             The
     STANDARD
            BEARER
f             A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          .





       What a power lies behind that wicked tongue! What a
     damage is done by this little member! Character defama-
     tion, destroyed respectability, loss of livelihood, loss of posi-
     tion in the church, even loss of life are but some of the bitter
     results of the evil tongue. Churches have been torn apart,
     families have been brought into turmoil, even as nations
     have been forced into war! The devil finds the evil tongue to
     be one of his strongest weapons, the hardest for us to over-
     come. In fact, no one can tame that evil beast, except the
     power of God's grace by His Spirit in our hearts.

                                            [See Meditation - page 50)





                                                  Vol.  LXIII, No. 3, November 1, 1986  4


                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                                   THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                COWENiS                                                                             ISSN        0362-4692
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     The Power of the Tongue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50                  Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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     The Centennial of the Doleantie (3) . . . . . . . . . . .53                       bers, Rev. Thomas C. Miersma, Rev. James  S j opsema, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,
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MEDITATION
Cornelius Hanko




                                     The Power of the Tongue


                  Ques. 112. What is required in the ninth commandment?
                 Ans. That I bear false witness against no man, nor falsify any man's words; that I be no
              backbiter, nor slanderer; that I do not judge, nor join in condemning any man rashly, or
             unheard; but that I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit, as the proper works of the devil, unless I
             would bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God; likewise, that in judgment and in all other
             dealings I love the truth, speak it uprightly and confess it; also that I defend and promote, as
              much as I am able, the honor and good character of my neighbor.
                                                                                                            Heid. Catechism, Lord's Day 43.


I                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                              51



        I love Thee, Lord, for Thou hast first loved me!          the adoption to sons and the right to eternal life.
        It is Thy love spread abroad in my heart whereby          The image of God, once lost through sin, is now
     I love Thee, and also love Thy saints, the household         restored to us in Christ, so that we may know our
     of faith, Thy people in Christ!                              God, may love Him as our God, and serve Him in
                                                                  devotion of love, declaring His wonders, His
        There is a strong bond of unity that unites me            praises, His glories now and even unto endless eter-
     with all those who profess a like faith, and who             nity, world without end!
     walk according to Thy Word.                                    Amazing gift, that gift of speech! In our thoughts
        For Thy Word is the light upon my pathway. Thy            we travel through the pages of history, we go from
     law is my sure Guide, leading me to Thy dwelling             one end of the world to the other, we ascend to
     place in the heavens.                                        heaven, and descend to hell, and we can also give
        Therefore in thankfulness to Thee I may, I can, I         expression to all that we see and know. We can
     will, I must speak the truth in love concerning Thee         commune with one another, share our thoughts
     and my fellow saints!                                        and experiences to the edification of the saints and
        My heart declares,                                        the glory of God's Name in Christ Jesus!
           "Sing to the Lord, sing His praise all ye people,        What a horrible contrast!
             New be your song as new honors ye pay;                 Our Catechism speaks of the sin against the
          Sing of His majesty, bless Him forever,                 ninth commandment as "the proper works of the
             Show His salvation from day to day."                 devil"!
        Our Lord is the living God who sees and hears,              God says in this ninth command: "Thou shalt
     and also speaks!                                             not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
        He speaks within His own divine Being as the                We are reminded of our fall in our first parents in
     triune Covenant God, who lives His own perfect               Paradise, with the bitter result that we are con-
     and glorious life in blessed intimate fellowship as          ceived and born in sin. As we are by nature, our
     Father, Son and Holy Spirit.                                 throats are an open sepulchre, with our tongues we
                                                                  use deceit, the poison of asps is under our lips, our
        To this speech God also  .gives utterance outside         mouths are full of cursing and bitterness  (Ron?
     of Himself. For by the Word of His mouth were the            3:13, 14). If this were not written in the Bible, I
     heavens made, and all the host of them by the                would -not want to admit it. Yet it is so very true
     breath of His mouth. He spake and it was done; He            that, according to our first birth, we are children of
     commanded, and it stood fast. When He was about              our father, the devil, who was a liar and a murderer
     to make man, the highest of the earthly creatures,           from the beginning. There is no sin mentioned in
     the three divine Persons conferred together saying,          any of the ten commandments that is not commit-
     "Let us make man in our, image, after our                    ted by the evil tongue.
     likeness." Man was created to know God, to love
     Him, and to serve Him in love. Man was given the               The wonder of grace is that we are born again as
     gift of speech to praise and glorify his Maker!              new creatures in Christ Jesus, with the life of the
                                                                  risen Lord in our hearts. Now we are sons of God!
        The mighty God, Jehovah, speaks through the               We know not as yet what we shall be, but this we.
     rumblings of the thunder, the raging of the storm,           know, when Christ appears we shall be like Him in
     the roaring billows of the sea, but also in the waft-        His glory! We have the beginning of eternal life in
     ing breezes that stir the tree tops, the song of the         our hearts!
     birds, and the quiet movement of the stars of the
     night. "0 Lord, our Lord, how glorious is Thy                  That is exactly what creates the tension between
     Name in all the earth."                                      the old man of sin which still wars in our members
                                                                  and the new man in Christ, which seeks to be pleas-
        Far more wonderful is the speech of the God of            ing to God! Our sinful nature always spontaneously
     our salvation in Jesus Christ, as recorded in the            sins against the ninth commandment. Only grace
     pages of Holy Writ. "For the Word was made flesh,            makes it possible for us to hear God say to us, "My
     and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the            child, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
     glory of the only begotten of the Father), full of           neighbor!"
     grace and truth."                                              The proper works of the devil have so many
        As if that were a small thing, we have the                aspects!
     testimony of Christ by His Spirit in our hearts,
     creating in us a living faith, whereby we experience           There is the evil of false doctrine. We are prone
                                                                  by nature to debase God and to exalt man. That er-
     Cornelius Hanko  is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    ror was evident already in Cain, and lifts its vile
     Reformed Churches.                                           head throughout all of history. The heretic readily


52                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



follows the cunning of Satan by quoting God's                 Character defamation, destroyed respectability,
Word with a  pretence of sincerity, "Has not God              loss of livelihood, loss of position in the church,
said?" Paul warns of those who approach us from               even loss of life are but some of the bitter results of
every direction with cunning craftiness, intent               the evil tongue. Churches have been torn apart,
upon deceit as they gamble for'men's souls. The               families have been brought into turmoil, even as
fundamental truths are attacked, such as the infalli-         nations have been forced into war! The devil finds
bility of the Scriptures, the sovereignty of God, pre-        the evil tongue to be one of his strongest weapons,
destination, particular atonement, and many other             the hardest for us to overcome. In fact, no one can
basic truths. Heresy is like a cancer that secretly           tame that evil beast, except the power of God's
eats at the very vitals of the church, growing rapid-         grace by His Spirit in our hearts.
ly and bringing destruction as it develops. The                  Let us repent, confess our sins, and seek from the
church of Jesus Christ is always in a state of siege.         Lord a pure heart and an upright spirit! We must
Its members must be alert for all the forces of dark-         have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
ness that wage war against her, never despairing,             darkness, but rather reprove them (Eph. 5: 11).
but always confident that the victory is already at-
tained in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our greatest threat             "Be ye followers of God, as dear children" (Eph.
is the complacency that cries peace where there is            5:l).
no peace.                                                       A child who loves and esteems his father spon-
      There is the evil of false witness. The extrem.e  of    taneously desires to imitate him. His highest desire
this evil we meet in the courts of law where                  is to walk in his footsteps; to be like him.
witnesses will deliberately lie under oath. They                 Our Catechism teaches that I should "love the
call God to witness and to confirm that they are              truth, speak it uprightly and confess it." That ap-
speaking the truth, while they pour out their falsifi-        plies, first of all, to the truth of Scripture. Our love
cations, as if God is not a righteous Judge. We think         to God requires that we have a deep respect for His
of Potiphar's wife and her wicked charges against             Word. We acknowledge it as the truth, humbly
Joseph. Or of Jezebel, who falsely accused Naboth             bowing before it and surrendering our lives unto it.
to claim his vineyard. The worst atrocity of all              We maintain and defend it over against every false
times was directed against our Lord, who was false-           teaching, and that at any cost. For God's Word is to
ly accused, slandered, wickedly condemned and                 us the only sure Guide, the power unto our salva-
crucified, an outcast among men.                              tion! But there is more. Our Book of Instruction
      Our Catechism speaks of judging or helping to           adds that we must love, speak, and confess the
condemn a man rashly or unheard. Rash judgments               truth "in judgment and all other dealings." That ap-
are born out of suspicion or distrust. They can even          plies to our contact with our fellow saints. We are
arise out of jealousy or dislike. The one person says,        called to be honest and sincere, upright and truth-
"It may be;" the second says, "I think so;" the               ful in all our dealings with each other.
third emphatically states, "I heard it said;" the               We who are forgiven so much, are we ready to
fourth party declares it to be a fact. In the mean-           forgive our neighbor?
time the story grows out of all proportions, beyond
all recognition. The worst of it is, that it is so hard         We who want others to speak well of us, do we
for us to forget the accusations that are brought             speak well of them?
against a person. Every time we see him we are                  We who expect others to bear with our weak-
reminded of the accusation that was made. Years               nesses, do we bear with their weaknesses?
later that charge, right or wrong, is still brought up.         We who appreciate a word of comfort in time of
It may be forgiven by God, but we do not readily              need, do we give a drink of water to the thirsty, a
forgive and forget.                                           bite of bread to the hungry, a word of reassurance
      Also mentioned are the sins of gossip, backbiting       to the weary?
and slander. The things we never would want to
say to the person himself we readily tell to a friend.          With the end of the ages upon us, we do well to
Many social visits are characterized by what the              read the prophecy of Malachi, the last of the Old
Psalmist says, "They sit and speak evil of each               Testament prophets, and notice particularly these
other," leaving nothing but a guilty conscience. It is        words: "Then they that feared the Lord spake often
so common to smile to a person's face and to stab             one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard
him in the back. All the incentive that a talebearer          it, and a book of remembrance was written before
needs is the remark, "Don't quote me," or, "Don't             him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought
tell anyone I told you."                                      upon his name."
      What a power lies behind that wicked tongue!               Read and Study The Standard Bearer.
What a damage is done by this little  ,member!


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                              53



EDITORIAL




            The Centennial of the Doleantie (3)



  The churches of the Doleantie did not long re-          tent that A-people would not think of listening to a
main a separate denomination after the separation         B-minister, nor B-people of listening to an
of 1886. In 1892 they united with the churches of         A-minister. This is neither the time nor the place to
the Secession of 1834 to form the denomination            enter into the differences in detail. We merely men-
known popularly as the "GKN," the Gereformeerde           tion that these differences concerned several em-
Kerken van Nederland (the Reformed Churches of            phases of the B-group, especially as these emphases
the Netherlands). A relatively small segment of the       developed under the strong theological influence of
Secession churches did not go along with this             Abraham Kuyper. They were especially four in
merger but continued a separate existence; they are       number. The Kuyperians emphasized: 1) Supralap-
known today as the Christelijke Gereformeerde             sarianism. 2) Eternal justification. 3) Immediate re-
Kerk (the Christian Reformed Church), to which            generation. 4) Presupposed regeneration. As the
the Free Reformed Church in the U.S. and in               battle about these points became hotter and hotter,
Canada trace their origin.                                it became necessary for the churches to try to do
  One might have expected that the merger of 1892         something about the situation. The result was an at-
was a "natural." And undoubtedly from a certain           tempted compromise in the form of the Conclu-
point of view, i.e., that of allegiance to the Re-        sions of Utrecht in 1905. But, as with many at-
formed Confessions, this was true. Nevertheless, to       tempted compromises, so also with that of 1905:
a large extent the merger was never an organic one;       while the differences were suppressed somewhat,
the two groups, that of the Secession of 1834 and         the- problems remained. Not real peace but an
that of the Doleantie of 1886, retained their             uneasy truce prevailed. And it was to no little ex-
theological identities within the united denomina-        tent the same differences (especially, however, the
tion. Perhaps "retained" is too weak a term; to no        difference concerning presupposed regeneration)
little extent it was true that they insisted upon and     which arose again in the mid-1940s (and even
even  flaunted  their distinct theological identities.    before) and which led to the unjust discipline of
Contributing to this situation was the fact that          such men as Dr. K. Schilder and Dr. S. Greijdanus
Abraham Kuyper was undoubtedly the dominant               (and many others) and eventually to the formation
theologian of the period, was extremely popular,          of the Reformed Churches maintaining Article 31,
and was very influential. This insistence upon the        the so-called "Liberated Churches."
distinct theological identities, moreover, was not          The above is not intended to be a detailed
only true of theologians and of ministers; it was also    history, but only a very brief sketch.
true among the people at large. The result was that         All of this was not without significance as far as
there were always two distinct wings in the GKN:          the ecclesiastical scene in America was concerned.
the A-wing which insisted upon the theological em-
phases of the Afscheiding (Secession), and the              We must recall that the Christian Reformed
B-wing, which insisted upon the theological em-           Churches in  .this country had their roots in the
phases of the Doleantie. Especially in the large          Secession of 1834. The colonists who came here in
cities, where there were several churches and             1847 and following years were sons and daughters
ministers (though but one congregation and  con-          of the Secession. And when the Christian Reformed
sistory) these differences persisted, even to the ex-     Churches began in 1857 (by way of separation from


54                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



the Reformed Church in America into which the             Reformed principles; and as might be expected,
Rev. Van Raalte had led them), their  her&ge  was         there developed a pronounced tendency toward a
that of the Secession  - perhaps we may say               falsely conceived `broadmindedness' together with
especially that of the De Cock-Van Velzen wing of         the manifestation of a spirit of worldly-minded-
the Secession. And until the time of the Doleantie,       ness, that would hide behind the name of
the growth through immigration of the infant              `Calvinism' as a shield. Especially during the years
Christian  Reformed denomination was, of course,          of the World War, of which several of the leaders of
chiefly through immigrants of Secession origins.          the Christian Reformed Churches were enthusias-
But when the Doleantie took place, and especially         tic supporters, with its spread of much false and
when the Gereformeerde Kerken were established            pernicious propaganda, its confusion of the truth
through the union of 1892, there began to be a large      with purely humanistic philosophy, its hastening of
influx of Doleantie immigrants, Kuyperians, as            the inevitable process of Americanization of the
well. The result was that also in the Christian           churches, long, perhaps, too long restrained, these
Reformed denomination increasingly the same two           evil tendencies received a new impetus and
types of people and the same two wings could be           asserted themselves with a new confidence and
distinguished,     and the same differences of            emphasis. There began to appear what may be
theological emphasis could be detected. The result        called a latitudinarian party in the churches, a
was, too, that to no little extent the same               group of men that assumed a certain leadership,
theological skirmishes of the A-wing and the              who opposed the antithesis, stood for a `broader'
B-wing took place, even to the extent that the at-        view of the Christian's life and calling in the world,
tempt was made to pacify the churches through the         and strove to abridge the gap between the world
adoption of the Conclusions of Utrecht by the             and the Church."
Christian Reformed Synod of 1908. Nevertheless,             In the rest of the paragraph just quoted the
the differences continued.                                author explains the connection with Abraham
      What. has become of this reformation movement       Kuyper's Common Grace as follows:
in the Netherlands? Everyone who is at all ac-              I,
quainted with developments in the Netherlands,                    . . . These men were wont to speak of the urgent
especially since about the end of World War II, will      need of a `restatement' of the truth; they lauded the
know that there has been a steady and sad decline         movement of the jongeren in the Netherlands, who
in the churches which had their origin in the Seces-      clamored for something new though they knew not
sion of 1834 and the Doleantie of 1886 - a decline        what; and they frequently appealed to the alleged
in doctrinal and confessional soundness and a             development of a `new mentality,' that required
decline in piety of life and walk. To a large extent      new methods of approach, new forms and new
their Reformed foundations have been abandoned.           truths. This `broadminded' party, it must be re-
In fact, today those churches stand  r'eady to            corded, did not appear to have any sympathy with
repudiate their separate existence and to make            the views of Doctor Abraham Kuyper Sr., until they
common cause with the church from which they              discovered that his theory of  Common  Gmce offered
once separated, the Hervormde Kerk. This is the           them a philosophy that would support their
Samen  0~  Weg  (Together-On-The Way) movement            latitudinarian views in the name of Calvinism. The
in the Netherlands. Perhaps it is too early in history    antithetical conception of Kuyper they fairly dis-
to analyze properly all the reasons for this decline.     dained. Common grace became the warp and the
But this writer has long been of the opinion that the     woof of their life-view. `Calvinism' and `Common
influences of Abraham Kuyper's theory of common           Grace' became synonyms. Only they that believed
grace loom large in the picture, even though.in the       and emphasized the theory of common grace were
Netherlands there was never any kind of synodical         the true Calvinists. And all that opposed them and
stand on the matter of common grace until the in-         refused to believe and proclaim this theory of com-
famous Synod of Sneek-Utrecht in the 1940s.               mon grace, they proudly and disdainfully branded
                                                          as Anabaptists! By a dexterous hocus-pocus,
      In the Christian Reformed Churches about the        Calvinism, always known the world over for its
time of World War I there were significant                doctrine of predestination and particular grace, had
developments. Herman Hoeksema writes about                been changed overnight into a philosophy of com-
these in his  The  Pr-otestant Reformed Churches in       mon grace!"
America  as follows: "About the time of which we
are writing other evils developed. There was a              As is well known, this philosophy of common
gradually growing spirit of confessional indifferent-     grace (plus the error of the general well-meant offer
ism, largely caused by ignorance of the Reformed          of salvation  - not at all a Kuyperian doctrine)
truth and not infrequently manifesting itself in          prevailed in the Christian Reformed  Church(es)  in
open disdain of and antagonism against the                1924 and ever since.


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                5 5



  The true line of both the Secession of 1834 and                  the grace of God been,continued  in our!Prqtestant
the Doleantie of 1886, that line which adheres to                  Reformed Churches until today. And  It is in that
Scripture and our Reformed Confessions, has by                     line that we have developed and gone forward, too.
                                                                                                                   HCH
TRANSLATED TREASURES
Dr. A. Kuyper




                        A Pamphlet Concerning the
                         Reformation of the Church


[In the last paragraph Kuyper has discussed reformations           in a church federation which manifests a  c6n-
which took place in the time of special revelation and are         tinuously more unholy character and a greater in-
recorded for us in Scripture, and reformations which took          clination to the popish hierarchy.
place in the history of the church of the new dispensation. He
has done this to show the different kinds of reformations which      We do not desire to exaggerate, and indeed one
have taken place and to demonstrate how these reformations         must be careful of the untrue statement that the
have significance for the tribulations in which Kuyper found       state of our churches in this land is now already on
himself in the State Church in the Netherlands.)                   a par with, e.g., the state of the church of Jerusalem
64. Concerning the Reformation Which Ought                         under the later kings, or with the state of the chur-
     Now To Be Undertaken In the Reformed Chur-                    ches of our fatherland in the last part of the fif-
     ches Of These Lands.                                          teenth  celitury.
  Also the Reformed Churches of these lands await                    He who says this does not know history.
thoroughgoing reformation once again. They do                        It must rather be maintained that the Reformed
this in order that, brought into a better church con-              Churches of this land must always be distinguished
dition, they may offer to God His honor, to His                    from both the above mentioned churches in these
elect the enjoyment of His salvation, and to our                   respects: 1) That the administration of the Word
people and fatherland the support against decline                  and sacraments still continues to exist in many of
into deeper moral apostasy.                                        these churches in a purity which in those times was
  That this reformation is necessary appears from                  entirely unknowri; 2) that the heresy and immorali-
these sad facts which, alas, are denied by no one.                 ty which has crept in has not yet nearly taken on
These are: that godliness among the Lord's people                  the idolatrous and satanic character of those times;
has sunk below the common standards. That the                      3) that he who desires something better can still
key of knowledge, with the exception of very small                 move far more freely and is not nearly as ill-trqated
areas, is lost. That world conformity has not only                 as in those times; 4) that immorality among the
penetrated the members of the church, but has                      preachers, even though it already appears here and
gained the upper hand among the masses. That the                   there, is not to be compared with that which was
greatest immorality and the most audacious                         seen in Jerusalem and under Rome in the fifteenth
heresies, having progressed even to blasphemy, are                 century.
tolerated openly and without punishment through-                     If one therefore asks whether we must not con-
out the churches. That false doctrines have pene-                  sider the Reformed Churches of this land as having
trated even into the preachers. That the sacraments                become false churches or synagogues of Satan, then
are defiled in many churches. That love among the                  we wish to reply by making a distinction between
brethren gives way to strife and division. That                    three kinds of churches.
schism exists among the churches because a num-                      In the first group of churches we.put those chur-
ber of smaller groups have organized separate chur-                ches where yet there is a passably pure administra-
ches. And finally that most of these churches stand                tion of the Word and a passably pure  administra-


56                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



tion of the sacraments. Examples of such churches         giving offense any longer to the conscience. 3) That
are the churches of Amsterdam, Rotterdam,                 the enmity against the truth and the absence of
Utrecht, etc. If we had to guess we suppose that          godliness has proceeded so far that a moral dissolu-
there would be about five or six hundred of these         tion in all the relationships of society can be seen.
churches.                                                   We believe that it must be said of such churches:
      Concerning these churches we may not doubt for      They `are dead. The candlestick is taken from her
a moment that they are yet actually true churches         place. And even though God the Lord can build a
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is true notwithstand-      new church in that place nothing can come any-
ing the fact that we readily admit that the following     more from that old, withered stem.
abuses exist in these churches: 1) that they in addi-       We do not consider it impossible that, e.g.,
tion to the good administration of the means of           through circuit preaching during a vacancy, the
grace permit a desecration of them; 2) that they fail     grace of God may be preached again, through
to exercise discipline; 3) that they give also to         which preaching a few souls are touched, and out
unbelievers the right to vote; 4) that they stand in a    of that circle of touched souls a new life for the
false church connection.                                  church comes forth. But it is very doubtful whether
      These are faults which we surely do not consider    one could call this a new reviving of the old church.
trifling, but they by no means affect us so that we       Exactly in the same way the Word can also enter a
dare reject them as false churches.                       false church through accidental circumstances
      One well remembers that also our fathers, even      without anyone being able to rehabilitate that small
though false preaching continued to exist, never-         church by this rather minor happening.
theless never for a moment thought of giving up             Perhaps one asks: Why do we not add to these
their local church (though Romish) as a false             three categories of Reformed Churches a fourth
church.                                                   which would include the churches of the Separa-
      In the second group we place those churches         tion in their three or four different groups and
where the good administration of the means of             which continue to exist under various names?
grace is absent, but where there are still men who          The reason for this is that we cannot and may not
pray and where the hope is still cherished that in        see in all these separate churches anything else
the Lord's time  Baa1 service shall give way to the       than aggrieved churches which have temporarily
service of the Lord.                                      organized themselves into churches which are
      The examples are especially applicable to a         perhaps too independent. If `right now the churches
number of churches where for twenty or thirty             of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, etc., were re-
years none but lying teachers served, and which at        established by reformation in a pure form, we are
the prayer of believers nevertheless are once again       convinced that all these separated churches will
blessed and graced with the good administration of        come together. However, we would not blame
the means of grace. Oh, if only they give thanks to       them at all if they refused to do this as long as that
God for this!                                             reformation tarries and an illegal church connec-
                                                          tion is maintained.
      The condition of these churches we now con-           Now we know well that these separated chur-
sider as extremely dangerous and concede that they        ches will not themselves admit that they are ag-
have nearly lost their character as church or at least    grieved churches. But this does not bother us. If
the ZawfuZ fawn of the church as Calvin describes it.     they were not aggrieved churches, then they would
But it we pay attention to that which happened in         have to maintain that our churches are all false
Israel and pay attention to the preservation of the       churches or synagogues of Satan. And as far as we
church under the Romish hierarchy and consider            dare to judge, at least the godly among them do not
the signs which our own eyes have seen in a               do this any more. And if it must be accepted among,
number of other churches, we do not dare before           them as an overwhelming conviction that by no
God the Lord to declare these churches dead, nor to       means all the churches alongside of which the
compare their consistories to a synagogue of Satan.       separated church has appeared, have died as false
      Alas, we must do this with the third category of    churches, then it follows of itself from this that
churches, of which not a few are to be found in our       these separated churches would be schismatic, or
provinces and of which it must be said: 1) that the       (and that is our position) that they are to be honored
administration of the means of grace has not only         as aggrieved churches with something of an in-
disappeared, but that one cannot even cherish a           dependent  0rganization.l
hope that this administration will return. 2) That          Earlier there stood in the way of holding this opin-
the administration of unbelief and idolatry has           ion the fact that certain men from the Modernists
openly taken over the holy place without even             and the Groningen Movement2  had taken the incor-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      57



rect position that in our land only one large church        the government under the name of "Christian
existed which possessed local and individual parts.         Reformed" against the more or less collegialistic
Following that line of thought one must indeed              view according to which some make the denomina-
reason: "All that which the church does in her in-          tion the important idea and the local churches as
dividual parts, as e.g., in Ulrum, the whole church         only a part of the denomination.
also does!" Following this line of thought one must            This is an unreformed idea and shall be gradually
reject the idea of the church in her individual parts.      banished from these churches as the Reformed
But if this false collegiate idea gives way to a more       principle begins to dominate.
Reformed idea, then it must be granted to these
separated churches  thaU the distinction made in            `Kuyper is referring here to the churches of the Afscheiding
viewing the church fellowship as a secondary mat-           which split from the State Church under the leadership of Van
ter puts the essence of the church, not in the              Raalte, de Cock, etc.
denomination, but in the local churches.                    2The so-called Groningen Movement was really an ethical
  At the same time this would arouse a reaction in          movement which emphasized an ethical life and in fact became
the separated churches which are recognized by              extremely legalistic.

CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY
Prof. H. Hanko





              About Picketing Abortion Clinics



Correspondence                                              are not servants of Government Officials. The
Dear Prof. Hanko:                                           Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
                                                            support this view. In contradiction to this there
  Generally I am in agreement with what is printed          seems to be a popular view, especially in some
in the Standard Bearer, yet I must express disagree-        Christian circles, that our government is in a direct
ment with your answer on picketing abortion                 relationship to God, contrary to the order listed
clinics in the Sept.  1,  1986 issue of that periodical.    above. You and I both know that when this occurs
Essentially the disagreement is not so much in what         the result is tyranny as has been so graphically
you stated but in the over-simplification and lack of       demonstrated, not only by Biblical history, but
clarification. Please let me explain.                       world history as well.
  The peculiarity of you and me as citizens of the
United States is that our government is not a                  I would assume that most Protestant Reformed
monarchy, not a theocracy, not a dictatorship; it is        people celebrate the Fourth of July, in other words
not even what is called a democracy; it is a constitu-      the Declaration of Independence. This is a docu-
tional republic. It is a government of the people, by       ment which is, according to some, in direct viola-
the people and for the people under a constitution.         tion to the extreme view of submission to govern-
Our forefathers saw fit to set up a government in           ment. Yet this nation under God has enjoyed a free-
the following order: God, Ten Commandments,                 dom that is unsurpassed by any other nation in the
People, Constitution, following the Declaration of          world today due to that Declaration which, by the
Independence, Government, and last of all Govern-           way, is a constitutional document. However, this
ment Offices. They saw fit to set up a government           freedom is slowly being eroded by unconstitutional
in which Government Officials are servants of the           edicts enacted by Government Officials.
People, government by a Constitution. The People               I take issue when you say that abortion has been


58                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



legalize&in this country. It has not been legalized                 1) The Scriptures are unmistakably silent on
because it is in direct violation of the Constitution        what form of government meets with God's ap-
and the Declaration of Independence and the Ten              proval. Whether one favors a democracy, a con-
Commandments. You say that we must submit to                 stitutional republic, a monarchy, an oligarchy, or
the magistrates; I agree, as long as this submission         whatever, he cannot appeal to Scripture in support
is not in violation of the Constitution, the highest         of his contention. The reason for this is simply that
government law of the  iand. So we are placed                the Scriptures are totally unconcerned about this
before this decision, do we submit to Government             question and consider it to be irrelevant for the
Officials, or do we submit to the Constitution? Even         revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the God of our
Calvin, whom Reformed people love to quote, says             salvation. God's people are, while in this world,
this: "For earthy princes lay aside their power              citizens of the kingdom of heaven. They are, as
when they rise up against God, and are unworthy              Peter so eloquently expresses it in his first epistle,
to be reckoned among the number of mankind. We               pilgrims and strangers in the earth. The only ques-
ought rather utterly to defy them (`conspuere in ip-         tion with which Scripture concerns itself is: how
sorum  capita,' lit: `to spit on their heads') than to       must pilgrims and strangers in the earth, citizens of
obey them." (Footnote bottom of page 1519,                   the kingdom of heaven, conduct themselves in rela-
Calvin's Institutes by John T. McNeil1 and Ford              tion to the magistrate? There is only one answer to
Lewis Battles). Rather a strong statement, is it not?        that: Submit! There is no qualification added; there
      Abortion is an act of which not only the Supreme       are no extenuating circumstances which alter this;
Court is guilty, but nearly every citizen of the land        there are no reasons which anyone can deduce by
is involved in it. Government Officials have ruled           means of which he can escape from this, calling.
that in some instances it must be funded by the tax          The proof for this is abundant. Shadrach, Meshach
dollars of the citizens. Some maintain that they are         and Abednego submitted to Nebuchadnezzar;
not guilty of what the government does with the tax          Daniel submitted to Darius; the apostles submitted
dollars it extorts from its citizens. This really is a       to the Sanhedrin; Paul submitted to Festus, Felix
cop-out under our type of government. Christians,            and finally Nero; our Lord submitted to Pontius
at least, should refuse to fund murder and we are            Pilate as an abiding example to us (I Peter 2:19-25).
liable to be judged in this matter. When the books           We are spedifically  enjoined to this in I Peter 2:13,
are opened in the final judgement only names of in-          14; Titus  3:l; Rom.  13:1-5. No line of argumenta-
dividuals will be found, not governments or any              tion can ever alter these emphatic and sharp state-
other organizations, only people.                            ments. We, belonging to the everlasting kingdom of
                                                             our Lord and Savior, are enjoined solemnly and
      Picketing has taken on an evil connotation             without equivocation to submit to our magistrates.
because it is used illegally by some unions.                 It is the command of our own Lord and Master. To
However, I find it difficult to criticize those who          disobey is heinous sin.
wish to testify in public their protest against this
evil as long as they perform this act without theuse           2) Confusion sometimes arises concerning this
of destruction of property or physical harm. This            calling to submit, as if it means also that we are
may be a long shot but Joshua picketed the city of           called always to obey. I do not know whether our
Jericho for seven days. Jonah picketed the city of           brother is confused on this point; but let me briefly
Nineveh for three days and the Old Testament                 mention the distinction. Submit includes obey under
Prophets went up and down throughout the land                all ordinary circumstances. But our obedience to
protesting the evils that were there.                        magistrates is fundamentally obedience to Christ
                                                             the Lord. We keep the fifth commandment too
      I hope that I have not been offensive but I            because we love God. If, therefore, the magistrate
wanted to point out that the evils being perpetrated         requires something that involves us in disobe-
are not simple matters for Christians. Meekness              dience to our King in heaven, we may not obey.
does not always call for submission.                         But disobedience does not preclude submission. In
                              Respectfully,                  our disobedience, we still submit. In our refusal to
                              Howard E. VanManen             do what our Lord and King at God's right hand for-
                              Grand Rapids, MI               bids, we nevertheless recognize the authority of the
                                                             magistrate, love him, honor him, respect him and
Reply                                                        take the consequences for disobedience. That is, we
      The issue quite clearly is a difference in the view    still submit  - as Abednego did, as Daniel did, as
of government which Mr. VanManen holds and                   Paul did, as Christ Himself did, when He died for
which I hold. While I do not claim expertise in              us.
political science, several remarks are in order in             3) The question whether the form of govern-
answer to Mr.  VanManen's assertions.                        ment in this country is "Christian," i.e., is Biblical,


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    59



lies at the foundation of our discussion. Mr. Van              are to be in submission to those whom God has set
Manen probably knows more than I concerning the                over us, not to some document. The government,
political theory which was the intellectual womb of            God's servants, have interpreted the Constitution.
our form of government. But a few points are clear             Right or wrong as their interpretation of the Consti-
to me, and ought, I think, be clear to Mr. Van                 tution may be, they are our God-appointed
Manen.  a) There is no way in which either the                 magistrates, and we had better submit to them.
Declaration of Independence or the Constitution                Nebuchadnezzar was a picture of Antichrist, but
can be considered in themselves to be Christian                Shadrach submitted to him. Nero was a monster,
documents. No references at all to God are to be               but Paul submitted to him. Pontius Pilate was a
found in the Constitution; in the Declaration of In-           weak-willed, wishy-washy political opportunist,
dependence are only to be found vague references               but Christ submitted to him. Whether we live in
to divine providence while all mention of the God              Russia, in China, in Nicaragua, or in America, we
of Scripture and of Christ are absent. b) If these             too can only submit  - as citizens of a kingdom
documents are, in any way, to be considered Chris-             which shall endure for ever. It is only a little time
tian, it has to be within the context of the political         that we are strangers in a foreign land.
theories which prevailed in those days. While I do               5) It may be that our tax dollars are used for
not know very much about them, I have read the                 abortions. I know that they are used for similar
Federalist Papers at one time; and, though dif-                heinous purposes: Congressmen use our tax dollars
ferences of political thought undoubtedly prevailed            to support revolution in Nicaragua; Welfare agen-
among the colonists, one outstanding feature of                cies use our tax dollars to support whores who
many political thinkers was their obvious and                  multiply their children in abominable ways so that
undeniable Deism, a horrible heresy, coupled with              they can feed more fully at the public trough; and
a political philosophy developed by such em-                   the list could be lengthened. But Paul's words ring
piricists as John Locke. There were Christian in-              out above all this: "For this cause pay ye tribute
fluences  - who can deny the influence of a man                also, for they are God's ministers, attending con-
like Witherspoon? but the prevailing political                 tinually upon this very thing. Render therefore to
climate was inimical to the truth of Scripture.                all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due;
Mr. Lincoln's description of this country's political          custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear;
system would seem to me to support this conten-                honour to whom honour" (Rom. 13:6, 7). And God
tion: A government "of the people, by the people,              will some day right all wrongs.
and for the people?" Nothing could be more
atheistic than that. A pilgrim and stranger in the               Abortion is a terrible sin. God's judgments rest
earth would be satisfied with nothing less than a         with terrible horror upon a nation which murders
government of God, by God, and for God. c) The                 unborn infants. We must fight this evil with every
revolution of 1776 was rebellion against constituted           means at our disposal. But to resort to rebellion, to
authority, and was, therefore, contrary to the will       fall back upon might and power, to try to right
of God. That God has given to the citizens of             wrongs by means condemned in Scripture, all this
America unparalleled freedom is not because the           will lead only to great sin on our part and make our
form of government is itself Christian. We may not        work, too, an abomination in the sight of God. The
argue back from our freedoms to a Christian begin-        weapons we are called to use are not those of carnal
ning in America.  Time  magazine was right when           warfare. We have the Word. Let us preach the
years ago in an editorial it observed that this coun-     Word. Let us leave the results in the hands of God
try, born in revolution, was still reaping the            Who saves His Church and Who works all things to
harvest. d) To discover what Calvin believed con-         accomplish the goal of the great glory of His most
cerning the implications of submission to authority       h o l y   N a m e .
would be an interesting and profitable study. I have             The spirit of rebellion which prevails among con-
not made it. I do know that Calvin consistently           servative Christians nowadays is a spirit which, if it
warned the French Huguenots against resorting to          infects the Church, will destroy her. Let us walk as
arms in defense of their position; and I know too         citizens of the kingdom of our Lord Christ, and look
that Calvin wrote in the context of a unique relation     forward with uplifted heads to the time when the
between Church and State which is foreign to              kingdoms of this earth shall become the kingdom of
American political thought and which, apparently,         our God and of His Christ, and He shall reign
Mr.  VanManen does not want either.                       forever and ever.
                                                          i                                                           I
  4) Finally, much of this is beside the point. Even            Give a gift of the Standard Bearer
if we granted all Mr. VanManen's arguments con-
cerning the origin of the political system to which               to a friend or relative today!
we are heirs, Scripture makes it very clear that we       I                                                           1


I    60                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


     GUIDED INTO ALL TRUTH
     Thomas C. Miersma





                           Scripture Interprets Scripture:
                                                     Spiritually


           The historical-grammatical approach to Scripture        aspects of Bible study, on the historical and gram-
     we have been considering sets before us certain               matical principles. The third principle is that Scrip-
     principles for arriving at the meaning of the Word            ture interprets Scripture spiritually. This principle
     of God by allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture.          is the fundamental one, the foundation upon which
     The principles we have considered  are by their               the others rest, and was to the Reformers the cen-
     very nature somewhat general. Scripture, while it is          tral one.
     one Word  of' God, is at the same time rich and                 We have in part considered this principle in all
     diverse. The Scriptures contain parables, visions,            that we have said concerning the Reformers' ap-
     psalms, symbols, types, and other' elements which             proach to the Word of God. It is rooted in the truth
     are all to be approached in the light of the general          that in the study of God's Word we are taught of
     principles we have considered.                                God, by His Spirit in our hearts. Formally this prin-
           These general principles however must be prop-          ciple means that the Holy Spirit interprets His own
     erly and carefully applied in harmony with the                writings as one unified Word of God, given us by
     particular nature of the passage we are studying.             the Spirit of Christ and pointing us to Christ. The
     Parables must be treated as one whole, as they                significance of this for our Bible study is very com-
     follow the lines of an extended figure of speech.             .prehensive,  but there are certain elements which it
     The meaning of types and symbols, and the fact                may well hold before our minds. The spiritual unity
     that they are types and symbols must be deter-                of that Word of God means that Scripture does not
     mined by careful study, comparing Scripture with              contradict itself. It has but one Author. Clearer
     Scripture. The basic principles of interpretation             passages of the Word of God explain more difficult
     which we have considered need to be applied                   and less readily understood passages. This spiritual
     therefore with wisdom, prudence, and flexibility. It          unity is greater than the unity of its history, as the
     is exactly the careful and sound spiritual judgment           unfolding of God's revelation to us, and greater
     displayed by the Reformers in their application of            than its grammatical unity in the meaning of words
     these principles which makes their commentaries               and phrases. It is rooted in the purpose of the Word
     of abiding value, particularly those of John Calvin.          of God which is to reveal God as the God of our
           It is not our intention to pursue these matters fur-    salvation in Christ. It is characterized by a unity of
     ther in a consideration of their specific application         the truth. This one Word of truth must be ap-
     to the special problems of interpreting types,                propriated and studied by faith.
     parables, etc. For those interested in pursuing such            This spiritual oneness of the Word of God means
     a study, our seminary has available a syllabus on             that underlying the study of the history, context,
     hermeneutics which is recommended for further                 words, and grammar in our Bible study lies a
     study. In our consideration of the Reformers' prin-           deeper principle: the unity of the truth. The doc-
     ciples of scriptural interpretation however, we               trines, truths, and concepts of Scripture are not at
     have concentrated our attention on the mechanical             war with one another but form an essential unity
                                                                   which is spiritual in character and which can only
     Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        be understood by faith, in the Spirit. Not only must
     Church in Edmontorz,  Alberta, Callada.                       the scriptural uses of words and phrases be studied


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         61



     and their grammatical relationships, but the truths          take up the truth of the spiritual principle of inter-
     and doctrines, the content of the Scriptures, must           pretation which undergirds it and approach Bible
     be studied and compared with one another, so that            study merely from the principle that I have faith
     our study consists of comparing spiritual things             and God's Word and the anointing of the Spirit, and
     with spiritual, with that wisdom which is not of             therefore I need not labor or study or have any
     this world but which is taught of the Holy Spirit (I         knowledge of doctrine, Scripture, or the faith of the
     Corinthians  2:13). Such study belongs to the office         churches of which I am a member, out of the false
     of believer and to the anointing of the child of God         idea that after all the Spirit will teach me, apart
     with the Spirit of Christ to understand God's Word.          from the means which he has appointed. We may
     It is done prayerfully and reverently with a willing-        not adopt the attitude that I may simply open my
     ness to submit ourselves to the Word of God.                 Bible and read, and immediately and intuitively
       This principle that Scripture interprets Scripture         understand it without effort and without
     first of all spiritually, and that it is thus that we are    knowledge. Such a subjective, mystical approach to
     to labor with the Word of God, means that we                 Bible study (for that is what such thinking is) is
     know our Bibles well and our doctrine well. We ap-           neither biblical nor Reformed. It reduces Bible
     proach the Word of God not only by faith but with            study in our society life as churches to mere
     the content of our faith before our mind and heart.          opinion-swapping, opinions without foundation.
     We study God's Word in the light of that which we                 Because we are dependent upon the illuminating
     have been taught and have learned as children of             work of the Holy Spirit rightly to understand God's
     God. In such study of God's Word, our confessions            Word, to teach us and to impart to us wisdom,
     also serve a useful and important place. They are            knowledge, and understanding of mind and heart;
     the expression of the content of our faith, the ex-          we also have the calling to worship Him in His
     pression of the work of the Spirit of truth in the           divine work within us, reverence that work, and to
     church, and give to us in brief and clear form a             do so by taking heed to His Word with faithful and
     statement of that spiritual unity and truth of God's         diligent Bible study and prayer. We would no
     Word which forms the unity of Scripture. It is for           doubt. be horrified and offended if our minister on
     this reason that we sometimes say that a Reformed            the Lord's Day simply walked  into. the pulpit,
     man approaches Scripture through the confessions,            decided on a text to preach while we were singing,
     and by way of the three forms of unity. By this is           thumped down his Bible, opened it, and began to
     not meant that the confessions stand above Scrip-            preach without any preparation, labor, or consider-
     ture, but rather that they are a means to set before         ation. To do so would be dishonoring to God and an
     us the content of our faith and the unity of God's           offense to the church of Christ. To do so on the
     Word of truth and therefore serve to lead and guide          basis of the office to which he is called or on the
     our study of God's Word in harmony with its truth            basis of the inward working of the Spirit in that of-
     as a whole.                                                  fice, would be a corruption of that office and of the
       This means that we also take the time to know              working of the Spirit. Is it any different for one
     our  confes,sions, both the three forms of unity and
     our minor confessions, the forms for Baptism, the                                            .;,.  II  r
                                                                  " `~`1 ,+, ;, ..Z"*. :.,r`,: `:"p,`;' 1
     Lord's Supper, etc. We also use them in our Bible
     study as a guide and tool. Moreover it means that                                                                          ,
     we are busy studying the doctrine and truth of
     God's Word and our unique Protestant Reformed
     heritage, as well as being engaged in direct Bible                                                          ._I     ._
     study. In that Reformed doctrine we find a rule or
     standard to guide our study of the Word of God. By
     it we will better understand the place of a passage in
     the whole of Scripture and its meaning. Likewise,
     by continually testing that standard against the
     higher standard of Scripture itself, we will also
     develop in our understanding of the truth of God's
     Word and enrich our Reformed heritage.
       As the mere mechanical aspects of Bible study,
     the historical-grammatical aspects, are insufficient
     by themselves, so also the principle of the spiritual'
     interpretation of Scripture is insufficient without
     them. We may not reduce Bible study to a mere
     mechanical method of interpretation. Nor may we


L


62                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



holding the office of believer to do essentially the              laboring with God's Word as believers, that it might
same thing by showing up unprepared when the                      truly'be a lamp unto our feet and a light upon the
church gathers for Bible study in its society                     pathway of our life. We mortify the excuses of our
meetings? How easily do we not fall into exactly                  sinful flesh which say, "I am too tired, I am not a
this same irreverent pattern of conduct, this same                reader, I am unlearned, I don't have time." We put
irreverent attitude toward God's Word and the                     away from us also ". . . the instruction that causeth
working of His Spirit?                                            to err from the words of knowledge" (Proverbs
      That Scripture interprets Scripture spiritually             19:27), this world's amusements, books, television,
means that we also with an attitude of reverent and               and entertainments, and take time to study the
holy awe take up God's Word, study it constantly                  Scriptures  ". . . which are able to make thee wise
and faithfully, as the most used book in our home,                unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
and do so with a sincere regard for its divine                    Jesus" (II Timothy 3:15). For in the Word of God is
author. Moreover it means that we do so with all                  to be found spiritual wisdom and the knowledge of
the talents, gifts, and abilities God has given us,               God which is eternal life.
FAITH OF OUR FATHERS
James D. Slopsema





                                       The Baptism Form -
                              A Prayer For Our Children



      Having instructed us in the meaning of baptism                 beseech thee, that Thou wilt be pleased of thine in-
and establishing the necessity of infant baptism,                    finite mercy, graciously to look upon these children,
the baptism form now proceeds to lead us in                          and incorporate them by thy Holy Spirit, into thy Son
prayer.                                                              Jesus Christ, that they may be buried with him in
                                                                     newness of life; that they may daily follow him,
      The prayer of the baptism form, along with the                 joyfully bearing their cross, cleave to him in true faith,
introductory exhortation to prayer, is as follows:                   firm hope, and ardent love; that they may, with a
         That therefore this holy ordinance of God may be            comfortable sense of thy favor, leave this life, which is
       administered to his glory, to our comfort, and to the         nothing but a continual death, and at the last day, may
       edification of his church, let us call upon his holy          appear without terror before the judgment seat of
       name.                                                         Christ thy Son, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
                                                                     with thee and the Holy Ghost, the one only God lives
                              PRAYER                                 and reigns forever. Amen.
         0 Almighty and eternal God, Thou, who hast accord-         We notice in the introductory paragraph of ex-
       ing to thy severe judgment punished the unbelieving        hortation the purpose of this prayer. The purpose
       and unrepentant world with the flood, and hast ac-         of this prayer is that "this holy ordinance of God
       cording to thy great mercy saved and protected believ-     may be administered to his glory, to our comfort,
       ing Noah and his family; Thou, who hast drowned the        and to the edification of his church." This is con-
       obstinate Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, and
       hast led thy people Israel through the midst of the Sea    trasted with the warning given to parents im-
       on dry ground, by which baptism was signified - we         mediately after the prayer. There parents are
                                                                  warned against using baptism out of custom or
James D. Slopsema is pastor of the Protestant Reformed            superstition. To avoid such a misuse of baptism and
Church of Randolph,  Wisconsin.                                   to facilitate its proper use, the baptism form leads


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                              63



the congregation in prayer just prior to the ad-         tion, God destroyed Egypt through the ten terrible
ministration of baptism itself.                          plagues and the drowning of Pharaoh and his hosts
  A brief analysis of this prayer reveals that its       in the Red Sea.
basic concern and request is that God graciously in-        The second element that both these types have in
corporate our children into Jesus Christ that they       common is that in both instances the church was
may walk in newness of life. This is a very appro-       saved by water. The church in Noah's day was
priate prayer, since this is the essence of baptism      saved by the waters of the flood. The church in
itself. Baptism is the sacrament of incorporation in-    bondage in Egypt was saved by the waters of the
to Jesus Christ and all His blessings. What a            Red Sea.
beautiful way, then, to prepare the congregation            The final element that both these types have in
and parents to use baptism for God's glory as well       common is that in both instances the church was
as for the comfort and edification of the church.        brought to a new life. Through the destruction of
  The prayer begins by pointing out the two Old          the world in the flood the church of Noah's day was
Testament types of baptism: the salvation of Noah        brought to a new creation. The Scripture makes
and his family through the flood, and the salvation      very clear that the flood drastically changed the
of Israel under Moses through the Red Sea. By            earth so that Noah stepped out of the ark into a new
these two notable events in the Old Testament            creation. And although sin still clung to Noah and
"baptism was signified."                                 his family, nevertheless, in this new creation they
  This certainly is Scriptural. I Peter  3:20, 21        were able to enjoy a life they never knew before in
speaks of "when once the longsuffering of God            the world that had been filled with violence. The
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was            same was true with Israel when God brought her
a-preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were      out of Egypt. From Egypt God led His church to Ca-
saved by water. The like figure whereunto even           naan where she was able to live a new life as God's
baptism doth also now save us . . . ." According to      covenant people and enjoy the blessings of God as
this passage the destruction of the world by the         never before.
flood and the saving of Noah and his family in the          The spiritual realities to which both of these
ark was certainly a type or picture in the Old Testa-    types point are briefly described for us in Romans
ment of baptism. In I Corinthians  lO:l, 2 we find       6-3, 4, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were
that the same is true of the destruction of Egypt and    baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
the saving of Israel at the Red Sea. There we read,      death? Therefore we are buried with him by bap-
"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be       tism into death: that like as Christ was raised up
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the        from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all      we also should walk in newness of life."
baptized in the cloud and in the sea."                      Now we ought to notice that when this particular
  Both these Old Testament types of baptism have         passage speaks of baptism, it is not referring to the
essentially the same elements.                           sacrament of baptism by the church but to the
  In both instances, for example, the church was         spiritual reality symbolized in baptism, viz., incor-
saved from certain destruction through God's judg-       poration into Jesus Christ. Notice, that this passage
ment on and destruction of the world. In the case of     speaks of being "baptized into Jesus Christ." The
Noah the church was in great peril of being              word translated "baptize" really means "to im-
swallowed up by the world. Through persecution           merse." This idea of immersion has been wrongly
and world amalgamation the church in Noah's day          applied by the Baptists to the mode of baptism.
had dwindled to merely eight souls. Were the             They claim that immersion is the only proper way
world allowed to continue, the church would soon         for baptism to be administered. Rather than apply-
have been swallowed up. Hence, God saved the             ing to the mode of baptism, the idea of immersion
church by destroying the world in the flood. It is       applies rather to the spiritual realities depicted in
customary to think of Noah being saved from the          baptism. The sacrament of baptism is a sign and
flood by the ark. However, the passage we have           seal of being immersed into Jesus Christ, or, if you
cited from I Peter 3:20, 21 has a different emphasis.    will, of incorporation into Christ. This certainly is
There we read that Noah and his family were saved        the thrust of the expression "baptized into Christ."
in the ark by the waters of the flood. You have the        The spiritual reality of being baptized into Christ
same idea also with the deliverance of Israel at the     is further explained in Romans 6:3, 4 as being bap-
Red Sea. For approximately 400 years Israel had          tized or immersed into Christ's death and resurrec-
been in bondage in Egypt. At the instigation of the      tion.
devil Egypt sought to destroy Israel. To save              When we are baptized into Christ we are first
Israel, which was His church, from certain destruc-      baptized into His death. To be baptized into


64                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



Christ's death means -to become one with Christ in           both Noah and Israel were saved by God through
His death. It means to be crucified with Christ so           water to lead new lives in His service and fellow-
that our old sinful nature is destroyed. And this is         ship. Noah was delivered from a world of violence
of extreme importance. For, so long as our corrupt           to lead a new life in the new creation after the
nature lives, the devil and the powers of darkness           flood. Israel was delivered from Egypt's power to
are able to control us. The devil very cleverly ex-          lead a new life in Canaan.
cites the evil lusts of our sinful flesh so that we are        Having called our attention to these two great
led time and again into sin and ultimately to                types of baptism, the baptism form in its prayer
destruction. But being baptized. into the death of           leads us to ask that God in His grace and mercy
Christ, this old sinful nature of ours is crucified          make all these things living realities in the lives of
with Christ. At the cross, our evil nature was prin-         our baptized children, This certainly is the request
cipally destroyed and with it the power of the devil         we make when we are led to pray, "we beseech
to lead us to destruction. Being baptized into Christ,       thee, that thou wilt be pleased of thine infinite mer-
we are safe from all the attempts of the powers of           cy, graciously to look upon these children, and in-
destruction to consume us.                                   corporate them by thy Holy Spirit, into thy Son
      This is the spiritual reality depicted in the          Jesus Christ, that they may be buried with him into
destruction of the world in Noah's day as well as            his death, and be raised with him in newness of
the destruction of Egypt at the Red Sea. Even as             life."
God twice by water destroyed the world and its                 What follows in this prayer is a development of
ability to destroy the church, so does He by the             what the new life is that we seek for our children.
blood of the cross forever destroy the power of the          We are led to pray that our children may daily
forces of darkness to lead His church to destruction         follow Jesus; that they joyfully bear their cross; that
and ruin.                                                    they cleave to Christ in true faith, firm hope, and
      The positive truth implied in our being baptized       ardent love. This is very simply what it means to
into Jesus Christ is that we are baptized into His           live in newness of life in the power of the cross.
resurrection. To be baptized into Christ's resurrec-           Finally, the form leads us to pray that our
tion means to be one with Him in His resurrection            children may leave this life with a comfortable
so that we are risen with Him into newness of life.          sense of Gods favor and at the last day appear
Of this we read in Romans  6:5, "For if we have              before the judgment seat of Christ without terror.
been planted together into the likeness of his death,        This is the fruit of walking in newness of life. Those
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."       who in the power of the cross daily follow Christ,
And again in verse 8 we read, "Now if we be dead             joyfully bear their cross, and cling to him need not
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with         fear the day of judgment. They can rather leave this
him."                                                        life through death in peace and can in confidence
      Now to be risen with Christ means to be raised         stand before the judgment seat of Christ knowing
up to a new life of obedience and service in the             that great is their reward in heaven.
power of Jesus' own resurrection. It means to be                For all this we pray when we are led in prayer by
born again in the power of the resurrection unto the         our baptism form. When baptism is administered
new life of fellowship and communion with the                according to this form, let us one and all utter this
ever blessed God.                                            prayer with a sincere heart that baptism may be ad-
      This spiritual reality also was depicted in the two    ministered to Gods glory, to our comfort, and to
great types of baptism in the Old Testament. For             the edification of Christ's church.



                        During this busy Fall season
           we need to make time to read and study
                                 the Standard Bearer.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   65



                        "Good Morning, Alice" (13)
                                                    Gise J. Van Baren





   It had now become a question of allowing Alice              letters of the alphabet - the top row contained the
slowly to starve to death - or undergo the rigor of            five vowels. Alice would nod "yes" or "no" as one
surgery, with its attendant dangers, to provide an             pointed to each row. Next, the specific letter of that
opening directly into her stomach. Alice was not               row was chosen. The process was a bit slow - but
able to decide. The family debated the pros and                effective. Alice became quite good at this. She
cons, and finally decided on the surgery. It would             would usually spell out a key word - and the fami-
alleviate the choking spells that developed when               ly could quickly fill in the rest.
she tried to eat, and would make her more comfort-             Good Morning Alice:
able during her remaining life. One thing: the
surgery would have to be scheduled the week of                   I really don't know why, but I'm having trouble put-
Thanksgiving of 1981. Thanksgiving was always                  ting my thoughts about this verse down on paper. Read
much of a family-time  - especially for Alice who              I Pet. 3:8 again and ask yourself if you love all the
would usually spend it in the home of one of the               fellow believers in the Lord as you should and maybe
relatives. Nevertheless, plans were made to have               you will see what I mean. I'm going to think more
the surgery.                                                   about it and write tomorrow (I hope).
Good Morning, Alice:                                                                             With love, Your friend
  I've always been kind of mixed up in my feelings                Alice went to the hospital on November 22, 1981.
about the account of May and Martha. I always felt a           The surgery was successful and recuperation went
little sorry for Martha - she too served her Lord to the       quite well under the circumstances. Members of
best of her ability.                                           the family stayed with Alice on a 24-hour basis,
                                                               especially to help her when communication was
  I can believe though, that the good part, the part that      necessary. Alice could not push any button to call
cannot be taken away is the "hearing" of God's Word.           the nurse, nor could she call loudly enough for any
We can believe, and be a true child of God, and yet con-       to hear her. She also found it impossible to convey
centrate so much on what we must do that we take lit-          to a nurse her need since she could not speak words
tle time to spend quietly alone with God in reading            anymore  - or at least not clearly enough for
Scripture and in prayer.                                       anyone to understand them. So, a family member
  That is the part that is needful. Not to belittle the        would serve as intermediary between Alice and the
good deeds we must do, but without "sitting at Jesus'          staff.
feet, " and hearing His Word, we will not be nourished         Good Morning Alice:
to continue in our lives of service to Him..                     Have you thought more about the last verse I asked
  May our God give us grace to desire the good part,           you to read? Do you see why I have trouble with it? Oh,
and to know that that part shall never be taken away           it's easy enough to say, "Yes, I have compassion on
from 14s.                                                      other Christians," and say, "I love them," but when it
                                    With love, Your friend     comes right down to it - Do I?
Please read I Peter 3:8                                          Too often I grumble either to myself or aloud if others
  Other means had to be found to communicate                   aren't just the way I think they should be, or do the
with Alice too. Alice's expressive eyes, the nod of            things I think they should.
her head (the only part of her body she could move               It has been good for me to look at this verse and ex-
much anymore), or' the guttural sounds were no                 amine myself. I know the answer is in the verse; it says,
longer enough to convey to us what she wanted.                 "`Be ye all of one mind. " But how do we do that?
She knew what she wanted - her mind was always                   I guess the best way is to remember that we are such
actively working. Finally, the practice of others              sinners ourselves, and yet Christ loved us enough to die
with similar communication problems was                        for us. Knowing Christ died for the other Christians just
adopted. A large card was used with five rows of               as He did for me, and knowing the Holy Spirit dwells in
Gise J. Van' Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed        his heart, how dare I not love him?
Church of Hudsonville, Michigan.                                 If God looks upon His children through the shed


66                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



blood of Christ, then surely I must love them.                                       In Him for Whom we wait, Your friend
      I hope I can more and more guard my mind against          Galatians 5:13-14
speaking and thinking bad of others, be of one mind                    Now the cards really came flooding in  -
with them and love them.                                        especially from the Grand Rapids' area and from Il-
                                     With love, Your friend     linois. Perhaps Alice enjoyed best of all the little
Please read Matthew 25:34                                       notes sent from the lower class of the Christian
                                                                grade school in South Holland. The childish expres-
      But everything did not always go the way Alice            sions were simple but very precious to her. The
wanted in the hospital. On a regular basis,                     hospital room, too, began to resemble a florist shop.
medicated air would be forced into her lungs to pre-            Finally, a list had to be made identifying each new
vent pneumonia. On several occasions, suctioning                plant and its sender  - because Alice insisted that
of her lungs was required  - since she could not                each visitor must know who sent what plant. And
cough up anything. It's a miserable experience at               Alice's "friend" began writing her anonymous
best, but Alice simply detested it. On one occasion,            notes at this time. Nothing piqued her curiosity
a male technician decided it was necessary again.               more, nor gave greater comfort than these notes.
Alice did not think so  - and her eyes clearly in-              She began to anticipate their coming each day. It
dicated that she refused to have it done. She had no            gave her something to think of other than her own
appreciation for this particular person anyway  -               current problems.
and had prior experience with what appeared to be
his incompetence. Now he came to force medicated                Good Morning Alice:
air into her lungs - and didn't do it very gently or              Do you remember I told you I'd look up Rev. J. Heys'
properly. Just before he left, he suddenly decided              explanation of liberty? I could never understand how
that suctioning of her lungs was also necessary. The            having to obey the ten commandments meant we had
tube was rather quickly and roughly shoved into                 liberty or freedom until he explained it this way. Gala-
her lungs. While Alice continued to protest feebly,             tians 5:13-14 explains it and Rev. Hey.? diagrams
he did this several times. Then he left. Alice was              make it clearer.
furious. Even though she now was having difficulty                     God created Adam able not to sin. He was in liber-
with coughing and choking as a result of this suc-              ty:
tioning, she indicated her wish to use her spelling                                       r-ziGiJ  .
card. Slowly, amid considerable coughing, she                                             pizzj
spelled out: s-u-c-k-e-r g-u-y!                                                           L-J
                                                                                          freedom
Good Morning A'lice:                                              Adam fell into sin, was cursed and was not able not
      There is just somuch we don't know about heaven,          to sin:
isn't there? This text, of course, is about the final judg-                                      pzq
ment when Christ returns. I am sure this cannot be too
far in the future. It's with mixed emotions that I look at                                0
my younger children and think: will they ever marry
and have children, or will Christ return before that?                  As redeemed in Christ, Adam was called unto liber-
      Something Rev. Heys once said I will never forget.        ty, and in his new man was not able to sin:
He said we should desire nothing more than the im-                        rT5q-j
mediate return of our Lord.                                                               curse
      I was pregnant at that time and I really wanted that                                                Christ
baby. I guess that's why this sticks in my mind.                                          w
      Every once in a while I ask myself: Am I living as if               1 freedom  1
that is my first desire? Do others know - can they tell
by my attitude and actions - that this is my first desire?             The law of liberty is in keeping the ten command-
Always, I fall so far short!                                    men ts:                     \            1          /
      I've gotten far from the text. I really just wanted to                                     Liberty                 . commandments
ask if you can imagine the joy we will have when our
struggle is over and our Lord says to us, "Come ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. "                                                                                  \      wrath
                                                                                                 Favor                        bondage
      My place of joy in His Presence was made ready for                                         Life
me since before the world began. What am I doing to                                                                      \      death
                                                                                                 Freedom                          hell
prepare myself for that place?                                                                       \         \


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                67



  In keeping the commandments, we experience God's           Knowing all this should make it all the more a joy for
favor and life. Outside of that liberty, breaking God's    us to obey God's commands as, called unto that liberty,
commandments we would only experience wrath, bon-          we desire to continue in His joy and peace and.freedom.
dage, death and hell.                                                                   In His Liberty, Your friend
                                                           Please read John 15:26-27

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE
Herman Veldman


                                                                                                         .,




                               The Apostles' Creed (8)



  We read in the first article of our Apostles'            Does not the child of God here express his faith in
Creed: "I believe in God the Father, Almighty,             God, Almighty? Hence, He is our Father. But ac-
Maker of heaven and earth." In our preceding arti-         cording to Scripture God is our Father only for Jesus'
cle we called attention to the relation between            sake. That we are God's children is only because of
God's counsel and the creation of the world. That          our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Catechism, there-
this.connection  exists lies in the nature of the case.    fore, declares concerning this first article of the
This first article of the Apostles' Creed speaks of        Apostles' Creed that to believe in God the Father,
our faith in this heavenly Father Who is the Maker         Almighty, means that He is the eternal Father of
of heaven and earth. Of course, this divine Creator        our Lord Jesus Christ, then this instruction of our
created all things according to His divine plan.           catechism instructor is certainly proper and cor-
Does not even an earthly builder have a plan before        rect.
he builds a house? Do not the Scriptures speak of             God Almighty, our Father, is the Father of our
God as a Maker or Architect and Builder? When              Lord Jesus Christ. We must understand the thrust
our Heidelberg Catechism, in Answer 26, speaks of          of this article in our Apostles' Creed and, therefore,
God's eternal counsel as implied in this article of        also of this Lord's Day (9) which explains it.
our Apostles' Creed, it is surely absolutely correct.      Discussing Lord's Day 9 and the first article of the
And we noted that this counsel of God is eternal           Apostles' Creed it would surely be an error to em-
and all-comprehensive. However, there is much              phasize and dwell at length upon God's work of
more in this first article.                                creation. Of course, it is well to understand that
  Indeed, "I believe in God the Father, Almighty,          God is almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, that
Maker of heaven and earth." So God, we read, is            He, as the Heidelberg Catechism expresses it, of
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - this appears         nothing made heaven and earth. However, the em-
in the Heidelberg Catechism's explanation of the           phasis here does not fall upon the Lord's creation of
first article in Answer 26 of Lord's Day 9, which          the world. We may well bear in mind that the
reads: "That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus          theory of evolution is relatively new and was sim-
Christ . .  ." Is this explanation far-fetched on the      ply unknown when these creeds, the Apostles'
part of our Catechism? Does not the Catechism              Creed and the Heidelberg Catechism, were com-
place an interpretation upon the first article of our      posed. What receives the emphasis here is the
Apostles' Creed which is really not implied in that        Fatherhood  .of God. The emphasis does not fall
first article? And the answer is: absolutely not!          upon creation here but upon the Creator. Our at-
                                                           tention is called to creation because this creation
Herman Veldman is a minister emeritus in the Protestant    reveals God to us, and it reveals God to us as our
Reformed Churches.                                         almighty Father. And let us understand: that the


68                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



creation reveals God to us as our almighty Father            Christ. It speaks furthermore of a Fatherhood of
Who upholds all things and therefore also created            God with respect to creation. And it also finally
all things according to His eternal counsel, is possi-       speaks of a Fatherhood of God in relation to His
ble only as an object of faith. This is what we say in       people, the believers. And what is this distinction?
the first article: "I  believe  in God, the Father, etc."    The Fatherhood of God in relation to the eternal
This confidence can never be the fruit  ,merely of           Son is a relationship between the first two Persons
our natural understanding. We can never prove the            of the Trinity, the Father and the Son. And the
divine Creator from creation itself. We can never            Fatherhood of God in relation to the Lord Jesus
prove, logically, the Godhead from the things that           Christ in His human nature, to creation, and to the
have been made. These attempts have been made.               believers is a Fatherhood of God as the Triune God.
We need not discuss these theories now. They do              This is fundamental and very important. To avoid
have value, to be sure, but only to and for the              the evil of modernism, we must surely distinguish
Christian. How could the natural mind ever reach             between the eternal Sonship  of the Son of God and
out to establish the divine Creator? How can the             the  sonship  of the believers. The former is a rela-
finite prove the Infinite? How can the creature              tion within the Trinity itself; the latter is a relation
prove the existence of God? The finite can never             of the Triune God to the creature outside of Him.
reach out to the Infinite; the creature must remain          The former is a relation between two Persons of the
within the limits, confines, of the creature.                Trinity; the latter is a relation between the living
      Besides, we surely, cannot conclude from what          God, as subsisting in three Persons, and the
we see and experience that God is our almighty               creature formed by His will and power. The former
Father, Who, according to His eternal counsel, pro-          is an eternal relation; the latter is called into being
vides us with all things necessary for soul and body         in time. The former may be called a natural,
and makes whatever evils He sends us in the valley           necessary relation of God, the latter is rooted in
of tears turn out to our advantage. Mind you, He             God's sovereign counsel and will. Even when we
sends us all this misery. So, in the midst of all this       quote passages from the Word of God, such as
misery, all this sorrow and grief and death, God is          Psalm 2:7, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath
our almighty Father Who always loves us, always              said unto me, Thou art My Son; this day have I
provides us with every good thing, causes all things         begotten thee, " we must be careful that we simply
to work together for our good. He is leading us into         do not quote this passage as referring to the eternal
everlasting and heavenly glory? But we cannot see            generation of the Son. The late Rev. H. Hoeksema
this glory. All we see and can see is sorrow, misery,        explains this very clearly in his explanation of this
and death. God loves us, would have us live, and             ninth Lords Day in his The Triple KnowZedge. There
causes us to die? This is something we must                  is a Fatherhood of God in relation to the eternal
believe, and faith here is surely the substance of           Son, and this refers to the eternal relation within
things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.          the Trinity between the two Persons of the Father
                                                             and the Son. But there is also a Fatherhood of God
      God is our Father. The fundamental idea of             in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ, as in His
fatherhood is not love. The fundamental idea of              human nature, and this is a Fatherhood of God as
fatherhood is that of origin, of begetting. That             the Triune God.
someone is my father means that I am of him, that
he has begotten me.                                            Let us look a moment at Psalm  2:7. There are
                                                             those who explain this text as referring to the eter-
      God, now, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.      nal generation of the Son. Do we not read here:
Here we must distinguish sharply. There are those            "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art My Son:
who contend that the first article of the Apostles'          this day have I begotten thee"? And although it is
Creed speaks only of the First Person of the Holy            true that the Church has quoted this text in support
Trinity, that only the First Person is the Creator of        of the eternal generation of the Son, and surely cor-
heaven and earth, and that only the First Person is          rectly, yet we must bear in mind that this text does
the Father of the believers, so that when we ad-             not refer exclusively to the eternal generation of the
dress "Our Father" in the Lord's Prayer, we are ad-          Son; in fact, it does not even refer to this eternal
dressing the First Person of the Trinity only. This          generation in the first place.
cannot be the meaning of the first article in the
Apostles' Creed, and this cannot be the correct                We must call attention to the following. In the
presentation of our confession in the ninth Lord's           first place, we read here of the decree. We read: "I
Day. Indeed, we must distinguish sharply. To be              will declare the decree." So the Lord here declares
sure, the Scriptures speak of the Fatherhood of God          His decree, His eternal counsel and will. It is accord-
in more than one sense. It speaks of a Fatherhood            ing to His eternal decree that the Lord hath said
of God in relation to the eternal Son. It also speaks        unto Me: "Thou art My son; this day have I begot-
of a Fatherhood of God in relation to our Lord Jesus         ten thee." However, the eternal Son is God's  eter-


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             69



nal Son, not by virtue of this decree, but because of         too, what we read in Acts  13:32-33, in the sermon
the eternal generation of the Father within the               Paul preached at Antioch in Pisidia on his first mis-
Trinity. We may conclude immediately that this                sionary journey. And now notice how Psalm 2 is
text does not refer exclusively, not even in the first        quoted here. First, the reference is very clearly to
place, to the eternal generation of the Son. Second-          our Lord Jesus Christ as according to His human
ly, the text refers in the first place, not to Christ, but    nature. Do we not read in Acts  4:27 of "Thy holy
to David. This is surely the historical background of         child, Jesus"? These words surely refer to our Lord
this word of God. What we read in the verses  l-3             Jesus Christ according to His human nature. And in
refers, first of all, to David. And what we read in           Acts 13:32-33 the words of Psalm 2:7 are quoted as
verse 6 surely refers to David. David is he who has           fulfilled. It was then that God begat Him ,to be King
been set by God upon God's holy hill of Zion.                 forever upon and over Zion. The resurrection was
Nevertheless, in the third place, the text refers             the beginning of that exaltation which was finished
primarily to the Lord Jesus Christ. David is meant            when Christ was exalted in the right hand of God in
in this text only as a type. This is obvious from the         glory. And the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ
psalm itself. How can Psalm 2 refer exclusively or            was surely accomplished in Christ in His human
even principally to David? Does verse 8 speak of              nature.
something that was fulfilled by David? Does David               So God, God Triune, is indeed the Father of our
receive the uttermost parts of the earth for his              Lord Jesus Christ. God has begotten Him, raised
possession? How can the last verse: "Kiss the Son,            Him up from the dead, glorified Him at His own
lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way . . ."           right hand. But Jesus suffered and died for all the
be explained as being fulfilled in a mere man? In-            sins of His own. God is, therefore, His Father and
deed, David is meant here only as a type. However,            our Father, only for Jesus' sake. Of that Fatherhood
this is abundantly clear when you notice the New              of God, of Christ Jesus, and also of His own, this
Testament passages in which the words of this                 ninth Lord's Day speaks. And of this the first article
psalm are quoted. There is probably no psalm                  of our Apostles' Creed also speaks: "I believe in
quoted as often in the New Testament as Psalm 2.              God, the Father, our Father because He is Christ's
Notice what we read in Acts  4:24-28.  In these               Father." The Lord willing, we will continue with
words we have the prayer of the Church upon the               this in our following article.
release of the apostles by the Sanhedrin. Notice,

ALL AROUND US
Robert D. Decker




                                       Who's Fiddling?


   The big issue facing the evangelical church today          with the Scriptures in order to make them teach
is that of Holy Scripture. Is the Bible the inspired,         that women may serve in church office. An illustra-
infallible Word of God before which all must bow              tion of this may be found in the October 3, 1986
in humble faith? Or is the Bible, a collection of             issue of Christianity Today. Although the articles get
culturally conditioned, time-bound writings of men            into some rather technical details of hermeneutics
which may or may not be binding upon all peoples              and exegesis, we think the readers can follow them.
in every age and culture? Nowhere is this point               Walter Kaiser Jr., a professor of Old Testament at
more apparent than in the current discussion                  Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, writes:
among evangelicals concerning the role of women                     Like Tevye in  Fiddler on  the Roof,  many evangelicals
in God's church. In order to find biblical justifica-             support maIe authority in the church because "we've
tion for women serving in the offices of elder,                   always done it that way." They have deferred to tradi-
deacon, or minister, one has to make the Bible say                tion rather than take Scripture at face value. As a
precisely what it does not say. One has to "fiddle"               result, great numbers of women have been unable to
                                                                  use their gifts in service to the church."


70                                                          THE STANDARD  .BEARER



      It ought to be noted at this point that the question                   verse 12 follow and are subordinate to it. But the prob-
involves women in church office. Women are for-                              lem is that few pause to listen for the reasons given
bidden to serve in church office. They are exhorted                          in verses 13 and 14 where Paul tells us why he
to use their gifts in service to the church in many                          "would rather not permit a woman to teach or exer-
other ways. Women are saved in childbearing.                                cise authority." It is mainly because Eve had been
They may teach Sunday School classes or in the                              tricked, deceived, and easily entrapped (v. 14).
Christian Day Schools. They must teach their                                   But how could Eve so easily have been duped
children and rule them too. Older women must                                unless she previously had been untaught? Adam had
teacher younger women in the church. Widows                                 walked and talked with God in the Garden during that
have a significant calling in the church, (cf. Epistle                      sixth "day," thus he had had the educational and
to Titus). But nowhere does Scripture allow women                           spiritual advantage of being "formed first"  Iv. 13).
                                                                            T h e   v e r b   i s   plasso,   " t o   f o r m ,   m o l d ,   s h a p e "
to serve in church office. Kaiser continues:                                (presumably in spiritual education] not, "created
              Where in Scripture have we fiddled with the mean-             first" [which in Greek is ktizo). Paul's argument, then,
       ing of the text? First, let's take I Corinthians  11:lO:             is based on the "orders of education," not the "orders
       "For this cause ought the woman to have power on                     of creation."
       her head because of the angels." Since the days of the                  Thus, when the women have been taught, the con-
       gnostic heretic Valentinus (d. A.D.  1601,  the church               ditions raised in the "because," or "for" clauses (vv.
       has incorrectly agreed. with him on insisting that the                13, 14) will have been met and the ban removed even
       "power" or "[active) authority" placed on the head of                as the Bible illustrates in the lives of Miriam,
       a woman by our Lord be revised to read a "veil,"                     Deborah, Huldah, evangelist Philip's daughters,
       substituting the Coptic ouershoun,  "veil," for the prop-            Phoebe, Priscilla, Junias, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis,
       er word  ouershishe,  "power, authority." Almost                     Euodia and Syntyche. Joel  228-29  bluntly tells us
       every modern translation perpetuates this gnostic                    such a day was coming, and Psalm 68: 11 enthuses,
       myth in verse 11, saying, "a veil which is the sign of               "The Lord gives the command; the women who pro-
      authority." However, God has given a unique sphere                    claim the good tidings are a great host" (NASB) ._ . . .
       of  au&ority  to-women; not a veil nor even a sign! This            If Kaiser's exegesis of these passages is correct
      is straightforward exposition; all else is oral tradition.         (and it is decidedly in error!), we have some ques-
             The second text is I Corinthians  14:33b-36:
       I,                                                                tions. Why did not Jesus have a woman or two
             . . . women should remain silent in the churches . . .      among the 12 disciples? Why was not at least one
      as the law says." Some are willing to risk Paul con-               woman chosen to be an apostle or inspired to write
      tradicting himself by forbidding women to do exactly
      what he had given permission for them to do in I Cor-              a portion of the New Testament? Why does Paul in
      inthians  11:5:   ". . . every woman that prayeth or               the Epistles to Timothy and Titus speak only of
      prophesieth . . .`I This price is too high -just to main-          men serving as officebearers in the church? Why
      tain a traditional view of women.                                  from the apostolic era to recent years (nearly 2000
             But the heart of the passage is the Greek term e,           years!) has the church not permitted women office-
      which introduces I Corinthians  14:36. This particle               bearers? Finally what does Kaiser's "fiddling" ex-
      startles us with its vivid forcefulness and its strong             egesis of these passages do to the truths of the
      negative reaction. As J. H. Thayer pointed out in 1889             perspicuity (clarity) of Holy Scripture and the
       [A Greek  Lexicon), e with the grave accent may appear            priesthood of all believers restored to the church by
      "before a sentence contrary to the one preceding                   the 16th century Reformation?
      (it). . .  .`I Therefore, I Corinthians  14:36 is hardly a           In the same issue of  Christianity   Toduy Bruce
      summation of verses  33b-35.  Consequently Paul rejects            Waltke, professor of Old Testament at Westminster
      the quotation of verses 33b-35, apparently cited from
      the Corinthian letter and rabbinic law: "What! Did                 Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (Waltke
      the Word of God originate with you, or were you [men               holds two doctorates, in Greek from Harvard
       = masculine form] the only ones it has reached?"                  University and in Hebrew from Dallas Seminary)
                                                                         writes:
             What irony! The very text that has been used for
      centuries to silence women from joining in the wor-                      "First, the sexes are equal - both individually and
      ship of the church, Paul used to establish their equali-              interdependently  - in bearing the image of God, in
      ty.                                                                   their standing before God, and in their spiritual gifts
             One more sample of the fiddler's work must be                  for service from God. God created man and woman in
      raised for gentle admonition: I Timothy 29-15,  where                 his image. Man's only words before his fall affirms his
      Paul says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or have                  wife as equal and adequate to himself (Gen. 2:18, 23).
      authority over a man; she must be silent" (v. 12, NIV).               All saints are children of God regardless of sexual,
      The imperative verb, however, is in verse 11: "A                      social, or economic differences (Gal.  3:26-29)  . . . If
      woman must be taught . . . .`I The prohibitions cited in              women did not have equal spiritual gifts, there would
                                                                            be no issue.
Robert D. Decker is professor of Practical Theology and                        Second,  husbands authoritatively lead  their wives
New Testament at the Protestant  Reformed Seminary.                         both in the home, the micro-social unit, and in the


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                    71



    church, the macro-social unit . . . As Christ is the Head                  speaking  abotit  either  *ruling.  or teaching when the
    of his church, so the husband is the head of his wife [I                   church officially met.)
    Cor. 11:3) . . . Church government must be consistent                        Third,  the model of servant portrays the manner of
    with the government of the home, for if a woman had                        leadership.  Re-creation in Christ does not seek to
    headship  in the church (the higher institution), of                       remove social hierarchies but to redeem the tarnish of
    necessity she would have headship  in the home. Not                        sin's subordinating drives . . . The Christian symbol of
    surprisingly, the Old Testament (in contrast to other                      hierarchy is not the scepter but the cross. This model
    religions) did not provide for women to become                             of government stands in stark contrast to that of the
    priests who taught the Law. Likewise, Christ, who                          world, where men and women seek self-fulfillment
    was a revolutionary for the equality of women as                           and want to dominate. The Bible offers a better alter-
    God's image, did not appoint women as apostles, and                        native . .
    the apostles did not allow women to rule or teach men
    in the church.                                                         Let us understand this is not just an example of a
                                                                        minor disagreement in hermeneutics and exegesis
      In discussing how people ought to conduct them-
    selves in God's household - the church of the living                between two learned and competent scholars. The
    God  - Paul does "not permit a woman to teach or                    issue is Scripture itself and how we read and under-
    have authority over the man; she must remain silent"                stand the Bible. Is the Bible God's Word and does
    [I Tim.  2:12), not for cultural reasons, but rather                that Word apply to us in our day and age? Does the
    because of the unchanging order of creation, "for                   Bible mean what it says on this issue of women? Of
    Adam was first formed, then Eve," and because of the                course it does.
    historical order of the Fall. His instruction echoed his              Who's "fiddling" with the Biblical, text? Certain-
    earlier ruling that "when you come together  (I Cor.
    14:26)  . . women should remain silent:" [I Cor.                    ly not Waltke and those of us who by grace believe
   .14:34f).  (In I Cor.  11:5-16  Paul makes provision for             that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God
    women to pray and prophesy, but he is not expressly                 (II Tim.  3:16, 17).

                            News From `Our Churches
                                                                 Ben Wigger


  The congregation of our church in Hull, Iowa                          came across an interesting statistic. Someone in
gets together to clean their church. According to the                   First Church raised the possibility that there may
last bulletin, they even serve a noon lunch. It must                    be more teachers attending First Church than any
be quite an event lasting all day.                                      other in the denomination, and then they cited all
                                                                        the names of the teachers. I won't list those names
  All of our churches are getting into the society                      here, but you might like to know that there are
season. In the Grand Rapids area the beginning of                       fourteen names on that list. If your church can beat
each new season usually finds the different                             that number, drop me a note, and the necessary
societies holding mass meetings with individuals or                     correction will be made.
couples coming from their respective churches to
one central location to enjoy each other's friend-                         And as long as we are considering teachers, let
ship and to hear a speaker address  them.on  some                       me quote from an article written by Mr. Fred
interesting topic.                                                      Hanko, a teacher at Hope Protestant Reformed
                                                                        Christian School in Walker, Michigan, who by the
  On October 7, the Eastern League of Men and                           way is not a member of First Church. The article is
Ladies Societies met in First Church in Grand                           entitled, Every Year a New ChaZZenge:  "The pleasure
Rapids. Prof. H. Hanko spoke on "The Benefits and                       of teaching lies partly in the fact that we never ar-
Responsibilities of our Sister Church Relationships                     rive; we always have the feeling, `Next time I can
with other Churches."                                                   do it better.' I suppose there will always be some
  And on October 14, the Mr. and Mrs. Societies                         that have to be dragged kicking and screaming to
and Adult Bible Classes met, again at First Church,                     the fountains of knowledge, but the teacher never
to hear Rev. M. Joostens speak on "Dealing with                         becomes reconciled to that. Someday they will all
Death and the Dying."                                                   learn willingly, even eagerly . . . we dream".
  While reading the last issue of Across the Aisle, a                      School is now about two months old, let us not
publication from First Church in Grand Rapids, I                        forget our Christian school teachers; theirs is not an
                                                                        easy task.
Ben Wigger is a member of  the Hudsonville Protestant                      After the evening service on September 21, the
Reformed Church.                                                        congregation of Southeast Church had a welcome

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





7 2                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


for Rev. Steve Key and family. One of the numbers                           to me please? I am from Mexico and in my country
in the program involved the Sunday School. The                              there is a sad lack of Reformed materials. The
program was followed by a light lunch.                                      Reformed faith is unknown there. I am interested
       Doon Protestant Reformed Church also held a                          in translating good Reformed books and pamphlets
welcome for Rev. and Mrs. Dykstra and family the                            in order to spread them among the pastors . . . ."
night of October 3 in the church basement. A meal                             Our congregations are singing congregations.
was planned followed.by a short program.                                    This fact is very evident by the many churches in
       Our church in Pella, Iowa left vacant by the                         our denomination that hold regularly scheduled
emeritation of Rev. Lanting has formed a trio of                            song services. From the many bulletins that are
Rev. M. Joostens, Cand. C. Terpstra, and Rev. J.                            sent to me, it seems that most of our churches set
Slopsema, with Cand. Terpstra receiving the call.                           aside at least one Sunday to sing. Most have these
                                                                            song services before the evening service on the last
       Rev. J. Slopsema has also received the call from                     Sunday of the month. However, our church in Ed-
Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker,                                  monton, Alberta, Canada holds theirs on Sunday
Michigan.                                                                   night, well past their afternoon service.
       The Evangelism Society of Southeast Church is                          And one final note from our Hudsonville
happy to report that beginning on October 12 they                           Church. "Our societies have begun their meetings
will be airing their Sunday sermons over the radio                          for this season. Attendance leaves something to be
on WFUR-AM 1570 at  6:00-7:00  P.M.                                         desired. Are we just too busy to attend? Are we not
       And the Evangelism Committee of South                                interested in a more intensive study of Scripture?
Holland also reports on correspondence they                                 Do we not enjoy fellowship of saints? Your atten-
received from Jackson, Mississippi: "Some few days                          dance and contributions are essential."
ago I bought a pamphlet entitled  A Defense of
Calvinism as the GospeI and it seems to me an ex-
cellent presentation about what Calvinism is. At                                               SYMPATHY RESOLUTION
the end of it I saw that you have other pamphlets in                          The Ladies Aid Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed
which I am deeply interested. Could you send them                           Church expresses its Christian sympathy to Mrs.  Teni  Poortinga and
                                                                            family on the death of her mother, MRS.  BELINA  HOOGHUIS, at the
                                                                            age of 92 years.
                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                        "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
       On November 7, 1986, our dear parents and grandparents, MR.  &       also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."  (I Thess.  4:14)
 MRS. RICHARD POORTINGA, will celebrate 35 years of marriage.               Mr. Lou Regnerus, Pres.
 We, their children and grandchildren thank Jehovah God for giving          Mrs. S. Maatman, Sec'y.
 them these years together.

       We also thank our Heavenly Father for the constant love, guidance
 and covenant instruction that they have given us. Our prayer for them                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 is that in the years to come they may continue to experience God's                On September 26, 1.986, our dear parents and grandparents, MR.
 grace, mercy and love.                                                     AND MRS. EDWARD R.  8RUlNSMA celebrated 45 years of marriage.
       "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful       We wish to congratulate them and thank them for their many years of
 God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and          dedicated parenting and God-fearing examples. We pray God's bless-
 keep his commandments to a thousand generations."                          ing upon them for as long as He spares them for each other and for
                                                      (Deuteronomy  7:9)    us.

 Bob and Jean Poortinga                                                            "The Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance
       Carl, Steven,  Jared, Chad                                           shall be forever." (Psalm  37:18)
 Randy and Deb Poortinga                                                    Bill and Dorothy Witvoet                            Lou  Musich
       Michael, Jennifer, Rebecca, Richard, Lisa                                   Bill and Liane and 4 great-grandchildren        Daryl
 Pete and Julie Zandstra                                                           Randy and Debbie and 1 great-grandson           Stevie
       Brenda, Laura, Sandra, Dale, Pamela, Joanna                                 Ricky                                        Ed and Patty Bruinsma
 Ken Poortinga                                                              Paul and Irene Pfau                                    Jeremy
                                                                                   Matt                                            Chad
       Daryl and Sue                                                               Paula                                           Jared


