           The
STANDARD
           BEARER
           A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





     .  .  . once God has earned for you and me a
place in His kingdom through the death of
His Son, it is God's good pleasure to lead us
to that place only in the way of true
righteousness. The kingdom of heaven is a
kingdom of righteousness. How inconceiv-
able that ,God would lead us to this kingdom
in this life along the path of sin and depravity

.  .  .

See "The Righteousness That Exceeds"
                                                          - page 314


                                               Vol.  LXII, No. 14, April 15,  1986-


314                                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER




                                    CONTENTS                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                                   ISSN 03624692
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       The Righteousness That Exceeds . . . . . . . . . . . .314                                 Editor-in-Chief:   Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
  Editorial  -                                                                                   Department  Editors:  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                 D. Decker, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko,
       Reformed Revival or Ongoing Deformation? . . .317                                         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.
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MEDITATION
James D. Slopsema




                        The Righteousness That Exceeds

                    For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
                scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.                                                       Matthew 5:20



  These words were spoken by Jesus in His great                                                   sermon Jesus emphasized that the kingdom of
sermon on the Mount.                                                                              heaven is essentially a kingdom of righteousness, so
The theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the                                                       that only the righteous can enter it. Quite in  har-
kingdom of heaven and its righteousness. In this                                                  mony with that theme, Jesus said that except our


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                            315



righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the       Pharisees is essentially a false righteousness. If we
scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no case enter into     will enter into the kingdom, we must have a true,
the kingdom.                                              genuine righteousness.
  Now righteousness has the idea of obedience to            There were especially two things that character-
the law of God. That which conforms to God's law          ized the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees
is righteous. Hence, what Jesus is saying is that ex-     that made it false.
cept our obedience to God's law exceeds that of the         First, their righteousness was only an outward,
scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no case enter into     external obedience to the law. The scribes and
the kingdom.                                              Pharisees had a very shallow, superficial concep-
             * *  * * * * *  * * *                        tion of the law. They imagined that the law only
   Perhaps a word ought to be said about the scribes      governed their outward life and had nothing at all
and Pharisees.                                            to say about their inner thoughts and desires. Con-
   The Pharisees were a religious sect in Israel who      sequently, their obedience to the law was only ex-
                                                          ternal. They ordered their outward conduct accord-
prided themselves in the keeping of God's law.            ing to the law, but not their inner thoughts and
Very religiously they observed all the command-
ments of God given to Israel at Mt. Sinai through         desires.
Moses. In addition to this they also faithfully             Jesus made this plain in what follows of the Ser-
observed the traditions of the fathers. These were        mon on the Mount. The Pharisees were angry with
man-made rules added to the law of God, which, it         their brother without a cause, they called their
was claimed, must also be kept if one will truly          brother names, they would insult and tear down
keep God's law in its essence. All these the              their neighbor; but just so long as they did not take
Pharisees very carefully observed. In a word the          the life of their neighbor they imagined they had
Pharisees were the doers of the law.                      kept the sixth commandment of the law, "Thou
                                                          shalt not kill." In like manner they frequently
   If the Pharisees were the doers of the law, the        looked upon the neighbor's wife to lust after her in
scribes were the students of the law. They made it        their hearts. Yet never did they consider this to be a
their business to study and know the law of God.          violation of the seventh commandment against
They knew the law of God backwards and for-               adultery. One committed adultery only if he laid
wards. We may call the scribes the theologians of         his hand on the neighbor's wife.
their day.                                                  Consequently, Jesus called the Pharisees in
1 The scribes and the Pharisees therefore were            another place whited sepulchres. He compared
very closely related to each other. They both dealt       them to a cup clean on the outside but filthy on the
with the law: the one as the doer of the law; the         inside.
other as the interpreter of the law. And for that           The second characteristic of the righteousness of
reason they were highly esteemed in Israel. There         scribes and Pharisees was that it was a righteous-
was a parable that if only two men were to go to          ness completely devoid of love. The very essence of
heaven, one would be a scribe and the other a             God's law, as Jesus Himself more than once made
Pharisee.                                                 clear, is that we love God and our neighbor as
  What a sledgehammer blow it must have been              ourselves. This love was completely lacking in the
when Christ announced that except the righteous-          hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. There was only
ness of the people exceed the righteousness of the        one whom each scribe and Pharisee loved  - that
scribes and Pharisees, they would in no case enter        was himself. Each was filled with a sinful love of
into the kingdom of heaven. These words of Jesus          self which made him concerned only with himself.
ran exactly contrary to all thinking in Israel. They      We may ask, why then did they bother to keep the
were words that shocked the multitudes. We will           law of God even in its external form? The answer is
appreciate this especially if we understand the ex-       that this external obedience served to advance their
act meaning of Jesus' words. For Jesus is not saying      selfish goals. The external righteousness of the
that the scribes and Pharisees were basically going       scribes and Pharisees served to gain them the praise
in the right direction but simply had not gone far        of men. It also served to elevate them to positions of
enough in their obedience to God's law. No! What          power and influence in Israel.
Jesus is saying is that we must have a different kind       And now imagine! The scribes and Pharisees
of righteousness than that of the scribes and             believed that on the basis of this external obe-
Pharisees. The righteousness of the scribes and           dience, God would receive them into His fellow-
                                                          ship and reward them with eternal glory.
James D. Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed      Small wonder that Jesus proclaims their right-
Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.                            eousness to be false!


316                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



  Our righteousness must exceed the righteous-             ty is that we are no longer capable of walking in
ness of the scribes and Pharisees. Our righteous-          true righteousness. All that the depraved and fallen
ness must be a true righteousness.                         sinner can do is perform the false righteousness of
  A true righteousness is one, first of all, rooted in     the scribes and Pharisees.
love.                                                        If we will live in true righteousness, we must be
  As we have just noticed, the great commandment           transformed by the wonderful grace of God in Jesus
of the law is that we love God and the neighbor.           Christ.
Now what does it really mean to love God and the             This transformation is possible only if we first
neighbor? From a very practical point of view, to          have the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself.
love God means that you seek at all times God's              We must understand that our depravity by
honor and glory. One who loves God as he ought             nature is God's punishment for our sin. When we
does not seek his own glory; he seeks Gods glory.          sinned in Adam originally, we became guilty before
He desires to honor God in all that he. does and           God. God appropriately punished us by giving us
says. In like manner, to love the neighbor means to        over to sin and depravity, which eventually leads to
seek the welfare of the neighbor. One who loves            hell. What this means is that if we will ever be
the neighbor isn't concerned first of all with his         delivered from our depravity and the false right-
own desires and interests; he's concerned with             eousness to which it limits us, our sins must be
what's good for the neighbor. For the neighbor's           removed from before the face of God. So long as
welfare he will gladly sacrifice, if need be, his time,    there remains so much as one sin of ours before
his money, and even his own desires.                       God, we are legally bound to our depravity and this
  Now our righteousness is genuine only when our           false righteousness. Freedom from our depravity
keeping of God's law is motivated by this kind of          requires that somehow we appear before the
love. If, for example, we do what God commands             tribunal of God in perfect righteousness, that is, as
us because we axe afraid of hell or because we             those who have never sinned but who have kept all
think that somehow our obedience will earn us a            obedience.
place in heaven, then our righteousness is false. It's       This is possible only if we possess the righteous-
essentially the same as that of the scribes and            ness of Jesus Christ. In the cross of Christ there is
Pharisees. So too is our righteousness false if per-       perfect righteousness. For at the cross Christ paid
formed to avoid criticism by others or even to make        the price that covers for all times the sins of all of
ourselves look good before others. Our righteous-          God's people. At the cross Christ also walked the
ness is true and genuine only when it is motivated         way of perfect obedience and righteousness on
by love and is thus done consciously either to             behalf of all of Gods own. There is a perfect
glorify God or to promote the welfare of the               righteousness at the cross! And if we will be
neighbor.                                                  righteous before God so as to be freed from the ter-
  Following from this, a true righteousness is, in         rible penalty of sin, we must possess that righteous-
the second place, one that conforms the whole of           ness.
our life to the law of God. Not only must our out-           This righteousness of Jesus Christ is a free gift of
ward behavior be pure according to the law, but            God to all His people. They receive this righteous-
also our inner thoughts and desires. And the key to        ness by faith alone in Jesus Christ. When the
this is love. If we truly love God as we ought, we         children of God come before their God in true faith,
will not be content to conform just our outward life       God accounts the righteousness of Christ as their
to His law. In our desire to honor and glorify Him,        righteousness so that they are righteous before Him
we will also live according to His law inwardly. In        in Christ's righteousness.
like manner, if we truly love the neighbor so that           And being righteous before God by faith, Gods
we seek his good, we will not only refrain from kill-      people are delivered by Gods grace from their
ing him but will also refrain from being angry with        depravity and its false righteousness. Through the
him without a cause, insulting him or tearing him          same faith by which they have laid claim to the
down. And if we truly love the neighbor's wife we          righteousness of the cross, God in Christ renews
will not only refrain from  commiting the outward          and strengthens them so that they walk in true
act of adultery with her, we will also refrain from        righteousness. They do this only in principle (and
lusting after her.                                         thus imperfectly) in this life, but completely and
         * * *  * * * * * * *                              perfectly in glory.
  By nature it is impossible for us to walk in true          Are you walking in true righteousness?
righteousness. This is due to our depravity. When
we fell in Adam in the beginning, we all became              Will you grow in this righteousness?
corrupt and depraved. The sad fruit of this depravi-         Cling to Christ by faith!


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       317



  How very important it is to live in true righteous-           ly in the way of true righteousness. The kingdom of
ness!                                                           heaven is a kingdom of righteousness. How incon-
  For only those who walk in true righteousness                 ceivable that God would lead us to this kingdom in
will enter into the kingdom of heaven.                          this life along the path of sin and depravity, along
                                                                the path of a false righteousness. The God-ordained
  No! This does not mean that somehow a life of                 way to heaven is the way of His transforming grace,
righteousness and obedience to God earns us a                   the way of true righteousness.
place in the kingdom. Cur place is earned only by
the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.                        Are you on that way?
  However, once God has earned for you and me a                   Let us in the power of grace and the cross walk in
place in His kingdom through the death of His Son,              the righteousness that exceeds!
it is Gods good pleasure to lead us to that place on-

EDITORIAL




                                     Reformed Revival or
                                  Ongoing Deformation?


  Not long ago (Dec. 15, 1985 issue) Prof. Decker                  `tions. And then we gave our youth the opportunity to
commented rather extensively on "Alive `85" in AU                  make a commitment (see News, Sept. 16, 1985). [The
Around  Us, criticizing it chiefly because of its  Ar-             reference here is to an altar call at last year's Young
minianism, but also calling attention positively to                Calvinist Convention. HCH] A number of our chur-
what the churches need in order to be "reformed                    ches are heavily involved in revival religion's style by
and always reforming." His comments were perti-                    means of paradenominational organizations: some go
                                                                   on spirituality retreats, Iowa church members have
nent.                                                              adopted the Cursillo movement (News, Mar.  3), and
  Recently the same Dr. John Guest who was the                     the other part of old colony's heartland, western
" evangelist' ' of "Alive `85" was back in Grand                   Michigan, is dipping into revival religion using a man
Rapids under the auspices of the Shawnee Park                      whose name is symbolic of the new evangelism tools
Christian Reformed Church. This event became the                   we are borrowing: Dr. John Guest (News, Mar. 17).
occasion of some editorial comment under the title,               Included in the list might have been extensive
"Reformed Revival," by Editor A. Kuyvenhoven in                 participation by three southern California Christian
The Banner (March 31, `86, p. 5). After commenting              Reformed Churches in Billy Graham's Anaheim
on the fact that this is a relatively new phenomenon            Crusade (News, Mar. 31, 1986, p.  23), although
in the Christian Reformed Church, as well, as                   such participation, at least on an unofficial scale,
stating that "many of us will continue to observe               has been going on for almost a generation already.
revival religion from a distance and with                         Under the sub-title "Hang Loose, Brethren,"
suspicion" while "others of us have decided that it             Editor Kuyvenhoven tells us:
is exactly what we need," he describes the current
trend as follows:                                                    I witnessed the return of Guest to Grand Rapids on
                                                                   a Sunday morning in March, when he led a "commit-
         All of us can make revival religion's best products       ment service," sponsored by the Shawnee Park Chris-
   our guests by turning on the television. Perhaps that's         tian Reformed Church, in the gym of Grand Rapids
   where we first got used to the style. Then we decided           Christian High School. On the previous evening, a
   that the best way to set young Calvinists afire was to          young people's rally had brought Guest, loud music,
   invite popular evangelical speakers to their  conven-           colorful lights, and the claims of the Lord to the same


318                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



       gym. On Sunday morning about 1,100 people came. I                Now there is much that can be said about all this.
       sat on the bleachers. Shawnee Park Church had done
       much hard work, and I enjoyed the service with a                 One wonders, for example, about the title,
       spiritual joy. Of course, we are still a little awkward at    "Reformed Revival." No evidence is adduced, for
       a revival-type meeting in a gym. The "service of              one thing, to show that any genuine revival is tak-
       reconciliation" (or, law) seemed curiously out of             ing place - though revivalism seems to have more
       place; the choir was excellent but too refined for the        and more of a place in the CRC. In the second
       setting (so was the organ); and the pastor was trying         place, the editorial seems to assume that this
       hard to find the style of this thing. The song leader fit     revival is Reformed. Little or nothing is said on that
       right in, but he could not get the people to say              score, while all the emphasis appears to fall on the
       "Amen," and he did not press harder. But Guest is a           matter of method, not on content and message. In the
       pro. He holds his Bible the way Billy Graham does; he         third place, one wonders whether the time has
       is tall, handsome, and speaks with a British accent. He
       is extremely articulate. He knows and likes Christian         come, from the church political point of view, that
       Reformed people, and he was out of step only once,            "there is no king in Israel, but everyone does what
       when he talked about going to a restaurant after              is right in his own eyes." There was a time when
       church.                                                       the power of hierarchy was very strong in the CRC,
         People could respond to Guest's challenge by mark-          especially when one did not conform to CRC
       ing one of four different choices on a card, or they          synodical decrees. Now apparently a CRC  con-
       could go and meet him in a "counseling room." That's          sistory can officially invite an Episcopal minister to
       as close as we came to a sinner's seat.                       its Sunday morning service with impunity; and
         I think that every congregation needs to do some-           even the editor of the denominational magazine
       thing now and then that's different from the ordinary.        refers to "Reformed Revival," and speaks of having
       So does every couple; it is good for every person.            "enjoyed the service with a spiritual joy." And he
  After telling about observing three young women                    speaks in the past tense about the CRC attitude
who apparently paid no attention, the editor writes:                 toward revivalism: "We used to describe
                                                                     American-frontier revival religion as emotional, in-
         How does Jesus come to us? By his Spirit. And how           dividualistic, and, yes, Arminian." But then he
       does the Spirit come to us? With the Word. We have            speaks of the present: "Well, very many of us will
       always known that.                                            continue to observe revival religion from a distance
         Sometimes people have to be in a new environment            and with suspicion. But others of us have decided
       or hear a new preacher, but it's just another way of          that it is exactly what we need."
       meeting the same Jesus. And if we don't meet him,
       nothing happens.                                                 What has happened in the CRC?
  The concluding section of the editorial is sub-                       Very simply put, what has happened is that the
titled "Clarity." It concentrates on "method." In                    doctrine of the general, well-meant offer of the
the first place, it proposes, referring to "the                      gospel has taken root, grown, and is now bringing
methods and techniques that other Christians                         forth fruit!
employ to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ," that
"We could learn to introduce such opportunities                         This revivalism is not a sudden, overnight
and confrontations in a way that's appropriate to                    development; but it is the fruit of a long process.
methods and manners with which we are                                The process began in 1924, when the error of the
familiar." In the second place, it calls for under-                  well-meant offer was attached to the First Point of
standing:                                                            C o m m o n   G r a c e .   H e n r y   D a n h o f ,   H e r m a n
         All of us need shaking up from time to time, and I          Hoeksema, and George M. Ophoff warned then of
       don't really care how it is done, as long as it is done.      its incipient Arminianism and prophesied that uni-
       But all leaders in the church should know what the            versal atonement and the denial of sovereign repro-
       connection is between faith and method and between            bation would be the fruits of it. It took many years,
       theology and liturgy. The congregation needs clarity          during which the poison of the common grace doc-
       about the operation of the Spirit and some under-             trine was slowly but inexorably injected into the
       standing of how all this squares with our Reformed            life-stream of the church from pulpit and in cate-
       confessions.                                                  chism class, as well as in seminary. For many years
Notice, the question is not  whether  it squares, but                the process was hardly noticed by many. But then,
how  it squares. And, in the third place, Editor                     as the late James Daane put it, during the fifties the
Kuyvenhoven cautions that  -.consistories must                       winds of change began to blow through the CRC. In
know "what we're buying into when we import un-                      the 1960s the church was unable to condemn the
familiar methods. Some are refreshingly new. But                     error of general atonement when clearly con-
let's keep far away from the methods of the salva-                   fronted by it; it was only "ambiguous and
tion engineers with which North America is so                        abstract." Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s
richly endowed."                                                     the doctrine of sovereign reprobation was radically


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                           319



revamped (even though Dr. Boer's gravamen  ap-              And there is no solution - except the only solu-
parently  - but only apparently  - failed).               tion which but a few have been willing to consider.
  Is it any wonder, considering the facts of history,     That solution is the repudiation of the First Point of
that Arminian revivalism has found its way into           Common Grace and its insidious offer-doctrine and
Christian Reformed evangelism? No, it would have          a wholehearted return to the truth of sovereign,
been a wonder if this had not happened. The whole         particular grace.
process was inevitable!                                     Would to God that many would see this!         HCH

THE DAY OF SHADOWS
John A. Heys





                      A Cry From the Belly of Hell



  Although Jonah was not the author of Psalm 130,         told them in no uncertain terms, "I know that for
what is written therein expresses what lived in his       my sake this great tempest is up,on you."
soul. And remembering the story of Jonah as we              Jonah did not yet see that thousands of Ninevites
find it in Holy Writ, we can see that had he known        could also perish because of his sin, namely, that of
the versification of it, as we have it in our Psalter,    refusing to go and warn them of God's wrath
there was a moment in his life when he would have         against them because of their sin. There were elect
sung it. I have in mind these words:                      children of God there, as subsequent history
      From the depths do I invoke Thee,                   shows; and they would have perished with the
      Lord to me incline thy ear;                         children of the devil. For he did not understand
      To my voice be Thou attentive,                      how God could want to save these people, who in
      And my supplication hear.                           Jonah's mind were so far out of the covenant
                                                          sphere.
  The way Jonah did put it was: "I cried by reason
of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me;          Having been given grace to acknowledge his sin
out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest       before these mariners  - who likewise were Gen-
my voice." And the affliction to which he refers is       tiles, even as the Ninevites were  - so that he in-
the heavy hand of God upon him because of his sin         structed them to cast him overboard, so that they
in refusing to go to Nineveh, as he was called, to        might be saved from the destructive power of this
preach unto Gods people in that great city.               storm, Jonah now has the awesome experience that
                                                          in a matter of moments, rather than the forty days
  God had sent a storm of unusually great force to        before Nineveh's destruction, he will face God in
buffet the ship which Jonah was using to flee to          death! The God, from Whose presence he sought to
Tarshish. Shipwreck seemed imminent. And God              flee, will now confront him here outside the prom-
had so guided the lots which were `cast, that there       ised land. He is walking in sin, and he is outside
was no doubt in anyone's mind that this storm was         the covenant sphere because he wanted to leave it.
because of Jonah's sin. He confessed it before the        Try to put yourself in his position as the sailors pick
sailors, telling them that he was trying to flee from     him up and he sails over the side of the ship and
God's presence. He was even more specific. For he         begins to descend to those waters whipped up by
                                                          that unusually powerful storm. Indeed he would
John A. Heys is a minister emeritus in the Protestant     get wet; but after that would not the fire of hell
Reformed Churches.                                        change things completely for him? And as he


320                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



descends to the bottom of the sea, what thoughts           his grave, before the fish came and swallowed him
must have flashed through his mind, now that no            up, and before he was supplied with the oxygen he
one less than God Himself had told him that this           needed for his life.
storm was because of his sin.                                Thus the word is also used in Psalm 16: 10 when,
  The picture, however, is often distorted, particu-       prophetically, we read of Jesus: "For Thou wiltnot
larly in Bible story books with illustrations drawn        leave my soul in hell." This is explained in the next
or painted to try to get the idea clearly before the       clause, "Neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to
minds of the children. It is presented as though the       see corruption." That is the corruption of the body
fish is right there, just under the surface of the         in the grave. In the Greek there are three words
water and right next to the ship, so that Jonah is at      that are translated as hell. There is the word hades,
once transported from the safety of the ship - safe        which we find in Acts 2:27 as a fulfillment of what
in the sense that there he could breathe the oxygen        we find in Psalm 16:lO. It plainly means the tomb,
he needed for his life  - and into the fish's belly,       the grave. Then there is the word gehenna, which
where oxygen again is provided for him. But in             means the place of torment, the place of the fire of
Jonah 2 we get a different picture. In verse 5 we          God's holy wrath. And there is the word tartarus,
read, "The waters compassed me about, even to the          used only once and by Peter in II Peter 2:4. We may
soul; the depths closed round about, the weeds             safely conclude that what Jonah speaks of here is
were wrapped about my head." Then too in verse 6           his grave. He  did. not go to the place of torment,
he speaks of going "down to the bottoms of the             although he had every reason to fear that. He is cry-
mountains; the earth with her bars was about me            ing to God from the moment he was thrown into
for ever." Plainly Jonah had fallen to the bottom of       the waves, and fell deeper and deeper in the sea,
the sea. The fish may have been there near the             and while he became entangled in the weeds. He
ship, and even near the surface. But he did not im-        expressed his thanks to God after he was picked up
mediately swallow up Jonah and give him a place of         by the fish; and he knew that his life was spared.
safety to enjoy, with no moments of stark fear and         Then he stated what we read in verse 2:  ". . . and
terror gripping his soul. No, he says that the waters      Thou heardest me."
compassed him, even to the soul. He had sunk to              No, the fish was not a moving grave for Jonah.
the depths of the sea, and he had gotten tangled in        When in the fish, he was already out of his grave.
the weeds. In that sense "From the depths do I in-         That fish was a special "ship" prepared by God to
voke Thee" was characteristic of Jonah's prayer.           bring him back to dry land, so that he could still go
Those weeds that were wrapped about his head, as           to Nineveh.
he states in verse 5, were not inside the fish's belly.
Note that he continues in the next verse by stating          Certainly we do not deal here with a fish story.
that he "went down to the bottom of the moun-              We have a true story of a real fish. This is not a bit
tains; and the earth with her bars was about me for-       of fiction with a spiritual meaning. It is no fable.
ever." Even if he could swim, this was now im-             Consider what the Son of God Himself said. He
possible because of the thick weeds into which             assured us that so as Jonah was in the fish's belly
God's hand had guided him, as he fell deeper and           for three days and three nights, so He would be in
deeper to the depths of the sea. All this was before       the heart of the earth for three days and three
the fish found him and swallowed him. All this was         nights. If Jonah's was fictitious, then so was
also before he was safely inside the fish with a           Christ's. Perish the very thought! That would mean
divinely prepared supply of much needed oxygen.            that our sins were not actually blotted out, and that
                                                           He did not conquer death and the grave for us.
  In Jonah  2:2 we read that he cried from out the         Then we would have a fictitious salvation. And we
belly of hell. This does not refer to the belly of the     would be the people of whom Jonah speaks when
fish. In the KJV of the Bible there are several words      he says in verse 8, "They that observe lying
that are translated as hell, but they do not all mean      vanities forsake their own mercy." More of that
exactly the same thing. The one we find here is the        next time. But keep it in mind.
Hebrew word sheol and means the grave. Jonah
was in his grave when he cried to God. This word             Now as to the fish, we do not know what kind of
means, as far as its derivation is concerned, that         fish it was. The KJV in Matthew 12:40 has the word
which is hollow, as is a cave wherein men in those         whale. But it is interesting and striking to note that
days buried the dead, or a hole in the ground, as is       the Hebrew, which records the actual event in
our custom. And that word does not necessarily or          Jonahs life, has a word that means a whale. We
always mean the place of torment, and the fire of          find that word already in Genesis  1:21 where we
God's wrath. Every unbeliever will with his soul go        read that God created great whales. But that is not
there at death. But his body goes into the hollow          the word that we find here in Jonah 1:17 and 2:lO.
place, called the grave. Jonah considered himself in       The word in Genesis is tannin; and the word in


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              321



Jonah is dag. They neither look alike nor sound              God performed a special work here. And salva-
alike. And the word in the Greek of Matthew 12:40          tion always is a special work. Did He not send us a
cannot be limited to the whale. It simply means a          Son and Saviour in the special way of a virgin birth?
large fish, Some translations, as the Philips and the      Did He not do that when the royal line of David
New English Bible have "sea monster." The reason           had ended in a woman, and there was no man of
why men think it was a whale is the fact that a            that royal line left to beget a son to sit on David's
whale breathes air, and it takes its oxygen out of the     throne? And even apart from that, did He not do a
air, while other fish have gills and take it out of the    special work at the Red Sea to save Israel and
water. This would indeed be better for Jonah's life.       destroy the enemies? Salvation was a special work
At least in our way of thinking, God would pick a          there. At the River Jordan it was the same thing. In
fish like that.                                            each instance God prepared the way and saved by
  What we are to note carefully is that we read that       preparing  a way when in an ordinary way His work
God prepared a great fish. He did not send one, or         would never have given them salvation.
find one already adapted to supply Jonah with air.           Yes, out of the belly of hell Jonah cried. And we
He prepared one. If now it was a whale, we would           ought to try to put ourselves in his place, when he
still have to maintain that it was one especially          was thrown overboard into his grave, with the
formed and adapted to supply Jonah with air in its         finger of God pointing at him as one who deserved
belly, where Jonah was. He was not in the lungs of         this fierce wrath, this terrible storm with such
the fish, but he was swallowed, and went into the          billows and waves. If we do, we can appreciate
belly. God could have prepared another kind of fish        those words of Jonah when he summarizes the
as easily as He could change a whale. The point is         whole ordeal: "Salvation is of the Lord." Jonah was
that God prepared, and performed special work.             no Arminian. He knew better than to attribute the
We do not know all the fish that could have been in        smallest part of his salvation to works which he
the Mediterranean Sea at that time. Huge land              performed. His works brought him into that belly
beasts roamed our continents years ago, and they           of hell. And there was no condition he could fulfill.
are not in existence anymore. Could God not have           Surely there was no way in which he could now go
spared a particular fish, other than a whale, to be        to Nineveh and do the work he refused to do. Of
there for Jonah's life?                                    this we will have more to say in a future install-
                                                           ment.
FROM  HOI2 WRIT
George C. Lubbers





             The -Hope of Heaven and Earth (1)



  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the          We heartily agree!
earth. " Gen. 1:l                                            Such preaching is the true application of the
INTRODUCTION                                               Reformation principle of the  Sola  Scriptura.
  It has been said by very astute and studious,              Genesis  1:l is the revelation of God, the Creator
scholarly saints that he who preaches well on              of heaven and earth. It is a basic Article of the
Genesis  1:l also preaches well on Revelation              Christian faith. Fact is, that unless this Article is
22:18-22.  He preaches the Alpha and Omega, the            believed with the heart and confessed with the
Lord God Almighty. He preaches Christ Who is               mouth we cannot be saved in Christ Jesus. He who
yesterday, today, and forever the same.                    denies the creation of the world by God has  re-


322                                             THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                          I


jetted the very foundation of all pure religion               90: l-4. In the Spirit of Christ (I Pet. 1:ll) Moses ad-
before God the Father.                                        dresses the great Adonai, Lord of the universe. And
   Hence, our point of departure must be, "I                  he confesses in deepest reverence that this
believe in God" (John  4:l; Acts  27:25)!                     Jehovah-Adonai has been the "dwelling-place" of
                                                              the church in all "generations." Moses' gaze in the
   Scripture teaches us that it is by faith that we           Spirit goes back across the history of the world up
understand that the- worlds (the ages =  tous                 till this point. It is a time of over two thousand
aioonous) were framed by the word of God, so that             years of the generations of the church. And this is
the things which are seen are not made of things              the church which the Son of God fathers, defends,
which appear (Heb. 11:3).  By faith we believe what           and preserves from the beginning of the world to
God the Creator, our Father in heaven, tells us as to         the end out of the entire human race, a church
the wonder of the "becoming" of the heavens and               elected unto everlasting life, gathered in the unity
the earth.                                                    of faith.  (Heid. Catechism, Ques. 54; Eph. l:l-5; I
   Such is our vantage-point of faith. Yes, such is           Peter 1: 19-21).
our vantage-point of hope in the creation of a new               What a vision of Moses in Psalm  90:1-4!
heaven and a new earth, which shall be realized by
the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from               It reaches beyond the "beginning" into eternity.
the death. With this hope in our hearts we open our           Yes, before the mountains were brought forth, or
Bibles and we read in glad anticipation of hope that          ever Thou hadst formed the (inhabitable) world,
He Who created the heavens and the earth in the               even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God!
beginning with all that are in them, all the hosts,           (Ps.  90:1, 2).
will also one day usher in a new heaven and a new               This is the Moses that also writes Genesis  l:l!
earth where righteousness shall dwell (II Peter                 Here the Holy Spirit gives us commentary of
3:13). Compare Isaiah  60:21;  66:22.                         Genesis 1: 1. And it is infallible Poetry, in which we
  Yes, here in Genesis 1: 1 we do have a revelation           see something of the reaches of eternity "before the
of the "beginning" of Gods works; but here is also            foundation of the world."
the foundation laid for the "ending" of Gods                  IN THE BEGINNING  (Gen.  1:l; John l:l-3;
works in the eternal Sabbath, when the Tabernacle                                      I John l:l-4)
of God shall be with men. Truly, rightly con-
sidered, we have in Genesis  1:l an overview of                 The Jews called the entire book which we call
history as it unfolds till the time when all of the pres-     ' ' Genesis' ' by the name  bereeshith.  This really
ent earth shall perish and vanish away (Ps.  102:25           meant the "head' of all things. It was also the
ff.; Heb. l:lO-12). Do we not read of this heaven             designation of the "firstfruits," and the
and earth, which the LORD did lay in the begin-               "firstborn" (Gen. 49:3). In Proverbs 8:22 it refers to
ning, "they shall perish; but Thou  continuest, and           the firstfruits of things created by God. This is in
they shall all wax old as a garment, and they shall           line with the thought of Revelation  3:14 where
be changed, but Thou art the same, and Thy years              Christ calls Himself the "beginning of the creation
shall not fail' `?                                            of God." (Compare Colossians 1:15-17.) In the Sep-
                                                              tuagint translation the term is translated
  Yes, here we already have a prophetic perspec-              "Genesis." We do not consider it going far afield to
tive of all of history, as the unfolding of the counsel       see here in Genesis  1:l the first rays of what Mat-
of God; here is already the more sure prophetic               thew `writes, "The  book  of the  generation  of Jesus
word which shines more and more unto the perfect              Christ." This thought, as we hope to point out here
day. Let it never be overlooked or forgotten that             subsequently, is further expressed in Exodus  2:4:
Moses penned these words as a part of the "Law"               "These are the  generations  of the heavens and of the
which he gave to Israel, the "Church in the wilder-           earth . . .  ."
ness" (Acts  7:38). He is not standing here on the
morn of creation, when he pens these words, but                  It is, however, true that Moses does not at all
he is standing in the midst of the church as the              speak explicitly yet of the Christ, the Seed of the
"man of God." He is standing on the mount Sinai,              woman. The date of this revelation of Christ as the
where the tabernacle of God was planted, and                  firstborn of all creatures must wait till after the ac-
where the passover  was kept, and where the glory             count of the "Fall" by one man (Gen. 3:1-7; Rom.
of God had filled the Tabernacle from off the                 5: 12-20).
mercy-seat (Ex. 40334).                                         The realization of the eternal hope is wrought by
  Here in the wilderness Moses wrote Psalm                    God by means of a good creation of all things in
                                                              heaven and on earth, all things sanctified into His
George C. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    service on the seventh day; further, by means of
Reformed Churches.                                            the "Fall," "the transgression" of one man,


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                             323



through which all men are under sin and condem-               the glories revealed in the Prologue of John's
nation; and, lastly, by means of the great redemp-            Gospel. Yes, the Word was with God, as God.
tion and reconciliation of all things in Christ Jesus           Could it be said better than in Proverbs 8:22 ff.?
(Gen.  1:31; 2:1-3; Rom.  5:12-20; Gen.  3:16, 17; Col.       "The LORD  possessed  me in the beginning of His
1:20-22).                                                     way" (the first of His works of old), or better
  Briefly stated this is: Creation-Fall-Recreation!           translated "before His works of old." And Proverbs
  We do well to pause here a minute and to reflect.           continues, "I.was set up from everlasting, from the
                                                              beginning, before the earth was." Yes, when God
  Did God in the beginning really make all things             had not yet made anything, neither earth nor
through Christ the "firstborn" of all creatures? Was          heaven,  then  the Wisdom, the Logos, was with
it in Christ in the womb of the counsel of God that           Him! Writes the Personal Wisdom, "I was daily His
Christ is the center, the beginning of all creatures          delight, rejoicing continually before Him, rejoicing
both in heaven and on earth? We understand full               in the habitable part of the earth, and my delight
well that the first creature which God made was               was with the sons of men"!
the "earth void and without form" upon which the
Spirit of God brooded, causing it to pulsate with life          Thus it was in the beginning!
and the potentiality to be formed in the six days of            Yea, thus it was before the beginning.
the creation week into one harmonious Cosmos!                   From out of this "before" the beginning arises
But the Spirit could not brood upon this earth were           our  daystar  of hope, the bright and morning star
it not for the Word, the Logos in creation. Of this           when all the morning stars sang together! What a
Logos we read in the Gospel of John, chapter l:l-4.           glorious  Tris-Hagion,   Holy, holy, holy to the Lord
This was the Word which was in the beginning.                 God Almighty arises from the Counsel of Wisdom.
And this was the Word which was with God, facing
God (the preposition in Greek is "pros"), and the               Here we begin to obtain an inkling of what it
Word which was God. The same was in the begin-                means that Christ became for us from God the
ning with God. All things were made by Him and                Wisdom of God in the Cross. Here we take the
without Him was not anything made which was                   shoes from off our feet, and humbly confess that
made.                                                         this "Wisdom" is not after the Fall ours except in
                                                              Christ Who has become to us "righteousness, sanc-
  Here the vistas of the Divine thoughts and of the           tification, and complete redemption" (I Cor.  1:30).
revelation of them are opened to us. Yes, here we
see wondrous things out of Gods Word. The glory                 We also see that he who preaches well on Revela-
of God shines in every creature of God as His                 tion  22:16 preaches well on Genesis  1:l.
handiwork. There is no speech nor language where                Let us say it together: He that glories, let him
their voice is not heard (Ps. 19: l-4). Yes, their line is    glory in the LORD.
gone out through all the world!                                 For God made all things for His own glory.
  Here we see set before our eyes the "manifesta-               Both the first Sabbath of Creation spoken of in
tion" of the Eternal Wisdom, the personal Wisdom              Genesis  2:2, and the eternal Sabbath which re-
(Chohmah)  of Proverbs  8:1, 11, 12 etc. This is              mains for the children of God, resound with the
especially true in what we read in Proverbs 8:22-31.          doxological praises to God.
We do well to take our Bible and read this section
carefully and repeatedly and with a devout heart                "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to
and mind. For here the depths are sounded by the              receive glory, honor, and power: for Thou didst
Holy Spirit concerning the "deep things of God."              create all things, and because of Thy will they are
The vail is lifted upon this already in the Old Testa-        and were created" (Rev. 4: 11).
ment by the Spirit, and we get to see something of


                      Take the time to ready and study
                                     the Standard Bearer.
             Give a gift of fhe Standard Bearer today!


     324                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



     ALL AROUND US
     Robert D. Decker





                                                      Lady in the Pulpit
                                                             News Briefs



     Lady in the Pulpit                                                   Classis  reprimanded Van Enk in January. Christian
        The teaching of Holy Scripture on the place of                  Reformed Home Missions, which oversees Van Enk's
     women in the church is so clear that even a child                  work, also reprimanded him, and the seminary, in a
                                                                        stern letter, dissociated itself from Crenshaw's action.
     can understand it. The Bible says, "Let the woman
     learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not               Rev. Douglas Warners, one of the church visitors
     a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the                  who worked on the case, said in a telephone interview
     man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first                      that Van Enk knew the rules and the position of the
                                                                        church but ignored them.
     formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but
     the woman being deceived was in the transgres-                       Van Enk and the consistory of the multiethnic
     sion. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-                 Crenshaw congregation insisted that they were "faced
                                                                        with a moral dilemma which (they) could not ignore."
     bearing, if they continue in faith and charity and
     holiness with sobriety" (I Timothy 2: 11-15). The in-                "We acted," they said, "the only way we felt our
     spired apostle Paul is speaking of the place of the                Christian consciences directed us. We felt impelled by
     woman in the church. She must learn in silence,                    the Holy Spirit to give Leanne this opportunity to
                                                                        ascertain her gifts and callmg  . . . ." They also said that
     not usurp authority over the man, and she shall be                 they regretted any embarrassment to the seminary or
     saved in childbearing in the way of faith, love, and               Home Missions. "This is as far as we can go in good
     hope coupled with sobriety. The passage teaches                    conscience," they concluded.
     that God does not want women in the office of the
     ministry or that of elder. No one can deny this.                     Has Van Enk apologized? "No. To apologize would
                                                                        be to declare that we were wrong. We don't think we
        This means that the question of women in office                 are," he said. Van Enk also said he does not regret that
     which continues to plague many of the Reformed                     the matter has become public knowledge. "The more
     churches is not a question of what the Bible teaches               exposure this gets, the better for everyone concerned.
     or does not teach. It is a question of how one views               Some church had to take the initiative to support
     the Bible, and it is a question of what standard one               women like Van Dyk who feel called to the ministry."
     uses to arrive at his or her conclusions on this mat-                Van Enk said he feels so strongly about women's
     ter. An example of this appeared in a news story                   calling to the ministry that he is "willing to risk (his)
     carried by The Banner (March 10, 1986). According                  professional future" to take a stand on the issue . . . .
     to this report:                                                   Are our actions to be based on what we feel to be
              Rev. Gordon Van Enk and the consistory of Cren-        right or wrong.7  Is the Christian's conscience
            shaw Christian Reformed Church, Los Angeles, are         shaped and guided by the clear teachings of Scrip-
            still at odds with  classis  over Crenshaw's use of a    ture or is it a standard of right or wrong independ-
            female seminarian for preaching last year. The church    ent of Scripture? The answers to these questions
            allowed Calvin Theological Seminary intern  Learme       are obvious. How I may or may not feel about an
            Van Dyk to preach about once a month during the          issue is of no consequence. What the Bible teaches
            1984-85 school year.                                     is of eternal consequence.
              Church visitors recommended that Van Enk and his
            church be reprimanded for allowing Van Dyk to ex-
            hort.                                                    News Briefs
                                                                       "American Lutheran Church bishop David Preus
     Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and         has urged Lutherans in the United States to enter
I    New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.              altar and pulpit fellowship with the Presbyterian


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                             325



Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America,          Threesome?:  "(Hoekelum, the Neth.) The
and the Cumberland Presbyterians. Advocating              Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Netherlands
`unity in reconciled diversity,' Preus also called on     has asked the Reformed Churches in the Nether-
Lutherans to continue `interim sharing' of the            lands (GKN) and the Netherlands Reformed
Eucharist with Episcopalians while searching for          Church (NHK), to be admitted as a participant in
more complete agreement, to `pursue with pa-              their Together on the Way (Samen  op Weg) reunion
tience' the goal of altar and pulpit fellowship with      process. The historic decision to make this request
Roman Catholics, and to be willing to explore             was taken by the 36 member Lutheran synod
agreement in the gospel and sacraments with other         meeting here in November 1985. Less than 30,000
Christian churches" (The  Banner, Feb. 10, 1986).         in number, the Lutherans have always been a
  Ecumenism, or the ecumenical movement, ob-              minority in the Netherlands yet they operate their
viously is very much alive. A sign, this is, of the       own seminary in Amsterdam. They already make
nearness of the end of all things.                        use of the common hymnal of the GKN and NHK
                                                          and are a full member on the Dutch Council of
  Instructor  of  Feminist Theology appointed at          Churches. In 1968 they entered into an under-
Kampen  TheoZogicaZ   SchooZ  "The general synod of       standing with the Roman Catholic Church regard-
the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN)            ing baptism. Trigger for the decision to join the re-
has decided to appoint a part-time instructor in          union process was the desire to be more fully in-
feminist theology at the Theological School in            volved in Dutch church life."
Kampen. The current rector of the school, Pro-
fessor K.A.  Schippers,  argued that the opening of         Christian Schools In The Netherlands Attract Many
such a position was not a fad inspired by the             Non-Christiatis: "(Grand Rapids) The January news
modern world; about half of the students in               bulletin of the Reformed Churches in the Nether-
Kampen are female. For centuries women have               lands (GKN) reports that declining church statistics
been neglected and oppressed" (Reformed                   in the Netherlands are not reflected in the number
Ecumenical Synod, News Exchange, RES NE,                  of students attending Christian schools. Although
January 7, 1986). One has long since ceased to be         the GKN has lost 5 percent of its members since
shocked at what goes on in the Dutch churches.           2 1975, enrollment in Christian Schools (Protestant
One need not wonder what the fathers of the GKN           and Roman Catholic) continues to climb. Enroll-
would have thought of this. How far these chur-           ment in Christian schools on the elementary level is
ches have strayed from the course set for them            greater than in the public schools. This blessing of
through De Cock, H. Bavinck, A. Kuyper Sr., et. aL        students from non-Christian families is not without
May God in His mercy preserve our churches in             its drawbacks, for the non-Christian presence
the truth of His Word in these troubled times.            drastically changes the character of the school. Par-
                                                          ticularly the influx of children from Muslim
  Leuenberger TaZks To Be Continued: It is not only       families of immigrant-laborers from Turkey and
in North America that Lutheran and Reformed               Morocco makes it more difficult to maintain the
Churches seek closer fellowship. The same is hap-         schools' Christian identity. The problem is exacer-
pening in Europe, as this and the following news          bated by the fact that those native Hollanders who
item indicate. Both are taken from the RES NE,            have severed their ties with the church or have
March 11, 1986. " (Leidschendam) The third                become non-active church members but continue
general meeting of the Leuenberg Church Fellow-           to send their children to the Christian school give
ship will be held in Straatsburg next year. The last      little moral support to the school. The question
general assembly (1973) produced the Leuenberg            now is, How should a Christian school with its uni-
Concord between Reformed and Lutheran chur-               que Christian identity, relate to Muslims and to
ches which declared that the former anathemas of          mere nominal Christians? In an effort to be of help,
the Reformation time were no longer in effect and         the GKN general synod has decided to appoint a
churches of the two traditions should establish altar     person to prepare educational materials for the en-
and pulpit fellowship. The Concord derived its            counter with Muslims in education and related ac-
name from the town Leuenberg near Basel, Swit-            tivities" (RES NE March 11, 1986).
zerland, where preparatory talks were held.                 It would be too much to hope, we fear, that these
  "The Leuenberg Concord has been subscribed to           educational materials will be soundly Biblical and
by 80 European and a few Latin American chur-             Confessionally Reformed. Is the problem, perhaps,
ches. Both the Netherlands Reformed Church                that the children of Muslims and nominal Chris-
(NHK, State Church, R.D.D.) and the Reformed              tians find themselves in a friendly environment in
Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) will participate        the Christian schools of the Netherlands?
in the talks."
  Together On The Way  - Twosome To Become                   Read & Study The Standard Bearer!


326                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE
RonaZd J. Hanko





                             The Counsel of Peace (2)



   We have seen that the counsel of peace referred          Branch, who will be both priest-king and temple
to in Zechariah  6:13 does not refer to the  intra-         builder in the highest possible manner. That man,
trinitarian covenant of friendship but to the union         The Branch, is unmistakably our Lord Jesus Christ.
of the priestly and kingly offices in Christ. This is       He receives this name, The Branch, also in the
evident from the passage itself. In verse 13 we have        prophecies of Isaiah  (42,  11:l) and Jeremiah  (23:5,
an example of Hebrew parallelism, where two                 33:15). In other places, similarly, He is called "A
thoughts, really expressing the same thing, though          rod out of the stem of Jesse" (Is.  ll:l), and "a
in different ways, are used to explain and interpret        tender plant and . . . a root out of a dry ground' (Is.
each other. Here the parallel thoughts are that "he         53:2). That these names all refer to Christ is clear
shall be a priest upon his throne" and that "the            from Revelation  5:5 and  22:16, where Christ
counsel of peace shall be between them both." The           Himself is called the root and offspring of David.
counsel of peace, therefore, is realized between              These names emphasize, of course, Christ's com-
priest and throne.                                          ing suddenly, unexpectedly, and gloriously out of
   Our previous article emphasized the fact that the        the ruined line of David. That in itself is a subject
union of these two offices was foreshadowed in the          worthy of further study, but it is not the subject of
co-operation of Joshua, the High-priest, and Zerub-         these articles. We only wish to prove by this
babel, the governor, who was of the royal seed of           reference to The Branch that Zechariah is indeed
David, during the years following the return of the         describing Christ Himself in His offices when he
Jews from Babylon. This co-operation was                    speaks of the counsel of peace.
necessary in the work of rebuilding the temple.
This co-operation between these two men was, of               That Christ is both Priest and King means that
course, only a very dim figure `and type. That is           He is unique in the whole history of God's church.
clear first of all from the fact that although their co-    The only ones at all like Him in this respect were
operation was very close, it did not result in the ac-      Moses and Samuel who were both of the priestly
tual union of the two offices of priest and king in         family while at the same time serving as leaders of
one man. It was also evident from the decline of            Israel. Nevertheless, neither Moses nor Samuel
both offices. In the days of Zechariah's prophecy           were the High-priest, and in each case one or the
neither the office of priest nor the office of king re-     other of their offices is all but obscured. In Moses'
tained its former splendor. Especially is this true in      case it is the priestly office. So much does his posi-
the case of Zerubbabel, who was not really king,            tion as leader of God's people take prominence that
but only a regional governor under the King of Per-         most of the time we do not even remember that he
sia.                                                        was also a priest. The opposite is true of Samuel.
                                                            His priestly office and duties are so much on the
   Zechariah's prophecy, then, looks far beyond             foreground in his history that we often do not
these two men and their work, for Zechariah proph-          remember that he was one of Israel's judges and
esies concerning one man, whom he calls The                 thus the civil ruler of Israel in the days prior to the
                                                            Kingdom.
Ronald J. Hanho is pastor of the Protestant Reformed          The book of Hebrews also emphasizes this uni-
Church of Houston, Texas.                                   queness of Christ, first of all by reminding us


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  327



several times that He is a priest, not after the order       work and continuation, (2) that this was reflected in
of Aaron and the levitical priesthood, but after the         the death of each priest, by which the work of that
order of Melchizedek, who was not only priest of             priest was discontinued, and (3) that this weakness
the most high God, but also King of the City of              was evident in the very work that the priests did.
Peace. This Melchizedek, a strange, shadowy                  Their weakness was finally this, that they them-
figure, is, more than anyone else in the Old Testa-          selves were sinners and unworthy of their office, so
ment, a type of Christ, so much so that even today           that in their work they had to make sacrifice first
many commentators make the mistake of actually               for their own sins before offering for the people.
identifying him with Christ. Yet it seems that               The result of this was not only that the people were
Melchizedek himself is all but forgotten in the Old          left still waiting for a better priest, but also that they
Testament and left in the shadows, exactly because           were reminded of their sins, by those very
he was almost too clearly a picture of Christ who            sacrifices that the priests offered, so that they con-
was to come. It is as though he had to be men-               tinued to be plagued with a conscience of sin (Heb.
tioned, so that the saints in later ages would have a        10:2, 3).
point of reference in respect to Christ's offices and          The authority and power that the priesthood
work, but that at the same time next to nothing is           needed was found in the office of king, for that of-
said about him in order that we might not forget             fice had as its support the oath of God Himself, by
that not he but Christ was the one promised.                 which its continuation was guaranteed (Heb.  7:21,
  The book of Hebrews also emphasizes Christ's               22, cf. also Ps.  89:35-37,  Ps.  110:4, II Sam.  7:16).
uniqueness as a priest by telling us that He came            This kind of a powerful priesthood is revealed in
out of the tribe of Judah, rather than out of the tribe      Melchizedek, who as Priest-king had the authority
of Levi, something for which the law made no                 and power to claim from Abraham the spoils of
provision and by which the weakness of the law as            Abraham's victory over the five kings of
a means of salvation is revealed (Heb.  7:11-19).            Mesopotamia, a claim which Abraham himself
Thus we are able to see that Christ is the better            recognized.
hope by Whom perfection comes and we draw nigh                 This weakness of the Old Testament priesthood
to God (Heb. 7: 19).                                         was critical as far as the spiritual life of Israel was
  What especially concerns us, however, is the               concerned. This was evident in the many times in
significance of this union of the priestly and kingly        the Old Testament that the temple was shut up so
offices in Christ. That Zechariah and other writers          that the whole worship of God ceased. This hap-
in the Old Testament (notably David in Psalm 110)            pened time and again when ungodly and  idol-
as well as the book of Hebrews emphasize this                worshiping kings sat on the throne of David. The
union shows its great significance for the salvation         priest did not have the authority or power to main-
of Gods church and for the work of redemption.               tain the worship of God during such times. That
                                                             power belonged to the king; and when the king was
  This union, then, is significant first of all as far as    wicked, the priest was helpless.
the offices themselves are concerned. Each of the
two offices needs the other to complement and                  All this is also true with respect to the building of
complete it. The kingly office gives power and               the temple. It was not the priesthood, but the line
authority to the office of priest, and the priestly of-      of David that received the command and thus the
fice tempers the authority and power of the kingly           authority to build and later restore the temple (II
office by its own unique gifts.                              Sam. 7, II Chron.  24:4ff.,  29:3ff.,  34:3ff.).  There
  Without the power and authority of the kingly              was, therefore, implicit in the very history of Israel
                                                             in the Old Testament, the need for a better priest-
office, therefore, the priestly office was weak. That        hood, that would be always and intimately sup-
was its great lack in the Old Testament, too.
Hebrews lo:18 speaks of this when it mentions the            ported by the power of the kingly office. Only in
                                                             that way could the temple of God be built and the
weakness and unprofitableness of the command-                worship of God maintained.
ment. This passage is not talking about the law in
general, but about the specific commandment con-               The kingly office, however, also needed the of-
cerning the priesthood. Because the commandment              fice of the priest. The priestly office tempered the
that generated the priesthood was weak, the priest-          authority and power of the kingly office, by con-
hood itself was weak; and because the priesthood             stantly bringing to bear upon it the Word  of-God.
was weak, its work was also weak and could not               Apart from that Word of God the office of  king
save. This is all explained in the following verses of       always degenerated into tyranny and wickedness,
chapter 7, where the Word of God tells us three              so that rather than being a blessing to God's people,
things about the levitical priesthood: (1) that that.        it became to them a curse. The priestly office itself
priesthood had no oath of God to guarantee its               was a constant reminder to the king that he was


328                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  I


himself a servant of God, called to rule the kingdom       secration necessary for those duties. Thus Israel
of God. The priestly office was such a reminder to         needed not only a better priesthood, a royal priest-
the king because in its very nature it was an office       hood, but she also needed a better government, and
of complete consecration and service to God. But           that priestly.
the priests also had the duty of actually anointing          Zechariah in his prophecy sees the coming of
the king to his office as a reminder of these things,      these better things. He lived at a time when not on-
and of instructing him and teaching him "the man-          ly the offices themselves had lost much of their
ner of the kingdom," as Samuel did with Saul (I            splendor, but when also the temple had been rebuilt
Sam.  9:25-27,  10:25). For this reason many of the        but without its former glory. That decline of the of-
priests were also prophets, not just to Israel as a na-    fices went hand in hand with the decline of the
tion, but especially to the royal house (Samuel, Eli-      temple itself. But all that was necessary according
jah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, etc.). Israel's         to the purpose of God, for it was time for a better
kings could not even know "the manner of the               king and a better priest to come who would build
kingdom" without the priests.                              the better temple; and it was Zechariah's great duty
  Also the authority of kings of David's line to           to remind the people that they must not cling to the
build, restore, and rebuild the temple was useless         Old Testament pictures but begin to look for the
without the priesthood, for without the priesthood         reality to which those pictures pointed and for the
there could never be any temple worship, since             glory and salvation that would be revealed in that
even the king was forbidden to enter the temple or         great Priest-king and in the house that He would
to offer sacrifices (cf. the examples of King Saul and     build.
King Uzziah). Only the priest had the gifts and con-

BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Jason L.  Kortering





       Exodus - God's Dealing with His Nation
                                              (concluded)



   We are busy outlining the section of Exodus that        the tabernacle was removed from among the peo-
deals with the covenant broken at Sinai by the wor-        ple (33: l-7). Moses went out to the tabernacle and
ship of the golden calf and how God renews His             God came down in a cloud to talk with him. Moses
covenant (31:  18-35:3). Moses interceded for the          talked with `God and told Him that without His
people's sins, asking that his name be blotted out.        presence, represented by the cloud, there would be
God replied that each one must bear his own sin.           no point in continuing their journey. God assured
Moses was to lead Israel to Canaan in the presence         him His presence would go with them. Jehovah
of the Angel (32:30-35). The Lord assured Moses He         passed by while Moses was in the  "clift of the
would give the land of Canaan to Israel, but the           rock' (33:8-23). God instructed Moses to prepare
people must first be disciplined for their sin. He in-     two new tables of stone and to come up into the
structed the people to take off their ornaments as         mount. Moses did this and the Lord came down in
                                                           the cloud. Moses spent forty days and forty nights
Jason L. Kortering is pastor of the Protestant Reformed    in the presence of Jehovah. While God renewed the
Church of Grandville,  Michigan.                           covenant with him, He also warned Moses that His


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              329



covenant excluded the Canaanites. They must be                2. The parents and mid-wives refused to kill the
destroyed or driven out completely. He reminded             sons born to the Israelites. May we conclude from
Moses to observe the ceremonies, the feasts of un-          this that the government of Egypt overstepped its
leavened bread, the redemption of the firstborn,            boundary when it legislated their death? How
the sabbath, the feast of firstfruits, the  passover        would this be applied today?
(34: l-28). Moses returned to the people, his face            3. The history of the Exodus sets forth Moses as
shone as the light, a reflection of being in God's          mediator, a type of Christ. Make a list of the ways,
presence. He gave the people all the laws which             recorded in Exodus, in which he acted in this
God gave him (34:29-35:3).                                  capacity.
     12. The preparation, construction, and activities
associated with the tabernacle  (35:4-40:38). Moses           4. Explain the relationship between Exodus  7:3,
instructed the people to contribute of their jewels         4, 14, "Pharaoh's heart was hardened," Exodus
and possessions for the tabernacle  (35:4-19).  The         8:15, "he hardened his heart," and Exodus  9:12,
people were stirred in their hearts and contributed         "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh."
willingly of their possessions. The women spun the            5. What do the ten plagues upon Pharaoh and
cloths of purple, scarlet, and fine linen; the rulers       Egypt tell us about God's attitude toward the
contributed precious stones and spices  (35:20-29).         wicked? Show how the doctrine of common grace,
Bezaleel and Aholiab were instructed to supervise           "God's attitude of favor toward the reprobate wick-
the actual construction of the tabernacle                   ed" can be refuted by this history.
(35:30-36:3). The people were finally restrained              6. What lessons concerning God's love for His
from contributing any more, since there was suffi-          people are given to us in the wilderness sojourn
cient (36:4-7).  The making of each part is described:      (chapters  12:37-19:6).
the supports, curtains, coverups, and veil (36:8-38),
the ark with the staves, mercy seat,  cherubims               7. How did the external display of divine power
(37:1-g), the table of shewbread with its vessels           at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19) demonstrate the antitheti-
(37:  lo-16), the golden candlestick (37:  17-24), the      cal character of Gods law. Prove that the same law
altar of incense with the oil  (37:25-29), the altar of     (10 commandments) are to be enforced today.
burnt offering  (38:1-8),  the courts with their hang-        8. What was the spiritual significance of the
ings  (38:9-20).  In all they used up twenty-nine           tabernacle? What was the relationship between the
talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels of             law and the tabernacle?
gold, and one hundred talents and one thousand                9. How did the idolatry of the golden calf at Mt.
seven hundred and seventy-five shekels of silver            Sinai (Ex. 32) serve to demonstrate the need for
(38:21-31). The cloth which the women spun was              Christ? Did Moses over-react? How could we be
used for the making of the holy garments. These             guilty of worshiping the golden calf?
were described as the ephod  (39:1-7),  the breast-
plate (39:8-21), the robe of the ephod (39:22-26), the        10. The details of the tabernacle which are given
various coats (39:27-29), the golden crown with the         in Exodus tell us that the tabernacle was very
words inscribed, "Holiness unto the Lord"                   beautiful. Describe some of this beauty. Why did
(39:30-32). Moses inspected all the finished prod-          God place so much emphasis on external things:
ucts as they had been made and he blessed them              gold, silver, linen? Wasn't that wasteful? Can we
(39:33-43). The Lord instructed Moses to set up the         use this to justify beautiful church buildings today?
completed tabernacle on the first month and place
each part in its proper place and to anoint it with
holy oil (40: 1-16). Moses did this and afterwards the          The Standard Bearer
tabernacle was spread before Jehovah in the
presence of the congregation  (40:17-33). The cloud               makes a though@1
of Jehovah came down upon the court and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The cloud will                          gift for the
now continue to lead Israel through their wilder-
ness journey, being light by night and cloud by day                 sick and shut-in.
(40:34-38).
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION                                          Give the gift of the
     1. Why did God want to make a great nation of
the family of Jacob? What is the importance of the           Standard Bearer today!
history of Israel as a nation? Is the application of the
typical significance of Israel's national history,
nolitical
L             or ecclesiastical for us?


330                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH
Thomas C. Miersma





                              Meaningful Translation (2)
                                                    (Reply to Correspondence)





   In this article we continue a response to one of               KJV  based on its artistic beauty. The concern you
our readers, Mr. Harv Nyhof, who raised certain                   express for a meaningful translation however is a
questions concerning an article in the December                   proper and important concern. The reformers were
15, 1985 issue. As we also quoted the paragraphs in               concerned to give unto the church the Word of God
question in the first part of our response the reader             in the language of Gods people. This is a matter of
is referred to that preceding column. It was in that              Reformed principle to which we must hold. God
connection that Mr. Nyhof responded,                              gave us His Word that we might be taught out of
         I am tempted to say, "Come on, Pastor Miersma,           that Word by His grace and Spirit. It was exactly for
       you can't be serious." If the spoken or written word is    that reason that the reformers quickly set about the
       not understood, be it ever so beautiful or descriptive,    labor of translating the Word of God at the very
       it has no value. To me the KJV is a beautiful transla-     beginning of the reformation. Nor were they con-
       tion with majestic language. Most younger  English-        tent with the existing translation of the Bible ap-
       speaking people, however, will receive no enlighten-       proved by Rome, the  Latin Vulgate. Latin was the
       ment from the phrase "bowels of mercy." They will          scholarly language of a few which the vast majority
       easily understand the word "compassion." I too             of the people could not understand or read. It was
       believe in careful and accurate translation. Is it not     with this in view that Luther began his translation
       the aim of accurate translation to reproduce in mean-      of the Bible into German, and the other reformers
       ingful language for the reader what has been written
       in a tongue foreign to him? To read in Zeph. 1:12 that     also labored to translate God's Word into the other
       men are "settled in their lees" will not be compre-        languages of the Reformed churches. For the sake
       hensible to the majority of English speaking people.       of putting the Bible into the hands of Gods people
       To read that men are "complacent" can be easily            in their own language, men like Tyndale were will-
    grasped.                                                      ing to risk their lives and even to lay down their
  The central issue which you raise, it seems to                  lives as martyrs for the cause of God's Word of
me, has to do with the question of what constitutes               truth.
a meaningful translation. Here the first question                    If we were to continue to use our  KJV  mereZy
must be one of standards. It is certainly true that               because of the artistry or poetry of the language, or
the beauty or merely descriptive character of the                 because of its long standing, or because of tradition,
language of a translation cannot be the standard, if              when it had in fact become incomprehensible to
by this is meant simply "art for art's sake." In fact,            the people of God, we would be guilty of departing
if God had given us His Word in slang language it                 from the foundation laid down by the reformers
should be translated in slang language. The beauty                and returning to the principles of the church of
of the KJV is rooted in its reverence for the text as             Rome. If it ever becomes the case that the KJVis  no
Gods Word not in its artistry or majestic language                longer understood and meaningful, Reformed prin-
per se. I do not find .the word "bowels," for exam-               ciple would require us to abandon it for another, or
ple, to be particularly majestic. Nor is our use of the           to translate God's word anew. We are not opposed
                                                                  in principle to a new translation if there is a need
Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed            for .it.
Church of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.                                 This has nothing to do however with the modern


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               331



trend of perpetually tampering with the translation        not as a matter of artistry or poetic beauty, but as a
currently in use for no good reason, with the result       matter of a full and complete translation which
that today we are confronted with a host of dif-           conveys the full meaning of the original. Admitted-
ferent versions or translations of varying quality,        ly, "bowels of mercies" is not as easy to grasp as         .
continually issued under the banner of being cur-          the word compassion; it takes study and reflection,
rent, modern, or more meaningful. This present             but it is also more meaningful and less superficial,
vogue for new Bible translations has created               as well as being accurate.
nothing but confusion in the Christian community             The other standard, which is the one commonly
and presently has taken on all the characteristics of      underlying many of the modern so-called transla-
the changing trends in the world of fashion.               tions of Scripture, I consider an inherently  un-
  Nor has the multiplying of so-called more                biblical one. It basically sets up the "average
modern and meaningful versions of the Bible solved         reader" as the standard of Bible translation. The
the basic problems they were supposed to cure,             "average reader" is, according to his perceived
such as indifference to the study of God's Word by         level of comprehension, breadth of vocabulary, and
young people, or more serious interest in Gods             presumed reading skills, supposedly on about the
Word or its study. The fact is that there is probably      level of a high school sophomore or lower. The root
more fruitful and serious Bible study being done to-       principle of this approach is not the doctrine of
day with the KJV than with any other version, and          divine verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, but the
that exactly because it is both meaningful and clear,      principle that the Bible must be so translated as to
and faithful and accurate, and also lends itself to        be easily read and understood by this "average
careful Bible study.                                       reader" as he stands in the mind of the committee
  To answer the question therefore as to what con-         doing the translating. Ultimately this makes the
stitutes a meaningful translation we must look             committee itself and its ideas and conceptions the
beyond the question of how easy it is to read, to the      standard. Fundamentally such an approach
more serious question of the standard by which a           presumes to be wiser than God, and to sit in judg-
translation is to be judged a good or meaningful           ment on the Word God has given us, and to pass
one. There are at present two opposing standards.          that judgment by declaring this word too difficult to
                                                           read and that word too hard to understand. And
  The first is the historic Reformed standard rooted       having made that judgment it presumes to intrude
in the principle that the Bible is the infallible, ver-    its own interpretation or words into the text, or sub-
bally inspired Word of God. According to it a good         tract from them, in the place of what was actually
translation is one which faithfully and accurately         said. Now there are certainly times when because
renders into the English language what God said,           of the differences between the original languages
and does so as carefully and literally as is possible      and the English language, words must be inserted
within the boundaries of English language. Accord-         or expressions must be differently expressed; but
ing to this standard every word and expression of          this is a far cry from taking something which can
Scripture has meaning which is of divine origin,           easily be rendered into English and mis-translating
God's meaning, and that extends even to the way in         it on the basis of one's own presumed wisdom, as is
which God spoke His Word to us. A meaningful               the case with the examples mentioned.
translation therefore is one which is in harmony             Nor is this root principle in harmony with the
with the content and meaning God gave His Word,            Word of God. This principle and standard
as He spoke that Word to us. Therein lies the only         presumes that the Bible  ought to be easy reading
basis for judgment.                                        and therefore proceeds to  make  it easy reading.
  To refer to the examples we have been using, the         Now while it is certainly true that the Scriptures are
Holy Spirit had a reason for saying "bowels of mer-        clear and understandable, this does not mean that
cies" instead of simply saying compassion, which           God intended that the Scriptures should be easy
He could have done. This is actually the case. The         reading or easily grasped, which I understand to
word  "dompassion" merely expresses the idea of            mean "comprehended by effortless reading
the expression "bowels of mercies." It fails               without work involved." The fact is that the Scrip-
however to express alZ that the text expresses, for in     tures are comprehensible in the form God gave
the vivid picture of "bowels of mercies" God is, at        them but they require us to study them. We are told
the same time, directing us to the  nature  of that        not simply to read them but to search them (John
compassion which is an inward yearning after               5:39; Acts  17:11),  to compare spiritual things with
another person in his need and not merely outward          spiritual (I Corinthians  2:13; II Timothy  2:15), that
actions. It also directs us to the intense charucfer of    there are in them things hard to be understood
that compassion. It is in this sense that I spoke of       which the unlearned and `unstable wrest to their
bowels as drawing a "vivid picture" in my article,         own destruction (II Peter 3: 16). Likewise we are


332                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



called to meditate upon them and to think upon              Word of God on the one hand, and who, on the
God's Word day by day (Psalm  119:15, 34, 35, 54,           other, by their very actions are condescending to
etc.; Psalm  1:2; Psalm  19:7-11).                          what becomes the ignorant masses for whom they
   The philosophy of easy reading ultimately caters         are translating the Bible. I find this intolerable. It is
to spiritual laziness on the part of many while mak-        demeaning to Gods Word and to Christ's church.
ing serious Bible study more difficult for those who        Moreover the apparent motivation behind much of
would faithfully study God's Word. Moreover,                this seems to be that if only we make Gods Word
when the standard of translation becomes the                simple enough and understandable enough  then
wisdom of a committee of men who presume to                 men will believe it, as if the reason for man's
know better than God how to express His Word,               unbelief lies in the difficulty of reading the Bible.
the matter becomes serious indeed. The fullness of          Such thinking is inherently Arminian and
God's Word is taken out of the hands of believers           unreformed and reduces what is a matter of Gods
by what a committee in its arbitrary judgment               grace working faith by His Word to mere lack of
deems meaningful, in the place of God's Word. The           comprehension. The fact is that man will never
result is that a new priesthood of scholars is erected      find God's Word meaningful apart from God's
in the form of Bible translators who stand above the        grace, for he is by nature a blind sinner.

QUESTION BOX
Cornelius Hunko,





       Admitting Children to the Lord's Supper



  The following questions have been received:                          in some way to one's ability to understand
  I am writing to you in the Question Box,because I                    also? If so, how?
have a question which I have been concerned                    3. Our Baptism Form reads, "and though our
about for some time, and I would like to see an                        young children do not understand these
answer in print so I can read and study it.                            things, we may not therefore exclude them
  My basic question is "Why are our covenant                           from baptism; for as they are without their
children not permitted to come to the Table of our                     knowledge partakers of the condemnation in
Lord? Does not our Lord invite children as well as                     Adam, so are they again received unto grace
adults to His fellowship at His Table?"                                in Christ." Why does this not apply to the
                                                                       Lord's Supper as well?
  In connection with this, I have some related
questions which I would like to see treated:                   Thank you in advance for your help.
  1. What is the Scriptural basis for requiring a              Article 61 of our Church Order states that,
       public confession of faith as a condition for        "None shall be admitted to the Lords Supper ex-
       taking the Lord's Supper for our covenant            cept those who according to the usage of the church
       seed, as distinguished from those coming into        with which they unite themselves have made con-
       the church from the outside?                         fession of the reformed religion, besides being
  2. Does not the self-examination of I Cor. 11             reputed to be of a godly walk, without which those
       apply to adults walking in sin? Does this apply      who come from other churches shall not be admit-
                                                            ted.".~
Cornelius Hanko is a minister emeritus in the Protestant       This article is based on the Scripture passage
Reformed Churches.                                          found in I Corinthians 11:28; 29: "But let a man ex-


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               333



 amine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and      them and lives accordingly. Celebrating the  Sup-
 drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh        poer of our Lord is a repeated confession of our
 unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to              faith, as was once done publicly before the  con-
 himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Since           sistory and the congregation.
 children are still incapable of properly examining          Your third related question points out that our
 themselves, this requirement of Scripture cannot          Baptism Form teaches us that "Although our young
 be fulfilled by them, at least until they come to         children do not understand these things, we may
 "years of discretion."                                    not therefore exclude them from baptism." You
   In your first related question you ask why public       ask,` "Why does this not apply to the Lord's Supper
 confession is required from the covenant seed             as well?" Here we actually come to the heart of the
 before they can partake of the Lord's Supper, while       matter. The difference between the sacrament of
 this is not required from those coming into the           Baptism and the sacrament of Communion is such
 church from the outside. The article in the Church        that our children cannot be excluded from baptism,
 Order states that those who are admitted from             but must be excluded from the Lord's Supper until
 other churches must also have made confession of          they come to years of discretion.
 the Reformed religion, besides being reputed to be          Baptism is the sign and seal of our entrance into
 of a godly walk. Our consistories require of those        God's covenant, while the Lord's Supper is a sign
 who come from other churches that they confess            and seal of our active participation in the life of the
 agreement with the doctrine as taught in our chur-        covenant. In the former we are passive, we are bap-
 ches and with the godly walk required by our chur-        tized; in the latter we are active, we participate.
 ches. Those who are not thoroughly indoctrinated
 are instructed before they are accepted as members          In Titus  3:5 baptism is referred to as "the
 among us.                                                 washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
                                                           Ghost." This takes place in our subconsciousness;
   In regard to your second related question con-          we are not aware of the time of our regeneration,
 cerning self examination, our Communion Form              nor do we in any way participate in it. The idea is
 mentions that we must examine ourselves during            that we are conceived and born in sin, members of
 the week of preparation, but also us we partake of        the fallen human race in Adam. But God in
 the Holy Supper. This is in harmony with I Corin-         sovereign mercy separates us from the world, the
 thians  11:28, which states, "But let a man examine       fallen human race, so that we die unto the world, to
 himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink      be raised in newness of life (Rom.  6:4). God
 of that cup." We are told that this self-examination      separates us by causing us to die in Christ, to be
 must arouse in us,                                        buried with Christ in His death and burial, and to
   1.  A deep awareness of our sins and of God's           be raised with Him in newness of life, separated
      curse due to us for them, so that we abhor and       from the world and brought into God's covenant.
      humble ourselves before God.                         That is signified in baptism. Thus baptism signifies
   2. Faith in God's promise that all our sins are         and seals to us by His Spirit in- our hearts that God
      forgiven "only for the sake of the passion and       has chosen us in Christ, has redeemed us by His
      death of Christ," and assurance that Christ's        blood, sanctifies us and blesses us by taking us into
      righteousness is imputed to us as our very           His covenant life, with the assurance, "I will be
      own.                                                 your God and the God of your seed after you!"
   3. A firm purpose henceforth to show true                 From this follows that by a conscious faith we ex-
      thankfulness to God in all our life, and a firm      perience covenant fellowship with our God, as is
      resolve to walk uprightly and in true love and       signified and sealed in the Lords Supper. Therefore
      peace with our neighbor. (Communion Form,            the Supper is:
      page 60 of The Psalter).                               1.  A remembrance feast, in which we com-
   You will notice that these three things are men-              memorate Christ's broken body, which was
 tioned in our Heidelberg Catechism as necessary to             broken on the cross for our sins, and His shed
 know, in order to enjoy true comfort and to live and           blood that was shed to deliver us from eternal
 die happily. These three are also mentioned in a                death and to merit for us eternal life with God
 slightly different manner in our Baptism Form as a              in glory.
 confession of the principal parts of the doctrine.  of      2. A pledge of Gods love and faithfulness
 baptism as confessed by parents who present their              whereby He feeds and nourishes our souls in-
 children for baptism. This necessarily implies that            to everlasting life, as surely as the bread is
the communicant not only understands these                      broken before our eyes and the cup is given to
 points of doctrine, but also sincerely confesses               us, and we eat and drink the same with our


334                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



       mouths in remembrance of Him (John  6:51,           public confession before the consistory and the
       54-56).                                             congregation to be a very weighty responsibility,
  3. An act of faith and trust in the one perfect sac-     but also a very great privilege! This step is as im-
       rifice of the cross as the only ground and foun-    portant, if not more so, in the life of our covenant
       dation of our salvation.                            youth as choosing a vocation and entering into the
                                                           marriage state! All of which should be preceded by
  4. Thus we are assured by the Holy Spirit that           a thorough understanding of the truth of the Scrip-
       we are ingrafted into Christ, and thus become       tures, serious self-examination, and very much
       members of His body, knit together in broth-        prayer! Only then will this confession remain a
       erly love, which we are to show in `word,           high point in our lives!
       but also in very deed toward one another.
       (The Communion Form, page 61 of The Psalter,          .But the responsibility also rests with the  con-
       second column, middle of the page, and con-         sistory. The elders of the church must be sure that
       tinued on page 62).                                 the children of the congregation have been given a
                                                           thorough indoctrination, but also that they have
  From this it becomes evident that our children           been  receptive  to it, have digested it, and made it
cannot participate in the Lord's Supper until they         part and parcel of their souls. Our Catechism
come to years of discretion, for the simple reason         speaks of saving faith as consisting of knowledge of
that they cannot give expression to the conscious          all that God has revealed to us in His Word. This
faith in the measure required by the  self-                must be more than a mere intellectual knowledge.
examination and the celebration of the Supper of           It must include heart and mind, a knowledge that
our Lord.                                                  confesses: I know whom I have believed! More-
  From this it also follows that the church must re-       over, faith is an assured confidence that we are per-
quire a confession of the Reformed religion and a          sonally participants of Christ and all His benefits
reputation of a godly walk. According to article 64        (Lord's Day 7).
of the Church Order, it is the responsibility of the         That raises the question, at what age should
consistory to supervise the celebration of the Holy        public confession of faith be made? A common
Supper, lest condemnation fall upon the congrega-          practice among' us is that young people wait until
tion. (See I Cor. 11:30.) The consistory must require      they have been thoroughly indoctrinated and have
a confession of the  faith  of the individual  - not a     become stable in a godly walk. This practice, I
mere confession  that  he believes, but also of what       think, is a good one. But sometimes the question is
he believes, namely, the  faith.once  delivered unto       raised whether some studious and serious-minded
the saints and taught in that church. I fear some-         teenager should be allowed to confess his faith at an
times that both young people and consistories              early age, say, at 14 or 15 years of age. Prof. H.C.
regard this matter of confession too lightly, to the       Hoeksema has discussed this question in the past in
detriment of the individual, but also of the congre-       the  Stundurd  Bearer,  volume 37, pages 112, 137,
gation.                                                    162,  185.*
  This does leave us with the question, when                 This, to my mind, answers your basic question.
should a young person ,be considered ready to make         If not, write again.
confession of his or her faith? Partly, this is a ques-
tion that the young person of the congregation must        *Note: Rev. Hanko asked me to fill in the reference
answer, deciding when he or she feels ready and            here. I am not certain which article(s) he means.
has a strong desire to make public confession and to       But the above are references to articles on, "Should
partake of the Lord's Supper. Young people should          Adolescents Be Encouraged To Partake Of The
consider this matter very seriously, considering the       Lord's Supper?" HCH


                                         Book Review


HOSEA, LOVE'S COMPLAINT,  by Herman                          This attractively published little work is a  trans-
Veldkamp; Paideia Press, St. Catharines, Ontario,          lation from the Dutch of a book by this rather well-
Canada; paper, 240 pp., $7.95 ($9.95, Canadian).           known minister of the Reformed Churches of the
(Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema)                          Netherlands under the title (in Dutch), "The Son of


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                335



Beeri." It consists of 43 rather brief chapters on             good devotional reading.
various texts from the prophecy of Hosea.                        As far as I can discern, there is little or no
   The work is not a commentary, though there are              thematic approach in the book. I do not get the im-
indeed some interesting and helpful exegetical in-            pression that the author has grasped the funda-
sights in it. It is rather in the nature of a book of         mental theme and thrust of the prophecy. And as
short meditations which include a good many prac-              one who has worked his way through the prophecy
tical insights and applications. Though I do not               some years ago, there are points at which I definite-
have the original, and therefore cannot make a                 ly disagree with the exegesis and the applications.
comparison, it appears to be a good translation into            ,Nevertheless, I recommend this book for in-
smooth-flowing English. The book would make                    teresting and helpful devotional reading.


                        News From Our Churches
                                                      David Hurbuch



                                        March 31, 1986        tant Reformed  Minister'slTeacher's  Calling to Set
  The committee planning the officebearers con-               Forth the Antithesis in Preaching and Teaching."
ferences has asked me to provide you the following            The deadline for receiving applications is June 1,
report on the last conference. On March 3  & 4 a               1986.
`conference on "Historic Presbyterianism" was                    Rev. Joostens' move to the Montego Bay area
held in South Holland Church, Illinois, in conjunc-            puts him in close proximity to the churches in Mt.
tion with the meeting of Classis  West. The purpose            Salem and Dias where he has started new labors.
of the conference was to learn more of the Bible               He has begun sick visitation and will continue to
Presbyterian Church (BPC) of Larne, Northern                   work his way into both of these congregations. In
Ireland, with whom our churches have established               regards to the labors in the Cave and Belmont
sister church relations. This conference was                   Churches, he advised the Cave Church congrega-
especially suited for this purpose since the BPC had           tion to call Brother Brydson to be their pastor. He
sent her pastor, Rev. George Hutton, and a deacon,            accepted and Rev. Joostens had the privilege of or-
Mr. John Clark, to attend the meeting of our Classis          daining and installing him February 16. Rev.
West.                                                         Joostens preached on II Timothy  4:l  & 2. Rev.
  On Monday evening, March 3, Rev. Hutton gave                Brydson is a capable young man and Rev. Joostens
a public lecture on "The History of Scotch-Irish              can gladly leave the labor that he was doing there in
Presbyterianism." On Tuesday, Prof. H. Hanko                  Brother Brydson's hands. Rev. Joostens' work in
gave a.paper on "A Comparison of the Westminster              Belmont was alongside that of Rev. Williams. Rev.
and the Reformed Confessions." Rev. Hutton also               Williams has now moved into a home adjacent to
gave a paper on "Presbyterian Principles of Wor-              the church in Belmont. These two congregations
ship." The conference was attended, not only by               can now continue with a minimal amount of
most of the delegates of.  Classis  West, but also by         guidance, which is a good step toward making
men from the Grand Rapids area, and a few visitors            these churches indigenous and self-sufficient.
from other churches, who contributed significantly               Rev. De Vries gave a public lecture, March 18, on
to the discussion. This was a worthwhile con-                 the theme "The Bleak Economy and the Black
ference which served to give us a deeper appre'cia-           Horse." Rev. Moore spoke to a Ladies' League
tion for the Presbyterian tradition.                          meeting, April 8, on "The Effect of the Home on
  The Scholarship Fund Committee is taking appli-             the Character of the Child."
cations for future teachers/ministers for the                    In Holland Church, Michigan, there will be a
1986-87 school year. If you are interested, please            spring Sunday School Teachers' Mass Meeting
contact Mike Rau, -4165  Jenison St., Grandville, MI          April 17. Rev. Heys will be the speaker. In Hope
49418, for application forms. An essay of 300 words           Church, Michigan, Rev. Heys will speak to the
or more is also required on the topic "The Protes-            League of Eastern Men's and Ladies' Societies, on
                                                              April 22. The Spring Lecture in the Grand Rapids,
                                                              Michigan area will be held May 1 at the Dutton
David Harbach is a teacher at Adams St. Prot. Ref.            Christian Reformed Church. Rev. Bekkering will
Christian School, Grand Rapids, Michigan.                     be the speaker.

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





         .


336                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                       WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On April 25, 1986, the Lord willing, our parents and grandparents,           On April 5, 1986, our parents and grandparents, MR. AND MRS.
MR. AND MRS. RAYMOND  BRUINSMA will celebrate their 40th                   VERNON KLAMER, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. We
wedding anniversary. We are grateful to the Lord for the years they        are thankful to God for the blessed marriage given to them, and for
have shared and for the abundant love and covenant instruction they        the God-centered love and upbringing they have given us. Our prayer
have given us. We pray that they may continue to experience the            is that God will continue to bless them and keep them in His care in
blessings of our faithful God in the years to come.                        the years to come.
   "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon      Tom and Vicky Van Overloop                   Bruce and Joann Klamer
them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To          Brandon,  Heidi, Heather                Vonda Klamer
such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his com-             Chuck and Verna Terpstra                     Brenda Klamer
mandments to do them." (Psalm 103:17, 18)                                       Corey, Amber, Kimberly, Thad            Brent Klamer
                                                                           John and Valerie Van Baren
Jim and Kathy Bruinsma                 Jerry and Marti Bruinsma
   Kristen, Ryan, Eric                                                          Jennifer, Jordan, Jill
                                       Karen Bruinsma
Jim and Lois Rau
   Carol, Cheryl,                                                                          RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   Kimberly, Rodney                                                             The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
                               NOTICE!!!                                   Church extends its sincere sympathy in the death of a Great Aunt and
                                                                           Aunt of many, MRS. CATHERINE HOLLEMAN, at the age of 85
   The Free Christian School of Edgerton, MN, is in need of a Princi-      years.
pal/Teacher for the 1986-87 school year. If interested please contact           "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
Allen Hendricks at  (507) 442-5221 or Harley Buys at (507)  442-           through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Remans  6:23)
8454.                                                                      Mr. Regnerus, Pres.
                                                                           Sharon Maatman, Sec'y.





                                      THE PROTESTANT REFORMED
                                                  CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
                                                                          OF
                                                       SOUTH HOLLAND
                                            is celebrating its 25th anniversary

                                                         Friday, May 2, 1986
                                            The school will be open all day for
                                    touring and visiting classrooms in session.

                       COMMEMORATIVE CHAPEL,  IO:00 A.M.: REV. J.A. HEYS
                          BANQUET KEYNOTE ADDRESS: REV. D.J. ENGELSMA
                               For banquet reservations it is important to contact:
                                                           Sharon Van  Baren
                                                            RR 1, Box 264F
                                                       Lynwood, Illinois 6041 1

                                               or telephone (312) 895-0643
                                                COME CELEBRATE WlTH.US!


