who is a member in good standing in the church)         gregation.
also has an obligation to approve the names which          Our churches are becoming larger. Needed are
the consistory has placed on nomination. For at          more and well-qualified elders in the church.
least two weeks prior to election, the names of the      Because there is not unlimited money to build new
nominees are announced in the bulletin for the ex-       churches, and an additional pastor in each church
press purpose that confessing believers exercise         is not always desirable, we need more and  well-
their prophetic office. That the announcement of         qualified elders to help with the work, especially in
the nominees becomes a mere formality in the             larger congregations.
church is a real danger. A believer who knows              A partial solution may be found in I Timothy 3: 1.
something that he thinks might disqualify a              "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a
nominee from serving in the office must bring that       bishop, he desireth a good work." Implied here is
information to the consistory. He must. Before           that a man desires to serve in the church as an  of-
God his duty is to speak to the consistory. His ob-      ficebearer and servant of Christ. With a view to
jection must be serious, but nothing may be hid          that, he can prepare himself for work in that office.
that would bring grief to the church of Christ.          It is not necessary that a man wait until he is
  Ultimately the consistory must make the  deci-         elected to the office before he begins to prepare for


284                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



the work. If a man desires the office, he ought.                               God has given you. Be a godly example of  leader-
before the face of God to begin preparing himself.                             ship in your family, instructing your children, for
Even if the Lord never calls him to the office, the                            "if a man know not how to rule his own house,
study will be a great spiritual benefit for him. (As                           how shall he take care of the church of God?" (I
an aside, consideration might even be given to                                 Tim.  3:5).
much earlier elections so that the officebearers can                              The office of elder is given as a gift to us by the
have time to prepare properly for the work before                               Lord of the church so that we can experience His
installation.)                                                                  rule over us. May we, in whatever relation to the
  How does one prepare? If a man truly desires to                               office we find ourselves, thank our Father for His
be a servant in the church, he must busy himself                                care over us through the elders. He gave them to us
with the Word of God, taking into account especial-                             "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ly the spiritual principles needed for that office. He                          ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till
can prepare for and take an active part in Bible                                we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the
society; he can volunteer to teach Sunday School.                               knowledge of the Son of God . . ." (Ephesians 4:12,
An aptitude to teach is an important qualification of                           13).
elders. An opportune place to begin is in the home





                                    The Office of Believer and
                                                      Christian Giving
                                                                       Carl J. Haak





   Mercy - how we love that word!                                                 Let us consider this in the light of Deuteronomy
   "The Lord is merciful . .  ."; "But the mercy of                             15:7-11. (Will you please look this up now in your
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon                                Bible?)
them that fear him . . .I'; "Remember, 0 Lord, thy                                 God gives us direction how we are to give: boun-
tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses . . .  ."                               tifidy  and wilingly. We should give bountifully, that
                                                                                is, sufficiently to supply the needs the deacons
   God's mercy looks at us as we are miserable and                              have called upon us to support. If the causes go
wretched in our sins and it is His tender pity and                              lacking we have not given bountifully, even though
loving compassion towards us whereby He does us                                 we may attempt to justify ourselves with saying, "I
good. "God be merciful to ME the sinner, . . . this                             have done my part." Observe how this duty is in-
man went down to his house justified."                                          sisted upon us. It is repeated over and over again,
   Sharing the anointing of Christ, we are made to                              and enjoined in the strongest terms: vs. 7, "Thou
be merciful. "And be ye kind one to another,                                    shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thine hand
tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God                              from thy poor brother"; vs. 8, "But thou shalt open
for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." One concrete                              thy hand wide unto him"; vs. 10, "Thou shalt sure-
way the believer shows this grace of mercy is by                                ly give him"; vs. 11, "I command thee, saying,
giving to the causes presented to us by our deacons.                            Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother
          *       *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *             and to thy needy." When the collection plate is
                                                                                passed in divine worship services, God calls us to
                                                                                give bountifully, that is, sufficient unto the needs.
Carl J. Haah is pastor-elect of the Protestant Reformed
Church of Lynden, Wcishington.                                                    The Word of God anticipates and warns against


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 285



objections. "Beware that there be not a thought in        revelation of charity, but of covetousness. "There-
thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the           fore I thought it necessary to exhort you brethren,
year of release is at hand; and thy eye be evil           that they would go before unto you, and make up
against thy poor brother, and thou givest him             beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice
naught, and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and        before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of
it be sin unto thee." The matter concerning the           bounty, and not as of covetousness" (II Cor.  9:5).
seventh year of release was that God had given              We are to do this freely, without grudging. It is
Israel a law, that if any man had lent anything to his    not at all pleasing in the sight of God if when we ex-
neighbors, and if the latter had not been able to         tend the hand to drop our gift in the plate, we are
repay it, then on the seventh year he was to release      grieved in our hearts, and it hurts to give what we
his neighbor of the debt and not exact it of him.         give. "Thou shalt surely give, and thy heart shall
God warns the children of Israel not to withhold          not be grieved." God looks at the heart, and the
giving because they anticipated that they would not       hand is not accepted without it. "Every man ac-
be repaid. The wickedness of their hearts would           cording as he hath purposed in his heart, so let him
reason that they would lose their loan, because the       give, not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth
law would require them to release their debtor.           a cheerful giver" (II Cor.  9:7).
Therefore they would be hesitant to supply the                      * * * * * * * * * *
wants of the needy. "Thou shalt be willing to lend,
expecting nothing again."                                   The exercise of the office of all believers in Chris-
                                                          tian giving is a great duty and calling. It is not only a
  When we make objections against our calling of          commendable thing for a man to be kind to the
Christian giving, God speaks of it as a manifestation     poor and generous to the Kingdom causes, but it is
of the wickedness of our hearts. "Beware that there       our sacred calling, as much as it is to pray, or to at-
be not a thought in thy wicked heart." The warning        tend public worship. It is mentioned in the Bible as
is very strict. God does not say, "Beware that you        one of the more essential duties of true religion ac-
do not actually refuse to give," but, "Beware that        ceptable to God. "He hath showed thee, 0 man,
you do not have one objecting thought against it."        what is good; and what doth the Lord thy God re-
God warns against the beginnings of uncharitable-         quire of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to
ness in the heart, and against anything which tends       walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah  6:8). To love
to hold us back in our giving.                            mercy is one of the three things which sums true
  Although this applies to all our giving, the offer-     religion. So also is it mentioned by James as one of
ings for the poor are especially the way in which         the two things in which true religion consists:
the Christian shows mercy, and thus functions in          "Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father
the office of all believers. God says to us that we       is this; to visit the fatherless and the widows in
shall never be in want for objects of benevolence.        their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from
"For the poor shall never cease out of thy land" (vs.     the world." Christ tells us that it is one of the
11).  Christ has said the same to us in Matthew           weightier matters of the law. "Ye have omitted the
26:ll: "The poor have ye always with you." This           weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and
cuts off the excuse that we can find nobody to give       faith" (Matt.  22:23). Again, "I desired mercy, and
to, none who are in need. God shall so order His          not sacrifice" (Hosea  6:6). The Scripture again and
providence, that His people everywhere, and in all        again teaches us that the display of mercy in giving
ages, will have occasion for the exercise of the vir-     of what the Lord has given to us to the needs of the
tue of mercy in giving for the poor.                      Body of Christ, is an essential and weighty matter
  It is our duty to give bountifully. It is com-          of our office of believer.
manded twice in the text, "Thou shalt open thy              The willingness we will have to support the
hand wide unto thy poor brother." Merely to give          causes presented by our deaconates only originates
something is not sufficient; it answers not to the        in a sincere understanding of the mercy of God
rule, nor comes up to the holy command of God.            towards us. Consider how greatly God has loved
What we give, considering our brothers' wants and         us, what He has given to us, when we were so un-
our abilities, ought properly to be called a  ZiberaZ     worthy. Christ loved and pitied us, when we were
gift. This is explained in verse 8: "Thou shalt open      poor and laid out His own life for us and shed His
thy hand wide unto him, and shall surely Zend him         blood for us without grudging. He emptied Himself
sufficient for his want, in that which he needeth." By    for us vile wretches, in order to make us rich, and
lending, the text means giving, as in Luke 6:35: "Do      to clothe us with kingly robes, when we were na-
good and lend, hoping for nothing again." The poor        ked. He brought us to feast at His own table when
are to receive what is sufficient for their needs.        we were totally without. He raised us from the
There ought to be none in the church who live in          dunghill and made us inherit the throne of glory.
pinching want. When we give sparingly, it is not          "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,


286                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



that although he was rich, yet for your sakes he                  His infinite mercy has bound Himself to the poor in
became poor, that ye through his poverty might be                 the church and His heart loves the causes of His
rich" (II Cor.  8:9).                                             kingdom. When we deny them, we rob Him. (See
  Considering all these things, what a horror it                  Malachi ch. 3.)
would be that we cannot support the needs of the                     To give to the poor in the manner prescribed to
church without grumbling or inward regret. How                    us by our Lord is a difficult duty, and it is very con-
unsuitable it is for those who live only by the kind-             trary to corrupt nature. Man is naturally governed
ness and mercy of God to be unkind and unmer-                     by the principle of self-love. Part of the blessed
ciful. The uncharitable giver, the one who holds                  liberty in Christ is the ability worked in us of grace
back his hand from the offering because his money                 to walk not according to some, but according to all
goes for other things first and he fears he will not              the commandments of God. If this seems hard and
have enough for himself, this one knows not ex-                   difficult to you, let not that be the objection against
perientially the mercy of God.                                    doing it. Also in this area of the redeemed life of
  Christ by His redemption has made us members                    grace the way to walk is the narrow way.
one of another. Therefore we ought to be united                     But we ought not to look upon it as loss. If we
and serve one another's good. "Bear ye one                        believe the Scriptures, when a man charitably
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ."              gives, the giver has the greatest advantage by it,
Let us apply these things to ourselves and inquire                even greater than the receiver. "I have showed you
in our hearts whether in these things we are walk-                all things, how that,so laboring ye ought to support
ing in a way which is pleasing to God and worthy of               the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord
our Lord Whose anointing we share. Have you                       Jesus, how he said, `It is more blessed to given than
given cheerfully until the need is supplied? Have                 to receive," (Acts  20:35; see also Prov.  14:.21,   Etc.
we done it grudgingly and with grief of heart? Do                 9:1, Prov.  19:17).
the causes of the Kingdom and the poor cry out to                   The spiritual principle is simple but oh so true.
God due to our falling behind in wholehearted giv-                Experiencing God's mercy we are made to be mer-
ing?                                                              ciful. In the way of being merciful we receive the
  God tells us that what we have done in our giving               approval of our Lord and are blessed. May the Lord
we have done unto Him, and what we have denied                    cause us to function and to grow in the office of
we have denied unto Him. "He that hath pity on                    believer by giving to the causes of the kingdom and
the poor lendeth to the Lord" (Prov. 19:17). God in               the needy.





                                                  Book Review



EVANGELICAL ETHICS, ISSUES FACING                                     tices of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia? Is civil
THE CHURCH TODAY, by John Jefferson Davis:                            disobedience ever an option for believers? What does
Puritan and Reformed Publishing, 1985; 299 pp.,                       the Bible say about artificial insemination, or about
$13.95. (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                                  sterilization?
  The blurb on the cover of this book explains its                      Never before have such issues pressed upon the
                                                                      church with the urgency they do now. To equip
contents.                                                             believers to respond to the ethical challenges of our
          The Christian today is confronted with ethical ques-        time, John Jefferson Davis has written this highly in-
       tions of unprecedented magnitude. Are nuclear                  formative and thoroughly biblical volume  - an ex-
       weapons justifiable? Does world population growth              cellent resource for the student, the pastor, and the
        make the widespread use of contraceptives impera-             concerned layperson.
       tive? What attitude should Christians have toward
        homosexuality? How should we respond to the prac-            On the whole, the author succeeds well in giving


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              287



guidance to God's people on what are surely dif-           have to be treated within the broad principles of
ficult ethical questions with which the world con-         Scripture which define the marriage relation, the
fronts the church. Of particular value in the book is      physical union of husband and wife, the love which
a great deal of resource material on what the              prevails in the whole marital relation, etc. I do not
church in the past has said about many of the issues       want to suggest with these criticisms, however, that
raised, and on what current legislation in this coun-      the author fails in treating these matters from a
try and abroad has been passed on various matters          Biblical perspective. He does this, and often does it
of ethical concern. While the law is in a state of flux    well.
at present, this book brings one up to date on what          One element of the book is to be deplored: the
current law has to say.                                    author, under certain limited circumstances and
  As I was reading the book, one thought especial-         within certain well-defined perimeters, supports
ly occurred to me. The author does not, in my opin-        revolution against constituted authority. He cites
ion, always present all the relevant Biblical data         especially the examples of the judges in proof of his
on an issue. I do not want to sound too harsh in this      position, but fails to take into account the dif-
criticism, for some of the issues raised and dis-          ference between our day and the Old Testament
cussed in the book have no easy answers - the Bi-          theocracy, and the relation between the New Testa-
ble does not present us with a clear-cut "Yes" or          ment Christian and the State. I do not agree with
"No" in many instances; and the book reflects care-        the author at all in his conclusions in this matter,
fulness in dealing with these difficult problems. But      and warn God's people that the New Testament ab-
the Bible does present broad principles oftentimes         solutely forbids revolution, and that those who
in the context of which many of today's problems           engage in it, for whatever reason, bring down the
have to be faced; and the author does not always, in       wrath of God upon them.
my judgment, deal with these principles.                     The book is highly recommended. We urge our
  Perhaps an illustration or two will make this            readers who are interested in these important
clear. In his treatment of the use of contraceptives,      ethical questions, which touch upon their own life,
the author does not deal sufficiently with the             to get this book and make it part of their necessary
teachings of the Bible concerning the believer's at-       reading. God's people must be informed on these
titude towards children; i.e., that children of            matters, for sooner or later the church will be con-
believers are children of the covenant. The whole          fronted with these questions in concrete form. This
matter of bringing forth covenant seed must be con-        book gives valuable guidance through a very dense
sidered in this problem. The same is true to some          thicket.
extent when the author treats such matters as  in            The author is professor of Theology at  Gordon-
vitro  conception, surrogate motherhood, artificial        Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton,
insemination, etc. It seems to me that these matters       Massachusetts.





                        News From Our Churches
                                                  David Harbach




                                   February 28,1986        Rapids, Michigan, to acquaint them with the
  The new address of Rev. Joostens and his family          Beeston Springs Church that joined the Protestant
is: Ocean Pines, Apt. B202, P.O. Box 238, Montego          Reformed Churches of Jamaica three and one-half
Bay, Jamaica, West Indies. Rev. Bruinsma has writ-         years ago. This church is without a minister,
ten the congregation of First Church, Grand                although an enthusiastic man, Elder Tomlinson,


  THE STANDARD BEARER
          P.O. Box 6064                                                                         / Gi;zEE~gH. 1
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49516





288                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


who desires to become a minister, serves the con-              Rev. George Hutton, of the Bible Presbyterian
gregation  -of about twenty to twenty-five people.        Church of Larne, North Ireland, will,. D.V., preach
On Wednesday afternoons Rev. Bruinsma spends              in South Holland, March 2; speak at a public
time teaching him doctrine, liturgy, and the              meeting on "The History of Scotch  - Irish  Presby-
mechanics of sermon making. This congregation             teriansim," March 3, in the same church; speak at a
learns the tunes to the Psalter very quickly, which       denominational Officebearers Conference on "The
is evidence of the talents God has given them.            Presbyterian Principle of Purity of Worship,"
Although there are only three married couples who         March 4; address the societies of Hudsonville
attend the worship services, there are about six          Church, Michigan, March 13; lecture on "The Dif-
young women and two young men who also attend.            ference Between Presbyterianism and the Re-
  Rev. Haak's farewell sermon to Southeast                formed Faith," March 14, in First Church, Grand
Church, Michigan, was February 23. Southwest              Rapids; and preach in the morning at Hudsonville
Church, Michigan, held a welcome dinner for Rev.          Church, March 16.
Kamps and his family and an annual potluck dinner              Rev. Bekkering will give the Spring Lecture in
on the night of February 21.                              Dutton Christian Reformed Church, May 1.
  Rev. Woudenberg was on classical appointment                 The theme for the Young People's Convention
to the Wykcoff, New Jersey congregation for the           this summer is "Being Reformed in 1986: Heritage
last Sunday in February and the first Sunday in           and Calling. ' ' The text will be II Thessalonians
March.                                                    2: 15: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
  The Program Committee of Hope Church,                   traditions which ye have been taught."
Michigan, has available, on a loan basis, cassette
tapes of Psalms, Proverbs, and the complete New                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Testament as read from the King James Version of              On March 6, 1986, our parents and grand-parents, MR. AND
the Bible. Contact Mr. Jacob Kuiper if you are in-        MRS.  DINGMAN  SCHEELE celebrated their 45th wedding anniver-
terested.                                                 sary. We are thankful to God for the blessings of God-fearing parents
                                                          and the benefits of a Christian up-bringing. We pray that God may
  Hot off the press! The Evangelism Committee of          richly bless them in the years to come.
South Holland Church, Illinois, has published a           Bernie and Rena Worst
new pamphlet titled, "A Defense of Calvinism as                Gary, Darrel and Juliane
the Gospel." This gem can be obtained by writing          Maurice and Cheryl Scheele
                                                               Kristi, Lori and Michelle
to the committee at the church's address. Through         Dennis Scheele                                    Lynden, Washington
contact with this same committee, a Reformed
book publisher, The Trinity Foundation, has given                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
several books for South Holland's Church Library.              Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School Board wishes to ex-
Most of these books are by the Presbyterian               press its deepest Christian sympathy to Mr. Gerald  Vanden Berg in
                                                          the recent death of his wife,  RUTHANN  VANDEN BERG. As the re-
theologian, Gordon H. Clark, including commen-            cent past President of our Board, as a board, we wish to say with the
taries on Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles. One        Psalmist in Psalm  143:7  & 8  - "Hear me speedily 0 Lord: my spirit
of the books, Scripture Twisting in the Seminaries,       faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go
concerns the present movement to ordain women             down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morn-
                                                          ing; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should
deacons, in which the author concludes: "The of-          walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee."
fice of deacon is an office which involves the exer-          May you and your family take comfort in these words.
cise of ecclesiastical authority. In the Pauline chur-    R. Van  Baren,  Pres.
ches it was closed to women. It therefore must be         J.  Schipper,  Sec'y.
closed to women in our churches . . . with . . . John
Knox, the Scottish Kirk, and all Christendom, we                                            NOTICE!!!
believe that the position of . . . refusing to ordain         The Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need of a
                                                          teacher-administrator for Grades 7 and 8 and for a teacher for the
women is solidly Biblical . . .  ."                       Kindergarten and the 1st Grade for the 1986-87 School Year.
                                                          Teachers interested in applying for these positions please write to the
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref.        Hull Protestant Reformed Christian School, 218 2nd Street, Hull, IA
                                                          51239, or phone Ron Koole,  (712) 439-l 060 or Glenn Kooiker,
Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.                 ( 7 1 2 )   3 2 4 - 2 9 7 3 .


